Unfazed

Chapter Five

Catherine was slumped on her apartment sofa, looking at the ceiling while trying to push back the tears. This is how she spent her evenings mostly. Her mind delving into the depths of memories she cosseted. Deep down she knew she couldn't stay like this forever. She had to pick herself up, every shattered tiny bit of her heart and embark on a journey into the world with no parents.

She was worried about Joe, she knew he will try to take the responsibility he wasn't ready for. She didn't want to burden him with anything. It was very difficult for Joe to come out of the trauma itself let alone all the responsibilities came with it. If anything, Catherine should help Joe handle this, every ounce in her body told her to leave everything in Virginia and go home. The home she adored all her life, the perfect home she found at a very tender age. The home that gave her life a meaning.

Catherine stood up and changed into her shorts, tied up the laces of her subtle green sneakers and headed for stroll. She started walking towards the nearest park, she shook her head once or twice trying too hard to not think about the sorrowful incident. Every time the thoughts start engulfing her mind tears welled up in her eyes and her vision became blurry. She pushed back the tears and tried to focus her thoughts on happy moments. Her mother cooking her favorite mac and cheese, her father playing football with Joe in the lawn. Joe pulling Catherine into the lawn and asking her to play with them. She remembered her mother smiling at her when she told Joe that this is not "a game for girls".

She was used to dressing up dolls and playing with the plastic fruits and kid's kitchen toy at the orphanage. All the girls would dress up their dolls, cook food, feed the dolls and occasionally set up a tea party for their dolls. She never liked it, she always wanted to go out to play instead of being confined within a room and dress up dolls. Once Catherine asked the new girl to accompany her to the lawn where all the boys were playing football with a shabby ball, "It is not a game for girls.", the new girl replied. All the other girls shrugged and went back to setting up the tea party fir their dolls. Catherine gave one last look towards the lawn with all the boys running and kicking the ball.

"Always remember this, Cathy", her mother had said. "You are a girl and you can do anything you want to."

"Anything?", eight year old Catherine asked. "Anything", her mother reassured.

All these beautiful memories playing in her mind came to a halt when Catherine heard a melodious sound coming from a nearby street, but something was different with this sound, it was something she had never heard before. It seemed like somebody is shouting with the melody. Is that even possible?

She started walking towards the sound, the closer Catherine got the more it echoed. Catherine could feel the chills in her body growing with the aggrandizing sound of the shout.

Who was shouting?

Soon she found herself in front of an dilapidated house. Old black fencing protecting the house was broken from some places. The pathway that lead to the gate of the house looked like a bunch of ancient drawings put together in a huge circle. Weird drawings were drawn across the floor almost like somebody had painted them on purpose. But now the drawings were dull, dusty and difficult to decipher. The house had a small castle like structure, covered with grey castle stone and broken old lanterns was hanging near the door. The top of the house was covered with wild plants growing all over the place.

One look at the house and anyone would corroborate to the fact that this house hasn't been used for at least half a decade. Catherine stood at the porch reluctantly. This house looks so creepy, she thought. Despite the hesitation her right hand approached the door knob, the giant wooden door with beautiful carvings of flowers and bushes at the edge Catherine twisted the door knob and pushed the door open.

She entered the hallway which was covered in dust, staircase on the left leading to the upper portion of the house. An antiquated beaded chandelier hanging loose atop the hall. The marble floor was covered in the pattern of waves. The floor looked like as if she was looking above from the bottom of the ocean. The beautiful blue light shining within the water as the sunlight hit the ocean currents and suddenly the epiphany hit her and her eyes widened.

The pattern of waves on the floor, it was......moving?

The waves on the floor were moving as if they were alive. Catherine was mesmerized by the beauty of the floor and how it made her feel light as if she the effect of gravity was diminished and she could swim. But that was just a feeling.

The sound had stopped by now.

Catherine turned around to go back when something at the right side of the hall caught her eye. The waves on the floor were a mere reflection of what she saw next. In place of a door there was a pattern of waves and ocean currents leaping onto each other like they were alive. That beautiful color of blue was now more deep. It seemed like a veneer in the doorway. Catherine was curious and scared at the same time, but she had never been someone who would cower. If anything she was intrepid, fierce and effusive. She started walking towards the veneer and stopped right in front of it.

What will happen if I cross this?, she thought.

All she could see through the translucent pattern of waves was the room on the other side of the doorway.

She was about to enter through the veneer when she heard someone shifting behind her, her instincts kicked in and she spun around to punch the person behind her in the face but instead she twisted her ankle by spinning around with a jolt and fell back. While she was falling back she grabbed whatever her hand could grab. Instead of getting hold of something robust, she caught the hem of the t-shirt of the person standing now in front of her and they both fell of the floor.

Catherine pushed the person aside and managed to sit while hissing with pain because of her twisted ankle. She looked furiously at the other person who was now getting up on his feet.

"You?", Catherine blurred in bewilderment.