The Strange Case of the Jackson Building

Chapter 22 - Infection

Chapter Twenty-Two

Infection

The girl with the flowing dress was standing in her balcony again. Petra could see her in the distance as she returned home.

The priest's cruel words still weighted heavy on her heart.

You are beyond salvation.

They made her feel dirty and ill, inadequate, contagious, damned. The sight of the lonely girl was both sad and uplifting, laced with a weird melancholy. The girl in the balcony seemed to be lost in her own little world, much like Petra felt, facing the city as if longing for it. She seemed ready to take flight and search for freedom.

It was almost comforting. Petra was wondering if she should gather up the courage to go and meet her, for she had a feeling the girl in the dress would understand her, when the girl did the unthinkable.

She jumped.

Petra only had time to scream and watch as she fell down the six floors in unforgiving speed. She closed her eyes when it was time for the deadly impact and waited to hear the sickening, dry sound of body hitting the ground. But the sound of death never came, nor the panicked screams one would expect from the people on the street.

She opened her eyes and noticed everything went on exactly as before. People still calmly walked around like nothing happened. The only thing unusual had, apparently, been her scream, as several people close to her had spared a few anxious glances her way.

Petra ignored them and ran to the other side of the road, where the body of the fallen girl should have landed. Surprisingly, or maybe not as much anymore considering her track record, there was no body anywhere, nothing that would even suggest someone had jumped off a sixth floor balcony.

She retreated a few steps and looked at the balcony above. The girl with the flowing dress wasn't there either.

Had she imagined it?

Again?

Petra sighed and found herself face to face with the old lady. The woman was staring at her with those haunting green eyes and smiling, as if she knew exactly what Petra had just thought she'd seen. Immediately upon landing her eyes on that expression, Petra thought of Naima Jackson, the girl in the photograph.

There was no doubt about it, they were identical. She needed to say something about it, ask her if she was a relative, but as soon as Petra walked closer to her the old lady turned away and walked as fast as she could down the street.

Petra was taken back by this. It was the first time she tried to approach the old lady and she refused to engage. More than that, it felt like she was actually running away from Petra.

What the hell?

Since when did the old woman run from her? After all those unwanted encounters she'd been forced to endure, now that she actually wanted to talk to her, she'd just flee?

Figures.

She'd get to her, eventually. It wasn't like she didn't know where to find her.

Walking inside the building, her thoughts on her hallucination and the weird(er) behavior of the old lady quickly vanished, for she was immediately assaulted by agonizing pain. Her hands, her feet, her chest and even her eyes and tongue, they all felt as if they were burning. The pain was so intense, it brought her to her knees and she almost passed out from it. It was pure, raw, life ending pain, so paralyzing she couldn't even scream. It was like she was on fire, like she was being burned alive. She wished she was dead.