"Hey, did you find her because I really don't want to go back to that weird school again–."
"Zachary? What are you doing here? Is this a dream? Did you kidnap me? If so I won't hesitate–."
"Ayo, Zach, did you wake her up? It's way too early for this–."
"What is happening?" I screamed. I sat up and looked at Zachary and June.
"Welcome back to Vegas I guess." June crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.
June looked the same as he always did, black t-shirt and blue skinny jeans. The forever gold star shaped necklace was worn over the t-shirt.
He looked at me with a grunt. No. He was looking at something behind me. Before I could look back a girl with her curly hair in a ponytail rushed up and stretched out a hand to me.
"The names Avigail, Avigail Tatum." I grabbed her already outstretched hand as she spoke.
"Nice to meet you, Abigail." I smiled.
She frowned. "No, Avigail. With a 'v'."
"Sure." I replied.
I turned my attention back to June. He was sitting down with an annoying smirk on his face.
You can't just sit there and smirk,you practically kidnapped me while I was asleep.
"So, where am I, how did I get here, and did you kidnap me?" I rambled.
June put up both his hands and surrendered. He had a nasty scowl on his face as he walked away.
"Hey Pride, how about you tell her all the answers, I don't have time for this." June called out.
Zachary quickly told me to follow him that way we could get situated in what I think will be my living units according to him.
As we walked through the colorful carnival I noticed how dark the sky was already. When I woke up it was bright blue, like it was the middle of the day. But now twenty minutes have gone by and the sky is already a reddish purple color.
"Time moves faster here." Zachary said. Good thing he snapped me out of my thoughts, I was 2 seconds away from getting a broken nose. I followed him, and yes I moved away from that random brick wall.
As we went deeper and deeper into the carnival we stopped at a large matte black building. It had no door, windows, or even any way of entering. Zachary frowned and started frantically looking around in his purse for whatever he was looking for.
"A piece of gum, really?" I gave him a small frown. I don't think he noticed but he still kept a triumphant smile on his face as he gave me another stick of gum.
"First of all buttercup, this gum isn't for entering. No. It's for getting out." He pulled out something that looked suspiciously like a brick. "Now this is what we use to get in."
He chucked the brick at the matte building. My jaw dropped, that brick was surely going to break something. But it didn't, it just disappeared.
At first nothing happened. After about two seconds there was a door, a brick one to be exact. And yes, it looked like it was painted onto the wall.
Zachary pulled me by my wrist and his hand wrapped around the painted door knob. My mouth fell open in shock.
Zachary hissed at the contact then looked at me with a kind smile. "Close your eyes and mouth if you don't want to end up in a hospital or throw up every five seconds."
I did as he said. If you could open painted doors and chuck brick at buildings, who knows what could happen.
He tugged on my wrist and we fell. Then we kept falling and falling until suddenly I fell face first in a hallway and Zachary came skipping out with a mirror in hand.
"How did you–." I mumbled.
"Darling, I have to look good everyday," He held out his hand, "I don't expect that from you of course. It seems almost as if you skipped a few skin care days."
Now from personal experience I would not take that. My guy really has orange hair and is over here telling me how my pimples and dark circles look. Okay, fine, maybe I didn't look my best. In my defense I'm going through the whole acne faze while this ended a while ago. Like when he was, what, 16? Now he's 18, and still giving me advice on skincare and stuff.
"Hm, remember when you had blond hair–."
"We do not talk about that. My hair is back it's natural color and I started wearing clear contacts." He snapped. He dipped his hand mirror into his pockets.
Did I mention that he changed outfits? Instead of jeans and a blue t-shirt he was wearing black sweatpants and a sea green cropped hoodie. But we can't forget the iconic black Converse. Just like June he was wearing a necklace with a star, he had a letter engraved into it. The letters 'P' and 'Z'.
I don't understand what those letters mean. Or why June had called Zachary, pride. This place was so confusing and I still don't understand how I got here.
"So let's go ahead and find your room." Zachary spoke up. "Cause, I'm getting bored."
I gave him a quick smile then stood behind him. He smirked then started skipping down the hall. We kept walking– well I was walking Zachary was still skipping ahead of me, when he suddenly stopped.
I paused, then looked around. Zachary pointed to one of the two doors that had magically appeared in front of us.
One of the doors was like the type you would find in a house. Rectangular and plain white, with a golden brown door handle. The other door however, I don't even know where you would find it. It was more of a square than a rectangle and it was black with a pure stainless white door handle.
I was admiring the two doors, one looked clean, tidy and just all around everything a kid could want. The other door looked well, mysterious and charming. Almost beckoning me in, the want to open it overpowered me and I opened the black one.
Zachary gave me a proud smile. "Guess you're that kind of lady, huh?"
I gave him a dazed nod as we walked into the room. By room I mean apartment, because this place was huge.
The entire entrance was tiled with white calacatta marble tiles. You know, the kind with the paint like swirls in it. With silky black carpet. The door quietly shut behind us. I'm pretty sure that's a safety issue. There was a high ceiling and beautiful white furniture with black striped pillows.
I took off my shoes and watched as Zachary took off his.
He led to the large black sofa right in the middle of the living room. Just a few feet away from the sofa was a large reflective, again, black staircase.
We both sat down and he released a loud groan. "So. any questions?"
I looked at him with disbelief. Not only had he chucked a brick at a large black box and led me through a hallway of nothingness, but he has the audacity to ask if I have questions? And here I thought I was being obvious about being confused. Best actor of the year award goes to me cause this really ain't it.
"First of all, why did June call you pride?" I crossed my arms.
"'Cause that's who I am." He shrugged.
"What?" I started scratching my head. What did he mean? Who do I inhabit? Who is what?
"It's just the way I behave." He shrugged again.
"So like, if I was to hear a voice talking about how I should kill myself that's depression?" I asked him. If so then there were a lot of different emotions.
"Um, no. That's not depression, that being suicidal. And you should take that to a therapist." He snapped, this time pulling out his phone from his pocket.
"Still don't get it." My head started pounding. What did he mean by emotions or feelings?
"You know how the ancient Greeks or whatever used to worship different variations of things to make the world make sense?"
I nodded my head.
"It's kinda like the same thing, but without the worship. Like if I am Pride I was born from pride." Then he started pointing to me, "If you were born from a strong amount of guilt, sadness, and the world weighing on your shoulders, you're probably Sad. Also these 'emotions' can affect you negatively. Being too prideful for example, or simply being too sad. Then there are special cases." He spoke as if he was speaking to a child, which he was but he was saying it too slow for my liking.
"I kind of get it now, but how did I get here?" I groaned.
"Teleportation." He chuckled.
Uhm, excuse me did he just say teleportation? How?
"Teleportation sounds a bit– I don't know– dangerous."
"I did it very carefully." He hissed.
"Carefully? Okay, buddy, you sound a little– how do I say this, convicted?" I mused.
Zachary sneered and continued explaining what emotions were and how teleportation worked.
After about twenty minutes and a few magical snacks we were done and he was heading out of my room? Apartment? House? Whatever you call it, well he was just leaving.
"Don't forget, if you have any weird dreams just write them down. It's cheesy I know, but it could be critical essentially if you're like us." His eyes showed a sad smile, but a smile was still evident on his face.
"Yeah, but how do I know if I'm one of you?" I stood up from the couch and started pacing toward him.
"Dreams, visions, and just an annoying voice or voices." He shrugged.
"Sounds reasonable." I mumbled.
"Also the world is ending in five months, be ready for your existence to erase like led on paper." He walked out of the room and slammed the door shut.
What in the world is happening. First I got shot around space. Then, I got pushed into an inter-dimensional hallway. Now, I'm here, standing in the middle of the apartment of my dreams. This is amazing.
I started trudging up the crystal black staircases, up to what seemed to be a bedroom. My heart fluttered in my chest when I saw the view from my window.
A beautiful rose garden and pool were outside and a few people were still in it despite it being almost October. Kids from ages 5 to 17 were inside of the pool playing around and throwing water toys at each other.
I dragged my eyes away from the scene and looked all around me.
The room wasn't the most colorful place in the world, but black and blue are my favorite colors so what's not to love.
In the corner of the room is a four post bed with black curtains and a deep navy blue blanket. Next to the bed there was a black wooden night stand and a matching night lamp. A book shelf laid above it with a few notebooks and dictionaries. Fluffy white carpet was laying there on the floor, in the shape of a rectangle. Along with the high ceilings there was an identical chandelier which could be found in the living room. Beside the bed was a black book shelf with random books on it.
It looked– how do I put it, fake.
All the books were aligned perfectly. Harry Potter books and Percy Jackson books were aligned perfectly. But right in the very middle of the shelf, in between The Hunger Games and Good girls guide to Murder, there was a plain black book, no words on the spine. Nothing.
I pulled the book and the entire bookshelf swung and a hole the shape of the bookshelf was left.
"It's giving; don't go in there vibes." I mumbled.
I slipped inside of the hole in the wall. It was dimly lit and was dustier than the attic at Vinny Mare. To be honest it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but still it wasn't a vibe; you try sleeping in there.
I stepped into the dark attic-like room.
You know that weird feeling when you're being watched? Good. Because that is not how it felt.
A warm blanket of remembrance engulfed my body in a tight hug. The dimly lit room wallowed, almost in pain, as I walked across the room.
It's safe to say the room was pretty messy. Books were everywhere and papers with half written sentences were scattered everywhere. Half filled mugs of coffee were seated on a long wooden table in the middle of the room.
There were more bookshelves surrounding the room. You know that feeling I was talking about before? Not the one that was comforting or anything, no. The one that felt like I was being watched, hunted even.
My stomach growled in disgust and hunger, don't forget hunger. A whimper was threatening to leave my throat but a long shiver went down my spine.
There was a figure. But not just any figure.It was her. Moarte Blestem. My first friend.
She was just standing there and waiting, a small smile was playing at her lips as she stretched her arms.
But me? I was just standing there smiling like an idiot with light tears in my eyes. My breath was slowing down and I felt like I was about to choke.
"When did you come back?" My voice trailed off. "Wait, how did you get into my room?"
"Magic key, Infinity cannot be stopped by just a door you know." She cheered.
I ran up to her, she still smelled the same. Fruits and soap. Even though she had been in this dark basement she still looked as beautiful as I remembered.
Hold on, it's been like, what– nine years ago. She still looks the same.
Her black wavy hair ran down her back, and her onyx black eyes had a hint of a smile over them. She wasn't wearing black jeans and a red top. She switched it out for black dress and a dark red jacket. But one thing didn't change. They still looked like the same pair. Worn out and everything. Faded a little but still looked red. Yeah. I'm talking about her Converse. Still had all of the beads we put on them and all the words and promises we never kept.
"It's funny how time flies, nothing is ever infinite. Only Life and Death." She talked about life and death like old friends. An infinity of memories and dreams that could never be promised.
"Why are you here?" I uttered. It's just too much to handle.
"Oh, me? I'm not actually here. I am everywhere. There is nowhere I have never touched. I am Infinity. The only one who is here is you. Not me." She sobbed. Heavy tears poured from her eyes.
She pointed to the way I had seemingly come out of. "Go to bed. Someone will explain tomorrow. My dear Cassandra. Death awaits you at the gates."
I hurried over to the hole in the wall and jumped out. I could feel the pain in my knees but I got up, her figure was still there standing. Watching me so carefully, almost like a doll.
I kept running and running, until I made it to the door. I wrapped my hands around the door knob, It was jammed shut. I couldn't get out of this place. I was locked in until morning at least. Maybe someone would hear me. Or not, the rooms are probably sound proofed. Just to make sure the kids are sleeping peacefully.
I should just give up. If I'm going to die I might as well die today. Wait, did I just believe an apparent ghost that was in a hole in the wall and I'm now running away. This isn't some weird ghost story, I hope.
Now before someone says that what I did was probably super dumb and could get me killed, hear me out; I don't care. I marched right up to my room and opened the secret room again just to meet Moarte. But she wasn't there. Not even a trace of her was there.
Was I disappointed? Yes. Was I scared? No. Was I absolutely terrified? Yes.
She could be anywhere in the house, from the washing room all the way to the loft upstairs.
I also found out from Zachary that the rooms didn't come with kitchens that way they could manage our diets. Only a few snacks came per month.
Most people would leave and never come back. But me? I kind of want to see that ghost again. So I went to bed. My eyes felt heavy like bricks were hung on my eyelids.
The blanket coiled around my body like a snake. The warm scent of pumpkin and apple pie filled my nostrils.
I could hear something in the back of my head, a voice.
"Cassandra, wake up. Dr. B is here."