Isolation: Two Souls Combined

Re-do First Chapter

Our story starts in a time where keeping track of the years had become very difficult for most people. As large groups of society were mostly annihilated, and smaller groups of families had begun to form in the rural areas. To everyone still surviving in these troubling times it was just safer to isolate or to create a smaller group of people trustworthy to live near.  It was many years ago when the world had stopped existing like you or I would know. People began dying. 

As many people doubted there was an actual issue they chose to stay in the big cities, where the illness spread quickly due to the larger populations. Some people were not able to protect themselves against things they couldn't see or understand. The population began dying faster, especially in the heavily populated areas and towns. Although some people did take the chance in the early stages of the pandemic to gather their families and isolate in the rural areas. Some still did not isolate themselves, and again people continued to die, until the entirety of the city they lived in was no longer operational. So many people had died that there was no one left to clean up these cities. At this time only the unlucky survivors were able to escape, sometimes showing up at the rural communities begging to be let in, to live with other human beings again. 

But the people that came to join the civilizations in the rural areas were not right - there was something seriously wrong with them. It could have been the fact that they watched everyone they love die around them, but there always seemed to be something darker within these people. The civilizations that would allow these people to live among them, did not last long, and the civilization that would refuse to house these people too were plagued by just the dispute of whether or not to allow people to join. 

In the end the civilizations that did not allow anyone to join would be the only ones left standing, but as they didn't leave their property they never did realize that their neighboring communities had fallen to the disease as well. If they stayed safe within their communities, didn't let strangers join them, farmed to feed themselves, and took care of each other they would be fine. 

It was in one of these small communities that a very special little girl was born. 

Her name was Vera. 

Vera grew up fast - by the time she was eight years old she felt more comfortable identifying as an adult than she did as a child. The other children did make fun of her for this, but it wasn't something that really bothered Vera. She seemed to only be bothered by the unknown of what lied right outside the borders of her small community. 

Most days, after their studies had concluded for the day, Vera found herself wandering the borders. Back and forth along the barbwire fence. She felt like a caged animal, just wishing she could step foot on the opposite side of the fence. Just to feel the different grass underneath of her feet, to breath in the air, to continue to walk with her back facing the fence. She longed to no longer see these boundaries holding her in place, never letting her leave. 

When her feet hurt in the evening, from walking along the fence line for hours, she would return home to help her mother finish and serve dinner. Her mother, who had been pregnant when the pandemic started and had moved here with her parents, was the cook for the entire community. Vera was told that she needed to watch and learn from her mother because one day she would take over as the cook for the community. That did not excite her.

If she had been a terrible at cook, then she could have argued that a different job would suit her better. However, Vera was a brilliant natural cook, just like her mother. So the others in the community saw Vera as a mini copy of her mother. Thora was a beautiful woman, once married to a darling man who did not survive the pandemic, but the two did make a gorgeous daughter. When standing beside her mother everyone would say the two looked so similar that when Vera grows up they could look like twins. Thora had saved several pictures from her previous life, and if Vera held up a photo of her father beside her in a mirror she could see him in her own face. 

Thora was a great mother, she always showed love to the children around her, even though she did not have anymore children after Vera. The community was small, but it did continue to grow slowly year by year as children were born, and the adults in the community were still quite young. 

By the time Vera was fourteen she realized she was still not like the other kids her age. They started talking about their feelings and emotions - and they began dating. She wasn't interested, or maybe that's just what she told herself because no one seemed interested in her. Instead she focused her time and effort in her work, and taking over for her mother much more than just helping her cook the meals. This gave Thora time to join the community council. 

Still she longed for something more. It wasn't a boy, she didn't like any of the ones she knew. It wasn't family, as she loved and cherished her mother and grandparents. She was healthy, ate well, exercised, well educated, and safe. However, it did not matter how much she told herself everything was going good for herself, she felt this empty pit inside of her chest. 

It was odd though, she thought, that when she sat staring across the fence her chest didn't feel quite as empty. Sometimes having to wander the border late at night because she couldn't sleep due to the ache in her chest. 

It was on one of those nights that Vera could not sleep. She of course, like always, dressed in the middle of the night and set foot out of her house into the dark. She would walk quickly towards the perimeter of the community to sit and watch the other side of the fence. Maybe it was the quiet of the night that soothed her soul, or maybe it was the knowing that nothing ever happened here that finally set things right within her. Either way eventually she felt like she could be able to return to bed and sleep for the remainder of the night. 

As she stood up, took one last look over the horizon, she turned to return home. 

Something in her head screamed, 'look back'. For a moment she was able to push down the urge to turn around and look back at the nothingness on the other side of the fence. It only took a moment to walk a few paces away from where she was sitting. Quickly she turned back around. 

It was odd. She blinked her eyes and squinted to try and see the horizon better. Something was out there. There was a very small dot on the horizon that she could not make out from here. An animal maybe. They didn't come this close to community, but it was night and it was quiet so it was possible an animal would wander past. Vera wasn't sure how long she had been standing there staring at the dot, but it was beginning to get bigger. It still wasn't making much of a silhouette on the horizon, just a black blob that could not be identified. 

Suddenly she realized that no matter what it was she needed to get her mother. She hoped her mother would know what to do. Quickly she turned around and started running towards her house. Her shoes hitting the ground made a thud, she worried she would wake everyone in town, but needed to get her mother as fast as possible. 

When she woke Thora she didn't seem concerned. The two of them walked quickly back to the border, and when Vera tried to point out where the black blob had been she couldn't. There was nothing there to point at. Thora brushed it off as her daughter's imagination, although she tried to make her feel better by encouraging the vigilantly in her. Vera also tried to brush it off, but she still could see the scene inside of her head. Every time she tried to close her eyes and sleep she would see the horizon with the small black dot. If she was able to fall asleep, she then would dream of the black dot getting closer. It would come so close in her dreams, that she thought she would be able to make out what it is, but it always looked like a black blob no matter how close or how often she dreamt of it. 

No matter how many times she returned to the same place, at the same time of night, hoping for the figure to reappear on the horizon, she still did not see what she had seen that night. 

There it was. For the first time since the first night she had seen the figure on the horizon, it was back. 

Vera felt a storm rising inside of her stomach. It urged her forward to stand right at the fence. Again the figure seemed to be moving closer towards the community. She thought about running to grab her mother again, surely she would see it this time. The thought of missing her chance of figuring out what the black blob that had been haunting her dreams outweighed her instincts.

Suddenly she slipped through the barbwire of the fence and stood on the outside of the perimeter of the community. This had been the first time she had ever stepped foot on this side of the fence, but that was not what she was thinking about. She instantly started running towards the black figure on the horizon. Getting closer and closer, but still not being able to figure out what it was moving slowly towards her. 

Suddenly she stopped. Vera stood still, gasping to catch her breath. 

"Hello?" Vera heard herself call out to the strange figure, but she couldn't remember thinking about calling out before she did. There was no reply anyway, but she felt confused by her own actions. Looking behind her she realized how far away from her home she had ran. It felt like it was unattainably far away. She thought she would feel something, being on the other side of the fence. It felt as if there was nothing holding her to the place that she called home for her entire lifetime. 

When she turned around to look back at the black blob on the horizon she realized it had gotten much closer to her. 

It was black. It was dark all around. Time passed by, in a way that made a person wonder if time was even passing at all. There was no sun to rise in the morning, and no moon to gaze at at night. The Earth had to be turning, time had to be passing, but for her there was no light. It felt like the world ended. Vera lived like this for what seemed like an eternity. 

At first she could still see the face of the man standing in front of her. His eyes seemed to be the only thing piercing through the darkness. But one day that too faded from her mind. Her mother's face seemed like a long forgotten memory or a passing stranger. She soon forgot her grandparents' names, and the name of the place she had been born and raised escaped her mind. 

Until one day she realized that she had not thought of her past for a very long time. Trying to remember her mother, and her grandparents, her neighbours and her peers became an impossible task.

In 1998 Eileen Pancko was born to Lily and Adam Pancko, in a small town not far from the community that Vera disappeared from. A total of twenty-two years before the pandemic had even started. Eileen was a quiet girl, she didn't speak much until the age of three, but she was very intelligent. Her school even skipped her a few grades as she kept getting bored in class. Nothing seemed to hold the little girls attention, and soon it began to get her in trouble.

Even getting in trouble didn't get Eileen to speak very much. Lily and Adam had two more children, both boys, named Aaron and Lincoln who kept them very busy. Eileen usually slipped into the shadows of her own family. She didn't mind though. She never liked when the spotlight was put on her anyway. But inside of her chest, there it was, a small black hole. It felt empty, like something was missing. Eileen was very smart, but she still couldn't figure out why she would never feel whole. 

Lily and Adam had always been adamant on keeping tabs on their children, like all parents should. Due to this Eileen often fought the urge she felt within her feet to carry her to a place she could not name. On a map, there was nothing there. But she felt like she was being drawn towards this place.  

By the time she was sixteen she had graduated high school, and gotten her license. Lily and Adam bought her a small car, it was a bit old as her parents weren't very wealthy. Eileen was grateful for the car either way, because it felt like she had finally earned her freedom. 

She imagined that leaving home would be emotional, but when she told her parents she was leaving the only emotions in the room were her parents'. They seemed hurt and confused by her actions, but Eileen was perfectly calm inside as she packed her clothes and toiletries into her car. When she drove away from her parents house, her parents and her brothers stood outside waving goodbye. She merely glanced at them in the rear view mirror as she left her childhood behind her. 

It didn't feel like that empty spot in her chest was bothering her, at this point that was the driving force within her. She took the map out of her glove box, although she barely needed to use it as she had mapped out her route many times before, but never dared to go there until now. 

Soon she stopped her car on a gravel road. Eileen stepped out of the car, walked down into the ditch and out across the field. There she stood, in the same spot in the same field as Vera had stood the night she disappeared. Something deep inside of her began to stir.

The eyes came first. Those bright white eyes, that seemed so terrifying in the split second Vera had actually seen them. These were the eyes that had haunted Vera for what felt like an eternity. Haunting, because they were the last thing she had seen before she died. 

Eileen couldn't understand why she knew what was going to happen here, but she knew nonetheless. She knew everything about this girl. It was sometimes hard to come up the details of Vera's life, and as a child Eileen was sure it was part of her imagination. But now, clear as day, she could see the face of Vera. It was her own face. She could see the face of her mother Thora, and her grandparents. It was confusing at first, until she realized that something unusual must have happened during her death. 

Was it that reincarnation was real? And if that was the case, would she not have been born in the future instead of the past. It seemed to Eileen, that for what ever reason, she had been given a second chance at life. 

Eileen wasn't sure what she needed to do, but finally that pain in her chest had vanished. She finally felt full. However, she didn't realize that she was full of anger. 

When she was finally satisfied that she had been able to remember everything that she had forgotten in the dark eternity she lived Eileen got back in car and started to drive. This time without the map, and without any direction as to where she was heading. For some reason she felt that no matter what she would end up exactly where she needed to be. 

Eileen drove until she came to a town she had never been to before, in either lives she's lived. It was by this point in her journey that she needed to stop for gas. She thought it was odd that she felt excited to get out of the car for a moment to stretch her legs before she continued driving. 

When she pulled into the gas station she parked her car at the pump. Reaching down to the floor of the passenger seat she grabbed her purse. Getting out of the car she turned to realize there was someone standing there waiting for her. "Hello?" she called to him, as she closed her car door. 

"Hello." He replied to her stepping closer to her car. 

Looking at his shirt she realized that he worked at the gas station. He was a young man. She realized that she didn't hate looking at his face, like she had all the annoying boys she grew up going to school. His eyes were a dark blue, that shined in the early afternoon sun. He clearly worked outside all summer, as his skin was tanned. His hair was a dark brown. It was odd that she felt like she could stand here forever staring at this stranger. 

"Fill it up?" He asks after they stood awkwardly quiet for a second. 

"Yes, please." Eileen answered. She pulled her purse strap up on her shoulder and walked into the gas station. 

When she came back from paying or her gas the young man was washing the windows on her car.

"Just passing through?" he asked Eileen. 

"Yes," she replied to him. 

"Where are you heading to?" he asked as he put the window squeegee away by the gas pump. 

Eileen wasn't sure how to answer his question. She knew she didn't have anywhere to drive to. Up until this point she didn't think it even mattered, but suddenly she realized she did need to pick a destination. "I'm not sure." She finally answered him, not able to come up with an answer to give him. 

"Oh, I figured you might be heading to the festival." 

"What festival?" she asked him. 

"There is a music festival this week a couple of towns over. Lots of people coming through town are heading that way right now." 

"Are you going?" 

"Yeah, actually this is the first year I'll be going. I'm pretty exciting, everyone around here says it's amazing."