Death Palace

Chapter 2

"What do you-" She stops me from talking, calling the nurses.

"I'm sorry, can I drink some water, and eat something? I'm hungry..."

The nurses go out and my mother stays, sitting next to us in the hospital bed. Zoe looks at my mother and we all stay quiet for a while. Ok, this is tense.

"Zoe, it may be hard, but it has been nine years since the accident." My mother starts to explain.

"I'm sorry, miss, but I already know all of that. And... What happened that night, it wasn't an accident. My brother did that because he wanted to, he wasn't forced to kill my parents and brother.- Zoe answer, looking at her own hands.

"What I want to say is... My daughter is your age, if you want to, you can live with us. You make a test to go to a school and then Jen can help you with anything you need. You would be like sisters." My mother offered.

...

We arrive home, now with a new member of the family. Zoe accepted the offer and now will sleep in my room, with me, in my bed. She said that makes us to appear on the same place when we go in... That place.

"Jennifer, right?" Zoe asked, looking at me with a little smile on the corner of her mouth.

"Yes, but you can just call me Jen, or Jenny." I answered, trying to make her feel confortable.

"Ok. Oh, if you want to, you can call me just Z. You say it like... Bee, but with a z instead of b." She said, explaining exactly how to pronounce it "Now, we shall talk about something more important... The palace."

She suddenly starts to get serious. She asks me to close the door and that's what I do. She starts to explain everything about it. About that place.

About the death palace.

"Basically, you were chosen to go there. Do you remember your first time there?" She take my hand as she lay two fingers on the lines of my hand.

"I don't remember, it's like... I've been there since when I was just a child." I answer.

Zoe nods and press a finger in one of the lines of my hand.

"You were chosen by one of them. They want to destroy you in every way that they can. In my case,  Caleb put me in a coma, so I couldn't escape that place. That is one of the worst ways I know. I saw many reality gaps in there, so I saw new people quite often, and I asked them to look for my body. To find me. That's how I knew we would appear at the same place if we sleep next to each other." She explains in a simple way.

"Z... I have a question... You seem to know a lot about that place, so..." I make a pause and she looks at me, waiting for me to continue "What happens if we... You know... Die there?"

Her eyes are without any light. She seems like she remembered something. She sights and look at me again.

"If you die there, in a wrong way, you die here. That's why the gaps happen. When someone that have been in the palace dies, either in our world or theyrs, a new gap starts, and another chosen child is born. That's why that world can never die." She stops for a minute, trying to give a diferent exemple "My brother was chosen when he was born, but he was chosen to create gaps."

"How?"

"The master of that world is the one who choses what happens. My brother was broke in that world, they made him a monster, it was his destiny. Now, he got a "promotion", where he is the one breaking the others. But he isn't stuck in there. He can come out of the palace whenever he wants, so he can kill the weak chosen ones here, creating gaps." That means we are in danger out here to...

"Why would they want to create the gaps? Doesn't it makes us stronger? Once we are together, we can remember everything about the real world." I start thinking out loud, making Zoe shake her head before looking back at me.

"That's exactly what they want. Once you remember your fears, you either start to panic and get killer, or you get stronger. And that's exactly what they want. They want a chalange. They want to have fun. They don't want some simple and boring pray, they are hunters." I see that all the time she spent there made her understand them in diferent ways.

But now I get it. While she was in coma, she could be there everyday and study about them. But still, she is just a child in a teenage body. She had no childhood.

"Zoe... I mean, Z. How do you know so many things? You basically stoped studying at seven, so... How are you that smart?" I ask. I just noticed, she knows so many things, even tho she shouldn't know half of them.

"Well, you weren't the only person I found there. I found doctors, teachers, cientists, psychiatrists... We can say I learned a lot in these years." Zoe answers. Yeah, I should have predicted that. We aren't the only ones there. And we aren't the olders.

We hear knocking on the door. I open it to see my mother. She look at us with her usual sweet smile.

"Hello ladies, are you two having a talk?" She asks. She seems happy with having another daughter. We both nod "Well, have some money here, is 700$ enough? You know your dad left all the money and how much I get every month so... Jen, you can call a taxi and you two go to the shopping, have fun. I'll prepare everything so Zoe can also go to your school."

My mother explains everything. Nice, we'll have lots of money to go shopping. And, I'll finally go with someone who isn't my mom! Well, I like to go with mom, but it's nice to go with someone who is my age. Oh well, finally having a friend. It got quite hard since dad died, everybody thinks that's my fault, because I'm the emo gothy vampire girl who never saw sun. Just kidding, I just like the 2000's emo style and Rock. But I also like other things, I am someone who just likes things for what they make me feel. And I like sun, but my skin is really pale, and I can't make it darker. I don't care about my lonely past, I'll have a friend now!

"Ok, have fun. Love you, Jen." My mother kisses my forehead.

"Love you too, mom." I answer before she go to my school.

We see the car leaving the street before we look at each other. I look at my phone and smile, then I look at her with an excited smile.

"Ready to know the teenage world?" I show her my hand and she smiles before holding it.

"Ready as I've ever been."

...

We are here. Ok, what should we do? First, maybe doing something about  her hair. Maybe giving it a cut, or something, if she wants to.

"So, what do you want to do first?" I asked, not leting go of her hand.

"Let's get something to fix my hair. You know how to paint hair? Or just where can I buy something like that." Is she reading my mind? Are we soul mates or something?

I nod and we go to a hair shop, so we can pick the hair ink for her. We leave with pink ink, the one that glow in the dark. Looks like someone has good taste. Then we buy her a phone and a computer, once we have money for it. Then we buy her some clothes. She likes clothes like mine, but with some green on it. She is like a original Monster energy can, but with pink hair.

After some hours, we stop at the ice cream shop and we get a pair of ice creams for now, mine is strawberry and Zoe's cotton candy flavored.

"So, how are your friends like, Jenny?" And she asks the question I didn't wanted to answer.

"Yeah, I don't have any friends since my dad died, so... My friends are pretty much... Not real." I answer.

"Well, you got me now." She pulled my hand to try the ice cream I was eating, making me smile.

I look at the time. I think we shall go home now. I call a taxi and we finish the ice creams before going back home.