The Gray Place

Chapter Five: A Memory Or A Dream?

Courtney’s fingers trembled as she zipped her hoodie all the way up, she couldn't breathe properly and felt really dizzy. The photo on the wall was still disturbing her thoughts. Her mother’s face on that wall, the headline of the missing girls, it was her mother. There was no denying that face.

“Okay, Courtney, breathe in… out…” She said as she tried to steady her breath.

Just as she was doing that, Lila showed up. She exhaled a sound of relief, but her chest still felt tight. Lila was full of excitement as she came closer. She had just gotten an old paper origami of a horse.

“Heyaaaaaa!,” Lila giggled with excitement.

“Hey…,” Courtney said as she shuddered slightly.

“Are you good? You look like you’re about to faint,” Lila asked.

“Yeah. It's just really stuffy here,” Courtney muttered.

“Stuffy?”

“Yeah, stuffy”.

“Are you sure? Because, I'm pretty certain you don't look like this because, “it's just really stuffy here." It's more than that,” Lila said with observative eyes.

“It's not, I just don't want to be here anymore,”

“I'm asking you again, Courtney. I know we haven't been friends for long, but you can feel that I'm trustworthy. What's going on?”

“I'm hungry, haven't eaten anything since 7am”

“Okay… understandable I guess,”

“Are you ready though, gotten to see everything you want?”

“Not eve…rything. Can't see it all in a couple of hours, can I? We could just come back another time,” Lila said.

Courtney had lied, imagine starting a friendship that has the possibility of being the best one with a lie. But how could she even explain what she saw? “Hey Lila, I just found my mom on a missing persons headline from who-knows-when. And we've never been here before. Yeah, that would make sense, right?

They left the museum together, the creak of the wooden doors closing behind them. Outside, the air felt even heavier than usual, so dense, like it wanted to stuff her lungs with unbreathable oxygen. They decided to walk home, the night was slowly closing in as they parted ways to their respective streets.

The event at the museum hadn’t dissolved in her memory. And so, that night, Courtney lay awake in her room staring at her ceiling. Her headphones were in her ears but the music couldn’t drown her thoughts.

*Woman Finds Girls Who Has Been Missing for 12 Months. *

Girls? Plural. Is she one of the girls?

Her mom was behind two little girls. How? When? Why had mom never mentioned it?

The memory of her father’s voice came back, it still cut like a broken glass:

*“Our only problem is our daughter…” *

Like a disposable package. A trash bag.

What if being a problem had something to do with those missing girls years ago?

That night, the picture refused to leave her. It floated behind her eyelids, chasing her into an uneasy sleep.

She dreamed of water, so dark and endless. A river stretched before her and a cabin that sat on the bank. She ran, but her feet sank heavy into the earth and the air grew thick.

A voice screamed her name. “Courtney!”

“Mom…” she replied.

“Dad…”

“Daisy…”

“Daisy…” Courtney’s voice called.

She found herself in the cabin now. The sound of rushing water was too loud in her ears and the cabin was locked from the outside, the lights kept flickering nonstop.

“Daisy, where are you?,” she moaned.

“Do you know where mom and dad are?”

“Can anyone hear me?”

“Can anyone hear me, please…,” she broke into convulsive gasps.

“Help me, I beg of you.”

“Helpppp!!!!” She screamed.

The sound reverberated, echoing inside her skull until she jolted upright, her body soaked in sweat and chest heaving. The room was silent except for the pounding of her heart and her headphones playing Radiohead's Everything In Its Right Place.

She quickly paused the song and dropped her headphones on the bedside table. She couldn’t tell if the dream she just had was a memory or just a dream.

It was 6 in the morning. She had better get ready for school.

~~~

At school that morning, she tried to keep her head down, blending into the steady hum of chatter and lockers slamming.

She spotted Grace at her locker, brushing her hair back with her polished fingers. “Hey, have you seen Lila? Courtney asked.

Grace shook her head. “No. Why? Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing is wrong. I'm just used to seeing her first, you know, surprised to see you though,” she laughed.

“Yeah, I couldn't find either of them, so I decided to come wait for you,”

“Oh…”

Just as they were talking, they saw Lila happily jump walking in the hallway.

“Hey girllllll, what's the good news?,” Grace asked, eager to join her.

“Yeah, Lila,” Courtney agreed.

“I got a long good morning text from my Pooh Bear,”

Courtney was already confused. “Who's that?.”

“Oh, just a man from God who knows where and guess what? He’s old.” Grace rolled her eyes.

“Nooooo!... He's just 21 and that's not old. Besides, I'll be 18 in a few months, not like I'm doing anything illegal.”

Grace grabbed Courtney's hand. “Let's go Courtie and leave the babe to her lover.”

“Courtie, you'd support her?”

“Well, I don't have a choice, seeing how you both are holding my hand on different sides, I reserve my comment,” Courtney said with a smile.

They all laughed and continued jumping happily to their classes like Lila did before.

They got to their separate classes this time. Courtney felt tired and all seats were full but one at the end of the class and hers. She walked to her desk, dropped her bag and tried listening to the teacher but instead dozed off.

“Courtney…” a voice called in her head.

“Courtney…”

“Are you okay?”

She blinked her eyes open only to see her teacher's face directly in front of hers planted with a fake smile. She immediately jerked away with fear and the whole class erupted in laughter. She felt like the walls were closing in on her when…

“Ring…”

“Ring …”

The shrill ring of the bell pulled her from her almost realistic dream. She knew this one in class was stress induced but she couldn’t say for the one she had last night. Today looked brighter than usual, and she hadn't even listened to anything in class. Stress has been the order of the day since she moved here, but she wasn’t going to let that bother her further as she went by the rest of her classes and extracurricular activities till closing hour. She managed to get through the day till almost evening when she got home and had a long shower.

That evening, Courtney found herself standing in front of her father's bedroom door again. The faint mechanical hum was there, low and steady, almost like breathing.

She pressed her palm against the door. She could feel that something was in there that would change everything. Her throat tightened, and there was no saliva to swallow.

“Courtney?”

She spun around. It was her mom, standing at the end of the hallway with a laundry basket. Her heart skipped two beats at the face of her mother.

“W-what are you doing?” her mom asked softly.

Courtney forced a soft laugh. “Oh, nothing. Just wanted to check in on dad. Haven't seen him in two days.”

Her mom’s tightened. “Oh baby, that's true. Your father is out for the week. Let's have dinner together, shall we?”

Courtney nodded and ducked back into her room with her head swirling in thoughts, but only one thought pounded louder than all the others.

‘I have to find out what happened during 99.’