Inside The Manor

Chapter Fourteen

This wasn't exactly the way I had imagined the afterlife.

My senses felt fragmented, my hearing kept coming and going and my vision couldn't get use to the light. My head felt heavy, my limbs felt dense and for some reason I couldn't swallow. My throat hurt and my mouth was dry. My memory seemed to be the only thing intact, and wasn't that just great.

God knows how long I stayed there lying in the cold forest ground.

My eyes opening and closing on their accord, making it even more difficult for me to understand my surroundings.

You know, on those war movies, when a bomb explodes close to the main character and they just lie there like they're dead.

I started cackling, but then it turned in a full laugh.

Get it? 'Like they're dead' while I 'am' dead.

Wow, my sense of humor really is s**t in the afterlife.

But, then again... I liked it.

I liked the sense of peace that I felt around me, regardless of the pain currently reigning in my body. My eyes couldn't see much, but I wasn't scared. Fear seemed like such a ridiculous emotion, right now. I giggled again. Although my hearing wasn't the best right now, I could tell it was quiet. Like graveyard quiet.

I chuckled again. What a sick sense of humor, huh?

I shook my head, feeling a bit better.

Get it, 'graveyard quiet'?

Then a new thought crossed my mind. It was deadly quiet.

This time I didn't laugh, panic seizing me. 

I got up abruptly, hearing something c***k in my spine and the weight of head almost made me fall back down, but I had to check this. Gripping the grass beneath me with my fingers and bending my legs to get a better steadiness, I slowly managed to get in a sitting position. Grunting because of the pain, I briefly took in my surroundings. Just as I had expected, I was lying in a clearing in forest ground. The trees were tall an in a dark green color, that contrasted beautifully with the dark purple mist-like substance, floating around them.

I probably should have focused more on that, but my worries were elsewhere.

Quickly grabbing my hair and pushing it to the left side of my neck, I pressed my fingers to the right side. The pulse that should've been there was no longer existent.

You'd think that would be my wake-up call.

Bitch, please.

I laughed. Worse than a maniac. Worse than a freak. Worse than Claudia had.

The last thought actually pushed me into laughing even harder.

"Suicide?" a breathy voice inquired.

Mid-laughing I turned around, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, except for the purple mist who had gotten closer to me.

"Maybe." I answered. "That would have definitely been more fun, thou!"

My excitement made the floating mist stop approaching me.

"Fun?" The voice asked again. "How so?"

I shrugged.

"It sounds hilarious. Having that much control over yourself. Being simply concentrated on your own being. Not caring about the others." I chuckled again. "Not even caring about yourself, because why would you?"

Silence fell again while I forced my eyes closed and moved my head from the left to the right, all the while feeling the weight inside of it shifting from one side to the other.

It felt nice so I giggled again.

Silence again.

"You are your own worst enemy." I mumbled to myself.

The voice made an acknowledgment noise, but I couldn't keep myself from speaking.

"My mom used to say that to me all the time, you know?" If I were alive I would have exhaled, but as it was, I merely stared at the ground. "She used to say that... whenever you're unhappy, it's your fault for allowing yourself to feel that way."

"Unhappy." The voice repeated. "Why were you unhappy?"

I looked up at the gloomy sky. There was no sun and the grey clouds weren't moving, so I couldn't tell what time it was, but what did it matter if I was already dead.

"Unhappy." I repeated as well.

Silence fell once again.

"Happiness is complicated." I concluded. "For some people, like my father, it was materialistic, for other people, like my mom, it was something emotionally archived. And then for some other people...Like me... It is nonexistent."

"Nonexistent." The voice repeated. "Why?" It inquired.

"I lost my parents before I was ready and the only person who stuck with me during those times, might not even exist. I was never happy, just distracted form sadness. She helped in distracting me from reality." I explained, and at the thought I could feel my head become even heavier, so I laid back down.

"This person." The voice repeated again.

I hummed.

"Her name was Camilla Garcia, she was my best-friend." I took a moment to organize my thoughts, but they still came out blunt. For some reason my brain wasn't willing to cooperate with me. "I think she might be dead."

The voice was silent for a moment.

"She isn't." The voice said.

I wasn't quite grasping what it was saying, but when I did, I merely shrugged.

"She didn't die in this dimension." I specified.

The voice chuckled.

"Elora, my dear, I know very well who your friend is... I can guarantee you she is not dead. If it were to happen I would be the first to know. I am Death, after all."

I felt tired, this conversation was making me exhausted.

"That's good, I guess." I yawned. "Hey, Death?"

The trees around me hummed.

"Do you think Cam still wants to be my friend?" I asked in a broken voice.

Death chuckled.

"You know what, Elora dear? I'll let you find out yourself."

When I woke again, I was no longer in the forest, but in an open field.

And this time, I felt mentally better. The haze that had fallen over me and made me feel alive, was gone. Now there was only pain. Everywhere on my body.

I couldn't even move my head, because it hurt. i could feel another presence close to me, lying there on the neat grass. I tried to turn my head, and God it hurt.

I opened my mouth to scream in pain, but couldn't find my voice. It hurt that bad. And it wasn't just physical. An emotional roller-coaster was going around my head.

I wanted to cry, but my eyes wouldn't obey the command.

I opened my mouth, using an effort I had never known better and choked on a scream.

I don't know how long I spent there lying in pain. I tried to move my fingers, blink my eyes, anything. But, it hurt.

Even breathing hurt.

On the bright side, I wasn't dead anymore.

On the dark side, this was a thousand times worse.

After all those efforts I finally felt a tear slide down my cheek.

I felt... Beaten...

I closed my eyes, thinking I had spilled too much poison on the mug I drank from. I'm sorry...

"Get your sorry ass up!" A familiar voice ordered with an authority I was sure she didn't possess.

"Anne!" I whimpered. It hurt to speak.

"Oh, you poor child!" she hovered over me. Pity was written all over her face. "Shhh.... Everything's going to be ok."

I felt her hands close to mine, never directly touching me, just ghosting her fingers over my mine, then my face, then all over me, while she whispered something in what could've been Latin.

I wasn't scared of her, for some reason. After all, how much worse could it get?

She kept chanting and when the tone of her voice got stronger, so did my pain.

Only this time, I screamed. Like a freaking banshee.

Then it was gone, like a flame that had reached its peak, slowly subsiding.

I could barely move, but not because of the pain.

The aftershocks of the trauma, weren't letting me breath.

Anne gathered me in her arms and softly rocked me back and forth, like a broken child.

And for a moment, that's exactly how I felt.

Then, like last time, I suddenly got aware of my surroundings. I gently pushed Anne's shoulder, to let her know I was finally mentally stable to talk again.

I wiped at my tears and looked around me with a shuddering breath.

"Oh God!" Escaped my lips.

"They're alive." Anne quickly assured me, referring to Claudia's and Trey's bodies lying unconsciously next to each other.

"How?" I barely asked, because my breathing still hadn't returned to normal.

"This is how it should be. They will stay like that because of the poison, until someone guides them to either death, or back to life." Anne explained. "That's how I should have found you as well."

I raised my eyes to hers, endless questions making me feel dizzy.

"I don't know how this is possible, but you woke up early."

"That, bad?" I tested the waters.

"Well, you're not dead, so no. I don't think so at least." I nodded. No point in telling I had already died.

"Now what?" I breathed out slowly.

Anne's gentle expression turned to one of hatred as soon as her eyes fell on Claudia's unconscious body.

"Now, I get my revenge." She sat up and headed towards her.

"Anne..." I called but then again what was I going to say to her.

Don't do it? It's not worth it?

Or maybe: She deserves it? Do your worst?

I turned my face away. Getting conflicted feelings at this point, would be useless.

After all, how could I deny Anne her revenge? After all the troubles I had gone through in only the last, what I supposed could've been, hours?

I closed my eyes.

Anne started chanting again. I gathered my knees to my chest and laid my head on top of them. My hair which must have resembled a bird's nest for sure, covered my face like a curtain and that gave me a sense of security.

I could look at them. I could, but then would I be able to live with myself after?

A part of me must have already known the answer to that, because I didn't move an inch.

After mere moments I heard a gasp and Anne's chanting stopped.

I still didn't turn around.

"Elora?"

I hummed.

"It's alright, now." Anne said. "You may turn around now."

I shook my head.

Anne must have realized I needed the silence.

"What about the other?"

Out of the corner on my eye, I stared at Trey, who had slept through the whole thing.

"Let him be." I said, my voice hurting even to my ears.

I didn't see Anne's reaction, because I was still simply scared to turn around.

"I know you might not be ready for this conversation, but you need to know how to access the portal." Anne sighed.

I nodded.

"To activate the portal on this side of the gate, you need a stone." Anne sat close to me. "A very special stone."

She paused to take a breath and I took my chances.

"The one you were supposed to give to the Council." I whispered, before I could even register my words.

I felt Anne slowly nod.

"I had a reason for that. I..."

"Don't care." I whispered interrupting her. I finally looked at her in the eyes again. "I need to save Cam."

Short pause.

"Elora... I need you to be prepared... Just in case, you know..."

"She's alive." I snapped courtly.

"Perhaps... You strongly believe that." Even that declaration didn't manage to phase me. "Why?"

"A... Friend told me she was alive. I believe them"

"I wouldn't consider Claudia as a friend." Anne let out a dry chuckle.

"She's not my friend." I whispered.

Another pause.

"Who told you, then?" Death.

"She's alive." I repeated more firmly.

She must have seen just how badly I needed that statement to be true, because she quickly switched the topic.

"Back to the stone... All you need to do is place it on the chain and wear it, while holding something that belongs to the other Realm. There are usually more requirements needed, but if you use the bottle I gave you should be fine." I looked at her strangely.

"I always had a magically enhanced object from all the dimensions, just in case I needed to make a quick escape." She shrugged.

I didn't react, just kept staring at her.

"You never know." She shrugged again.

I rubbed my forehead. All this chat was giving me a migraine.

"Where is the stone?" I finally asked.

"I've hidden it inside Claudia's apartment." Anne said sassily.

An unexpected laugh escaped my lips. Madness creeping inside of my mind again. I started laughing so hard even Anne joined me.

I slowly straightened my legs and moved my body backwards so I could fall back on the grass.

Before I could even touch the hard surface of the ground, a weird shift in the atmosphere engulfed me, and when I fell, I fell on my bed.