Chapter Text
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Wait, inhale, exhale? Breathing? I didn’t know where it was coming from. Surely, it wouldn’t be coming from me, right? I tried to open my eyes. God, they felt like steel.
As they slowly did, I saw a blurry figure in front of me. I thought the more I would open my eyes, the more questions would be answered, not the other way around. I lifted my hand and put it to my chest.
The breaths were coming from me.
“Hey!” the figure said in a soft voice. Sounded feminine. “Do you still need time, hon’?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s all good.” It was not all good, but I have no idea where I am so things couldn’t get worse from here. Am I still in the building?
Uh oh. Looks like my mind is waking up too, unfortunately! Just focus on getting up more quickly. I realized how pathetic I probably look after taking 10 minutes trying to get up. It’s even worse that there’s someone here.
After I somewhat enter that stage where I’m awake but not really–you know, nodding your head to stay awake, pinching yourself–, the figure in front of me starts to become more clear. A brown lady with light hair. I’m very sure it’s the blurriness of my eyes, but I think I’m seeing wings?
The lady smiled. “There we go. Do you still need a minute to open your eyes, love?” I shook my head, almost falling over. She gives a slight chuckle. At least she’s taking it lightly.
Ugh, why am I so weak? Am I really breathing, or am I going insane? About time, I guess. I kept pinching my wrists to stay awake. The efforts were successful, fortunately.
After taking the deepest breath I ever took (it felt weird), I looked around at where I was. It looked like a hallway, except the floors were covered with purple flowers.
I felt around. They were really soft, compared to literally any other flower or grass filled ground. I’m guessing she noticed my confusion because she explained “Oh, this place is just what you’re supposed to be comfortable in. Not one is the same! In my opinion, your comfort area is one of my favorites,” she rambled, gleefully.
I guess it did feel comfortable, as comfortable as a random place I’ve seemingly been put in out of nowhere can be. I looked back at the lady as she finished her explanation. Huh. I guess it wasn’t my blurry sight as she actually had little wings that looked like a moth’s.
“Woah,” I accidentally exclaimed. I quickly covered my mouth. Why the hell did I say that?
The winged lady looked behind her, then at her wings. “Oh, yeah! They were so wrinkled this morning, you don’t even know.” She flattened them out, or tried to. “First mornings of the month are always hard, hon’! In fact, I believe you’re my first soul for this month! Lucky you, huh?”
What in the world does she mean by “soul?” First? There are more? Too many questions, not enough answers.
Before I could even think of what to reply or ask, she clapped her hands together and took out a small green book, seemingly out of nowhere since I did not see it before. Maybe more “sleep fatigue.”
She flipped through pages, picking one before looking at me. “Alright, can you look up at me, sweetie?” I complied. She wrote down something on the green book. “Okay, now stand up for a second.” I did.
Curious, I tried to look into the book, noticing some bold letters inside. The cover also had cursive lettering in a larger font. She realized and gave a small chuckle. “It is a bit confidential, but I am just checking if your appearance is up to date. Or accurate, correct, all those things. You can sit now.” Dang it, now I’ve annoyed her.
“Not much of a talker, are ya’?” she asked, probably to me looking down. No, I am not. But, I’m not going to just tell her that, I’m not an imbecile.
I just smiled and responded “Sorry, I was just a bit woozy.” There. The perfect excuse. And now she won’t think I’m lazy or rude or something. Hopefully. I had just realized I had a bit of attitude in my speech as I talked with her. To my relief, however, she smiled too in response.
She put down the book, keeping a part of it slightly ajar with her finger, and told me to focus. “I have some things I have to write down, or rather make sure of, alright love?” I nodded. I wonder if this is my new “place.” Would I be here forever? I mean, it’s better than… the other place. Damnit, just focus!
“Alright! What is your favorite color?”
Extremely random question. And she asks it in a teacher-y way. Like, you know when you go to your first day when you’re four? And the teacher crouches down to you and says not to worry and “school is going to be great?” Only to realize she was most likely lying so you wouldn’t cry? Yeah, she talks like that. Back to my favorite color, “Erm, pink.” I did wear a lot of it.
The winged lady grinned. “I can tell.” Pretty sure she was referring to my shirt. “Okay! Next question… What do you do–or did–in your free time?”
I shrugged. “I guess I just did my homework, but I read and… maybe, occasionally, drew.”
She laughed. “Just homework?” Nod. “I can agree with that! Would you describe yourself as a perfectionist?”
“I definitely try to be.” She gave another laugh.
“Alright, great! Now…” She fidgeted a bit and toned down her voice to a hush. “Your death had to do with ice cream and robotics, right?”
There goes my attempt at trying to cloud anything that happened previously. If I remembered correctly, it did. Worst mistake of my life. All for some stupid ice cream. I just gave out a little “Yeah,” because if I did anything more, the already increasing lump in my throat would let out into tears.
She gave a warm smile and replied “That’s all I need. You’re really good at this!” I looked up and smiled back. Genuinely, this time. I guess I was doing good. But trust me, if I was alone, I would be freaking the hell out.
“Alrighty! One last, teensy question this time. Would you find your surroundings something you would find comfortable in different circumstances?”
“Er, yeah.” I would not know what different circumstances, but if she was talking about if, you know, somebody I trusted drove me here, and let me go alone so I could sit in tranquility for however long, then yes. Ignoring that this is such a casual question compared to the previous one.
“Perfect!” She looked back into the book, wrote some things, and put it down next to her. When she stood up, her lilac dress flew down in bounces. She really dressed to see me, or just “one of her souls” or something. Nevertheless, she crouched back down to me, and in a whisper-y voice said “Okay, honey, I have to go now alright?”
Panic set in me. So, what was I supposed to do now? Just be left in this flower maze to slowly turn insane? Sounds very familiar, though I would never in a billion years want to experience that again.
I guess she noticed my fear and assured me “Don’t worry, you won’t be in here for long.” Do not know if that makes it better or worse. “I’ve paired you up with an amazing person. She was one of my souls too, and you’re going to love her alright?”
I grasped the ends of my skirt. “Please don’t go,” I slowly uttered.
She gave a reassuring smile, patted my leg and said, “Elizabeth, love?” which made me perk up. I haven’t really heard anybody say that name in a while, maybe just before I went here.
“You’re going to heal. Don’t and never think otherwise, okay?”
And there she went, moving down the hallway of the flowers. She was so graceful but very ghost-like, you could barely see her legs move. Maybe she is one.
Wait, what the heck am I doing? I quickly got up and ran to where she left my eye-view, but there was only the lone green book.
As everything I said really processed through my mind, I sat back down. Stupid! Isn’t the first thing you learned is to “not to talk to strangers?” You just gave this random lady literally everything about you! Not everything, but a lot of info!
Well, what was she going to do with it anyways? Spread it with her ghost friends? Or maybe she was preparing some type of hell for me. Maybe this was already it.
Maybe my answers resided in the book. I mean, what difference would it make if I read it or not? Or if anything was in it? I wasn’t going to change anything.
As I opened it, a seeming letter was on the first page.
Here! I learned you like these and you might want to have them for your time being. I hope you enjoy them! It’s going to take a little while to adjust here, but know that most people there are in the same boat as you. And, hey, maybe you will meet some familiar faces! Stay safe out there, hon’.
Signed L. I never got to hear her name. Maybe an initial. As I flipped through the empty pages, one of them caught my attention. In it were 10 neat ribbons, all in different colors, neatly rounded about the page. I guess this was the thing she was talking about.
I closed the book and felt a sudden fatigue come on me. It was like when I just woke up, in reverse though. I don’t want to go. What if I don’t wake back up here. Or worse, what if I do? As my body gave up on me, I fell atop the soft flowers and my eyes forced closed. I could not open them this time.