Confusion is my middle name ;)
Chapter Twenty Three
"What are we doing here?" I say staring at the Victorian building. It stood elegantly and tall. The building was so big. The whole building looks to be carved by hand. It was so beautiful.
I look over to Kyle, who was staring at the building too. "'Cause." Is all he says. He starts walking towards the gates that enclosed the building from the outside world. He pulls out a key and unlocks the lock on the chain.
When he opens the gates he walks forward and motions the rest of us to follow him. I roll my eyes at his lack of answer and take a step forward; but am stopped when a sharp pain goes through my head. I fall forward and hit my head on the gate that was to the side of me. I land on the ground with a hard thud.
I groan when Miles asks what happened. I ignore all the boys' questions when I feel myself going lucid.
The feel the soft cushion of the couch a fell asleep on early. A guard was yelling at me to wake up. He told me that dinner was ready thirty minutes ago.
"You've missed dinner now. You have to wait till tomorrow's dinner." The guard says.
"Athena, did you hear me?" Jesse asks.
"Wha...?" I ask to the boy that was hovering over me.
"I asked how many fingers you see." He says. I turn over and bury my face into the grassy ground. Totally ignoring Jesse's question. I really don't care how dirty I get. My head is pounding like crazy.
"Okay, time to get up. Curfew is now in order." The guard lifts me up off the couch and pulls me out of the commons. He "escorts" me through a maze of hallways until he throws me into my cell and locks the door.
I feel Jesse hoist me over his shoulder and carry me through the now open gate. "What's wrong with her?" I hear a girl voice ask.
"I don't know, but these episodes are happening quite often now." Jesse says in a serious voice.
I wake up from a nightmare of being eaten alive. I hastily get up from the hard bed-or should I say mattress-and run into the cushiony wall.
Bang! Bang! Bang! My head makes music with the wall. I hit it hard enough that I think I feel blood trickling down my face. I don't really know. It's so dark in here. I can't see a thing.
I claw at the cushion. Trying to break free. It's no use; the only thing it did was make the yellow-ish stuffing of the cushion appear.
"What do you think is triggering these episodes?" An elderly voice asks. I feel I'm being set down on a piece of furniture. Maybe a bed?
"I really don't know! She just collapses and blacks-out." Jesse says.
My hands claw some more. They're making lines into letters and letters into words and word into sentences. Repeat. More lines and letters and words and sentences. There's a message. But I can't read it. It's too dark to read.
I run my fingers over the words after my nails stop clawing. I think my nails are bleeding. Maybe they fell off. I don't know. I can't feel anything.
I feel the first letter, then word. Soon. My hands feel the rest of the sentence. Youll. No apostrophe. Be Mine. Soon youll be mine. . Soon youll be mine. . Soon youll be mine. . Soon youll be mine. . Soon youll be mine. Repeats for line after line after line.
"Maybe she just needs to sleep whatever this is, off. She could be just having migraines." The elderly voice comments again. I roll over and groan into the...pillow?
"Well at least we know she's alive." Kyle says. I move to sit up but stop when waves of nausea hit me.
"No, No. Stay down. Your body isn't ready for that just yet." The elderly voice tells me. "Here, drink this. This will help with the pain." I feel the person pour some bitter-tasting liquid down my throat. I cough after I swallow it.
I feel almost immediate relief. I feel good enough to open my eyes. But when I do, I still can't see anything.
"Woah."
"Wow."
"That's new." I hear all these comments at once. What's new? What's wrong with me?
"How many fingers do you see?" The elderly person asks. The finger question is popping up a lot now.
"Um...none? I mean, all I see is nothing. Literally nothing." I say with a horse tone. My throat was so dry. I need water.
I hear gasps and a frustrated groan, probably from Kyle. "Well my heavens." The elderly woman says.
"Athena, can't you see me!?" Jesse yells. I blink my eyes a few times. "No. I really can't see you." I whisper. I feel a hand on my cheek and then automatically know that it's Jesse's. "Oh my god." He whispers.
"I take it that Athena wasn't blind before by your reactions. Don't worry too much about this. It could only be temporary. Just a symptom of the migraine. Just give her some rest and time to recover." The elderly voice reassures them.
Then I hear everyone leave the room. "Jesse, aren't you coming?" I here Miles ask.
"I think I'm going to stay with Athena for a while." He says. Then I hear Miles's footsteps leave the room.
Am I blind? I move my fingers to my eyes and feel them. They were definitely open and nothing was blocking them. I am blind. The realization hits me and I start to cry.
"I'm blind! I'M BLIND!" I yell.
"Shh, Athena calm down. Calm down. It's okay. It's okay, I swear. You're fine. You're going to be fine. I swear-" Jesse's voice cracks. He moves so he's lying next to me.
"How is this okay? I'm blind!" I say again. He strokes my arm as a movement to calm me down.
"It's only temporary. It's going to be fine." He says with his voice cracking a little. I raise my hand and feel for Jesse's face. When I find it, I feel wetness.
"Jesse are you crying?" I ask.
"Pfft, no!" He says quickly; but then sighs. I run my thumb over his tears. I wipe them off.
"Athena...I just...You're really starting to scare me. I just don't know what to do anymore." He says softly. I feel him move his arm around me and pull me closer to his chest.
"This is just too much for you to handle. I wish I could just take your place." He continues. I cry more into his chest.
"Jesse, you don't want to deal with this." I say.
"You're right, I don't want to deal with this; but I would if it means you don't have to." He responds. I sigh. Was all this just a dream? Did I really just make this up because I'm really crazy? Was I already dead? I wish I was. This all would be easier.
Or am I really in this world? I doubt it. I'm probably still dreaming. Like the doctors say. But the question is, do I still want to be in this dream; or do I want to be in reality. I don't know which one is worse. I'd rather be dead.
Maybe Hell will be my new home. Hell seems more inviting then being locked up in an institute or living in some crazy messed-up world I imagined out of my own insanity.
Maybe I just need to confront problems and they'll go away.
"Jesse, you're not real." I say, but Jesse sweater muffles my voice.
"Excuse me?" He says and then moves so my head isn't pressed up on his chest.
"You're not real." I turn over to my side away from him. "None of this is real. I just made you and everybody up. Except for Kyle or Miles; well, because I killed them along with my mother."
"Where are you getting this from? Of course I'm real! And so is everyone else. You didn't kill anyone either." Jesse explains. He sounds really convincing, but I know not to believe him. He was just someone I made up after all.
"The doctor. She told me when I woke up. Then I punched her in the face and ran out of the room," I turn back over so I'm facing Jesse. "It kind of make since after all. Who believes in ghost? Or demons? Or people who can see ghost and demons? No one I know anyway. So now that we've established that I'm crazy, can I now stop dreaming?" I ask.
"Athena, you seriously cannot be serious right now. I'm real. One-hundred percent real. I have a heartbeat and everything. So maybe you made up that you woke up where-ever you woke up, and this is your reality." No, no, no! This can't be true at all. He's lying! Everyone is lying!
"Athena, look at me." Jesse instructs. I laugh.
"I can't, I'm blind." He grabs my jaw and turns it towards his face.
"Your eyes. They've changed. You're changing. I'm changing. They're the lightest shade of violet. They're almost white. My eyes are getting lighter too. But not as fast as yours did. I'm real. If I wasn't real then how would you be able to feel me? You can't feel things in reality like you can in a dream," He softens his grip on my jaw. "You can't feel love like this." He finishes. He presses his lips to mine, and then I blackout.
***
Waking up in an unknown place was a thing that I should be getting used to by now; but it doesn't seem to be getting any easier. Like the bed that I was currently in. It was huge. Not because I can feel the size, no that's not it. It's because I can see the king size mattress that I was lying on. Yes, see.
"Look who's finally awake." A voice says and then I see Emery's face two inches away from mine. I jump away and fall off the bed.
"Dude, you just don't do that to people." I say getting up from the carpeted floor. I smooth out my...dress? How did this get on me?
"Well maybe if you didn't sleep weeks at a time, then I wouldn't have to stay with you every second of the day." He says rudely. I roll my eyes.
"Did you dress me too?" I ask. It was his turn now to roll his eyes.
"No, don't flatter yourself. One of the maids did it. No matter how much I wanted to, I wasn't allowed." He responds and makes a face. Well that's good at least.
"So where am I?" I ask. I seem to be asking that question a lot lately.
"Your room," He says and then opens the big doors that lead out into the hallway. So this is my room in Hell. I always thought there was no more room Hell. "Come on, I have to give you a tour of the castle."
It was a nice room I guess. It was really big and expensive looking. It had a red and gold theme. It really was a beautiful room.
"Okay." I say and then follow behind. He looks at me with a surprised expression. "What?"
"Okay? Just okay? You're not going to through a fit or something? Not even insult me?" He asks.
"Nah, I'm good. I'm kind of too confused to doing anything else but agree." I say. It was true. Life right now was real mind teaser.
"Okay whatever I guess." He says and then walks off down the hallway.
"So these are just spare rooms for important guest and stuff." He points to the doors that looked very similar to mine. We walk down some stairs and reach another floor.
"So this is the room where we store everyone's souls." He points to a small closet on the left side of the hallway.
"You can't be serious!" I say startled.
"Nah, I'm joking; souls are kept in this room." He says and then points to another room with the words 'soul room' painted on it. How literal.
He leads me down the hallway some more and then stops at another door. "My room." He says and then points to the door across from his. "Father's room." It looked like a pretty big room.
"These are all the royal's room, including mine." Royal people in Hell, imagine that.
"The dining room, the living room, and the kitchen is down stairs. And the basement is filled with people screaming for mercy; but I don't think you want to see that just yet." He grabs my hand and leads me down the stairs again and into the living room.
Nice furniture and expensive furniture covers the living room. It was a nice house. Too bad it's in an evil place.
"Any questions?" He asks. I look down at the ring on my finger.
"Emery, why did you give this to me? And what is it doing to me?" I hold up my hand to show him the ring.
"Shh, this our little secret. No one is supposed to know that I gave you this. Just know that this enhances your powers. It brings them out. Just don't lose it."
"Ah ha! So you just admitted you gave me this ring. You gave me this ring the night of my birthday. You said that I made the past two weeks up; but how did you give me this ring if you're weren't physically there to give it to me?" I call Emery out.
He smirks at me and nods. "I know." He winks and pulls something out of his pocket. "Give this to blondie when you wake up." He gives me another ring with the same pattern and color as mine. I nod and hold it in my hand.
"Well Athena, welcome to Hell."
A/N: You're confused? Well welcome to the club. We meet every five years because that's how often I update. On a scale of 1 to 10 how mad are you at me for not updating quickly. Hey, I'm moving to another state and plus I had midterms like all last week so chill yourself because I've been busy. Please don't rant telling me how much of horrible person I am. I gave you an update today didn't I? I'll update sooner then I did this time, you can trust that from me.
Also my birthday is the week! You only turn 56 once right?