Prologue

     I’ve never really believed in the supernatural, I always thought it was this silly myth brought on by centuries of legends and exaggeration. It’s never truly crossed my mind on the truest possibility that it may actually be real. As I sit here, with the police questioning me on what happened that night, there’s still a piece of me that doesn’t believe what I saw. Frightened at what may very possibly be my last night of freedom, I held dear to the sane part of me that wanted to keep calm – though however small that part may be, it held me from going over the edge. Small drops of sweat befell from my head, where I was crowned with shame and fear. I knew this was only the beginning. 

     A blistering light shone upon my face, illuminating a small portion of the dark room from which I was being held in for questioning.  
 
     “What happened, son? You need to cooperate, or this could get real ugly”, spoke a voice from the darkness, harshly yet concerned. I could not power the muscles surrounding my mouth to make any form of movement. I was petrified. I had not known true fear until that night. I couldn’t form words, let alone make a sound escape from the depths of my soul. The officer leaned closer, and his eyes were the first to enter my sight. “This is the only chance you’re going to get, son”, he said cadently. My eyes found strength from within to rise from the bottomless pit of Hell they had endured, and they looked straight at him.  

     “Ok.”, I softly said, “I will tell you what happened.” 
  

Chapter 1: Life at It’s Finest

July 15th 
 
I’ve always enjoyed life for what it was, a silly wheel spinning on a never-ending axis. This Summer was going to be perhaps a bit different, and now with vacations beginning, it was a relief to escape this town. Ohio has never felt like home, even though I was born here – it wasn’t where my heart belonged.  
 
I got up from my bed, the white room surrounding me being ensnared by the shadows of the curtains. I yawned and walked over to the place where the darkness gave birth to these shadows. My eyes closed shut for just a moment, and in that moment I could hear my heart beat, my breath escape from my lungs and my sorrow wither away. A sigh left my body, and I prepared myself for the rest of the day. My eyes opened once more and I opened the curtains. 
 
The bright, yellowish, blinding light reached into my room, past my eyes and chased away the shadows at bay. The white in my room was now fully visible, and I was practically prepared for what laid ahead of me.  
 
“Scott!”, I heard a strong bellow from the other side of the apartment. “Breakfast is ready!”, of course… Of course my mother was making my morning meal on the day where the girl I was absolutely in love with, would come over. I hadn’t planned on even eating this morning, I didn’t want to risk any bad breath, let alone any mishaps. 
 
I walked quickly over to the kitchen to find my mother dressed in her morning best, ready for Church. She wore her red dress with diamond designs in the color of black surrounding it, and a black, stylish belt to accompany. “What’s for breakfast, it smells ni-“, I was cut off as I turned around. My greatest fear had come true, and I was wearing polka dot pajama shorts.   
 
“Hey Scott, you excited?”, my heart was beating and I could feel a pressure in my chest and even worse behind my face. I wanted to cry, I wanted to break down and run away. “He-Hey Emily… I’m pretty hyped…”, I said nervously as I put down my plate and started walking away back into my room. “I’ll be right back!”, I yelled down the hallway. I slammed the door behind me, and body slammed my bed. I didn’t know what to say, how to react – I was completely in shock. The girl that I had been in love with for the better part of my life was in my living room. We were spending the summer together with friends, after all and I wanted to make a good impression. So far, not a great start.  
 
I had showered, gotten ready and all I could think about was how horrible this trip was going to be. “Alright! I’m ready. Em, did you want to stop by Mrs. Gawalski’s place beforehand?”, I asked with a little more courage. Em had a cat that we couldn’t take to the trip, for obvious reasons, so Mrs. Gawalski offered to take care of her. “Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks Scott”, she said in this beautiful, sweet and soft voice that could keep me smiling until the end of time.  

My mother came outside as we finished packing, see I forgot to mention that the love of my life, the one person that I’ve dreamed about since I could dream, was also my next door neighbour. Yes, I know… cliché, but it’s true.  

“Scott, you behave. You already know and I shouldn’t have to tell you”, my mother said to me, as tears began to form. “Mom, I’ll be fine”, I chuckled. She wiped whatever tears she may have hidden ‘neath her eyes, and hugged me. “I love you, you know that right?”, she said with some evidence of clearly being choked up from this emotional detachment. I simply shook my head in agreement and thus departed that embrace. I looked at her once last time, smiling and I can still remember she smell of her. I didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time I’d ever see her beautiful face again.  

Chapter 2: A Shadow’s Entrance

As Emily grabbed her cat from the house – a house that for many years, held my emotions captive –  I started up the car. My mother was entering the house to answer a phone call, and all I could reach for in this timeless moment were baseless thoughts. The adventure awaiting us is quite a long one, and we still have people to pick up. The idea was to grab our closest friends and go to Nal’tal Island, a secluded piece of land in the middle of the ocean ready to taken by its roots and used as a place to throw parties and relax.

The winds outside my door whispered their succulent desires of cold embraces, as they clasped for dear life on my windshield. Emily was returning, and all I could think about were her movements, her lips, the sway of her hair, everything. I had to get my mind out of this forbidden palace, this tormenting heaven – it was not meant to be and I should not fantasize about it. However, no matter how much my words echoed from my heart and my soul, they could not enter the fray of my mind.

I closed my eyes shut, with a force that held a gravity ever so powerful. My mind was at ease, thoughts of her filling my head. Memories filtering inside like raindrops from the clearest of skies. I fell deeper into the hypnotic state of seduction and felt at home, for the first time in years. Sounds began to slowly fade into awareness from these images; although softly at first, they were rising further and further into my conscience. I could physically feel a smile form on my face, and the sounds became more and more clear. “Remember me”, I heard in a whisper. Then again, and again, the voice becoming ever louder and louder, eventually turning into a banshee screaming for help, “REMEMBER ME!” – I panicked and I could not awake from this state. I began to see a face in this fog, slowly forming into someone familiar. The fog reached my face, however it did not touch it, it simply stayed in front of me. The face looked deep into my eyes, and I could not move. “REMEMBER ME!”, the face screamed at me holding a note on the word “Me”. I panicked and suddenly I awoke. 

A door was slammed from the car and I had awoken, I was sweating, my hands clenched for dear life on my wheel. The passenger door opened, “Alright, I’m ready. Let’s go!”, Emily said in an excited tone. She looked at me, worried and confused, “Are you alright? You look pale as a ghost!”, I was not alright. I had no idea what just happened, but I just wanted to forget it. I simply smiled, nodded and we drove off.

The image of this face, and the fog and the entire experience hadn’t left my mind. For hours we had been driving, listening to music and not once had my mind cleared – even with Emily by my side.

“So, I bought this new dress. I hope Mike will like it…”, Emily started the first brush of our many conversations – she lowered the music from the car’s stereo in order for me to hear more clearly. Emily has had a crush on Mike ever since we met the guy a couple of years ago. He’s a good guy, honest and as equally energetic as Emily, but I was always jealous. I could never be what Mike was to her, and I would only be seen in this brotherly-love sort of thing. I guess this is what the millennials call the infamous “Friendzone”. 

“I’m sure he will.”, I said sternly. I could tell she looked at me with this exasperated expression and began to turn up the volume on the stereo again.

The plan for this whole trip was to relax, since we are all going to college. I’m staying at home, however due to the fact that I’m just tired of looking at words and papers and learning things that most of the time I’ll never use. Emily is going to Stanford, of course. Kevin is going to Laurier, which suits him to be honest. However, I didn’t expect him to go to Canada for it. Mike will as well be joining Emily, once again – something I’ll never do. And Brittney will be going to South America to visit her boyfriend, and probably end up living there for the rest of her of blonde life. These are my friends, and this is probably the last time I’ll ever be able to see them, well at least together.

Nighttime was approaching, as the sun was beginning to conquest the earth with its loving embraces. Kissing the ocean and the grass, a sunset like no other. I had only once felt the sunset with Emily, and that was last year. We sat at the park, just talking about whatever, I can’t even remember anymore. The sun finally kissed the earth, and we stared into each other’s eyes. Naturally, as the record scratching moment, I had decided to ruin things by leaning in and reach her lips with my own. That’s probably why we haven’t talked or hung out as much. In the nature of gamers around the world, “RIP GG”. 

I blinked for half a moment, and the sunset became absolute darkness. The only light was that of the car, and the reflection from the fog. I looked over to Emily, she was just staring blankly into the dashboard. She didn’t react or move in any way. She didn’t breathe. I looked back at the dashboard, and I was hyperventilating. The radio became louder, but static began to take over the music. Mumbling of sounds were approaching its destination and I couldn’t make out what was being said. Finally, a full blast of static hit my ears, and a loud piercing sound released in the inside of my skull. I listened closer, and slowly moved my head towards the radio. “REMEMBER ME!”, were the words that blew apart my ear drums. Blood slowly escaping my ears. Blur was all I could see; I could only make out shapes with my vision. I looked up to the dashboard and the lights had shone on this little girl. She looked straight ahead at me, and I couldn’t control the car. The brakes weren’t working. She hit the car – smiling from ear to ear. Everything stopped for a moment. I blinked once again, and all I heard was Emily to my right, “So, I bought this new dress. I hope Mike will like it…”.