Perception (ONC 2021)

Epilogue: Advent of the Troubled

A million pieces drifted through the nothingness. Ruin. Ruin. Ruin.

...

Four Days Later

Lauris averted her gaze from the windows. They all watched, waiting. Ever since she returned, she began noticing strange things. It seemed that her ability to see translated to her universe.

Wincing at the screech of tape, Lauris sealed the last box. She stood up and stretched her back. The woman gazed at the now empty house. The only indicator that someone lived here were the indents of furniture legs into the carpet and the multitude of boxes at the front door.

"Hey, can you see me?"

Lauris ignored the voice. She attempted to slide her gaze across the boy hanging from the ceiling. Blood slowly dripped, staining the carpet before quickly fading away. She had to get out of here. Walking past the green sludge that oozed at the corners o the house, she paced back and forth.

This place was no longer the same. Strange things lurked in the shadows; faceless people, inhuman creatures and disembodied voices. The woman wondered if she was going insane. Yet, something prevented her from telling others; fear.

When she escaped from The Between, she quickly realised the pain in her body. To her horror, patches of skin were missing – the same places where the black ooze touched her. Showers were agonising. Hot water only made the throbbing pain worse.

Now, it was slowly healing. Slowly. Though it seemed that the ability to see only got stronger. On the first day back, she only saw shadows of things that weren't there. Occasionally, she saw a silhouette of a person walking by, even though she lived alone. Now, she saw what caused them.

She saw the past and the things that people should not see. She saw moments of those who previously lived in the house. The woman witnessed monsters that dwelled in the dark. However, she was too terrified to tell others. They could never understand her, and the things would only taunt her more.

It was enough to drive her half-mad. Doubts crept at her mind, and her sense of helplessness ran bone-deep.

Going outside was worse. There were things best left to the imagination and secrets not worth knowing.

It was not that the others could not see them, the monsters, the secrets and the traces of the past. It was not that the others could not interact with them. More often than not, they do.

It is just that the others did not care to perceive them.

Everyone possessed the ability to, but the mind shuts it out to protect itself.

However, this was just the beginning of her troubles. Lauris tried to reach out to Marie, but to no avail.

She contacted Marie's parents, but they didn't even recognise her name. They claimed that they never had a daughter. She even went outside, enduring the hushed, judging options of the workplace whispering incessantly in her ears. Yet, there was nothing.

It was as if she didn't exist.

Lauris forced herself to accept it.

That smiling Marie who helped her was most likely her version of Marie.

She closed her eyes as another, painful sob bubbled from her chest.

Lauris jumped as the doorbell rang. She stood up and stared through the peephole.

Please let it not be another ghost. There were enough of those already.

She breathed a sigh as she saw a human face. Turning the cold handle, she opened the door. Averting her eyes once more to the bulging eyeballs hanging on the branches of trees, she welcomed the removalists, gesturing to the boxes.