ALL OR NOTHING~ Dalton Lambert

OH-SHIT MOMENT

Dalton sat at his desk in front of the painting with that big red door on it while Shiloh moved over to his bed, relaxing a bit, resting her back against the wall. "Hey Foster," Dalton said, "'Sup, nerd?" Shiloh heard someone reply and greet Dalton. "A red door." Dalton stated, focusing on the image in front of him, Shiloh didn't want to intrude so she scrolled through her phone.
"Uh, a purple pecker?" the boy on the other line questioned, "come one man. Doesn't that mean anything to you? A red door?" Dalton replied, growing more anxious for answers, Shiloh looked up for a second, questioning him from afar.

"You sound weirder than usual." was all he got back, Dalton scoffed at his brother's reply. "It's a thing for art class. It's a painting." he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. "We had to find a memory. I thought it was something from our childhood." he said softly, this sparked interest for Shiloh, she had shut off her phone and quietly listened. "Did you ask mom?" his brother snapped back, Dalton shut his eyes, "no, I don't want to worry her." The girl felt bad for him, listening to this conversation go nowhere was incredibly awkward for her. "Why would that worry her?" Foster replied, Shiloh thinking the same thing.
Dalton leaned back in his chair, his shirt tightening around the muscles on his back as he stretched, "I don't know."

"This what happens when you go to college? You get all cryptic and shit?" Shiloh laughed at the person on the phone's response, chuckling quietly as Dalton stayed silent. "Yo, bro is there a girl with you?" Foster laughed, questioning his older brother sarcastically. "I guess, and yeah the girl is a friend of mine." Dalton smiled just a little before studying his thoughts back to the red door.
"Well, I'm not going then," Shiloh listened carefully, "oh and tell your girl-friend I said what good." he finished and ended the call.

The girl sitting on the bed looked back down at her phone and smiled, Dalton looked down at his phone, slightly annoyed at his brother's answers.
He groaned, setting his phone in his pocket before taking a breath and leaned forward, examining his work.
Completely forgetting he had company, "who was that?" Shiloh asked, her voice having a certain tone to it, Dalton found it persuasive. "Oh, my little brother, Foster," he replied. She simply mumbled "hm." and shook her head in response.
Shiloh could tell he focused on one thing, she hopped off the bed and slowly walked behind his sitting figure, folding her arms and looking down at the drawing that was now much more detailed than before.

It is gruesome, but Shiloh found herself admiring it, admiring him.
Both zoning out on the piece, Shiloh more in curiosity while Dalton's heart began racing and his chest heaving. He was remembering something, Shiloh watched his posture change while he was growing deeper and deeper into his mind.
Both were startled when the door suddenly flew open, Shiloh jumped when Dalton whipped his head around to look who it was, he looked terrified. Then slowly relieved once he realized it was just Ezi and Chris.

"So after the whole spooky dram-not-a-dream thing the other night, i started thinking: 'yeah, okay, Dalton and Shiloh are total weirdos, but they're not insane, right?'" Chris rushed into the room, Ezi throwing the door shut and a wide smile spread across her flustered face. Shiloh giving them both a knowing look before looking down at Dalton, Chris moved over to the left side of the desk and placed a laptop in front of the two.
Dalton looked oblivious to what was going on around him, confused out of his mind, maybe?
"I'm gonna need that key back." Dalton announced, "right. So Ez and I started poking around the old interwebs." Ezi sat on the empty bed across from her roommate while Chris joined on Dalton's bed.

"And guess what? You two are not crazy at all. You both are astral projectors."Chris hyped the conversation up, opening the laptop. "Check this out." she clicked on a youtube video, "looks like they filmed it between shifts at Best Buy." Shiloh looked down at Dalton, then at Ezi who had her arms folded and eyes squinting at her friend.

'Calm yourself' was the text Ezi sent her only seconds before, Shiloh tried being more subtle about the way she would look at Dalton. "Hey guys, this is a spectral sightings. I'm Specs, this is Tucker. Say hi, Tucker.'' The video began to play, all four were leaning in close to one another, paying close attention to what this was about to reveal. "Okay. we are PPI, Professional Paranormal Investigators.'' These guys definitely didn't seem serious to Shiloh, Chris smiled at Dalton and the others, clearly amused. The room was quiet, no noise around them except the video playing and the air they were sharing. "Today, we're gonna be talking about something that dozens of you have been asking us about." Dalton looked up at Shiloh, she felt his stares and yet stayed focused on the screen while he examined her figure. What she looked like at this angle, how stern she appeared to the human eye, but not to him, he knew she was hiding something.

This whole 'astral projection' theory was proving it, he didn't know Shiloh's experiences but he wanted to know more. He felt some comfort in knowing that whatever he was going through, he wasn't going through it alone.
He had only known the girl a few days and yet he found himself thinking about her, about every conversation they had, and how she was so closed off on a certain part of her life. After having the same art class with her, he noticed small details in the way she'd describe stuff.

"Astral projection." the men in the video said in sync, Dalton leaned in closer and listened carefully. "Our physical body falls asleep and our astral body leaves that physical body.." a little demonstration was shown, "and floats off into another realm." The man on the right finished his sentence. Shiloh inhaled sharply, looking over at Dalton, he looked just as concerned as she was.
"That's exactly what it feels like." he said, looking over at Chris in shock. "See, it told you. It's cool right?" Chris beamed with excitement.
Shiloh however didn't find it cool, she didn't want to believe what the men in the video were claiming to be true. She wanted to feel clarity that there was a title for the thing that's haunted her almost her entire life, but that's not what she felt.

"Our former mentor, Dr Elise Rainier, she had a name for this other realm. She called it The Further." Dalton struggled to put his thoughts together, recognizing that name. "Hold on." he murmured, his voice gruff. Dalton clicked pause on the video and moved the mouse over to a video with the doctor on the thumbnail that was just mentioned.
The video alone had over three-hundred thousand views and it was only one minute long. "I am Elise." the video began, an older woman was on the screen, only her, shiloh felt something was off. She looked over at Dalton who had rested his hand on his chin, fingers rubbing the very faint stubble that he had been too tired to really shave.

Ezi moved over to Chris, holding on to her arm, growing concerned for her friends. "It's nice to see you all. So I'm here to talk to you about astral projection... and The further." Dr Elise talked slowly, inhaling sharply after every few words. Surrounded by people, "okay, give me a minute here." Shiloh, Dalton, Ezi, and Chris were now watching intensely, Chris' lips slightly parted, Ezi's grip on her arm tightening, Shiloh holding her breath, and Dalton not looking away.

"Three...two...one. The Further, it's a dark realm filled with tortured souls of the dead..." Daltons curiosity was taking control, his brows pushed together and Ezi couldn't help but notice how incredibly intense he had been since she and Chris entered.

"And some are doomed, to live the worst mistakes of their lives over and over and over for all eternity. When you astral project, or you travel to this realm, these are the souls ... that you awaken with your presence. They can smell you. The presence of life. Life is what they crave more than anything. So the further you travel..." the woman Shiloh was watching stared right into the camera, sending shivers through her entire body.
"The riskier the journey becomes. They want life, and they can come to our world to get it. Keep a steady stride." tears appeared to be falling down the old woman's face. Dalton clicked down hard, pausing the video, everyone looking at him for a second.

'Oh Shit' Shiloh thought to herself, nothing could cross her mind except for the fact that she just had the biggest oh-shit moment.