THE UNBREAKABLE PIECE (FIRST BOOK OF THE HIDDEN WORLD) English version

CHAPTER FIVE: THREADS

The sun had just risen when I woke up. Gemma was next to me, and Ben was semi-reclined just a few meters away, sleeping deeply on a wine-colored armchair. This room was strange to me; it wasn't mine. It felt like a shoebox with its charcoal black walls and moss green curtains, which barely let in any light. My head was experiencing the constant movement of a carousel, with music echoing in the walls of my mind. I brought my hands to my temples, hoping to ease the pain with pressure. Parts of my golden-brown hair came slightly undone from my half-up ponytail, my sequin dress felt like a piece of fabric barely covering my body, while my makeup was all over my arm. The clock resting on the bedside table read 7 a.m. My phone was also there, but its battery had died.

I got up quietly, tiptoeing on the cold wooden floor, which creaked under my feet. Fortunately, Gemma and Ben were heavy sleepers or had had too much to drink the night before because we were clearly in the wrong house.

As soon as the chilly morning breeze, which entered slightly through one of the windows, grazed my skin, it felt like a bruise was forming on it. And it all came back to me like an old memory that I probably didn't want to relive again. First, the music took over my muscles, then the bright blue liquid went down my throat, and lastly, Evan's piercing gaze on me. I could still smell the mint impregnated in my clothes, and as if a ghost had possessed me, I remembered his hands on my waist to the rhythm of a song and his mouth just inches away from mine.

Even without a ray of light in the room, the scarlet flush on my cheeks was noticeable from space.

I searched for my shoes under the bed, still a little dizzy but without making a sound. The shame of how I had behaved the night before made me want to run away without facing my friends' scolding. Gemma had warned me, but I was the one who ended up being the fool who found herself in a much bigger situation.

I continued crawling around the room until I bumped into an old, worn grayish wooden dresser. I got up slowly, until my fingers touched the edge of the furniture, and I could stabilize my body. I knew this was Evan's house, judging by the number of photos with his face next to other people I didn't know. Except for a face that I could sometimes recognize better than my own. My bile rose in my throat and the world froze in that second when Chris returned that sweet smile that characterized him. I recognized that meadow as much as the Christian I remembered, just before he died, the same Christian who eternally haunted me in my dreams. The same one who, in this photo I held in my hands, embraced my neighbor like old friends.
My heart recoiled in my chest as I noticed the rag doll, the daisy dress, and my brown hair dancing in the air as I ran through the lavender.

The air tore my lungs like broken glass, my chest rose and fell with difficulty. My ears seemed to block out sound, and my eyes remained fixed on the photo of my past. This wasn't real. Evan, my neighbor, and savior wasn't just a stranger. Evan had entered my life a long time ago, much earlier than I thought. And worse of all, he had met Christian.

I wanted to escape, bile rising in my throat, threatening to spill everything in my stomach without warning. I could feel desperation coursing through my veins, and my mind began to make connections that hadn't even occurred to me before. It was waking up in a new nightmare, where knowledge churned my intestines. Ben and Gemma must have known Evan too, otherwise why would they have preferred to stay here when my house was right next door? A bunch of questions swirled in my head. Why hadn't separated Evan on the dance floor? Did they all know each other? And I was nothing more than a puppet to be manipulated in their lives.

I escaped through the door, not without looking over my shoulder. My friends slept peacefully as if no problem in the world could reach them. The architecture in Evan's house was like mine. The upper floor was divided into two, but unlike the spiral staircase in my house, this was a wooden staircase. On one side was his room and a bathroom, and on the other end were more rooms and another smaller staircase that led to the kitchen. I descended without making any noise, if there was one thing, I had learned from Ben over all these years it was how to move silently, and now I needed to get out of there without being seen. I couldn't pretend in front of them or my neighbor that everything was fine, not now that I knew the truth. Or believed I did.