I tried to get my words out, but the reality of the night had set in, rendering my logical thinking useless. The air was cold, raising goosebumps along my thinly covered arms, and as I attempted to piece together a chronological sentence, I noticed tears rolling gently down my cheeks. Without saying a word, Juno gestured for me to come inside and gently shut the door behind me. We silently made our way up the staircase to their room, a disquieting stillness in the air that made the hairs on my arms raise against my sleeves. Sitting down on the bed, I felt a little more at ease - despite being here only twice, Juno's room definitely felt like a safe haven after the events of the evening - and managed to find the words to describe what had happened. And I did just that. I explained every detail as I remembered it, the visuals as clear in my mind as if I were viewing it at the moment, and took note of Juno's eyebrows raising and the curiosity in their eyes slowly dim to fear. After I had finished, we both sat in silence, waiting. Waiting for the other to speak, waiting for something to tell us that this was normal or it would go away. Just a stress-induced hallucination. But looking into their eyes, it was clear to me they knew exactly what was happening, and something about their certainty dulled down whatever hope I had left. They knew we were out of our depth, and our collective acceptance was terrifying.
"Did it follow you here?" Juno finally asked quietly, twirling their fingers around each other in a hypnotic lace-like gesture of anxiety.
"Um, I'm not sure. I think I lost it?"
They paused, lost in thought. "We need to get somewhere safe. I'm going to get changed, you go and wake my gran up."
They stood up, throwing a navy blue hoodie at me before disappearing into the bathroom with a small collection of clothes. "Sure thing. Wake up Juno's grandmother who I've spoken to... once or twice? Easy and not scary at all." I muttered to myself as I wandered through the doorway into the landing. The lights were on, easing a slight bit of my anxiety, and having a task to focus on certainly settled my head back down, but I couldn't do anything to subside the gnawing pain in my stomach. Everything had happened too fast. It was all going well - too well. Did whoever was up there really hate me that much? That the moment I finally feel happy it had to be interrupted?
Whatever. I was probably just stressed out. I walked along the other side of the landing to reach Mrs Golde's bedroom, gently opening the door and staring into the dark room. How was I going to do this? I considered making a loud noise, but that would be incredibly embarrassing, plus Juno would hear and that would be even more humiliating. Okay - maybe the lights? I fumbled around on the wall until I reached the light switch, flicking it down to reveal... an empty bed? Looking over to the window, I saw Mrs Golde sat against the wall, her arms on her knees and her eyes fixated on the dark and clouded sky outside. "Um... Mrs Golde? Are you okay?"
Her eyes remained glassy. As I began to walk over, she quickly turned around and smiled gently.
"My dear, what's wrong?"
I exhaled a small sigh of relief. "Oh um - you were just frozen, so I-"
"Giena?"
I paused. A sudden chill tainted the air as the particles around me seemed to shift. Who was Giena? I waited, watching, frozen.
"Take a deep breath, love. What happened?"
Juno entered the room, opening their mouth to say something as I turned around and raised my hand in a gesture of silence. "Listen," I mouthed, pointing to Mrs Golde, and they walked over next to me and perched on the foot of the bed.
"I see. Why don't you ask your friend for help?"
"She thinks she's talking to someone called Giena," I whispered softly. "Do you know who that is?"
