The Light and the Dark

Chapter Three: Reality

"Some legends are told. Some turn to dust or to gold. But you will remember me! Remember me for-" You sing along in the living room until the front door suddenly opens. You continue to dance around as the woman walks in and shuts the door, carrying a bag of groceries.

"Merhaba, Loraine!" You say to her.

"Um, hello to you, too?" She says hesitantly, setting the groceries on the dinning table. "And what language might that be?"

"Turkish. Nasilsin?" you smile at her, wondering what her response might be.

"Good...?"

"I was looking for 'iyi,' but okay."

She laughed and started putting the groceries away. "So why are are you speaking other languages? And why..." she paused, "Why do I smell chocolate?"

"I found an old recipe for brownies and we surprisingly had all the ingredients, so I made some. They should be ready in about ten minutes."

She gives you a strange look, as if you had suddenly grown a pair of antennae.
"Anything else I should know about?"

"Yeah. I need to paint a second base coat on a ceramic cat I found and I started crocheting a scarf for you." You state.

She goes to you and puts her hands on your shoulders and looks into your eyes. "Are you okay?" she asks, very concerned.

You laugh and remove her hands. "I'm fine, really!"

"Who possessed you to do something other than video games and YouTube?"

You roll your eyes at her. "You have no idea how much I have been through while you where gone."

She tosses her arms up into the air, exasperated. "I was gone for forty minutes. What on earth could have happened?"

"Forty-two minutes and twenty-six seconds, actually. The moment you left I started a timer." She glares at you. "But a very traumatic thing happened. I was fine at first, I was just playing some Mario Maker, but then I was hit with this wave of boredom. It was as if I was being consumed by darkness. Don't be rolling your eyes at me! It's true! The silence was so thick I was choking on it. The boredom was building pressure on my heart."

"Over dramatic, are we?" Loraine smirks.

"Oh, I also started to write a short story on Wattpad about my experience. Any who, I realized that there's actually a bunch of stuff to do here. So, I put my brain into 'creative mode' and did a bunch of really fun stuff I've never tried before. Like painting. Or crocheting. Or..." You pause, your finger in the air.

Just then, the timer on the oven dings. "Baking!" You smile at her and hurries to the oven.

Scorching heat rushes up to greet you as you open the oven door, along with the rich smell of fuggy brownies.

"Fresh scratch brownies!" you proclaim.

"They look really good!" Loraine chimes. "You really made these?"

"Yup!" you say, proud of your accomplishments.

* * * *

"I love that movie," you tell Loraine as you're cutting into the now-cooled brownies.

"Yeah, still awesome after you making me watch it like a billion times..."

You smirk as you hand her a piece. "Big Hero 6 will forever hold a place in my heart." You say confidently as you cut yourself a piece.

"To boredom!" Loraine says, holding her brownie on the air.

"To creativity!" You cheer, raising yours as well.

And you and her stand there, chewing on your homemade treat.

Looking out the window, you can imagine the dark demon receding into the darkness, or Katie smiling at you from above. But you know now that you can fight him off yourself, with the help of some paint and flour.