Puddles

Chapter 2

"GO UPSTAIRS!" Casey kicked open my front door, which now had a broken doorknob, and screamed at me. I glanced at her hand. Yep. It was a sword. A glowing sword.

"W-whuh...?" I was too taken aback by her sudden appearance to really do anything but sort of blankly stare at her. Down the hall I heard glass shatter and a very deep rumbling, almost vibrating. It felt like someone was blasting a song with no noise but intensely deep bass. That feeling rose up in my chest and I was suddenly carrying a boulder on my shoulders. I actually thought I was falling for a moment and I stumbled forward. Casey caught me and my head just flew right off my neck. I couldn't tell if I was a million miles underwater, on the edge of earth's atmosphere, or on some kind of death trap of a roller coaster. I began to tip over and through the tiny window of my progressively fading vision I saw Casey's mouth say, "Oh shit," as she watched me fall.

I was just standing. Standing right there looking at my front door. It was raining and I was wearing my hoodie again. Um... what just happened? I didn't know what else to do, so I just reached for the doorknob to turn it but it rotated on its own before I could even get a grip. On the other side of the door a giant, pearly white smile attacked me. I think I gasped. It was my mother, all dressed up, hair emanating a casual beauty with shiny lips and long fluttering lashes blinding my eyes. She never looked this good. Not since dad left, anyways. "Hey. What are you doing standing out there, silly Kittycat." Yeah, Casey had called me Kittycat earlier which felt weird because it was something my mom had always called me. She said when I was born I sounded like a whining kitten when I cried. Such a dignified way to get a nickname, I know. She grabbed me by my arm and playfully pulled me inside. "Go on upstairs and get dressed. I was thinking..." she put a finger over her lips thoughtfully. "Joey's place tonight?" She smiled down at me with such expectancy in her eyes. I thought she might cry if I said I didn't want to go to--wait. She said Joey's place. Joey was my dad's friend who owned a burger-and-french-fry kind of restaurant. Going there was another thing we hadn't done since that brutal divorce. Why was I even so surprised? I just had some kind of hallucination and now my mom is dressed up so nice and--"Did you play in puddles again, Kat?" I froze. A wide, warm hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back slightly so my... dad... could give me a kiss on the cheek. I spun around and jumped away from him. He was supposed to be living in another state with his new wife and kids.

"Wh-what the hell?! You're supposed to be in Philadelphia or something!"

"Katherine Selene Halloway! Do not ever talk to your father like that!" Mom yelled. I looked up at her, appalled that she wasn't cursing with much more profanity right now. The divorce basically made the two hate each other, but its impact now had an especially vicious hold on my mother's life. That's why all the alcohol was important to her.

"Katherine! Do not use that language in this house! We ought to take away your phone privileges for that!" He paused, and I held my tongue, deciding that I should wait to see how this insane new world plays out. But I mostly stayed quiet because I was a little terrified about what was going on. He began to talk about going to Philadelphia next week for a business trip, but just then, as he started speaking, I noticed a weird foggy look on his face. No, not in his facial expression, but like fog on his actual face. Parts of his features were smudged, faded or filled in with foreign traits that jumped out. The harder I looked at it, the more warped everything got, until my vision was completely covered over with white fog in such a way that the faces of my parents were blank canvases and the house I was once so familiar with became so misshapen. Like in a dream that sets you in a labyrinth inside your own house and you wake up in a cold sweat. This dream pretended to be friendly, then I was overwhelmed with anger, longing, sadness and guilt--all feelings that I knew didn't belong to me. Wait. I was dreaming.

A sharp white light pierced my eyes and I heard a horrid scream in my ears before the light slowly morphed into a ceiling and the scream faded into silence. I was on the couch where my mom had been passed out and there was a sticky note stuck to my forehead.

"So your mom woke up just after I banished the hollow. I put you on the couch after I led her to her room. Don't worry about the hollow. If you heard a scream when you woke up it's gone, but you need to watch yourself for a few days or more will come, but you probably know that already. I had to leave to take care of some other hollows, so sorry for the unconventional mode of communication. Text me later." There was a phone number matching the small bubbly letters scratched over the rest of the paper. What the hell just happened? Hollows? I stood up, tipping over for a second but quickly regaining a sense of reality. I ran upstairs to check on my mom, who was busy collecting her reality as well.

"Hey, mom. Are you alright?" I approached her turquoise blue bed and watched as she groggily sat up.

"Yes, I'm fine. Could you bring me some water?" Good. Everything seemed normal here. After aiding her with a few more chores, it was time to handle whatever went on in the hallway before I left this world.

The first thing I noticed was that every light bulb in the hall and in the three rooms within it were burnt out. How... cliche. I assumed the crashing came from the bathroom, seeing how the other two "guest" rooms (we never had guests nor had we ever planned on it) were completely empty. Still, it could've been a window breaking. I stared down the dark hallway for a moment to muster up some confidence. I remembered the deep rumbling, the scream and those feelings of despair I had just observed. Without finding much confidence, I started into the darkness.

The guest rooms where dark, ominous, and empty. But at the end of the hall I had one last room. My heart beat louder and louder with every step. Slowly, those unfamiliar feelings from earlier entered my body without permission. The hall stretched, further away the room ran from me. Further... further... I couldn't see the other end of the hall now. I pushed open the door with a trembling finger. I pushed it open as wide as it could go before stepping in. Somehow I thought I would be able to see any impending danger before it came upon me, but remembering how easily I fainted, whatever this threat was it would most likely take me down with ease. All logic apparently meant nothing to me now, because I continued to creep forward inside the room. I took out my phone and pressed the power button, commanding it to share with me whatever dim light it could offer.

A large porcelain bathtub, a sink fitted into a marble counter, and a shattered mirror. That's what the crash was.

"Fuck!" A piece of glass crunched into my foot. I leaned forward against the marble counter and rested my ankle on my knee. As I went to pull out the triangle of glass, my phone's screen turned black. I reached over to the device and pressed the power button again. On the screen, an image of a man appeared and I screamed and threw the phone at the wall. It's light still dimly lit the room, but I couldn't see if the face was still there. The low rumbling from earlier started up again. The evil feelings, which had been vaguely present during the length of this endeavor, grew stronger, but this time they had such overwhelming dominance that all I could do was think how helpless I was. My heart was terrified and sprinting away but my body remained. Tears began to tumble down my cheeks. I glanced behind me at what used to be a whole mirror, and saw something... disturbing. The light from my phone turned black.