Not So Normal

Chapter 28

(Elissa's POV)

   I'm floating in a cold lake.

   I can't move. I try, but I can't.

   It's like my brain just decided to disconnect from my limbs.

   I just float along, occasionally bumping into trees or rocks, but not the shore yet.

   I count the minutes I'm floating. 5 minutes turns to 10, which turns to 30, and so on. It's easy to count really high when nothing is here to distract me.

   It's the middle of the 35,986th minute I bump into something and completely stop moving. Have I finally reached the shore?

   I try to turn my head to see if I've made it to land, but I can't. I can't move anything except my mouth.

   "Help!" I say weakly, knowing no one is going to hear me. I haven't heard a single person my whole time on the lake.

   I keep counting the minutes since I have nothing else to do. 35,987... 35,989... 35,990...

   At minute 36,137 I feel a pair of hands grab my wrists and pull me onto the sandy beach. Who's here? Where have they been the last 141 minutes?

   "Elissa? It's time to get you cleaned up, okay sweetie?" a voice says. The hands help me stand up, and suddenly I have control of my body again.

   "Where am I?" I ask, surprised I can still form sentences on my own.

   "You'll be leaving soon, so it doesn't matter," they say. I try to get a good look at my rescuer's face, but their hood covers them completely.

   "Leaving? Where am I going?"

   "You're going home. Follow me." Home?

   I follow this mystery person to a small cabin and go inside. I find that there are three doors inside the cabin. I see red light coming from behind the first one and bright white light from the third. I start towards the red door and I'm about to open it when mystery person smacks my hand away.

   "You're not going there. Put this on," they say, handing me a simple white cotton dress. What was behind that door? What's behind the other two?

   "Excuse me, but what's behind the doors?" I try to ask politely after putting the dress on, hoping that they'll answer if I do.

   "Heaven, Hell, and Home," they say bluntly, as if it's obvious.

   "Heaven, Hell, and Home?" I repeat, confused. Mystery person nods. "Well where am I now?"

   "You're in between, but that doesn't matter, because you're going home. You've been here long enough. They're waiting for you there."

   "They?" Who's they?

   "You'll find out soon enough. Are you ready to go home?"

   "I guess, but what if they ask where I've been?" Whoever 'they' are, they won't believe me if I talk about an 'in between.'

   "Don't worry about it. Now off you go," they say softly, nudging me to the middle door. I put my hand on the plain doorknob and I hear voices from behind the door. They sound busy, like there's a lot of people there and something's going on.

   I turn around to say goodbye to my mysterious rescuer, but they're gone. So are my black clothes I was wearing on the lake. Weird.

   I turn the doorknob and open the door.

~Niall's POV~

   It's been 25 days since Elissa fell into the river. She's been in the exact same state since then: non-responsive, motionless, and silent. After a week of staying in the hospital with her, I had to start doing other stuff, even though I really didn't want to leave her. I just couldn't stay in that hospital any longer.