The Abyss

Chapter 13: All Roads Lead to Home

August 28th, Day 6

It's hard to describe the storm of emotions which tormented us as we drove along the highway as fast as we could, trying to escape the horrors that lay behind us.

As I peered out the window, I could feel my heartbeat slow as the adrenaline coursing through my veins began to fade. The coolness of the window quieted my massive headache, revealing aching muscles and an exhaustion set deep in my bones. But I could not rest, not after what happened.

God, poor Michael. My brain could hardly understand what had happened. One minute he was there, another he was gone. From life, to little more than ashes blowing in the wind, his existence was reduced to scorching embers of the inferno that consumed him. It left an empty hole in me, like an impression of what was. I felt lost and confused. I wanted to run back to make sure the ashes were real and not just a hallucination, but a nightmare.

I pressed my forehead harder against the cool soothing window and closed my eyes, trying to remember Michael as something other than that tortured figure burning forever in my memory.

I hadn't known Michael well. I think I first met him in middle school, maybe 6th or 7th grade.

The day I met Michael was cold and stormy. It was one of the biggest storms we had that summer; flooding streets and houses, knocking down power lines, and leaving half the town without power for the entire sweltering weekend. School ended early that day, due to the leaking roof and flickering power.

I didn't have a ride home that day. My parents were both busy at work and wouldn't be home until late, my sister Brittany was at the mall and refused to be helpful, and Chris was "with a friend". So instead of walking, wading and or swimming back home, I met up with Raven at her locker, planning to go over to her house and stay there until someone could pick me up.

And then when we left her locker and started walking down the hall towards the exit, Raven suddenly turned down a hallway I had never went down before.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

She smiled at me, "I want to introduce you someone special."

Then she led me around another corner. This hallway was long and dark, with very few doors other than the occasional large custodial closet.

Down at the end of the hall, tucked into the corner of the building, was a single room, the wooden door cracked open enough to allow a thin stream of yellow light to escape out into the hall. Distantly, I could hear the rain pattering against the roof, providing a soft rhythm to the quiet melody that drifted through the hallway as if carried by a gentle breeze.

We stopped a few feet away from the door at the end of the hallway, both of us standing amongst the shadows and out of view of whoever was inside. I looked up to ask her why we were hiding, but Raven paused and held up her finger to silence me.

"Hold on." she whispered. Slowly, she pulled the door open until she could peer through the gap and see inside. Then she turned and gestured towards me. "Okay, come on in." she whispered, before leading the way inside.

This was clearly the band room. The room was long and narrow with walls padded in velvet soundproofing material broken intermittently by large, black speakers. In the middle of the room was small arc of purple chairs, with a tall wooden podium at the center. Along the left wall was a collection of wires and electronics which I assumed made up some sort of audio system. In one of the corners, covered by a net of thick black wires was a tower of file cabinets stacked to the ceiling. On the right wall was a whiteboard where students had drawn battling stick figures and cartoonish creatures. Beside the whiteboard, tucked inside a corner between an open window and a small potted plant was a beautiful grand piano.