A Blast From the Past

Split Up: Part 1

"What's too good to be forgotten? I returned my gaze to the board. I,L,L,S,H,O,W,Y,O,U. "I'd really rather you didn't. We don't need any physical signs, thank you though," I politely denied the spirit, looking up as I felt a breeze start blowing through the building. Panic rocketed through me as I watched Melina and Zoe turn to sand and blow away in the rapidly growing wind.

"What the fuck?" I yelled, launching myself towards the door, Sami right on my ass. I saw a wave of darkness overtaking the building in my peripheral vision, but I was too busy concentrating on crashing through the debris on the floor, ravaging my skin on the surprisingly solid objects. I continued racing along as soon as I hit the concrete pathway, glancing behind me and seeing Sami standing 20 feet from the door, staring at two very faint white figures picking their way through the path I had made through the mess on the floor.

I rushed back towards Sami, grabbing her arm and dragging her away from the growing darkness. "Jesus Christ! Don't fucking stop! Fucking run!" I screamed as she tried to fight me.

"I can't leave Zoe!" She yelled back, ripping her arm free of my grasp.

"She and Melina are fucking gone," I gripped her shoulders tightly with my bruised knuckles, keeping her from running. "So I suggest we run away from whatever the fuck those things are before we end up the same way." I pointed a bleeding finger at the white shapes, which were moving much faster now that they were free of the building.

"Fine," Sami grumbled, chasing after me as I started running again.

We continued along in a blind panic until we ended up inside another burned up building. I skidded into a random room and hid out of sight of the hallway, Sami did the same. I peeked around the edge of the doorway just in time to see one of the nearly transparent characters blow past.

"Where's the other one?" I asked as loud as I dared.

"I don't know. It stopped chasing us I think. I only saw one on the path," Sami's whisper hardly carried through the darkness, stemming from her barely visible silhouette.

"Good fucking god. What the actual fuck just happened." I slid my back down the wall, sitting down on the dusty floor.

"I wish I knew," Sami replied, obviously still upset about Zoe.

We caught our breath for a few minutes. My brain was still reeling with unanswered questions. There's no way that Austyn was just a spirit Right? For some reason I felt like a spirit couldn't turn 2 people to sand, conjure up 2 apparitions, or whatever, and create whatever that overwhelming darkness was. I stood up to walk around so I didn't think myself to fucking death.

"Hey, while you're up, can you see what that thing is?" Sami pointed towards the center of the room.

"What are you too lazy to get up and look at?"

" There's a.... thing in the center of the room. I don't know what it is and I'm curious."

"Woah, hold up," I threw my hands up, as if to say stop.

"What?" Sami stood up.

"Look at this room,"

"What about it?"

"It's so clean. Like, there's a layer of dust on the floor, yeah, but compare it to the hallway,"

Sami turned around and looked out the surprisingly intact doorway, which still had a wooden door somehow, at the cluttered mess we had climbed through to get into this room. "Woah. What the fuck? How did we miss that?"

"Fuck if I know," I replied, inching toward the suspicious objects on the floor. I crouched down next to them, inspecting the strange combination of items. "That thing looks like you're everyday metal rod. I have no clue want that is, though," I said, pointing at the fancy gold object. "It looks decorative."

Sami walked over to investigate them with me, picking up the small gold decoration. "It looks like part of an oil lamp. But, like, a fancy one," she concluded.

"Maybe," I agreed, bending to pick up the rod, feeling a jolt of electricity course through my body as soon as I touched it. I jumped back, closing my eyes instinctively. When I opened them it was pitch black, I couldn't move a muscle. Then I heard someone's voice, but it wasn't Sami's.

Good morning, worthless! Why don't you go complain about how shitty you feel today, again.

"Who are you?" I called out to the darkness, getting no answer. "Hello?" Still nothing.

All of a sudden there was a blinding white light and another voice. Alexis? "Sami?"