Madness

Chapter 20

She could sense a feeling of amazement and confusion follow her as she scrambled down the narrow winding path and through the spindly, bent back trees. Her chest tightened as her hair whipped around her face. Numb with despair, Elena slowed down. She didn't feel tired at all. If anything, she felt more alive then she'd ever been.

She already knew she couldn't enter without Frank. Murderers couldn't enter graveyards. It was embedded in her mind, now. Not unless she wanted to be thrown in a real yet imaginary world where everyone and everything wanted her dead. Elena sighed. If people in this world knew what she was they would all want her dead. Even Frank.

Dropping to the ground, she pressed her skeletal body close to a tree trunk and rested her arms on the roots. She'd come much quicker then she would have preferred.

Peering through the shadowy world, Elena knew it wasn't night time and wondered how the world had taken the random weather and day changed. It had only been midday a few moments ago and now the night had already fallen. The world was unbalanced, and it was all her fault. Falling in an endless abyss of blame, she wrapped her arms around herself as if hiding herself from reality.

Dying was a strange, feared thought but now Elena was welcoming it with open arms. At least the pain would end. All she had to do was play the waiting game. It was strange to think that even though you could never be able to love, laugh or even sense again that death brought a peace which Elena yearned for. Perhaps that because there was magic there could be an afterlife.

The rip in the sky was growing and Elena found herself oddly calm. It revealed glimpses of unseen and unheard-of worlds. One of the rips would reveal No Name Lane. Even she had to admit the way the sky seemed bejeweled with a brilliant midnight blue and the glimmers of skylines and upside-down cities were beautiful. Why couldn't she go there?

This world was ugly and pained like a fake smile. Everything seemed alright but if you looked closely enough you would be able to see the thousands of lies the world was made up of. Like the reward of life is cursed with death, the reward of a home is cursed with the realisation that the heart of world is blacker then a murder's mind and that everything known to be true is a lie.

Life is a beautiful lie and death is the painful truth.

Elena realised that now as she ordered the straggling remains of her memory. If only she could have realised that sooner.

The entire expanse of her body went numb. She paused. She began to feel light headed as if someone had cut open her head and taken out the dark, depressing demons of worry and cleansed her mind from emotion. A dull ache drummed against her skull in an agitated way.

Something shifted in the darkness, but Elena could not tell what. Even the moonlight couldn't penetrate the dense night. A few twigs snapped and cracked, and the crunching of leaves grew louder. The footsteps became a rhythmic, regular pattern which Elena recognised.

"Frank?"

There was a stern, abrupt snuffle and the sound of gravel clacking underneath a heavy pair of feet.

A sound escaped her mouth, it wasn't a scream or a sob but a scraping moan. It sounded detached as if it was coming from someone else. Elena immediately stifled the sound with her hand, eyes wide. It sounded like she was growling. Growling.

"Elena?"

"Frank!" She cried, stumbling to her feet.

However, her words didn't match her mind. Elena remained utterly emotionless. Perhaps moments ago, she cared. She cared about unworthy, wasted things but now she couldn't. Just as her reflection it was as if her emotions had escaped through the rips in the unsteady lie she wore.