Hometorius : Coming Home

chapter 15 : The Cold, Absolute Abyss

Marilyn POV

I appeared just outside the door of the house. I opened it and went into the empty living room. I walked down the long corridor and stood in front of the white door, on which hung a sign with neatly written letters: "Margaret Jones". I opened it slightly, pushing my head through the gap into the room.

Kate was leaning against Margaret's bed. Her body twitched at times; it looked like she was crying. As soon as I saw Kate in such a state, I immediately opened the door wide, threw my bag into the chair and squatted beside her. Only then did Margaret's lying figure appear to my eyes.

"What happened to her?" I asked, shocked, embracing Kate's shaking body with my rather arm.

"We-we were on the be-beach," she began to explain, choking on her words, but I interrupted her.

"Calm down first," I pressed her tighter to myself and started stroking her back. "Relax... it's okay... One more time: what happened?"

"We were on the beach..." Kate started again, "together with Sam's and Leon's teams... After a short match we went to the bar... Everyone had a beer... I took a shake... Margaret obviously didn't want to seem lame... She also took a beer... Later I don't know who... Someone... ordered a watermelon... and a giant pizza... I only ate one piece of watermelon... The others took two watermelon slices and ... and a few of pizza... Margaret too... Then we went swimming... The water was cold... and the sun was hot... Margaret ran into the water right away with the others... I walked in slowly to get used to the cold...

"And what happened next?" I asked cautiously, hearing that Kate had fallen silent.

For a while she just took a few very deep breaths, looking without a word at Margaret's motionless face.

"Suddenly Margaret disappeared from my sight... I thought she was just diving..." Kate's voice was getting higher with each sentence she said. "She didn't come out of the water for a long time... No-nobody paid any a-attention... In the end someone asked me... where Margaret was... I star-started to cry... quickly do-dove under water... the water was quite clear... I saw Ma-Margaret... to the bottom...Lifelessly... I emerged, took a breath... and... and again I dove... to pull her out... Suddenly someone pulled my arm... you know ... that I would swim up... I thought it was Sam... but it was Jacob... It was him who dragged Ma-Margaret out of the water... B-but un-unfortu-tunately-ly i-it was al-already to-too late!

Kate began to cry again. I also had a tear in my eye. I wanted to cry over my dead friend, but I felt that strange emptiness in me again. I didn't believe in Margaret's death. I just couldn't. Just like my grandmother's death. My consciousness just couldn't comprehend it.

I embraced Kate with my right hand, and I touched Margaret's pale and icy forehead with my left hand (instinctively!). This time, however, no light flashed. A blue snowflake flew out of Margaret's parted lips though. It grew bigger and bigger, until it shone with such blinding light that we had to close our eyes. After a while, I heard a noise like a whisper. I looked where the sound came from and I saw the blue spirit. I poked at Kate. It was no ordinary spirit; it was Margaret's soul.

"Thank you, Marylin," the ghost said, and I low-key smiled, high-key uncomfortable. "I am the soul of Margaret and thanks to you, Margaret, or, well, me, I will stay with you forever."

I'm sure our faces showed a little bit of both astonishment and fear (pfft, yeah 'little bit', sure).

"Are you going to be following us around now?" Kate asked with horror in her swollen eyes.