Discordiae - Jackson's Story

Chapter 8 - Arkadia

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The Open Road - June 4th

They arrived at a strange building set on 59th and 4th... or at least that's where Sandra thought where they were.

They had left the road a short while back when she told her mom to turn into a odd corner outlined by frog statues. Pádraig's sister Mara had told to her to keep a look out for frogs and to turn there. 'You'll never find the place, if you miss the frogs!' Mara had told her. It didn't make a lot of sense, but Mara had insisted that the Frogs were necessary.

The place looked like the type of castle one might see in a horror film; The feeling of being in the middle of 'nowhere' and gazing upon a very plain building that felt oddly sinister. The name 'Arkadia' had been emblazoned upon a placard nearby the front gates that seemed to open as the car slowly approached.

"Well, that's not ominous at all..." said Jackson slightly the worse for wear after the car ride.

As they all gathered together he went to talk to Sandra both to see how she was feeling, but also to settle an unnerving difference.

Where his parents saw frog statues, he had seen the mouth of a large cave. They were all very confused at the different perspective.

"We almost missed the turn." his mother had grumbled.

Sandra laughed nervously and shrugged. "I saw frogs too..." her voice still not hadn't fully recovered.

"What is this nonsense? This looks like an expensive haunted house." Mrs. Collingswood huffed. "Maybe you misunderstood the directions, Sandra?"

"Or, we could call and see if this is the place, dear." Mr. Collingswood suggested.

"...or simply knock on the door?" Mrs. Morganstern replied in irritation.

As the adults continued to argue, Sandy decided she would go up to the door and knock rather than have a pointless argument. The door felt odd as she knocked. Not the material per se -- it seemed like some type of wood -- however, she felt as if the door examined her and sighed as it opened.

"Well, that answers that question." Jackson said somewhat loudly to cut off the bickering adults. When they looked at him he motioned towards the open door.

"That's just strange, isn't it?" came the voice of someone in the distance that Sandra couldn't recognize. Slowly, she realized the voice might have even been her's. The threshold seemed to be pulling her in and she was losing her focus. More than that, she was realized that she was feeling a bit dizzy. The air felt so light, as she slowly breathed in, and she wondered why everything was slowly taking on the appearance of water colors and then a mosaic.

"Sandy!" Jackson exclaimed as her caught her starting to collapse in on herself. "Hello? Anybody there? We could use some help here! Hello?"

Sandy tried to say that she was "okay", however, it sounded more like she was repeating gibberish, "Iss... iss kay. Iss kay. Un mo.. mom. Iss kay."

A short, elderly man popped into existence seemingly out of nowhere. He seemed like he was somewhat lost, but as he looked up at Jackson with his warm eyes, Jackson knew why.