Last Summer

Chapter Eleven

White lights overwhelm the room, and as quickly as they came, they were gone again. 

Newspapers upon newspapers, stacked high with exaggerated stories and news. The front cover, back, all of the content on the inside. News of stocks, prices, job listings, and comics. The front cover stood out heavily.

"Strange happenings in Crystal Lake!"

Isabella sat at a bench in a park. Upon arriving through this mirror, she had feelings of genuine sadness. She began reading the newspaper, pushing her earbud into her ear.

"In the past weeks, the town's famous Crystal Lake has seen much activity--and not of the good kind. This week, officials have reported finding a second body, lying in the bottom of Crystal Lake. Ravensville Police and Detectives are searching for connections between the two deaths that were found in this quick succession. The families of the two victims send their best wishes, asking for prayers for them while they attempt to move on from these events."

Isabella didn't want to read any more of this. She tossed the newspaper in a park trash can and walked home. She pulled her hood up, listening to the music she had already queued. She walked with a slow and dizzy pace, thinking too much about everything. Thoughts running through her head, back and forth, only as to bring her down. Her pace got slower and slower as she went, time seeming to slow more and more. Familiar faces flew by like nothing, with no point of significance to her thought processes. The lights seemed dark and gloomy, the houses passing in monotony. She soon made it back to her own house and opened up the door, where the large grandfather clock ticks slowly, back and forth. Three O'clock. Three in the morning. Isabella's parents were out on a vacation trip for the week and weren't going to be home. She went back up to her bedroom and laid down on the bed. She stared at the ceiling fan for seemingly hours on end. The room was quiet in everything but the fan.

"Around and around it'll keep on spinning. Where does it go? Where does it go if it's only stuck in a circle? It can't go anywhere."

She sat and kept staring at the ceiling fan as it hummed away. Spinning, spinning, over and over again. Four AM. Five. The silence finally got to her. She stood, walking to the restroom and opening the medicine cabinet, and grabbing a bottle of pills. Even the bright, neon orange of the pill bottle looked grey and white. She popped the bottle open, pouring them onto the table. One pill, then another, then another. They just kept pouring and pouring from the bottle. She took a large handful of the pills in her hand, putting them in her pocket. She poured water into her hands, bringing more and more of it to her mouth, then taking the pills out and popping them into her mouth, and swallowing.

She felt dizzy, tired, nauseous. She tried to make her way to the room, but before she could make it out of the restroom...

Thud.

She fell to the ground, unconscious as her eyes closed slowly. She opened her eyes back up again and was back in the building.

"I... That's how I... Died... Am I in hell..? Heaven..? No, this is my purgatory... Whatever..."

Tears in her eyes, she walked to the centre room. Vicari was standing in front of the huge stone door, jaw dropped. The door that looked like a solid wall before, and had no way of opening, was now open. The blue flame that lit up the door was now on the inside of this room, lighting up its interior. The room felt as if it would welcome them in, and that it was waiting for them the whole time they were there. With its welcoming feel, it wasn't a choice not to walk in. Isabella went in first, with Vicari coming in after her. The room was barren, empty except for two doors on the left and right sides of the room. A voice came from seemingly nowhere in the room, as there was no one else there, but looking closer, they could tell it came from the flame itself.