Dressed for Despair

𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

A few days later...

"I'm sorry."

She stared up at her ceiling, pushing her earbuds deeper into her ears as she did her best to block out the sounds of her parents arguing. She was back in her room again, but this time was different. She was missing something. Them. She and Jamie had made it back home safely, but no one could remember the others who had gone with them. According to everyone else, it had just been Jamie that had gone with her to the manor in the first place. She could barely remember who else was with them, at least, until she came back to her small room and found the torn pictures from months ago.

"Where do you think they are?" Coral muttered, squeezing her phone tighter.

"I wish I knew." Jamie's voice was the one that filtered through her earbuds, and they made her sit up on her bed. Austin. Erika. Bianca. It seemed like every time their names came to her mind, they would slip away and escape. Why was that? Ever since their trip, she hadn't been able to find out why. They were just... gone.

"Do you think they're okay?" She wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her head on her knees.

"I hope they are." With a sigh Coral picked up the pictures she had gathered as soon as she had come back home, studying them. She had taped them back together. They showed the moments from before Tyler and Deja had died. Her brother. Her best friend. They were the moments from when she was still friends with the others, with Austin, Erika, and Bianca. And... she missed them. She realized that despite everything that had happened between them these past months, she forgave them.

She wanted them to come back.

"We can't forget them," she whispered.

"Yeah..." Jamie drifted off until they were both sitting in silence, on different ends of the phone but lost in the same thoughts. They had to remember their friends. No one was willing to investigate or believe their claims, but she knew what had happened. From the moment she fell through the door in the mystery house, everything changed. She knew she sounded far fetched. That no one else even remembers their names. Austin. Erika. Bianca. But she did. Jamie did, too. And for now, that was enough.

"Hey, Jamie?" He didn't respond to her so she fell back on her bed again, closing her eyes. "You don't have to keep apologizing. I forgive you." He was silent, but she could still hear his breathing. "Jamie...? You good?"

"Yeah. I'm okay. And... I think we'll be okay."

"We'll be okay," she echoed, opening her eyes.

She was going to be okay.

She sat up again. He was right. They would be okay, but she knew what she was going to do now. 

She was going to find her friends.