It was the perfect day for a picnic.
That summer the Ee family decided to hold their reunion at the family vacation home.
While the men bickered over which woodchips to use for the barbeque, the women made sandwiches with the younger children.
Cher tried to get the five-year-old, Amy to make her own. But the child kept getting distracted. She pointed and laughed at her older cousin that fell when playing tag,
“The clouds are pooping!” Amy Claire pointed at the sky.
Cher looked up. The clouds were scrolling across the clear sky at a rapid pace. She nodded. “So, they are.”
“Uhuehuehue!” Amy Claire drummed on her sub sandwich and the sauce decorating it squirted out onto the cheek of her four-year old cousin Petra, who flinched and gave her a long disbelieving look.
Needless to say, her Mother, Aunt Selena, was not pleased.
“Eya! What’s wrong with this child? Don’t play with your food! Cher!”
Cher seized Amy Claire’s hands.
“You’re under arrest for improper etiquette!”
Amy Claire’s eyes widened in alarm. “No! I have a family!”
“Is that so? Then I’ll let you off on the condition you apologize to the aggrieved.”
Aggrieved? She learned that word recently. What was it again? Her face scanned her surroundings to see a bug-eyed Petra staring into space as her Mother pawed through her bag for some wet wipes.
“Sorry Petra.”
Petra stared at her but said nothing for a while. “You shawt me.”
“It was an accident.”
The four-year-old huffed. “An apowogee cahnt bwing back the dead.”
Amy Claire looked to Cher for guidance.
But Cher wasn’t paying attention to their conversation, nor was any of the other adults. Everyone was looking in one direction.
A familiar car pulled up to the circular drive and her Father stepped out. Holding his hand was a little girl and an unfamiliar woman.
Everyone became silent, even the children stopped playing to simply stare.
The sunlight receded.
Amy Claire looked up to see the clouds stretching across the sky blocking out the sun. The blue sky faded to grey. A drop of sky piss fell in her eye.
“Rain!”
She announced the news. But when she turned to tell the others they were all staring at her.
Their eyes bled black ink gluing her to the spot.
The new child approached her with a bloody grin.
A deep, warped voice belonging to something much more sinister escaped her little lips.
“ImP0SToR.”
“Ah!”
Amy Claire woke with a jolt. Her heart hammering inside her chest, she scanned her surroundings to find herself in a different kind of hell. This room that looked like the cleaned-out home of a hoarder. The dust threatening to spill from the crevices between the discolored bricks had kept her up at night. It’s a miracle she was even able to sleep.
On the wall above her bed she could make out a duck patterned sticky note.
Tried to wake you, got tired of waiting, I’m gonna shower first.
(btw We only have 1)
Go use the bathroom Ms. Cherry showed you.
You better not still be undressed by the time I come back.
😡
We can’t be late, the walk to campus long, we have to leave early.
Her eyes didn’t register the aggression in the words until she eased out of bed to retrieve it off the wall.
Officially awake, she blinked and quickly retrieved her suitcase. She didn’t actually unpack from being too wary of Zoeira.
On her way out she heard the sound of the shower coming from the left of the room switch off.
“!”
If Zoiera saw that she had woken up only now she was going to flip.
She hurried down the steps and out the door only to pause.
The lights were off.
Amy Claire found it odd. Was there a power outage?
She thought of using her phone as a flash light only to realize she left it in their room.
Which one was scarier walking down a pitch-black hall or getting yelled at by Zoeira?
Amy Claire’s heart stopped. She could hear footsteps behind her.
Zoeira had gotten out of the shower and was walking up the steps.
“…”
Amy Claire ran down the hall only to slow down as the hall became even more dark. She couldn’t see anything in front of her.
A draft of cold hit her.
The hall was dim but not this dark and it was a perfectly sealed so where was the draft coming from? Were there air vents somewhere? She thought of looking up but decided not to waste any more time, it was too dark to see anyway.
Light and warmth peaked in on the other side of the door and her heart lifted. As she hefted her suitcase up the steps a relieved sigh escape her only for her blood to freeze at the sound of singing.
Goosebumps broke out all over her body.
“… day that you were born
…. … …. …… together
….. decided …. create a dream … true~”
This song… it sounded familiar but from where?
She stepped out into the hall only to see no one.
Amy Claire could feel her nerves vanishing, as she continued down the hall. The voice was tinged with silver and sounded oddly sobering.
“Thaaaat is whhhy all the girls in tooown
Fol-low you aaaaaall arooouund!”
Amy Claire became curious, whoever it was they could belt.
The voice only got louder and louder. Weren’t they scared of waking up the others?
“Just like meeeee, they long to beeeee
Close to yooooou.”
The entrance was decorated with greenery, that made the creepy block seem less cold than before, it wasn’t there yesterday.
Tending to the plants was a pink haired girl.
“Good Morning.” Amy Claire greeted her but she didn’t seem to hear her.
In fact, the girl continued to sing even louder with gusto.
“On the day that you were born, the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come truuuuuue.”
Her elegant gestures and loud singing took Amy Claire aback. Her voice had been completely drowned out.
“So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair
of gold and starlight in your eyes of bluuuuue!”
“HELLO!” Amy Claire shouted.
The girl flinched and stiffly turned around like a wind-up-doll, her earlier grace lost.
Her pale grey irises registered a disheveled Amy Claire and her posture relaxed.
Instead of returning the greeting she raised a brow and asked.
“You STILL haven’t showered yet? You must sleep like a fish!”
“L-like a fish?”
“You know the phrase, sleeping with the fishes? It’s a reference. I’m saying you must sleep like the dead.”
“O-oh. I am a heavy sleeper.”
The girl’s lips stretched.
“Which block are you from? There’s no way you wouldn’t have woken up by now if you could hear me.”
“Um…” What was her block number again?
“Even the roses can hear me sometimes.” Her smile suddenly receded. “So you must either be from block twelve or fourteen.”
“Yeah! How’d you-
“Hmmmmmmmmm.” The interest in the girl’s eyes receded. “Well, it’s no wonder.” She turned around.
“You’re new here right? The walk to the campus is long, and the campus itself is huge, poor Zoeira, I don’t envy her not even in the slightest.”
“You know Zoeira?”
“We joined this place around the same time, ended up in the same class, was practically stuck with her.” The girl nodded to herself but then sighed and shook her head. “Such poor unfortunate souls.”
Amy Claire had more questions but then the girl began to sing Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from the little mermaid. She sung so loudly it was clear the conversation was over.
She had always felt a wall between her and others, but this was the first time anyone had ever erected one on purpose. No. It was the third time. She was the third person to ever do such a thing.
By the time she finished her shower Zoeira was fully clothed and waiting at the entrance. She could hear stomach growling all the way from where she stood.
“…” Amy Claire paused wondering if she should go back to put her things away or not. When she tried to sneak behind her Zoeira turned around by chance.
“Um, where do you think you’re going?”
“To put my stuff back?”
If looks could kill she’d be in a casket.
Zoeira closed her eyes and took a breath.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m not a patient person.” Her eyes widened. “So. Don’t test me. We’ve got to go now.”
“B-but my suitcase…”
“We can shove it in your school locker!”
But…it’s heavy. Amy Claire really didn’t want to lug the suitcase all the way to campus, the first walk getting here was tiring enough. She’d just get all sweaty again.
Zoeira opened the door only to find Amy Claire still standing there.
“WOMAN!” Zoeira barked, Amy Claire flinched. “WALK!”
Amy Claire walked.
The walk down the trail was quiet and Amy Claire could practically feel the heat rolling off of Zoeira’s body.
How many swear words is she flinging at me right now?
“I ran into someone at the bathroom.” Amy Claire offered in hopes of conversation. “She was singing, her voice was really divine!”
“You ran into Rooster.” Zoeira concluded. “It’s not that surprising, seeing she’s always there around that time.”
“She’s always there?”
“To help the others wake up. She was asked to by the adults.”
“…Why?”
Zoeira lazily turned to glance at her.
“You know… this place’s history right?”
“Huh?”
“So you don’t.” She sighed. “If I go ahead and explain it now, it won’t make any sense.”
“???”
Zoeira sighed. “You’ve listened to her sing right, when she’s standing right in front of you, you can literally feel your soul quaking.”
“Right?! I got the chills.”
“Let’s just say, it’s for good luck, a song a day, keeps the nightmares away. That grace doesn’t extend to us since our block is too far away to hear her.”
Amy failed to follow the logic of that superstition.
” Ah, that’s right,” Zoeira turned to eye her once more. “There’s only two rules you need to follow while living here. 1. Never stay out past midnight and 2. Never walk the main hall alone.”
“The main hall?”
“The passage Ms. Cherry brought you through.
“Ms. Cherry?”
Zoeira stared at her hard.
Amy Claire folded her lips. She must be referring to Ms. Applace.
“Okay, but why?”
“Superstition.” Zoeira shrugged. “Someone committed suicide there.”
“…” Amy Claire fell a step behind, she stiffened upon remembering the random chill she felt. She shook it off.
“Well, not exactly in the hall but…well anyway, don’t go through there. By the way which way did you walk through this morning?”
Amy Claire stared straight ahead of her. “Ummmm. . .”
“Ugh. So Ms. Applace didn’t say anything to you about it? Fuck, was I supposed to?! Well, whatever.”
“What happens if you take that passage alone?”
Zoeira sighed. “Dunno, but A lot of people here take it seriously. You heard Rooster singing so you’ll be fine.”
“?”
PB CONVENIENCE 