That was fun.

Like, real, teenage tomfoolery fun. Not that she didn’t have other friends, but Lewis was kind of a party pooper when it came to these things. It’s kind of hard to get down when your plus one is scribbling codes into a notebook all the time.

It was another Sunday when they met at June’s apartment, minus Sam, who was excused due to a ‘family bonding’ roadtrip. The usual meeting space, the library, was under renovation, and the Sanchez residency was occupied by her grandparents weekly bridge game, and Lewis- Well. Eden had known Lewis long enough to know there was a reason why he always stayed the night.

So June’s place it was.

It was an empty, plain looking sort of apartment block. Her apartment, 036, was on the outside, identical to it’s neighbours save a worn down welcome mat and a box of poorly attended to potplants. The small interior, was neat and clean, and just as void of personality.

As Eden walked down the narrow hallway, she saw the photos on the wall were the stock images that come with the frame. A single, sunlit orange tulip , a fisherman smiling as he hauled a net. No June. No one that looked anything remotely like June. Looking back down the hall now, she caught a glimpse of the shoe rack. There were three pairs sitting there. Two of them were hers and Lewis’.

“Ah, sorry guys, I didn’t clean.” Eden flushed a little at the state of her living room. It didn’t look half bad to Eden, just a few takeout boxes here and there, but then again, she lived with kids. Everything was a mess with them.

Still, there was a pressing feeling on her chest. A sense of unease, the kind you get in the split second you slip off a step, and you’re in the air, falling, panicking.

She couldn’t tell what it was exactly, the emptiness of the home? The quietness? No. That wasn’t it. She had been to Lewis’s house plenty of times, and it was far more hollow; All she had felt then was sadness.

Her head swam like a fever.

The pressing feeling kept on. Tightening around her chest.

“It’s fine.” assured Lewis. June let out a small smile, and they sat down at her coffee table. Sam didn’t let them take the Rosewood notebook, so it was just a general discussion.

Eden didn’t say a word. The tightening pressed on; And now her head hurt. Like a skull splitting kind of hurt. Her ears rang.

This place… She squinted, eyes darting about the place. As she blinked, the room swam in colours, from the blue of June’s wallpaper,to something else. A sepia sort of colour ,the kind they painted houses with in the sixties. She watched the window go from the bright, glowing pane of summer su that it was, to a frosted square, where the rain poured gloomy outside. Blink. Blink. It went from summer to winter with each bat of her eye. Something burned in her chest. She remembered this place from somewhere.

But why…? It was like making a face out of an old photo. Something was familiar, so familiar, it was practically screaming to be recognised, but she couldn’t put a name on even the feeling of it.

“Have I-” she cut across whatever Lewis and June had been discussing, frowning, rubbing here temples. The room was still bleeding different colours, ink from a tie dye.

“Have I been here before?”

The other two were frozen. Slowly, June shook her head. Eden watched the sheet of her black hair swing side to side, hypnotising as a pendulum. Her eyes were wide as saucers, and at any other moment, Eden would have laughed.

“No- No I’ve-” she struggled to speak now, the ringing in her ears an incessant hum, “I recognise this place. I’ve been here before-”

And then she stopped dead.

“Eden… Are you ok?” whispered Lewis.

There was no reply. The room was now dead silent. The colours had stopped bleeding in and out, her migraine had all of a sudden ceased.

Eden clenched her fists.

Just behind Lewis and June, sulking by the kitchen, was a boy. He looked a little younger than Sam. But not much. His head stooped low, so she could not see his face for the mop of black hair that covered his features like a veil. In trousers and a dress shirt, he looked as if he were something out of a picture book, only he stood, real as anything.

He said nothing. He made no noise.

“Who is he?” she whispered.

“Who?” Lewis and June turned together to look at where Eden was staring.

“Eden, who are you talking about?” June’s voice quavered with panic now, “Eden. There’s no one there.”

Eden looked harder. But he was still there. She cast her eyes to the ground.

Even with the sun streaming through the window, he had no shadow.

Her eyes slowly cast upwards now. He looked up. The hair swept off his face.

He looked like a completely normal little boy. Except half of his face was red with fresh, disfiguring burns. And he was frowning.

For the first time in years, Eden scrambled up, off the floor, and screamed until her lungs could no longer hold.

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Sorry Eden, haha, a lot of shitty things are happening to you rn. Don't worry, everyone else gets a turn too :)

I have tests next week, so I might not be able to update, but I've decided I'll try for one to two updates a week from now on.

Leave a like if you liked it, and a comment if you feel like being extra nice. Bye~