CHAPTER NINETEEN

19

Danny got up, patted off his black joggers, and held out his hand to help me up. “C’mon Brownie, we only have three hours to get out of here and we can’t waste it crying out here, we have to go through another door before time runs out.” I sniffled and grabbed it.

“Okay,” I said.

We walked near another door, hopefully, our last one. “Let’s see what other kind of insane dimension we’re about to go in,” I said under my breath.

We walked through the door.

It was our home town, Oglethorpe County. 

But it was completely destroyed. Most of the buildings were gray and burnt down all throughout Downtown Lexington. Buildings abandoned, windows boarded up. Our whole town was tenebrific. It was awful. I looked up at Danny with despair in my eyes. 

No. I thought. “Oh, my god . . .” I whispered, distraught.

Danny looked at me with a glint of hope in his eyes and held onto my hand, “None of this is real, Brownie. This isn’t our home town, it can’t be.” I looked at him and nodded.

We walked around the dystopian town, hoping to see at least one building intact. The bell from the courthouse was on the ground and the courthouse itself was in pieces. What happened here? I thought, Was this place bombed?

Danny and I continued to walk around hand-in-hand. We walked up the empty deserted road into Crawford and walked all the way to the REC department.

I paused and my breath caught in my throat as I laid eyes on him. Thomas. An old boyfriend I haven't seen in forever. Someone I once loved, someone I took a whole friggin’ year to get over, someone who broke my heart. His naturally narrowed dark green eyes, his almond-colored skin, that devilish smile he used to smile when he looked at me. Please don't see me, please don't see me, I silently prayed. He was standing against the burnt down gym in the rec department. One foot kicked back, pressed against what was left of the wall.

Talking to Thomas, hearing his voice, or even seeing him brought back old memories, painful bittersweet memories. I dropped Danny’s hand, forgetting he was even there. I looked away from Thomas and pulled up my hood on my hoodie and started walking faster. Doing anything I could to get away, trying to not open that old wound, trying to avoid the painful awkwardness. I never got closure with him. After our break up all those years ago, we haven't talked since. I've forgotten about it since then, and I know Johnny's death had nothing to do with me, but for some reason, I'd always felt like it was my fault.

"Phoenix! Is that you?" Thomas called out. Crap, he saw me. I froze, not knowing whether to run or just stand there frozen. This could be another trick, I thought to myself, Yeah, an emotionally manipulative room, I attempted to convince myself. 

I decided to not give in to my mind and go with it. I sighed deeply and turned around to face him. All six feet of him. I watched him as he walked over to me. I looked up at him and smiled awkwardly, trying to mask my pain.

"Hey, Nix," he said, looking down at me. He was the only one who ever called me "Nix". After we broke up, I didn't let anyone else call me that.

"Hey," I struggled to get out. It felt like someone was sitting on my windpipe. My heart was in my stomach, could this get any worse?

"You enjoying this haunted house?" He asked casually like it was a normal haunted house.

"No," I looked at him with confusion and anger written all over my face, "what do you mean, 'Am I enjoying it?' OF COURSE, I'M NOT ENJOYING IT! THIS PLACE, THESE 'CREATORS'," I held up my hands and air quoted "creators", "ARE INSANE!" I lashed out. I don't even know where that came from, but it felt . . . good. Relieving actually.

"Chill! Why you so wound up?" He asked, perplexed, and threw up his hands in an "I didn't do it" motion.

I looked at him with instant regret, "I don't know, T. I'm sorry, It's just this place, it's so . . ." my voice trailed off as I looked at my shoes. I looked up at him with nothing but sadness and fear in my eyes, "You 'member Lizzy?"

He nodded.

"Well, apparently, she like, broke into this haunted house and 'contaminated' it like she has some kind of evil power that's taken over the house, actually making it, well, haunted."

His brows furrowed, "Wait, how? Didn't she die in a car accident a couple of years ago?”

My eyes grew wide. Wait, whaaat? "But, I swear I literally just saw her!"

"Couldn’t have," he was staring at me intensely, "I saw something on Insta a few months ago from Lisa and her gang saying things like, 'R.I.P. Lizzy; hope you rest peacefully.' and stuff like that. It was so sad, she was only nineteen. Made me think a whole lot about my brother," I looked at him agitated that he didn't know the truth, the fact that he didn't know that she had his brother killed when he was only sixteen. 

"Oh, Thomas . . ." I stared up at him, missing that look he used to give me. Trying to figure out if I should tell him or not.

Danny walked up from behind me. "What's up, Thomas?" He asked.

They did a "bro handshake" with the hand-clapping and hugging and all that, which made me kind of uncomfortable. I stood there awkwardly with my hoodie over my head, hiding my sandy hair. Danny pulled my hood off of my head, revealing my hat hair. I quickly smoothed it out with my hand and looked up at the both of them while they conversed like they weren't in an actual haunted house.

Thomas looked over at me and asked Danny a question. I couldn’t hear what he was saying�"okay, I just wasn’t really listening. But we were at least seven feet away from each other because as soon as Danny and Thomas started talking, I started to wander off, exploring this sick, burn down, abandoned town dimension.

"So, uh, Thomas," I yelled a little so he could hear me.

"Yeah, Nix?"

"How many rooms have you been in?" I asked and looked over to get his response.

"This is my first one," He beamed. God, I missed that smile, "Why?"

"Oh, nothing, never mind, no reason."

"Mmmk," He hummed. Wow, he’s changed so much since high school, he used to never let me get away with a “never mind”.

I continued to walk around our "destroyed home town", I can't let myself believe that I'm out, not just yet. Besides, this version of our hometown is a lot different, this version is very close together, the rec department was like a few miles away from our old school but here, they’re placed very close together, odd.

I looked over at Thomas and tilted my head to the side a little, the way a confused dog would. Did he look different? His stubble was a little more visible than it was in high school, but that’s no different. His curly chestnut brown hair looked the same, his forest green eyes looked no different, he didn't grow any taller, he still looked two inches shorter than Danny. What was it? I had to hold myself back from, well, myself. I wanted to interrogate the heck out of him, make sure this wasn't like what it was with "messenger boy Danny". But that would be weird, right? I haven't talked to this guy since high school, sure we exchanged a few words earlier, but that was just small talk. I can't just bombard him with a million questions. 

I continued to walk, and I saw our old school, thought back to the memories, and just remembered: I have to find Lizzy, and I don't have much time left. I walked back over to Danny, whose back was turned to me, but I didn’t see Thomas near him anymore, "Hey," I tapped his back, "How much time do we have left, where’s Thomas?"

He turned around. It wasn't Danny. "Huh? Do I know you?" The unfamiliar person asked.

"Oh, crap, I'm sorry, I thought you were my friend Danny," I apologized, backed up, walked away quickly, and rubbed the back of my head. Oops. Then it occurred to me: how was I so popular in high school? I never really noticed how shy I was until now, Jeez.

I walked back to the destroyed gym and saw no one there. I slumped my shoulders and said, “You have got to be kidding me.”

“DANIEL! YOU CAN’T KEEP LEAVING ME LIKE THIS! DANIEL KEVIN MICHAELS!” I shrieked. Anger started to course through my veins, I’d lost him for the umpteenth time, nag dabbit, I thought, “Where’d they go? Where did Thomas take him?! We don’t have time for this!” I muttered angrily to myself. 

I walked around hoping to find Daniel before it became too late. I wasn’t going to run out of time like Olive did, no, I was not going to make the same mistake. I’m getting out of here, with Danny and Thomas, whether they liked it or not.