The Mystery That is Lauren

As Chris is lost in memory of his last day with Lauren, he remembers the details of that day such as his feelings of joy, riding in the car and the feeling of the sun on his face and the smell of Laurens car. As he lays on his bed playing with the old, gold necklace with a spinning heart pendant that Lauren gave him for his birthday. He gets a whiff of Laurens hair. Suddenly he is in a unfamiliar place that he does not recognize. As he looks around, he notices a sweatshirt Lauren always wears laying on the ground.

The more he looks around and tries to touch objects near him, he discovers he is unable to touch anything. Confused Chris says, “what the hell?”, when all of a sudden in walks Lauren. Still as beautiful as the last time he saw her. By the look on her face he can tell something is wrong, “Hey!” Chris says out of excitement “What is wrong?” he continues. Only to learn he cannot be seen nor heard.

Lauren riffles through some bags then leaves again. Chris follows her to an old, condemned building. Lauren looks around like she is waiting for someone, when suddenly a dark figure appears behind her and removes her soul. In momentary shock, Chris charges the figure only to go right through them. He then proceeds to try and see their face and with no luck the figure disappears. All he is able to do is sit with Lauren and her body.

After the figure disappears, Chris sits there next to Lauren’s lifeless body. After some time, Chris gets up and returns to the place he first saw where Lauren was staying. The place had been tossed and is in disarray. “What happened here? What were they looking for?” Chris thought to himself as he looked around the baren room. As a nervous tick, Chris started playing with the necklace again and suddenly he is back in his room. He spends the night crying and sleepless after just seeing what happened to Lauren.

The next day, Chris wants to go to the place where Lauren died. Knowing he couldn’t due to not knowing where that was, Chris got frustrated. He tries playing with the necklace, hoping it would take him back so he could look around and figure out exactly where it was, but nothing happened. The rest of the day, Chris spent held up in his room remembering and drawing the building where Lauren was murdered and continuously drawing the dark figure that attacked her.

Later that day, Chris decides to shower. Standing in the shower with the water running off, he can’t stop seeing that moment when Lauren got stabbed. As he was drying off and put on his underwear, he readjusts the necklace. Next thing he knows he is back in the tossed room with all of Lauren’s things except this time it was different. Still unable to touch anything, Chris notices that time had passed, and it must be what the room looks like currently everything dusty and faded.

Chris decides to look around the town and try to figure out where the hell this all happened. The more he explored the faster he realized there are no signs. Not a single street sign nor a sign that would hint to the name of the town. “What kind of town is this?” Chris thought as he walked the streets passing by the mundane people of the town vacant of thought and expressionless yet peaceful.

As Chris turns a corner, he sees a little shop with stones and trinkets. Something pulls him to it and once inside, a sweet friendly voice says “Welcome in, feel free to take a look around”. As Chris browsed the little shop a lady approaches him, “Well hello stranger, haven’t seen you around here before”. This took Chris by surprise, “Y- you can see me?” he says as the lady approaches. Laughing the lady says, “Of course I can silly”. The lady looks at the necklace and says, “Oh you know Lauren? How is she?”.

Chris tears up and says, “She is dead, how did you know her?”. Shaken, the lady says “Oh dear, I feared something bad had happened, I was the one who sold her that necklace you are wearing years ago”. Chris grabs the necklace and holds it. “Lauren said it was for someone special” the lady says as she places her hand on Chris’s shoulder. “I neglected to warn her about the necklace though” the lady says in a melancholy tone.

“What the hell does that mean?” Chris says demandingly. The lady locks the store door and takes Chris to the back of the store, as they sit down she says, “many years ago a box with spiritually charged items arrived at my door as a donation, and as I unpackaged that necklace a dark energy started being felt around my store”. Intrigued Chris looks at her and says “Continue, please”. The lady takes a deep breath and continues “the more I researched that necklace I found that it belonged to someone who cursed it with his ashes in the sealed heart locket”.

“Supposedly the one who wears it absorbs the soul of a loved one that has passed, and it allows the wearer to see the ones who soul is in its last moments” she says as Chris starts to squirm in his chair. “What do you mean its cursed? How am I here? Why are you the only one that can see me?” Chris starts to question. This is all too much, this sends Chris into a spiral, his heart starts to race, he starts breathing heavy and as his eyes roll back, he passes out.

When Chris comes to, he is laying on a lounger upstairs from the shop. The shop owner comes over with a wet rag and a glass of water, “Are you ok dear?” she asks while pressing the rag to Chris’s forehead. “Wha- what happened?” Chris says groggily. “You had a fainting spell dear, but I kept watch over you and you are going to be just fine” the lady says rubbing his head. “Have I asked your name? I do not remember” Chris says as he sits up. “My name is Misty, and while you had not asked previous the necklace does affect one’s memory” Misty says as she stands up to put the rag in the sink.

Chris feels for the necklace and lets out a sigh of relief when he feels it. Suddenly he is back home, but for the first time he has a thought other than Lauren. Knowing it was not talked about, this puzzled Chris because he now knows where to find Misty’s shop. He quickly showers then heads out to on the adventure of going back to Misty’s store and getting more information. The trip takes two days and once he arrives in the town, he goes in search of Misty hoping she may have an idea as to where Lauren was staying.

When Chris arrives at what would be the shop, he discovers an old empty storefront. Confused he goes for a walk, as he passes a building with a some lofts above the shops he gets this strong feeling of Lauren’s presence. As he approaches a door the feeling gets stronger so he opens the door and enters. Once inside, he sees the tossed room he was in prior to finding the town. Chris starts going through some of the stuff to try and find clues as to what Lauren was looking for the day she died.

Chris unzips a bag that was tucked away under the bed, only to discover its filled with gifts he had given Lauren since they met back in high school. Under the gifts is a journal, as Chris flips through it he discovers that it is filled with Lauren’s memories of them, and it describes how in love with him she was. The second to last page that was filled out is a letter Lauren wrote to Chris but had never sent it. The more Chris reads of it he starts crying, realizing how oblivious he had been to how much she loved him. At the end of the letter, Chris wipes his tears and says, “I love you too Lauren”.

As Chris closes the journal a paper with a hand drawn map falls out. After picking it up and examining the map for a moment, Chris sees that it is a map from where he was leading to a building a few blocks away. Chris sets out to find the building in hopes of it leading him to Lauren’s body. Along the short path Chris starts feeling his anxiety rise, his heart starts racing, breathing becomes unsteady and just before he felt himself lose control he grabs ahold of the necklace. He thinks of Lauren, and it starts to recenter him, grounding him back to reality as he sits on a curb.

Chris unfolds the map and sees the building is just across the street, so he regroups and heads towards the abandoned building. At the entrance Chris tries the door but it is locked. So he goes around the side of the building and finds a window where the board that is covering it is loose, Chris climbs through the window and starts to look around. A smell one does not easily forget starts filling the air and only grows stronger as he approaches a closed door.

The moment he opens the door, Chris instantly gets sick to his stomach and after throwing up, he gazes in the room and from the little light that was coming in through a gap in the wall he sees Lauren’s body. Undisturbed and laying right where he last saw her. overtaken by emotions, Chris falls to the ground in tears. He sits there a few moments before getting up and going outside. As he crawls back through the window and catches a breath of fresh air, Chris decides to call an anonymous tip to the police. Back at Lauren’s loft, Chris can hear the sirens in the distance as he gathered up the bag that was under her bed. Suddenly he felt a vibrating on his chest, as he reached for the necklace, he realized it was not his anxiety but the pendant itself. In a panic Chris takes off the necklace and places it on the bedside table.

Once on the table the heart pendant lit up and disintegrated. A sense of peace slowly came over Chris and an understanding of now that now that Laurens body has been found and will finally be at peace has freed her and broken the curse. With that Chris picks up the bag and leaves the loft and as he drives away he says a final goodbye to Lauren and thanks her for loving him.