Headache

My eyes flutter open to the sound of spammed notifications reaching my ear. My face turns into a frown as I automatically assume it's one of my friends attempting to schedule another party. We've barely been out of Quarantine for 2 months and they are already scheduling parties back to back. Do they never get tired of getting hammered? Once I bring myself to check my phone, my heart stops for a moment. In big letters displayed across the top of my lock screen reads; "DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON".

Once I gathered what the text said, calming my breathing I simply shrugged it off as a foolish prank and head back to bed. The night would have ended at that if my roommate didn't burst into my room with oceans of energy. She collapsed her body onto the bed. Yet her aim never quite accurate which explained why she pushed all of 142 pounds of her body onto mine. "Messiah"! She echoed my name across the enclosed walls of my room. I've lived in this two bedroom apartment with Inesmarie since our freshman year of college. So I've become used to this type of odd behavior. I stare at her plainly still collecting my thoughts on why I can't seem to have a peaceful night's sleep. "Oh come on. You can't still be out of it. I literally jumped on you". she sighed. So she jumped on me on purpose. Noted. "What do you want Marie"? I let out in a dry tone still holding on to the last bit of tiredness I had left in my system. "Look at this spooky text I just got". She grins powering on her phone, when she shows me her screen my jaw drops. "You're not funny". I say in joking annoyance. Her face goes from joyful to confused in one blink. "Huh"? She tilts her head and waits for me to continue. "So you sent me that stupid text"? You just exposed yourself dummy". I say letting out a small scoff following with a laugh. I discontinued my laughter once I see that she is still looking at me in confusion. "Now if I was gonna prank you why would I show you the text. What are you talking about"? She furrows her bows at me while sitting criss cross on the edge of my bed. I don't say anything I simply show her my phone."Whoa". she gasps. Before I could gather my thoughts I saw the mischievous grin grow on her face. "No". I demand. As if her ears were plugged, she jumps off my bed and rushes to the window. Before she could open the curtain I tackled her to the ground. "What in God's name is wrong with you"? I scolded her while at the same time admiring her spontaneous behavior. "Dude it's just a text. What's the worse thing that could happen". she scoffed. I furrowed my brows at her wondering what goes on through her head. "I don't care i seems dangerous". I tell her. "Ugh fine. Well I can't sleep now, so come watch a movie with me". she sighs. "What movie"? I ask as I call our dog Jigsaw into the room for what I guess has become movie night.

After about an hour of conversation with Marie talking about nothing we're going to remember tomorrow, we finally decide to watch "The Corpse Bride". I grab the remote out my bedside table and begin to search for the movie through our variety of streaming apps. About 40 minutes into the movie it starts raining. Marie is scared of thunderstorms, so she gets uneasy and we decide to go to the kitchen and make a snack. Are we making quesadillas at 3am on a Tuesday night? Yes, Yes we are. We joke around in the kitchen while our food cooks. Dancing to music and discussing different conspiracy theories we've seen on twitter. Getting so lost in the conversation to the point where our first batch of quesadillas burned. We feed them to Jigsaw and prepared more. Laughin at our failure. Once we finish the quesadillas we headed back upstairs laughing at corny inside jokes that nobody but us would understand. We start the movie back up at the place we left off. I turn the volume up to block out the sound of the storm to calm Maries nerves.

During the final scenes of "The Corpse Bride" a loud lightning strike bursts through our ears. Marie shudders and grabs hold of the first thing she can reach, which just happened to be my head. As I try to pry Marie's frightened fingers from the lids of my eyes, Jigsaw starts barking. Since my vision was being compromised by the quesadilla smellin fingertips of my best friend, I didn't notice Jigsaw running towards the window. Jigsaw ran towards the window barking at the storm, he jumped on the window sill tearing down the New York themed curtains I had hung up. By the time I got Marie's fingers off my eyes, my eyes met the moon. The moon that we weren't supposed to look at under any circumstances. And next thing I know, it all went black.

After what felt like a lifetime I had control of my own vision again. My head was slumped on a hard surface and the air felt hard to breath and hot. I picked up my head and realized the reason why the air was so stubborn was because my only source of oxygen was a little bit of air I had between my arms. I had my head rested on a desk in a classroom? I panicked but my body remains calm. A defense mechanism to fear I suppose. I push my body, sliding out the chair and soon rising from my seat. The only thing I can think of was Marie. That name just kept ringing through my head distracting me from any other thoughts. But I couldn't seem to wrap my head around it. Who is Marie? Why do I keep repeating that name in my head? Yet I don't know who that is? I shrug off my confusion and try to focus on my surroundings. I was in a dimly lit worn down school. The wallpaper was peeling off the corners of the wall. All the desks seemed to be scrapped. And at least a few had writing on them. The writing was a messy and untamed, graffiti like. I couldn't tell what it said, or really cared for that matter. I looked around for an exit and I see the front of the classroom has a door that leads to a hallway I suppose.

I walk towards the door and wrap my hand around the handle. I want to open the door but something is telling me I shouldn't. "Welp" Wouldn't be the first time I ignored my gut. I sigh and twist the handle revealing the hallway. I stop in my tracks at the sight. It was something fresh out of a horror scene. As I stood in the doorway, the smell of dead corpses filled my senses. I gagged at the smell. There were bodies....Everywhere. A genocide, Who could have done something like this? I try to shrug off the scene and continue my search for an exit before I meet the same fate as these students. As I step into the hallway, the floor becomes as thin as breath. I fall through and yet again everything goes BLACK!

I regain my vision again faster this time than before. Unlike the other time the air is easy to breath. Almost too easy. It's clean. The environment smells clean and calm. With subtle suspense I look around and everything seems to make sense. I'm in a courtroom. All my attention is drawn towards the front of the room, where the judge is seated. Where else do you look in a courtroom? Right beside her in the defendants seat is a girl. She looks around my age. Her hair is long and curly. It seems untamed as if she had a hard night. Her clothes are stained and shredded. Everything about her seems uneasy and distraught. I almost felt bad until my eyes met her face. Along her face set a smile. How could a person possibly be smiling in a situation like this. Her grin makes me uneasy and I reach to scratch the back of my neck but my movements were restricted. I looked down to see,,,Handcuffs? Why am I cuffed? What have I done? I get kicked out of my thoughts by the loud thud of the judges gavel. I jump out my thoughts and focus my vision on her. "The defendants Lenora Advance and Inesmarie Gonzales are found guilty for the mass genocide set at the University of Creative Arts". she states. Surprisingly not alarmed that I've been found guilty, the only thing my mind can focus on is the name she just said. Inesmarie, as in Marie. But who is Marie? The name spins around my mind as the police officers raise me from my seat and bring me to exit the courtroom. Right before I take my last step out the courtroom my mind clicks, Marie. "MARIE"! I shout in hopes of hearing her voice in my final seconds of freedom. I see her on the opposite side of he courtroom as her lips part, the door to the courtroom shuts. Cutting off my last connection to my best friend. I panic, this time not reserving my body's composure. I break down and soon......pass out.

I wake up again in a new setting, getting tired of this routine I've been set in. Is this another false reality? There's only one way to find out, I slapped myself quite impulsively. "OUCH"! Nope this one is quite real. Getting to learn my new surroundings yet again, I take it in. Even though there isn't much to take in. Everything is white. Everything. I look around at a fully padded white room. Something they would put a schizophrenic patient in, in movies. I look down and see myself in a suit that matches the same color scheme as the room. Only difference is, my arms are restricted. Am I in a straight jacket? What in the world is going on? I mumbled to myself. It feels nice to finally hear something in the eerily quiet padded room, even though it was the sound of my own voice. The only thing that opposes the white is a small window in the door in front of me. It's black. Not black as if it was just painted weird. Black as if it was being covered. The longer I stare, I get lost in the little black box. Collecting my thoughts, it gave me quite a headache. Luck seemed to be on my side though, because I was torn from my thoughts by the lifting of whatever material that was covering the small window. I see a woman with straight hair and dark squared glasses sitting above the bridge of her nose. She speaks, her voice travels through the several thin holes in the window that I didn't notice until now. She speaks again since I wasn't listening the first time. "Lenora, It's Dr. Moon, Are you hungry"?

My granddaughter wrote this story. She is fifteen years old and she wants me to ask if you understand the cycle/final meaning of the story. Text me with your response. Let me know if you liked it. Please to feel free to tip $1 in keeping the stories going. Thank you and Happy Reading. 😁 Email: [email protected]

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