Remember - ONC 2023

Chapter 5 - Journey To The Past

Soon enough, they were outside of the asylum, but they still didn't know where they were. However, before they could find sufficient time to worry about that, they had to get on their feet quickly. The travel had made them more than a little weary, but there was no time to think about that. Anything could happen at any time, and they didn't have even the slightest control over it.

After that was done, which was pretty soon, Charles noticed something quite odd. They were in his street, which he would always recognise due to the sheer dullness and misery of their surroundings. A moment later, he also noticed that they were not only in his street but right in front of his house as well. A chill went up his spine as the nearby mist enshrouded everything in sight.

He could stand there and wonder why any of this was happening for hours, but he knew very well that it wouldn't have been of any help. Noticing that everyone else but Henry was afraid, he, despite being rather afraid himself, decided not to show it. He curled his hands into fists and marched into his residence with an expression of unwavering determination. It clearly worked, for the others soon followed right behind him.

Henry was the last to enter, merely because he didn't walk very fast due to his old age. He stretched out his feeble right hand to close the door, but it slammed itself as soon as he did that. Thinking nothing of it, he kept walking slowly, and to the others, although they were momentarily unnerved, there were much more pressing issues than strange doors.

One jumped right in their face the instant they entered the dining room. The mist began creeping towards them from the outside, doing so with the help of the doors and windows that all suddenly opened themselves at the same time, also forcing the harsh winds of cold upon their exhausted bodies, making them intensely wrap their hands around their figures.

The dining room was illuminated by an eerie purple light about whose origins they also had no idea, appearing to be completely and utterly empty despite the presence of a starkly black silhouette in every chair. Charles made his way towards one of the silhouettes, waving right in its face, observing every facet of it for an answer, which didn't come to him despite all his efforts, seeming as if it never would come. Every atom within him consumed by frustration, he let out a deep sigh, at which the silhouette moved towards him, causing the chair to creak. He flinched so suddenly that he fell right onto the floor, shuddering for a few seconds before he gathered the courage to get up again.

While he was getting up, Edna stretched out her right hand towards him. "Charles, are you alright? Do you need some help?"

"No," he said sternly, jumping from the ground, thus returning to his former position. "It's nothing that I can't handle on my own, thanks."

"I was just asking," she whispered, taking a few steps back.

Before they could do anything else, the house shook for an entire minute, the same eerie purple light from before flickering aggressively, disorienting them completely. They were back to normal once it ended, but everything in the dining room was now entirely different.

The purple light had become brighter, softly illuminating the dining room that otherwise didn't have anything strange about it, or so it seemed at the first glance. It, especially the table, stretched on for eternity, housing an enormous amount of tall black chairs that were somehow all filled, on them sitting guests who had hardly anything to eat on their plates and only slightly more to drink in their tall and fancy glasses, them being merely half-filled with red wine. These glasses were elegantly held by all the guests, who were subtly clanging them while laughing amidst a conversation in which the words couldn't be made out by anyone else. It was because the words echoed off the walls at an achingly slow pace, giving a suffocating air of surrealness to the conversation. Luckily, it didn't last too long, for when they seated themselves by the table, everything was perfectly understandable. At least when it came to speech.