Remember - ONC 2023

Chapter 8 - Florence Alone

It was morning again. The group didn't know why, and at this point, they were too exhausted by everything that was happening to care. The landscape was as dreary as always, a thick layer of fog enveloping the dead trees and grass, and, as if that wasn't enough, from the heavy grey clouds, rain and snow poured intensely, strengthened by the winds of cold. It looked like a frozen wasteland out there, which fit the atmosphere perfectly. Dark shadows invasively surrounded the figure of Florence, who was sitting opposite all of them, her arms crossed and her eyes black pits of judgment. Before Charles could explain the situation, she raised her hand, forcing them all to remain still.

"I'm tired of all this tomfoolery," she said, releasing a deep sigh. "As if my job isn't hard enough already, you all go out of your way to make matters worse. Why did you have to go to the art gallery last night? This isn't good for either of us, and you should know exactly why it is so."

"Excuse you?!" Nessie yelled, waving her hands in the air. "Are you blind or something?! You saw the portal when you came in, and you walked into that portal with us, and now we're here on not even the same day. Isn't the conclusion you should draw obvious?!"

Florence turned up her nose at her. "I'm tired of your flippant disrespect towards authority figures. I don't know how one can take everything so lightly, even when they're the guilty party here. I wouldn't trust any of you about the portal, especially not you. How do I know that you all didn't summon the portal together, or that there even was a portal? I don't even remember a portal."

Nessie took a deep breath to mellow her rage. "But there was a portal, as you must surely-"

Florence raised her hand again. "Shut up, Kramer. I gave you a chance, but I should have known that you wouldn't say anything smart. I want to speak to somebody else. Miss Idle, what do you have to say about the matter?"

"Me?" Lavinia chirped, meekly raising her head. "Oh, you wouldn't want to hear it. I fully support what she said because I saw the portal clearly. I see many things that you wouldn't understand because you've never experienced them directly, Madam Haze. At least not yet."

"Yeah," said everyone else from the group, except for Henry, who was eerily resembling a doll at the moment.

Florence facepalmed. "Why are you all talking nonsense? This all is beyond my field of understanding. I've never seen a portal. Had I seen one, I would have remembered it for sure."

"Are you sure you don't know about any of this?" said Lavinia, staring at her creepily, placing her hand on her shoulder. "Your aura tells me a different story, Madam Haze. It tells me that you're a liar. You see the eldritch horrors too. They haunt you with the stories they've told you, most notably in your dreams. Oh, they haunt you quite much, just the same as the rest of the damned. You try to escape them, but you never can, not even in your sleep. That's when they strike the most, for when your conscious is at rest, it is the easiest to reap the soul of-"

"No!" Florence screamed mindlessly, pushing her away from herself. "You're delusional! This is an invasion of privacy! Keep your hands away from me, and don't make me look at your creepy face! God, I thought that you were already at your creepiest with your disturbing appearance and attire!"

Despite despising Florence, the group couldn't help but agree with her at the moment. Lavinia really did look creepy. Her hair was scattered all around, her eyes had a maniacal gleam in them, her lips were curled into a twisted smile, her voice had a touch of sweet madness to it, and she was playing with her fingers a lot. It was just what seeing these horrors constantly could do to one's psyche, they supposed. She couldn't have been possessed, or at least they hoped so. However, even after seeing everyone but Henry's discomfort, nothing changed about her behaviour, almost as if she hadn't processed anything, which made sense to them somehow. All of this was so nightmarish.