I Am Her - ONC 2024

Chapter 5 - A Lonely Street

For a moment, there was nothing but darkness. The room was permeated with coldness and silence that made every second feel eternal, almost as if they were all frozen in time, on the tip of their toes as they waited for something, anything, to happen.

It happened soon enough. The silence was broken by an ear-piercing scream that made everyone, especially Angela, cover their ears. They were all disturbed by the noise, but she was the one who recognized the voice.

Don't do this, please... she wept in the deepest crevices of her mind, closing her eyes intensely. Don't punish me...

She then proceeded to be shoved to the ground, releasing a slight cry of pain. She was in no way a crybaby, but she wasn't used to fights, and it showed as she struggled to get up. She looked around for some kind of explanation, it being the only tactic she was sure of, but the ghost still wailed, and the faces of the Jenkins family were still grave as tombstones.

"You were not true to your oath," the Mayor said coldly shortly after, and she soon realised why it was so, for it was pretty obvious. From her mind came the image of a stalking phantom whose eyes were stained with tears and whose dress was stained with blood, and whose frail right hand held a bouquet of red roses that Angela had plucked for her.

The roses never reached her... This is not real. It's a projection of my subconscious, a waking nightmare.

"Silence it," the Mayor growled as the apparition kept screaming. "You're the only one who can. If you don't do anything, she will never go away."

"What is going on?!" Marissa cried out, throwing her hands in the air.

"I would like to know that as well," the Mayor said in a booming voice, turning to face Angela with nothing but hatred in his cold blue eyes.

Why are you here? Go away, Angela thought, trying to send the thought to the projection of Cristina, but she seemed not to have heard her. In fact, she didn't say anything at all.

Please say something, Angela thought as she tried desperately to hold back a scream, but all she was able to get out of her was incoherent babble.

She stood in place and looked around insecurely like a student taking an especially difficult oral exam, but nothing came. Soon, everything seemed to disappear. The surroundings, as well as the people around her, swiftly vanished, replaced by a void where there was no concept of space or time. Only she and Cristina remained, hanging in the air, the former like a puppet and the latter like a leaf blown by the wind, helpless against the tyrannical whims of a constantly shifting reality. Red and black roses filled the darkness, forming walls that echoed screams of wrath and woe, pulling Angela's wriggling body in, instantly overwhelming her brain with memories that came in the form of images flashing through her mind all at once.

The flowershop where they first met, which had a cute pastel aesthetic and was full of all kinds of flowers. Their subsequent friendly encounters at concerts, in cafes, at clubs, mostly at clubs. Their increasing meetings and lengthy conversations over cups of black coffee or intense dancing after numerous glasses of wine. Their carefully cultivated bond that blossomed like an ivy over many years, eventually leading Cristina towards Angela's bed, where she felt like she never had before, and where even Angela, with her many old lovers, felt like she never had before in her own way. Their decision to share their life together 'til Death do them part. 'Til Death do them part...

It's really haunting how life can pave way for death so easily...

She loved Cristina with her whole soul, more than she ever could have imagined. She loved her pleasant face and silky voice and gentle shoulders that were perfect to lean on and unceasing support during her numerous endeavours which still did not undermine her shining personality and everything else. She could not love her at all times, but she still loved her most of the time and did so earnestly, in spite of their arguments and flaws. However, they both, especially her, had many problems, and the biggest of them all was whether she had loved her enough and whether she was the right partner for her and whether she was a bad-