Floating in the Abyss ✔️

Chapter 53

"Woah." I gasped as I walked in. The building was huge, just like the hotel we stayed in before flying here. There were fancy stands with glasses and mirrors everywhere, each placed strategically so you could always see a full display.

"Hi, can I help you?" A guy asked from a nearby desk.

"Just going to see our Dad. Chris Hughes." Nick told him gruffly.

"Down the hall and first on your left."

"Thankyou." I told him, seeing as Nick wasn't going to do it. Nick seemed to know where we were going so I just followed him, looking around. It was kind of scary as you disappeared from the front area, making it down hallways, lined with matching doors, each numbered in the hundreds. I wondered if there were offices that started at number 1.

Nick knocked on the door labelled Chris Hughes. He didn't have a number. Disappointing.

"Come in." Dad said, using his 'work' voice. He sounded very professional. "Hey Nick, hey Ash." He smiled upon seeing us.

"Hey, I'm just dropping Ash off."

"Mum didn't want to come?" He asked.

"We went for a drive, so she said it was easiest if I just dropped her here."

"Ah, all good." Dad nodded.

Nick said his goodbyes and disappeared back into the scary hallway.

"You ready Ash?"

"No." I shook my head, being completely honest. His office was dark and most of it was black. There was a scary chair on one side of the room, facing a big screen. I didn't want to sit in the chair. The room was too dark, too small, too...painful. My heart rate quickened, and my breathing became short and desperate.

"It's okay, Ash. Look at me, big deep breaths kiddo, you're alright." He held my hand and let me squeeze it tight. He led me to sit in his seat whilst opening the door. That was better. More light, more space.

I laid there in the dark. The room was quiet, small and pitch black. The only light I had was that under the door crack. I struggled for air as I felt my chest closing. Although the room had no light, slowly, it somehow became even darker, until there was nothing left. I drifted into a panicked state of unconsciousness.

"Ash, princess, it's okay." I began to calm down, coming back to reality, but I still wasn't fully comfortable. "Here, drink this." He told me, passing me a water bottle.

"I'm okay." I told him, once I felt I'd calmed down. This had become my standard line after every panic attack. It was more for me to reassure myself I was fine, rather than anyone else.

"You sure?" He checked, concerned. I nodded. "Do you want to sit here. I can't turn the lights on yet because we have to do it in this light."

"Can you hold my hand?" I whispered to him.

"Of course, honey. So let's just sit here and you're going to look at the screen." The screen had letters on it, but they were too blurry to read from this distance. "Can you put these on for me?" He handed me a pair of really weird glasses. I giggled as I put them on. "I'm going to switch the lenses in these, and you've got to tell me if it's better, worse or the same."

"What's better or worse?"

"If it's clearer."

"Oh, okay." We started and I kept repeating myself. "Same. Same. Same. Bit better. Better. Better. Woah." This lens made the screen entirely clear. We repeated the process and I got to say worse a few times. Some lenses hurt my eyes, some made it clearer and others did nothing.

"Now read out the letters with this one on." He gave a lens that made the letters clear, and I read them out with ease.

I finally got to take the weird glasses off and I had to look at a book. They were really confusing because there were lots of dots, however some were in different colours. I had to read the numbers out that were hidden in the picture.

"Well you're definitely not colour blind." Dad smiled. "Feeling up for one more test?" He asked me.

"Okay."

"You'll need to look close up at this machine. I'll tell you what to do as you do it. It's not going to hurt or touch your eyes or anything. It might feel a bit weird because it'll flash with a lot of light. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but you will need to do it at some point."

"I'll try." I told him.

"Good girl." He smiled. The machine was really weird, and I felt so uncomfortable doing it, but thankfully it didn't take very long. "All done, Ash." I sighed with relief. "Should we go look at some glasses?"

"I need glasses?"

"Yeah. For reading and for seeing in the distance. I'll explain it all to you later." We went down the long, scary hall, me keeping close to him, and started to look at glasses. I didn't like most of the pairs I tried on, but after I while I got used to it.

"Dad, I like these." I said, calling him over to where I was standing, holding up a nice pair. They were black on the outside but had a light pink inside.

"They're very pretty." He told me. We agreed on getting those, and he told me I'd be able to use them in about a week, since I needed to get the prescription lenses put in. They'd be delivered whilst he was away.

He paid, then left me to look at other glasses for a few minutes whilst he grabbed his bag from his office.

"Let's go kiddo. I think we're going to meet your brother's girlfriend." He laughed. I followed him outside and into his car.

"Do you think she'll be nice?" I asked, semi thinking aloud.

"I hope so. Jonah will sure know about it if she's not." He winked at me. "Nana and Grandpa are coming over for dinner tomorrow too."

"Really?" I asked. That was exciting.

"Yeah. Just a warning, you probably won't be able to get away from them." He chuckled. "They've been at us to come over since the day you got here. We just thought it was best to wait." I understood that. Things might not have gone the way they went.

Let me know what you think!

I've been back at school for about a week and I forgot how long school days were. That's all I have to say.

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