The morning didn't feel like morning. It felt as if the town had swallowed the sun and held it hostage. The streets were as quiet as they had been the night before, but now there was a coldness to the silence that made my skin crawl. A suffocating feeling pressed down on me, and I couldn't shake the sense that something was coming, something that would rip everything wide open.
I stood at the foot of the stairs, my hand gripping the railing. I had barely slept, haunted by Amelia's words and the relentless pull of the visions. The air in the bar had been thick with dread; I could almost feel it wrapping around me again. My mind spiraled, the memory of her words, "You're going to become the town's problem"-looping endlessly in my head.
I wasn't sure if I should take it as a warning or a threat, but either way, her words stayed with me like an open wound. I wasn't ready for what was coming, but then I remembered something. I had Audrey's newspaper, and it was the only thing that might guide me through this madness.
I pulled it out and started scanning the pages, reading between the lines. And then I found it, a tragedy. A girl named Maeve had ended her life years ago, a victim of the constant chatter that clung to Everbrook. The article painted a picture of someone haunted by memories, unable to escape the weight of the town's eyes. Despite all the efforts, Maeve had fallen deeper into despair until all roads led to that final, tragic decision.
The shock hit me like a physical blow, and I nearly cried. But I forced myself to focus, to keep it together. Something in me wouldn't let me quit. I held my hand out, just like I had before, and focused on Maeve's image in the paper. Suddenly, the world shifted, and I was pulled from my seat. The scene in front of me blurred, and I was no longer sitting in the living room. I was there, with Maeve, standing in the town square surrounded by whispers and echoes of people's emotions.
She walked past, her eyes lost in thought, the weight of the world on her shoulders. It was like I was standing in her memory, watching it unfold. The threads of her sorrow were so thick they nearly choked the air around me.
But then something shifted. As Maeve's gaze swept across the square, her eyes landed on me, and for a split second, they widened in recognition. A flicker of guilt crossed her face, so brief I almost missed it, before her expression hardened. She knew me. She knew who I was.
I froze, confusion and disbelief washing over me. How could she know me? I had never met her before, at least, not that I could remember. The thought nagged at me as I tried to process what it meant.
I tried to approach her, unsure of what to say, terrified of messing this up. I couldn't help her if I didn't know how to reach her.
"Hey," I called, my voice trembling. "I'm new around here. I saw you were upset the other day. Mind if I ask why?"
She stopped, her face hardening as she looked at me. Her voice was low, filled with a warning I could feel deep in my chest. "So, you're new here? You need to leave. They'll do to you what they did to me."
My heart skipped a beat. I could feel the fear radiating off of her, the desperate energy of someone who knew far too well what this town could do.
"What happened to you, Maeve?" I asked, stepping closer, trying to offer comfort.
Her eyes flicked to the ground, and I saw the threads of resignation weaving through her emotions. "Something they don't want to tell you. They're not what they seem. They stay together and pick apart anyone new. It's like a hitlist."
"What do you mean, a hitlist?" I asked, confused.
She shook her head, her voice soft but final. "A hitlist for anyone who tries to fix what's broken. I didn't have what you have, but it's not fixable. It never will be."
I could feel the weight of her words, but I refused to accept them. "Anything is fixable, Maeve. I will make it that way."
She didn't respond, only staring ahead. "Try your best. Nothing will fix the sinking ship known as Everbrook. Not you, not anyone. We've been waiting for this festival, for ages. It's a false prophecy."
"If anyone can, I will. Even if I die trying," I said, my voice trembling but strong.
She looked at me one last time, a mix of sadness and disbelief in her eyes. "It's worth your time
to leave. Nobody here is what they seem... at least most of them aren't."
And then, with a final shake of her head, she turned and began to walk away, her figure fading with each step.
"Wait, please." I reached out, but she didn't stop. "Please don't go, Maeve. Your story isn't over yet!"
The world around me grew colder, and I felt the pull of the memory fading. Storms began to roll in, the threads of energy becoming violent and uncontrollable. I felt myself being pulled back to the present, the image of Maeve disappearing before me.
I gasped, my hand shooting out as I tried to anchor myself to the now.
When I opened my eyes, I was back in my living room, shaking. My chest ached, the emotional depth of Maeve's pain suffocating me. Tears streamed down my face as I sobbed uncontrollably, unable to hold it in.
I put my hand over my mouth, trying to silence the sound, but it came out anyway, loud and raw. "If I can't fix this town... nobody can." The words escaped through the cracks in my resolve, and with them came a promise I wasn't sure I could keep. But I would try. For Maeve. For the town. For me.
I wiped my eyes, the tears still fresh on my face as the last remnants of Maeve's vision faded. The weight of her words crushed my spirit, as if someone had taken a dagger and stabbed my heart.
Her warning still echoed in my mind.
"Nothing will fix the sinking ship known as Everbrook. Not you, not anyone."
I clenched my fists, the anger rising in me. She couldn't say this. How could she give up on
everything like that? I don't have all of the answers, but I knew one thing for sure, this town wasn't going to defeat me. Not yet.
The storm outside seemed to reflect my inner turmoil as the vision came to a close. It mirrored my present versus her past, where it had been bright and all seemed okay, but eerily cold. It felt as if the town was trying to push me away, but there was no going back now. I had seen too much, felt too much. The threads surrounding this place, their emotional baggage. I was only their next victim.
I took a deep breath, feeling the cold air from the open window brush against my face, grounding myself. My thoughts turned to Audrey. What did she know about all of this? I needed to meet her again. She might not have the answers, but maybe together we could come to some conclusion. What if she knew Maeve? This all seemed like it could piece together like a puzzle. We could figure out a way to stop whatever was going to happen.
I quickly got up, grabbed my jacket, and headed for the door. My heart pounded as I stepped outside into the cold again. The town still felt off, the streets empty, as though the world had gone still, waiting for something to happen. Yet beneath everything, there was an undeniable sense of impending change. I couldn't explain it, but it felt like it could happen to me at any moment. The static in the air was palpable, like a storm was about to break. My mind raced with endless possibilities. Maeve had said that the people weren't what they seemed, that they stuck together, forming an unspoken bond. But what if it was more than some broken-downtown? What if there was something darker at play? Something more sinister than I could imagine.
The walk to the record store felt like it took ages. The closer I got, the more the threads seemed to tighten around me. Each step felt heavier, like I was breaking the barrier of time itself. The weight of the town pressed down on me with every passing moment. The silence was overwhelming, deafening. It was like I was walking through a nightmare, and I couldn't wake up.
When I finally reached the record store, I knocked, my breath coming in short gasps. It felt like time had slowed, each second stretching into infinity. After what felt like an eternity, the door creaked open, and Audrey's face appeared, concern evident in her eyes.
"Clara," she said softly. "What happened? You look... different."
I didn't know how to explain it to her. How could I? It was like a fever dream, like I was high as a
kite. The visions, the threads, everything that had been building up in me was now going to spill out all at once.
"I need to talk to you," I said, my voice shaky. "I'm not sure what's happening in Everbrook, but I know I can't do it alone."
Audrey stepped aside and let me in. As I walked past her, I couldn't shake the feeling something was off. The shift in the air, the strange tension in the room, it felt like the closer I got to her, the harder it was to breathe. But I knew I had to talk to her.
"Clara?" Audrey's voice cut through the haze, and I focused on her face. She looked concerned, but there was something more in her eyes, something I couldn't place. A glimmer of understanding, or maybe fear?
"You feel it too, don't you?" I whispered, my voice barely audible.
She hesitated, looking down at her hands before slowly nodding. "I've been feeling it... something's wrong here, Clara. But I didn't want to explain any more than I had to. I thought it was just me."
"No, it's not just you. It's this place. It's pulling at us like it's alive, and I..." I stopped, my throat closing up as Maeve's memory surged back.
Audrey reached out, placing a hand on my arm. Her touch grounded me. "We can't ignore it anymore. We need to figure out what's going to happen. We need to find this out fast."
"I have to know what happened to Maeve," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "If this place is doing this to people, we have to stop it."
Audrey looked at me, and for the first time, I could see the fear in her eyes too."We need to make sure we don't get trapped here."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdMelHRsBbG
