*beep*
*beep*
*beep*
I reached out of bed and turned off my phones alarm. The quiet of early morning hung in my dark room; only an hour till sunrise. I needed to head downstairs and do the last bit of packing before I headed back to college.
My name is Brad and I am a Junior at juke university, I study physics and religion. (I know weird combo). My friends say I’m good at talking, but that’s only what friends say. I’ve been a mediocre student my whole life and it doesn’t seem that it will change anytime soon.
But hey C’s get degrees.
I quietly opened my door and walked past my little sister’s room, she’s a senior in high school and resting off her 18th birthday party today. I can still hear her obnoxious snoring echoing the halls as I head to the pile of boxes I left by the front door.
Packing all of the boxes into my car I noticed a box on the doorstep that I must’ve dropped during one of my many car trips. Tossing the last box into my passenger side seat I went inside to say goodbye to my parents; I was also planning on at least seeing Bri before I left, but it wasn’t to be her snoring still resounding in the hallway.
Driving to school was an uneventful 6 hour experience, but I always enjoyed the time to myself. As I drove up I took the time to call one of my friends who was also on the way. Sounds like the house we got just off campus is an absolute mess. Apparently the upstairs toilet already started flooding the second Garrett used it. The flooding was extensive and James says the house already reeks.
Pulling into the driveway of the house confirmed the story from my phone call, I had just missed the plumber who had thankfully stopped the water from running into the rest of the house.
After surveying the damage almost everything seemed fine. Other than a musty smell that permeated the carpet and rooms. I went ahead and unpacked most of my items with no help from Garrett or James who had understandably been worn out from their cleaning adventures.
This year I finally had a room to myself! James was a solid roommate but I always enjoyed picking my own bed time. Speaking of bed time the drive and unpacking had absolutely worn me out.
I took out a few more boxes so I could finish up and get to sleep. After unpacking my bedding and some books I arrived at my previously dropped package. I couldn’t remember what was in the box but opening up the package revealed something I could really use for such a musty house!
A small candle! It had surprisingly intricate carvings that almost looked like runes covering the entire surface. A small booklet sat at the bottom of the box. The pages of the booklet read “Life Candle” in bold at the top. Further down the page text promised some type of “new life” to anyone who lit the candle.
Interesting, I definitely don’t remember getting this. It must have been left over from my sister’s birthday party.
Oh well, I can always buy my sister another candle. I grabbed a lighter from the kitchen and lit the candle before going to bed.
The room smelled of a mix of dirty water and cinnamon apples. Hopefully as the night went on the candle would last, it might only be good for one or two nights; I’ll need to grab some more tomorrow.
As I drifted towards sleep with thoughts of apples and shopping I began to dream I was floating into the sky. The stars grew more and more intense as I floated weightlessly up. Eventually I stopped in a space surrounded by doors suspended in the air. As I gazed around the space, clouds of mist that looked almost like ghosts stepped out of each door and gazed around in the same fashion I imagined myself doing.
Glancing behind myself I realized that I too had just exited a door. I began to explore some of the space and try to look closer at one of the ghosts. Walking for some time I realized I had misplaced my own door.
After a moment of trying to remember which door was my own, I noticed different spirits dashing through doors all around them. As I watched a ghost enter the door nearest to me the frame began to shimmer and fade. Eventually the door disappeared entirely.
After seeing one door disappear I realized that many of the doors had gone away by now! I needed to get back to my own door! Hurriedly I searched for my door; after some time I wasn’t seeing any more doors! There were almost none left. One single door stood in the distance.
I rushed as fast as I could to the door as a spirit appeared in the edge of my vision; racing me to the door. I barely managed to swing the door open and shut before the other spirit could beat me. On the other side I collapsed absolutely drained of energy as my body descended towards earth again.
Before exhaustion took a hold of me I caught a whiff of cinnamon apples, what a nice candle I thought before dropping into the deepest sleep I’d ever experienced.