Mors Mihi Lucrum. It means "death to me is reward". It symbolizes how nobody's death is pointless if they died fighting a cause. That's what Mr.Fritz told me. I think it means, the more you suffer, the more you look forward to death.
Death is mercy.
It was very quiet. It was so quiet that I could feel all the hair on my body stand up.
I have to wake up. It's time for school. Rachel must be waiting for me.
I could hear her calling my name. She's good.
"Tristan~" Her voice is as sweet as honey.
"Tristan..." And I'm a fly caught by her sweetness. No wait; that's not how it goes. "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Is she honey or is she vinegar? Man, who cares? As long as we get married.
"Tristan, wake..." Are we married yet?
"Tristan, wake up..." It can't be; she chose Finn.
Wait.
"Tristan, wake up!!" I heard the unremitting voice in my head. It kept getting louder, and louder, and louder, until I felt a surge of pain down through my neck, shocking me to reality.
"OW!" I opened my eyes. I gasped for air, and again. My vision was blurry, but I could fully open my eyes. It took a while for me to adjust to the light. But...why does this place seem so familiar?
The moldy, leaking ceiling, the colossal wooden staircase running to the top, the stacks of boxes, the sunlight pouring through the windows.
Oh, my god. Is this...our house?
"Oh my goodness, are you ok?" my mom spoke, her voice laced with concern, shaking me again and again, enough to give me brain damage.
Wait a moment. I could hear her. I'm not deaf anymore.
"Oh my goodness, Robert, call the ambulance, he's not responding."
"Hold on, let me see if I can get a signal." I heard my dad's quiver in his voice.
"How many fingers am I holding?" I saw a silhouette of a smaller hand, holding three fingers.
"Three?" I sputtered. I could barely move my mouth. My lips were so cracked, and my throat was all dried up, I couldn't scream if I had to.
Mom cried. I heard some other noises which got in the mixture, I heard it, oh my goodness, I'm...back. I'm back at the same damn place. The first day of moving. Where Kiara got hurt. where, when night time fell, I....
I couldn't get up yet. I lay there as deadweight, the weight of the world dropping on me.
Shit. But I would hear again. I wasn't deaf anymore, so that was an improvement. It felt quite nice for my parents to care for me like this, even though they were shouting and scrambling like wild animals, a wave of warmth hit me. I could die here at this moment.
Die?
I gasped so loud I thought the ceiling would fall on my head.
I was so confused, i couldn't think of any sane explanation on why this might even happen. what am i supposed to do? what is this? I opened a door, and everything went pitch black.
Is this supposed to happen? Oh my goodness, that's it, isn't it?
"'Wow, seeing this door, it takes you back, doesn't it?'" Who said that? The mayor, or Betty? No, it was someone else. Shit why couldn't I remember their face?
Takes me back. The door...it takes me back. I looked back. The door was gone. I scurried through my pocket, my mother's confused lamenting continuing in the background.
The keys.. I counted them each...1..2..3...7..8..10.. holy shit.
There are only 12 keys. The 13th is gone.
No...it can't be. Can it be used only once?! I remembered Janae's screams to stop and to come back. I didn't listen to her, did I? That's right. Mom died. She stopped breathing, and Dad was nowhere to be found. Neither was Kiara.
Why can't I remember what happened inside the door?
I stood up this time, my legs about to give in. I wobbled through to the wall where the door magically appeared. "Tristan! Don't die on me," My mother cried.
I've never heard her sound this concerned since Avery's death.
Instinctively, I looked around to find the door. The door was still there, the carvings in wood, tempting the person to go inside. But there was no keyhole. I remembered there was a keyhole. Perhaps that's the first rule: the door could only be used once.
I pointed to the door, and turned to my father, who looked at me all confused. "Trish, are you ok? You seem to be bleeding from your eyes," he stated. His cold indifference suddenly sent chills down my spine.
"Tristan!" Please listen to me! What happened to you?" She held me in her arms. She didn't push me or ask me again. This time, she went limp, as if she were remembering something.
"Tristan....you didn't...find a door, did you?" she asked, her eyes wide this time. I looked at her, dead in the eye, and she got it.
"What? i thought...it wasn't true." she fell back, Dad catching her this time. i felt the space ont he wall, it wasn't hollow, it's scratchy surface remained cold and hardened, like it was always like this. The door, with the key, were gone.
Holy shit, I cursed in my head.
"Trish!! what happened to you?" Kiara came running to me, and i embraced her, tightly this time. I don't know what would happen if I lost her again, like Avery.
I just wanted my family back.
I have to fix this.