Arc 0: Prelude 18 - The Unexpected Visitor

visitor /ˈvɪzɪtə/

a person visiting someone or somewhere, especially socially or as a tourist.

The ceiling was dark; very dark; it would appear almost colorless.

As a “change of pace,” Lauren found herself lying on the sofa in the living room, endlessly staring up into the ceiling. It was as if she was a madwoman stuck in a padded cell. She knew she was losing her mind and yet she couldn’t stop it, she didn’t know how or why. All she knew… was that she knew. She was content with it.

Yet another day came. Yet another time lost.

“...”

She lacked words to say anything even in this melancholic state. But there was no need to speak, she was all alone after all.

*RIIIIIIING*

All of a sudden, the doorbell to the house screamed in her ear, making her jump abruptly from the shock.

She had not heard the bell ring for a long while, but that didn’t particularly mean no visitors attempted to stop by recently. It was rather a matter of… the doorbell not working at all. It was broken. Any visitor would have to knock on the door to gain the attention of the residents — it was for that reason she was able to ignore the knocks so easily these past few days. So for it to ring suddenly like that as if it was working just fine this entire time, was certainly odd.

But that didn’t matter to Lauren now. What clouded her thoughts was the fact that someone was here to see her. She would hopefully think that he had finally come for her, but she knew better than to be this mindlessly optimistic.

「Chloe…」

There was no one else but her who knew exactly where she lived. She was so persistent in getting her attention that she might have even gotten someone to fix the doorbell so that she could endlessly annoy her with it to open the door. Her mind might have been ridiculously overthinking this but she didn’t mind.

“There…,” she coughed, “There’s no one here!”

She wanted to push away Chloe. She didn’t want to confront her face to face.

「Just leave already.」

*RIIING*

“For God’s sake, go away and bother someone else!” Her shout was even louder than before.

*RIIING*

But the visitor was persistent.

「You…」

Lauren grit her teeth and rushed to the door before she pulled the knob. “Chloe! Leave me alone, I don’t—”

Once the door was open, Lauren halted her words and looked at the visitor in bewilderment. It was not Chloe standing in front of her, nor was it anyone she had met before.

There was simply a young woman standing on the porch to her house, who was taller than Lauren by quite a few inches and possibly even Zachary. With short blonde hair and eyes coated in violet, she looked at Lauren with a fierce gaze. And yet she didn’t utter a word to state the purpose of her unexpected visit.

“Sorry, um…,” Lauren blinked twice as she tried to collect her thoughts, “Who…?”

“You know Zach Ashworth?” The young woman bluntly asked.

“...!” Her eyes widened upon hearing his name.

「She knows something?!」

“Z-Zach?!” She tried not to falter in her words as she stepped forward, “You know Zach?! Y-You know where he is??!! Please tell me!!”

“...shit…,” the young woman scoffed and averted her gaze for a second, “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Oh…,” Lauren quickly stepped back, almost losing her footing. She felt dazed enough that she could drop dead on the ground right then and there. But she still held onto her consciousness.

“I’m Zach’s cousin!” The young woman sighed, “He’s been missing and we’ve been looking for him for a while now. I thought you might know something.”

Lauren felt hope slip away from her grasp. If even his family couldn’t find him, then who will. He couldn’t have just vanished off the face of the Earth all of a sudden. It was nonsense.

“Sorry to bother you like this,” the young woman had noticed the sorry state Lauren was in. She was in no shape to meet anyone outside, otherwise, she’d quickly be mistaken for someone who had escaped a mental asylum, “I’ll go now.” The young woman excused herself and turned to leave.

But Lauren wasn’t about to let her go.

“W-Wait!” She quickly grabbed onto the young woman’s arm before—

「Huh!」

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Hoc triste Terra a M̷̞͖̠͌̑̉͋i̵͙͔̳̓̒̐r̷̞̈̀̀͒a̸̲̺̍̐̆b̴̡̠͗̒̆͝î̸̫l̶̨̧̜̘͊i̷̖͕̙̗͗́́

Feeling a sharp sting in her mind, Lauren immediately let go in shock. It gave her quite the headache right after. She placed her hand on top of her head to try and contain this brief moment of sudden pain. Her mind had spiraled into a worse mess than it already was with her jumbled thoughts before.

The young woman, herself, was surprised by Lauren’s abrupt behavior.

“You… okay?” She tilted her head in confusion.

Lauren shook her head from the mess inside and looked at the young woman with determined eyes, “Please! If you find him or discover anything about where he is, please tell me!” She held the young woman’s hands together with hers, begging her to agree to her absurd request.

“Uh…,” the young woman’s eyes flickered with concern, “Suuure…?”

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Lauren, with tears of joy filling her eyes, forcefully shook the young woman’s hand.

“No… problem…,” the young woman raised an eyebrow for a second before excusing herself and leaving the premises.

Lauren returned back inside the house and shut the door behind her.

She glanced at her hand, remembering the time she felt a spark ignite within it and the headache that still persisted in her mind. But she was quick to brush it off as it didn’t matter. It was simply a spark, friction. That wasn’t something odd, it would happen sometimes — the human body generated electricity after all.

Letting out a deep sigh, she leaned her back against the door. There was still hope. It eased her mind knowing that she was not the only one looking for him this whole time. However, it also troubled her with ridiculous thoughts.

If anyone was to find Zachary, it had to be her.