“Reyes!” Sounded through the rain. Reyes ducked down, even though she knew Fenya had already seen her. Clattering of a bike came closer. Reyes licked raindrops that dripped down on her face and sniffed. 

“Reyes, i saw you, I know you’re here!” Her voice was tiny against the violence of the storm. She heard the sound of a bike hitting the grass, and it wasn’t long before the rosebushes rustled and splashes of water flew off, in Reyes' face. She brushed them away with her hand, even though the rain immediately replaced the drops ten times over. Fenya’s head appeared through the leaves. Her long, white-blonde, now wet hair stuck to her face. Her face stood confused, and a little hurt, and her light grey eyes sought Reyes’, but she didn’t meet them. 

“I don’t want to talk,” Reyes said. “Leave me alone.”

“Reyes — please,” Fenya said. Her face wrinkled, trying so hard not to show her emotions. Reyes could’ve sworn she saw a tear, but there was no telling if there truly was one because of the rain. It could’ve very well been just that.

“Let it go, Fenya! Forget it!” Reyes clawed her way out of the ditch. Her pants were soaked, both from the rain, mud and tears, but she barely felt it. Her legs had gone kind of numb from the cold. 

“No! Reyes! We’re going to talk about it!” Fenya yelled, climbing out after her. She grabbed Reyes’ arm, but Reyes pulled her arm away.

“We’re not doing anything!” Reyes yelled back and ran away from Fenya. The wet grass was slippery beneath her feet. So slippery that she had to balance herself with her arms, just so she could wobble forward. She heard clattering come closer and looked behind her in reflex. The red bike followed her, with Fenya riding it. It was a lot faster than Reyes was, still running in the grass. 

“Let me go!” Reyes yelled against the thunder that set in. 

“No!” Was the reply. Reyes wiped away a tear that mixed with the rain — purely out of habit, since her whole face was already wet. 

“I hate you!” Reyes cried. “I hate you!” She struggled to run farther. They were almost at a corner in the road that bend to the left, Fenya would undoubtedly pass her there. She felt so ashamed, so humiliated. And she didn’t even blame Fenya, that was what was worst. She knew she was weird for it. 

She rounded the corner. A blue beetle passed her way faster than it should’ve, she was only barely able to let it go past her. She heard it brake, but then heard the tires slip on the road.

“Fenya!” She screamed, turning around. The beetle completely lost control, wheels turned all in different directions. Before Reyes could blink, sound of metal against metal echoed through the air. The red bicycle against the blue beetle. Like the switch of a light, Fenya seemed so very vulnerable. She flipped over and rolled off of the road into the bushes. Reyes' heart sank and her breath fastened.

“No! I love you! Fenya!” She yelled with a panic in her voice that spread throughout her whole body. She ran to the car and banged on the window. 

“Call an ambulance!” She yelled, then ran to the bushes. She clawed at the thick bushes full of thorns and leaves, raindrops running down her face and down the wounds from the thorns on her hands and through her pants. She didn’t care about the pain. She didn’t even feel it. She looked behind her, at the man.

The man, who’d just come out of the car, was clearly still in shock, and looked at her. His hair was now slowly getting wet from the rain. It seemed as if he was frozen. His dark eyes drilled straight into hers. Reyes looked at him in disbelief.

“Call an ambulance! You hit someone!” She yelled. The man slowly started moving, closing his car’s door.

“Is she okay?” He asked. 

“Call a god damn ambulance!” She screamed. The man nodded and stumbled towards the farmhouse that stood on the pasture besides them. Reyes dropped to the ground. She clawed at the dirt beneath the bushes. In addition to the blood, tears now mixed with the raindrops. 

No trace of Fenya, no sign of life anywhere. Only rain, leaves and thorns. It was as if she had suddenly disappeared into thin air. She looked around helplessly. Where could she be? She stumbled through the ditch, looking for her. Maybe she crawled towards the town, looking for help. 

For minutes, she walked until she reached the start of the road as if in a trance, but she found no trace of Fenya. Nothing, absolutely nothing. No pieces of torn clothing, no blood, no Fenya. Wet and bloodied, she got out of the ditch, back on the road. She barely got out of the way in time for an ambulance that rushed into the small street with lights and alarm blaring loudly. Maybe they had found her, Reyes thought with a glimmer of hope inside her head.

Reyes tossed the newspaper in the trashcan. ’Car thief on the road again’, the headline said. It had been a little over a week since Fenya disappeared.

“It’s scary, isn’t it?” Her mother asked, eyeing the paper. “Must’ve been someone from out of town.” 

“Mhm,” Reyes hummed. She pulled the bin bag closed and took it out. She could see the face of the alleged car thief through the bag, still. She knew she was the reason he even ended up in the facility. She had left him alone at the farmhouse. It wasn’t strange that the ambulance took him instead, when they couldn’t find the girl he said he hit, anywhere. The cold plastic strap of the bag cut in her hand a little bit.

“I mean really, realistically, if it wasn’t for that report he made about himself, the car would never be returned. Right?” 

“Right,” Reyes murmured and opened the backdoor of the house. She threw the bag inside the open bin that stood on the side of the fence. She closed the door and sighed.

“Did you read the story about that train accident that happened yesterday? That was crazy, too. Really thought they made the rails safer, not less safe,” her mother continued. 

“It wasn’t the rails, it was just a train that hit someone,” Reyes replied.

“Mm,” her mother hummed. “Still. It’s all not as advanced as everyone likes to think.” Reyes didn’t reply. She washed her hands in the sink.

“You want broccoli or spinach today?”

“I don’t really care,” Reyes replied. Her mother put down her grocery list and looked at her over the edge of her glasses. 

“You want to talk about it?” She asked. She sounded sweet enough, and Reyes knew she meant well. But she wasn’t really in the mind space to talk about anything, especially not about what her mom wanted to talk about. Reyes sat down on the brown suede couch and looked out the window. 

“No,” she said. Her mom nodded and looked down.

“That’s fine,” she said, and picked up her grocery list again. “Just know you can if you want to. I love you.” 

“Love you too,” Reyes mumbled. Emotions gripped her chest. She stood up from the couch, walked to the living room’s door and walked through it, leaving the room behind her. Tears welled up in her eyes, even though she tried fighting it. It got harder with each day that passed. Still no sign of Fenya, anywhere. No one even knew she had been hit. Reyes hadn’t told anyone. She felt so guilty. She knew she wasn’t the reason she died, or disappeared, but it felt like she was. She was the reason Fenya was there, on that road, to begin with. 

Heavy raindrops assaulted the window. She felt weird. It was almost the same weather as it was when Fenya disappeared. It was almost as if she was transported back to that day, five years ago. She wasn’t, she knew she wasn’t. Fenya would still be alive at this hour. She could stop her from getting hit. She would tell her she was sorry. That she loved her. Lost in though, she barely noticed the door slowly opening. The little stained glass window at the top of it cast pretty colors in the room. Alane silently sat down next to Reyes, on the brown suede couch, and took Reyes' hand.

“I know it’s hard,” she said. 

“Mom—,” Reyes started, but Alane interrupted her. 

“Bottling it up will only make it worse,” she said. She stroked Reyes’ hair for a second. “It’s not a bad thing to feel bad about it. It is a bad thing to keep it all on your own shoulders.” It was quiet for a while.

“I know you mean well, but I don’t want to talk about it,” Reyes then said. Her mother looked down for a moment and hesitated.

“When…,” she started. She sounded a little unsure, as if she didn’t know whether or not to even say anything else. 

“When your dad died,” she said, sounding more sure, “it helped me do things he always liked, sometimes it made it feel like he was with us.”

“What was that, then?” Reyes asked. Her mother didn't talk much about her father. Too painful, maybe. Reyes could relate to that, she didn’t like to talk about Fenya. Even thinking about it was bad, though it had been five years. It would feel the same for her mother. Likely worse, since her mother had known her father longer than she had known Fenya.

“He always liked to help people, he was a very strong man, mentally and physically. He often did kind things without giving it a second thought, like helping older people and helping people who were unfortunate in life in one way or another,” she said, a smile creeping up on the corner of her mouth, “he always liked to play games with the kids in the neighborhood, he—,” she stopped her sentence.

“The kids in the neighborhood?” asked Reyes.

“I'll tell you about him someday, properly. Visit Fenya's favorite places, maybe that’ll cheer you up a bit,” she said. As usual, the subject was avoided. Reyes left it at that. She stretched for a moment and stood up.

“Do I need to take a key?" she asked. Her mother shook her head.

“No, I have to wait for your new clock to come in, it’s supposed to be delivered today.”

“Okay. I’ll be home before dinner.”

Lost in thought, Reyes walked across the road. She had gone on foot, just like that day. The rain hit the hood of her jacket mercilessly. She walked rather quickly, partially wanting to get it over with, partially because it was just, really, such bad weather. Not only did it rain, it wasn’t the warmest of days, either. She dug her hands deeper in her pockets as she got closer to the path with the blossom trees, the path where Fenya got lost. There was more farmland there, meaning less coverage from the wind. It tugged on her as if it wanted to take her somewhere else entirely, though it did not seem to know where exactly. It changed direction so often that it may as well have been a child who ran around the playground, wanting to do everything all at once. 

And, there it was. The trees were all empty of blossom. They used to grow well into winter, after which they fell off. But, some time after Fenya disappeared, they fell off around August, which was a long time for blossom to stick to a tree with in general already. The rose bushes didn’t bear roses anymore. They hadn’t for years. It was as if nature could tell Fenya wasn’t there anymore. 

She steadily walked on, over the slightly muddy path. The atmosphere was very bleak. It all was so empty, so soulless. Her chest burned slightly. She could tell she got closer to the place where it happened. Because the trees were barren, she could already see the turn. Car tracks were still present in the road. Not from the car from that day, that would be impossible. Instead, they were from cars that were just passing through, getting from the one side of the town to the other. It was essentially a shortcut. But seeing the car tracks made her heart feel heavy. 

She turned around and faced the meadow, trying to control her breathing. It didn’t work. She hadn’t been back here for so long. Even seeing the corner in the distance made her feel weak. She tilted her head upwards to feel the rain wash over her face. God, why did she even go here? Of all the places that reminded her of Fenya, this was the one with the worst energy. She sniffed and wiggled her nose against the cold, inadvertently sniffing up some water from the rain. She coughed and wiped her nose, then turned back around, to leave the path. 

She was incredibly tempted to go to her right, to go back to her own street, her own house, and ideally, her own bed. But her legs kept her walking straight forward. She knew where they were taking her. She felt like she couldn’t go home yet. It would be weird, to only visit the path where Fenya disappeared, and not a place where Fenya actually liked to spend time, when she was alive. She wiped some stray hairs from her forehead and pushed them behind her ears. The hood was practically useless at this point, she was wet all throughout. 

Fenya’s favorite place had always been the lake nearby. They found it together when they got lost during a school trip. They had walked along the bank until they found it, and they had gone there many times since. Hardly anyone knew of it’s existence, so it was always empty. The little dock, at least. The lake was quite well known. So well known, in fact, that a generous amount of rumors and odd stories circled the halls of the school, and the town in general. They called it the ‘Pale Lake’. Ships that sailed it would disappear and never be found again. Swimmers that attempted to cross it would suffer a similar fate, or drown without an apparent cause. According to these stories, they would end up in the ‘Other World’, a place where everything goes to die. Allegedly. 

Fenya believed every single story she heard. Reyes not so much. But they did spend a lot of time sitting on their little dock, gazing at the stars, or just going for a swim. Never crossing it, because Fenya believed they would, quite frankly, die. Not that they wanted to, anyway. The lake was enormous. It was so big, that when it was a little misty, or stormy, like now, you could not see the end of it.

A tall man, at least six feet, with a dark purple coat and black pants appeared in her field of sight. Some silver-grey hair came out from under his black cap, he was an elegant man with a smart face.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted. Dazed, Reyes looked up.

“Same to you,” she said.

The Pale lake was stormy in the fall weather, the water splashed high and the end was barely visible, making it look almost like a sea. The wooden dock, which extended a couple of feet from the coast, was darkened by all the rainwater that had fallen that day. Reyes walked onto the boards. The pier was not that long, a few steps and you were at the end. 

She hesitated to sit on the edge of the structure. She didn’t know if she wanted to feel the contact of her wet pants with the wet dock. She was uncomfortable in her wet clothes as it was already. She sniffed and looked out into the lake, and into the stormy weather. Rain was still coming down feverishly, like it had something to prove. Ah, who cared? She was wet already anyway.

She carefully sat down on the smooth wood beneath her. The lake stretched out in front of her. It was a beautiful setting, it was no surprise to Reyes that it had been Fenya's favorite place, it suited her. The silver water, her silver eyes, the faded grey sky, her white blond hair. Sometimes it felt as if Fenya was there for a moment, followed by the hard truth. She wasn't there anymore, at least not here with Reyes. She wondered if they would ever see each other again. She closed her eyes against the tears and let the wind blow through her hair. Countless times she’d sat here with Fenya. She would do anything to relive those moments.

She opened her eyes again and looked down at the swirling water. It was almost hypnotic, the faint blues mingling with the grey and green. The murky, undulating movements calmed her and struck deep into her soul. She felt as if she was waving along with it. Shades of grey and green mingled with black, black rippled into red, maybe even a shade of orange. Half surprised, Reyes looked a little closer. Red? In a lake? She focused on the red. Had the water been calm just now? She saw a darker shade along the water's edge. It looked like it could be trees, black and tall. She leaned over a little to get a better look. Trees and a sky. A dark, dark sky.

She stood up and looked back up at the shoreline. All trees with orange and yellow leaves. Maybe that caused the redness in the water. She looked back down. It seemed as if the reflection of the water wasn’t really reflecting well. The water was calmer when she looked down than when she looked up. A gust of wind knocked Reyes off balance. She tried to fight the air with her arms not to fall, but she had leaned over so far that it was impossible not to. With a yell she fell into the water, gasping for air against the shock of the cold.

And the water was cold, colder than you would expect after a hot summer. She tried pushing the water away, trying to find balance or points of orientation so she could swim back up. As hypnotic as the water was before, so all-consuming had it become now. It was like a snake that had lured its prey and now devoured it. She tried in vain to swim up. She didn't even know where up was. For all she knew, she could be swimming herself deeper into trouble. 

Was this how she would die? Drowned, on the same day she lost Fenya? She pushed her hair out of her face. It was almost poetic. Maybe she'd see her again, on the other side. She’d thought about it before. Whether it was really worth it to go on here, on this side. She stopped struggling. The air slowly drained from her lungs. She looked around. 

There were worse ways to die, this was beautiful. The water shone and moved, it was like a living being. Her hair flowed like a crown around her head. Everything floated here. There was no up, there was no down. There was only the water, and her. She waved her hand to feel the water slide alongside it. Smooth, but very cold. 

She slowly breathed out. Little bubbles of air floated around. Not up, not down. Around. She popped one with her finger. It shattered into little bubbles. She felt water enter her nose, and panic flooded her head. This wasn't a beautiful death, this was horrible. 

She tried to swim back up without having any breath left, and every move felt heavier than the one before. There was only so much time before she would have to inhale again. Desperately, she pushed the water away. Then, finally, air. She gasped and struggled to stay above water. Her limbs were numb from the cold. She wiped the hair from her face and blinked to get the water out of her eyes. Stroke by stroke, she swam to what looked to be a shore. She could tell someone was there, but she did not care. Not now, everything was better than the water. She clawed at the grass and pulled herself out of the water, shivering so hard she could hear her teeth rattle. She flopped onto her back and tried to get back the control over her breath. 

The first thing she was the sky, one that was a very different shade of grey than the one she just saw. Darker, so much so that it looked like it was black. If someone told her that it was, she would not debate it. There were no stars, there was no moon. Not one that she could see. There was no sun, either. There were no clouds, no rain, no storm. Confused, she sat up and looked around. 

She was immediately aware of the other that was at the same shore, with her. She could not see who it was, nor what they were doing. Warily, she slowly moved away. She noticed the circle that was drawn around the lake. It was some white material, almost powder-y. It looked like she landed in some kind of ritual. Secondly, she noticed that this lake was quite a bit smaller than the one she knew. It wasn’t even really a lake, it was more an oversized puddle. Maybe a hundred feet across, at most. This meant that the other person was frighteningly close to her. 

The third thing she noticed was the color of the grass and the trees around her. The trees were all black and looked very much dead. The grass even more so, though it felt warm and brittle to the touch. She crawled over it, trying to get to the opposite side of the lake, to get away from the other person. It was like the grass had been set on fire and just got put out. Had the other person lit everything on fire? Was it a ritual? Did she get summoned? Her hands tingled. From the shift in temperature, she thought. 

She saw the other person stand up and move towards her. Reyes scrambled up and started walking faster, still circling the lake. She didn’t feel much for jumping back in, but at the same time, she had no idea where she was. Was she dead? Was this hell? 

The red hair of the other person shone. It caught her eye. Even though they weren’t close to Reyes, Reyes could’ve sworn to see the eyes being red, too. The person raised their hands, and a gust of wind set in. Coincidence, surely. A loud hissing sound crossed the pond. It came from the other person. That was the last straw that Reyes needed. She dove back into the water, leaving the darker world behind. 

Again, she felt very disoriented. The water — and her stomach — churned around her, leaving her clueless as to where up was, and where down. A sudden crash in the water disturbed the churning even more. Red hair swirled around the other person’s head faster than it should, especially in water. Their eyes red, like Reyes saw. A forked tongue went out and back into their mouth. She didn’t even know if this still counted as human or not. 

Adrenaline rushed through her veins. She tried to kick the creature, but missed it by a long shot. The creature swam closer and closer, until it was able to grab her foot. Reyes released air in an attempt to scream, and kicked as hard as she could. It struck the jaw of the creature, who instantly stopped moving. The grip on her foot loosened, and black blood floated from the creature’s mouth. Their red eyes staring her dead in the eyes as the body floated downwards, likely back to the hellscape on the other side of the lake. She swam up, having little air left in her lungs.

Spluttering, she climbed back onto the dock. She could barely move her limbs, cold as she was. The heavy rain continued falling down on her. And, together with the fierce wind, it made her feel colder than ever. She peered down the dock, back into the water. Shades of blue, some grey and some green. No red, no black or orange, not even from the very real orange leaved trees around the lake. 

She let out a relieved cry. No trace of the creature anywhere. She shook her head against the water on her face and in her hair and shivered. What the hell just happened? Maybe Fenya was right, about there being another world on the other side of the lake. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. Or maybe she had nearly drowned. Perhaps it was a result of too little oxygen in her brain. She leaned against a wooden post for a moment and stared out over the lake in disbelief. She very vaguely saw black blood floating in the water. Did she? She squinted and closed her eyes. She looked carefully at the water and sighed. She must have imagined it. It was not there.

Reyes stumbled into her street. She was partly staring blankly ahead, partly still lost in thought. Had she really been willing to drown? She walked over the pavement. The trees rose above her, swaying, tugged around on all sides by the wind. They weren’t the only one receiving that treatment. The cold wind blew against Reyes' sticky, wet clothes, even though she could barely feel it. Her whole body was numb from the cold. She threw her head back and sighed. Although the walk to and from the Pale lake was only fifteen minutes, her body felt exhausted, perhaps from the fall into the water, perhaps from the hallucinations. 

The neighbor's garden caught her eye. It looked desolate. Even though it wasn't winter yet, the plants — or whatever was left of them — hung quietly and melancholically as if they'd been through three harsh winters and three more summer droughts. The ivy that grew against the house had now engulfed almost the entire front of it under a blanket of withered brown twigs and half-dead leaves. In the front yard was a shed with a padlock, broken open by neighborhood kids just days after the neighbors had closed the curtains and had apparently ceased to exist. 

They were such lively, cheerful people before. Right up until the day their daughter Fenya disappeared. Reyes hadn't seen them again. To be fair, Reyes wasn't as lively as before either.

She could already see the brown couch through the rain-splashed window. She threw another look the neighbors’ house, which still looked as miserable as a few seconds ago. What surprised her most was that it was still empty, no new neighbors or real estate agent who had been in the house. As if the neighbors still lived there, but then again they didn't. She quickly swung open the gate and walked up the path, opened the front door and walked into the house. The door slammed shut behind her. 

The warmth enveloped her. It had never felt as good to come back home.

“I'm back,” she announced. She shivered and hung up her coat. A few thumps in the living room, but no answer.

“Mom?” she asked, taking off her shoes on the doormat. Still no answer, the thumping didn't stop. 

Her heartbeat quickened. She looked up the stairs, then back at the door of the living room. What if something happened to her mother? She couldn’t just go upstairs. What if there were people in the living room? She crept to the room’s door and after waiting a few seconds to muster up some courage, she quickly swung open the door and looked into the living room. 

No intruders, thank god. Her mother was sitting with a folding knife between her teeth, which she had clearly used on the huge box standing in the room, tugging on a piece of clear tape that was stuck firmly to the box. She looked around and saw Reyes standing.

“You scared me to death,” Reyes said. “I thought someone broke into our house.”

“Package,” her mother murmured.

“Maybe it's easier to talk without a knife in your mouth, you look like a pirate,” she said with a small chuckle. Her mother let go of the tape and took the blade out of her mouth.

“Package, your clock has arrived. The box is exceptionally well taped up,” she stated. “Mister Yuaki had a blast with the tape.” Reyes waved it away with her hand.

"I'll unpack it upstairs," she said. Alane nodded her head absently for a moment. Then she saw Reyes' soaked, dirty clothes and raised her eyebrow.

“What happened to you? What’s with the black spots and holes?” Reyes looked down and saw holes in her pants, almost as if burned through.

“I fell,” Reyes replied. She wasn't lying, she had fallen. Into the Pale lake. “It wasn’t a bad fall, but my clothes did get a little dirty.”

“You can say that again,” her mother said and laid down the knife. 

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to the store in a minute, do you want to come with me? Those pants are better off in the trash. I can probably get the stains out but the holes are hard to close,” her mother mused. Reyes shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess. I have other pants though,” she said.

“It’s fine, you’re overdue for a new pair anyway.”

“Okay. I want to change first, though. This is really uncomfortable. Think I’m going to take the clock with me, upstairs.”

“I'll help you get it up the stairs, it's a heavy thing.”

Alane started pushing the box. There was movement in the it, but it did seem quite heavy, like she said. Reyes sighed and started pushing along. The immense thing was less heavy than she'd imagined, but it was impossible for one person to move.

Reyes looked over her shoulder to check if there were any cars behind her. It wasn’t pouring rain anymore, thank god. The road was still incredibly wet. But, no cars.

“Where are we going?” She asked. They passed the little plate on the side of one of the bigger buildings that said ‘Main Road’. 

Although the name gives the impression that it was one of the major roads in Glenbrook, that was not the case in any way. It was a two lane road, marked with old broken white lines, with a sidewalk on either side. It was clear that the road had seen better days, the trees hanging over the road like sentries who have been in place for too long a shift. 

The homes on the left side of the road were mostly empty, except for a few squatters who had taken their chance after this part of town had been neglected for so long. The style of the buildings was different from most buildings in Glenbrook. Older, almost like it was another city. The rest of Glenbrook was more lively.

“Because I know the mall is in the other direction,” Reyes said.

“We’re not going to the mall. I got a tip from a friend that the stores here are a lot cheaper than in the mall, and they have better quality clothes, too.”

“Clothing stores? In this area?"

“There may not be as many people as there used to be here—,” Alane stopped talking for a moment and looked across the canal that lay on the right side of the road behind an ever-continuing gate, no higher than three feet but made in a classic design. She glanced back at Reyes and continued on.

“But there are enough people who used to live here that still come here.”

Alane crossed the road and nodded to a side road on the left side of the Main Road. A high stone arch with decorations that probably used to be painted gold or silver served as the entrance. It was a little dark, with tall houses rising on both sides. Reyes looked around warily. The street seemed even older than the main road. 

“Are you sure this is even safe?” She asked. 

“It’s just a little old. It looks worse than it is, I promise,” Alane said. 

She walked down the street, Reyes following her. Reyes kept kind of looking behind them, she had the constant feeling of being watched. Her eyes got pulled to the shops themselves. An old butcher, a baker, a greengrocer. Most of the furniture had been removed, probably right after the close or later stolen — or ‘borrowed’ — by the squatters. Never had she seen a street as sketchy as this one. 

She looked up in surprise when Alane nudged her with her hand and pointed. Light shone in one of the shops. It wasn’t very bright, but that may have been because of the state of the building. Reyes cleaned a piece of the dusty window with her sweater’s sleeve and looked inside. Rows of shelving and cabinets were crowded together. Clothes hung on the racks, shoes stood on the shelves. She couldn't see the style very well, but it seemed a bit foreign. A blue-gold glow came out of the store.

“Are you sure this is a good store?” Reyes asked, wiping dust from her hands. Alane nodded with a smile, walked to the door and pushed the handle down.

“Absolutely.” It was a large dark wooden door with gold decorations on it, similar to that of the gate at the top of the alley, and the handle was gold and curled. The heavy door swung open and they walked into the store. 

The ceiling was high and the barely visible walls were hung full with paintings. The store stretched for tens of meters, Reyes was not sure if she could see the back or if it continued on and on. In the center of the store was a counter with a wall behind it, built in such a way that you could walk around it, further into the store. At the back of the wall were fitting rooms. 

She walked to one of the racks and glanced at the clothes. Although it was a bit strange, it was very beautiful. Really, why was this store hidden here, in the middle of nowhere? These clothes would do relatively well in the mall. Footsteps made the planks of the floor vibrate slightly, and she quickly walked back to her mother. A tall man gave them a friendly look. He looked familiar. Wasn’t that the tall man she'd seen earlier on the path with the blossom trees? The purple jacket and black trousers had now been exchanged for a black sweater and elegant grey rib trousers, but other than that he looked the same. He had a goatee, she saw now. She couldn't see his hair, it was hidden under a hat, but she remembered the silver-grey hair. He looked at them kindly.

“How can I be of assistance, today?” he asked. Reyes glanced at her mother. She felt like a kid again, standing besides her mother, whispering to ask when they would go home from the party.

“I'm looking for pants,” Alane said. The man nodded.

“Then you have come to the right place. Are you looking for a special type of trousers?”

“We are, yes,” Alane said, giving Reyes a smile. The man raised his eyebrows and nodded.

“I see. Are you familiar with our catalogue?”

“Yes, a friend showed me a brochure. I saw one that had the number, err, I think it was 2911.”

“Yes, indubitably. How many of these do you wish to get?”

“One is enough,” Alane replied.

“Certainly,” The man nodded and walked to the back.

“There’s a weird energy in this store,” Reyes said, when she knew the man wouldn’t be able to hear her. Still, she kept her voice to just above a whisper, just in case. “It's like the inside has been pushed into the outside, like the outside doesn’t belong to the inside. Did you see the windows? You can’t really even see through them, and at the same time, here, everything’s spotless and so beautiful.”

“My friend, who comes here a lot, said that that’s because the marketing for this place comes from people talking to each other, not from having a shiny window display.” Reyes scoffed. 

“Even sketchier, are you hearing yourself?”

She heard footsteps and the man emerged with black pants. The pants looked foreign, just like most of the clothes in the store.

“Will these suffice?” the man asked as he set the pants down on a piece of empty counter. He scratched his chin. It moved a little weirdly. But, then again, he had quite a pointy chin. 

“Beautiful, don’t you think, Reyes?" Alane asked.

“Sure,” Reyes replied. 

“How much does it cost?”

“Seven,” the man stated.

“Seven?" Reyes asked. Alane shook her head.

“I know you don't need that much for those pants.”

The man looked at her, clearly annoyed.

“If our price is beyond your budget, you’re more than welcome to find the item elsewhere,” he said. Alane sighed angrily and slammed her hand on the counter. 

“Seven is too much, six is the most I can give,” she said. 

“Six and a half and the deal is through,” the man said sternly. “I’m really doing you quite the favor here.” Alane grumbled and nodded. The man pushed some buttons on his register and pulled a lever that was attached to the same little machine.

“Thank you for visiting the store. I wish you a nice day!” the man said. 

“What?” asked Reyes. Alane had grabbed the pants and had already turned around, but Reyes couldn’t help but watch the man. He gave her a friendly smile and then walked from behind the counter into the store. He was so very strange. She followed the man. It was like he had cast a spell on her. He turned slowly, and kind of creepily. Reyes stopped in her tracks. 

“Reyes,” Alane said. Reyes quickly walked back to her mother. She got a weird feeling from the man. After he seemed to have scanned the whole shop with his eyes, he turned around again and walked to the back. He opened a previously invisible door in the wall of the store and Reyes was surprised to see a green field and blue sky on the other side. She vaguely smelled grass. The man disappeared into the meadow and the door closed by itself. Reyes ran to the door and tried to open it. There was no door anymore. Reyes stepped back, startled.

"What?" she stammered.

"Are you coming, Reyes?" Alane asked impatiently. She was waiting for her, pants in her one hand, her other on the doorknob.

“You haven't paid yet.”

“It’s in installments of sorts. Come.”

Reyes walked over to her mother and they walked out of the store together, back into the alley. 

“Installments? For pants?” Reyes asked and turned around to take another look at the store. An empty building with dusty windows, with a "for sale" sign on one window stood in it’s place. On the window, there was still the area without dust where she had wiped it off, the rest of it still absolutely covered. She looked at the building in disbelief. As if no one had ever been there. 

“Don’t worry about it,” her mother said. Reyes looked back at her mother and the pants. She had really been in the store.

“Mom, are you seeing this,” Reyes stated, looking at her mother who had already walked on. Her mother looked back and looked at her with a mix of confusion and impatience, waiting for Reyes.

“The store,” Reyes started. Reyes looked back at the store. Dusty window, big wooden door. The for sale sign was gone, but so was the spot where Reyes had swept the dust. Inside, the light that had shone before shone again, the racks faintly visible behind the dust. 

“Yeah, I’m seeing the store,” her mother said. “Shall we go, now?” Reyes shook her head briefly and followed her mother. Maybe the lack of oxygen from the fall in the pond had affected her brain more than she thought.

Alane closed the front door and handed Reyes the pants.

“Put your new pants on! See if you like them.” Reyes waited a little awkwardly, wondering whether or not to talk about what the hell just happened. But, she decided against it. Her mother smiled and went inside the living room. Reyes sighed and ran up the stairs. So weird, it was so weird.

The big, cardboard box was still waiting for her in the center of her room. She tried to wriggle some tape loose with her free hand as she passed it, but it wouldn’t budge. She understood why her mom had the knife between her teeth now. She threw the pants on her bed and grabbed scissors. With a smooth motion, the scissors went through the tape. The little note with her details got ripped slightly because of it. She put the scissors back on her desk and opened the flaps up. 

It was quite a beautiful clock, also a rather large one. It was the type of clock that a grandfather would have standing in his living room, with a little bird in it to tell you when an hour passed. That one little bird that, even though it’s size is very minimal, could produce a sound that over time would become quite annoying in both pitch and frequency. The clockwork itself, however, was hidden behind glass. It was nicely decorated with golden design. The hands, too, were gold. She saw the little panel behind which the bird hid. For now. She knew it would come out eventually. She scooted the clock out of the cardboard mess and next to her desk. She could get used to it. Absolutely. 

The new pants, that laid patiently on her bed, caught her eye. She probably should put them on now. At least to try if they were comfortable. She ran her fingers along the pants. The fabric felt soft and warm, a contrast to her current pants, which felt cold and rough.

She unbuttoned it, pulled it on and looked in the mirror. It looked great on her, the black of the pants matched the dark green sweater she was wearing. The sleeve of which still had some wet dust on it, from the store’s window. She realized it probably hadn’t been just dust, since dust would’ve been cleaned away by the rain. She got most of the grime off and flunked it into her little trash bin. 

She looked in the mirror and smiled. It felt a little performative to smile at herself. Like she was trying to look as good as possible. The pants were, still, very nice. Fenya would have liked the pants too. A thought popped into her head, and she opened a small box that was hidden in a drawer of her desk. Barely ever had she opened it. It was a gift from Fenya, giving to Reyes right before she disappeared. She had opened it when she got it, but after the accident, it was just too painful. 

With a resolute click, she opened it. It revealed a beautiful necklace. She sniffed and felt her eyebrows curl. It was something so untouched and so Fenya-looking. It was like she saw it for the first time. Her hand shook a little as she took it out of the box and put it around her neck. 

She looked back into the mirror. Her brown hair gleamed in the light of the rising moon and her dark green eyes took on a mysterious glow. She looked at herself in surprise, as if she were looking at herself from someone else’s perspective. She blinked and the glow was gone.

A hollow ticking noise was coming from the clock, gaining Reyes’ attention every time it happened. It was barely evening, but it felt as if she had been awake for days. The ticking did not make that better. It sounded a bit like the clock was stuck. Sighing, she turned on her lamp. Mister Yuaki, according to her mother, was a very good restorer, but judging from the tapping sound she had exaggerated his skills a bit. Tap, tap, tap. It went on and on. Almost rhythmic. If it became too annoying to be able to sleep, she could always put the clock outside of her room. 

She walked up to the clock and rubbed her neck for a moment, feeling the cold metal of a chain against her hand. It felt almost wrong to wear it, like it wasn’t hers. She didn’t have the heart to take it off. she sighed. Maybe she should. New chapter, letting go. Right? Was it right? She searched for the lock of it, but couldn't find it. She sighed wearily. And the clock was still stuck. The golden decorations shone softly in the evening light, the dial reflected her face, distorted. Ticking or not, it certainly was a beautiful clock. She swiped the gold edge of the dial for a moment. A flash, noise, everything disappeared. She screamed.