Ava followed closely behind Ezzie again, as they walked down the broken cement street, nothing but fog all around them. She hoped they wouldn’t run into another wall. She hoped they wouldn’t come to another twilight lit archway because that had been just awful, though she thought about Cadence with an ache in her heart. She’d never thought about becoming a mom one day in fears she’d become like her own mom, which she thought about with a shudder. No. Maybe it was best not to risk it, and besides, she was never letting a boy touch her again, not after Mark and what he had done to her, and the thought made shame overcome her, made her sick with shame, and it was like being violated all over again, and she shivered and shoved her shaking hands in the pockets of her hoodie. She tripped over a crack in the road and stumbled to stay standing, almost bumping into Ezzie. She had to be more careful.

“Thank you for that,” said Ezzie, her voice muffled in the fog.

“For what?” asked Ava.

“For the blood. In that mirror room. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I can’t have you fainting on me,” said Ava, wishing she could rub her now throbbing big toe.

“You don’t need me. You have the compass,” said Ezzie. “It doesn’t matter if I wither away into nothing. My sisters will never welcome me back, especially if they find out how truly sweet the blood in your world is.”

“Yeah. But are they willing to use violence to get it? There are no fountains. They’d have to rip out throats or cut people or something.”

“That sounds awful! What’s wrong with your world?”

“Yeah,” said Ava. “Besides, your sisters will welcome you back.”

Ezzie just sighed and said, “I wonder if that’s where they went.”

“Your sisters?”

“No. The inhabitants of the abandoned city. I wonder if they went to your world. Over the rollercoaster. I wonder if they drank blood like my sisters and I.”

“We do have folklores and stories about vampires, but it’s just fiction,” said Ava, carefully watching where she walked because the road was slowly becoming more broken and crumbled.

“Vampires are the ones who drink blood? Do they rip out throats?”

“Well, some do, but like I said, it’s just fiction.”

“Oh. Okay. It sounds so barbaric! Are they immortal too? Like my sisters and I and the bad men?”

“Yes. And everyone else here I suppose.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Ava thought Ezzie was posing an interesting theory though. What if vampires did come from this strange immortal world?

“Is there a way to kill a vampire immortal from your world?” Ezzie suddenly asked, a bit too brightly in Ava’s opinion, and suddenly she didn’t like where this was heading.

“Ezzie—”

“I’m just curious,” she snapped.

“A stake through the heart—”

Ezzie stopped so abruptly Ava almost ran into her. Ezzie turned around.

“Will you stab me through the heart?”

“What? No!”

“Yes. It’s better than withering away into nothing,” said Ezzie bitterly. “I have nothing anymore.”

“You still have your sisters,” said Ava, wishing she had a Prozac in her back pocket. They’d have to work on Ezzie’s attitude. “You have me,” she offered.

“But you’re going back to the mortal world and I don’t want to go there because of all that violence. So barbaric. Even for an antidepressant.”

“It’s not all bad in my world,” said Ava. “There’s still love and all that stuff.”

“I had that here,” said Ezzie, then she turned around suddenly and began walking. “I had that here.” She whispered it so quietly Ava barely heard her, and Ava didn’t know what to say so she said nothing at all. There was no convincing Ezzie that her sisters still loved her or would welcome her back, and Ava wanted to shake Ezzie she was getting so frustrated, and she had to remind herself that it was just Ezzie’s depression talking.

“I see your depression,” she finally said. “It’s okay if you drink blood now. You can tell your sisters about it and explain why you didn’t want to tell them about the rollercoaster.”

“It won’t matter. Even Rosalie wouldn’t understand depression or how empty and sad I feel all of the time.”

And suicidal, Ava wanted to add, but didn’t. She assumed it would really be bizarre for an immortal to feel suicidal. That seemed so… un-immortal.

“Yes she would. All three would if you explained it to them. You can even tell them about all of the violence in my world and how there are no fountains of blood and they’d have to resort to barbarism to get blood, like the vampires in fiction.”

Ezzie didn’t say anything.

“Would they want to do that?”

“Well, no,” Ezzie finally said. “And even Rosalie has heard of violence.”

“See.”

Ezzie sighed. “Still, she said I was the long sleep to them. She said she didn’t want to see me again.”

Ava thought Ezzie would start crying, and she didn’t want Ezzie to cry. She hated it when people cried because it made her feel like she would start crying too, especially when it was someone she cared about, and she found that she was starting to care about Ezzie.

“They’d forgive you. Trust me,” she finally said. “I care about you, Ezzie.”

“You do? But I’m the reason why you’re here. I’m the reason why you almost got stuck in a spinning world.”

“You’re the reason why I’m not in that spinning world anymore.”

“But I saved you because you rescued us from the bad men and because I didn’t know what you were capable of.”

“Still.”

“I’m the reason why you may never be able to go home.”

“You’re helping me right now,” said Ava. “You’re leading us through the fog.”

Ezzie sighed again. “True I guess, but it’s the most I can do.”

“I truly care, Ezzie. I wish I had an antidepressant I could give you. I wish I were a therapist so I could help you more.”

“What’s a therapist?”

Of course she wouldn’t know what a therapist was.

“Someone who helps when a person is depressed or anxious.”

“Even Rosalie wouldn’t know that.”

“No. I suppose she wouldn’t.” If these immortal girls couldn’t even recognize depression, how would they know what a therapist was? “But they would help.”

“I’m a defective immortal,” said Ezzie.

“No you’re not!” said Ava, frustration in her voice without there meaning to be.

“Yes I am,” said Ezzie.

“No you’re not.”

“I am! The hell I’m not!” Wow. Ezzie sounded angry, and Ava was just happy she wasn’t going to start crying.

She figured there was no point in trying to convince Ezzie otherwise again, so she said nothing, and they walked in silence, and below them the cement road crumbled to gravel, until eventually they just walked over damp earth again and had to avoid boulders and sharp rocks. Luckily they didn’t come across any spinning worlds or walls or twilight lit arches, much to Ava’s relief. She wished she could cure Ezzie’s depression. She wished there was more she could do, but there really wasn’t.

#

Ava was tired and she was hungry, but she didn’t want to stop and rest. Instead she smoked as they walked, toxic fumes matching the chilly grayness all around them and end glowing a bright orange. The landscape around them changed, and soon they walked over cracked cement again, and the boulders were replaced by crumbling statues of ghostly humanoid figures. Ava dropped her smoked cigarette butt on the ground and shivered. The statues really creeped her out.

“Are we still going north?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Ezzie.

Ava wondered about the statues and who had carved them. More immortals? And then her heart went in her throat when she saw the demon, standing over there in the fog, body and twisted face and sharp claws all blending in with the grayness, except for its eyes, which glowed a bright red. She closed her eyes, fear overwhelming her, and when she opened her eyes again it was gone, and she no longer felt its suffocating presence. She was grateful for that. She didn’t want to say anything to Ezzie about the demon, so they walked in silence, through the chilly fog, with crumbled statues made of gray stone surrounding them. Ava wondered when they would reach another oasis. Hopefully one that was actually on the map in the book.

They walked for what seemed like forever to Ava, her feet hurting, and a tired headache making her eyes burn, before the fog cleared, revealing twisted trees that grew out of the broken cement beneath their feet. The trees were black and leafless and bones hung from their branches, still in the still air. Were those human bones? Ava hoped not. They passed a halfway crumbled statue of a naked man, and Ava stepped over its broken jaw that lay on the cracked cement. They must be in an oasis.

“Who do you think carved these statues?” asked Ava.

“I don’t know,” said Ezzie, holding onto the compass. “But we’re still heading north.”

“Good,” said Ava.

Above huge wisps of fog still filled the sky, but through that Ava could see a multitude of bright stars, and around them everything was lit with starlight, and shadows stretched from the statues and the crooked black trees with bones hanging from their branches. Ava didn’t like this place, and she clutched her heavy bag closer to her chest. At least there weren’t any mushrooms.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Her feet hurt. She wanted to sit down so bad, but knew they couldn’t. They had to get to that shimmering archway! So she walked alongside Ezzie and didn’t complain about how tired she was or how much her feet hurt. She assumed Ezzie didn’t need any sleep.

She wondered if Ezzie had ever seen the sun. This place seemed to only have night.

“The fictional vampires in my world can’t go out in the sun,” said Ava.

“What’s the sun?” asked Ezzie.

“It’s like one, big bright star that lights up the entire sky in blue.”

“Oh.”

“The vampires burn in the sunlight.”

“Okay.”

“So during the day your sisters would have to hide in the shadows or they’d get burned alive.”

“That’s awful!” said Ezzie.

“You can tell them that too about my world.”

Ezzie didn’t say anything.

Soon they came to a huge gray building, its top reaching the stars above, windows on it broken and boarded up and cement crumbling. The crooked black trees grew against it, a black ivy reached up the sides of it, growing in the cracks in the cement and reaching upwards and upwards, to the sky high roof of the building. It reminded Ava of long, black fingers, or a huge spider web, or of reaching black blood. She really hoped they wouldn’t have to go inside this creepy building.

The glass doors of the entry way were broken, and dirty glass lay on the cement, reflecting the stars above. Beyond all Ava could see were shadows.

“Let’s not go in there,” said Ava, not being able to suppress a shudder, and she put her shaky hands inside the pocket of her hoodie.

“Hell no! Don’t worry. I don’t want to either,” said Ezzie.

Ava was still fascinated by abandoned places, and this place looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, maybe even centuries, but she didn’t trust this place, not after the spinning world and the winter wonderland and the musician’s flute underneath that pavilion. Thinking about the musician made Ava think about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chips she’d had. Her stomach grumbled. Fuck she was starving.

They went left, following along the wall of the huge, crumbling building, avoiding glass and debris and the crooked black trees.

“We’re going west now,” said Ezzie.

That wasn’t good, and still the building seemed to have no end, like the wall had been, and Ava’s heart thudded. She really didn’t want to go inside this building, and once again it was becoming obvious this oasis wasn’t on the map either.

“Lets try the other way,” said Ava. “This building can’t go on forever in both directions.”

“Okay,” said Ezzie.

They went the other way and after what seemed like an hour to Ava they still hadn’t come to an end to the building, and she had the sinking revelation that they’d actually have to go inside it.

“We’re still going east,” said Ezzie, sounding as deflated as Ava felt. “I think we’re going to have to enter the building. It’s about north.”

“But I don’t want to,” said Ava. “I’m scared.”

“Me too,” said Ezzie. “But we have to. I wonder who the people were who abandoned this oasis.”

“So do I,” said Ava. “I’ve always had a fascination with abandoned places. It’s how I met Elizabeth.” She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. It just kind of came out, and she could feel her face burning. She had a full body blush going on she was sure, and she hoped Ezzie wouldn’t notice.

“Who’s Elizabeth?” asked Ezzie.

“No one,” Ava quickly said, not wanting to explain to Ezzie that she had a crush on a girl. “Just some friend of mine.” Though she wanted more than that, but Ava didn’t add that.

“Okay. Not your sister?”

“Fuck no!” said Ava. “I don’t have any sisters.”

“That’s very sad.”

Ava didn’t know what to say to that. They went back the way they’d come and stepped in front of the broken entryway of the building. What if the demon was lurking somewhere in there? Ava didn’t even want to think about that prospect. She doubted it was anyway. She’d only seen it twice, and both times it had been in the fog lands.

“Well, I guess we should go inside,” Ava finally said.

“Yeah,” said Ezzie.

Ava’s boots crunched over the dirty broken glass as they entered the building and the shadows lurking inside. It smelled old and dusty and faintly moldy. The entryway opened up to a huge room, lit by starlight from high skylights above. More statues were inside, all crumbled and cracked, and dry fountains and huge cement benches. The ivy grew in here as well, weaving around the statues and dry fountains and up to the starlight above.

“This place is creepy,” said Ava, as they walked further inside, past one of the dried out, crumbled fountains. “I wonder if those were fountains of blood,” said Ezzie.

Ava didn’t know, but she wished they were spewing blood right now so she could make Ezzie drink some. Ezzie consulted the compass, and Ava followed her out of the room, their footsteps echoing faintly, and down a narrow corridor, again lit by skylights and windows high above. She hoped there was a backdoor to this place. Hallways and rooms branched off from the corridor, all lit with shadows and starlight.

They entered a different room, again large, but instead of statues and fountains and great stone benches, this room was lined with shelves of dusty books and in the center was a great stone table, with an open book, yellowed sheets of paper and pencils spread across it. As they got nearer to the table, Ava saw that on the papers was scribbled writing and what may have been blueprints, but she wasn’t sure.

Ezzie went to the book, peered down at it, and her eyes widened.

“It’s about the rivers of blood in your world. It’s about how a rollercoaster can lead you there.”

“What! Let me see,” said Ava in disbelief, and she went to Ezzie and squinted down at the book, but sure enough it mentioned the rollercoaster and rivers of blood in the mortal world.

She looked at the blueprints on the table—blueprints on how to build the rollercoaster?

Those fountains really must have been spewing blood at one point.

“Do you think the ones who used to occupy this oasis were the inhabitants of the abandoned city by my oasis?” asked Ezzie, purple eyes gleaming in the dim light.

“Maybe,” said Ava. “I think you’re right I mean.”

“This is so interesting!” said Ezzie, sounding excited. “I’ve always wondered where the inhabitants of the abandoned city came from and why they’d vanished.”

“Yeah,” said Ava, just wanting to get going. She wanted out of this building, but she was happy Ezzie was excited about something.

She wondered why the map in the book was so incomplete, but maybe they’d written that book before leaving their oasis. That would explain it. And the more she thought about it, the more it made sense that they’d believe there were rivers of blood in her world, just not in the literal sense. So this immortal world was where all of the fictional vampires in folklore came from? It made Ava’s bad headache worse, and she wished she had a Tylenol.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Ezzie looked up from the book and picked up the compass from where she’d put it on the stone table.

“Should we go now?” she asked.

“Yes!” said Ava, not helping the relief in her voice. They were running out of time, and Ava was getting tired of starlight and fog. She wanted to see the sun again. She wanted to see bright fall leaves and feel them crunching beneath her boots. She didn’t want to see or face her mom or Mark, and she was still scared of Elizabeth and the kiss they’d shared. But she remembered Cadence and Leona, calling her and Ezzie momma and mommy, and couldn’t help a small smile as she followed Ezzie out of the room and down another narrow corridor. She really hoped this building had a back door and that they’d find it soon, but it soon became apparent that the building went on for miles! At least they were still going mostly north. They passed other narrow corridors and vacant rooms, and then they entered another huge room.

And it was like walking through a sheet of cold water, and suddenly the room was full of people and laughter and noise, and she was no longer with Ezzie, and she noticed, with alarm, that her bag was gone.

She stood in a kitchen, adjacent to a living room with a beige carpeting, and through the windows she saw trees and sunlight, and numerous people sat on comfy looking couches and talked and laughed, all in normal clothes—jeans and sweaters and t-shirts. Was she dreaming? Had she fallen asleep?

An old woman stood near her, opening a modern, gleaming oven, and Ava smelled roast, which grossed her out, but her stomach still grumbled, and on the kitchen table was a spread of crackers and cheese and salami and a huge veggie tray with dip in the middle. She was starving!

This was a family gathering. She could just tell, and little kids ran around the living room and down the hallway, all squealing with laughter, and it hurt Ava’s ears.

And here she stood, all alone. The old woman didn’t even glance up at her.

She went to the table and grabbed some cheese and crackers and ate until she was full and happy.

Now where was Ezzie, and where was her bag?

“Excuse me,” she said to the old woman, who was busy mashing up potatoes in a massive pot.

The old woman barely glanced at her.

“What do you want?” she asked.

Now that didn’t sound very friendly.

“Do you know what happened to my bag and my friend?”

The old woman just sighed and frowned and said, “Your bag is in the coat closet of course, in my bedroom. I don’t know where your friend is. I didn’t think you had any friends.

Now that wasn’t true. She had Elizabeth, though Elizabeth was her only friend, and she definitely didn’t consider Mark a friend. But Mark had been the only boy in her entire life who had ever given her attention, and the loneliness she’d always felt in high school overwhelmed her, feelings that there was something terribly wrong with her for no one wanting to be her friend, much less interested in her as a girlfriend, and she’d always been attracted to girls anyway. This old woman’s dismissive attitude just made her feel worse about herself.

“Where’s your bedroom? I need my bag!” said Ava. Her journal was in that bag.

“Down the hallway and to the left.”

“Thanks,” said Ava, and she had to step around two little, squealing boys with bright red faces. She went down the hallway, floor covered with that beige carpeting.

The only reason why she’d gone out with Mark was because he was the only one who had ever considered her as girlfriend material, and it made her feel sad and tired and ashamed of herself. She hadn’t had to return his attention, even if he was the only person who had ever shown interest in her. She set herself up for disaster. Was what he’d done to her really been her fault, like her mom claimed?

She found the bedroom easily enough and was appalled to find two little girls rummaging through her bag and giggling. One held her journal, the wire at the end of it still pointy, and alarm filled Ava. That couldn’t be safe for little kids to be playing with!

“Hey,” she said. “Give me that.”

“No!” the girl who held it squealed, and before Ava could do anything the little girls ran out of the room, notebook still in hand. Damn those kids were fast!

“Come back here!” she yelled after them, but they just giggled.

Ava quickly grabbed her bag and put it over her shoulder, then ran after the little girls, down the hallway with the beige carpeting, and back into the kitchen. The girls were in the living room, waving her notebook around. They were going to stab an eye out or something! This was not a good situation, and Ava hoped they wouldn’t hurt themselves.

She walked into the noisy living room. No one paid her any attention, just continued their conversations and laughter and overall noise, but one of the women was looking at the little girls.

“Where did you get that, Sophie?” she asked, trying to snatch it away from the little girl. “That’s not safe.”

“That’s mine,” said Ava, confronting the two squealing little girls, and all of the noise made her tired headache throb.

The girl holding the notebook stabbed herself in the thumb and began crying. Bright red blood dripped down her hand, and she dropped the notebook.

“How could you let Sophie have that!” the woman demanded of Ava, as she hugged the little girl and tried to stop her squeals of pain. “How dare you let my daughter have something so dangerous!”

The mother picked up the crying little girl and left the living room.

Had that really been Ava’s fault?

Had she really led Mark on, like her mom had accused her of?

Ava picked up her notebook and put it safely back in her bag. No one in the room paid her any attention, and the loneliness and shame was overwhelming, and she was so tired.

There was an open spot now on the comfy looking couch.

“Mind if I sit next to you?” she asked the woman who sat next to it. She laughed as she talked to a man waving his arms around as he spoke. He held a beer bottle in one hand and just the sight of that made Ava feel more sick with shame. She’d let Mark get her drunk. She’d let him take advantage of her. Maybe it really was her fault she’d been raped, had her virginity taken away from her by someone she didn’t even find attractive, but who had been the only one to ever show her interest. Maybe her mom really was right.

“I guess so,” snapped the woman. “Though Donna will probably be coming back shortly and you’ll have to move.”

These people were so mean to her, and she supposed she deserved it.

“That’s okay,” said Ava. She absolutely had to sit down, even for just a little bit, and the couch was just as comfy as it looked. She sat back and closed her eyes and was soon fast asleep. She woke with a start when the woman next to her poked her in the arm.

“Donna’s back,” she said.

And sure enough, Donna stood there, the squealing little girl in her arms. She had a bright pink band aid on her thumb, and Donna put her down, and Sophie ran around the room, showing off her band aid and also ignoring her. Ava yawned. She must have only been asleep for fifteen minutes. She reluctantly stood up, and Donna quickly took her spot, giving Ava a cold stare.

It was like being in high school all over again. She was an outcast amongst family members and friends. Would anyone ever show her any attention, other than Mark, and of course Elizabeth.

Elizabeth.

She remembered their initial meeting in the library and coffee and the movie and when Elizabeth had kissed her. It had been so sweet. Why had she run away? Was she scared of her sexuality? She thought that must be the case, that she wasn’t entirely comfortable with it yet. Would it ever grow on her? Could she even speak to Elizabeth again?

And realized, with alarm, that she had more than just a crush on Elizabeth. She was in love with her, the feeling warm in her heart, making her feel hot all over, and she hoped she wasn’t having a full body blush, not that any of these people would notice anyway.

But her mom had forbid her from ever seeing Elizabeth again.

Well, her mom couldn’t stop her if she chose to see Elizabeth again. The thought of her mom’s wrath terrified her though, and she knew that if she told her parents what she was they’d disown her, and then where would she go, and how would she pay for college?

Ava willed her blush to go away as she walked back to the kitchen, clutching her bag to her chest.

Where was Ezzie?

The old woman had taken the roast out of the oven and was slicing it. She didn’t even look up at Ava, as Ava went to the sliding glass doors by the kitchen table and opened them. She wanted to feel the sun on her face, and then it was like stepping through that sheet of icy cold water again, and she stood in a corridor, at the other end of the huge, barren room.

What had that been all about?