Borrowed Time

Chapter 116

There was something dark in the limbo of the hallway that Juliette felt stuck inside of, like she couldn't breathe... It felt like she was being held underwater by something that was just out of her sight, out of her mind... And she couldn't cry out, she couldn't do anything to stop the sinking feeling that she was stuck where she was for the rest of her life, never to be free again.

It was cold, she could feel herself trembling even as she was drenched in sweat, trying to squirm away, to feel anything that wasn't entirely immobilizing and terrifying... The hand only seemed to tighten around her, like a noose that was guaranteeing her untimely death... She could feel the panic gripping in her chest as she realized that there was no way out, no way to stop the falling, the careening way that she was tumbling through life.

She landed then, landed hard on some kind of ground that made her gasp even as her eyes refused to open.

Wake up. Wake up, it'll stop if you wake up...

She was dreaming now, she could tell... There were no clocks, the walls were moving as though they were alive, those were things that permeated her nightmares from a young age, they made her feel stuck and uneasy, like she was trapped... And it was only getting worse the longer that she was stuck under the invisible hand.

She recognized the room that she was in now, it was the lobby of the funeral home, and she was wearing the dress that she'd dawned when her mother was buried, only it was a bit too short and a little tight around the hips... It hadn't grown with her, it had stayed suspended in time... and she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at the two caskets that sat in front of her.

"You know what you need to do, Juliette." She shivered at the voice, recognizing it instantly... Dale. Of course it was Dale... She could see him, but she couldn't hear him. Even in her dream state, she tried to squeeze her eyes shut and shake her head, tried to cover her ears, but it was no use, he was in her mind.

You're not real. None of this is real.

But she was believing it less and less the longer that she remained there. A hand pushed her lower back, moving her forward even as she tried to move away, tried again to scream.

"This is what you were made for. You were born to die, you were created to suffer, to suffocate in the grave that you dug for yourself." She tried to protest, to dig her heels in as she got closer to the edge, but her feet couldn't find purchase as she was moving faster now, her hands gripping onto the side of the casket now, staring in... The casket was full, holding a skeleton with the scraps of a yellow dress, hands folded across its stomach.

Her mother.

Fuck. Wake up, you can't do this... You've gotta get up, that's the only way it'll stop, force yourself up, Dr. Yates taught you how, do it.

But it'd been years since she'd seen Dr. Yates... and she was too busy staring at something that was definitely what her brain had decided that her mother's decayed body would look like... What did the other casket hold? Did she want to know?

"She's waiting for you. She's the only one who is still bothering to wait for you." She shivered again at the coldness of Dale's voice. A click was heard behind her, one that she recognized as she felt something familiar press to the back of her head, cool and metal. She felt a hand grip her hair when she tried to press forward, choosing to crawl into a casket full of bones.

"You can't get away from me now, Juliette." She felt like she could throw up at the feeling of his hand closing around her hair, pushing her head closer and closer to her mother's own skeleton... Maybe she was always meant to die like this.