After I Died

Nightshade Hall, 326

     I stared down the long hallway and into the shadowy abyss that consumed the end of it. It didn't look like the entrance to a high school dormitory hall, but what did I know?

     "Come on! You're gonna love it, guarantee!" Alex said, looking back at me with a fanged smile before walking into the clock as I followed close behind. I expected to be quickly swallowed in the darkness, but I never reached it. As I moved forwards down the hall, the darkness moved back. For a moment I thought the hallway was stretching as I walked, when I felt something hard in my hand, where the slip of paper should have been.

     I looked at it, it was a plastic key card, the same size as the paper that was there before. It had the same words on it as well, Nightshade Hall, 326, but now in a regal looking font, black against the deep purple of the rest of the card. I turned the card over, and on the back was an ID. My ID. The first thing that caught my eye was my photo. It was me, but I hadn't had my photo taken my whole time here, when was this taken? Then my name. Well, a name. Emily "Kat" Caldera. I would've thought it was a mistake, but it did say Kat. Even if in quotations. Then I remembered something, something I couldn't believe I'd forgotten. I didn't know what my real name was. I made 'Kat' up off an advertisement I saw after I woke up. Could Emily be my real name?  Was this my full name? Looking at it, it just looked... right. Complete, like another piece of the puzzle I didn't know existed.

     "Hey, you coming?" Alex's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I realized I'd stopped walking. I didn't want to tell anyone about this new development yet, especially since I wasn't sure how I felt about being called Emily, so I quickly stuffed the card into my pocket without reading the rest of the information on there.

     "Uh, yeah! My bad!" I called, jogging up behind her.

     "The eternal darkness freakin' you out?" She asked, once I caught up to her.

     "Yeah, a little." I lied as Alex started walking again.

     "Well, get used to it. This is how you get to your bed every night." She said, pulling a plastic key card out of her jacket pocket.

     "Oh hey, about those key cards..." I started, seeing hers inspiring a question. "Do they ever... get something wrong?" At this Alex paused.

     "The key cards?" She asked, turning around. "No way. They like, read your soul or mind or something." She said, looking at hers. "Everything on here is one-hundo percent accurate, even if you didn't tell anyone." She said, turning hers towards me. "They even got my good side." She smirked, mimicking the picture on her card.

     I wasn't sure whether this news was comforting or not, but at least I knew my real name for sure now. Maybe I could even find my parents one day. 

     "Cool." I said, trying to end the conversation before any awkward situation arose.

     "You okay?" Drat.

     "Yeah, just curious." I said, hoping I was convincing enough for her to drop it.

     "Alright, when you're ready to tell me the truth, lemme know." She said, turning around and continuing walking again. That... wasn't what I expected, but I followed her down the tunnel in silence. I guess I had more learning to do in regard of the art of lying to one's face.

     "We're here!" Alex said, stopping in front of the darkness again. It didn't look like we were any closer than when we started. Without turning or looking, Alex knocked on several different stones wall next to her. Up, down, right, diagonally up and to the left, and right. Suddenly, a door shot forth from the darkness and halted in front of us. A plain wooden one, with a simple round doorknob.

     "Woah." I said, figuring I should stop being surprised by weird things happening here, and since I was sure more would happen anyways.

     "Yep! Pretty fancy security." Alex said, opening the door and walking through it as I followed her in.

     The door opened to reveal a long hallway with deep purple wallpaper and black wood tiled floors. I guess purple is Nightshade Hall's color. Doors with small gold plaques lined the hallway on both sides, and it seemed to stretch on forever like the tunnel did. 

     "Our room isn't too far down, come on!" Alex said, starting down the hall. We hadn't walked very far down when Alex stopped again and turned to the door on her right. She then tapped her key card against the plaque on the door in front of her that read '326' and the door swung open.

     The door must have been some sort of portal because the room I walked into was far too large not to collide with the room next door. The first thing I noticed was the cushions, the sheer amount of miscellaneous cushions that covered almost every surface I could see, in various sizes, colors, patterns, and shapes. The next thing was the numerous cool colored, silky looking fabrics that hung from a part of the ceiling in hammock fashion that complimented the cool blue walls. Along the right wall were three canopy beds on an elevated part of the floor with small stairs built in, each a different color scheme, and a small bedside table from each of them. Then I noticed another bed, which was so buried in cushions I hardly noticed it. On the left wall was another door, an old antique roll top desk sitting farther down the wall from it. On the far wall was a window, small potted plants adorning it's ledge and dappled sunlight spreading through the glass and seeping into the maple floorboards. It perplexed me, seeing how this area was far from the exterior walls of the school, but it didn't surprise me with everything else I've seen.

     "Boom! Raddest dorm ever! You can clap now." Alex said, grinning and plopping down on one of the larger cushions.

     "This is..." I looked around the room again, to take it in again and to try and think of something to say.

     "I know, leaves 'em speechless every time." Alex says, stretching out over the cushion. I stood there, admiring the room for several more moments until Alex got up.

     "Aw, crap." She muttered, walking over to the cushion smothered bed closest to the door. "Sorry about this, if I'd known you were rooming with us earlier I'd have cleaned this off beforehand." She said, tossing the cushions off the bed, over her shoulder, and onto the sea of them already on the floor. 

     "Oh, it's fine." I said, watching the pile of pillows move from the bed to the floor. Once the bed was cleaned off, save a few smaller cushions, Alex dusted her hands off.

     "There we are! I knew your bed was here somewhere!" She joked, crossing her arms as if to admire her handiwork.

     "I honestly didn't see it at first." I chuckled, realizing it was a pretty nice bed.

     "I know, right? I forget it's there sometimes and stub my toe, it blends right in!" She says, sitting down on the bed next to mine. "I know I gotta give you a tour, but how about we just chill here for a couple minutes?" She leans back and lays down on the bed, her legs dangling off it. 

     "You don't have to ask me twice." I said, lying down on my own bed, which was pleasantly soft and silky. After a couple moments of silence, Alex spoke.

     "So... I gotta know." She started, still staring at the ceiling of her canopy. "You really don't remember anything? Dyin', wakin' up? Nothing?" I'd been expected more questions about that, I just wished it wasn't now. Or anytime, really.

     "Nothing. My earliest memory was waking up in this abandoned building and Death talking to me before disappearing." I say, still tired of having to reiterate this so many times.

     "Death talked to you?" Alex asked, reminding me that she'd been gone when I told Sabrina and Cameron. I retold her what I'd told them, but a little less flippantly. "Huh." Alex said when I finished. "That's not cryptic or creepy." She didn't say it with sarcasm, but I assumed it was anyways.

     "Yeah, I've got no clue what any of it means." I shrugged, even though we couldn't see each other from our positions on our beds.

     "Well," Alex said, sitting up. "Ready for that tour?"