Lost Stars

xxiv. xanadu

Elle decided, more on a curious whim really, to head over to Jack's house to do a little digging. But her mind wasn't really certain of what overwhelming demonic emotions it would have to defeat now. Jack's house used to be the brightest Eden in her life, but with the sunshine finally gone, she wondered what it would feel like to once again submerge herself in it's grasp.

In her hands was the mysterious box of Jack's whimsical life. She walked over to the front door and pulled out the set of keys he had left her and dug the one labeled house into the keyhole. True enough, she heard the locks turning and she was able to twist the nob and enter.

She looked inside and, it was left all the same. The wreck Jack had caused on his violent rampage was still preserved. Honestly, had she not have known of his untimely death, she would have still believed that he was still here. The smell of the house, the smell of Jack, was still plentiful in the air as it filled the house with an illusion of liveliness.

The flower of this visit was roses, but these roses have withered away as they were being consumed by the void that was lingering on the edges of each petals, just waiting for time to push them forward.

Her ballet flats made their way up the stairs and headed towards his room to find that the door was also locked, which is where the second key came in handy. She picked it up and shoved it in the keyhole, and she was instantly granted access into Jack's private space.

Tears almost slipped out when she entered, being reminded of everything that was lovely and wonderful about him and how no one could save him from the inevitable. Remnants of the time that this room has been forgotten were very obvious but even when the room was covered with dust, the memories they shared were still shining as bright as the stars.

And with the mysteriously unlabeled key clutched between her fingers tightly, she started maneuvering herself around the room to find anything that could possibly be its other half. It was definitely a long shot, but it was the only theory she had. That the keys lead to something like how the first key lead her to using the second key, which meant the third key was within the confines of the second key.

She checked his bedside table. She looked inside his closet. She tried looking for a mysterious box under his bed or something, but all of which did not require keys to open, and she allowed herself to fall back and land on his bed in. exhaustion. And as she clutched his pillow and buried her face in it as she smelled the scent of him trying to relive everything, she tried to put herself in his shoes.

And that was when her eyes locked on the computer he had stationed at the corner of his room. The computer that had a drawer with a lock on it.

She dropped the pillow and rushed towards it, and she couldn't help the flutter of nerves that she felt when she saw that the key was a perfect fit. Her lungs inhaled deep breaths to prepare her for the revelation of what he would have hidden here and why he felt that she was the responsible option to have the key that unlocks it.

Her hands tugged on the wooden drawer, and all she saw was a plain card with what seems to be someone's contact information.

Lauren Greene
Composure Magazine
New York City

Elle looked at it with her eyebrows scrunched. Her mind tossed around the question of why Jack would ever need this. Tossing yet another mind boggling thing about him aside, she reached her arm in the drawer and quickly felt the entire thing before she felt her hand hit something.