Purgatory

Chapter 36

I stayed at the Carver residence well into the night as I built up the gumption to remove myself from my goals.  My mind kept giving me doubt by telling me there had to be some other way than the choices given to me.  I fiddled with the keys that dangled from the chain around my neck absentmindedly, and their chiming filtered through the silent night’s air.  Jason and Johnathan lay in their beds deeply asleep, their breaths even and soft.

I brought the keys to eye level to study them closer.  My gloved fingers brushed against the rusted metallic surface that mutedly refracted the lights from outside their window.  I recalled the memory held within its simplistic design fondly.  Naddia and I were rummaging through the dresser drawer in an old abandoned house just outside the property line my parents owned.  We originally entered the home in search for the thrill of a ghost hunt and got side tracked by the mysteries held within the furniture.  Most of what we found was old linens and dusty knick knacks, but the keys were our greatest find.

The ghost in the house soon became aware of our presence and chased us until we were far into the back woods behind the old home.  Naddia managed to snag the keys and handed one to me.  She said it symbolized our friendship and how we’d grow old just like the keys, but always together.  I didn’t even know what they were until she explained to me that once these opened locks with a simple turn of the hand.

As I studied the shaft of the keys, I noticed something sticking out from the small hollow chamber in one of them.  I picked at it carefully to see if it could be removed and found that it was a rolled piece of paper stuffed tightly within the space.  When I finally removed it in one piece I noticed the paper was not old.  I carefully unrolled the small piece and noticed handwriting imprinted in a dark ink along its surface.

“Open the Square door.”  The words on the paper were simple, but I didn’t understand it.  I didn’t recognize the handwriting, either.  I didn’t know of any doors that were actually in the shape of a square, but I knew of the door in Purgatory marked with a bright blue square.  Perhaps that is what the note was referring to.  I seemed to be drawn there through many methods, and it was then I decided to stay with Purgatory for another four days to investigate what was behind the door.

The Square door was placed within the medical ward, and the only way into that ward was to either have an assessment scheduled or an injury that needed their attention.  I could find a way to injure myself, but actually accessing the door would prove difficult.  I tried it once before by simply pressing my hands to the panel, but the results were negligible and predictable.  I’d have to find some way to bypass the security with or without triggering an alert, and my only chances at successfully doing so left with Curse.

I toyed with the idea of going Rogue to locate Curse and find a way to hack through the system from the outside.  I could also infiltrate Purgatory by going Rogue and turning myself in only after Curse gave me a method to bypass the door’s security.  It would be a risky mission, though, especially when I wasn’t certain as to what Purgatory would do to me if I went Rogue even for a day.

Like an airy sigh, Pain appeared before me, her wispy figure undulating between solidity and ethereal mist.  Her posture was rigid and as still as the dead as she stared at me.  Her pallid lips parted slowly before she spoke.

“You do not heed Death’s warning,” she said to me.

“I’ll do it eventually,” I explained in a whisper.  “I need more time to investigate something.”

“You should not go back,” she responded, and I glanced over at Jason’s sleeping figure to make sure our conversation wasn’t waking him.

“I think there’s…something I can find,” I said cryptically knowing Purgatory was listening in on my side of the conversation.  While they saw what I read on the note, they wouldn’t know my motive.  Pain tilted her head curiously and allowed me to continue.  “There’s a door in Purgatory marked with a blue square.  Have you seen it?”