The Passion House

IX (Part II)

The glow of the rooftop lights reflects on the shard of glass Sid is holding in her right hand. It is a 6 inches long and 3 inches wide diamond-shaped glass that sparkles in this dark night like a crystal so beautiful we can forget that it can take our lives away. Silence has enveloped us as we hear the car honking from meters away in the real world. But it might be true. That the easiest way out of here... is to die.

But why do we strive to live even if we know that we all lead in that same direction?

“But what if we don’t?” the unnamed girl gently reaches out to Sid with her voice cracking. She holds Sid in both of her arms and tries to take the shard of glass away from her. “Let’s go to our rooms, okay? We’ll wake up that way.” She looks at me. “Let’s trust her,” she pertains to me, “then we can leave this place safely.” 

However, Sid no longer listens to her. She immediately grabs the girl for a hug and stabs her on her stomach using the shard. We gasp as we feel our feet stand frozen to the ground. We can’t seem to move. We are scared about what can possibly happen. Sid can stab any one of us, too. I did my best to move and go to them but Sid signals me not to.

“Ysa, I’m sorry,” Sid whispers to her. She calls the girl Ysa. “But I don’t want to believe in your lies anymore.” She twists the broken glass in Ysa’s stomach and the latter moans in pain while she vomits blood. I cover my mouth to refrain from shouting. The red velvet liquid also slowly creeps from the glass and created drops on the ground. “You said, this place is better than the reality. I believed that what you said is true. But what is this now?”

She twists the knife again in Ysa’s belly so the latter losses her balance and fall to her knees. Blood is now pouring out of her bloody and has created a huge pool of red liquid. “Ysa, let’s get out of here. Okay?” Ysa tries her best to look up and smile at Sid.

“Let’s get out of here, Sid,” before she falls to the ground lying unconscious. 

I feel a hand softly nudge me on my left I turn around and I see Steven holding Stacey up and mouth me, Let’s get out of here. I nod and look at Yohanne across us and signaled her to go. She agrees with me. We slowly creep outside the murder scene when we hear Sid talk.

“Why are you leaving? Don’t you want to go home?”

We all turn towards her. Her head is down while her hands are full of blood. Her white dress now has stains with it, too. I never thought that I personally would ever witness such a sight. I feel myself shiver as I realize what kind of crimes can be done here without properly facing consequences. I hug myself up. She looks at us.

“Why won’t you want to look at our die?” She asks and looks down on the body of Ysa. “Ysa and I have been friends since we have been a child.” She looks up and looks at the unnamed guy who is silently crying while looking at the two women covered in blood. “Together with Ron.” She reaches out her hands towards him to call him out. “We are all orphans and we practically grew up together.” She breaths. It looks so haunting when Ron walks to her and holds her hand even though one of them holds the glass that has killed their friend. 

“We don’t know our names and our real date of birth. We also do not know our exact age.” She says. “And it feels like we have been floating around invisibly in the real world.” Ron smiles at Sid.

“Just so if we did die here, and you all can escape, I hope that at least someone should remember us. I don’t want us to die without having a single person remember even the names we have made for ourselves.” She raises her hand to stab herself.

But Ron catches them and attempts to snatch away the shard of glass. However, he fails. 

“NONONO...” I can hear Sid whisper as she clasps Ron’s pained face. “I didn’t mean to, Ron! I’m so sorry. RON!” Ron touches his neck and he sees blood coming from it. Unconsciously, Sid is able to slit his throat while trying to keep the knife in her hands.

“Ron! No! Please, Don’t Die!” Ron drops to the ground beside Ysa. Their blood mixes to each other as tears fall down from Sid when she realizes what has happened. She lets go of the glass and it made a noise so haunting I feel a shiver in my spine.

“NO!” Sid shouts wildly like a child who lost her parents. “Don’t leave me here!” She says and hugs the corpses. She turns to look at us. “YOU!!!” She stands up and starts marching to us with anger in her eyes.

“Let’s go,” Steven whispers to me so we start to run to the door.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP ME FROM DOING IT?!” She shouts. Steven opens the door and we immediately go inside it. We help Stacey go down the spiral staircase. I look around and find at three 2 stories below us, an exit door. That must be the one for the lobby.

“We should get out of here, fast,” I tell her while pointing at the door.

“But where is Yohanne?” She tells us as his brother and I keep on helping her walk down. I look around and find out that Yohanne is still near the door. She is trying to woo Sid.

“Calm down, Sid. It’s not your fault, okay? Come with us calmly. Let’s leave this place. I know that your friends are now waiting for you on the other side.” Yohanne tells her calmly. Their voices are echoing the tower.

“NO!” Sid shrieks. “LET ME GO! ALL OF YOU DESERVES TO DIE! Because of you, MY FAMILY DIED! THEY DIED BECAUSE YOU DID NOT STOP ME.” 

“I am not allowing you to pass until you calm down.” It seems like Yohanne is trying to stop Sid from following us while she is still freaking out. It definitely has given us three enough time to reach the door. Steven immediately opens it. Yohanne is so Brave.

“Let’s get out of here,” Steven says to his sister. “Let’s wait for Yohanne outside.”

Stacey worriedly looks up. I follow her eyes, too. And we both regret what we have seen.

Yohanne is being choked by Sid on the railings on the top floor. And because the room is like a circular staircase, we can clearly see what is happening.

“No...” I hear Stacey's whispers. As if she has heard our thoughts, Yohanne looks at us. She smiles as she mouths us, go. Before she hugs Sid and they go flying to the ground. They drop down past us, diving to the hard cold hard floor at the bottom. Stacey goes to the railings to see her friend and the mad stranger dying at the bottom and the white marble floor starts to get red from the two who are losing their lives. She pushes herself to climb down and reach her best friend even though her feet are now bleeding again from the pressure she puts on them, leaving trails of red liquid on the golden stairs.

Yohanne raises her right hand weakly and signals us to go before taking her last breath with a smile on her face. Steven immediately carries Stacey like a bride even with the latter’s protest. She keeps on punching Steven and she kicks her feet but Steven is now pretty composed and committed to saving his twin sister out as he now understands the purpose of Ron’s door closing earlier.

I realize although we are just in a dream right now, and there’s no certainty about the death outside, the pain of losing someone important to you right in front of your eyes is still the same in reality.