Chapter Text
Laura had been sitting on the floor of a random hallway in her school during a free period. She picked at the dirt on the ground, her bright green eyes boring into the wall in front of her looking seemingly at nothing. She was bored out of her mind but she was too tired from the endless hours of studying she had done last night to do anything about that. She really had to cut back on the all-nighters, she thought with remorse. She slumped her head to the side and noticed that there was a folded-up note residing beside her. She hummed to herself with curiosity reaching over and carefully unfolding it.
She immediately detected her name in the note, which on its own wouldn’t be weird, as her name had never been a particularly unique one but in neatly printed words on the top of the paper was her full name. She read it again checking if her eyes had deceived her but sure enough the words ‘Laura Aubry Argent’ were right there. It was strange because she had no classes in this section of the school nor did she have any friends that did so she wondered how it got here and if it was just some strange coincidence that she had found it. Nevertheless, she read on with a furrowed brow. It reads as follows:
“Dear Laura Audry Argent,
I hope this letter finds you in good fortune, or even at all. You see my name is r̴͇̃́̍̑̋̆̓́̾̄̑̈́͑e̵͔̭̺̜̋͑̿͂ͅd̷̢̛͍̣̲̰͍͙̗͚̰͉̝̰̳̊͐́̅̃̓̾̒͆̉́͘a̴̡̭̘͔͇̰̩̩͇͓̫̲͖̘̮̔̎͋̈̎c̶̙̠̥͋͂̒́͑͋͆̄̀̔͛͘͝ţ̵̢̨͎̫͓̝̬̾̿̓̑̇̽͑̽̋̂͝ȩ̵̢̛͚͈̠̻̫̠͖̦̗͇̘̯̒͗͗͛̑͆̿̇̑̊̚̚d̴̫̪͎͗̑̅̍̓̑͠ and right now I’m writing this letter in hopes that you can help me. None of this will make sense to you right now but that's okay. Now you might not believe it but I'm from a different world. A world so old it has no name. You need to go to the coordinates written on the back of this paper as soon as you get this letter. All will be explained soon.
-yours truly,r̴͇̃́̍̑̋̆̓́̾̄̑̈́͑e̵͔̭̺̜̋͑̿͂ͅd̷̢̛͍̣̲̰͍͙̗͚̰͉̝̰̳̊͐́̅̃̓̾̒͆̉́͘a̴̡̭̘͔͇̰̩̩͇͓̫̲͖̘̮̔̎͋̈̎c̶̙̠̥͋͂̒́͑͋͆̄̀̔͛͘͝ţ̵̢̨͎̫͓̝̬̾̿̓̑̇̽͑̽̋̂͝ȩ̵̢̛͚͈̠̻̫̠͖̦̗͇̘̯̒͗͗͛̑͆̿̇̑̊̚̚d̴̫̪͎͗̑̅̍̓̑͠”
Laura stared gaping at the letter. She expected some sort of letter from a crush who was too nervous to actually confront her but this- this was just insane. I’ve got to be sleeping, she thought to herself.
That was the only explanation, I must’ve fallen asleep while studying.
She’d remembered seeing somewhere that when you look up in a dream your mind will realize it’s asleep because it can't actually accurately picture the sky.
She slowly tilted her head upward and- nothing it looked as normal as ever. She then went to pinch herself hard on the arm hoping it’d wake her but her attempts were futile. She realized with dawning horror that she was awake. She hadn’t seen anybody walk down this hallway the entire time she’d been there so she didn’t have a clue as to how the note had gotten there, or as to how they knew where she was going to be. Her shoulders raised in defense at the thought that she could have a stalker. She hoped that this was all some weird sort of prank, but if it was she didn’t know what lunatic would find her panicking over having an actually funny prank.
She slowly stood up then bent down to collect her backpack, eyes not leaving her surroundings for even a second. She picked up the note and stuffed it into the pocket of her backpack hastily. She began to walk down the hall, periodically looking behind her in a vain attempt to catch a stalker who in all probability was not real. Before she had been craving coffee but this woke her up much better than caffeine ever could.
She continued down the hall to her next period despite the fact that she wouldn’t have class for another 10 minutes. Laura shuffled her feet in hopes that she could go slow enough that by the time she reached her destination it would already be class time. She was on autopilot at this point so she could have never have seen the shadow sneaking behind her inching closer, and closer, and-
“Boo!!!” it yelled, placing its hand on her shoulder. Laura screamed and whirled around to face her attacker…okay now she’s just embarrassed., that ‘it’ just happened to be one of her friends, Lillie.
“Jesus Christ Lillie, what the hell,” she said in a breathless voice.
“Damn why are you so jumpy dude? usually you never get scared when I do that,” she replied easily.
“yeah well…” her voice puttered off at the end, not really knowing what to say.
“You good? You seem kinda off,” Lillie asked worriedly.
“Uhm, yeah man things have just been weird the past few minutes.”
“That's very ominous but whatever you say. I’m not one to pry!”
“Er uh actually-I-think-I-might-have-a-stalker,” she said so quickly that the whole sentence became a mush of syllables and sounds undetectable as actual words.
“Sorry, what now?” she said looking at Laura oddly.
“I said I-” but her words were lost in the loud ringing that was the bell.
“Oops well, that's gonna have to wait, Laura. My class is all the way across the school so I gotta go.” Laura watched as her friend skipped down the hall.
Laura sighed exasperatedly and opened the door to her next class before she could get a chance to see the hallway become a mess of adolescents trying to navigate the crowded halls, pushing and shoving anyone in their path. She got to her desk and put her head down, hoping that for the rest of class she could forget about that freaky note.she stared out the window, studying any little detail to get her mind off things. She heard the teacher start talking but she couldn’t bring herself to pay attention to the droning words. She had started to feel her lack of sleep catching up with her again after the adrenaline. Maybe closing my eyes for a few seconds wouldn’t be too bad, she reasoned and with that she fell asleep. The next time she opened her eyes she found that she was sitting all alone in the room. Looks like Ms. Lewis hadn’t actually cared enough to wake her up and just left her there. Seriously, who the hell does that? She pondered for a second before glancing at the clock and scrambling to collect her things. I’ve just got to stop doing all-nighters!
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The remaining events at school were uneventful, she even began to almost forget about what had happened, keyword being almost. Eventually she was able to leave, walking home she gingerly took the now slightly crumpled up note out of the side pocket in her backpack and carefully inspected the coordinates written on the back of the note. She plugged them into google to see if it was an actual place, and surprisingly it was. It was the small lake a couple miles from her house that people these days rarely went to. It wasn’t really an ideal place for recreation. The lake water was dirty and gross and the ground was either muddly or littered with pebbles and rocks. Though it was known to be supposedly haunted. People saw flashes of light during the night and sometimes they heard unexplained voices when walking by. How cliche, Laura noted. Okay now she wasn’t dumb, she realized this was probably just a stupid prank by some weirdo but she began to feel like the curiosity was getting to her. She contemplated going to the coordinates but she quickly shook the thought from her head. Probably just a prank…
Days went by with the thought of going to the lake occupying her thoughts. Her friends had pointed out to her that she seemed a little distracted lately so she decided to explain to them what had happened and showed them the note. Some laughed her off while others told her to bring it to the police if she was actually concerned about a stalker but Laura knew they wouldn’t really do anything about it, after all what could they really do? By the end of the week Laura grew tired of it and decided to go to the lake, if not just to reassure herself that it was nothing.
She was currently residing in her bedroom getting ready to go to the lake. She liked to be prepared for things so she always brought a backpack full of things that could be useful, and she’d also discovered that it was a small 20 minute hike to where the specific coordinates lead. She packed a water bottle, because she really needed to remember to drink more water anyway. She also packed a portable phone charger in case on the very off chance she got lost her phone could stay charged, pepper spray in case of any creeps or rabid animals, and a few snacks. With that she felt prepared enough and after she put on a gray flannel (it’d probably be cold) she told her parents she was gonna go hang out with her friends, they probably wouldn’t care either way but she didn’t want her to berate her with questions.
She’d gotten to the area the lake was situated at with minimal trouble, only thinking she heard some creature a few times, but when she went to look there was nothing. She sat down against a tree, peering at her surroundings and just kind of taking it all in. there was really nothing out of the ordinary. She let her guard down, tilting her head up and closing her eyes, drinking in the sounds and smells of the forest around her. It was serene and she wondered why she didn’t take more walks or hikes. She’d been hiking a few times at her family's insistence, they claimed it would be a good family activity but it had been a rainy month, making puddles of still-water resulting in swarms of mosquitoes, and it was so hot that she needed to tie her black wavy hair up just not to overheat (if she had it her way, she’d never put her hair up, it just wasn’t comfortable) Needless to say it wasn’t the most pleasant of hikes. The recreational walks she went on mostly included going to the nearby convenience store. So she guessed she had a good excuse more of the time.
The wind around her picked up and she could see the lighting change even beneath her eyelids. Her eyes flickered open and she immediately saw something out of the corner of her eye. She snapped her head to the side and without thinking, blurted out
“Ah yes, so I’ve gone insane,” she said in such a voice that anyone who heard it would surely know she was barely holding it together. Before her was an iridescent, swirling blue light about 2 feet wide and 6 feet tall floating over the lake. She stood up shakily and peered out behind it. There was no projector or strings attached to it or anything signaling that she hadn’t legitimately gone batshit insane. Carefully and against her better judgment she reached out to touch it. By all accounts this light seemed to be tangible and real, she could really feel it on her fingers. The only way she could describe it was the kind of feeling you get when you cut off the circulation on a limb for too long and it’d fall asleep. She pulled her hand out and as she did it seemed as if the light chased and flickered toward her, like a needy cat when you stop petting it. The only word that could begin to describe how she felt was flabbergasted.
For some reason her thoughts screamed at her to walk into it. Every fiber in her being felt like this was what she was meant to do, and almost in a trance-like state she walked in without another thought.