The Black Lingerie, Chapter Sixteen

by Ebo

This story was written as a novel and isn't episodic. I recommend starting from the beginning.

Smiling, Erin opened her eyes. She glanced to her left, saw Ashley and Mindy spooned together, the redhead molded to the brunette's back. They were breathing normally again, gone the creepy shallow inhalations from last night.

Erin was glad for that. Remembering the unnatural, coma-like state the girls had entered when their minds cast out from their bodies to the place of locked doors, she shivered. If she ever saw the husks of her friends again, it would be too soon.

Careful not to awaken the duo, she slipped from bed. After a quick trip to the bathroom, she found the notebook in which Ashley had been taking notes about the place of locked doors. Finding the last page of writing, she wrote 'Astral Projection' as a header. She looked at it for a moment, then added a question mark for good measures. Under the header, she began writing about the weird events of last night.

She was just finishing detailing the curious sense of motion she'd felt when her mind slipped from her body and went wandering, when Ashley appeared at her side. She gave Erin a curious look. Erin held the notebook out for her to read, figuring she'd done a better job on paper explaining the phenomenon than she could have out loud. She'd done a lot of erasing and backtracking in her narration, as it were.

Frowning, Ashley took the notebook from her, read what she had written.

"This really happened?"

"Yeah," Erin said, smiling at the look on her friend's face. The description of her tranced-out state clearly creeped her out as much as it had Erin.

"God," she said, rubbing her arms to get rid of the goosebumps that had sprouted on them, "I'm glad I wasn't awake to see that."

Shaking her head, Erin said, "I wish I could say the same."

"So you think our consciousness actually leaves our bodies when we flip over to the place of locked doors?"

"I do. I think it explains why everything feels so real over there. It's because we are actually there. Well, the part that makes us... well, us."

"Huh," Ashley said, looking down at the notes.

Erin looked at her friend, met her gaze. She couldn't read what she was thinking behind those emerald eyes.

"What are you thinking?"

"That you are probably right. It's just..."

"What?"

"A couple of things are bothering me," Ashley said, frowning.

"The bleedovers?"

"That is one," Ashley said, nodding, "A big one. How does our consciousness being over there have effects on our bodies here?"

"I don't know," Erin said.

"And why can we think things into being over there? Remember when I asked you about the vibrator? Was it really mine or something my mind created?"

"Yeah," Erin said, nodding, "I don't know the answer to that one, either."

Ashley laughed and shook her head, "So many unanswered questions."

"The place of locked doors holds its secrets close to its breast," Erin said, with a sympathetic smile.

"Tell me about it."

A slow grin spread on Erin's face and she said, "That's alright, though. I think we are going to have a lot of fun figuring them out..."

The End... But not really.