Chapter Two
Flashover [ noun ]
The moment a conversation becomes real and alive

          As the familiar light surrounded you, the urge to scream up was hard to fight, excitement seemed to burst through you.

The light faded, and left you staring at the running wall of sand once again, but this time there wasn't a drop of hesitation in you - you ran through it, head first, not a thought or a care of what would happen after.

And you fell.

Face first, into sand.

You quickly push yourself up, shaking your head, trying to get rid of the grains of sand that stuck to your hair, before tilting your head to the side - " freaking sand, in my ears!"

This wasn't like it was before!

You certainly don't remember any falling part. You let out a groan of frustration as you struggled to stand up. Sand was not a very stable material.

Finally after what felt like an excruciating eternity, you manage to pull yourself off the mountain of sand, and on to sweet, sweet solid ground. Thank God.

Your eyes widened at the scene in front of you. The last time you had been here, the shock alone had occupied your mind so you hadn't been able to notice anything - but now, you have more than a clear view.

Your eyes followed the stone that curved around the room - stairs that seemed to go up to the heavens.

A thud echoed through the room breaking the silence, followed by a muffled "Ow!"

You take a step back, eyes looking over the room, wondering where the noise had come from. A large stone shaped like a pointed hand quickly catches your attention, the words  'your future awaits' - etched into it.

Huh.

Reaching the carved stone, you took a peek of what's behind it. Soon enough, you see him, and he sees you - his eyes widened, as he quickly pushed himself off the rock.

"Fantasma!" He shouted in surprise, taking careful steps away from you.

You blinked, taking in what he just said, or rather, what he had called you.  "I'm not a ghost."

That didn't seem to convince him though, he began muttering something under his breath, forming his fingers into a cross. A prayer.

You tilted your head in confusion, before taking a step towards him, he took a step back, with each step you took, he would take a step back - until finally, he was backed against a wall.

"Look." You said, raising your hands up in surrender, and flashing him a small smile, just trying to calm his nerves. "I'm not a ghost, okay?" You muttered with a sigh. "And even if I was, which again, I'm not. I'm not here to hurt you."

He stared at you, before slowly lowering his hands, no longer looking like he was trying to drive away some demonio with crossed fingers.

There was a pause, an awkward silence. Neither of you seemed to be any good at starting up conversations, though, the two of you could compete in an olympic style staring contest, that's for sure.

"I'm sorry for scaring you." You break away from his eyes, nervous and guilty, seeing this from his point of view, who wouldn't be scared when someone just randomly kept appearing in, whatever this place was, but it seemed to be his. "I don't mean to just barge in and stuff . . . guess I didn't think this through enough."

You definitely hadn't thought this through, too busy focused on whether you were crazy or not. Verdict still isn't fully in the  not crazy part.

". . . Why couldn't they see you?"

You looked back towards him, caught off guard by his sudden question. "Can't see me?"

"My sisters." He began, looking off to the side, lips twisting into a frown. "They couldn't see you, they said I was just seeing things."

Your eyebrows narrowed, not liking the look on his face. He seemed to be really affected by what his sisters had said. You walked towards him, and gave his nose a gentle tap, a boop.

"See?" You gave him a smile. "I'm real."

The man stared, surprised.

"Your name's Bruno, right?"

He hesitated for a moment but nodded, face a bit flushed.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm -" You stopped mid sentence, vision beginning to blur. Bruno said something, you couldn't tell what, as none of it reached your ears, not a sound, soon everything seemed to distort around you. "Wait, hold on!" You shouted, voice pained, you reached out a hand - only to be met by darkness.

You stood in the center of the room, alone.

"Oh, come on!" You cried out, before you sharply turned to your heel, and made your way out of the room.

You gently closed the door, and took in a deep sigh, trying your best not to look like some child who just got denied something they want. "Thank you for proving I'm not crazy. But couldn't you have given me at least ten minutes?"

You continued. "You can't just show me something amazing and not give me time to explore it." Well, You were arguing with a door. "I mean, isn't midnight like magic time limit one-oh-one? I would have been fine by midnight."

Silence.

Your shoulders slumped, disappointed and tired."So, this is my life now . . . talking to a door." A sigh left your lips, your eyes peered up towards the sky, the stars shined from above.

Then it clicked, it was night. But there it had been day. You had forgotten to ask how long it had been for him since you had first appeared - had it been a day like it was for you - or had it been longer?

Opening the door solved one question - you weren't crazy, just not completely anyway, normal people probably don't jump in head first following a strange light, but you did, twice. And with it, more questions emerged.

You groaned then rubbed your eyes, before throwing your arms up in defeat. "That's it. I'm gonna sleep!" You'll worry about this tomorrow - it's not gonna go anywhere, or at least, you hoped not.

__

Today.

Today was the day you were going to do more than stare at some door, well, you were going to stare a little, every now and then - it's become a habit, a bad one, still one you couldn't stop.

Beads of sweat ran down your face - you were finished, or at least with sweeping up the leaves, dirt and other debris that had been brought by the wind and stockpiled here.

Now, it was unto moping.

It was gonna be a long day.

The bags underneath your eyes seemed to grow darker with each passing day - It had been a week, a full week since anything had happened - no lights, no nothing.

By day you would be cleaning, trying your best to repair anything broken, then by night you would be waiting and waiting, for what seemed like nothing.

Why did it stop?

You were on the second floor, walking back and forth, trying to rack your brain of what could have happened, still you just couldn't think of anything. Did you do something wrong? Was it mad at you?

"Stupid house!" You shouted in frustration, and suddenly out of nowhere, your feet caught on something, causing you to trip and face plant right on the tiles you had previously scrubbed clean.

"Ow." You said with a pained groan, pushing yourself off the floor, slowly you stood back up, nursing your aching face as your eyes scanned the area for what could have possibly tripped you, but nothing, not even a loose tile.

Your face twisted in confusion as you scratched the back of your head. "Weird."

You usually didn't trip on air.

You sighed, okay now you were getting into accidents. This wasn't good. You needed to get out more, but you also needed more sleep, and of course the one you chose was. . .  playing with your phone.

You sat on one of the steps of the main staircase, busying yourself with the multitude of apps on your phone, the signal here was good enough, definitely could have been better.

You froze in your seat.

A butterfly, a vibrant yellow one, had suddenly landed and perched itself on to the top of your phone. You tried your best to stay still, afraid it would fly away at the slightest movement.

Are butterflies here more fearless than the ones in the city?

This was definitely the closest you've gotten to one without it flying away immediately after.

You stared, taking in the patterns that decorated its wings. Beautiful and Delicate.

The butterfly flapped its wings and flew, but didn't leave, it seemed to hover over you - as if waiting. Slowly, you stand up, closing your phone and placing it back into your pocket.

It fluttered and started to move - your eyes followed it, soon enough you were walking a few steps behind it as it flitted through the air.

"Where are you going?" You jokingly called out with a laugh. "The gardens that way."

You stopped, suddenly recognizing where the butterfly was headed. "That's a dead end." Of course it didn't stop, as it flew up towards the tower. Curious, you followed after, and with a turn, you halted.

Your eyes widened, a smile crept up to your lips. A sound of something between a gasp and a squeal escaped you as you rushed through the staircase, gripping on to the railing tightly.

If it was possible to hug a door, you would have done it. The light, that warm beautiful light, came to greet you once more.

You reached the room, and noticed the butterfly that now rested on the doorknob. A moment passed before it flew away - leaving you alone, alone as you can be with a glowing magical door.

"Okay. Okay." You placed a hand to your chest, trying to ease your nerves, energy seemed to buzz through you, any sense of exhaustion you had felt before no longer existed.

And so, you opened the door, now accustomed to the feeling that came over you.

The sight that welcomed you began to feel more than familiar. You couldn't wipe the smile off your face even if you tried, you peeked your head through the wall of sand - now being engrossed in what felt like a strange shower.

You looked down and quickly spotted him - he sat on one of the steps, writing on what seemed like a small notebook. "Bruno!" You called out with excitement, watching as the man flinched, almost jumping in his seat, as he quickly hid the notebook behind his back.

His eyes were frantic as they looked around the room, before landing on you, his shoulders relaxed, a bit. "Uh, hey-" He struggled before settling with an awkward - "You." You let out a small laugh. Right. You couldn't say your name last time.

You held your breath and slid down the mountain of sand, you landed with a small thump and quickly stepped away, walking towards the long haired man. 

You looked up towards him, as he stood on the steps, you reached up a hand, saying your name with a smile.

"What?" He looked confused.

"That's my name." You said.

Bruno looked off to the side, testing out your name, his voice soft and gentle, a small smile reached his lips, a nice change from all the confusion and anxiousness you've seemed to put him through these past few visits.

He quickly stuffs the notebook and pencil into his pockets, before reaching out and gingerly taking your hand, you noticed his hand was a bit cold as the two of you shook hands.

He's the first to let go, bringing his hand to his face, then wiping it on his ruana. "You have sand stuck to your hand." Oh. Guess your hand must have been sweaty. You mirrored his actions, wiping your hands on your clothes.

Bruno eyed you cautiously. "Are you sure you're not a ghost?"

You bit back a laugh, rolling your eyes. "Yes, I'm sure. I've touched you, twice. A ghost probably wouldn't be able to do that."

". . . .And you're sure you're not dead?" He asked.

They say following a bright light leads to heaven, but in this case, this wasn't it. "No, I'm not dead either. Bruno."

His shoulders slumped, as if he was disappointed that you were, you know, alive. "Then, why can't I see a future for you?" He mumbled. "That's never happened before, usually my visions reveal something."

"You can see the future?" You asked in awe. After following strange lights and  going through magical doors, you weren't gonna question anything that happened here.

He gave you a strange look as if this was something you should have already known, but nodded.

You grinned, amazed and curious. "Do you. . . Do you think you'll see something now that I'm there with you?" He seemed bothered by the fact that he couldn't see your future, you wanted to try and help, but mostly you wanted to see how he does it.

His eyebrows furrowed, thinking. "I, uh." He paused. "Maybe, I dunno."

"Then let's try it - wouldn't hurt to give it a shot, right?" You beamed.

Bruno gave you a blank stare, before relenting, giving you a half shrug. He turned around, took another step, and dug through his pocket, he threw something over his shoulder - it hit you right in the face.

"Bleh!" You spit out what tasted like salt. Before you  could even question him what or why he did that - he was already climbing the stairs. "Where are you going?"

He stopped, looking down at you. "Up." He said, and gestured for you to follow him.  "We need to be in my vision cave for any of this to work."

". . .Up there?" You asked, eyes looking over it once again, face paled. "Can we maybe like I dunno. . . do it here instead." Please say yes, please. 

He shook his head. "Nope."

You took a step back. "I don't need future vision to know what will happen when I climb those stairs, Bruno."

Bruno blinked, curious. "What?"

"I would simply die." You said with unbridled sureness, face serious. "Dead. Muerta. Too many stairs."

He let out a small chuckle, quickly hiding it with a cough. "You'll, uh, be fine. People go up with me all the time, nobody's died yet."

Keyword was: yet.

You sighed and took a step on the staircase, reluctantly following after him.
"Okay, but if I die - I'm haunting you."
You managed to see his lips tug into a smile.

"Feels like you're already haunting me."

You laughed. "Fair point."

"So. . . are you dead?"

You couldn't answer that question. Too busy wheezing on the first flat ground you've seen in what felt like hours.

Finally, You've made it on top of this deathtrap.

"No." You managed to say in between deep breaths, you laid down on the ground, not caring for how dirty your clothes would get. "Not all of me anyways, just my legs." They were screaming in pain. "And most of my upper chest organs - they're all dead, Bruno."

He looked down at you, casting a shadow.

"I'm sorry. Just, uh, give me a minute or two." You said, you wanted to stand, really you did, but your body was just not agreeing with you.

To your surprise, he carefully took a seat next to you, making it so that the sun didn't hit you too harshly.

You smiled.

Another thing you didn't need future vision for was to know that you and him we're going to be spending a lot of time together.

You made a friend.