The Exit: Chronicles of the Seven Sisters

The Exit: The Chronicles of the Seven Sisters

Copyright © 2018 by Tory Byder

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

ISBN #: 978-1-387-57204-5

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my dear friend Daniela for encouraging me to get this book out there and being there for me. I couldn’t have done this without you.

Chapter 1

I looked around my bedroom for a while and took a deep breath. The blinds were closed but it wasn't so dark that you couldn't see the black comforter covering the king sized bed, or the few random things on the tiny nightstand like the alarm clock and the box with facial wipes that I had used to remove make-up every night. It smelled a bit of stale air since I hadn't opened the windows in a while. It was still very cold outside and the ice and snow from the previous snow storm hadn't melted for the most part. I looked around the living room next. I had a pang of guilt that suddenly overtook me of leaving this all behind. I cleared out a lot of my things and many of my documents were in the trash bin outside my building. But I stared longingly at my computer, my TV and my couch. I hoped that whoever got those things would enjoy them. Yes, all of that stuff was old and worn down, but I still hoped they would get some sort of pleasure out of using them. Maybe it would be someone who was even worse off than I was, although I guess couldn’t get too much worse than someone about to take their own life.

I turned towards the bathroom and a calm determination settled in my body. I had struggled with this decision for a long time, but I decided to keep going at the time since I had elderly parents to take care of. Now that they were gone, I almost felt free to do what I wanted and I didn't have that obligation hanging over my head. I knew it was still selfish and I knew that I was going to cause my distant relatives and my friends a lot of heartache. But I knew in time they would be okay, and they would focus on their own families and their own friends. It gave me a small reprieve from the guilt. Guilt is what got me into this mess in the first place. I always felt guilty for not being a good enough daughter; I felt guilty for not being motivated enough to pursue a better job, guilty that I became such a horrible wife that my ex-husband divorced me, guilty that I didn't fight harder for my own life. The final straw was my hours at work being cut and me realizing that I would not be able to even afford to pay bills for the next few months. Did I feel like I was saying to the universe, 'you can't fire me, I quit?' Hell, yes. Did I know I was being a coward? Hell, yes. But I knew that this was what I wanted for a long time and the latest turn of events were just the push I needed to make it happen.

I didn't bother filling the bathtub with water. It just seemed a bit too cliché to me. I did put on a nice pair of jeans and my favorite dark purple shit with long sleeves that I had rolled up as soon as I got into the tub. Picking up the bottle of wine, I gulped it down in ten minutes, not pausing too long to take a break. It turned out drinking a whole bottle isn't as easy as one might think. My stomach was feeling like it would burst on me any second, but I didn't dare stop. When I felt woozy enough and drunk enough, I finally picked up the knife from the floor and sliced the left and then the right wrist as fast as I could. I was shocked at just how brave I suddenly became under the influence of the wine. I was barely conscious after so much alcohol but I was determined enough to do it before passing out completely. The pain was still sharp and throbbing and the world was getting more hazy by the second. Fear started building up inside of my body like a tornado and it pushed back some of the haze from the alcohol. The pain helped with that too. But I knew it was just a matter of minutes before my world would turn dark forever and my exit from this mess I called my life would be complete. I closed my eyes and felt the world spinning behind them, until everything went black...

*

I woke up in total darkness. It took me a few minutes to start remembering what I had done and I couldn't even remember how much time had passed since then. Was I in a coffin after having been buried? Why was I conscious when I had fully expected to be asleep for the rest of eternity? I began to realize I wasn't in a coffin because the bed sheets under my body felt soft and I realized I was in a bed of some sort. It was softer than my own mattress, that much I knew. I was more confused than anything else. Did someone come to my rescue before I died after doing some knife work on my wrists? That was the only explanation I could come up with.

I shifted on the bed and finally found the edge of it, bringing my legs down to the floor. Something made me want to touch my wrists, but to my surprise, I didn't feel any scars or wounds. I wondered if I would see any trace of what I had done if and when I found a light switch wherever I was. I still couldn't get myself to be too concerned. After thinking I would cease to exist forever, this was an improvement, at least I'd hoped. If I was back in my bedroom and nothing had changed, well, then it wasn't an improvement. Then an awful idea came into my head. What if I was in hell? What if this was just the starting point and everyone who ended up in hell woke up on this soft bed in the darkness? As ridiculous as this idea sounded, my heart quickened its pace and I finally began to worry. When I was alive, assuming I wasn't now, I didn't truly believe in heaven or hell. I wanted to believe in those things desperately so that I would know I would not completely cease to be but I also knew that most likely it wasn't true, and I would just never exist again, in any form. So the most likely scenario was that someone rescued me. But who? Any friends I had left wouldn't bother me for a week at least. No one checked on me regularly. I knew that by the time anyone found me I would have already bled out enough to die. That was why I knew that if I went through with it, my suicide would probably be complete. So did afterlife include a soft mattress and silk bed sheets or did someone actually save me in time?

I finally walked a few steps and started feeling around for anything to touch in this mysterious place. Just as I started to wonder if this dark place even had anything other than a bed, I finally touched what felt like a wall. I took a few steps and kept my hands on the wall as I walked along the edge what I assumed to be some sort of room. Suddenly I felt a bump. It didn't feel like a light switch, but instead a button of some kind. I didn't know what would happen if I tried to push it, but through sudden burst of bravery, I pushed it in with my finger. I felt my heart leap into my throat and my pulse race as the lights flickered on and the room was bathed in soft, yellow glow. I gasped and I knew that my body was shaking from head to toe as I was suddenly faced with a strange room. It had the bed that I was laying on, strange looking furniture and bizarre looking pictures on the wall opposite the bed. I covered my mouth with my hand when I saw the pictures in more detail. People with huge eyes were moving inside of those pictures, waving their hands and their lips were moving, stretching into a smile. Their eyes were too big for their faces and their irises were too small. I turned away so I could focus on something hopefully less bizarre and scary. The bed itself had a top mattress covered in the black silk sheets that I felt under me minutes before. But the mattress was atop a solid structure made of some sort of marble material, like the kind you usually see in marble countertops of some kitchens. Small brown flecks in the green marble material disappeared and then reappeared about once a minute. A dresser and a nightstand in the room seemed to be made of the same marble but they had no visible drawers. I ran my hand on what I assumed must be the dresser and then what I assumed would have to be the nightstand and couldn't find any way to open them up. Maybe it wasn't a dresser and nightstand at all.

I walked a few more shaky steps around the room and realized that something was majorly wrong with me. Now that I was exploring and walking around, I realized my body felt wrong. Something between my legs felt different. I was so focused on finding out where I was that I hadn't realized my own body wasn't even my own. I looked down at my bare chest and I realized there were no breasts. I pulled what looked like gray sweatpants away from my body and realized I had an addition between my legs that hadn't been there before ending up in this room. That realization brought on a full panic and I was now shaking even more while standing in the middle of the room. Was this some sort of afterlife joke? Not that I liked my body when I was still alive, assuming I wasn't at the moment, but I never thought my afterlife would consist of me being male. Now I knew that it was either a sick dream I was having while I was dying or I was somehow reincarnated into an adult man. I tried to calm myself down, telling myself this wasn't real and that I was probably having some sort of near death experience. What a weird near death experience. I never heard of anyone say that while they were dying or in a coma, they turned into the opposite sex and ended up lying on a bed in a dark room. Figures. I felt different from everyone else while I was alive, so why should I be surprised that my death was going to be like everyone else's. 

I'm sorry we didn't come get you sooner. If you ever bother to remember your exit phrase, Toran, then you wouldn't have to resort to such archaic means of getting back home. I heard the words coming from the other side of the room just seconds before the door flung open and a tall man with broad shoulders stood before me. At first, his expression appeared to be slightly irritated, but then his eyes softened and his face split into a big smile. He slowly closed the door and the smile that he held on his face started to fade. He came towards me even as I started to back up, wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead. It didn't seem to faze him that I was shaking and was terrified. It was like he was used to seeing this sight and didn't think much of it.

He smelled lightly of some expensive cologne and fresh air. I always loved the smell of fresh air...and oddly enough, the smell of this particular cologne was somehow strangely familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. To add to my horror and confusion, I realized I was starting to get aroused. I tried to swallow but realized there was nothing to swallow because my throat was bone dry. If this was some sick and twisted version of hell, I didn't know how to even feel about that. In my...previous?...life, as a female, I had no boyfriend to speak of and only few friends who bothered to hang out with me once in a while. As I became more and more suicidal and depressed, they hung out with me less and less, which I could totally understand. But this was something else. My depression was gone, I knew that much. My body was much lighter and it was like someone had taken out a huge part of my insides and replaced them with air. It was a difficult feeling to explain, but it actually felt good, to my surprise.

I finally pulled away from the man who was holding me and looked at him while I was still shaking. He had thick, black curls on his head but the hair was cut close to his scalp on the sides and on the back. His huge brown eyes stared intently at me as he licked his full lips and slowly let his hands drop to his sides. He had a square jaw and prominent cheekbones. He wore what looked like a white t-shirt but it had a wide turtleneck covering most of his neck, which to me looked very out of place on a t-shirt. Looking further down, I noticed he wore a pair of grey boxers and nothing else. The slit in the middle of the boxers was slightly opened and I found myself staring for half a second before catching myself and sharply bringing my head back up to meet his eyes. Great. Now what did I do? Not only was I horrified at the whole situation, aroused, but now also embarrassed. To my surprise, he smirked and kissed my lips before I could even react, let alone realize what he was doing. It wasn't a long kiss, more like a peck, but I realized that when he pulled back, I was licking my lips. What the hell was wrong with me? Wasn't that the million-dollar question?

I wanted to ask so many questions of him. Where the hell was I? Was it actually hell or heaven? Was I having a dream while I was actually in a coma somewhere? Did I want to be saved and brought back to my miserable life? Well, I knew the answer to that question already. Whoever this person was standing in front of me held more curiosity for me than anything I could remember in my previous life. I had resigned myself to calling it my previous life since I had to assume it was either over or about to be over.

Who are you? I asked, finally managing to quiet my brain enough to speak. I heard my voice trembling but I knew there was nothing I could do to stop that.

Eilif, he answered, rolling his eyes slightly and grinning at me, as if he either fully expected me to ask that question or the question itself was the silliest thing I asked. He saw the confusion on my face and sighed, still holding a smile on his face. I told you that if you ever forget your exit phrase you'll lose your memory, but you never listen, do you Toran? It's fine, it'll come back. Hopefully soon so I don't have to wait too long to have you back in the bed. By the time he said the last sentence he was downright laughing.

I stood there, frozen in place. Am I in heaven or hell? I was still shaking but I was glad I could still ask questions in my panicked state. Why am I a man?

Eilif was already turned away from me, presumably to leave the room, but he turned back to me, raised his eyebrows and said, if I provide the answers, I will mess with your reintegration. You have to remember on your own, honey. His face softened and there was something in his eyes...love? As much as I want to tell you everything, you'll have to be patient and it will come back to you. After that statement, he turned around, opened the door and left the room, leaving me to stand there in the middle of it. Honey? I stood there paralyzed with fear and confusion. After what seemed like a long time, I took a deep breath and realized something very important that has been eluding me while my body was shaking from the horror of finding myself in this place. Number one, I wasn't dead and I didn't cease to exist, yet. Number two, there was a handsome man who believed I was his girlfrie...err...boyfriend? It was obvious he had feelings for me, maybe even loved me. He didn't seem concerned that I was horrified to be there. My body responded to him so quickly you would think it had done it a thousand times before. Maybe it had. Except I had no recollection of him or any of this. I was hoping that he was right and my memories would return soon. If I was here before, if I knew his man, why and how did I forget all of that?

I took a few steadying breaths and opened the door, finally stepping out of the room. I wasn't surprised when the floors in the hallway were made of some sort of green, translucent glass, with some dark green specks in it. The walls were white but looked like some sort of stained glass as well. In the middle of the hallway against the wall, there was a big doorway, or at least I assumed it might be a doorway, that went all the way to the ceiling and all the way to the floor. There was no handle on the door and the entire thing was shimmering with some silver-white material that I couldn't identify. I backed up from it so I would in no way come in contact with it. To my left were stairs. To my relief, curiosity was getting stronger than my fear and it made me push myself forward until I stood at the top of the stairs, listening to multiple voices talking over each other, as if there was some sort of family gathering going on. I