The mourning

The funeral was yesterday. It still didn't feel real. Just a couple weeks ago they've been chatting like normal, but then suddenly granny Jolenta's condition got worse. Lily was no longer allowed to visit her in the hospital. Last week the family got the news that she passed away and that was it. Why? I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye one last time. The girl lamented as she was covering herself with a blanket.

Lily's parents have been busy with setting up the funeral, dealing with the paperwork and so on. It was fine for her though, Lily was a dependable girl. Despite being only a first year in high school she was used to doing all the chores around the house. That's what you get when your dad is a workaholic and your mom can get called to work any time of day. Even still Lily always managed school, housework and visiting granny in the hospital while maintaining a cheerful attitude.

Despite how upbeat she seemed the stress was slowly getting to her, so when a person she loved dearly was gone the dam suddenly broke. Lily was holed up in her room unable to do anything. It was obvious even to her that she needs to do something about it, because this feeling won't just suddenly go away. Then the girl thought up and idea that maybe if she drowned herself in work she could forget about things.

Lily proceeded to hysterically clean the whole house like her life depended on it. She did the laundry, mopped the floors washed the windows, etc. When she was done there was not a single speck of dust left. The only thing that remained was the attic. It wasn't used anymore, so it was bound to be extra dirty.

The entry to the attic was through a trapdoor on the ceiling. Miss perfect cleaner used the broom's handle to nudge at the hook used to lock it. When she did the door swung wildly and a ladder extended from it. She was barely able to dodge it. I guess, now I know why we don't use the attic anymore. She thought to herself. Lily opened the torch app on her phone and begun to climb the ladder.

"Achuu!"

The ladder was quite unstable, so it just trembled from the shake caused by Lily's sneeze. Thankfully her grip was strong and there was no accident. All the dust in the air agitated Lily's nostrils. The attic really wasn't cleaned in years. However, It wasn't something she couldn't handle. You would think that sorting through an old attic would be agonizing, but no amount of cleaning was too much for miss perfect cleaner in the state she was in.

During her work she found a little box. It was ornately decorated like it was meant for jewelry, but the place where it was hidden made it seem like it's owner didn't want anyone to find it. Lily wondered what who it was and deduced that it must have been her grandma, well she was the only option besides Lily's parents and maybe whoever lived here before. She couldn't contain her excitement at what it could be, getting to see something that used to belong to her deceased granny was everything to her right now. Inside was a hairclip and a folded piece of paper. It was a bit underwhelming for what the packaging implied, but to Lily it was more than satisfying. Not only did she find an item granny's cherished item, but also a letter from her. She begun to read enthusiastically.

"This is my final entry. Journeying through Moteelands and it all the adventures I had were some of the greatest moments of my life. I'll never forget the friends I made and all the fun we had, but nevertheless I have to move on now. I won't be able to go there any time in the foreseeable and probably ever. I should cherish the memories I already have and keep living. 

To everyone I left behind, I'm sorry you won't be able to read this. I hope you will be able to look to the future. I'm sure there will be many more beautiful encounters and departures in our lives, so just like I believe my happiest moments are still ahead of me, you should as well. This year, I'm going to graduate high school. I don't know what the life has in store for me, but I'm looking forward to it.

I leave this hairclip here. I don't want it to constantly remind me of the severed link. I will still occasionally look back on it, but I know I would get bogged down constantly living in the past. If whoever finds it is able to visit you guys, I think that will be wonderful. 

Love you everyone, Jola"

Lily was in disbelief, it all seemed absurd. Was her granny under some childish delusions, she pondered. It said that Jolenta was in her last year of high school, though. Her writing was also strangely emotional like she was really living trough it. It hurt Lily to immediately dismiss her granny, but what was written there was simply too outlandish.

Cleaning the house was supposed to put her mind at ease, but now she was bogged down by the conflict in her head. Now, the cluttered mess of a person was fixing herself dinner. Mom had already left for work before the great cleaning started,  as a nurse she couldn't afford to skip work and sometimes she needed to do night shifts. Dad often stayed overtime at his job and ate there, so there was no need to prepare more than one meal.

Lily ate in silence as she recalled the contents of the letter. She fiddled with the hairclip playfully. It was purple, it the shape of a butterfly. Something about it was captivating as if it wanted to be worn. It can't hurt to try it on can it? 

Lily decided put the hairclip on and looked herself over in the mirror. She thought it fit her esthetic really well. She felt sad when she needed to remove it to take bath. It felt like the hairclip was also sad to be separated. Once in the bath the girl felt quite strange to get attached to an accessory this quickly, but it made sense considering it was a souvenir of her deceased granny.

Lily got into her pajamas and went to bed, but something didn't feel right. With the hairclip missing she felt as though she was naked. Half asleep she got up and put the accessory back on, did her hair, and changed into regular clothes. She knew that you're not supposed to sleep like that, but she couldn't help it for some reason. Fully dressed up Lily finally dozed off not long after. 

There was darkness and in that darkness a girl and a door. The door was glowing intensely in such a pure white color that it seemed like it had stolen all the light from the world. Everything around the door was completely void. Lily couldn't see herself or feel herself like she lost all form, but she clearly still felt like herself.

 I need to open that door. She thought.

Then the hairclip took form of a key and glowed just like the door. Lily without thinking opened the door.

The girl woke up, but it was no longer her room, she was in was dark forest full of wild animals and strange plants she had never seen before. The moonlight barely got through the crowns of trees and she could hear various noises of wild life all around.

 It must be a dream, I just went to bed and I'm dreaming. That must be it. That's when it crossed her mind. What if  I actually got transported to another world.