The Celestial Saga: Realms

Chapter 5

Sora

The drive back should have felt like a victory. Instead, the silence inside the vehicle felt heavy. No one said much. No one seemed to know what to say. They had gone out to the field for a reason, but the reason itself felt blurred. I sat in the passenger seat, scrolling absentmindedly through my camera settings without really looking at anything. The device rested heavier in his hands than usual, like it held something important he hadn’t opened yet. Behind me, Sarah shifted.

“Does anyone else feel like we forgot something?” she asked quietly. No one answered right away.

Roman glanced at Cameron through the rearview mirror. “We were tracking something, right?”

“Yeah,” Jonathan answered. “That horse…I think.”

Karsyn frowned. “Then why does it feel like nothing actually happened?” That was the part none of them could explain. They remembered arriving, walking the field, and searching. Everything after that felt like a dream you couldn’t quite recall after waking. Cameron leaned his head back against the seat, staring out the window. His chest had felt tight since they left. Not panic and not fear. A low constant pressure, like something important had slipped past him, and he didn’t know how to get it back. He vaguely remembered seeing the woman, her elegance, control, and combat. His fingers brushed against his palm. There was dirt under his nails, but he didn’t remember falling.

Up front, I glanced down at my phone again, then at the camera sitting in my lap.

“Did we even find anything?” Jonathan asked.

Roman shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so, I don’t remember much.”

“But we stayed out there for hours, right?” Sarah said.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jonathan added. “Why?” No one had an answer. The vehicle went quiet again. Outside, the trees passed in a blur. I couldn’t shake the feeling. It sat in the back of my mind like an unfinished sentence. Something had happened out there. But every time I tried to think about it, my memory slid sideways. I grew frustrated at that feeling, not knowing what happened. I was home, now sitting on the edge of my bed, the camera resting in my lap. The others had gone quiet after the drive back, each of them retreating into their own confusion, but I wasn’t good at letting things go. If my memory wouldn’t cooperate, I'd let the footage talk instead. I powered the camera on and the screen lit up. Clips from earlier that day appeared in sequence: the drive, the empty field, them walking through the grass. All seemed to be normal and boring. I scrolled further and played another clip. It was more walking. Wind across the microphone and nothing more. I frowned.

“We were out there for hours,” I muttered. “There’s no way this is all I recorded.” I kept scrolling. Then I saw it. A file longer than the others. My thumb hesitated for a second before pressing play. At first, it was just the field. Then the camera jerked suddenly. The audio picked up heavy breathing. And then, the thing stepped out of the trees. I froze. The creature filled the frame — massive, black, wrong in a way his brain struggled to process. Smoke poured from its nostrils, distorting the air around it. My heart started pounding.

“That’s not…” I whispered. The video continued. The camera zoomed. Three figures stepped into the field. The women. The ones we’d seen earlier. But they weren’t just standing there. One raised her hand and lightning split the air. My breath stopped. Another lifted both arms, a burst of flame erupting outward in the violent sphere. The third moved, and water rose from the stream itself, whipping through the air in controlled arcs. The video shook as whoever had been holding the camera, myself, stumbled back. I couldn’t blink as my breathing shallowed. As I watched, something in my mind shifted. Fragments pushed back into place. I saw the field, the fear, the weight of the air disappearing, the sound of the ground cracking, and the women. My stomach dropped.

“They knew we were there,” I said quietly. The video kept playing. The women called out.

“Come out,” one of them said. I couldn’t hear the words clearly, but I remembered the feeling from her tone. It was calm and inviting, like something that was pressed gently against my mind. The footage ended. I wasted no time, standing so fast, the chair scraped loudly against the floor. I grabbed my phone as I went to my messages.

“Guys,” I texted into the group chat. No one responded, assuming I was trying to annoy them for my pleasure, something I constantly do.

“Guys, you need to see this. Right now,” I texted with urgency. I couldn’t wait any longer when no one had yet to respond. I grabbed my camera and headed for the door. I drove a short distance to Jonathan’s house, sitting right at the edge of the coast where the land gave way to long stretches of marsh grass and open water. The ocean breeze moved steadily through the open windows, carrying the steady rhythm of waves and salt air into the living room.

After the strange tension from earlier, the house had settled everyone into something quieter. Chloe sat curled on one end of the couch, scrolling through her phone. Sarah and Karsyn were in the kitchen, picking through leftovers. Roman leaned against the back patio door, staring out toward the water. Cameron sat at the dining table, absently turning a glass in slow circles against the wood. Jonathan had the television on, though no one was really watching it. Everyone was trying to act like the day had made sense. I opened the front door harder than necessary, stepping inside, still holding my camera.

“I knew it,” I said, breathing slightly short. “We’re not crazy.” Six heads turned toward me.

Jonathan frowned. “What are you talking about?” I looked around at all of them, the confusion, the exhaustion, the way everyone had been quietly avoiding the same question.

“You all remember the field feeling off, right?” I asked.

Roman straightened slightly. “Yeah.”

“The part where it felt like we forgot something?” I pressed.

Sarah nodded slowly. “We talked about that earlier.” I lifted the camera.

“You didn’t forget,” I said. “It was taken.” Silence settled over the room.

Karsyn frowned. “Taken by who?” Instead of answering, I crossed to the television and connected the camera. The screen flickered while the video loaded. Everyone proceeded into the living room, watching in confusion.

“Just watch,” I said. When the video ended, the room stayed quiet.

“That’s not real,” Chloe whispered. Roman pushed away from the door slowly.

“No,” he said under his breath. Cameron didn’t move from his seat. He stared at the screen like something inside him was locking back into place. Sarah pressed a hand over her mouth.

“I remember this now,” she whispered. The memory came back in pieces. The pressure in their heads. The blank space afterward. No one spoke for several seconds.

“They erased our memories,” Roman said quietly.

Chloe shook her head slowly. “That’s… that’s not possible.”

I gestured toward the screen. “Neither is any of that.”

Sarah looked around the room. “Why would they do that?”

“Because they didn’t want anyone to know,” Cameron said quietly. Everyone turned toward him. His voice was too calm.

“They’re hiding something,” I added.

Roman crossed his arms, thinking for a moment before hitting me on the back of my head. “No s**t sherlock,” he said and I flinched from the sharp subtle pain.

“Ouch man, I’m just saying—,” I started to defend myself, but Cameron interrupted.

“That thing we saw,” he said. “The horse. That wasn’t normal.”

“No,” Chloe agreed. “And neither are they.” Jonathan looked back at the blank screen of the finished video.

“So what are we saying?” he asked slowly. “That there’s… what? Some kind of supernatural situation happening out there?”

Karsyn swallowed. “And we just walk away from it?” Silence fell once more because, deep down, we weren’t the ones to just run away from dangerous situations.

“We find them again,” Roman suggested, clasping his hands together.

Sarah blinked. “After they wiped our memories?”

“All the more reason,” Roman said. “Whatever they’re dealing with is dangerous. And if they went that far to keep it quiet, it’s bigger than we thought.”

“And if it’s something bigger, the more credit we’ll get when we expose them,” Jonathan said as I high-fived him in agreement.

I nodded immediately. “This time we’re careful.” Jonathan looked around the group. No one disagreed. Cameron remained where he sat, wondering why he was so intrigued with this woman and why it even mattered to him. Cameron was the quietest, intense, observant asshole I’d ever met. He was the opposite of the group's normal chipper attitude. Cameron wasn’t the type to talk unless it was worth saying. Most of the time he didn’t. Some people thought it made him cold and distant, but we knew better. He puts his energy into attention and awareness instead. Making sure we as a group were safe and whole. We’ve gone on various dangerous expeditions before so, if anything, he is the most overprotective one in the group. He finally spoke.

“They’re still out there,” he said quietly. Roman grabbed his keys from the counter.

“Then we start looking.” I glanced once more at the television. The three women stood in the field. They were calm, powerful, and dangerous.

“This time,” I said quietly, picking up my camera. “We don't let them see us.”