Penumbrae: The origin

CHAPTER 5: WHAT IS HAPPENING?

The drive to school was quiet. None of us spoke anything. I needed to know suddenly why I am so sure of where to go. I am one and only person in this world who always ask the superiors what to do. I hate leading and I am never sure of anything. Then why suddenly am I so sure where to find the evidence? Ophelia you messed me up and I hope you will fix me too. I will find you because no one just disappears into thin air or turn to dust unless she really was set on fire and that really was her ashes.

We reached school and I ran to the backyard of our school that was past the cafeteria. I ran and stopped to see the place. Everything was more enhanced then before.

“Woah! What is that energy. It feels so different.” Carter said looking around to probably search for the thing responsible for the change.

“You can feel it? I can see it!” I could see the Ley Lines and the circular like structures in the air floating. The circular pocket like structures were showcasing thermal colors. I blinked to make the new things go away but they didn’t leave. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, but nothing changed. I was still seeing the world in a vastly different manner. I did not like this.

I got dizzy from shaking my head as I was trying to shake off the things I was able to see but that only made it worse and I fell to the ground. Am I becoming clumsier? Definitely yes. I sat in the middle of the road, closed my eyes and took some deep breaths to calm down. I don’t know what I was doing or saying but eventually my mouth moved on its own accord.

“"Factus est mihi somnium, videre auxilium mihi in lucem: videbo illum, et videbo illum clara hinc: ex tota fortitudine tua.” I opened my eyes to see that everything was better. All the things that I could see were there, but it was only visible if I focused on them with my cat eyes.

“What did you say?” Carter was looking at me with eyes as wide as saucers.

“What? I just said that I want to see my world better.” I said getting up from the ground.

“Yeah but you didn’t make it sound as easy as you are making it sound right now.”

“What do you mean Carter?”

“You were saying gibberish in Latin I presume. I was recording to see if my camera could catch something that I couldn’t. You know how blind I am. Anyway, I am sure your gibberish can be heard.” Carter showed me the phone to show what I spoke, and I couldn’t say anything because the evidence said it all. I was able to say things I have never studied or even looked at. Latin is one of the languages that I took in university but never really paid attention. The only reason I am passing Latin is because of group projects and research papers. I barely passed my exams so when I saw the video I was shook. Being shook is an understatement.

“I did not say that! I know what I say! I can control my own mouth for god sake.”

“Which god darling?” A voice in my head chuckled

Ah who said that?

“Me, darling. Forgot me so fast? Didn’t expect you to forget our encounter.”

What is Ophelia doing here?

“Who is Ophelia? You said that out loud Izzy.”

“Ophelia is the keeper of future and time but time was not on her side. She needed my help as she doesn’t have any heir. Before she could tell what help she needed from me, she turned to dust. She gave me these bracelets which won’t come off and I am sure right now she is somewhere here. I can’t see her though and that’s something to say. I forgot to mention but she is the crumbling lady from my dream that became reality.” I give Carter all the information and looked around to find the crumbling lady.

“I am somewhere where you can’t find me cattus but you will always have me in your head.”

Does that mean that I don’t get an option to get rid of you?

“Not that fast. I have gotten use to you. I am liking you more now.”

“Umm Isabelle you are giving weird expressions. It looks like you are having another conversation with your brain. And I don’t understand anything what is going on? I am not even this confused in IT. Please elaborate.” Carter said shaking my shoulders which eventually disconnected the connection I was having with Ophelia. The war I was having with Ophelia in my head died and I saw Carter look at me with concern in his eyes. He probably thinks I have gone crazy. Crazier than I was.

“I myself don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know how to show you anything. I just don’t know anything. I was locked out of my own house just a few minutes ago and now I am seeing and saying things I am not supposed to. Carter, I don’t know myself what is happening.” Unknowingly I broke down. Again. This is the 3rd time Carter have seen me full on weeping like a baby. It had to happen, I was kicked out of my house just a few hours ago, I'm seeing things I'm not supposed to, I'm saying things I'm not supposed to and no one is believing the things that are happening with me. Can’t I have a normal life? Curse you Ophelia!

“Oh, the irony” Now she is chuckling in my head. Beautiful life I have.

Carter sat me down on the pavement and hugged me. He held me tight and kept reassuring me that everything will be alright.

After some time when I was feeling better, I caught red light pulsing on the road in the corner of my eyes.

“Feeling better? You had to cry out all the bottled-up emotions. Wait. Now where are you going? Can’t you rest Izzy?”

I dragged Carter to the energy pulsing area and looked around to see that this was the place where Ophelia turned to dust.

“Can you see that?” I pointed towards the ground where there was some sort of sigil imprinted on the road. It was glowing for me. I don’t know what Carter was seeing.

“It’s glowing. That pattern is glowing! What is this?” Carter asked bending down to touch the sigil.

“That’s where Ophelia disappeared.” I said with a sad expression. Even though she put me through a lot of pain and tortured me I felt sad about her passing away because she was the only key to all my problems. Ophelia was a seer and when she chose me to help her, I am sure she must have done studies on me. That means she must have known all about my parents. While I was looking at the ground, an idea struck my mind.

“I think I can show you what I was seeing before, but you have to promise me not to run away from me or call me freak.” I extended my hand to make another deal with Carter who without thinking held my hand and agreed to all the rules. I want someone to believe me. I need to show what I saw to someone. I don’t want to be a freak anymore.

If thinking about seeing the clearer world made my vision ignore the ley lines and the circular structures, then if I say same Latin gibberish, I am sure Carter will see the world better. He will see the lines and invisible structures that I could ignore thanks to my cat eyes.

I held his hands tight, closed my eyes and thought about seeing clear.

“Factus est mihi somnium, videre auxilium mihi in lucem: videbo illum, et videbo illum clara hinc: ex tota fortitudine tua.”

“Woah what even! Have you been seeing the world like this from your birth? What even……… this is too overwhelming. What is that round pocket like structure? And those different colors?”

“Look Carter. I am new to all of this. I only started seeing it like this as soon as we came here. I don’t know how to answer all your questions, but I hope this gave you enough evidence to believe me.” I let go of Carter's hand and sat crossed legs on the side of the road. I took a glance at my hands and saw that I was again digging my nails in the palm. I seem to do that a lot unconsciously specially when I am nervous or unsure of what to do. I withdrew my nails from palm and looked at the bracelets. One of the bracelets with huge black translucent stone was slightly glowing and when I extended my hand towards the direction of the glowing sigil it was glowing more. Looks like my Ophelia did leave me a remnant of herself with me.

“I believe you now Izzy. I can’t imagine what you are going through. All I know is I am here for you. Like a friend always is.”

“Carter, I don’t want you to tell this to Harper. I don’t think Lincoln will react in a bad manner, but Harper will. She will be scared to death. So, I say for now keep it to yourself. Please?”

“Yeah sure I will. So, the crumbling lady gave you some powers?” Carter asked eyeing my bracelets.

“please tell him not to call me crumbling lady. I am getting offended. I won’t hesitate to blast him to pieces using your body.” Dead or alive, her voice was so chilly it still sent chills down my spine.

“Carter buddy. I would suggest you stop calling her crumbling lady. She is getting offended and she is also threatening you. I am sure I can’t defend you just yet.”

Carter laughs and goes away apologizing. I twist my body to look behind me to see him walk towards a food truck and buy food. I keep thinking about everything, from the encounter with Ophelia to my unknown capability of seeing, saying and hearing things and then I run towards Carter’s car and get my notebook from my bag to write down everything and conclude my main problem. I sit on the cafeteria benches outside the closed university and jot down whatever I know.

“uhhh what are you doing now?” Carter asked sitting on the bench in front of me while sliding fries my way. I ate some fries and explained to Carter what I was doing.

“I am writing down everything and joining them together to see the main issue. Whatever Ophelia said. Whatever Walter and Courtney said. Whatever I just saw. My encounter with Ophelia and that sigil. Everything. Then I will see where to start hunting for some answers.” I said writing down as quickly as possible not caring for the terrible handwriting and I also kept eating the fries in front of me.

One thing you should know about me is that I run on food. Petrol and diesel are the lubrication and energy that most machines and vehicle rely on while I am an organic life form that rely on food. If you offer me food, I will be at peace with you forever. It’s not hard to win me. I am too easy, and I will trust you instantly but with food you increase your chances even more. My capability is directly proportional to food, the more I eat the more better I think. Although I prefer food that involve cheese. That is heaven. Is your mouth watering? It should. With all this food talk you must be thinking 'how fat is she?’ that’s the thing. I don’t get fat. No matter how much I eat I never gain weight. At first, I thought it was metabolism but now I don’t know anything. What if it’s some Latin magic thing? God knows.

“What are you writing down exactly?” Carter asked peeking at my work and I inched my notebook closer to him so that he could see what I was writing.

“From what I remember I have been getting these dreams since I was a toddler and recently when I stopped having the dreams they started showing up in my real life.”

“So that could mean that these people or creatures in your dream were stalking OR observing you from when you were a kid. Right? And when they thought you were ready enough; they came for you?” Carter said rubbing his head making me think of his clear explanation. I jot it down in my notebook and proceed for more. Carter should be the one with these issues. He solves it better. One of his amazing traits is problem-solving.

“okay that is clear. Next, my encounter with Ophelia. She said about whole this situation being risky and how she wanted me to make a right choice. Does that mean there is a possibility that whatever I do will be accounted for and I could bring doomsday on this planet?” I looked at Carter hoping he will make me feel better and disagree on my point, but he was also thinking hard and munching on fries.

“Risky situation. Hmmm. Do you remember the Norse story of Loki? How he was Odin’s adopted son and he was expected to do good, but he totally did the opposite. What if it’s that’s situation?”

Carter was quite accurate about this and I was looking at him with wide eyes.

“Umm you sure you didn’t get affected with my magical hands? You are thinking way better than me!”

“Oh, don’t flatter me. I just think you putting your problems out one by one is helping me understand the situation better and I love to see you sigh every time you jot down a point. It’s like unfolding a murder mystery and all I am really doing is listing everything that could happen in a comic.” Carter said with a proud smile.

“Okay so we are done with dreams and risky situation. What’s next? RIGHT! I heard this twice now: 'May you keep the peace between all the worlds'. At this rate why do I think this will have to do something to do with parallel universe or different dimensions?” I looked at Carter who nods his head and put his head down on the table.

“what about my cat eyes? That topic doesn’t make sense at all. Even Ophelia mentioned it in my encounter. I just thought I had cat eye syndrome. I thought I was one of those 1 out of 5,500,000 people who was so unlucky to have them but now that Ophelia mentioned my cat eyes, it’s possible that……. Is it possible?”

“What? That your parent is a cat?” Carter laughed out loud trying to lighten the mood, but it didn’t change my mood.

“Anyway, I think you are right. I think there could be parallel universe like situation. Now what do you conclude from all this point Izzy? Cause I got nothing. Literally I am more confused than before.” Carter said raising his head from the table

“Why am I the only one who is having such dreams or nightmares? Whatever you say. Why was I chosen to be 'observed'?  Why do shadows suffocate only me? Why did Ophelia suddenly pick me and gave me these powers or whatever they are? Why do I have cat eyes? What does this scar mean?” I loosened the scarf around my neck and traced the huge scar on my neck which was lying here since my birth.

I don’t remember how I got it or anything. I don’t even remember if it pained me a lot when I got that. I have no memory of it. It looked like a burned circle and around the circle I would see the veins extending out reaching my shoulder on my right side. It looked like I was stung by something and the poison is still in my body, but my body doesn’t hurt. I had it since I was giving up for adoption making this another thing from my past disturbing my sleep.

Who the hell am I? Who are my biological parents? And most importantly why me? I jot down these last three points in my notebook. I wrote Origin in block and bold letters and circled it multiple times.

“Origin?” Carter questioned me.

“Well till now Ophelia haven’t uttered a word or right me and I have no other clue. I don’t have a home to stay at so I am will go on the hunt for my answers. Thus, finding my origin. Right now, that’s all that matter.” I said packing my bag up.

“And where will you start? What transportation will you use? Whose advice will you take? What will happen if you get injured? Would you be able to help yourself alone? You need me.” Carter said picking up his keys, throwing them in air and catching them. This was Carter’s flex and he would never waste any opportunity to do that.

“Not for this Carter. I will think of some transportation. I have seen what happened to Ophelia and I don’t want to see that happen to someone who is close to me.” I honestly don’t know if Ophelia disappeared because she associated with me or the powers she gave me took all her energy. No matter what, I won’t be risking my best friend life for this. Who knows what the future has in store for me?

I don’t even know where to go. My first option was asking Walter about it because he was so sure of what was happening, but I don’t think I will be welcomed the same day I was kicked out. So that is out of question. Ophelia knew something about me, but she won’t speak, and I can’t t*****e myself again for her to start talking. Before I could even start my journey to find my birth parents, I have hit a dead end. I am hit in my guts with a truck filled with bad feelings. I look around warily to find anything unusual and noticed the shadows were growing in length and they were stirring around. 

Why does my feeling have to be accurate now? I took my backpack and started walking away from the moving shadows. Instantaneously my legs buckled and pain shot up from my gut. It felt like someone stabbed me as my breath got caught up in my throat and my vision started to distort. everything darkened around me. Ultimately my vision returned but I couldn’t tell where I was or what I was seeing. All I understood was that I was not in the university anymore. I stood on unknown territory and I didn’t know what was happening. Is this Ophelia's another trick? Did I magically teleported to unknown area? what is happening with me? I stood for some time waiting for someone to pop up and say, 'APRILS FOOL', but I don’t think this is a prank or if it’s April.