The Shadow Wanderers

Chapter 3

Silence. The world is silent. She can't feel her body. Her eyes are heavy. She can't open them. She doesn't know where she is. Excruciating pain creeps up in her whole body, and she resists the urge to scream, or perhaps she doesn't have the strength to. Her head thumps as though someone is smacking it with a hammer. She tries to lift her hand to her head. A groan escapes her mouth because of a sudden jolt of pain. She lets her hand fall back to her side.

She raises her eyelids a little but is unable to open them because of the piercing rays of light hitting her face. Her eyelids flicker in the light as she tries to comprehend where she is. She sees only white. Then, voices filled with confusion, excitement, and uncertainty ring in her ears; "Calista, you're alright!", "Open your eyes, honey."

Shadows lurk over her, blocking the light from the unknown origin, and she lifts her eyelids. Everything is blurry at first, but then the familiar faces grow into focus. She recognizes Naomi and her father. Their voices are not full of worry or curiosity. Rather, they are calm, or at least that is what they're showing.

She looks around, hurting her neck while doing so. The white walls look exactly like she had left them. She recognizes her elegant, organized room. Naomi helps her lean on the frame of her bed. Instant comfort builds up inside her at the sight of her baby pink bedsheets. She turns her head to her father, who is sitting on the sofa beside the bed, and Naomi is sitting at the foot of the bed. Calista tries to stretch her lips into a smile, but her injured face may make it look like a helpless cry, so she gives it up.

"How are you feeling?" Naomi asks with a slight smile on her face, her eyes filled with concern.

Calista hums a yes as sharp blades are cutting the inside of her throat, and she can't utter a word. She looks over at Josh―her father―who is sitting silently, elbows placed on his thighs and fingers crisscrossed under his chin. His questioning skeptical gaze is lingering over her and sends shivers down her spine. She can sense all those questions that are swirling inside his mind, and she knows she would have to answer all of them.

Finally, she gathers some courage from within the broken parts of her and decides to break the silence lingering in the room.

"Dad-" she says―her voice comes out croaky―but she's cut off.

"Shh, Naomi told me," Josh replies. She steals a quick glance at Naomi then turns back to him.

"You were never the type of person to take people's criticism so seriously." Josh's voice holds confusion yet fury.

"It wasn't a criticism. He challenged me," she says, her voice carrying fear. She can hear her heart pounding in her ears.

"Wrong. He only provoked you to do something you wanted to do for so long," he says. Calista lowers her gaze because he was right. "I almost lost you, Calista. I can't afford to lose you after your mother."

At this, she gathers the courage to look him in the eye. His eyes bear unidentifiable pain and hurt. She quickly looks away because she's afraid she might start to cry. She tries to swallow the lump in her throat but in vain. She can't see her father in pain, even though she's the one who hurt him in the first place. Could it be worse?

The last thing she remembers from the events of the cliff is muffled voices of laughter, then a violent gush of air, and blurred faces.

"What happened out there?" She asks although, she knows she has touched a subject that nobody wants to talk about. Yet she wants hints to remember the events.

Naomi sighs. "You were stepping towards the edge. Your father called you several times, but you didn't listen. You were so close to falling, but then... you fell back. More like something threw you, I don't know. You fell unconscious so we brought you here," she explains, but the explanation is not what Calista was expecting. It's more than she can bear. It conjures even more questions in her mind.

She tries to relive the events from the cliff so that she can remember something. She was sure of herself that no matter the circumstances, she would not try to give up her life. Then why would she want to fall from the cliff? And what did it mean that something threw her? At least, it explains the excruciating pain in her back and head. When she fell, there were faces in front of her eyes. Only one of them was familiar.

"I saw Mom," she blurts out as her face appears in front of her eyes. Both Naomi and Josh steal a glance at each other, then at Calista―creases formed on their foreheads in confusion. "I held her pendant, didn't I?"

Naomi shuffles in the pocket of her jeans and draws out her hand, extending it towards Calista with the pendant lying safely on her palm. She takes it from her and traces her finger over its shiny surface, feeling the smooth touch of her mother. She smiles at Naomi for taking care of the pendant for her.

"You were unconscious. You must have seen her as a glimpse from somewhere inside your head," Naomi says.

"Yeah. I miss her."

***

They open the door to the main hallway, unaware and afraid of the things they might have to face. They aren't even sure what they're about to face. Calista has knots in her stomach at the disturbing thought that the students' behavior towards her might become rougher after the events of the previous day.

They walk inside, holding hands, and the second they step inside, they feel eyes on themselves. Students stop in their tracks and pause their chatters to steal looks at Naomi and Calista. The latter feels on edge and tightens her grip around Naomi's hand. They walk towards their lockers when a voice calls them.

"Hey, Calista! You were great out there yesterday," a soft girly voice says. They turn around to face the person. They see a good-looking young boy around their age, dressed gentlemanly, his bag slung on his shoulder and his hands in the pockets of his pants.

Calista smiles uncertainly. "Umm, thanks?" she says, but it comes out as a question. She's not sure if he is taunting or genuinely means it.

"Does this hurt? How are you feeling now?" Another voice from behind her says, pointing at the bandage on Calista's forehead. She turns around to face a pretty girl, looking at her with hope sparkling in her eyes.

Calista has a scar on her left cheek, and a small bandage covers the side of her forehead, a speck of blood peeking out from its lower layer.

"I can't believe you opened the portal, dude," another guy says.

"I... I, what?" Calista frowns at him. Some students around her giggle.

"Something supernatural three you off your feet and you aren't convinced you succeeded in opening doors to another dimension?"

Calista turns to look at Naomi who now wears a fearful expression on her face. "I wouldn't think so..." Calista mutters, trailing off in uncertainty.

One after another, students start gathering around us, leaving them confused and awestruck. She didn't have a minor idea what hurt her father would impress the students at school, and that they would actually believe that she had succeeded. They start to chat around her and Naomi while they both look at each other with the what-the-hell-is-going-on look but go along with everything. They had entered the school with the thought that Calista had lost her reputation, but things seemed to be different.

She spots Isaac walking past the little crowd that has formed around her. He has a look of disgust on his face―not the kind of disgust he makes every time she walked past him, but the kind of disgust that holds jealousy. It makes her proud. For the first time in her life, she let Issac down and even replaced his popularity.