The Shadow Wanderers

Chapter 4

The events at the school made their day interesting but a little hard to believe. Every student talked to them and wanted to know if Calista was okay after she had fallen and even told her their assumptions about she had fallen.

Now, as they are walking home after school, Calista has a smile etched on her lips, and Naomi is laughing.

"I can't believe it, Calista. Like, what the hell happened today?" she says whilst laughing.

"You should've seen Isaac's face," I say, chortling.

"I know. I saw him. He was black and blue." Her hands clutch her belly as it hurts from uncontrollable laughter, both recalling Isaac's expressions.

"I think we should thank him later. After all, it's because of him that we earned all that fame."

"We should record his facial expressions, too."

After a few seconds, both of their laughter dies down. Naomi says bye to Calista as they reach her place. Calista continues making her way down to her house, which is a street away from Naomi's.

She kicks a stone on the lonely road, and her eyes follow the path of the stone as it rolls and stops at the edge of the sidewalk. With her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, she walks down the hill in silence. But then she feels a sudden gush of cold wind hit her. Her ginger hair falls on her face. She fixes her hair and tugs them behind her ear. Then she looks up at the sky, hoping the weather is pleasant and windy, but the sky is clear. The sun is shining bright, and there is no trace of clouds. She looks around to see the trees on the side of the road standing completely still, their leaves not even disturbed by the breeze. Weird, she thinks. She glances behind her for the last time and continues walking.

She closes the door behind her as she enters her room and exhales a long breath, falling on her bed. She draws out her phone from her pocket and sits up, plugging her earphones in. She lets her body relax in the sweet sound of the rain coming from the earphones. After five minutes of meditation, she walks up to the floor-length mirror in her room, examining the small bags that have begun to appear under her eyes.

Craning her neck to the side, she turns around and slips her feet into her slippers. Then she walks up to the chair in the corner to pick up her PJs; her legs feel clammy as she'd been wearing jeans all day. She holds it in her hand, covering her mouth as she yawns and turns to the bathroom, but a crackling sound stops her in her tracks. She assumes she'd stepped on something. She checks under her feet, but the floor is clean. She looks over at the window, but it's fine too. She shakes the strange feeling off and turns back around, but then her eyes catch something.

It's the floor-length mirror that has huge cracks on it. Her jaw drops and she looks at it in horror as her reflection splits into multiple images among the cracks. The heart of the cracks is a bit left from the center. She is frozen at her spot, too shocked to move. The mirror is her favorite as it used to be in her mother's room. Her reflection used to appear in the same mirror, but now it's gone. It can be fixed, but it won't be the same in which her mother used to flaunt herself. She doesn't run to it or examine what caused it to break in a horrible way. She just stares at it in disbelief.

Another creak. More cracks appear in the mirror. Before she knows it, it shatters with a loud smashing voice, and she sees the pieces sprinting towards her. The pointy sharp edges of the pieces fly towards her as a subconscious scream escapes her mouth. She falls on her back instinctively, her eyes shut tight, and her heart pounding in her ears. She's not in pain. She doesn't feel any prickling in her body.

She opens her eyes as soon as she realizes that it's been a second too long since the glass pieces were supposed to hit her. Trapped in a haze of confusion, she looks up to meet a pair of scintillating red eyes staring back at her. She has never seen eyes so beautiful of a human before. Despite their color being blood red, they are brilliantly reflective, with traces of uncommon intelligence. She tries to focus on the face of the person. He has a perfect chiseled jawline with a straight pointy nose. His disheveled hair falls over his forehead and disturbs the fire in his eyes.

She can't take her eyes off him as he, too, continues to stare at her. He breaks the intense eye contact after what feels like an eternity and throws away the rug that he used to gather all the shattered pieces of the mirror. That's when Calista realizes he is the one who saved her from the sprinting pieces. Her eyes follow the white rug being thrown away in the corner of the room. She's still on the floor while he is bent down on his knees over her, shielding her.

He offers his hand to help her up. She stares at his hand in disbelief as panic rises in her insides. Air catches in her throat, and she finds it difficult to breathe. She doesn't believe any of this is true. She starts to assume it's a nightmare and it'll be over as soon as she blinks.

Her mother's mirror shattered. The pieces sprinted towards her. A handsome guy just saved her life and now is offering his hand in a very gentlemanly gesture, bent on his knees. What even is he doing in my room?

She doesn't have time to ask because her eyes snap over her bedroom door as Josh throws it open, panic evident on his face. "Calista? What was that noise?"

She turns to look at the gentleman to whom she owes her life, but he's no longer there. She scans the whole room to search for him, but he can't be seen anywhere. She turns to her father who runs toward her and helps her up. Her mind is still in a deep haze of confusion and the after-effects of trauma seem to crash down on her.

"What's all this, Cal?" her father asks.

She tries to catch her breath and searches for words to explain to him. "The... the mirror. It broke. I don't know how."

He rubs her back to soothe her. "It's okay. Come out. I'll clean this mess." She nods and follows him outside, stealing one last glance at her room, hoping she would spot the red-eyed guy again, but there was still no trace of him.