The Chronicles of the Caltamere Twins: The Prophecy

Practically Involved

How many times have I been passing out and finding myself to be in some kind of vehicle, moving with great speed? The growl of the engine seemed to be protesting from it. Creaks and screeches from the vehicle woke me up. My vision was too fuzzy and my head was splitting. I groaned at the pain and felt I was too tired to do anything. But I need to know where I am and where the hell am I going?

When my vision started to come back, I panned over to the driver. He was busy driving but I recognized him. 

“Rick?” I squeaked as I found my throat dry. I shuffled up from my seat, trying to refocus. I was so amazed at how exhausted I was. The last thing I remember was a dire wolf trying to attack Rick. It came over quickly and glanced at him. I found his coat tattered but overall, he’s in good shape. He has a cut at the corner of his lips and a dark bruise at his temple.

Rick took a quick look at me and gave me a weak but amused smile. “You’re awake, tiger,” he teased as he went back to driving. “You’ve been out for a while.”

“What?” I asked, confused at a blankness nagging me. What just happened?

“I’ll explain later once we’re back at your house. Alvin and I were worried sick when you didn’t show up for class and you weren’t answering any of our calls.”

“Joan,” I sighed and panic surged in. I shot him a hard glance and uttered my anxiety, “Where’s Joan?”

“Relax, she’s out back.” He pointed a finger at the back seat and I followed it. Joan’s there still unconscious. Relief washed over me and slumped back to my seat. I stared outside as I saw the town coming into view. 

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, I know what day it is and I know you don’t come to school. But what’s curious was that Joan didn’t come, too. It’ll be unusual that she’ll be with you earlier. I asked Alvin if he knew something. Surprisingly, he didn’t. He said he was supposed to fetch Joan yesterday but it never happened. He thought Joan wanted to be alone or what but until then, he never got any word from her.”

“So after class, I went down to Roasting Rods. I thought you might be there. You two were but something happened there. I couldn’t quite understand.” He took a quick glance at me and I know he saw the imposter. “You attacked Joan.”

Crap, he saw that. But that wasn’t me. I wanted to tell him that but it’ll be difficult to explain. He saw me attacking Joan. Will he accuse me of attacking my best friend? 

“That wasn’t me,” I said, trying to sound as convincing as I could. 

“I know it wasn’t you. I know you would never do such a thing to Joan. I was more convinced when I saw you drove in. I—I don’t know what I saw! I saw two of you! How can that happen? I thought I was going crazy but, no! What I saw was real. There were two of you. ”

“Look,” I turned to him and gathered whatever strength I have to explain to him as I’m hearing panic in his voice. “I don’t know either. What happened back at the Rods is as confusing as you think it was. Okay? I’m as confused as you but as sane as I can. You get that?”

“Fine, I know that wasn’t you. But this doesn’t explain anything!”

“All right! Please you don’t need to raise your voice! I’m currently not in a mood to argue about what is and what isn’t! Okay! It’s been hell for me. I’ve experienced enough to last a lifetime of nightmares! What’s worse is that my whole life is a lie!” I eventually broke down as hot tears fell from my eyes. I immediately looked away from him and tried to hold them back.  

Rick didn’t press on but I know he still wanted to talk. Grateful for his sincerity, how am I going to explain to him everything?

 My mom, Henry, and Abigail, they’re all false. There is no Rachel Chase. No Henry Carter and no Abigail O’Neal. Worse, we do not belong to this realm. This information sickened me. How is every damn thing possible?

“Are you okay?” Rick asked. It’s quite funny why he’s even doing this. I’m thankful, yes, but there’s this instinct of mine which I deliberately wanted to ignore, tells me he’s doing this willingly. 

“Why?” I hope I didn’t sound rude. “Why did you come for us?”

“What kind of question is that?” he scoffed as we turned around Finance Road and straight towards our street. I bit my tongue to avoid further rude questions. I didn’t take my eyes off of my reflection on the side mirror as he set the car to park at my house. In front of us was a silver Honda Civic. It was Alvin’s. I glanced at our house and found the porch light open and there Alvin was sitting on the bench. 

He ran towards us and found his face so red from impatience. He’s hunched shoulder told me how he’s pissed but more likely worried. His curly golden hair bounced as he jogged to the back seat. He found Joan in this state which made his brow creased more showing some lines from his forehead. He tightened his jaw letting his cheekbone be incredulously surfaced. He scooped Joan up and waited for us to get out of the car.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

“Where’s the spare key?” Rick asked.

“By the c***k on the bench,” I said absently. Too stunned to comment or say or do anything, I watched them distantly as they looked for the spare key. They eventually found it and opened the door. Alvin went inside with Joan in his arms. 

Rick came back and opened the door for me. He offered me his hand. But, I’m just as blank as a sheet of white paper. 

“C’mon,” he said. “Those wounds need treatment.”

Wounds? I looked down and saw blood on my hand. I choked back a scream. My knuckles were bruised, skinned. Confused, I look up to Rick. He’s worried and at the same time afraid, his eyes showed them. 

“What happened to me?”

“You tell me,” his voice was low. I took his hand and helped myself off of the car. I pushed myself towards him and leaned my head against his chest. He flinched but he didn’t move. Hot tears flow down from my eyes, I held on to him. He reluctantly placed his hand over my head and shushed my tears away.

Comforting me he said, “It’s okay. I’m here.”

I pulled myself away from him and glanced at his face. His thinned lips stretched smiling straight. His jaw tightened as he cupped his hands over my face. He stared at me and waited for my tears to stop falling.

“Let’s get inside.” I nodded and he helped me walk towards my house.

After Rick cleaned my wounds, he went to the kitchen to make tea for the three of us. Alvin placed Joan on the sofa with his coat over her. He sat beside her as he caressed her head. He hasn’t spoken a word ever since I came in. I saw his hand alternately closing and opening it as he tries to subdue whatever emotion he has in it. 

Rick came back with the tray of tea cups. He put it down as he sat beside me. Rick offered me a cup and gently accepted it. I raised my knees near me, wrapped my hands around the cup and placed it on top of my knees. 

Nobody spoke for about half an hour. Maybe they wanted me to have a time of silence but it’s making me anxious. Today’s event was really terrifying. I’d almost lost another dear friend of mine and I’m not sure how I will be able to take it. I think I was lost in thought staring blankly at the cup of tea I was holding when Rick gently placed his hand on my shoulder. I jump slightly, careful not to spill my tea. I turned to look at him and to my surprise Rick is showing me that face, again. 

“Do you want to do this?” he whispered. He’s so considerate knowing what’s really going on with me. I pursed my lips and gently nodded at him, assuring him that I’m okay. He softly smiled and withdrew his hand. Rick cleared his throat and both Alvin and I turned to him.

Without mincing his words, he asked, “What happened?”

I looked for words that I could best describe the event that will not make me sound insane. But there wasn’t. I couldn’t explain it to them. They won’t believe me. 

“I don’t know,” I said over the protest of my mind. “I don’t understand it either.” Shaking my head, I took a sip from the cup. The tea soothes some of my anxiety but it is still there. 

Their eyes weighed on mine as they couldn’t take my answer. I am partly worried of the danger we are in, if there were any. And if I were to tell them everything, I might as well put their lives in danger. It’s too risky to involve them. 

But it’ll be selfish of me if I didn’t. So far as I’m concerned, what they did, just to rescue us, in the midst of the battle against dire wolves, that’s extremely dangerous already. If I tell them, how will they accept it? I doubt they’ll even believe me. 

I watched Alvin as he went back to caressing Joan’s hair. He’s a sweet guy. He never wanted anything to happen to her. Grateful that he didn’t press me for answers, but I think I owed it to him. I know how he feels. He loved Joan as much as I do. We’d do anything just to keep her safe. But I failed her. I led her to this state. I didn’t hold up my end in protecting her. Now, Alvin’s worried. He doesn’t have a clue of what has happened to us. I bet there are millions of questions swimming in his mind pool. I just wish I could answer them.

Rick patiently waited. I don’t understand him at all. I mean, he’s my long time crush but he never saw me that way. So, why is he this worried? I’ve known him for five years. He was small framed then, a bit fragile. But his looks deceived me with his form. He executed his form remarkably and powerfully. He’s faster in movements and every transition of steps is smooth and precise. He worked with four words: precision, agility, power and discipline. That’s a whole wrap for him. Panic is not one of them. So basically, he’s always calm and composed. Maybe I could tell him. 

He took another sip from his cup and gave me a pleading and gentle look. He said, “Those creatures back there, what are they?”

“Dire wolves,” I breathed. 

Alvin glanced up and found his shoulders hunch a bit. He doesn't know how to hide his anxiety that well. His body betrays him. “Wolves in Redville?”

They were waiting for me to continue and fill in gaps of the unknown. Still reluctant but it seemed I didn't have much choice. I owed it to them. Though we didn’t exactly need rescuing, their lengths to do that just proved how sincere they are and willing to risk everything for us. 

“It’s hard to explain,” I started. “Don’t think of me differently after this. I’m warning you, it’s a mind-blowing story.” So I told them what I’ve learned so far. Explaining to them about parallel dimension wasn’t that hard since both were fans of Sci-Fi movies. They listened to me carefully and with their looks every time I revealed something shocking they were impassable. They didn’t interrupt me, thank goodness. I told them of the false identities of people we know; Mr. Bancroft; Jane Doe; the cabin and its compartment full of weapons.

At the mention of weapons, I saw a flicker of amazement from Rick’s eyes. We share a common interest.

Finally, I said, “Joan and I do not belong to this world,” Both faces changed drastically. Surprised and amused, their brows creased further.

“We,” I paused, gathering some will to break it up to them. “We belong to the Land of the Realms, Alda.”