Shadows Of Red

CHAPTER 9: Secret Conversations In The Playground

CHAPTER 9: Secret Conversations In The Playground

“We don’t know yet what triggered her paralysis, because everything about her results the other day was normal.”

It was the very first statement I remembered when I woke up. I sighed.

It’s been days since the doctor told me and the police about that. Since Katrina doesn’t have someone related in town, I volunteered to look after her as a guardian. The authorities allowed me to do it for the meantime as I am already of the legal age and I was the one who ‘rescued’ her from being abducted.

But I wouldn’t phrase it that way, because all I did was watch them. If the figure didn’t vanish that night, I still wouldn’t know what to do and maybe I couldn’t have done anything again.

For some reason, even when the police made everything a private information about what was happening to Katrina, the news about her paralysis spread like wild fire in town, leaving everyone stir more of the mysteries that’s happening in town in their heads. And I couldn’t help thinking the same way.

What could have possibly happened for Katrina to be like that? What did that guy do? And the other girls, are they in the same situation as her? Or are they in far worse condition?

I clamped a hand on my forehead as that headache came to me again. I haven’t been sleeping nicely yet again. With that crossing my mind, I opened the shower curtain and made my way inside my bathroom. I took all of my clothes and went under the shower and sprays of warm water started drenching me immediately.

I had that dream again last night, but just like all the other times, it was a dream I couldn’t recall. But one thing was different now.

Leaning on the tiled wall as water continuously falls down on my body, making splashing sounds on the four corners, I looked at my hands, feeling those tingles I know I have felt inside that dream.

I clenched my fists, still oddly feeling something holding unto my hand. Like a warm comforting grip made by someone who didn’t want to be forgotten before leaving.

It was the first time I literally felt something actual on my skin. Like an actual contact from someone in that dreamland. And I have been having these weird things at night since I couldn’t remember when. But for the last couple of weeks since Halloween and that day with Katrina, sleeping almost didn’t feel like sleeping anymore. It felt more like... travelling.

And I don’t know why I feel like I still want that.

Something about it just makes me want for more. Like how a certain made up scenario in my mind makes me obsessed about it. Like a thought I always want to go back to. Like an imagination I want to prolong and add something to satisfy me and make me want to stay and live in there. It calls to me. As if I really belong in that place. That I should just be there. To stay in there.

I gripped on my hair as I put on shampoo on it. I don’t even know if that thought is still healthy.

Still with many thoughts rummaging inside my overthinking mind, I took more minutes than I should at taking a shower. So, when the moment I stepped outside the bathroom, the clock blinked at me, letting me see that I am almost running late for class now.

Shivering a little in my towel, I made my way towards my cabinet, where I laid all my clothes. My room suddenly felt cold as the warm waters made me get used to the warm temperature.

I glanced at the watch again and made a quick move to dress and dry my hair. I decided to just take the bread I bought last night. I also took the yogurt out of the paper bag with the bread and made a run outside. I only have a few more minutes before my class started.

Walking out of the apartment’s door, I gripped on my jacket as cold wind slapped me in the face. I walked on the busy streets as cars drove towards the university, passing by me. I noticed then that the street was wet. Hmm, seems like a light shower poured a few hours ago. The floor is kind of getting slippery.

Feeling still slightly drowsy from being sleep deprived, I stayed on the side walk towards the university, not even minding that much whether I’ll be late for my first class of the day.

I continued walking, but as I do so, something from behind me suddenly felt... weird. I looked back, thinking that I was being followed.

And my sleepy mind suddenly woke up the moment my eyes landed on those green eyes staring at me.

“Maxwell,” I muttered lowly to myself. “What is he doing here?”

Meeting those green eyes with my blue pair, I raised a hand to greet the man. But instead of greeting me back, an almost cryptic smile made its way to his lips, suddenly making me shiver, more than the cold could.

I frowned as Maxwell turned his back and walked away, still with that smile lingering on his bearded face. I frowned. What was that?

Seeing that the seemingly drunk man was already out of sight, I turned to continue walking towards the university, which was fortunately just a few blocks away from my rented apartment. But I was suddenly greeted again by another pair of green eyes.

Miss Victoria Booker’s black car passed by me as she drove towards the university, but before she could get out of my line of vision, I saw how those ironically fiery green cold eyes lingered on me.

“Natalie.”

I flinched and almost jumped at the shock of someone suddenly holding me by my shoulder. Gawd.

I turned towards Jordan and held my chest, heaving at the shock. “You startled me.”

His thick brows frowned at me. “Why? What were you so pre-occupied about?” He started looking around as if searching for something I might have been focusing on before he came.

I just shook my head. “Nothing, just a little sleepy.” I sighed and started walking again.

Jordan also started walking beside me, clasping his bag on his left shoulder, he said, “I went to your apartment yesterday, but you weren’t there.” He glanced at me with his brows slightly knitted.

“Where were you? Do you have another job?” He continued. I looked at him and stared at his eyes.

Jordan’s been in and out of the scene for a while now, and he doesn’t know that I always go to the hospital to look out for Katrina every chance I got. I don’t even know if he’s heard about what happened that night when he was absent at work.

“I was at the hospital. Katrina Cuevo, you heard about her?” His brown eyes immediately brightened when he recognized the name. “Oh, you visited her? Do you know her?”

I thought so. I bet he just heard the name from somewhere without knowing what happened to the woman.

“No, but I saw her before she lost consciousness.” Jordan’s brows suddenly creased and his steps suddenly slowed down. I stared at him, watching for his reaction.

“You saw her? You mean inside the bar?”

So he knows about the news, but he seems clueless about my involvement about it.

I looked straight in his eyes and said, “Yes, but I also saw her with that man whom the police thought did those things to her. They’re also thinking he was about to abduct her, adding up to the mystery cases. Saying that he might be that person doing all these in our town.”

I stared as Jordan all together almost just stopped moving. I saw a flash of something indistinguishable in those bright browns but in a snap, it wasn’t there anymore.

He continued walking, now with brows slightly creasing but was obviously trying not to show much about it. I looked closely, feeling like I should. Does he know anything?

“Jor—“

“What did you see?”

We spoke at the same time, but he finished his words while I cut mine. We continued walking and I looked at the street in front of us, feeling his gaze on me. Why do I feel like he really knows something about this?

Also remembering that figure I saw in the woods the other day while I was in the gazebo, I’m starting to feel like I don’t really know Jordan like how I thought I do. Or at least what goes in that mind of his.

“Just them. Katrina and that guy. I thought they were doing something else, so I turned away from them. That was the last thing I saw before a shout from Katrina made me look back, but the guy...” I glanced at Jordan as I paused before saying the last words.

And he is looking at me intently, looking like he so desperately wants to hear me say something. What could it be? What does he want to hear? And for what?

“....the guy was already far away from her in just a second. Then another moment passed, he was just... gone.” I continued, watching his reaction.

I saw how his jaw ticked on the sides. How his adam’s apple bobbed a little. How his right hand clenched on his bag’s strap. And those eyes. Those usually bright eyes turning a shade darker in my sight.

I finally showed my frown at him. “Jordan, do you know anything about this?” And that question seemed to have taken him out from his angry bubble. My frown deepened.

“No. I just didn’t know you were there, in the exact place of the scene,” he said and started walking faster. I equalled my strides with him despite almost running due to his longer legs. “But have you seen the same thing? I-In the shadows? In the bar?” He finally stopped and looked at me.

I swallowed and continued, standing in front of him now. “Have you... felt it, too? The cold and heavy presence?”

 Jordan’s bright brown eyes stared at me. Looked at me straight in the eyes, as if trying to stare right into my soul. I saw how his jaw clenched subtly once again, as if feeling frustrated at getting nothing.

He forcefully closed his eyes for a second, and when those fiery eyes opened up to me again, they looked nothing like anything I could be suspicious of. That familiar warm bright eyes looked at me almost innocently. Oblivious of what I was pertaining to.

“You’ve been seeing ghosts in the club, now, Nat?” He chuckled, that teasing persona surfacing from him again.

“I didn’t know you were the type to believe in those things. Come on now. We’re late.” He held me by the shoulder and dragged me with him towards the university, dismissing the subject.

Heaving a deep sigh, I looked at him again, frustration welling inside my chest. What is he hiding? I know he is hiding something. I can almost hear the silent whispers to me, calling for me to know.

I huffed and just let the matter go. I surely won’t get anything from him today.

Leaving all of those thoughts away, the thought of being late for Miss Booker’s class slapped me and woke me up back to my senses. We almost ran towards the hallway to get into our first class.

What was I even thinking? Not minding about being late? It could’ve been fine if it was another professor, but Miss Booker? My hands started getting clammy as the thought of having those fierce yet cold eyes pierce on me once I walk inside her class late.

I took a deep breath, almost seeing those green eyes in her car’s side mirror again.  What’s with green eyed people now, looking at me like that?

“Come on,” Jordan said and he walked inside the already on going class. My nerves started spiking up at the silent room with only that femininely whole and strict voice filling the entire space.

I bit my lip the moment I sat on my seat beside Jordan. Without looking in front yet, I took my notebook out and pen to start writing down for the discussion. But the moment I looked in front, even anticipating it was gonna happen, I was still shell-shocked upon staring straight at those cold and hard green eyes.

I froze on my seat.

While Miss Victoria Booker was still talking about our topic, her eyes were just fixed on me. Not moving. Unfazed. Like a hawk, eyeing her prey.

My hand gripped on the pen in my hand as I tried taking my gaze away from her, but like I was made of stone, I couldn’t seem to move my body, cemented. I felt like being held by something to make me stare back at her. And she just kept on staring at me. My eyes slightly widening.

“Nat?”

I felt Jordan’s gaze on me, but still frozen, I couldn’t seem to let her gaze go, and same as she to me.

“Natalie,”

A physical interference cut that seemingly rope of compulsion I felt from the professor. I exhaled a deep breath and held my hammering chest, feeling like running from a marathon so suddenly. I breathed out again, catching my breath.

“Natalie?” Jordan’s hand on my shoulder shook me again. Being able to do so now, I turned my gaze towards him. And he was that guy I was suspecting about something again. With that bright spark of something I didn’t see in that warm and welcoming best friend I knew my best friend had, Jordan turned towards the front, and I saw how he met Miss Booker’s paralyzing gazes.

Feeling the tension thick in the air, I held on to my seat as I was no longer feeling the want to write for the discussion. My heart was still thumping loudly. The heart that seemed to know how exactly to react to something I couldn’t even comprehend nor I knew about.

“Class dismiss.”

The moment Miss Booker said those words, Jordan made a run towards the door, being the first one to get out, not even looking back at me. I stared at his back, momentarily awed at what he just did. What happened to him?

Sighing, I took my bag with me and stood up, not daring to look at the professor who is now standing just beside me that I’m beside the door.

The moment I finally was out of the room, I felt like some heavy weight was lifted off of me. I swallowed and clutched at my chest again, feeling the vestiges of that nerve-wracking tension slowly leave my body.

What was that? What the hell just happened?

The entire day in school, I didn’t see Jordan anymore. And what’s more surprising, I didn’t see Rina as well. So I was alone all day, doing exactly what I do with them.

Still doing my routine, almost robotically now, I went to the hospital and everything was the same when I got there. Katrina Cuevo was still that paralyzed victim of that unknown figure. I sighed and sat on the couch, staring at the television, yet actually seeing nothing.

The police couldn’t even find any traces from that figure. He’s not even in the scope of the CCTV footage outside the bar. Even that thing they did before Katrina lost consciousness was out of the camera’s frame. So, all that the police have is a statement from me. Which makes me feel even more accountable.

A few minutes of just looking at the hospital room with my swirling thoughts, I went out without even glancing at Katrina’s face like I always did every time I came here. With her eyes wide open like that, I don’t think I could stomach the thoughts that would begin conjuring inside my head.

Thoughts that will utterly make me look like a lunatic.

***

MY CLASSES ended for the day. And I walked out of the university, feeling like the entire day was just a blur of moments.

I glanced at my wrist watch. I need to ride the bus immediately for my shift at the bar tonight.

Clutching at my bag strap, I felt my nose starting to freeze at the cold breeze of the night air. Looking at the sky above, I still saw those thick clouds that covered the moon and the stars that I’ve been longing to see for a while now.

I wish the weather would at least brighten up.

Looking back in front, I rummaged through my bag.

“Shoot.” Frustrated, I huffed out a breath. I suddenly wanted to slap myself for not bringing my beanie. Great. My ears are going to start freezing now.

Sighing, I just circled my scarf higher towards my mouth to cover a little of my nose. But the quiet, cold and dimly lit street was suddenly disturbed.

“I couldn’t. I already tried. I just couldn’t get in.”

I looked towards the side when I heard that low feminine voice beside the post. Walking towards it slowly, I turned to look at the small, now abandoned playground of the town because of the disappearances.

But I stopped and suddenly stood still. My eyes widened when I saw someone unexpected, but familiar.

In front of me was a broad back from a tall and lean figure. And the other was smaller and has that blonde hair and green eyes.

“We’re running out of time. Just do as I say.” Commanded that familiar deep voice to the woman whom I didn’t expect he so casually would just command like that, like he’s someone above her.

“I already did, alright! And it was true. She’s different. She’s—“

But the familiar woman suddenly cut her words as those beautiful, yet cold and piercing green eyes went to me. The tall man in front of her turned around and met my wide and shocked eyes. And those grey magnetic eyes made me stop moving all together.

I gaped at the sight of Calum Price and Miss Victoria Booker.