Volume I Chapter 12

"Uhm. Excuse me, but can I talk to you for a second Miss-" A member from the production crew asked Vanessa and lead her away from our view. Everyone around us were already clambered on their own group of friends, beckoning for the preparation day to be over.

"Uh hey! Sorry, but Vanessa and I have planned something for later. Would you like to join us?" I tried to cut in politely on their conversation.

"Oh, oh no. It's fine, really. I'll just- um probably ask next time then?" The two of us nodded and with a keen smile, waved him goodbye. When his figure and leering friends had disappeared into view, I turned around to drag the girl beside me to a nearby restroom for a talk.

This small argument between us had gone too far and awkward for my liking. It also pains me to think that because of something so small, like fainting, I could lose a newly founded friend. But before we could even step out off the field, a female student wearing a small student council badge had us stopped from leaving.

"You two are the senior representatives, right?" She asked. I wasn't able to fully answer when she continued speaking, "Great, just the two people that I'm looking for! The president told me to tell you that we needed two students to check on the last batches of the seed delivery on the back. That means you two. Also, make sure to record the number of boxes and pots if anything goes missing on the final batch. Apparently, a lot of items had been reported lost recently. We wouldn't want to end up short on the said event for tomorrow you know? Anyway, here's a list of the things that needed to be manually checked." She handed us a small clipboard and waited for us to take it on her stretched out hand.

"Which room are the last delivery batch stored in?" I asked, reaching out to get the clipboard, wanting to let the whole extra tasks to get done with. I still needed to apologize for shouting at Vanessa a few days ago, but with all the interruptions I'm getting since we had a small fight, I'm practically itching to just get the whole thing out of my chest.

"I think it was somewhere on the ground floor? Try the art room, things that are always lost and delivered should be there." Art room. Great. Just the room that I would like to visit and remember the strangest of events for. After saying what was needed to be said, the girl wished us luck and quickly left us to meet up with her friends waiting for her on the school gate.

So much for the wishes and good will cause I have a feeling that it was her task to do inventory itself. I looked towards Vanessa and tried to see if we were on the same page for this one and with her giving me a wry smile, I couldn't help but give her a triumphant smile back.

.

"Vanessa." I turned towards Kai who was driving the car towards the nearby airport with moderate speed. We were currently cruising on the highway to fetch my stranded mom, who has been making me extremely nervous for the past ten minutes because she wasn't answering my calls for the fifth time.

"Relax… Your mom was probably just emotionally stressed from missing home. If it puts you at ease, we'll be there in the receiving area about three minutes tops. By then, you can give her the whole Pearson scolding of a lifetime." He looked at me for a short while on the sideview mirror before turning his eyes down back on the road.

Kai's been there when we had to move far away from our old home. He had seen how my mom looked so fragile like a piece of glass hanging from the ceiling. A small tremor would make her fall and break. Whenever someone mentions the name of the missing man inside the household, her whole body would turn frigidly cold like she was doused in a bucket of freezing water. I'm extremely thankful for this wonderful man for even though he's living in hell of the reminder that my mom wasn't rightfully his, he still stuck his hand to help us 'til today.

"Have I ever told you that you're unusually sweet at this kind of moment in time?" I asked him, looking at the window watching the lagging cars on view.

"Well, what can I say? I'm usually a very sweet guy-"

"Sweet, yeah. But why is it that your 'sweetness' can't sway mom when it comes to talking to her in person?" He stayed deadass silent and I can't help but laugh from him silently admitting that I was right on the money once again.

"Alright, enough talk and try ringing your mom a call." "Hmm, thought so…"

.

"Two packed boxes of Champaca, an Aglaia odorata, some Ylang Ylang, and Agarwood! That's about the whole lot I guess?" I turned to Vanessa who was currently standing outside the room with a pale face. For the past hour the girl had been standing guard for me by the doorway and it's been bugging my curious mind on why she was so insisted on not going in.

"Vanessa?" She looked towards me and I said, "We're all set and done..?"

"Yeah, I heard you." She replied. Now that everything was finally out of the way, I've made myself to speak up and approach her by the doorway.

"Vanessa… About the other day, I would like to apol-" But before I could finish my words, my foot got stuck on a small stack of boxes laid beneath the floor. It made me stumble upon the way, and because I knew that this would potentially embarrass myself once again, I've already prepared myself for my own downfall. However, before I could close my eyes and bear the fall, I was already caught by a pair of helping hands that were as slender and soft as mine.

"Are you hurt?" Her voice rang throughout my ears and the closeness of her body with mine made my breath hitch a few times higher than usual. "Andy-"

"Sorry! I-I didn't think of looking where I was going. I think I just got a small scratch- anyway, I was just about to say that I would like to apologize for sho- Ow!" Speaking fast from my embarrassment, I tried to pry myself off from her arms when a stinging jolt of pain came and shook my whole body forward. Vanessa quickly noticed and hugged me for support and assistance. These thoughtful actions of hers made my heart beat unnecessarily faster from the sudden development.

"Easy now. Your ankle's probably hurt." I heard her say as I matter a small voice of thanks while trying to avoid her caring eyes from view. I stared down at the floor, seeing our shadows overlapping each other and forming into one. For a split second, I thought that our shadows were dancing across the floor. It made me frown on how such a thing were to be possible when the laws of science states that shadows can only be formed when something blocks the light in a straightforward manner. Although two separate objects' shadows can overlap as a possibility, there is a need of having to sources of light that are placed on the sides of the object.

The thought of one old lightbulb hanging in the ceiling inside this small art room, was far from the solution on what I would've imagined inside my head.

"Strange. Why does my feet feel like it's being strangled-woah!" I asked out loud. But before I could even finish my words, my body had been held upwards in a swift princess carry and we then took off running away from the place.

"What are you-"

"Don't look back!"

"Why-" I didn't listen to her words and looked back from her shoulder just to see a small disfigured figure standing over our previous position in an upright manner. Lights from around us flickered black and white and before I could process what was going on, I screamed.

"AHHH!!!"

.

"Mom!" I ran towards my mother and said, "I kept calling you for the past hour and-" before being cut off by an incredibly tight hug from her bony arms.

"I'm sorry." The words uttered on her mouth left me puzzled for a short while.

"M-mom what on Earth are you sorry for? Don't tell me you've been hopping on bars outside work?" With my heart thundering upon my chest, the atmosphere between the two of us felt a little too tight for my liking so I tried to lighten up the mood with a small joke. She then let me go, her hands gripping my arms tightly as she tried to shake me back and forth.

"Bar hopping- Are you really asking if YOUR mom would go bar hopping like an old risky teenager? A mom going bar hopping!? Goodness-!"

"Alright! What did I miss?" Kai soon reached the two of us and I've successfully avoided death for the time being.

"Rachel! Welcome back! You know your daughter, Vanessa here, keeps on dissing me whenever I tell her to lock the house up! Reminds me of someone who isn't keen to listen to her parents about two decades ago. Ever wonder who that certain someone was?" He jeered, taking mom's luggage with him as he led the way back to the parking lot with the two of us in tow.

Mom scoffed, rolled her eyes and said, "Are you saying what I think you're saying? Cause if you really are then I wouldn't be handing Houston's personal signature for you, when I personally had to beg the proud girl for one!" From her breast pocket she took off a small piece of paper. A scribble of fancy handwriting and a photo of a beautiful girl appeared from the small white page.

"Ahh! Please, I was just kidding. You know, everyone's been waiting for you to come back and join us for this…" Walking with a couple of steps away, the two of them chatted in their own world until we reached our parked ride on the underground parking lot.

It was extremely quiet for some odd reason but then suddenly, the three neighboring cars next to us had their front lights blinking rapidly and three differently pitched car alarms surrounded the area.

"My ears! To think that three owners would plan to set the whole thing off! The nerve!" I heard Kai loudly complained as he tried to cover his ears on his sleeves while walking towards the back of our car. I too, had to reach and cover my ears from the stinging of several garbled noises. But before I could fully cup my ears from such torture, a hand had already grabbed my wrist and made me turn towards them in utter puzzlement.

"Mom? What's wrong?!" I questioned her with a scream, and her eyes squinted as the incessant noise around us grew louder and louder. She showed a battle hardened expression, giving me a strong impression that she knows something was happening. But as I waited for her to reply, flashes of lights from all around us covered the entire floor without warning.

The light was a bit too hard to bear so I closed my eyes from everything else. Well, I tried to. But as soon as I was flashed with a strong ray of light, I was then sucked in by the darkness of everything else.

Have I finally gone blind?

"Honey, when I tell you to run you run. Okay?" A familiar voice resounded in my ears and the heat surrounding my wrist reminded me of the fact that my mom was here with me.

"What's happening, mom? Is someone robbing us, why-"

"Run!" She yelled and I felt her drag me in a random direction, with various different colors quickly coming into view. "What-"

"Quickly!"

"But Kai?!"

"He's not here, Nessa!" I shut my mouth to look around us and saw that the previous underground parking lot turned into a creepy night walk in the woods. Everything was dark, the walls that had been standing to keep the building upright had turned into barks of dark oak trees, and the well-lighted ceiling disappeared into the form of a moonless dark sky.

Currently we were trudging downhill on the ground, heading for a nearby creak that appeared slowly in my view. "Mom! Where are we?!"

"Shh! Quiet down honey. Let's look for a safe place stay then I'll explain to you all about this later."

.

Huffing with heavy baited breaths, Vanessa went on to put the last large item that she could find inside the old shack.

"We should be safe here for the mean time." She said, wiping off several beads of sweat on her forehead with the hem of her shirt.

"Safe? What do you mean safe?" I whispered, my voice losing a little bit of its strength as I sat there trembling on the cold and dirty wooden floor. We were now staying inside an old abandoned shack in the middle of the woods. Don't ask me why and how we got here because all I remember was a strange flash of light, blinding us when Vanessa opened the door to quickly carry me outside.

I sighed and glanced at the front door where a bunch of old items laid stacked on top of each other to block the said entrance of the shack. This was Vanessa's doing- something that made me feel assured, yet sprinkled with small bouts of panic as it was also the only exit that I could quickly go to at a time's notice. My ankle was still throbbing with pain, and looking at it now, an ashy handprint was left like a tattoo that was etched on my skin.

Remembering how I got it was still terrifying, and so, I chose to push my mind elsewhere by chatting the other girl up for the calmness of one's own mind.

"Well, this had turned into an utter disaster." I said, pulling my knees closer to my chest and continued, "Do you think that 'that thing' would come and find us?"

"Possibly." The girl said, quickly peeking her head on a nearby dusty window with her back laid vigilantly against the wall. Vanessa never did stop looking out for the two of us ever since the broken figure chased us down the school hall. It had my wits scared off, and I now wonder how the girl beside me could be so calm in taking precautionary measures against the unknown.

"Hey… Why are you so calm right now?"

"Who? Me?" She innocently asked.

"Uhh, who else am I talking to other than myself? Yeah, of course it's you!" I whispered a little harsh than intended as silence dawned on the two of us inside the room. For a few minutes, I waited and waited. But seeing her mouth opening and closing like a small blub of fish, made me a little frustrated on what's to come.

"Can't you just say it directly?" I pointed out, making her flinch from the tone of my words. "I-I'm not calm, actually. This has just been my second time going across the world of the dead-"

"Dead? Did I hear it right? The world of the dead?!" I cut her off, my eyes widening with fear as I remember the thing that had injured me and chased us on the school grounds.

"Yeah. The dead." She nodded in confirmation of her answer.

"I don't suppose you know the way on how the heck do we get out of this 'dead land', right?'" I asked, rubbing my forearms from the cold that I was getting inside the room. I hear her slump to her seat, taking out a rusty gold pocket watch that the people used in the old 16th century and say, "I don't know how but, I was told to wait for time indicated by this old watch."

Hearing her answer, I crawled towards her and inspected the watch that she was holding on her right hand. "Why does it need to be this watch? Can't we use our own watches?" I looked to see her shrugging while staring into the darkness of space around us.

"They explicitly said that the watch was the only thing that worked normally in this world. They told me that time ran backwards here and the only correct guide that we should follow is this old rusty watch. I tried to ask them what else can I do to make my escape much faster, but the only advice that I've gotten at the moment is to run and hide from the dwellers that is said to roam this world." Her words had my mind sprouting more questions than needed answers so I turned to ask, "What exactly happens if you get caught by those creatures that roam in this world?"

"Except for the fact that you'll probably get killed like a typical victim stuck in a horror movie, being stuck here forever was the only other answer that they currently had."