CHAPTER FOUR
I jumped up in my chair as I stared out the window. Falling from the sky were crimson droplets that looked dreadfully like blood. I ran towards the open window and the smell of rust and iron assailed my nose. I looked down and saw the ground covered in eerily, red liquid that reflected everything above it.
I felt my stomach churning at the sight and smell and bile rose in my throat. I tried to stop it. But- still, I retched out the window; completely emptying my stomach before my surrounding started to spin as I fell down the floor and everything went black.
When I opened my eyes, my sight was blocked by shiny, circle lights that made my eyes hurt so I quickly closed them again. My head was being attacked by a piercing pain that was slowly becoming unbearable. The sight of the sky crying blood flashed in my mind again as my insides threatened to come out once more.
I heard the door opened and closed; then the sounds of feet walking towards me followed by a gentle hand in my forehead. I opened my eyes and saw the school doctor. He gave me a smile when he realized I was awake.
He made his way to his table and back to me with a thermometer in his hands. He gave them to me and I put the tip in my mouth; staring awkwardly at the ceiling as I waited. When it beeped, I gave it back to him and he looked at it.
“37ºc; you don’t have a fever. But how are you feeling?”
“I feel like my head is gonna burst any minute. Are you sure I don’t have a fever?”
He shook his head at me before he put his hand on my forehead to check once more. “You really do not have a fever, Ms. Ashwood. Though, I am sure you are over fatigue. Now, I need you to rest anytime you can and make sure to at least get eight hours of sleep,”
With a nod, the doctor excused himself to call my mom so that she’ll pick me up. I closed my eyes again as I rolled to my side.
The glittering water of the lake had made everything more enchanting as the sun rose up in the sky. The pine trees made shadows on the ground beneath them as they hid the rays of the coming sunrise. The boy on top of the pine tree looked so angelic and melancholic as he looked up at the azure sky.
“Get down from there please! It’s dangerous!” I shouted at the boy.
He turned to look at me and smile. Despite our distance and the fact that I couldn’t see his face; I knew he was smiling. And even though I could not hear him, I knew he was speaking to me.
“Please! You’ll hurt yourself!” I pleaded.
I watched as the sun slowly rose until it illuminated everything. The water from the lake glistened more as if someone had thrown a container-ful of silver glitters at it. I looked up at the boy once more and saw that he had jumped.
I bolted upright from the bed; my face wet from my tears. I looked around and realized I was in my room. Mom had probably come to pick me up from the school and had Chris carry me. They should have awoken me.
I was just about to call my mom just so I could feel her comfort as my heart continued to break once more. Before I could even open my mouth, I heard a hushed but definitely angry voice. Suddenly, there was a crash from the kitchen like something had fallen to the floor. With a frown, I removed the blanket from me and I stood up from the bed quietly.
I opened my door and took a peek. I could see the open kitchen from my bedroom door so I don’t actually need to go out to look. If mom wanted me to hear and see what was happening, she wouldn’t be whispering but my curiosity was something I couldn’t control.
I could see some shattered pieced of what looked like a plate. And my mom had her back on me. But- I could see that she was shaking in anger as she stared at the person in front of her. Though, I couldn’t see who it was since mom was in my view.
“I told you already!” she whispered angrily to the man who I heard audibly sighed. “You are not going to involve my daughter in this mess!”
The man put his hands on my mom’s shoulder to stop her from leaving. “My ji’as,” the man called to take mom’s attention once more. What does ji’as means? I’ve never actually bothered to ask. “She is involve in this whether you like it or not,” he continued.
Were they talking about me? Things were starting to get confusing. Who was the man? What mess were they talking about? What were we being involve in?
“No!” my mom screamed before she caught herself. She looked at my direction and I quickly withdrawn from the door. But- I was still leaning closely to hear the rest of the conversation. “You have the 13th. You don’t need me and you definitely don’t need her,”
There was a moment of silence before the man had answered back. But- it took all my attention and focus just to hear the words that left the stranger’s mouth. And I wasn’t sure if I had heard right. “The Pyxis is dying, my ji’as. We only have a pitiful number of members left and fewer every day. And I need all hands on deck if we are to survive the coming war,”
~ɮ~
I stretched my arms above me once our last teacher dismissed us. I gathered my books absently and shoved it inside my denim bag. That conversation my mom had with that mysterious man ran around my head like it was participating in a marathon and it needed to run that lap infinitely. And because of it, every second that I wasn’t busy with school work, I would find myself rewinding that scene over and over again like a broken record. The man sounded so old; he sounded so tired. But- they were talking about things I couldn’t understand.
What was the 13th? The Pyxis? And why were they dying? And most of all, what does mom had anything to do with it all?
As I stood up, someone slammed his hands on my desk and I jumped back in shock. I looked up, wide-eyed to see a grinning Chris. My hand flew to my chest to try and relax it as I rolled my eyes at my best friend.
“What the hell, Chris? Are you planning on killing me with a heart attack?” I cried.
He rolled his eyes at me and slung his arm over my shoulder. “Sherry, Sherry, Sherry,” he tsked. “I would be if you actually have a heart,”
And there it was. The piercing pain in my heart even though I knew he was only joking. I forced myself not to show the hurt I had felt. I pushed him off of me and he stumbled back a bit.
“Ha ha,” I replied sarcastically. “Just because I rejected that asshole does not mean I don’t have a heart,”
I said as I mentioned about the last guy who tried on courting me. I had rejected him flat-out because there was no use baiting him when I knew who I really wanted. I did it for his sake but the asshole had the guts to call me heartless in front of the whole school.
Chris laughed at me before he slung his arm on my shoulder once more and started pulling me out of the room. I knew where he was planning to go. But- I wasn’t in the mood to pretend that seeing him drool over that woman wasn’t hurting me. Thankfully, a teacher of mine provided me an escape.
I removed his arm on my shoulder and faced him. “Chris, as much as I want to go to the café, I can’t. Mr. Castillo wants to talk to me,”
His face dropped as he looked back and forth between the door and me. He was probably thinking about waiting for me or going to see his crush. I gave him a small, sad smile. I guess I was growing tired of being hurt anyway.
“Go,” I told him. “Or you would be able to take a glimpse of her,”
He looked torn between loyalty to his best friend and to his crush. But then- his eyes lit up in gratefulness as he thanked me before he quickly ran out of the school. I followed his leaving figure as my eyesight blurred with the tears that wanted to fall as I heard my heart shattered.
This would be the last time I’ll cry about you, Chris.
There was no point in trying to win a hopeless case.
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