Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 13

Melany - Monday, July 15th, 2019; 8:27 pm

     I stayed in my bed with my nose in my book all day, only stopping to take a shower and eat a frozen meal. I had been filled with dread at the idea of a week without anything to do besides drowning in thought. I would even prefer to go to school and deal with all the judging stares than that. I was afraid I'd go crazy replaying the scene in the woods that day in my mind, and pondering on every unnatural thing that has occurred during the short time that I had been here at ShadowWood. So I got lost in the book's fantasy world. It chased off the overwhelming story that had become my reality. Each page drove me deeper into a blissful ignorance. The terrifying truth that I had learned about Xantara - and about myself - drifted into the darkest parts of my mind. The horror of my new life faded into disregard. Things had changed so drastically so fast that I was afraid I'd soon lose my mind.
     I had planned to stay in that daze until I got tired. But, then, there was a knock on the door. The new world that my book had created in my thoughts shattered like glass. The air suddenly grew thick. I set my book face down on the bed and stood up.
     As I went - slowly - down the hallway, those shadows gathered around me like an army that brushed by my ankles, cold and electrifying to the touch. I was filled with an odd combination of fear, curiosity, and abhorrence of their very existence. Where had they come from? I had caught myself wondering that many times during the day before forcing myself to focus on the false story unfurling from the novel in my hands. Why me?
     Calypso was the last person I had expected to see on the other side of the door. She stood there with a charming smile on her strikingly attractive face, her gray eyes narrowed and full of interest. My whole body tensed, my hands balling into fists and my breath catching in my throat, as that same painful yet enticing bolt of energy ran through me that I had felt on the day that I had met her. The urge to take a step further into that eerily desirable aura that surrounded her, and the force it took to resist it, made my head ache and my stomach churn.
     "What is it?" I was able to utter after I took a second to steady myself. My thoughts were jumbled. Chills covered my skin even as my whole body was filled with warmth, from both embarrassment and irresistible lust that wanted to consume me.
     Her smile shrank, but did not disappear. She studied me curiously. The force of her pale, oncoming-storm-colored eyes left me feeling dizzy. They seemed to tell me - no, command me - to express all of my secrets and my deepest fears.
     "I believe we need to talk about some things. I want you to take a walk with me," Calypso stated simply.
     I nodded, agreeing without question or doubt even though many of both flashed by briefly in my mind. It was as if I had no control over my own conscience in her presence. It was a strange - even alarming - concept. But that was quickly becoming normal for me here at this prison of a reform school.
     "Let's go, then," she said as she stepped through the doorway and further into my room. "Mind if I leave this here? I'm going to burn up." She turned to face me.
     But she didn't wait for an answer. I wouldn't have been able to give her one if she had. I watched, slack-jawed, as she pulled the long sleeve T-shirt she was wearing over her head. Her movements were fluid, graceful. Mesmerizing. Beneath it, she wore a white, tight-fitting tank top, and it had slipped up on her hips. That one exposed strip of her stomach sent a shiver through me, my heart feeling like it was about to beat right through my chest. She pulled the top down, the sight of the lean muscles in her arms twitching enough to make my mouth water. Her pallid, flawless skin looked like marble. For a moment, I believed that she was one of those Greek statues of some goddess come to life.
     I noticed then that she was studying me curiously, a smirk playing on her full, rosy lips. My face flushed, full of heat and shame. Surely she was watching me like that because she had caught me gaping at her.
     I let out a heavy sigh of relief when she said nothing, only walked past me and back out of my room. I followed her, locking the door behind us and going down the hallway on her heels. The old lights flickered and buzzed above us. Shadows glided by my feet, matching my pace like a loyal pet would.
     Outside, the humid air instantly coated my throat, making it tough to breathe. It hung over my shoulders like a weighted blanket. I inhaled the night deeply, and it entered my lungs, flowing through my bloodstream as if it belonged there. Like it was a part of me.
     I didn't realized I had stopped until Calypso turned around and took a couple steps towards me. I felt her before I heard her, and I glanced up to see her looking at me like I was some creature she had never seen before. "You gonna follow me?" she asked, but I knew it wasn't a question. It was a demand.
I obliged, despite the doubt that I felt. She led me across the field, towards the direction of that house. The closer that we got to it, the harder that it was to push away the horrors that I had experienced there a few nights before. It hadn't been easy to convince myself that that voice and that powerful energy that had filled that basement had been my imagination. I could hardly bring myself to accept or excuse anything else. I didn't know if I could handle the fact that, on top of everything I had seen here, that there was an oddly placed haunted house on the property where the spirits knew my name.
"I'm not going in there," I whispered, wincing at how afraid I sounded.
Calypso, who had slowed down to walk beside me, gave me a knowing look - which, paired with her words, should have comforted me. Instead, it sent energy through my veins that was both painful and lovely all at once. "We're not," she promised.
Regardless of her words, she continued to head straight for the rotting front porch. I was suddenly filled with a terror that froze the blood in my veins. I became certain that Calypso had lied, that she was going to take me down into that basement whether I wanted her to or not...
Then, right after I had prepared myself to turn tail and run as fast as I could away from her, she skirted around the corner of the house and headed for the backyard, where a large, overgrown bush stretched from the house's crumbling brick to the river. A huge tree stood behind its shelter, its large branches hanging over half of the roof of the old building. I let out the breath I didn't realize I had been holding in, my tense body relaxing, but only slightly.
Calypso crouched down and pushed her way through a less dense part of the bush. She shot me an encouraging smile and gestured for me to follow before the undergrowth swallowed her entirely. My feet carried me after her but doubt slowed my movements. I encouraged myself to continue, albeit hesitantly. It was as if I was a puppet and Calypso was pulling my strings. The thorns pulled at my clothes, seeming to drag me deeper. I could feel them digging into my skin, scratching at my arms and face. I could even feel a few small beads of warm blood trickling down my skin, mingling with the sweat there. I was beginning to panic. I couldn't see Calypso in front of me, couldn't even hear her. For a moment, I thought I would never make it out. That I would be lost until someone, or something in here found me.
Then, an alabaster hand pushed through the thick shrubbery. I grabbed it and was pulled into a clearing. Here, we were invisible to the rest of the school. The house was to my left; to my right was half of a dilapidated dock that looked like it would fall into the river at any moment. The bush circled us, towering at least six feet tall, maybe even ten at its highest points.
I crashed into Calypso, not expecting the strength in her slim frame. Instantly, I shoved her away as hard as I could. But she hardly budged. I stumbled backwards. Agony ran through me, burning as if my blood had turned to lava. Wave after wave of pain crashed over me. I had no time to breathe, and when I could manage, the air seemed as rough as a handful of razor blades. I choked on every inhale, feeling as if I was drowning in an ocean no one could see. My vision doubled. Tripled. My whole body shook with the effort it took for me to stay standing.
But, as much as it hurt, it was equally as wonderful. I desired that enticing feeling the moment that it was gone.
Once I could focus clearly again, I noticed that Calypso was also backing away from me, slowly, a dull fear barely hidden in her gaze. Her steps were hesitant, as if she were fighting between distress and the other thought I couldn't comprehend but which was obviously just as persistent in her expression.
A current of shadows rolled across the ground. They moved like the river as it flowed endlessly to my right, an unstoppable current of darkness with intentions only they knew. They were coming from all directions, heading towards Calypso, so thick I could not see the ground beneath them.
Her ankles were swallowed in a second. She didn't even notice - she was studying me with that odd combination of terrified curiosity.
     Utter horror washed over me. The image of my old friend Ashley disappearing beneath this same blackness, and the bloody mess she had become once it had dispersed, flooded my thoughts. She didn't deserve that. And neither did Calypso, despite the reason she was here. And I didn't think I could handle seeing anything like that again without losing my mind.
     I'm not in danger. The thought came randomly. As if the shadows heard me, they slipped instantly back into the hidden corners of our surroundings in which they had come from. Laying in wait until they were needed again. I wanted nothing to do with them and whatever malicious ideas they had. But, there was no doubt that they were connected to me. Here for me. And I could not run away from them.
     "Did you feel that, too?" Calypso asked shakily. Though she wasn't much more than a stranger to me, it was odd to see her as anything but sure and confident.
     "When are you guys going to tell me what's happening here?"
     The question took both of us by surprise. Calypso scanned me with wide, pale eyes before answering. "I, um, I'm..." she stammered. Her marble cheeks gained a slightly rosy tint.
     I sighed. "I know that there's something you and your friends are hiding from me. I thought maybe that was why you wanted to talk to me."
She took a deep breath and shook her head as if to clear it and steady herself. "We don't want to scare you away. I just wanted to try and prepare you a little, I guess." Interest lit up her beautiful face. "What do you know?"
I ignored her question momentarily, perplexed by her statement. There was no question that my life had taken an unnatural turn, but the casual way in which she admitted it baffled me. How fragile was her mind to so easily accept this? I wondered. But, another thought formed behind that one that sent chills up my spine. Or, how long has this gone on for them to come to terms with it?
"I know more than I want to know," I stated simply. Because what did I really know? The nonchalant way that she had confirmed my fears only caused me to think about how much more that there was to learn about this place and the people here. "I know about Xantara, and the way she's changed. But I didn't think what Xantara was to me had anything to do with the rest of this." I sighed. "But now I don't really think that's true."
Suddenly, the temperature dropped drastically. The moonlight disappeared. I looked up to see that thick clouds had covered the stars.
"So... What is Xantara to you?"
I glanced back down to see Calypso watching me intently. The focus of her stare caused my heart to skip a beat. I managed to continue speaking after a moment of being utterly bewitched by the force of her pale eyes. "Seems she came to me when I needed her the most. I don't know why she looks the way she does. I mean, I may know. But I don't want to believe that I did that. That's crossing the line." I took a deep, shaky breath. "We should go. It's going to rain soon." I didn't know where that knowledge came from, but I was suddenly sure that a storm was brewing.
"You know that like you knew about the last one?" Calypso asked, her stare telling me to admit everything I knew.
Maybe I knew it was coming. I pondered on that night that already seemed so long ago, on the dark power that I had felt when that evil voice spoke. Knowing now what happened with Ashley, recalling that feeling and those words that voice had said, I shivered. Would the same thing have happened to Xantara if that power hadn't disappeared? Maybe I knew it was coming. Or maybe that voice had created it.
"I don't know what you mean," I lied, shrugging.
"You're taking this well."
If only you knew, I thought. I wasn't taking it well at all. I had just learned how to numb myself to everything. To hold in my emotions until I was alone, when they were safe to come out. I could feel the shock in the back of my mind, throbbing like a terrible migraine. If I experienced anything else that shouldn't be real, I was sure my sanity would burst like a dam giving way.
It began to rain softly at first. "Looks like you were right," Calypso murmured softly. She almost looked in awe.
In the small span of silent tension that had formed between us, it grew heavier. I could hardly see the house, though it was only a few feet away. Calypso was the only thing I could clearly discern in the downpour. She stood as still as a statue for a few moments, searching for something in my face. As I fell deeper into her gaze, lightning illuminated the sky and reflected in her eyes like glowing purple veins. Thunder shook the world around us. I noticed that her top was being soaked through, and was clinging to her body. I forced myself to stay focused on her face. The urge to touch her and feel that lovely pain again was difficult to resist.
I shut my eyes tight for a moment, thinking the only way I could move was to keep Calypso out of my vision long enough to get ahold of myself. I didn't open them until I had turned around. "We should get out of this." I threw the words over my shoulder, not sure she could even hear me over the rain and cacophonous thunder.
     I shoved myself through the bush blindly. The thorns dug new scratches into my skin, opened up ones that had only just stopped bleeding. I fell to my knees coming out of the other side. As I got to my feet, I saw Calypso pushing herself out of the thick tangle of branches after me. Water ran in my eyes, into my gaping mouth. The sound of the storm echoing all around me faded into unimportance for a few seconds. Everything was distant but her. For a moment I was unable to move, even breathe.
     Whatever unknown emotion that darkened Calypso's eyes was there and gone again before I had time to consider what it may be. What replaced it was concern. "Come on," she said hurriedly. Another crack of thunder punctuated her sentence.
     I followed her on trembling legs back to the dorms. I could see the muscles in her back ripple beneath her soaked shirt.
     I didn't say anything - couldn't say anything - until we were back to my room. Even the way Calypso moved, like she was floating, mesmerized me. The daze that her very presence put me under was intoxicating. Sure, she was beautiful. Compelling, even. But that wasn't it. There was something unusual about her magnetism. I could not keep my eyes off of her - my mind off of her - if she was anywhere nearby. It was like her aura physically pulled me closer. Was that another part of it? I wondered. Another part of the maddening change in my existence?
     "I'll be back," said Calypso, snapping me out of my thoughts. She had grabbed the shirt she had draped over the back of one of the bar stools and now walked down the hall to the bathroom.
     Suddenly, I felt as if I had run for miles without stopping. My body seemed so much heavier than it had been only a moment ago. My vision blurred. My mind felt numb. Empty. I went to the couch and collapsed into it heavily, not caring that my clothes were soaked through. I put my head in my hands and didn't move until Calypso sat beside me and spoke.
     "Are you alright?" she murmured softly.
     I looked up into her gray eyes and found some sort of unsettling solace there. After I got over the initial bewilderment of the intensity of her stare, I could breathe again. "This is real?" I asked. It was all I could manage.
     She gave me a sad smile. "I suppose it is. Unless we've lost it."
     "So were you really here to prepare me for something I want nothing to do with or did you really just want to play in the rain?" I asked. I surprised myself with my teasing tone, feeling a small smile creeping into the corners of my lips.
     Calypso chuckled, and the sound was musical. Angelic, even. But, when she spoke, it was with an air of seriousness that made my stomach churn. "I know that none of this makes sense. I can't tell you much more than I believe you already know. But I can tell you that the time is coming soon that I believe we'll learn what's going on. And we need to be ready for that."
     "Everyone that was in the basement on my first day. They're all a part of this?"
She nodded. "I believe Cato has been here the longest. But we all got here, one after another, and all of us eventually seemed to be drawn to that house. Just like you were."
A shiver ran through me. I recalled my first day here, where I had felt drawn to Kai, Illisha, and Cato the moment that I had met them, despite the disdain I had also felt for them. I had immediately decided to follow them once they had left me at my room. Despite the hate I felt towards them for their crimes, and the desire to stay away from them, I had been unable to get them from my mind. "And you're all here for...for..." I couldn't find the words. I didn't really know what they were here for. What we were here for. "You really think we're here for some reason?"
"I'm sure of it."
"Why did you have to kill to get here? My friend lost her life for nothing!" I wailed, grief piercing my heart. "I don't want anything to do with a force so powerful it can turn a bunch of kids into monsters!"
Her eyes narrowed and her brows furrowed in thought as if she hadn't considered that before. She was silent for a moment before responding. "I don't know if that was part of the plan. But I'm no monster."
"How do I know that? How can I even trust you enough to go along with something that sounds so unreal?"
"Do you want me to tell you how I got here, then?"
Dread fell heavily into the pit of my stomach. I remembered what little I had heard of Kai's story and shivered. "I'm not sure I want to know."
"How will you learn to trust me?"
Until now, I hadn't realized how close we were. I could reach out and touch her at any moment. What would I feel? What created that trepidation between us? What caused that intense pain that lured me to do anything to feel it again? The scared look that I kept seeing darkening Calypso's stare - was that the same strange desire that I felt, or something else?
"I was young when it started," she began, and I was instantly enraptured in her words like she was telling me my favorite story instead of how she got charged with murder. I fell into her unwavering gaze. "I had always been, well... I've caught the eye of many people. Men became too interested in me at a young age." She grimaced as if she were reliving a terrible memory. "My parents didn't like me much, thought there was something wrong with me. Because of the way I looked. So when guys started offering them money, lots of money, for me... They didn't hesitate to take it."
Sadness filled my heart. My breath caught in my throat. In this moment I was sure that none of them were monsters, no matter what those bracelets had appeared to indicate at first. Committing murder was awful, and hardly ever excusable. But monsters? No. They surely couldn't be. Fate had plans for us, it seemed. No matter how little sense it made, or how much I was already trying to deny it. Evil people didn't belong in impossible prophecies. Did they?
She had paused, and was looking down at her hands, which were clenched into fists in her lap. She continued then, studying them as if they had suddenly become the most interesting thing she'd ever seen. Her tone had lowered, and was now rough with both sadness and a fiery rage that I'd hate to have directed at me.
"I just... I got so mad. The first one I... I killed, only because he refused to let me go, refused to stop hurting me... I told myself I kept going because the world didn't need those type of men on this earth. That was true. But, what was also true, was that it had become addicting in a way. It was just so easy to draw those vile people in and leave them where they wouldn't be found. I felt strong. Like a hero." She finally glanced up at me, and her stare was so intense it sent a chill through me. I wondered if she knew how powerful the hypnotizing force was she held just in those pale gray eyes. "I thought it was right, to rid the world of such sick people. I got carried away one day - " The haunted expression that dawned on her features made me uneasily curious about how carried away she had gotten. "- and I got caught."
To my surprise, no fear enveloped me when she finished; no hatred. There was interest - and, strangely, even respect. I wondered how such a graceful and gorgeous person could kill like she had. Then, I noticed the lean muscles in her arms ripple beneath her skin as she leaned forward and covered her face with her hands. A burst of longing flowed through my veins and I tried to push it away instantly. Would I react the same, if anyone else had told me the same story? I asked myself. I found I did not have an answer.
"You're the only one who knows the whole story, other than the officials," she muttered into her palms, which muffled her voice. Then, her piercing eyes were boring into mine again, demanding all of my attention and sparking fiercely. "Don't tell anyone else."
I nodded, instantly accepting her order as if it were law. As if it were impossible to say no to anything that she asked for. "I won't. I promise."
"You scared of me?" she asked, her eyes narrowed yet taking in everything she could gather from whatever she saw on my face.
"I don't know," I answered truthfully, my mind so full of the unreality of the school that it was melding into a chaos of insanity that was beginning to seem normal. "No, I don't think so. As long as I stay on your good side."
The charming smile that lit up Calypso's stunning features erased all of my thoughts. The only thing I could think of was her - the unknown emotions in her gaze, the way only her appearance could leave me confused and speechless, and, on top of everything, the beautiful torment that her touch had put me through. My concern of how strong and irresistible her magnetism was evaporated.
"I ought to get going. It's late."
She left without another word, moving so smoothly it was more like she danced instead of walked to the door. I noticed the small, confused smirk playing at the corners of her full lips as she shut the door behind her.