Estranged [Completed]

A Blast from the Past

Kalei awoke to the sensation of a pounding headache. A woman's voice kept asking, "Are you okay? Hello? Kalei? Are you okay?"

The voice sounded oddly familiar, yet different. Kalei tried to place it, but the relentless hammering in her skull only increased with the effort. She wanted to roll away and block it all out, but the voice kept pestering and pestering; it wouldn't let her rest. So Kalei opened her eyes. 

Leaning over her, silhouetted against the blue sky, Kalei saw a face that finally placed the name.

"Lecia?" 

Kalei hadn't seen her since elementary school, but here she sat, grown up Lecia Ma'Lory, complete with soft blonde hair, a cheeky smile, and enough layers of clothing to make her look like someone's grandmother. Beneath the woman's brown cardigan, Kalei saw a thick red shirt and a yellow turtleneck peeking out above the collar. Add some brown slacks and a pair of mittens, and here sat a young woman wearing a blind old lady's wardrobe. Kalei couldn't believe how ridiculous she looked.

The last time Kalei saw Lecia they were in the fifth grade, arguing over whether or not Estranged had souls. The argument hadn't been particularly philosophical. In the end, Kalei punched the girl in the face for disagreeing with her. As a result, Kalei had been transferred to another school – this was her fifth such offense – and Kalei hadn't seen Lecia since. She didn't regret it either. Lecia had always been ridiculously stubborn in her opinion that Estranged weren't all bad. Kalei couldn't stand it.

Then Kalei remembered something more immediate: the hand with the clear fingernails. A wave of panic hit her, but before Kalei could say anything, a sudden wave of nausea made her roll over and heave. It was a painful, wrenching process, especially as there was nothing in her stomach to expel. 

As the spasms slowly subsided, Kalei let out an exasperated curse, and then asked, "What happened? Did I kill—" Kalei almost heaved again. "My hand, I think I touched..."

Lecia's smile widened. "No worries." Her voice was cheerful as she held up a handgun, shaking it in midair like she was showing off a new toy. "I stopped you before you could do any damage."

"What? Wait—" Kalei shook her head as she tried to clear it. The nausea gave way to the more familiar stabbing in her heart. Kalei wished she could go back to the nausea. "What are you saying? Did you shoot me?" She glanced down at her body in search of some sign of blood or damage. Despite the internal agony that ripped through her, outwardly, she was fine.

She said, "Yup, I shot you right between the eyes." Lecia's tone was so sweet it was starting to piss Kalei off. She smiled again and pointed the gun at Kalei's forehead, innocently closing one eye as she looked down the sights at Kalei. She whispered a soft "Bang" before pulling the gun back and setting it down beside her.

Kalei flinched at the blatant disregard for gun safety. This woman had clearly lost her mind. Nonetheless, she could feel something warm on her face where Lecia had pointed. She reached up above the bridge of her nose and her fingers found something wet and sticky. She pulled her hand away and saw blood. Her hand shot back to her face where it searched for the source— the injury— but there was none. The skin beneath the blood was completely smooth.

Lecia watched the process with gentle concern. "If you don't believe me, you can check the back of your head. You were a cop. You know what firearms do to a person's skull at close range."

Kalei's hand moved to the back of her scalp and she felt skin and slime. There was a smooth bald spot on the back of her head, completely dry and fresh, but the hair around the spot was wet and matted with chunks of something. She pulled one of the bits out of her hair and looked at it: a lump of bloody flesh. Kalei jumped and shook her hand, flinging the bit of gore away.