Taint, Time and Tangents✔️

≑ Chapter Seventeen

To marialourdex for the lovely cover on the multimedia corner. :)

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

 C H A P T E R    S E V E N T E E N 

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 

CALLIE

  

A jolt followed by a sudden pain somewhere in my head woke me up from my nap. My eyes strained from the onslaught of light, I had to close my eyes tightly and blinked several times before I get used to the brightness.

When the tiny dark circles slowly disappeared in my field of vision, it was the only time it all came to me. I was still in a vehicle they called 'bus' and was sitting in a corner against the window. By the increasing sound of grunts and movements, the bumps on this side of the road perhaps awakened not just only me.  

I peeked at the glass behind the curtains to see the sun now shining brightly. Due to the speed of the vehicle, the either sides of the roads were already blurry. But from the thin green and brown lines every now and then, we were probably still passing by the large expanse of forest. When will they end?

I sat up straight, feeling kind of strange as I absorbed the fact that I have been dreaming of so many things lately and most of them were not actually 'dreams'.

They were past memories. 

And strangely, other than they were so vivid and accurate like it just happened yesterday, they were all related somehow to Zeke. 

Does my heart really miss him this much?

A light nudge to my right grabbed me from my silent musings. The thin guy, who as I remembered named Ned, had his eyes closed, his hands gripping the seat tightly-- too tightly.  

I couldn't help but study his face... and now that I looked closely, it should be 'his pale face'. Thin lines showed at the sides of his eyes as he obviously tried to firmly squeeze his eyelids close. His thin lips that were slightly protruding, probably from braces, were turning blue as were his nails. 

Worry and panic flooded me as I took in the fact that he was not well. I placed my hand on his arm and shook him gently. 

His eyelids twitched before they completely opened to reveal dark brown eyes, spheres which were showing weakness and begging.

"Are you alright?" I asked, watching as a drop of sweat slowly trickled from his temple to his cheek.

He gulped shakily before whimpering, "...hurl..."

"Hurl?"

I was startled when he doubled over and covered his mouth, making a gagging sound. A second later, I noticed white mucoid substance oozing from between his fingers that were still covering his mouth tightly.  

"Oh my god," I exclaimed as I saw his eyeballs roll slightly backwards, appearing like he'll faint any minute now.

Gripping his shoulders, I tried to steady him as he swayed on his seat, ignoring the slimy substance slowly dripping from his chin to his shirt. His hands that were covering his mouth suddenly fell on his sides the moment I felt him weakening.

A horrifying gasp came out from me as I finally see the vomit that stick on his cheeks and on the corner of his lips, even. They are mixture of white and green slimes, oozing from his mouth while some were between his fingers or on his palms.