Cursed

Part 34

Part 34

Calista’s POV

I refuse to think about Evan.

Honestly, I don’t even know what to think about Evan. I haven’t forgiven him, of course I haven’t. Yet at the same time I can’t bring myself to hate him.

I look down at our hands. Our fingers are entwined, but it’s not from all that sappy ‘undying love’ junk. It’s more like we’re holding each other together out of pure fear. Afraid that if even one of us let’s go, we’ll fall apart and not be able to get back up again.

I know I promised Evan that I’d think of the future, but just thinking of the present was already giving me a migraine. All that combined with my huge lump of worry for McKenzie and Matt pretty much pushed out all other possible thoughts.

So I didn’t question it. I simply sat there silently in his car, with my hair streaming behind me and my hand holding onto his for dear life.

“What’s up?”

I looked up, surprised that Evan had broken the comfortable silence.

Okay, that was a lie. It wasn’t a comfortable silence at all, it was awkward and filled with questions that I really didn’t want to answer. But it was silence all the same.

“Nothing,” I whispered, looking down at my lap.

“Come on, I know something’s bugging you. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I whispered again after a moment of hesitation.

“Calista-”

“I’m freaking out okay? There, I said it. I’m freaking out because my best friend and her boyfriend are being held hostage by the same person that’s trying to kill me; and I can’t think of any way to fix this; and I still have no idea what’s going on between me and you, and I’m just freaking out!”

I finally stopped to catch my breath, breathing heavily from my outburst. Evan simply sat in silence, staring ahead at the road.

“I’m…sorry. I want to fix things for you Calista,” he murmured. I spun my head to face him, a sadistic smile on my lips.

“Yeah? Well I’m sorry too. But sorry isn’t fixing anything now is it!”

“It’s fixing us…” he whispered, trailing off as he looked into my eyes. His multicolored irises shone as he stared at me, making my cheeks heat up. I looked back at my lap again.

“I…you…just keep your eyes on the road. Crashing won’t help anything,” I stammered, focusing my eyes on a smudge of dirt on my jeans.

“Right. Definitely. We’re almost there anyway,”  

I looked up quickly to find that he was right. The car was slowing to a stop in front of an old, dilapidated warehouse. I had no idea this even existed and I’d been living in this town my whole life.

Slowly, I stepped out of the car and all the oxygen seemed to be sucked out of the air as time stood still. The distinctive odor of rats and rusty nails filled my nostrils as I stepped, ever so cautiously, to the entrance.

“M…maybe we’re in the wrong place,” I stammered, more to myself than to Evan.

“I doubt that. Check this out,” he gestured towards a spot on the ground and my blood ran cold. Engraved into the patch of earth, was a twelve pointed star with a cross crudely drawn on it’s middle.

The mark.

“Whoa, talk about cliché,” Evan breathed, breaking me from my trance. A small smile spread on my face.

“Definitely. Who does he think he is, The Riddler or something?” I laughed nervously, desperately looking for a way to rid myself of the anxiety. He grinned in return.

“If he was, that would mean that I’m Batman.”

“No way, I’m the main character in this tale. You can be Robin.”

“Seriously? Do I look like the type of guy to go around wearing dark green tighy-whities instead of pants?”

I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing, laughing so hard I was almost choking, as Evan glared at me.

“I’m serious! If we can’t agree, how about we just drop this whole ‘The Epic Tale of Batman and Robin’ theme and just go with ‘The Epic Tale of Evan and Calista’.”

“I think you mean ‘The Epic Tale of Calista and Evan’” I said cheekily, grinning as he sighed in return.

“Yeah. That’s exactly what I meant,” he sighed. Yet the grin on his face gave him away.

For a moment we just stood there, relishing in the gleeful silence. Then reality decided to make it’s presence known once again.

“Calista, listen. I know this seems like fun and all, but we have to be serious about this. Drake is dangerous, and we have no idea what’s inside that building. We have to stick together. Okay?” he whispered, his eyes practically burning me with their intensity.

My mouth opened, then closed as I struggled to find the right words. Finally, I settled for reaching out and grabbing his hand in mine, squeezing it tightly.

“Okay,” I said quietly, staring into his eyes. He looked at me for a moment longer, as if judging the truth in my words, before nodding. His face visibly relaxed slightly as he gave me a reassuring smile,

“As long as we stick together we’ll be okay, and so will McKenzie and Matt,” he smiled slowly. I nodded, my throat suddenly dry.

/Calista, listen closely./

I gasped and paused for a second at Peach’s voice. She had been absent for so long from my mind that I had almost forgot she was there.

/What! How rude! I-I’ll come back to that later. But for now, just listen. Don’t take this lightheartedly. You’re marked, and whoever or whatever is in there is a lot more powerful than you could ever imagine./

I nodded, and tightened my grip on Evan’s hand, he did the same in return. Taking a deep breath as he focused on the door.

/Just be prepared, because no matter how hard I try, I can’t do everything for you. Sure, I can talk, but in the end it’s up to you to listen. Focus Calista. It’s up to you./

Her tone was so harsh and serious that it sent shivers down my spine. Still, I nodded and took one step forward.

“Let’s do this.”