…

………

“                                .”

“              .”

“                      ?”

……….. Voices?

What… are they saying…?

“         ”

Ah… I don’t care anymore. As long as it’s quiet, I shouldn’t be complaining. I should be doing the opposite. I should be appreciating the peace of mind that has been bestowed upon me from beyond the clouds.

…

Clouds.

Where… are the clouds?

Where is… anything?

I look around wherever I can for anything that can help me gather my bearings but—

—Nothing.

Everything around me is engulfed in darkness. That is, if there is anything at all to be swallowed up here with me.

Visibility is zero, if possible, maybe in the negatives. I can’t even see my own hands which I put mere inches away from my face. Have I gone blind? No, that’s impossible. I… don’t want that. Deaf, maybe. But blind…

“            ?”

There it is again. That voice. I can’t hear what it’s saying, but I am able to feel the vibration of its words, so I know that there is a voice and it’s… speaking to me.

Come on, Michael. How many voices are there?

One? Two? Five?

How many damn it?!”

“         ?”

One.

There is a single voice that is speaking to me. I can’t make out what it’s saying at all. This helpless dread of not knowing what’s happening around me is making me cold. 

I’m cold.

Help…

The darkness is taking a toll on me mentally and physically. I feel myself breathing heavily as the air suddenly grows thinner, making what used to be an effortless, and thoughtless task feel more like a cumbersome chore that I have to constantly remind myself to do.

This atmosphere… I remember. This is the same atmosphere of the classroom when she transferred into my class. But compared to earlier, it feels like what everyone felt at that specific time all has accumulated into one single, heavy feeling that I am being crushed in.

This heavy atmosphere is… not normal. It’s as if I’m in a vacuum as I am being pressured from all sides down to the last cell.

I try to push back against this overpowering aura that’s crushing me, but it’s hopeless. I can’t feel anything anymore. I...

I’m being crushed.

Tight.

I can’t breathe.

Painful.

It hurts.

It hurts.

It hurts.

It hurts.

Somebody……….

“              .” I call out to her.

……Please...……………help me……………………………………………………………………....

..............................................................................................................................

—I jolt awake.

“Hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

I’m... outside?

Before I could get the gears in my head to function properly, sharp pain causes the muscles in my chest to tense.

“You had us worried there, Mikey!” It was Kathrynn, with a worried look on her face with tears welling up in her eyes.

“Don't do any sudden movements, Kathrynn! Didn't you see that he hurt his head pretty badly?” Alexis taps Kathrynn’s shoulder which causes him to jump.

My head? What happened to my— Ow!

Feeling around both sides of my head, I feel something soft wrapped around my forehead. I follow it with my fingers and just before reaching my right temple, my fingers land on what feels like a bruise.

“If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, it’s not a bruise.” the new girl speaks up as if she were reading my mind. “It’s a wound.”

“A what?”

“A wound. You hit the side of the table with your head, leaving a cut. The impact itself knocked you out completely. For a second there, I thought you stopped breathing too. I guess me being here was a good thing, Alexis and Kathrynn were paralyzed in fear.”

“Hey! T-that’s not true!”

“She is stating some real facts, Katypie.”

“Shut up!”

A corner of her mouth twitches upwards and a weird smile is plastered on her face. I’ll admit, it is quite uncomfortable, but the more I look at her, the more I see that she’s actually trying to force herself to... Stop?

After a while of being frozen in what I could only describe as fear, I manage to come back to my senses and shake my head vigorously to attempt to shake off that uneasy feeling. 

…

Which reminds me—

What was that suffocating feeling I felt while I was unconscious? 

Or… was I unconscious? It didn’t feel like it as I was fully conscious and moving around, or at least I thought I was. 

To the others, and I’m sure to the other customers inside the cafe at that time, I was unconscious. It’s written all over their faces. 

If that’s the case… What happened to me?

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.” She continues, seemingly uninterested in the others behind her. “Maybe you should stay laying down, you did end up with quite a big wound. If it weren’t for me, your face would have been covered in your own blood. And to be quite honest with you, that doesn't sound like a fun way to go.”

“Oh, it’s nothing… really… I just—”

“Mikey just isn’t feeling well, that’s all there is to it, *******. There’s no reason to worry about him this much.” Alexis cheekily says as she taps on the girl’s back. “I’m sure that you have more important things to worry about!”

Startled by the sudden intrusion of Alexis, she shakes her head a couple of times before taking a quick glance back towards me. “I-I guess you’re right, haha…” 

“Well, it looks like you’re back to your senses, Alexis. I’ll leave him to you I suppose.” She bows her head slightly before taking another glance at me and turns around towards Zander and Kathrynn.

“Aye-aye!” Alexis salutes. “So, Mikey. You had me worried there.” She smacks my back with her palm. That stung...

I rub on my back and wince in pain before lowering my chin. “You think? You don’t know what I’m feeling right now.”

“Ah— Did… something happen? Did you see something weird while you were out cold or something? Or was *******, I mean, that girl, right and that you did see a ghost—”

“Shh!” I hush and press a finger against her lips and tell her that we should go elsewhere with my eyes.

Luckily, we managed to slip away undetected. Despite my sorry state, I was able to limp away quietly. But to be honest, I’m more surprised that Alexis was able to pull it off too.

“Psssst, where are we sneaking off to, Mikey?” 

“Where? Hm…”

I didn’t plan this far ahead, all I wanted to do was get away from them and since we’ve already made it to the end of the street, a clear choice presents itself to me.

“Wanna go home?”

She snaps her eyes up at me before smiling from ear to ear. “Yeah!” She grabs onto my arm again and squeezes it tightly.

Her cheerfulness is annoyingly contagious as I soon realize that I am smiling back, albeit, not as bright as hers.

They say that happiness is contagious, I never for a second believed in something like that.

Having said that though, the entire walk through the path with fields as far as the eye can see on either side, I can feel a smile being cemented onto my face.

“Hey, hey! When you’re feeling better, would you like to visit the lake?” She asks as she tightens her grip around my arm.

That’s cheating, but can I complain? I can’t say that I don’t like the feeling too.

“Why wait when we can go there now?” I stop and double back to where the path to the lake breaks off to the side, with her still clinging onto me like a sloth to a branch.

“What made you want to visit the lake all of a sudden, Lexxy?” I ask as her sudden suggestion, admittedly, caught me off guard.

It has been a while since we last visited since we never had a reason to go back there. Rummaging through the archives of my memories, trying to find anything that would have caused her to suggest a visit.

The date’s October 11th, is there anything significant about today?

“Am I not allowed to visit the lake on a whim anymore? Stop fooling around and asking such strange questions, Mikey! I just wanted to come back here again. It has been way too long since we last came here. Do you still remember what happened the last time we came here?” She asks as she lets go of my arm as we enter through an opening between the trees.

“Do I remember? Of course, I do. The question is, do you still remember?” I bounce the question back at her.

“Duh! I just want to relive it from your memory. You have a better memory, so I can’t vividly remember every little detail of that day, you know.”

I suppose she does have a point. She points towards an empty bench facing the still lake.

I sit down beside her as we marvel at the serenity of the air around us. “Where do I start?”

“Well, start wherever you feel like! The sun is still above us, so we have time to talk about a lot of things!”

“Just how long are we planning to stay here for?” I ask, weary of her answer.

She doesn’t reply with words, instead, she replies with a smile that sends a cold shiver down my spine.

“Right… ehem, so you wanted to talk about what happened the last time we came here? Hm… if my memory serves me right, it was when your parents asked you to tag along with them here.”

“Wait, you weren’t there?”

“No, no, I was. Although, I wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. They only asked you to come with them to talk about some important matters. I already knew what you guys were going to talk about since they talked to me about it first. They also asked me for a good way for them to break the news to you too a couple of days later, I was minding my own business on the day they planned on talking to you, and before I knew it, you were dragging me out of my bed and out the door where they were waiting.”

“Oh yeah! That did happen!” She laughs as it looks like she remembers it somewhat. “Also, you already knew?!”

But… Why do I feel like she has forgotten about it? 

“Hey, it’s not my fault that your parents find it difficult to keep you in one place and talk to you about important matters. Continuing, after getting dragged out of the apartment, we made our way to our usual place. You know, that open area on the other side of the lake over there.”

I point to the other side.

“That’s where we went and sat down on the grass like we usually do when we come here. My legs were killing me since it was on a Friday and we just had the sports festival a couple of hours earlier and so I sat down, er, more like my legs gave in the moment we reached our usual spot.”

I peer to my right towards her and notice that she’s squinting her eyes as looks across the lake as if she’s trying to absorb what I had just said. 

Despite the clear look of struggling on her face, I continue. 

“I still remember that look on your parents' faces when you turned down their offer of relocating to the city. They were undoubtedly confused by your quick answer, but they were also relieved. I think in their minds, they wanted you to reject the offer but with more thought into it of course.”

“They… wanted me to reject their offer? Then why did they bother asking me in the first place?”

Is she… an idiot?

“You’re not seeing the point here, Lexxy. Then again, they never said it to either of us directly, so I don’t know for certain either. But I’m sure that they wanted you to reject their offer because they didn't want you to risk starting over again. Besides, we’re already old enough to make rational decisions—”

“Why’d you stop?”

……. 

“Why are you looking at me like I'm sort of a hungry stray cat?”

“Ah, sorry. Anyways, what I meant to say is that they were probably worried that you would join them for a better opportunity in the city with them but that would require you to start over again. Like, needing to restart and leave your life here and start anew in the city. They probably didn’t want that to happen to you, but they weren’t sure about your answer so to make sure, they asked.”

She nods along as I finish retelling my version of events. She never had the best memory, but for some reason, she always had a knack for remembering dates. But… It is quite the problem when she knows that a certain day is significant, but doesn’t know why exactly it’s significant.

“I… see. I never thought of it like that… I’ve always known that there was something else in what they were trying to convey, but I never saw it. Thank you, Michael. Really.” She breaks her focus on the other side of the lake and turns her head towards me with tears welling up in her eyes.

“W-what are you doing? Why are you looking at me like that? Was I not supposed to say something? Uweh??” Before I could say anything more, she closes the gap quickly, far too quickly for me to react. “A-Alexis?”

Before I knew it, she’s on top of me.