63 System Space (Arc 3)

“K-katylen?! How is that even possible?!” Dina screamed as her eyes bulged out ridiculously.

She pointed at Katelyn as she trembled, it was a bit shocking to know of Jackson’s identity and all but she was pretty calm after learning about it the fact that so many of them were around her was another different story! Like, what the heck?!

“Aunty?! But how…rather when? Was I being targeted all along…no that’s strange, what about Annabelle?! I mean Luka! Was he also…WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?!” Dina exclaimed in a panic as she threw her hands up in exasperation.

Mrs. Katelyn was calm and only smiled at Dina sweetly, snapping her fingers and before Dina could get herself, the ground beneath her shattered,

No seriously, it did, the space in which Dina was on broke into various pieces like smithereens of glasses sending her descending. She yelped, but before she could scream she found herself in another space, more precisely- a classroom.

‘Is an exact duplicate of my high school class, no surprise, she was once my teacher in high school’ Dina thought as she uncomfortably squirmed on her chair.

Chairs and desks were neatly arranged in an orderly manner, neatness was a superior entity within, two boards were drawn on the left and right side of the classroom, the left side ones depicting a difficult math solution that covered the entire board and the other a beautiful drawing which one couldn’t help but glance twice at.

A map drawn behind the board on the left-hand side and various outstanding projects hanging around on the right-hand side.

A table and a chair in front for teachers along with a clear whiteboard.

Every single detail was accurately defined and Dina felt shivers down her spine as she felt herself returning once again to high school, it seemed that the trauma of the first world still hadn’t left her in the end.

Dina looked forward just to flinch on noticing Mrs. Katelyn’s glare at her which subconsciously awakened the model student attitude within her.

They stared at each other for a while before Mrs. Katelyn suddenly clanked her heels hard causing a sharp sound to reverberate throughout their surroundings. Dina winced slightly but eventually got herself, just in time for Mrs. Katelyn to question-

“Say…why are you here Dina?” She said as she sat on the teacher’s desk, one leg placed on another as she swung the one on top in a to-and-fro motion.

“I…am a Transmigrator ma’am!” Dina explained politely.

“Why?” She asked again.

“Huh?” Dina muttered, what did she mean by why? Was it….

“Why are you a Transmigrator, what was it that you wanted so dearly that you didn’t mind slaving off your soul for?” Mrs. Katelyn asked.

“I-I….” Dina stammered as she tried to find a reasonable answer but was lost for words. She knew her reason but suddenly under Mrs. Katelyn’s glare, it seemed unviable.

She felt like she was in front of her mum, Mrs. Katelyn had always been a mother figure to her so it wasn’t really surprising, but how was one supposed to tell her ‘mum’ that she sold her soul, not for some powerful reason but because she was after some guy? One that wasn’t even into her.

Shit would get messed up.

“Erm…Annabelle, I came to find her” Dina muttered incoherently but Mrs. Katelyn had it all.

“Really?” She asked

“Yeah….” Dina muttered without looking right into her eyes, she was pretty good at lying but they were some people who when told lies would place a person in a serious battle of nerves.

“I’m your teacher Dina, your tutor from the teaching department, and do you know the first thing they give us there before we come to see you?” Mrs. Katelyn asked.

“Hmm” Dina hummed praying it wasn’t her file.

“It’s your file”

“Hory Shee” Dina blurted out the next instant before suddenly dry coughing and heaving to ease the tension surrounding them.

“So you’ve gone and done it, you sold your soul for some guy?!” Mrs. Katelyn bellowed at her as she got down from her table, and walked towards Dina, the clinking of her heels intimidating as they approached.

“I can explain!! I do love Jackson and it’s to prove myself also I’ll find Annabelle like this too…”

“It’s that how you’ve been deluding yourself?” Mrs. Katelyn asked as she picked up a student’s project, twirling it around.

“You could die, be tutored, stuck in a world forever no matter how minor the chances were, definitely lose yourself in there ‘cause there’s no way you can come out the same after all the shits you’ll see, especially you, all your missions are Threat-level, a threat to the very soul….and yet you’re doing this for just some guy who doesn’t even give a shit?” Mrs. Katelyn.

“Is he…erm…not your boss?” Dina wondered

“Geraldina Veraldina!”

“Fine! I get it! Just drop the surname!! So yeah, am crazy, stupid, am a fucking mess for ‘some’ guy but Mrs. Katelyn why not walk a mile in my shoes before you judge me? Do you think I want this?! Every time, every-fucking-time I tell myself to give up it just never listens! Mrs. Katelyn, it’s like there’s another me in there that never listens!! No shit, I almost forgot, because it’s been docile for a while, there really is!

Everyone is saying how am obsessed, how I’ve lost my mind and you know what?! Yeah! Maybe I fucking did! Maybe I freaking lost my thinking faculty and capability after I met Jackson! I, Gardiana, who ditches bastards became a whining bitch for one!

Do you think I like this?! You think I want this huh?! Everyone~ does, they all do because I’ve been canceled out as nothing but an obsessed freak in their minds. Do you know all the times I’ve tried?! And just like how a body will always fall to the center of the earth no matter how negligible its mass is so do I always end up fucking stupidly fangirling for that asshole!

You think I like it, well I fucking don’t! Tossed me into a world, and made me play a fucking family and kill the ones I truly liked, it’s all a game to him, I know, my feelings are nothing to him, I know that too, but knowing, wanting, and acting are two-three different things. Two I have, one I pray for, and all night I pray religions in my head just to calm myself so as not to break into a certain person’s house like some bitchass criminal.

Maybe I’ve lost my mind, maybe I’ve been possessed by a damn ghost but who cares? Well I know I’ve stopped caring, all my dreams, inspirations, and everything, Aunty do you also t-think I like what am d-doing?” Geraldina said as she broke down crying vehemently.

“I’ve always wanted to say no, to slap him sometimes, to maybe jab a knife at him just to end this misery but hell I know if I dared, the knife would do a spin and be halfway through my stomach!

Even now my heart fell like it’s about to explode just because am calling him names! My therapists say it’s gonna be alright, that someday the sun will come and I’ll be free but it’s not working, nothing ever fucking did so am not really surprised.

Over time I’ve decided to call it ‘love’, shit was justifiable as long as I deluded myself into thinking that I loved him, but I don’t!

She does though Katelyn, have you ever met her?! I know I have, millions of times even, beady gold eyes and sickening smiles, looking into my mirror all I see is that nightmare staring right at me in my face. Telling me that the entirety of my being depends on him and that I’ve got no fucking place to run to!

Caging me, telling me am never gonna leave him…ever but am fine, I’ll just smile like I always do, act like a bitch in heat without even knowing it when he comes, I don’t give a damn…I just want to rest.

She wants Jackson right? I’m gonna give it to her, even if he treats me like shit I’ll do it! so I can finally live my life the fucking way I want, now THAT’S my real goal” Geraldina declared as she glared fiercely, beneath that composure was sizzling pain all through her body, her soul, but she endured it, after all…she’s been doing it half her life.

“Dina….who is she?” Mrs. Katelyn asked with troubled eyes as she walked towards Dina, the project in her hands tossed aside.

She reached where Dina was, grabbed her by the shoulder, and tried to pull her front towards her but she couldn’t, Dina was as firm as a rock.

“Dina….”

“Do you wanna see?” Dina muttered without looking at Katelyn.

“Huh?”

“I can show you aunty” She mumbled again, her voice as soft as ever.

“What?”

“The suffocating Darkness that lives inside me, some call it their ‘Darkside’ but what can I call mine when it’s taken form? When it has become my second identity? What do I even call it?” Dina said with a smile as she looked toward Mrs. Katelyn, both eyes obscured by her palms.

“Geraldina…please…..just…..”

“Look closely, am only ever gonna show you once and for just a few minutes or she’ll take control, look closely…into my left eye” Dina muttered as she closed in on Mrs. Katelyn, her breath fanning across her (K) face.

Mrs. Katelyn could only watch closely as Dina lowered one part of her hands and she couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

Dazzling gold, a color so ephemeral, almost too beautiful to behold, adoration seemed to be something it commanded and one almost couldn’t help but get lost within them.

“Don’t do that… no matter how pretty it is…. if you look too much, you’ll fall into the darkness and be ripped to pieces by the wraiths within” Geraldina said as she released her hand completely causing Mrs. Katelyn to yelp even more in shock.

Blue pupils on the right, gold on her left but what was most eye-catching was the blood that was gushing out from Dina’s left eye, it had been smeared on Dina’s left hand that covered it and now it was smothered all over the left side of her face but still gushed out either way.

“Dina!!”

“Don’t worry, i-ve goooot this uwnder comt, shit…” Dina slurred before tumbling backward, eyes rolling up as she passed out.

Her gold eyes faded to the normal blue which became dull after having lost their light.