Chapter 36 Restless

One by one, classes started and ended, none of which had any sign of Rosa in them. She had never missed a single class from what Cheryl had deduced from the ongoing rumors. She held her head to keep it from spinning as she walked out of the last class for the day. The class instructor had put on a short movie for them. Although the rest of the students watched with interest, it had been nothing but gibberish to her.

She headed straight towards the vending machine to get a drink, only to find Dan already waiting there for her. He stared at the soda can through the glass with a strained face. Upon approaching, Cheryl realized the coin slot had melted inwards, making it impossible to put a coin in.

"Did you find her?" he asked, finally taking his eyes off the soda.

"Last we saw her was at the cafeteria. She's missed all of her classes. No one knows where she is."

"Is it just me or the school looks weird all of a sudden?" Dan said, landing a light kick to the side of the vending machine. A soda can dropped to the bottom. He picked it up, offering it to her. She shook her head, despite the growing headache. He gulped down half of it then placed the leftover soda in her hand.

"So it's not just me then… You notice it too. How are you so calm after all this?" Cheryl wondered aloud, taking slow sips from the can. The cold filled her mouth, flushing straight to her head, soothing her nerves.

"I don't know. Weird stuff always used to happen around Kendra back when she was still with us," Dan said with a shrug.

"Kendra… so that's her name. What kind of weird stuff?"

"I don't know. Things moving out of place when no one was watching. The shadows appeared out of nowhere." Dan sank down with his back against the wall.

"What happened to Kendra exactly? I mean where did she disappear to?" Cheryl sat down beside him, the empty soda can clutched tightly in her hand.

"One day she just… stopped coming to class all of a sudden. Rosa and I went to visit her room and she had these guards blocking the door. They wouldn't let us in."

"So earlier today when that guard brought you to the principal's office…"

Dan nodded. Interest sparked up in Cheryl's eyes as she turned towards him.

"You said you didn't know where she was. Why didn't you tell me about her room before?"

"What would you have done?" Dan looked up with a sudden tiredness evident in his eyes. "It's not as simple as you think."

"Just take me there. Tonight."

He exhaled out of objection but then nodded slightly.

.

It was like the town had glitched into itself. The buildings partitioned as they shifted into many directions. Parts of it positioned upwards, walls splitting in half while the other half partly submerged into the ground. Ricky wrestled with the steering wheel that had twisted itself in an irregular shape. The rest of the car was just as misshapen. The back rest had somehow moved upwards, slicing into the roof, making it impossible to adjust.

It was almost sunset when he arrived at the school, having navigated his way through the forest. He could see dark clouds approaching from a distance. With haste, he exited the car onto a dirt road that led to the inside of the school premises. There were partially broken up walls surrounding the school. As he neared, the building revealed itself to be the most deformed of all. The windows all slanted upwards along the now angled rooftop. The entrance gate was replaced by a brick wall, leaving no other entry points in the entire building.

Ricky exhaled a loud breath, glancing around the place. There wasn't a single person in sight. His hands went up to pull on the unkempt hair over his head.

A buzzing vibrated from his pocket and he pulled out his phone. The one thing still intact. Meryl's name came up. He paused, staring at it. It rang for a few seconds before he picked up.

"Did you find her?" she said all of a sudden. He felt his heart skip for a moment, almost expecting her to say something else.

"No," Ricky sighed. "There's no way inside. The building looks practically abandoned. I don't know where she is."

"I'm sure she's okay. She's stronger than anyone I know. She'll find her way back."

"Thanks…" Ricky answered in a low voice.

There was a pause before Meryl spoke again.

"Listen… I just wanted to apologize. I haven't been myself lately. I thought I could go at it alone but…"

"But?" Ricky said, a bit of hope returning to his voice.

"When I saw you today… I-I hadn't realized… I mean I d-didn't know…" she fumbled for words, feeling embarrassed by the recurring stutter. She suddenly went silent.

"Meryl, what are you trying to say?" Ricky asked, running a hand through his hair as he headed back towards the car. The call ended just like that. Ricky breathed out, throwing the phone to the passenger seat, and started the car once again. He backed out of the school and directed onto a dirt road that led out of the forest.

It had grown dark almost too quickly. He sped through the uneven path, feeling the bumps every so often till he was at the forest entrance. All of a sudden, he stepped on the breaks and the car jerked to a stop. He glanced at his phone lying on the passenger seat beside him. It buzzed with Meryl's name blinking at him once more. His fingers tightened around the deformed steering wheel. A few seconds passed and the buzzing stopped.

He let out a breath he'd been holding and grabbed the phone as he got out of the car. He stared ahead at the darkness of the woods in front of him. With the light of his phone flashing at the trees, he marched on inside. The leaves crumpled under his feet. A cold breeze made his curls shiver over his head. The wind carried with it a smell of burnt wood and ashes.

"Enough with the crying already. Whose fault is it that your talking device almost burned down?" It was a familiar voice to Ricky's ears. He followed it till he was right at the edge of a dirt plane occupied by a small wooden cabin. Two people argued in the dark.

"But… but…I thought I was just starting to control it," Meryl cried out, holding onto a heated up phone with her fingertips.

"You started to stutter. Your stutter is an indication of you losing control," Darke said, walking towards the cabin with his arms behind his back. "You still have a long way to go…" He trailed off, heading inside the cabin, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Ricky watched her slump down on the heap of dirt and grass. He stood silent behind a tree, holding his phone up to his ear. All of a sudden, Meryl jumped at the sound of her phone going off beside her. He watched her quickly make a grab for it, only to retract her fingers just as quickly. There was a tiny spark next to her fingertip. Meryl put a hand over her heart, as if to calm herself. She then reached for it once again, picking up the phone.

"Ricky?"

"Yeah," he answered in a low voice, low enough to almost sound like a whisper.

"I'm sorry about before. I didn't mean to hang up on you like that," she sounded partially nervous, just at the brink of breaking out in a stutter. Ricky watched her take deep breaths to keep her calm.

"It's alright. You were saying something…" he said.

"I just wanted to say… today when I saw you, you seemed pretty mad," she hesitated.

"Why would you think that?" His voice was gentle when he spoke to her.

"I'm sorry… about everything. There is no excuse. You have every right to be upset."

"Why would I be upset?"

"Because I cut everyone off when I was going through something…."

"Apparently not everyone," Ricky said softly, sounding hurt.

Meryl gasped, opening her mouth to say something. The call ended before she could get any words out. She stared at the phone with her mouth hung partially open.

.

I landed back at my apartment, having to scout the entire town to make an account of all affected areas. My body ached all over from overdoing it. I had yet to inform the night force of my findings but I was too tired to care. I kicked open the door to my room, slumping down on my one true mattress. Dust kicked up from underneath as it heaved under my weight. My spine cracked as it loosened a little. I closed my eyes, only just getting the time to let my thoughts wander.

There was a slight ache in my chest at the thought of Cheryl. Ricky had already informed me about the state of the school. If only I could teleport myself back there like I did before. I had realized I could no longer do that after waking up from my long sleep. A wave of drowsiness hit me in the face and I lost consciousness soon after.

My eyes opened to the little shadow boy sitting across from me in a darkened classroom. I looked down at my hands. They were real. Last I remembered going to sleep thinking I needed to be here. I looked around the room. Chairs and tables were aligned neatly in straight rows. There was paint scribbled over them, along with a few painted papers stacked roughly on a desk in the corner. I looked out into the corridor through the window. We weren't alone. I could feel her shifting through rooms like a ghost, as if searching for someone.

An ominous silence spread throughout the place. I carefully turned the knob to open the door and peered out into the dim light of the corridor. The sound of someone crying lingered in my ears. Immediately, thoughts of an injured Cheryl bombarded my brain. I breathed out slowly before dashing outside to chase after the sound.

Stray shadows deformed and melted around me as I passed. I could feel the miasma they gave off. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from wincing. It carried with it a smell similar to that of a rotten fish. My mouth dried up and a subtle taste of sand kicked up on my tongue. I quickly passed several classrooms, turning the corner to another long line of rooms. I marched in, bursting open doors one by one in search of her.

Around the second last door, the sound suddenly stopped. I walked inside, my eyes anxiously searching the room. I noticed the furniture was a bit twisted, as if partially merged into the floor. A chair stuck out through the desk, while another balanced backwards in a manner that was impossible not to topple over from. The air around the room was thicker. I could feel my throat itch in a similar manner that it did around the darker parts of the Darkwood forest.

All of a sudden, there was a chill around my ankles, a second before a dark pulse descended from the ceiling. It gave off a massive amount of pressure, making my jacket flail behind me. I could hear the furniture clinking behind. At that moment, my body grew heavy as the shadows converged into my palms. The pulse neared my face, inches away from my nose, blowing my hair back with heavy winds. My hands opened up.

Streams of shadows flew out, dashing across the floor and over the furniture. It collided with the pulse, making it freeze, possibly centimeters away from my face. The entire room turned black, thinning out the air around me. I breathed in with ease, staring into the dark sphere that slightly vibrated, as if struggling to break free.

There was another world inside the ball of darkness. It was a barren land with hay scattered around, a lot like the shadow realm, except there weren't any shadows there. A girl watched me from the other side, slowly rising to her feet. She had brown hair and eyes and her clothes looked too clean to belong to a place like that. She inched closer, only to be stopped by a sudden sound of clopping from her right, similar to a horse.

She jumped back, just in time for a horse carriage to gallop past.

"Are you with Cheryl? I remember you from before. Can you help me?" she asked in a fretful manner. I stretched out my hand towards the sphere, only to find it blocked by an invisible wall. My brows creased immediately as I punched it, to no avail. I caught sight of the girl shaking her head.

"Where is she?" I yelled.

"I don't know…" she said, wiping the tears from her face. "You have to help me, please-"

She was just saying that when all of a sudden, the sphere shattered, right in my face. I had time to shield myself before getting thrown back. My shadows reverted into me, layering over my skin to absorb any damage that was taken. I felt my back hit the desks behind, my body tearing through the wood as I crashed to the floor.

I woke up with a gasp; my body drenched in sweat. I breathed. The mattress shifted below me as I moved to sit up straight, wiping my face with my hands. Something stung all of a sudden. I looked down at my hand, there was a tiny cut around my fingertip. As I traced my finger over it, I felt a sharp pinch, like a shard. I pulled it out.

"I wasn't dreaming…" I whispered, staring at the black piece of shard that immediately dispersed into the air.

.

A thunderstorm roared outside Cheryl's window. She jumped at the sudden sound, walking over to peek out the window. There was nothing but darkness outside. The door of her room had grown taller and her bed shrunk down, with the mattress sticking out at its original length. She paced around nervously, feeling her heart sink every second. Shadows watched her from the corners of the room, not daring to approach knowing the Catter sat alert on the floor.

Suddenly there was a banging at the door. She sped towards it in an instant, carefully opening it just an inch. Dan stood there, panting. She could see shadows crawling towards him in the distance.

"Quick," she said, holding the door open for him. He hurried inside, and she slammed the door as the shadows lunged at it. There was a sound of sparks from the other side, followed by a thud. Cheryl breathed out with relief as she moved away from the door.

"What the hell?" Dan turned to face her, eyes wide with shock. "It really is hell out there. I can't even get through to my room. The door's jammed."

"I know…" Cheryl replied calmly.

"Is it just me because I don't see anyone else having any trouble?" he asked, quickly pacing around the room in a panic.

"I know."

Shadows hissed at him from the walls. He jumped back. The Catter countered with a hiss and they melted back into the walls.

"What is going on?" he asked in a low voice, almost at the brink of tearing down.

"Regular people don't seem to notice anything. With you being an exception since you and the girl have a history together."

Dan's brows creased in confusion.

"What do you mean, regular people?" he asked but Cheryl's mind was elsewhere.

She felt the familiar rumbling underneath, possibly the result of the walls shifting once more. A cold breeze blew past the back of her neck. Her gaze automatically fell to the floor behind her.

"Get back," she ordered, moving quicker than his eyes could follow. She sped past him, leaving a trail of sparks discharging into the air. A dark pulse appeared from below them, seeping in from the floor. Heavy winds blew at her, making her hair shiver. She could see Dan backing away from the corner of her eye. The dark sphere vibrated as it grew, taking up almost half the space in the room until it slowed to a stop.

She glanced back at Dan and he tripped as he fell backwards, looking pale all of a sudden.

"It didn't stop last time…" Cheryl wondered aloud, aware of the sparks visibly emanating from her skin.

"You…" Dan whispered, "You're…"

"You had to find out sooner or later," she said, reaching out to touch the sphere of darkness. Her hand made contact with an invisible wall around the edge. She pursed her lips as she backed away a few steps. An angry force of power streamed through her as she charged, jumping into the air to land a high kick. Electricity flew through her legs, wrapping around the sphere, spreading out like cracks. A second later, the object burst into tiny glass shards, flying at her face. Cheryl quickly grabbed a pillow and threw it at Dan. He caught it just in time, protecting his face from the shards. Cheryl felt a few of them dig into her skin. They dispersed into the air as soon as they touched, turning to smoke.

Silence followed after. Dan looked up from the pillow, wide eyed and short for breath. His eyes immediately fell on the tiny cuts around Cheryl's arms. She casually brushed herself, wiping any blood she had on her. She noticed part of the room had elevated itself wherever the sphere had touched.

"Now that you're here, let's get to her room before another one of these things comes at us," she told him.

Dan pulled himself up, leaving the pillow on the floor. He took deep breaths as he made his way over to her.

"Fine. But if those shadows try to attack us again," he said.

"I'll just roast them before they get to us," Cheryl replied with a faint smile.

He nodded, balling his hands to fists as he marched towards the door like a soldier about to enter battle.