ENTRY # 05

ARIA

The corridor opened to a large glasshouse garden filled with white roses. It was planted on the ground, well-pruned and guided on the sides of a clean path made of bricks. There were vines that decorated the walls, accompanied by a couple of white flowers blooming lovingly all around and a beautiful white fountain with three goddesses in the middle of it all.

Three heads turned instantly towards my direction as I arrived. Three pairs of different eyes that reflected confusion stared at me. A sense of familiarity settled, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. I glanced around for more people, but it seemed like it was just the four of us.

Everyone was silent. That's when realization hit me.

"Guys?"

One of the boys in black hair pointed at me. Their once dulled eyes turned lucid as bits of memories flooded their minds. "Are you...?"

He was leaning against the wall, watching our exchange with bored blue-gray eyes. He was good-looking, with his dark hair tousled as if he had just woken up and the same fair complexion as Teagan. He gave off a cold-feeling, and the way his hands were deep in the pockets of his pants made him even more unapproachable.

Instinctively, for some reason, I recognized him despite his strange persona and unnatural change in appearance, "Carter?"

"How'd you know that?"

I let out a relieved laugh. Opening my arms widely, "It's me! Aria!"

One of the three, a young girl with kind cornflower blue eyes and a weird hair color— a gradient combination of light blonde base with blue ends—her mouth fell open in shock. The girl was lovely, her fair ivory complexion complimented her hair and her eyes, which made her even more pretty. She wore the same clothes as me, along with the other two people—both boys, and the same sandals.

However, I knew exactly who she was. When I went and gave her a hug, I basically flung myself at her, wrapping her in a bone-crushing hug. "Teee!"

We hit the floor, quite hard actually. Teagan was not happy about it.

"Ow! Aria, stop it!" Teagan shook me off. Standing upright, she fussed about the mud on her clothes—a typical Teagan gesture.

"What the heck? Just how on earth are you so strong?! You almost turned me into roadkill!"

I blinked, confused. "W-what?"

Walking back a few distances, I noticed that among the three of them, I was the only one who wasn't wrapped in bandages. Teagan had stitches all over her limbs, she hissed at some of them who got ripped because of my hug. Trickles of blood bloomed in the clean bandages wrapped around them, like flowers.

One of Carter's eyes was covered in gauze. I noticed the wrapping on his chest slightly peeking from his linen shirt. There was one part in particular that seemed to be missing, another thing I ought to have noticed the moment I stepped foot into the room—his left arm.

A sniffle in a corner caught my attention. Both Carter and Teagan looked away, an expression of despair on their faces—eyes closed tight. The last one, the crying boy, was curled up in the corner sobbing to himself.

It was Austin. Despite the noticeable changes in his appearance, like all of us have—still the same black hair, his red-rimmed eyes glowed green like magic, and features significantly enhanced; he was the only one of us who was in a wheelchair. Pale, crooked legs were visible underneath his clothes. Austin's lower limbs were paralyzed.

"Oh my god." I whispered under my breath, my hands instantly over my mouth.

I felt shocked. Terrified. Confused. A mix of overcomplicated emotions.

"Wha—What happened to you guys?"

"What do you think, Aria?" Carter spoke, his tone visibly higher and his face furious. "A fucking earthquake happened! And I'm pretty fucking sure we got hit by a damn meteor!"

Teagan turned away; her shoulders began trembling along with her sobs.

"B-but I..."

"You what?!" Carter yelled; pupils sparked dangerously blue amidst his bloodshot eyes. "I don't care whatever shit you want to say! We wouldn't be what we are right now if we hadn't gone to the cabin! You of all people should know that it was your idea---your idea, that got us here in the first place! I-I don't know, maybe, if we just slept through the day in our rooms and ignored your texts, I wouldn't end up losing my arm, or Teagan getting those injuries all over, or Austin being paralyzed from the waist down!"

I blinked back furious tears. I was shaking all over. I pushed down the urge to run and cry, swallowing the invisible object that seemed to be stuck in my throat.

"That's not fair!" I screamed out, hoping it didn't come out like a choked sob. "You can't just blame this on me! Did you think I would invite you guys to hang out if I knew two fucking natural disasters would happen?! That I would know that that meteor would hit our heads?! What am I, a fucking god?!"

Carter let out an exasperated sigh, "Unbelievable." He glanced at the others, "Am I the only one who remembered that it was HER idea that got us into this mess?!"

"What the hell, Carter! I just told you—!"

"Guys! Just stop it!" Teagan yelled, putting herself between us. "All this yelling won't do anything to solve our problems!"

I pointed an angry finger in his direction, "Don't tell me that, he's the one with the problem!"

Carter threw his arms in frustration, "Wow! Just wow!"

"Wow? What wow? You can't honestly think that I foresaw any of this to happen!"

"What?! Isn't that what you're good at?! Didn't your intuition tell you anything like you often said?! Heck! You even got us winning the lottery because your gut feelings tell you which number is ominous and which one is not!"

I scoffed in disbelief, "Ever heard of lucky coincidences, you idiot?"

"What did you just call me?"

"Well, now you're just proving my point," I said, sarcastically.

Carter huffed, his only remaining hand clenched and open at his side in anger. Eyes flashing blue, he disappeared in a flash and reappeared in front of me, clad all over in blue aura. He didn't seem to be thinking right and was driven purely by his emotions, because the moment he appeared in front of me, his hand smashed a rather large pot with a dracaena plant and soil on it right into my head.

Then, everything went dark. Or didn't.

All I can remember was a similar power. Similar to his. But one of crimson, surrounding my entire body. When the pot smashed into my skull, I didn't even feel it. Instinctively, my hand went to touch the part where I was hit, expecting blood. There was none.

Rather, the whole environment shattered like glass. It left behind nothing but darkness and the ground began swallowing them whole.

It was at that point that I finally noticed my consciousness slip away.