Chapter 46: Smallest Light

Once I arrived at the cliff, I completely pushed the bike down to the ground as I stood up. I hold tightly to the flower crown as I start walking. Before I could start going down the stairs, there was another lightning and it hit below the cliff. And then there was a rumbling noise. An earthquake?!

There seems to be some crumbling of rocks from below, and it feels like where I'm standing right now doesn't seem safe. I lie to the ground for a bit until the shaking stops. I stand up anxiously, run downstairs and almost slip at the wetness of the steps. When I reached down, it was a tumultuous mess. There were cracks all over the valley ground. And the water level was already blocking my entire feet.

I quickly go towards the direction of the cave and at a distance it seems to be just fine. But as I get closer and closer, the ground starts to shake again. And this time, it's as if everything was going up and down. I lie on the ground once more and cover my head. I look up to see if anything was happening to the cave and it's fucking going down! The entire wall of rock that lies on the cave was dropping down slowly and I didn't know what to do. I just stopped moving.

"Malinda!" I screamed with everything I had. The cave is almost being completely shut off. But it wasn't a landslide… it was just falling straight down. It doesn't seem like it's going down on my direction, so I move closer carefully. "Malinda!" I scream again. I could sometimes hear her sing even before I enter the cave, but there was no response. "Grace! Faye! Tim! Bo! A-anyone!"

At this moment, there is no safe way to go inside. Everything is still moving, but I was just watching, frozen, helpless.

"Please! Anyone! Malinda!"

My heartbeat was going insanely fast making my entire body tremble in fear of what's happening. What the hell is happening?! I try to use my brain for a second. If this were an earthquake, I wouldn't be conscious right now, so it's not. It has something to do with Malinda. And Malinda is stuck in a curse. But she didn't tell me when the deadline would be. And she didn't tell me what would happen to her.

No way.

The cave stopped collapsing in and of itself. There was no movement whatsoever and there were no signs of anything else to happen. I stare intently at the only possibility.

Both my kneels fell down to the floor by itself, "Malinda…" I said softly looking to the ground. In any hope whatsoever, she still might be in there. And she might still hear me, "Malinda! I'm sorry!" I yell out to her. "I'm so sorry! I never wanted to hurt you. I only wanted to make you smile, I swear to God! I love your smile. I love your fucking smile so much!" I scratch my head furiously. "And I love the way you talk to me. And I love how fucking funny you are! And-and I love how gentle you are when you act sometimes. But I also love when you act so strongly. You are so fucking strong, you know?!"

As I name all of her qualities I've always noticed when I'm with her, I remember all the times we were hanging out. I remember all the conversations we had and how much she made me happy, and how happy I would be whenever she was too. Even if I wasn't with her, I later noticed how much I think about her and all the times I thought of how I could help her. But I didn't try enough. If only I listened to her… if I listened to my heart earlier none of this would be happening. If only I told her earlier, she would be okay.

"I like you, Malinda! I like you a lot!"

I take deep breaths while I was staring to nothing.

"I love you."

But there was nothing.

Like last time, there was nothing. I was too late.

I was always too late.

My tears started to appear. I looked to the ground again and saw myself in a reflection of a small water. Stupid. Stupid. STUPID. I look stupid. I look miserable. I look like someone who could never change no matter how hard I try. I close my eyes, but my tears still keep coming down. I wasn't sure if it was the heavy rain that was falling on my face or both. Either way, I did the ugliest cry of my entire life. But I let it all out because there's nobody here that could hear me. Because of me, there is nobody here at all anymore. This rain is the only thing that's accompanying me right now. And it was cold as fuck. And it hurt. It all hurt. I hugged myself and laid my head on the ground degradingly as I let all the raindrop fall to my back no matter how much I hated it.

But in the instance of me feeling the burden of this heavy rain, it's as if nature itself stopped for me. The rain was now a drizzle and slowly, it was fading away.

There was another noise coming from the cave, but it wasn't the earth anymore. It was like a divulging and spectral, high tone noise. I was looking directly at the scene, but there was still nothing at this moment. I turned my eyes away from the cave and looked at the statues.

The female statue… i-it's moving!

I stand up immediately and go closer to see what's happening. It was vibrating. Then the front and back were starting to separate from each other. It's slowly opening in half which made it vibrate some more. I gulp as I was waiting impatiently. The sculpture finally opened up.

And Malinda was standing inside with her eyes closed.

My smile grew bigger and bigger. She's alive… she's alive!

I paused my excitement for a minute as she was about to fall out of the statue. "Malinda!" I catch her right in time in my arms and I kneel down so her body can rest on the ground.

This is the first time I've ever held her.

It was incredibly stupid to think but this is like how I first met her again—I'm just stunned. Her skin was so soft even as she's been entrapped inside that boulder for centuries.

There was still a little bit of rain, so she was starting to get a little wet. I try to cover her up as much as I can. And I just stare at her, waiting for her to wake up. Or waiting for anything to happen. "Malinda…"

Malinda starts coughing softly and I pat her pack. "Malinda! Are you okay?"

Her eyes open slowly, and she looks at me with a confused and half-awake reaction. I just stare at her for a bit. I thought I lost her. I really thought she was gone. But now, she's safe in my arms, and we're looking at each other again, this time without any awkwardness.

I smile warmly, "Malinda, did you hear what I said earlier? I mean it, I promise." I still had the flower crown on my other hand and put it on her head gently, "And, uh, this belongs to you."

She had small, shaky breaths, but she still managed to say, "I—" until she started to go unconscious again.

"Malinda! Hang in there!" I respectfully carry her with two arms and carefully but quickly start walking.

"…love you too… Rhys…" Malinda whispers to me, still with her eyes closed.

-

I rub the soft towel on my face. Thankfully, the nurses were kind enough to give me one or I would have to walk around making the hospital floors wet. That would've been awkward.

But it's not like I'm going anywhere anyway. It's not until this moment where I'm just sitting down, doing absolutely nothing, that I realized how desperate I was for it.

I'm exhausted as fuck.

But I'm not complaining as to who I did it for.

I try to take a small step back and process the series of events today.

Since I'm a part of this situation, I can think about it a little freely. Not going lie, when I entered the hospital, it felt like the coolest hero shit ever. Like straight out of a Marvel film. Of course, that was the other half. The other half of me was purely drenched in water and anxiety. As well as some social anxiety, because of everyone's attention that's diverted towards a weirdo. I thought this sort of thing would be normal because all kinds of shit happens in hospitals but apparently everyone's boring.

It's been about 20 minutes since I bought Malinda here and she was rushed to the emergency rooms like you see in movie But about only a couple of minutes later, a nurse spoke with me, interrogating about the details of her life. Like you also see in movies (what is it about me and movies?). I didn't say anything about her originally coming from the 10th century, because, duh, but I did feel a little guilty and embarrassed. Of course, I know a lot about her story, but I didn't know a whole lot of other things about her. I don't even know her last name.

Later on, a doctor came out and told me that she just had an extremely high fever and suffered from a minor mechanical asphyxia. She just needed some rest and whatever the hell he was talking about. More or less, I was reassured that things are going fine. I should pay attention to school more. That is… well… I'm about to enter university, so…

While I was waiting, I did think about after-high-school-me. I could tell people in university that I legitimately saved someone. I wonder if I could even put that in my résumé. I scoff to myself thinking about the fact that I'm still so amazed about this entire thing.

I kept overthinking about saving Malinda from that forest that a graven memory flashes in my head. It was me in the forest as well when I was 10 years old. I don't know why I'm thinking about it now, but it's strange. It feels like some hidden part of that story is coming back to me. I didn't remember a whole lot of it. But right now, there's some stuff that I'm trying to remember. I was lost in that forest for hours and then I got out by myself. Did I get out by myself? God, I can't remember. But I think there was someone with me. I just can't remember who.

"Rhys, I'm here now, don't be afraid!"

That voice. That's… my father's voice. I suddenly remembered. I didn't get out of that forest all by myself. My father went and tried finding me. When he did, he said those words to me. Then he helped me get out of that forest. I recalled grasping to the corner of his coat tightly while he softly whisepered, "It's going to be alright."

What. The. Fuck.

"Rhys!" I heard Rose and Aunt Maine yell my name from a distance which snapped my thoughts. They enter inside the waiting room and brisk walks toward me. "Rhys, we're here! What the hell happened?!" Aunt asks immediately, "I saw you enter the house earlier but then you went out again. I got multiple calls from people saying they saw you driving rash all around Winterville with an unconscious girl with you. Are you okay? Are you hurt?!" She touches my face to examine it.

"I'm fine, I promise!" I answer irritated, but mostly because of the tiredness.

Rose sits beside me, "I was so worried about you Rhys! Why did you rush all the way here?" she nudges.

"I'm more worried about you! You still have classes around this time, why are you here?"

"My brother is more important to me, okay?" She hugs me.

I sigh, "And you as well."

"Clearly not! Who's the girl you bought here?!"

I laughed, "Um… well, that's a long story. Let's just say she's someone important to me too. But I'm fine, she's fine. She's just… not from here. So, she's not used to the weather and all."

Aunt Maine sits beside Rose, "Well, try not to be so reckless next time. And maybe call an ambulance instead of almost causing a severe traffic accident, you never complained riding them when you were younger. You may be saving someone's life, but you have to look after you too and—"

"Yes, Aunt Maine. I'm sorry. I'll be careful next time."

But she keeps going, "And God forbid, when we move to the city and you still carry on these mindless habits with you, I just—"

"Wait," I turn to her, "when we move to the city?"

She stares at me and sheepishly corrects herself, "Oh, right. If we move to the city."

Rose pouts and slyly asks, "So Rhys… are we moving in with him? Have you made your decision?"

I look at her for a bit and that whole revelation of that forest story came back to me. I lay my head down and hesitantly answer.

"Hm. It's less of a decision, more of a test."