Taint, Time and Tangents✔️

≑ Chapter Seven

To uFiona for making the perfect cover for me. Thank you, dear! ♥

 ∞ 7 ∞

CALLIE

Staring at the white tiles below my bare feet, I could hear scraping of metal nearby which was soon followed by a surge of falling water. As coldness trickled from the floor to the skin of my sole, dozen of questions bombarded my mind.

Why am I here? Why was I on my best friend's bathroom, which was twice the size of my room, and sitting on a ceramic stool at the corner?

Did I lose consciousness again? Did I puke or something?

All I can remember was standing at the center of Zeke's room, staring at his moving mouth while he told me something that my oh-so-useful-brain wouldn't even try comprehending. It was stuck at thinking if the person in front of me was really my missing friend.

Is he Zeke? Was he really alive? Or was all of this just part of a dream? 

I recalled when, in a blink of an eye, he was suddenly in front of me, stooping, until he was at my eye-level. Before I could react, he grabbed the duvet I was clutching and tugged it forcefully from my body.

In an instant, my underwear-clad and bandages-wrapped body was exposed to his sharp eyes. I screamed, trying to cover any part of the body I could reach. A moment after, I found myself inside the bathroom, not knowing if he had dragged me, carried me or even hypnotized me to walk.

The only thing I can remember from all that screaming was his irritated and frowning look.... that dominating look confirming that he was really 'the always almighty Zeke' who I used to know.

But still, there was a question left on my mind. 

"Why did you leave?" I asked out loud, my voice cracking from the dryness of my mouth. "Why didn't you return to the cliff?"

I looked up and saw Zeke in front of a transparent cubicle, his arms outstretched to catch some droplets of water coming out from a large round metal above. The mysterious rain-producing metal looked the same as the one on my bathroom, but this time, there was steam forming around the cubicle, making the glass hazy.

"It's already warm. Go in," he said, lowering his hands and grabbing a small towel from a hook on the adjacent wall. 

Didn't he hear what I asked him?

I swallowed first before speaking again, "Why didn't you go back?"

Wiping his hands, he glanced at me briefly before throwing off the towel on a sink. "Shower first before we do something about that," he said, motioning to something on my stomach.

I looked down and blushed slightly. I totally forgot that I was in front of him in my undies. But when I noticed a red patch on the left side of my bandage, who would care now actually?

I stood up and reached for my back. When I looked at my hand, it was filled with blood. The wound in my back must be opening again and blood was spreading to the front of my bandages. But why couldn't I feel any pain?

"Don't move."

My breath hitched as I heard his voice directly on my ear. I was too focused on trying to see my back, I didn't realize that he was already in front of me. He was too near, his warmth was already radiating to my skin.