The Search

Chapter Two - Humdrum

Chapter 2

Everything happened so fast that Caleb could barely remember how she ended up in a room a few seconds later. It was like a cheap hotel room with only a few furniture: there was a single bed with thin sheets at a corner, a lamp resting on a tiny wooden drawer a meter away, a rug that almost covered the whole floor, and a painting that looked like Van Gogh’s that hung crookedly on a nail; other than that and the old sky-painted walls, there was nothing else to see. The room didn’t have any windows or doors.

Someone was gripping on Caleb’s arm tightly that her arm was starting to feel numb. How they suddenly got out of the school grounds, she didn’t know but she can swear that she felt as if the ground beneath her feet disappeared for less than a second before everything went hazy.

A few seconds after they arrived, a wave of nausea suddenly hit her and her knees gave out. The sudden change of her condition from healthy to sick was drastically fast that some would think she was a great actress; which is why the man wearing a hat rolled his eyes, certainly not buying it. “Don’t even start,” he said, “We’ve seen hundreds of people use that excuse. Get creative.” He took off his hat and coat, revealing a dark brown long-sleeved shirt and slim fit jeans.

Caleb’s vision was starting to blur and her healthy lungs gasped for air even though she was breathing perfectly fine. Her eyelids felt heavy as if there were something trying to glue them shut, and her whole body felt as if it were shutting down. It was all so sudden that her consciousness was starting to slip away because of the shock.

“Shut up Nick,” a woman said as she leaned closer to Caleb and examined her, “I think she’s not faking. Her face has gone violet and her heart rate is above normal. Let’s get her to the infirmary.” The last thing Caleb remembered was the sound of her pulse beating in her ear, and the feeling of being lifted off the floor before everything went black.

Caleb awoke to the sudden glare of light and the feeling of her eyelids being gently pushed open. “Ashley, I don’t think she’s-,” a familiar voice said. The source of the light moved from left to right slowly; it was bright as the sun and burned that Caleb struggled to look away from it.

“Okay, she’s not brain-dead,” a female voice said with a sigh of relief. The light was turned off and the fingers on Caleb’s eyes moved away. She blinked a few times before her eyes were able to adjust. The throbbing pain she had last felt was gone.

For a second she thought she was dreaming, but as she looked around, there was the same crooked painting and same light blue walls. They were still in the same room.

“About time,” Caleb’s eyes followed the voice, it was the man – or more likely, boy, as it seems that he’s only in his early 20’s – who had been wearing a hat and coat earlier. It seemed that he was the same boy she saw in the hallway.

So I wasn’t imagining things. He’s real.

He looked at the girl sitting on the bed beside her. “I didn’t want another suspect’s life on my hands.” He added. Nick – that’s what the girl, Ashley, called him before.

Flashes of memories from when the school bell rang up to her black out suddenly flooded Caleb’s mind. Fully conscious, fear crept up to her spine and the beating of her heart became unsteady. She struggled to sit up, only to find out that she was still handcuffed with a weird kind of glowing metal. Nick effortlessly pushed down her shoulder with one hand.

“Don’t even try.” He narrowed his eyes at her; his short yet thick eyelashes accentuated. Finally finding her voice, she managed to stutter out, “W-where am I? Who are you?”