When it all went wrong

What Really Happened? - (P1)

cleo's pov

*ten minutes earlier*

talia and tabitha were in the hospital. i knew sammy and a few others were there. i think i had found something. something about this mysterious 'xavion' character. something about what the heck had happened to not only talia and tabitha, but everyone else who had mysteriously disappeared. we definitely knew those eerie changing rooms had something to do with it. and most of all, that mirror. i mean what type of mirror: 1) TALKS?! 2) starts suddenly swirling, and 3) turns into some sorta heckin portal?! there i sat, on my porch with my notebook and my phone, with papers scattered everywhere. one paper listed talia and tabithas symptoms from their episodes. they didn't tell us directly but i noticed a change in them. like at tabitha's place... at dinner. and tab and talia talking mysteriously... and talia going in and out of consciousness and having bad visions. tabitha told us a bit about what had happened to her... and i was worried. we all were.

the second paper listed stuff about xavion, and all though it was very patchy here and there it was still handy to have. the third and fourth paper had the weird encounters and just overall all the weird and unexplainable mishaps at holy oaks. could XAVION be the... SHADOW? that shadow... watching our every move. we all saw it. all at different times... just standing there and disappearing. it must've been real... it couldn't be a coincidence that we all saw it- but it didn't appear on video. we couldn't have been making it up.

i needed someone to help me connect the dots. isa was online, i saw as i sifted through my recent chats. i could text her- she might reply. i checked my phone. it was 5:08 am. wow. i saw the sun starting to come up... but just barely. it was gloomy. it wasn't warm... it was still. still and slightly cold. i was wearing a dark green t shirt and sweatpants, with my short and bushy hair tied into a small ponytail, and my glasses, which i only wore occasionally, resting on my nose. 

i texted isa. she was coming home from the hospital, and she didn't live far. i lived just 3 minutes away from the hospital anyway. she'd pass me on her way home. she said she could come. great. finally i'd be able to get farther with my information, everything was just leading me to dead ends before. i checked my phone again. it was almost 5:20 am. isa should be here any second.

a few minutes later i saw her. she was on sidewalk, in a light blue t shirt with a hoodie wrapped around her waist. i waved to her and got up. "isa... hey." i said wrapping my arms around her. she hugged me back. she seemed okay, but she seemed exhausted. "i- isa?" i started, but she pulled away. "oh- im fine haha... just tired you know." she said quickly, smiling faintly. we sat on my porch as i showed her my papers and my theories. " so I also found out something a bit... saddening I guess? Since only tabitha and tal got out the portal... the rest of them are gone.. like gone forever." Isa said with a sad tone in her voice. We talked about everything and had a really good idea of everything so we decided that in a day or two we would show the others. Everyone had gone home from the hospital and we're letting the girls rest. It had been a really stressful couple of days. We all just needed some time to ourselves to think and relax.

~time skip to three days from when isa went to Cleo's house~

We were all at the hospital again since tal and tab would only be released tomorrow. "so guys with all the information we have me and cleo" isa said jabbing me so I would listen. "have a good idea of everything that happened when it all went wrong" she said. "Basically in 1994- years after the school was founded... two kids in their last year of school were really close. Them being xavion chesterfield and Alice quinston. They were polar opposites in every way and as you know xavion needed to get rid of her so he poisoned her but Alice already knew about the plan switching the water causing him to die on school grounds" we both explained. "Yeah I remember him telling us about it." tabitha said scrunching her face at the mere thought of him. "but why. whyd he do it. why'd xavion do it." lune said slowly. " i dont know." riley said. "wait-" talia said sitting upright. "tab- you remember when we were in the other dimension? and he explained and confessed about what he did, or tried, to do to alice?" she said looking around.

"how he said Alice was his biggest distraction- and when he tried to poison her, i assume out of mere insanity, she was already one step ahead... hmph." tabitha said looking weak. "he wanted... revenge..." tabitha continued. "revenge for what. REVENGE FOR WHAT. because she was normal? because she was his only friend, let alone best friend. because she was nice, caring, and helped him?! because she was... perfect...?" tabithas face started to turn red. "t- tab..?" sammy said walking towards her. tabitha looked... not quite angry... but she looked different.

i walked over to her, and sam was still beside her. "tab... its okay. we are gonna get to the bottom of this... don't worry." i said slowly. "but why. why'd he even do it. what he told us was... it just- didnt make sense."

"well he told the truth. mostly anyway." talia said. "he told us that he tried to kill alice. but we need to know why he did it and how alice knew." riley said eyeing all of us. "wait- we can ask violet-" lune said, her eyes lighting up. violet... violet quinston. alice quinston. violet was alice's younger sister. and lunes mom was on some sorta book club with alice and violet's mom- and violet and lune were close. violet was about a year older and she was in the grade above us at holy oaks. she was creative and nice. she had dark hair, that seemed to become a deep purple in the sun. she played soccer and we usually saw her and her team playing during our track lessons. she was nice. she had caught on the all the sketchy stuff at holy oaks and we knew she'd believe us when we came with our boatload of theories. she was into 'spirits' and all that weird stuff, so she'd be a help. not only that but we could question her about alice. and what happed to her after all these years. their age gap was quite a lot but they were extremely close. alice was our age when everything with xavion happened. violet knew everything about that. i still dont know how violet even managed to stay at holy oaks after all that. but i guess we had to find out.

"well i know what we have to do then." i said smirking.

talia and tabitha were better. they only had a few days left in the hospital until they'd be able to go home. but i was afraid about how their parents would act when they were told about what really happened. i wouldn't want them to react badly and there's no way their parents would let them stay at holy oaks after this... but we had finally caught onto something. they couldn't go now. but i mean... if you actually knew the truth about what had happened to your child at this school that you thought was normal. this was a lot to handle.

Around 6 minutes later a nurse came in. "tabitha you have a visitor. and then after, the doctor wants to see you both." we were confused about the visitor part until we saw the new girl, aka daisy, walk in. "Hi everyone, great to finally meet all of Tabitha's friends..." Daisy said slowly but cheerfully. She had a bundle of flowers and a card. "oh hey daisy. nice to see youuu" Lune said. Tabitha looked nervous but happy at the same time. "oh... erm, sorry if you don't mind, I just need to step out to the bathroom quickly-" daisy said stepping out. "i- oh well. okay so um... my announcement from the other day was that um me and daisy are- uh- kinda...dating?" tabitha said quickly, looking away.  "WHAT- WHEN? HOW... WHAT-?!" Sammy screamed, turning around. "So you're telling me you actually talked to her, and weren't a wimp?" Sammy said sarcastically voicing her thoughts just a little rudely.
"Sammmy." Lune warned.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry. I'm happy for her" Sammy said.

"i- what... I never knew or even suspected" talia said giving me an excited smile. "I'm happy for you tabitha..." Riley said smiling warmly. "yeah we all are!" isadora said. "thanks, by the way we have been for like a month-" tabitha said murmuring the last part. "TABITHA GRACE-?! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY EARLIER-" Sammy said and right as she was gonna respond the doctor came in with many papers and made everyone leave.

"WHAT THE HELL. I DON'T CARE IF MY LEG IS INJURED...I DON'T WANT A WHEELCHAIR?!" we heard tabitha scream from the outside of the room. we also heard talia laughing her head off because tabitha had to use a wheelchair for the next week- or even longer but at least they were getting discharged early. Talia had to use a crutch for walking assistance. We saw a very irritated tabitha getting wheeled out of the room "so good news- we can leave... and... erm, bad news- well... um" she said gesturing to tabitha. I chuckled a bit and we all decided to head over to my house for future investigation, except tabitha who was gonna hang out with daisy- daisy sterling was a nice girl. she was in my science and math class and she was really sweet. she was new this year and tab and daisy were always sort of... glancing at each other. 'i never knew they had been dating tho... why didnt tab tell us?!' i thought to myself, smiling, and quietly laughing.