The Aempodi

• 1: Heart To Heart •

A silence passed over them but not the kind that she usually liked. This one was thick, filled with unanswered question just waiting to burst through like a ticking time bomb, not at all peaceful. She counted the seconds that went by, trying to anticipate when her friend would speak up but it seemed like the moment was never coming. Kaia began to feel the fidgets travelling through her hands, sub-consciously grabbing a small pebble on the ground and began tossing it from one hand to another.

"You missed it, you know. The competition." Sonny said. It was surprising to hear her talk about that, especially since she knew that Kaia had not been attending training for a month now. "I mean, I didn't think you would. Isn't it your ticket to a scholarship?"

"Was." Kaia had forgotten about that by now. But getting a scholarship for gymnastics were the least of her worries. "I don't mind, there are other options." And it was true. Finals were a couple of months away and if she just picked up the pace a bit, she could manage decent result. If she wanted to, that was the problem.

"But you've been planning this since forever now! You've been training just as long, and you're just throwing it all away?"

"What do you want me to do now, Sonny?" Kaia said with aggravation in her voice. "Cry and add that to my long, long list of regrets? I've been there, wouldn't want it again."

"No- I mean... you've just been so..." Her friend's face was filled with conflict now as if she was trying fight the truth that was almost escaping her lips. "Come on, just think rationally, Kaia. You can't just go on like this."

Kaia turned to her, her right hand was gripping the pebble tightly now, trying to block out the waves of anger that began coursing in her veins. "Like what? Tell me, Sonny, what do you see me as right now?"

Sonny avoided eye contact, keeping her line of sight strictly to the ground. But her resolve fell under the overbearing scrutiny of Kaia's glare and she cracked. "You-you're becoming this moping person you know? All brooding and stuff, I mean, you're hanging out in a freaking cemetery of all places!" she scoffed, gesturing to everything around them.

"Oh, okay. So I'm supposed to be happy." Sarcasm dripped through every word from her. "Fine, let's all gather around a campfire and sing 'Kumbaya' after 4 people died because of me!"

"They did not die because of you, what are you even talking about?"

Kaia let out a dry laugh though there was nothing humorous in it, just her emotions cracking through the surface. "Fine, maybe it wasn't my fault," she admitted. "But I should have died with them."

Sonny's jaw dropped in a display of excessive shock, unknowingly shifting a bit further from her friend. "What is wrong with you?"

Another empty laugh, this time it sounded more like a scream. "You tell me, Sonny. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Kaia, you made it through alive from a freak accident. It is a miracle." Sonny sounded like she was trying to convince herself more.

"No, I came out from an accident where a family was crushed to pieces, while I had little more than a bruise." How could she not see how horrible this was? "It is a curse."

"Kaia, don't talk like that-"

"STOP IT!"

The shriek left the cemetery silent again, utterly and irrevocably quiet except for the heavings of the breaths she didn't know she was holding. Kaia shut her eyes tight, finding something, anything, in her mind that could've helped. Her body felt weak now, like all the energy in her left without a warning.

"This wasn't the first time, and you know it." Kaia's voice toned down to a whisper, reduced to only a shaking wisp of air. Slowly she felt as though a shadow crept into her, clouding over the raging emotions that were so close to brimming out of the box in her heart she kept them in and smothered them until they were silent. Until only bleakness was left within her.

There it was, how she survived for the last months.

Kaia rose up from her seat, her face as unreadable as her thoughts. With little more than a nod to her timid friend, she began to walk away. It felt necessary, even if she didn't know where to go.

It was after only a few steps away when she heard Sonny's thin voice breaking the silence again. "I saw you a couple of times at the library."

Kaia stopped in her tracks, a chill ran through her blood but she didn't turn around. There was only a single thought in her head now. "What did you see?"

"You borrowed some books. The same kinds. First about near-death experiences..." It sounded like Sonny was also standing now. "Then about contacting the dead, the supernaturals."

A lump formed in her throat and she found herself clenching her shivering fists with a sudden vigor. She needed to get away, she couldn't handle this right now-

"Then you took a book about being one. I asked Miss Collin, she said you ordered it in."

Damn that old hag! she thought. The 70-something year old librarian couldn't keep a secret if it was for her own dying life.

"Witchcraft? Really, Kaia? You're going with this crap now, being a freak?"

Kaia turned around, her face was smooth, stone-cold as she said, "See you later, Sonny." Then she continued to walk away, picking up her pace as she passed through the creaking iron gates of the cemetery.

Just then, she realized how sore her hands were as they remained tight in their own grips. But when she unclenched them, she shoved down the gasp in her as she felt a handful of dust fell out where the small pebbles she held were. Solid stones reduced to something thinner than ash.