Haunteds

Chapter 4

Since we have to leave our bags in Dr. Taylor's clinic, I only have with me my phone, earphones and my wallet inside my pants. It's a good thing too because I have a feeling that Cana is not in the mood to chat. She wasn't crying anymore, but she's visibly still upset.

I tried thinking of what to say, to ease the mood a bit. But I don't even know where to start. Obviously, her dad and family are off-limits. Talking about school stuff doesn't make sense now. I thought of telling her a horse-related knock-knock joke, but I think that would make her cry again.

It also doesn't help that I've never really talked with her before. I mean, not "never" never but we didn't exactly have the most scintillating of conversations. It was usually her telling me that the teacher was looking for me or reminding me to return this pen she lent me for the millionth time.

Not that I had problems talking to other people. It's just that, I have my friends and she has hers. And the thought of making friends with her didn't really cross my mind. We never had any real reason to talk.

My hand reached for the left breast pocket of my blazer, where Cana's pen still is.

I really need to give this back. I thought. Okay, the reason I keep "forgetting" to give it back was because this pen has a hidden knife inside. It's like Percy Jackson's Riptide. Except that it's not magical. Or made of celestial bronze. And it doesn't actually transform into a sword. But other than that, it's just like Riptide.

I should probably say something because the longer this goes on, the more awkward and harder it will be later on. Oh, I can just hear my dad's voice yelling at me to stop over thinking. I turned to face her. "Hey—"

"I'm sorry you had to see all that," Cana said.

Or she can start. That works, too. I thought.

"You seemed really freaked out. Are you okay?"

"Oh," she said while wiping her tears with her sleeves. "I'm fine. Thanks for asking. It's just that...I've never been away from home, from my parents. It's all so sudden, you know?" She paused, hugging her elbows close to her chest. "And now, I'm staying in a creepy place for a month, with people I don't know."

"And there's that literal shadow demon that will try to murder us every night." I added.

She glared at me.

"Not cool. Sorry." I said. "But you have nothing to worry about. Biringan's been safe for twenty years. We're safe. You're safe."

She looked down at her lap, her hands gripping her skirt. "It's just...I've never been all on my own before."

I tried for my friendliest smile. "How about this? If you want, we could hang out, have lots of fun and before you know it, the month's passed."

She lifted her head up and looked at me. The sun was at her back,making her smile even more blinding. Her brown eyes trained on mine. "Really?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun."

"I don't know," she gave a cheeky, playful smile. "You keep stealing my pen so..."

I snorted. "You remember, huh?"

"Hard to forget, especially when it's sitting right there." she said, looking down at the chest pocket of my uniform.

I took the pen and hand it to her. "I swear I had every intention of returning it."

She giggled. "Keep it. Already bought another."

The more we talk, the more I realized that she's cool. She has an older brother, loves strawberries, and doesn't take herself too seriously. But of course, most of our topics come back to something she and her dad had done. And I thought that mentioning her dad was taboo.

"We're here," Our school driver said, which was the only time he spoke during the entire drive.

Time really does fly when you're having fun because when we stepped out, we were standing between an unfamiliar place and a military checkpoint. 

There was a tall, concrete wall with CCTV's and barbed wire on top that encloses the densely forested area behind it. I read unfriendly signs like Government property. No trespassing. and Personnel are authorized to use deadly force.

An armored military vehicle was passing by at the moment, no doubt patrolling the area. A crew was manning the machine gun mounted on top of it. There were other armed soldiers on duty, too. One of them approached our driver.

"Where are we?" Cana asked.

I looked back at the city behind us. Tall buildings, antique church, none of which I recognized.

"No idea."

The soldier went up to us, holding a clipboard. He looked at me, flipped through his clipboard, then back at me. When he was satisfied, he turned to Cana and did the same. "All right," he said. Then he proceeded to explain what was going to happen. Apparently, our driver can only deliver us here. They will take us the rest of the way. He ushered us into a black SUV and we climbed inside. The metal gates creaked as the soldiers pushed it open.

Cana leaned over the driver's seat. "Can you please tell us where we are?"

The soldier glanced at us through the rear view mirror. "You're not in Padua High, anymore. That's all you need to know."

"How did you know where we're from?" I asked. "Why can't our driver take us there?"

"Only military personnel are allowed to take you there," he said, his eyes on the road, clearly ignoring my first question. "Besides," our driver continued, glancing up again at the mirror. "Your school van isn't built for this terrain."

I looked out of the window and saw he was right. There was no road. Just dirt and rocks. "But an SUV can?" I asked.

"Oh, this isn't your mom's SUV that she drives when she picks you up at school," he said. "Oh no, this baby is built for climbing up rocky, uneven mountains. Lifted suspensions, 16 inches wheels wearing Kevlar-reinforced, all-terrain tires, thick, skid plates, under the hood, a 5.7 V8 engine..."

I tuned out at this point. I don't speak "car nerd" so I have no idea what he was saying. I looked at Cana. She shook her head. I still have a few questions I want to ask but he was so excited when he started explaining the off-road-turn-assistant system installed. So we just let him ramble on as he drives us uphill, showing off what his "baby" can do.