Metanoia

I follow the path that leads me to her, guided by the light. The light was no longer the little candle that I had found, it was a living thing and now it lit my way while bringing life everywhere we went.

But as we reached the end of the foggy world a cold chill blew through me. The ground became a frozen tundra and for the first time I felt wind—bitterly cold wind—bite into me.

I trudge on, but soon the snow begins to get higher and higher until it was over my head and I couldn't see where I was going.

Even with the light I was freezing. My teeth wouldn’t stop chattering—it was so cold.

I curl up into a fetal position to try and warm my body. How am I going to find her in this storm? She could be a couple feet away and I’d never know it!

The cold starts to overtake me, it's getting harder to move, and to think.

Something about this blizzard seems familiar as well…

I close my eyes and venture deep. In my mind I can see her, I can see Angie also curled up in a frozen shard of ice. She had constructed a prison to keep herself safe, to keep everyone out, forever.

The blizzard was her despair and loneliness.

My heart cried out for her but she was too shut away, nothing was going to reach her. I needed to come to her. But how would I find her in the storm?

Let's break it down logically: if this frozen place, this blizzard, was a result of her trying to keep others out, then logically, I would just need to go against the wind where it’s fiercest. Right?

It's worth a try so I force my stiff body to get back up. It didn’t matter how long it took, I wouldn't stop. I’d dig through the ice with my bare hands if I had to!

And that’s what I did, I dug through snow and ice and rock.

Guided by my light I tunneled through the icy walls that she had put up.

Until finally I found her—curled up and frozen.

I take the light and pour it out on her little by little—thawing and bringing her back to life.

Finally she was completely thawed out. She now looked more like me, or a version of me. Her skin was smooth and the ribcage no longer visible. Her hair was like mine, a dark navy blue but much shorter.

However she didn’t wake up. The light has done its job of warming her up but there was still one piece missing—love.

I bent over her fair head and kissed her.

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The door of the restroom kicked open, jolting me awake so violently I fell off the toilet. Oof!

I lay on the cold floor completely numb. It must have been from being in a weird position all night.

“Hey, so did you hear the news?”

“Yeah! The crazy new girl Angel never showed up to her room last night.”

“Do you think she went and offed herself?

”Maybe, or maybe Tyrantess got her.”

“All I know is…”

I heard them go dead quiet. I’m guessing they spotted me.

“Aaaiiiii!”

The girls screamed as they scrambled out of the restroom. I probably really did look like a corpse with my dirty uniform and contorted body. I let myself laugh at the absurdity.

One of the instructors bursts into the restroom just as I’m washing my face. A mischievous thought entered my mind—

“Excuse me sir, do you mind? This is the little lady’s restroom.”

“Huh? Oh right, sorry. False alarm…”

He quickly retreated and I really laughed out loud this time!

I let myself settle before studying myself in the mirror: what a complete mess I looked. But inside I felt changed. I carried with me a whole new perspective, it was like I could see through a new lens and with that discover new revelations.

The first thing I needed to do was get out of here and get changed.

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I figured the quietest place that no one would bother me would be in my dorm room. I snuck down as quietly and unassuming as I could. At the elevator I half expected Sable and her gang to ambush me again but thankfully the halls were empty.

I closed the door and tore off my clothes. I only had one more clean uniform so I would need to make sure I kept this last one clean. I need to find out where the laundry is later…

In the dorm rooms there was a tiny sink and mirror. I looked into the mirror and closed my eyes, reaching out to her. However she still didn’t come. Figures, I need to go to her.

I start climbing up to my bunk bed when a paranoid idea comes to mind. What if somebody is looking for me and notices the only closed door in the dormitory hall is my room?

Yeah better not.

Where do I go then? The bathroom, the maintenance room, the library, the—

I glance over to the closet. Yes, the closet!

If it wasn’t so ridiculous I would’ve laughed again but I needed to prepare myself to meet Angie and what I would say to her.

I needed to see the world through her eyes and try to understand her perspective.

I closed the closet doors and let myself slip back into the deep place.

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“Hey Angie, would you like some tea?”

“Umm, no thanks, well… maybe.”

I’m sitting across from Angie in the beige room. I’m so happy that she’s here but she’s acting sulky and guarded.

It’s weird seeing her like this, she always wore a scary mask but now I see it was all a front. Underneath all that she was a frightened creature, and underneath that: tender and fragile.

“It’s not a problem, here you go!” I pass her a hot cup of tea I prepared.

She takes a sip and looks around the room. We both remember how much we used to come here and play.

“So hey…” She moves nervously in her chair, “You don’t have to call me Angie anymore, it was never my mine name in the first place. I told you a lot of awful things a while back and I’m sorry. I was just so frustrated and angry and I thought…”

Tears started to well up in her eyes, “I thought if I gave you a nudge, if I scared you a little, it would force you to change, somehow. I never thought it would lead to all this.”

I walk over to her and wrap my arms around her from behind.

“It’s okay, Angie…”

I can feel her react to me giving her my name. I can feel new life coming in.

“I forgive you. It was quite the nudge though…”

“I may have overreacted a little…” Her cheeks blush and I catch a whiff of embarrassment.

”Maybe a little bit, especially the part where you said you were going to take over my body forever.”

“Fine! I wanted to scare the shit out of ya okay? It was funny…” She giggles.

There she is, I’m glad she dropped the formal tone. I walk in front of her and kneel down.

“Angie, I understand everything now and I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done to you. My friend, will you please forgive me?”

She blushes so hard I think her head is about to turn into a cherry. She has to look away.

“Of course! You’re Angelica Carter, you don’t have to apologize to me. I’m just a… a mistake...”

I get back up and return to my seat and sip some tea. It gets kinda awkward when two people can’t stop apologizing to each other but we were happy.

”Hey Angie, I have to bring something up…It’s going to be painful for the both of us but I need to know about some ‘incidents’ that happened, but I want to understand it from your perspective. Is that okay?”

”Yeah sure, what do you want to know?”

”Well, it's about the time at school where you um—you beat the living crap out of Stacey. I just want to hear your side and get a better understanding of what she did that upset you or me or us, whatever I don’t know how it works.”

Angie looked at me and cocked her head. She seemed confused but there was no way anyone could forget about that day.

“What are you talking about? I never attacked Stacey, even if she was a slimy whore who treated you like shit.”

“….”

“….”

“What? But then what about the time with Dr. Stein?”

”Your shrink? I haven’t seen him in years. His sessions are so boring I just go to sleep.”

“But, but…” I’m starting to spiral, there is a growing fear inside me. The greatest of all fears in the human race: fear of the unknown.

“But what about my grandparents, Mom and Dad? You’re saying you didn’t attack them either?”

“Of course not, I would die to protect Mom and dad! Did something happen to them?”

I dropped my glass which shatters and splashes across the room.

This can’t be…

Something’s not right.

Angie isn’t lying, I know without a shadow of a doubt as we are synced together in this room.

But then what?

”Angelica, I need you to listen carefully. If what you are saying is true then you are in mortal danger. I’ve always sensed that something was always watching us. Something very old and very powerful. No matter where we went, it always had our scent, from the day that you were born it had you marked. Haven’t you ever felt the ‘creeping dread,’ like you were being watched?”

I knew exactly what she was talking about but I was too embarrassed to say that I thought the creeping dread was always her.

“Yes. I have a feeling I once saw its form but it was so terrible that I forgot it or… it erased the memory, even in this place it reached us.”

Angie leaps to her feet and pumps her fist in the air. “Then it's settled! What are we waiting for?”

I tilt my head a little surprised. She snorts and shakes her head.

”The whole reason you came to me in the first place dumba—errr—silly! We need to get out of this place as fast as possible. You have what it takes to beat Sable, to beat almost anybody for that matter, you just don’t know it yet.”

Angie looks so majestic in this moment: my knight in shining armor gave me new confidence and hope beyond what I thought was possible.

“Come on don’t just sit there, what do you say? We gonna to do this or what?”

I was so enamored in the moment.

“Ahem. Yes, let's do this.”

It was the perfect moment I wish I could hold forever. The feelings we felt for each other overflowed in that beige room. I thought there was nothing that could take that away.

Until a shadow moved across the window and blocked the light. The warm emphatic light was choked out and the only thing that came from the window was a sick color that was of a wavelength I’ve never seen before.

Something was here.

An incursion.

Angie grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me in desperation.

“Angelica, wake up! Its coming!”

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I jolted awake just in time to see the closet door open—a faceless abomination stood over me.

It wore the clothes of a human: a black suit and tie and an old fashioned top hat, but its proportions were wildly off.

The thing stood nearly 9ft tall, its waist was impossibly thin, and its lanky arms almost reached to the ground.

And I’ll never forget its face, or lack of face because all that sat on the head was an uncolored blank oval that was a door connecting directly straight to the abyss…

When it spoke, I heard a dozen voices come from everyone all at once.

“FoUnD tHe ANGEL!!!

The enormous arms swung out to grab me!

I screamed.