Wish Me Back: Part 1

Four days had passed since Lacia and the others left town. The days blurred together; the nights became sleepless. The passing headlights from other vehicles were gentle reminders that she wasn’t alone, but her mind had become a prison. She missed her parents, school, and the carefree attitude she used to have, but, from the time that classes had been cancelled to now, not a single person had reached out to her: no text messages, DMs, or even phone calls. The loneliness was all encompassing, encapsulating the frayed threads that still bound her to reality.

To make matters worse, what Brendan had said as they pulled away from the house only confused her heart and mind further. She didn’t know what to say, how to react, and, worst of all, how to feel. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t put words to her feelings, or words to reciprocate the kindness he’d shown her.

“This boy really has a way with words,” she thought. “I want to tell him how I feel, but I don't know what to do…”

Mana hardly even reacted, leading Lacia to wonder if there was something she wasn’t being told, but then again, if Brendan did like her, she could see why he was confiding in Mana. What reason did she have to expect a straightforward confession, anyways? Leading with her heart instead of her head would only cause more trouble—she was damaged goods at this point. Sure, she was confident in her looks, and she had a great personality, but in what world would a guy like Brendan want someone like her—someone who only causes problems?

“Wait, but what if Mana has feelings for him that I don’t know about? Would it be alright for me to just sweep the guy she likes away from her? That would be like rubbing it in her face, and I can’t do something like that to her.”

She could feel the sting of salty tears on dry eyes; crying wouldn’t solve anything, it would only hold her back—she knew that, but still. The time had come to embrace the young woman she was, and the young woman she needed to be—there was no time to sit around and wonder what happens next.

Brendan was right, she couldn’t hold on to the past forever; the past didn’t frighten her—the future did. She was toeing the line between reality and nostalgia, and if she wasn’t careful, she would sacrifice what she knew for what she didn’t.

“Maybe I could just tuck myself into a hidden, little corner of the world where no one can find me. Nobody will need me, and I can just live peacefully. No expectations, no responsibilities—just peace,” she pondered.

She was fine with that. Besides, her life had shattered like glass, tiny pieces scattered in places she couldn’t find, still connected by the same thread of hope she so desperately clung to. While that single thread of hope kept her going, it was that very same thread that had thrown her into a mad world, full of confusion, doubt, and loneliness. What more was there to lose?

She peered out the window, cheek pressed against her hand. Orange skies cast a deep, purple hue over the clouds as the sun began to set. The final fringes of daylight would soon turn to night, empowered by the moon’s heavenly glow. Tomorrow, the same hellish cycle would begin again: she’d wake up, worry about what the next day would bring, and wish she was anyone but herself.

She’d had enough. Things were optimistic enough when they left Azalea; she had Mana and Brendan by her side, but things devolved from then on. She grew depressed, worried that whatever was going on with her would return. If her gift required her to burden the expectations of the world, how was she supposed to meet the expectations of people she’d never even met? Moreover, why should that be her sole responsibility alone? Her thoughts had become an all-consuming vortex of negativity that threatened to pull her under; she’d drown, dragged down by the undertow, where no one would ever find her.

Ding, ding!

The car was low on fuel and dusk was beginning to settle in. “We’re probably about fifty miles to empty if we’re lucky—realistically, more like thirty. Lucky for us, I saw a small refueling station when we came over the top of the hill back there, so we’d better go ahead and stop. That ok with you two?” Brendan asked.

“Sure,” Mana replied. “I need to get out and stretch, anyways.”

“Uhh, yeah. That’s fine,” Lacia muttered.

Brendan took the nearest exit, veering off the highway and onto a narrow side street. A few minutes later, the station came into view, but it looked sketchy: grass had grown through the pavement and rust covered most of the pumps. The place looked as if it hadn’t been used in years—even the numbers on the station’s sign were yellowed and cracked from excess exposure to the sun.

Fortunately, the place was abandoned, though it looked as if the convenience store portion had been looted. Brendan circled the parking lot, ensuring they were alone, but someone had set the pumps, voiding the requirement for payment to fill up.

“That’s a little too convenient,” he thought. “Why would an old station like this even have fuel to begin with, regardless of whether the pumps still required payment or not?” He quickly filled the tank before replacing the nozzle. “Would you two mind going in to see if there’s any food or bottles of water left?” he asked Lacia and Mana. “I’m gonna try to get a cell signal so we can navigate back to the highway. It’s been spotty ever since yesterday…”

“Yeah. We’ll see what we can find. Right, Lacia?” Mana said.

“Ok,” she said. A strange odor had captured her attention, but she couldn’t place the smell… or figure out why it seemed so familiar. “Strange,” she mumbled, brushing it off for the time being.

Walking in, Lacia stuck her head inside one of the freezers, but the power had been shut off some time ago. She checked the shelves and window displays next. Luckily, not everything had been looted: bags of chips, snack cakes, and several warm cases of water were littered between the floor and shelves. Delighted, she filled her arms until they were full.

“Mana,” she called. “You find anything? There’s a little stuff still left over here, but my arms are full.”

“Actually, yeah.” She laid her haul out on the counter as Lacia walked up. “Some candy bars, canned goods, and microwaveable meals,” she said. “Those would probably have to be eaten cold since we don’t have a way to heat them, but I’d say we were successful!”

A light breeze drifted through the open door, carrying the same scent Lacia had noticed from earlier, a mixture of scented cleaning supplies and fresh citrus. She took a couple deep breaths, trying to identify the strange odor, but she just couldn’t place why she knew it; the source was close, though.

“Do you smell that?” she asked, looking at Mana.

“No? Do you smell something?”

“Yeah… It’s super familiar to me, but I don’t know why…” She snuck around the perimeter of the store, leaving her stash of snacks inside. “Is that… a rock?”

There, in the tall grass, a faint, amber-colored stone glistened as it reflected the final rays of evening twilight. Curiosity got the better of her as she picked it up, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, yet larger than most of the surrounding rocks. She examined the mysterious stone closer. Without warning, what appeared to be a human eye appeared on the surface. Startled, she dropped the stone in a panic as the odor continued to grow stronger, quickly becoming the only thing she could focus on. Waves of nausea overwhelmed her like a strong perfume.

“What is this?” she groaned. “Why do I feel so sick? Why… Why won’t the spinning stop?”

The world around her began to fall away, swirls of amber, green, and white filling her vision. Lost in the vertigo, she stumbled back as she lost her balance. Mana’s voice was caught up in the vortex of colors; a rush of wind shoved one final plume of the strange odor into Lacia’s nostrils; the disorienting whoosh of blood in her ears sealed the outside world away. Trapezing to the ground, her shoulder struck the hardened soil. Rocks dug into her arm as she cried out before everything fell mute, but there was no pain—only an increasing sense of numbness that took over her body. The colors faded to black; her head struck the back wall of the fueling station with a sickening craaack, a malevolent laughter reverberating through her head as she lost consciousness.

***

“Oh? Finally awake, are we? It’s good to see you, Lacia,” a new voice echoed. “Looks like we can finally begin.”

She opened her eyes, groggy. “Four walls, a low ceiling, and no windows—just where am I?”

The only light that filled the room came from an open, steel door. Looking around, she determined the walls were made of some kind of cement, though they were barren of decoration or pictures. The stench of bleach and the familiar, citrusy scent from before filled her nose again, sending her brain into a whirlwind of mixed emotions. How could the odor have followed her here, of all places? No… It was different, more profound, but not as overpowering. She wondered if she’d been transported to a nearby hospital, judging by the inclusion of bleach.

“That can’t be right. Medical staff wouldn’t say that we can finally begin something without explaining what that something is.” The yellow, artificial light from the hallway and heavy, steel door should have been dead giveaways. “I remember hitting my head, so maybe if I sit up…”

She expected the thin, scraggily blanket and sheets used to keep her warm to slide off as she attempted to sit up. A confused grunt escaped her lips as she was promptly forced back onto the bed—the covers hadn’t moved an inch. The sudden influx of light illuminated the compact space, instantly blinding her. Instinctually, she moved a hand to shield her eyes but not even her arms would move—it was then she realized she was pinned to the bed.

“What the hell is going on here?” she thought, panicked.

Suddenly, the bed rotated into an upright position as she came face to face with a full-length mirror; the reality of the situation set in—she was in serious trouble. Stripped of everything but a thin hoodie and her underwear, terror spread across her face; she had been strapped to a steel table. She squirmed, trying to free even an arm.

“Struggle all you want, but you’re not doing yourself any favors. See, you collapsed beside this stone,” the same unknown voice said. A dark-haired man appeared from a small room somewhere behind her, holding the same stone she’d discovered prior to losing consciousness.

“We’ve met before—in your dreams,” he explained. “I’m afraid I didn’t look my best at that moment, but that is unimportant. “This stone here,” he said, holding the same one from earlier up, “is called neriolite. We don’t know much about it yet, or even where it came from, but it only seems to react to certain people.” His eyes bore holes into her soul.

She was growing tired, trying to free herself, but she refused to give up. It didn’t matter if this was some “It’s for your own good” crap or to do her some kind of “favor”. She wanted out—answers could come later.

“Look,” the man said, pushing his hair back, “You’re in the middle of the ocean, on a boat that no one will be able to find. You’re going to stay right here until I have what I need. Understand?”

Lacia narrowed her eyes in defiance. “No, I do not understand,” she thought to herself. “And how did I even get here?”

“You’re a part of something much bigger than you or me, and this stone,” he said, holding the neriolite up to her face, “is obviously important to all of this.”

The closer the strange man brought the stone, the more her head swam. Whatever was going on, it scared the hell out of her, and it was clear she had been poked with more than a few needles—a chilling thought.

“Just a couple more tests, and then I’ll be done poking and prodding,” the man said. “I do still need a blood sample to run a few tests on. I’m sure you won't mind.”

Empty plastic tubes lay in a tray near the side of the table; she imagined them filled with dark, red blood. Other than being strapped to a random table on a boat in the middle of nowhere, everything else was in order: medical graphics were plastered to cabinet doors, counters were cleaned off—free of unnecessary clutter, and fresh paper covered the chair normally reserved for patients. The only thing, other than herself, that seemed out of place were the used medical tools that lay in a nearby sink: a pair of prongs, an endoscope, and a few scalpels.

The windowless, surgical-like room felt more like a prison than anything else. Slate floors, concrete walls, and artificial light… Even the ship itself was a metaphorical prison. While the idea of involuntary medical tests wasn’t something she was real fond of, if what the man said was true, and she really was stranded on a ship in the middle of nowhere, what other choice did she have than to comply?

“Yeah… If only it worked like that,” she muttered under her breath.

Using the mirror as a guide, she tracked every finger curl, footstep, and muscle contraction the man made, watching as he rummaged around inside one of the cabinets. She watched as he approached, scrutinizing the new devices he’d taken from the cabinet, one in each hand.

“This may be a bit uncomfortable,” he warned, connecting an IV drip. “Apologies in advance.”

He placed an alcohol wipe and fresh set of rubber tubes on the tray next to her, wheeling it to the other side of the table. With a small tear, he pulled the wipe from the pouch, using it to disinfect her arm before inserting a new needle for blood draws. She flinched, feeling the cold metal dig into her arm.

“Judging by the number of tubes and IV drip, you’re planning on keeping me here for a while… Why?” she asked coldly.

“I think my earlier explanation was plenty enough reasoning for now,” he said, filling the tubes with blood.

“How long, then?”

“Long enough.”

“That’s not an answer!” she cried.

The man halted the blood draws. “You’re rather annoying. I think, for now, it’s better if you just sleep for a while,” he said, grabbing a filled syringe. Injecting the contents into the IV tube, he chuckled. “You’re a smart girl. You’ll figure out what’s going on.”

“Oh, so you’re just not going to answer me, then,” she said as her eyes grew heavy. “Promise me that, when I wake up, you let me get one, good punch in for this.” Her breathing slowed.

“How crass,” he said, adding a dramatic flair to his words. “You’re definitely an interesting one, Miss Amana.” He leaned over, whispering in her ear. “There are things in this universe that are beyond your comprehension.”

***

The final tinges of evening twilight faded into nighttime, an evening symphony of nightlife filling the air. Mana and Brendan sprinted over to the site of Lacia’s disappearance only to miss her by mere seconds. Shouting over the cacophony of crickets and cicadas, they traded arguments.

“What do you mean she’s gone?!”

“You saw what I saw. Keep a level head, Mana,” Brendan warned. “She isn’t gone, gone, but if you keep yelling at me, I won’t be able to trace her mana. It’s faint, but it’s there.”

“I–”

“Mana, let me focus.”

With a deep sigh, Mana dropped the argument, now coming to terms with the fact that arguing wouldn’t bring Lacia back; she continued to question what exactly she’d witnessed. Lacia had complained of a familiar odor before passing out and slamming her head into the ground, but the sudden appearance of a strange portal-like rift and man were game-changers. Something was happening behind the scenes she knew nothing about. Whatever it was, it involved Lacia in more ways than what she could wrap her head around.

Life felt like a mystery game. She had to gather the clues, make a hypothesis, and subsequently attempt to defend her theory. Unfortunately, the game board was the world itself and, if she were to save Lacia, she was going to have to step out of her comfort zone. The clock was ticking, but just how much time could she afford to spend gathering clues?

She was so bothered by the fact she’d been so useless that, as she watched the man step out from the strange rift, sweeping Lacia up as if she were lighter than a feather, that she wanted to curl up into a ball and forget everything. She shook her head. No— There was a way to make things right, but she needed to figure her own role out, first.

“Ok,” Brendan said. “I’ve got it. I don’t know where exactly she is, but the more we follow the trail of mana, the more we’ll figure out. The whole world is our playing field and there may be many players, but that just means we have to be smarter than they are, right?”

Mana smiled. “It’s like you knew what I was thinking.” Without hesitation, she jumped into the car. “You have driver duty for now,” she said, patting the driver’s seat.

Brendan shrugged, giving a hearty laugh as he loaded the back seat with the snacks and water the girls had scrounged from earlier. He pointed the car north as they sped off. He was just as concerned as she was, but there was still so much they didn’t know: there was more to learn about the Searing Wounds, Lacia’s family history, and now, the sudden appearance of rifts that led to random places. There was no doubt Lacia was connected to something, but that very something remained elusive, an unknown variable in an unsupervised science experiment.

“There has to be more we can do, though, you know? Let’s say we do find her. Then what? What’s waiting for us?” Mana questioned. “The last thing I expected to do was form a search and rescue team.”

“Look. I know you might feel like you failed her as her friend, but there was nothing we could have done to prevent what happened tonight. We will find her, and we will get this figured out, ok?” Brendan’s voice was full of optimism, but most importantly—certainty. “Whoever or whatever is waiting for us at the end of all this, we’ll tackle it head-on, together.”

The night dragged on as the mysterious man swapped between microscopes and computer monitors; a strange, complex genomic analysis was displayed across the screens. Letters and numbers were woven into genomic pairs, each computer sequencing random probabilities for genetic predispositions and abnormal readings.

“Lacia… Lacia!” Someone was calling her name, but it felt like a dream.

“Over here! Lacia?” The voice came again.

She opened her eyes, but there was a strange haze around everything as if she was looking through a glass bottle. Midday sunlight streamed through a window-filled wall. Squinting, Lacia looked around the room.

“Where… am I?” she thought to herself. “Wasn’t I just… No… Where was I just now?”

“LACIA!” Someone kept shouting her name, this time more forceful.

“What?! What is happening?!” she yelled back, annoyed.

A girl about her age ran up, out of breath. She seemed familiar somehow, but Lacia couldn’t put her finger on why. Was it her hair and the way the light reflected off its black tresses? Perhaps it was her emerald-green eyes?

“Lacia! Thank god,” she panted. “What are you doing here? We have to go—now,” she said. “Some weird monster-creature-thing kinda has us pinned, but no one has seen anything like it before. I mean,” she hesitated, “it just appeared suddenly. We’ve barricaded the entrance to this floor, but it might not last.”

Lacia’s first thought was to slip out unnoticed, but her feet felt as if they were stuck in wet cement. Here she was, in the middle of the hallway in a school she’d never attended, left only with fuzzy memories of a life that may or may not be real. To make matters worse, there was some supposed creature that had trapped an unknown number of people inside.

“Umm… Who are you, exactly, and where am I? Where are we?”

“What do you mean?” the girl asked, confused. “Lacia, this isn’t the time for… games. Wait… You really don’t know? Are you okay?”

The mysterious creature had found its way up the stairs and was now banging on the doors, but Lacia stood her ground, still cemented to the floor. She watched as several students sprinted past her towards a makeshift barricade.

“Ok, listen to me carefully. I don’t know what happened when you hit your head earlier, but I guess you have amnesia or something now? I don’t know, but uhhh… Here,” she said, pulling out a plastic card. “It’s my student ID. Does the name ring any bells? Mana, Mana Lhumin?”

“Everything about her is so familiar, but I just can’t think of why,” Lacia thought. The sound of her name triggered something in the back of her mind, like a long-forgotten memory, but it was more than that. She felt like they shared a deeper connection somehow, but the synapses just wouldn’t fire.

A series of deafening screeches came from the doors as the creature raked its claws against the steel frame. Was it trying to get in, or was it taunting them, fully capable of breaking through at any moment? Something about the whole situation felt off. Maybe it was the girl in front of her, but she placed subsequent blame on her own inability to remember anything: people, names, faces—it was all just a blur, like an out-of-focus camera.

Without warning, Mana pulled her into a nearby classroom as she attempted to yank her arm away. “Okay,” she said, trying not to lose her temper, “You’re going to explain everything to me—right now.” She didn’t appreciate being dragged around like some plaything.

Mana squeezed her arm tighter, as she stared into her eyes. “What the hell is wrong with you? I’ve never seen you this dense,” she said in a hushed whisper. “This is Miruna High School and you’re in class 3A. I get that this is stressful, but stop freaking out on me, ok?”

Lacia still couldn’t place why she felt like she knew her. That soft voice, overly polite mannerisms, even her face… “Who are you?” she thought, as she stared into her eyes. “Why can’t I remember— No, wait… You’re—”

BOOM! The sound of a shotgun blast echoed through the building as cheers erupted down the hallway.

“Nice shot, Cilan!” a male student cheered.

“Is it dead?” another asked.

“Yeah, we got it,” the first student said.

Lacia and Mana joined the handful of other students as they rushed into the hall, greeted by the carcass of the slain creature. They reeled for a moment before examining its corpse, flickering as if it were refracting light.

Several students were dismissed to survey the damage to the school, simultaneously tasked with searching for survivors. To no one’s surprise, hallways and classrooms on the other two floors had been trashed.

“Tell me that this isn’t normal,” Lacia said, unsteadily.

Lockers hung open by their hinges; tattered gym clothes, shredded papers, and backpacks lined the hallways. Ceiling lights swung from their cords, flickering as they swung back and forth. Sharp plastic and glass littered the floor alongside a myriad of other random school supplies, transforming the school into an apocalyptic hellscape. Wondering just what she’d managed to get herself mixed up in, Lacia jumped as a ceiling tile crashed to the floor.

“How did that one thing cause so much destruction? It looks like a hurricane tore through the place,” she said, standing atop the stairs. “Someone has answers, right?”

Suddenly, excited shouts bounded up the stairway; a survivor had been found, a male student and a member of the student council, only adding to the mystery. Student council members should have been on a school-related trip, absent from campus, according to one of the other students—an off-campus meeting regarding proposed changes to club budgets.

Lacia watched as Mana ducked into a nearby classroom, re-emerging with a sheet of paper; the entire front of the page was covered in school announcements. Flipping through the pages, she finally came across an attendance record, confirming that StuCo members were supposed to be off campus.

Confusion crossed her face. “That’s the Treasurer,” she said, cross-referencing his student ID number pinned to the badge on his chest. “Like the rest of the council members, he was marked as excused, so why is he here?” Mana asked. “He’s not even wearing the StuCo armband.”

“Ok, so why was he the only survivor and what did we just kill?” Lacia asked as she descended the stairs. She looked Mana in the eyes. “This is so not normal.”

“I mean, I don’t know what’s going on either, but—”

“Heyy! He’s waking up,” one of the students shouted from another nearby classroom. “You two might want to hear what he has to say, too,” they said, addressing Lacia and Mana. “He just started mumbling about Lacia and a photo for some reason.”

Turning to look at each other, Mana shrugged, leaving Lacia with less answers than she had questions to. “Yeah, because that makes me feel better,” she mumbled, following Mana’s lead.

The Treasurer shot up like he’d been pinched, rubbing his head, as the girls entered the classroom. Sliding off a de-cluttered desk, he moved to meet them halfway, but Mana shook her hands, dissuading him from moving around.

“Stay there. Don’t put yourself in danger for our sake,” she said.

He nodded. “That thing, though… It was hunting you,” he said, pointing at Lacia. “When it saw your photo, it went berserk and started rampaging.”

“My photo?” Lacia echoed, pointing to herself.

“Mm. The one on the pinboard, just past the shoe lockers. You know, the student of the week showcase?”

She gave him a blank stare. “Huh?”

“Uhh, she’s had a long day,” Mana chimed in.

[END CHAPTER 3: PART 1]