Callum Faith

Reana’s POV

I looked through the meadow that was filled with sunflowers. I always liked to sit on the grass and listen to the birds chirping peacefully. It gave me memories from when dad and I visited here every single day....until he got sick. He’s not with us anymore, but coming here, I could always feel his presence.

I got up from where I was sitting and felt the wind. It made a rustling sound as it past through my ears. My dark brown hair also got blown and when the wind had ended, my hair was in a mess. I laughed silently to myself as I brushed my tangled hair with my fingers.

When I was finished, I felt a drop of water on my nose that fell from the sky. I lifted my head and saw the clouds had turned darker than just a few minutes ago. I gulped. It seemed like it was about to rain and I’m 20 minutes away from my house.

As more rain started to fall from the sky, I darted away from the meadow. I muttered a sad, quick goodbye to the area and ran through a trail that is in the woods. It was closest route to home. The woods was not a place where I go often, many people avoided it. This has an excuse though, I needed to go home as fast as I can.

I ran, staying on the trail with mud splashing everywhere. My shoes were dirty and my now wet hair stuck to my face. I was a mess and I was still miles away from house.

It even started thundering and that was when I started to get scared. I hugged myself in my soggy clothes and slowed down. The running had tired me out.

Suddenly, I found an extravagantly large tree that was on the right of me. It was not any other ordinary tree I’ve ever seen.

“Woah,” I quietly muttered to myself. The tree had weird symbols on it. Ancient signs that I could not read with and swirls with leaves. I peered at it closely and cautiously touched it in curiosity. When I leaned against the tree, it blocked the rain from pouring into my face. I thought of staying under here until the rain stopped.

So I slid down onto the grass, that was not wet at all for some reason. I continued leaning against the tree and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t really do anything right then, I might as well slept.

I slowly pulled my eyes open and was met with the sun shining into my face. I blinked, my eyes irritated with the light that just appeared. I looked around and remembered what had happened before. I was still leaning against the unusual tree so I stood up and brushed myself off.

Suddenly, somebody appeared right in front of my eyes. I gasped in shock. It was a guy around my age with very light blonde hair. As if the snow covered his hair. He also had the greenest pair of eyes I’ve ever seen. He seemed just as unusual as this tree that’s behind me here.

As quick as lightning, he grabbed my shoulders and shoved me against the tree. I was up into the air with my back to the tree and I gasped at him.

He had his eyes narrowed at me. “Who are you?!” he snarled at me. I gulped.

“I—I was just taking shelter here....from the rain ear—earlier,” I stuttered. I stared at him with my frightened brown eyes. “I...I’m sorry. I meant no harm. Please let me go.”

“No. I don’t know who you are. You’ll be taken hostage,” he ordered. I let out a weird, scared squeak out of my mouth.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling came down from the Earth. Both of our eyes left each other’s as we stared down to where the sound was coming from. Out came a beautiful vine that somehow grew very fast. I gasped at it in amazement....and confusion. Maybe it was a dream?

The vine plant came towards the both of us and quickly snatched at the boy’s ankle. The boy looked shocked as the vine circled around him and pulled him sideways. He let go of my shoulders and I was back onto the ground. I stared at what was happening in horror. I yelped when it tripped the boy and he fell to the ground.

When that was over, the vine released the boy and went back into the Earth. I ran over to the boy to see if he was okay. Even if he was a jerk a few minutes ago. I got over there to see him panting slightly, but other than that, he was fine.

“Are you okay?” I asked him with worry. “What just happened?”

He got up super fast. As in, really, inhuman speed. Who is this boy? He brushed himself off and stared at me with his green eyes. His eyes seemed so inhuman as well. He peered at me closely and I started to get creeped out. At least he wasn’t snarling at me or hanging me up on a tree.

“Did you...did you created that plant?” he wondered. I looked at him as if he were crazy. That question made no sense whatsoever.

“Um....I don’t think anybody can create plants,” I reasoned. He tilted his head, his platinum blonde hair draping over his eyes.

“You might’ve got blessed by the Callum tree of magical powers. I need to go tell the leader about this,” he muttered, more to himself than to me. He continued talking to himself as I stood there in confusion. He was talking as if he were on a whole another planet before today! I shook my head to myself. This guy was going crazy. I looked at him and he finally stopped talking to himself. He raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m taking you somewhere. Follow me.”

Before he started walking, I blurted out, “Will I be taken hostage?” The boy turned around to face me.

“Depends on the leader,” he explained curtly. Yeah, as if that helped reassure me at all. If I do get taken hostage by these crazy people, I’ll need a plan. It sucks that I’m not very strategic.

I slowly followed behind the boy as he walked right out of the trail and into the trees. Most of the time, I was looking down to make sure I don’t trip over sticks, wood, or plants. I had obviously failed though, since I fell face flat on the moist dirt several times. Oh, how I very needed a shower.

By the time we were there, ten minutes has passed and we were pretty deep into the woods. I was panting heavily with mud on my face while the boy, on the other hand, seemed very impatient by my lack of speed. Though, it wasn’t my fault, because he had this weird inhuman speed. I couldn’t exactly get that to wrap around my head.

I glanced around my surroundings and saw an abandoned cabin a few feet away from us. Half of the cabin was broken by a tree that had fell on it. It was dirty and the glass windows were shattered. The porches was even broken with holes here and there. The boy walked very quickly towards the house. I grudgingly walked right after him. As the cabin got closer, the ugliness became even stronger and the darkness of the house made me want to disappear.

The boy ran into the house with lightning speed, with me gaping at the scene. The boy poked his head out of the house and motioned his fingers to come to him. “If you’re that scared of the porch, grow some vines!” he shouted at me. Um.....what? I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a joke or something, but he seemed serious. If he’s serious, then he is insane because I can’t grow vines.

I sighed and hesitantly stepped on the first step of the porch’s stairs. It was not bad so I cautiously took the next step. I continued that until I reached he actual porch. It was nasty, with critters living in the holes. I wrinkled in disgust as I stepped on where wood is at. I slowly crept through the porch, making my body as light as possible. I didn’t want the wood to crack under my weight. Again, I did that continuously until I reached the actual cabin. It literally took me twenty minutes to get here. I sighed in relief as I leaned at the cabin door. I then remembered about the boy and when I turned left, I saw him with his eyes twitching so much with anger. Uh oh.

“Ummmm...I made it through,” I said to him meekly. He then walked over to me and poked me in the chest with his pointer finger. Ow.

“What took you so long?!” he yelled at me furiously. I could have even seen some fume coming out of his ears. He must be a pretty impatient guy.

“It’s not my fault. I don’t have that weird speed thing that you have,” I defended myself. I was offended, any normal person would take that long if a porch that’s horrible was in their way. I’m not exactly saying that he’s not a normal person, but if it’s not an imagination of his speed and if it’s actually real, then that’s weird.

to be, one a very long time ago. The cabinets were tilted, the refrigerator fell sideways, the sink had cracks, the counter was full of dead bugs, and the lights broke to have it hung low. I passed it, walking behind the boy and wrinkling my nose at the scene in disgust.

We then reached the dining room and for some reason, there was a weird device behind the damaged dining table. The boy curved around the table and walked towards the device.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, confused. He glanced at me when he was a few feet away from the device.

“This machine is a tunnel that travels down into our secret lab. It’s where my leader is going to be at. You have to come with, it’ll be safe so don’t worry,” he claimed. I frowned, not sure whether to believe him, but it wasn’t exactly that I have a choice. So I slowly walked over there. The boy nodded at me and stepped into the machine. I followed in after him and he started pressing a few buttons. In surprisement, I saw glass circling around us and above us. It finished and then I felt a plunging feeling in my stomach. The machine was moving downwards into the earth. It was going very fast as well and my heart felt like it was in my throat as when I go on roller coasters. I’ve never went on many of those though. Especially since I live in such a boring, small town.

A few minutes passed and we were still sinking. “How deep is your lab?” I wondered in amazement. The boy blinked his intimidating eyes at me for a few seconds and shrugged.

“Pretty deep I guess. But we make it this deep to keep us and the lab safe,” he murmured. “We’ll be there soon, so don’t start being impatient.” I let my mouth open. Impatient?! I never said that I was wanting this to be over. How rude.

Few more minutes went over and the machine started to slow down. The machine got to the stop and made a CR—CREAK!! sound. The glass around us unraveled itself and the boy stepped out of the machine first. I got out after him on wobbly legs.

Being out of the machine, I stared at the ‘secret lab’ that the boy was talking about. The area seemed very different, a tall domed shape building underground. The ceilings of the place was made of some blue spirals. The walls had no windows at all and were streaked with blue and red. There were also some corridors that come out of the dome. I wondered if it led to any rooms. A few random people were walking around. I admired the scenery and smiled.

A finger snapped at my face. “Hey, don’t be daydreaming now. We need to get going,” scolded the boy. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. I sighed and made a gesture for him to continue walking. He went towards one of the corridors. Again, I followed right after him. The corridor’s walls were striped around us with glass in between. The dirt was shown and they were moist and dark brown.

We arrived at a big room with its ceiling high. The room seemed any normal room though. Except, it was filled with a lot of mats. As in, the blue, exercising mats that I used to use in Phy. Ed. The mats were against the walls as well. It was a weird sight. At the corner of the room, there were a lab station, small bottles filled with chemicals. In the middle of the room, stood a tall woman around 20 years old, panting tiredly. She had natural, red hair and blue, gray eyes. She was wearing a dark green tank top and sweat pants. Showing her bare arms, she had strong muscles. I gulped. I wouldn’t want to cross this woman.

“This is Marissa, the leader of our group,” the boy introduced her. I don’t even know this boy’s name and a lady that I had just met for a second, I got hers. Why?

I nodded politely to her, even though I knew I could be taken hostage any second by these weird people. Her blue, gray eyes flickered to me.

“And who is she?” she asked at the boy, pointing her pointer finger at me. His grasp was on my arm and it was growing warmer by the minute.

“I don’t know, that’s why I came to you. She was against the Callum tree earlier today. She claimed she was there because of the rain. When I was about to take her hostage, vines sprouted out of the ground and tripped me. I don’t know who did that, but this girl and I were the only ones there. Do you think it’s her?” the boy explained to the woman named Marissa. She suddenly walked over to the corner where the lab was located and put on a lab coat over her tank top. She came back at peered at me.

“Maybe. I’ll have to run some tests on her though,” she replied curtly.

“Wait, what—” I tried to protest. The boy shushed me and pulled me towards the lab at the corner. I tried to get myself out of his grip, but he was too strong. The grumbled mentally in my head as we stood around at the lab. The lab was large with many machine and tools. Marissa was currently putting on plastic gloves and safety goggles. This made me feel like I was in a surgery or something.

The boy dragged me over to her and asked her what to do with me. I shot glares at these people and they ignored me. What were they going to do to me?

The boy then tugged me toward a huge machine that was as big as a small bed. It was definitely not a bed though. The platform was made of hard plastic and there was a glass coffin around it. “Get in,” ordered the boy gruffly. I gave him a look, but he stared back at me coldly. “I said to lay down on this. Go,” he repeated.

I gritted my teeth before going under the glass coffin and onto the hard, cold plastic. I laid on it awkwardly and tried not to move around so much. This position I was in had just reminded me of Snow White. I stared at the boy and saw Marissa approaching the machine.

“Please don’t be scared, dear. This thing won’t hurt you and it’ll go by quick,” she tried to assure me. At least she was being nice. Not that I was trusting her at all. She lowered her face down, her curtain of silky hair dripped over her face. She then pressed one of the many buttons on this machine. I gasped as the glass wrapped the whole machine except for a small hole that was open. The machine moved slowly into a darker bigger machine and I was trapped in there with blue lights flashing around me.