Disclaimer: Vision of Escaflowne is not mine… Yet. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! But it will be! Just you wait and see!
Doctor: Could we have an ambulance to take her to the hospital please? Oh and sedate her, she's dangerous.
Ambulance arrives.
RETURN TO HARMONY Chapter Two: Calix"Calix."
She blinked her eyes, her vision still more than a little whoozy. She thought she'd heard somebody saying her name. Unbidden, a yawn came from her mouth that she tried to suppress but couldn't. Rubbing her eyes, Calix could just make out two figures standing in front of her. When her vision had cleared she gave them both a weak smile.
"Sophie. Tish."
The taller one of them sighed. "Cal, Lit's over. You do know that you were asleep for the whole period, right?"
"Over?" Calix looked around her. The three of them were indeed the only ones left in the classroom. "Oh, rats. Sorry Sophie, Tish. I didn't mean to fall asleep."
"Yeah, well it was surprising," Tish said as she watched Calix gather up her stuff. "Lit's one of your favorite subjects, Cal. And you've been acting like a walking zombie all day. What's up?"
Good point, Calix thought with a grimace. I wish I knew. She was more than aware of her behavior the entire day. It seemed everyone had commented on it. She had been very… unCalix-like.
"I-I don't know, okay? I just didn't get enough sleep last night. Bad dream," Calix explained as the three of them walked out the classroom. Sophie and Tish seemed to buy her excuse. For the meantime.
"So are you going to Dave's party later?" Tish asked, changing the subject.
Calix frowned. She wasn't in the mood for parties. "I dunno, Tish… I'll see if I can come."
Tish ogled at her. "What on earth is that supposed to mean, Calixta? It's a Friday night, for godssakes! School's over. You deserve a break and don't you dare spring me some lame excuse as to why you won't be able to go!"
"Don't call me Calixta! You know I hate that. And besides, I still have to stay late in school today. I missed dissection in Biology last Wednesday and I have to perform the lab routine today so Mr. Wilkes can grade me."
"You're not going home with us?" Sophie asked, surprised.
Calix shook her head. "I think I'll be a while. And I'll try to make it to the party," she added when she saw Tish open her mouth. "You guys go on ahead. Don't wait on me."
Sophie looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Okay. Take care, alright?"
Calix nodded her assent and gave her two friends a grin before they walked off. Tish looked back one last time before yelling to Calix, "Don't forget about the party, Cal! You have to be there."
Calix rolled her eyes as her two friends walked out of the school building. Sighing, she made her way over to the laboratories. Mr. Wilkes had told her to wait if he wasn't there when she arrived. Calix swung her backpack listlessly as she entered the clean and impossibly white Biology lab. Immediately, she felt at ease. Calix liked the sterile environment of labs. She was always comfortable there.
"Ah, Calix," Mr. Wilkes was standing by one of the tables. "Wait here just one moment and I'll fetch the equipment and the specimen."
Calix nodded as Mr. Wilkes left. She placed her bag on one of the tables and brought her head to her hands. She still felt a little dizzy and her mind was a whirl. Cal reached inside her bag for her cd player so she had some music to calm her nerves but a tatty, medium-sized notebook fell out. Calix blinked as she saw it. She picked it up and turned it over. It was her mother's journal.
Gran had given it to her that morning before she left for school. Her old house – the one she had lived in with her parents – was going to be demolished tomorrow and Gran had found her mother's journal among the old things that littered the attic. Cal sighed. She ran a hand across the tattered cover of the notebook. Aside from the journal, the only thing that Calix had left of her mother was the pendant that she always wore on her neck.
Calix fingered the pendant. It always reminded her of her mother. The pendant had once been her mother's and when she was a child, Calix had never seen her mother without the pendant. It was a strange pendant that hung on a delicate, silvery chain. It was transparent, glittery and seemed to be made of a pure, clear mineral. On its surface were queer etchings. When she was a child and her mother had given her the pendant on her sixth birthday, Calix had asked her about the markings on the pendant.
Her mother laughed and hugged Calix, "It's in another language, Callie-dallie."
"Another language? What language, mommy?"
"That's my little secret! But you'll know one day."
"Then tell me what it says, mommy."
"You really want to know?"
"Yes!"
"The writings say Lifegiver, Lightbringer."
"What's that supposed to mean, mommy?"
"You'll find out one day…"
But Calix never found out. Her father died when she was nine years old and a few months after that her mother disappeared. She was never seen again and everyone took her for dead. Calix had been lost, confused and had been about to be sent to the orphanage when her grandparents stepped in.
She had never seen her grandparents before that incident. The only thing Calix had known about her grandparents were that they were filthy rich and they had disowned her father after he had married a woman who they considered beneath their station. Before they came to claim her, Calix had never seen them before. She lived with them now, though.
She had to admit, Gran and Gramps weren't so bad. Calix knew they were trying to make up for disowning their son by taking care of their granddaughter, and most of the time she didn't mind. Gran and Gramps were less strict than most parents but they did have a teeny tendency to be overprotective. It nearly exhausted Calix to try and convince them that a limo and chauffeur was the last thing she needed.
Calix drummed her fingers on the lab table. Thinking about the past depressed her. But she couldn't help it.
She closed her eyes and tried to soothe herself. She needed to be calm in order to concentrate on dissecting the darned frog in a while. But whenever she closed her eyes, her mind went back to the dream she had the previous night.
Which was stupid really, considering she didn't even remember the dream! All Calix could remember was waking up in the dead of the night in a sweat, and being supremely terrified. Whenever she tried to think back to the dream, all she got was a misty haze and a headache. She'd tried to put it out of her mind but it had plagued her all throughout the day. And it seemed all her teachers had noticed. Cal grimaced. Lovely day she was having.
"Calix."
She looked up as Mr. Wilkes entered the room carrying the instruments and a squirming frog. He laid them on the table in front of Calix.
"Alright, you may begin."
Calix took a deep breath and tried to put the strange dream of last night out of her mind. Her hand was faintly shaking. She pulled the white rubber gloves over her hands and concentrated on purging her mind of everything not related to dissecting the wriggling frog before her.
Her hands grasped the frog and it seemed they were doing things of their own accord. Dozens of practice in lab procedures and her hands were already used to it. Most girls thought that dissecting animals was disgusting business but Calix never minded. She liked doing anything practical related to science. She found the world of science aloof, detached, emotionless and yet strangely comforting.
Everything seemed to go in fast forward. Before she knew it, she was putting the scalpel aside and pulling open the frog's guts while pointing and naming the animal's internal organs. Mr. Wilkes nodded approvingly as she wrapped up her recitation. He nodded, seemingly satisfied when she finished.
"Excellent work, Calix. Full marks."
Calix smiled weakly. Somehow, the event of getting full marks in Biology didn't exactly make her feel that good.
"Let me just grade you in my record book and I'll come back here to fetch the instruments and the frog, alright?"
"Yes, Mr. Wilkes."
She watched as he walked out of the lab. Grimacing, Calix aligned the instruments neatly. Her left hand was still pinning a squirming frog whose guts were nearly spilling out.
Though her performance with dissection was flawless, Calix knew her mind was still muddled. She couldn't take her mind off the dream – whatever it was she had dreamed of. She huffed in irritation as she closed her eyes and tried – God please make this work! – to remember her dream. She knew she would get no peace of mind until she recalled the dream that had been pestering her.
She thought hard and forced herself to remember. All that came to mind was a white mist that swirled around in her head and seemed to cloud her thoughts. A pounding headache seemed to be imminent but Calix ignored it and concentrated more. This time, though, a strange thing happened. Her hands inside the rubber gloves seemed to tingle and grow hot. Calix winced, still ignored it and concentrated even harder. All she got was a splitting headache.
Calix spewed out some choice swear words before opening her eyes and shaking off the cobwebs of her brain. The frog was still pinned by her left hand. Scowling, Calix removed her hand and glowered at it. The frog merely croaked at her.
Wait a second. Calix did a double take and nearly fell off the chair she was sitting on.
The frog was in perfect condition.
"What the – "
Gone were the neat incisions she had made in the middle of its body. Gone were the nearly spilled-out guts. Gone was the icky fluid and other slimy stuff from the frog's insides. It was all right. Like nothing had ever happened to it. Like it had never been dissected.
Disbelieving, Calix held it down while she examined the frog's belly. No marks to show that a scalpel had even scratched it. She blinked. What the hell had just happened!
Even as she asked herself the question, Calix knew and dreaded the answer. This hadn't occurred since she was a kid.
It had all started when she was five years old. They had once lived in a small house by the edge of a forest and Calix loved to explore the forest and play there. One day she had found a hawk, wounded by the forest. Its left wing appeared to be broken. Out of compassion – or pure childish curiosity – she had held the wounded wing. A few seconds later the wounded wing was no more and the hawk flew away, perfectly well again. It wasn't just the hawk. Calix had tried it numerous times with other animals.
When her parents died, though, she had stopped and began to think of her powers as freakish. Since then, Calix had suppressed them and never used them again. Until now.
"Oh crap."
"Calix?" Mr. Wilkes was back. Just great.
Calix covered the frog with a hand as she looked up at Mr. Wilkes and forced a smile.
"I've already graded you. You may go now. Please put the frog in the bucket there before you leave."
Calix nodded numbly as she stood up, bag slung over one shoulder and frog on the other hand. She hurriedly dropped the frog into the bucket, removed the rubber gloves and ran out of the laboratory.
She didn't stop running until she was well out of the school building. Even though it was a cool, breezy twilight, Calix found herself sweating. There were no more students around and Calix was grateful for that.
"What on earth just happened?" she muttered as she took measured, even steps.
No one answered the question. Out of habit, Calix's hand strayed to grip her pendant for whatever comfort it could offer. The pendant, though, felt warm and tingly. Taken aback, the girl released her hand and stared at it.
It was glowing. Not the quiet type. More like pulsating brightly in the arriving night. Trepidation filled her heart. What the bloody hell was happening!
"Maybe I should have taken Sophie and Tish up on that offer to wait for me," she mumbled.
Calix was scared now. Something was going on with her, with the pendant. With every darned thing in my life! She reached for the pendant's chain and tried to pull it off but it wouldn't budge. Like it was stuck to her neck or something. She wasn't just scared now. She was somewhere between frightened and panicking.
Looking around, Calix saw that there was no one to help her. Most of the students had gone home. Way to go, Cal. Perfect timing, she sarcastically told herself. Instinctively, she felt something was going to happen.
Calix tugged harder at the pendant but it remained immobile, gently pulsating in the middle of her neck.
"Stupid pendant! Let go!" she cried. It might as well have been in vain. The pendant seemed immune to her words.
Without warning the pendant flared brightly, momentarily blinding Calix. She exclaimed loudly as she covered her eyes. When she blinked them open, her entire body was tingling. She looked around her in disbelief.
She was in the middle of a tall pillar of light that reached up to the sky. Her eyes widened but before she could do anything, before she could escape or run away, she heard a rushing sound and everything faded to blackness.
