==Hey, guys! I'm sorry this chapter took a long time to get out. I had our last team camp and a lot of team bonding to be at. Our season officially started yesterday, to be exact. I also couldn't find the right mindset for this chapter, and I wanted it to be better than the last. So my plan to get a lot done before school starts just went down the drain. Sorry about that. As of right now, I don't know how often I can update. I'll have soccer, my job on the weekends, English papers to write, a lot of Spanish homework, and a lot of makeup work to do for my 4th block since I'll have to leave early for some away games. I'll try my best to write during school, but I can't promise anything. I mean, I'm a junior this year and I know work will get crazy. I don't even want to get into when the musical comes back around. I definitely can't write at all during that time. Let's just say this story is going to be put on an unofficial hiatus for safe measures. Posting will be random and far between, but if you want to check up on me, keep looking at my bio. I'll be updating it with every soccer game we have so you can see how our season's going.==

Lana Del Rey - "Young and Beautiful (Kaskade Remix)"

Haunted: Collapse into Caliginosity

Chapter 38:

Right Through Me

"Zane! We could use your help up here!" Kai called from the bridge's open door.

The Ninja of Ice released me from his hug and began going up the stairs. "Is there something wrong?" I asked him before he was gone.

"Of course not," he replied, stopping and turning to face me. "It's only our first attempt to properly land the Bounty. Any additional help would be greatly appreciated."

I gazed over my shoulder to see Jay and his parents still conversing at the bow before I followed Zane up. Nya was at the rickety steering wheel while Cole, Kai, and Sensei Wu monitored all the systems. Zane went to the screen and changed the radar to a camera, which was checking a potential landing spot near the entrance of the junkyard.

"Whoa, Macca. I've never seen the lion's mane so tamed before," Kai commented jokingly.

I felt the strands of hair hanging closest to my face. They were thin and damp with some dry fibers woven throughout in a little mess. This was my entire head, when usually my dry curls caused all the hair to expand outwards. Hair gel helps keep the shape, but now it can go wherever it pleases. So Kai was right; my hair was severely thin because of water from the shower, but in a few minutes, it would look horrible and uncared for.

I smiled and rolled my eyes at him. "The lion's mane" was a perfect term for it.

Cole got my attention and motioned me over to him. He was standing in front of a machine with a small screen on it. Many thick lines were displayed in a blue

and green pattern on a bar graph, and they all trembled in place at the top.

"These are supposed to decrease in size gradually," he explained, running his finger down to the bottom of the screen. "If one suddenly drops or rises, say something."

I took in the directions and nodded, keeping my eyes on the bars. He then left me to check something else.

"Are we ready for landing?" Nya asked us.

"All systems go," Kai confirmed.

There was a distinct click, and like an elevator, the Bounty descended. The bars on my screen continued to tremble, but I watched them slide down with ease.

"How are we looking over there, Mac?" Cole questioned.

"So far, so good," I verified, starting to feel the pressure. This process was long and nerve-wracking. Anything could go wrong at any second, spelling disaster.

"Zane?" Nya asked.

"It's clear," he said. "Make the landing."

"Alright. Everyone keep their balance."

A moment of silence came over everyone. My bars were three quarters of the way down the screen. When I assumed I would see them simply disappear at the bottom, I saw them all suddenly drop. A gasp came from me and the Bounty dropped just like they did. My stomach was in my throat when the falling sensation came over me.

The Bounty hit the ground kind of hard, and we all almost did the same in the bridge. When everything settled down, I spoke up. "The bars dropped."

"That was my error," Zane confessed. "I miscalculated our distance from the ground and shut off the special defense system."

"I hope nothing broke," Cole said. "Are Jay and them okay?"

Nya looked through her window. "They're fine. Let's go say bye to Ed and Edna."

We went down to the upper deck, where Jay was hugging his parents goodbye. Edna hugged Nya and thanked her for her help preparing the anti-venom. Jay snuck off to check the rocket boosters in case there was any damage from the fall. After I said my goodbyes, I decided it was time to gather my things and call for a ride. Our next stop was Ninjago City.

Ed and Edna had just stepped off when I entered the lower deck. The hallway led me past rooms, but the one I needed to get to was the ninjas' bedroom. An adjoining room in there was like a storage room. Each ninja had a cubby to put things, like clothes or other possessions. I kept a few things in Zane's cubby overnight.

I went into the room, past the two bunkbeds, and opened the door on the opposite side. The little space was dark from the single closed window, but luckily,

there was a visible light switch next to me. Flicking it upwards revealed the floor to be covered in big white papers that were once rolled up. One remained rolled up and laying against the wall with the end still in the corner right next to the far cubby.

At that moment, the Bounty shifted and the loud rumbling of the rocket boosters sounded. When I felt the vessel rise into the air again, I realized all these papers were kept in the corner, but had fallen from so much movement throughout the day.

I knelt down and picked up the one closest to me. It completely unrolled in my hand, and seeing an image of myself made me drop it. It loosely rolled back up once it hit the floor.

What the hell?

I unrolled it with both my hands pressing it against the wooden floor. The picture was a detailed headshot of me that was drawn skillfully with a pencil. It was a representation of me through a black and white perspective. My skin was shaded in just the right places to show how dark it was. The eyes were even with each other and the curls in my hair were perfectly executed. In the bottom right corner was the little four letter signature of Zane.

Seeing everything blew me away. It was almost like I was looking at a mirror and seeing my own reflection.

I opened another picture to see it had vague details of my whole body in a little figure. Curly hair was clearly observable as it seemed to flow through slow-moving water over my head. Every curve and angle of my body was refined with a single stroke of the pencil, and no feature was missed.

A third picture was drawn of me at a side angle. I was sitting with my arms on the ground behind me, but the only thing that was out of place was the tear rolling down my cheek.

The last picture was very different from the rest. My face was covered by my hands as I sat. An angel wing drooped on the ground while the other lay next to me, disfigured and missing feathers. Blood dripped onto my legs, and I wept.

A gasp proclaimed from the doorway. I jumped in fright. Behind me stood Kai, and he saw me sitting in the middle of the papers.

"You weren't supposed to see those!" he yelped, his eyes wide with panic. He suddenly rolled them back up and stuffed them in the corner where they belonged. "Zane doesn't want anybody looking at them," he continued.

"Why?" I asked.

"Wouldn't you be embarrassed if someone found your secret stash of guilty pleasures?"

"Guilty pleasures? There's nothing wrong with those drawings. They're beautiful."

He didn't say anything for a moment. I could tell something was about to come out that was questionable, like if it should be shared or not. "…Because he thinks you're beautiful," he disclosed. "He thought he would never see you again, so he didn't want to forget any details."

His statement was indeed questionable, but in a way that seemed hard to believe. "You make it sound like he has a crush on me," I said, skeptic of his words.

He tilted his head and gave me a look that spoke for itself.

"We're just friends!" I insisted.

"Macca, I live with him. I sleep in the same bedroom as him. I'm pretty sure I know what he's thinking when it's obvious."

"So what? He thinks I'm pretty. You think I'm pretty!"

He got stuck with his words in his response. "I-I'm a fan. Why wouldn't I think you're pretty?"

I huffed an annoyed breath at him. "I didn't come here for a relationship, I don't even want one right now." He watched with a solemn expression as I opened the drawer to Zane's cubby and took out my things. My intention was to just leave him there and go back up to the bridge, but he stopped me.

"Macca, I went into the junkyard for a second and found this," he said.

I turned around to see him holding my missing hat. That was why he was down here to begin with.

He tossed it for me to catch, and when I did, I thanked him with almost no emotion at all.

The heat was turned on high in my head from the confrontation. Zane and I were just friends, nothing more, nothing less. Why are drawings such a big deal? He was just expressing himself.

A blonde girl with a tiara on her head popped up in front of me, startling me. "He's not wrong, you know," she endorsed, her blue eyes dazzling with interest.

"Candy? Whose side are you on?" I asked, walking right through her.

She came to my side and followed my pace. "Yours, of course."

"No. If you were, you would back me up."

"I'm just trying to help you see the whole picture. Happiness can only be found if either a compromise or a solution is established."

"Well, here's my solution: I'll just be friends with him."

"I think you should think about this with more depth."

"Sorry, don't feel like it right now–" I stuck my hand in her face "–This conversation is over."

She sighed but dissolved away. All I wanted to not hear any more of it, although I continued to wonder how Zane knew of my once broken wing. Whether it was a coincidence or not, I just wanted to keep it attached to me for once.

Thank you so much for all the support I've gotten throughout the summer. I hope things will get a bigger move on in the future. Shoutout to MilesPrower22, Wild Cat 214, ZaneLoverFan88, and The Mayor Of Ninjago City for all your reviews! I'll do my best to get content out over these next few months :)