The Calling

I hear voices, voices that sound too familiar, voices that sound like they're in a lot of pain. I try to take a glimpse at what just happened but I can't, I can't move. I try to open my eyes but all I'm able to see is darkness. I want to move but something heavy is on top of me, something soft and warm.

A few more moments have passed but I can still hear those voices, voices of familiar people, I can hear them screaming and crying all at once, but I have no idea why. Then suddenly, flashes of pictures just started appearing in my mind.

These faces... why do they all look familiar? They look so happy, "Wait is that me?" I asked. More and more images flashed. "Who is that girl beside me?" Who are those people?" Then suddenly I heard a loud bang, then it all went dark.

"Jer, wake up god damnit, I've been shouting for the past five minutes !" Screamed Dan, my room mate. "The train to The Lugament Mountains will be leaving in five hours you idiot!" he added in a shouting and a bit frustrated tone.

"Jesus christ calm those tits dude, im already awake." I replied as I shut to large pillows over both my ears as if I did not mind his presence.

"If you won't wake up I'll tell our land lord you've been skipping your weekly duties this past few weeks."

As soon as he said that I jumped out of bed and got dressed as fast as possible. "Don't forget your bag!" He shouted.

"I won't, geez! Calm down, dickhead." I replied as we walked together towards the canteen area.

"Sigh, i-it's so empty and peaceful and lonely", he muttered.

"I love it! Wahaha!" I replied as we sat down on one of the tables.

"So this is gonna be a three month mission?" He asked while eating the rest of the remaining crumbs of bread he had bought earlier. I nodded, knowing we literally have no idea whats out there waiting for us.

"I want you to be prepared." I told him.

"Why wouldn't I!?" He replied before sipping his coffee.

"Are you sure you've packed everything you need?" I asked.

"Yeah, but there's still one thing I have to do before we leave."

"K, I'll wait,but what is it, Dan?" I asked him.

"I have to say goodbye to khaila."

I did not really see the reason why he had to do that but I know he has his reasons, or what ever is, so I didn't try to stop him.

It took us another fifteen minutes to finish our so called unhealthy breakfast and give our leaving remarks to the landlord.

"You didn't tell him did you?" I asked as my nervousness cracked my voice.

"Tell what?" He replied.

"Okay nvm, take your time then." I mumbled. While walking towards the train station's departure area. I have a feeling I left something and checked my bag one last time to make sure if it's organized and that I have everything that I need.

"Okay its here" I whisper.

As the early December breeze blows from the south down towards the still empty railroad I clench my fists as the cold weather chilled the tips of my fingers.

"So I really have to do it this time?" I asked myself as I watched the leaves fall down towards the wet pavement. "Today is a quiet day I guess," I mumbled,

It's usually a busy street this time of day but I guess everybody just decided to stay warm in bed. I laughed while sipping my coffee.

The cold breeze of the morning sky gently blew the leaves of the trees around the train station creating that pleasing noise that you get to hear when it's really quiet. A perfect day to finally leave " I laughed. "

I'm glad Dan has someone to take care of him and be there whenever he needs someone else other than me, but thank god I don't have to carry the burden of saying goodbye. I mumbled to myself before I took one more sip at my pure black coffee I bought at the vending machine just after leaving.

"A perfect day to be alone" I whispered to myself until.

I laid my back further into the seat as I stretched my arms letting out a yawn. This time my eyes are looking up into the sky. Those clouds, they look like Rin, how can I remember her name and how she looked like yet I cant even remember who she is. Its like seeing a stranger yet you get a different vibe at it, as if like that stranger had a big part of your life, yet you just cant understand what part.

"Ill definitely find you."

"Jer!" I heard someone shouting from a distance. I immediately stood up and took a closer look to see it better.

"That dude looks familiar," I whispered to myself. "Wait, is that Dan? B-but he was only carrying one bag when he left, d-did he forget something?!

He ran towards me while carrying two very big bags that I was too busy looking at what he carried that I didn't notice right away that there's something strange around him. I took a closer look at him running until I saw someone appeared from behind him with longer hair!

Wait...

"Is that Khaila?!" I shouted in shock. "Why did you bring her here? You know that this is gonna be a dangerous mission, yet you still brought a girl with you!" I kept on bombarding him with questions. Suddenly the ground just started to shook gently as the train approached the station.

Tsk nevermind, you can explain to me what happened later when we get to our room.

As the train cruised across the station I braced myself, sipping my hot coffee once more.

"This is it, no coming back." I whisper to myself as the train doors open infront of me.

A quick gust of wimd from inside blew out towards us causing my hair to wildly swing from all directions. Kahila's hat almost got blown away if only she wasn't holding on to it.

"Hey, you two! Hurry up or we'll miss the train!" I shouted. We immediately grabbed all our stuff and boarded the train, I gave my bag to Dan so he could take it to the rooms together with Khaila.

"Here take my bag to our room and leave Khaila there so she could watch over our stuff" I tell him with a straight face.

"You're not going with us??" He asked.

"No, I'll wait for you at the canopy, just you, understood?"

"Okay, boss!" He replied with a blend of sarcasm as he took my bag and walked Khaila to our room. "But, why?" He asked.

"We have to talk about something. Just the two of us, okay?, so hurry up!" I told him as I made my way to an empty section of the train.

"Just so you know I'm not your god damn butler" he shouted across the hallway right before shutting the door.

I walked from station to station trying to find an area still not occupied by other people, I ended up in the very back of the train.

The train gently rock back and fort as the sunlight bled trough the open windows and glared the edges of the seats and tables inside the lobby enlightening the metallic floor of the room.

It took Dan a few minutes to take the bags to the room and find me.

"You realky suck at picking places do you?" He asked. I nodded.

Okay, now that youre here.

Dan and I sat at one of the tables in an empty part of the train facing each other quietly, listening to the screeching metal tracks and looking outside the window enjoying the beautiful scenery.

"T-two boys sitting in a train... five feet apart cuz they're not-" he starts to sing.

"Don't even". Cutting him off mid sentence.

It was dead silent inside the lobby until he asked.

"Why did you invite me here?"

"Now that you've asked" I replied.

"I wanted to know why you brought Khaila with us" I answered.

He looked at me straight in the eye, his brown pupils being illuminated by the rays of the sun that managed to enter the lobby.

"I know what you're up to Jer and I know you are trying to find answers." He told me while giving me that same straight look.

But that didn't directly answer my question, so I just nodded.

But, why round up the entire group? I thought it was only the four of us who are involved to this so called 'neurolink' or what ever that is." He asked.

That's what I thought as well, but an incident happened a few days ago that made me think. I replied while clenching my fists.

Remember the time when you told me khaila had a bad landing and sprained her ankle at one of her softball matches?" I asked him.

"Yeah, what about that? ." He replied.

Because I also felt extreme pain in my ankle the same day you told me the accident happened even though I was doing nothing that day."

"Cant it be just pure coincidence?, arent you sure those weren't just cramps?? " He asked me with a little bit of concern on his face.

"That's impossible, she can't be involved!" He added while gripping the edge of the seat.

That's what I'm trying to find out, Dan. I want to find out if Khaila or the rest of us were also involved in the incident.

But, I thought we were going to have a recon mission?!" He asked.

"Yes, we are, Dan, sort of ". I replied.

But, Jer, what's with the sudden change of plans?" Asked Dan with a lower tone.

Because a recon mission is the only way I know how I could get us all back together."

"The train will be passing trough a mountain tunnel in about five minutes so all passengers are requested to please take your seats and buckle up, thank you."

Dan and I immediately posed ourselves just for safety concerns at a section of the train waiting for it to pass.

As we quietly waited for the train to enter the tunnel I looked at him, observing his facial expression. He was so fixated at the mountains outside the train window.

I stared at him wondering if he was able to accept the fact that Khaila might also be involved, not just her but the rest of our friends as well.

I got bored of staring at his eyes so I checked out the view outside.

The scenery was amazing ,the mountains look like they harboured the heavens, teaming with life and unknown wonders ,it just took my breath away. A few moments have passed then I gasped out and took a deep breath wishing we could enjoy this view a little bit longer.

I was so immersed at the scenery in front of us that i didn't realize Dan pulled out something out of his jacket.

"Jer im sorry" he said.

I looked at him and saw he was pointing a gun at me.

"Dan what the **** are you doing?!" I shouted.

"I don't know anymore Jer"

loading the gun with his thumb and putting his index finger at the trigger.

"But Dan the neurolink!, shooting me might also kill everyone that is also conne--"

Bang!

I heard a loud bang then everything just went dark. I opened eyes but all I see is darkness. It's like that same dream again but this time I could feel my own blood gushing out of my wound.

"Ugh! Why is it so dark in here?" I told myself while trying to cover the wound where the blood was flowing out of my body.

I was slowly drifting towards unconsciousness, memories and pictures once again started flashing in my mind. Of all the images that I saw one of them stood out from the rest, it was a picture of a girl and she seemed very familiar.

"She looks so pretty." I said while touching the cheek of the girl in the picture staining it with the blood that was dripping on my fingertips.

Memories of me and that girl began to flood in my mind, just me and her, her face was still blurry but I was able to get an idea who I think she was and the way she dressed and the figure of her body.

"I...is is thi-?, no its not her... its a different girl ?" I asked myself while coughing up blood. Her blurry face started to become clearer and clearer by the second until I was woken up by a shout.

Dan cried out while on extreme agony, clenching his chest nearly vomiting. Tears were falling down his eyes as if like he was shot in the heart with a shotgun or something.

His screams immediately woke me up, pulling  me out if my dreams. I was pretty upset by that, I could almost see her face, I was so close, but more importantly dan is having some weird shit going on him right now.

"Dan, tell me what's wrong!" I asked him while trying to asses what's causing his tantrum. I calmed him down a little bit and helped ease his pain and get him back to a more stable state so I can ask him properly.

"Why, Dan, what happened?" I asked.

"Well, right after bringing Khaila to our room I went here to see you because you said you wanted to talk about something but you were asleep when I got here so I sat in the seat in front of you and waited for you to wake up." He said.

"The view outside was stunning so I also got carried away and forgot to wake you up, but out of nowhere my heart just started ached so fucking bad.

It felt like it was being mangled by sharp teeth and was about to be pulled out of my body." He added.

"It was so unbearable that all I could do was shout in agony," he said while still clenching his chest.

I never thought pain in dreams could also be transmitted to the people who are connected.

"But, Jer, I noticed right after you wake up you had puffy eyes." He told me.

"Ohh, it was probably just a bad dream."

I replied.

But, what if the pain you experience in your dreams can also be transmitted. What if dreams where people dying on it also had an effect on our physicals selves. What if that pain I experienced wasn't even caused by the dream, what if it was caused by something else. All the questions I asked myself all piling up.

"Jer, is everything okay?" Dan asked.

"Y-yes, Dan, everything is." I replied.

"But, Jer, you've acted strange for quite some time now, are you sure you're really oka-"

"Attention all passengers, I repeat attention all passengers, a woman from room 131 has collapsed from unknown reasons and the emergency team is on the way. Please remain seated to prevent future panic.

This is Glynis, your train captain requesting everybody to please remain seated."

"Khaila!" shouted Dan.

"Shit! Let's go back! , she might be in big trouble!" I shouted while desperately trying to open the station door. We were running through people, tables and luggage. We were running as fast as we could.

"****, why did this happen? Of all the fucking people around here, why her!?" I screamed in my mind, trying to open the final door to our room.

"The keys, Dan, where is it?!" I shout while searching through all the pockets of my clothes.

"I have it here calm down!" He said while unlocking the door.

The paramedics were still nowhere to be found so we had to barge our way through.

We opened the door and see Khaila there lying unconscious on the floor. She's pale and her lips are almost dried up.

"Khaila! " Dan screamed as he rushed towards her.

"Calm down, Dan!" I shouted while waiting for the paramedics outside of the door.

He checked her pulse then the room just went silent. Even the sound of the metal screeching against each other filtered out.

"The two of you get out of the way, I'll handle this." Said someone from behind while pushing the two us out of the way. Her short hair and slim figure seems familiar, it was like I met her before.

"Thats was painful" she added.

"E...Excuse me, Miss, but who are you?" I asked while still fixated at her eyes.

"Be quiet, I cant talk with you right now, just look at your wallet, I'm the girl in the picture you've kept hidden for this past few years, that'll answer your question. " she replied while checking khaila's vitals.

"Shes stable" she mumbles to herself.

What do you mean?, I dint remember having pictures of some-wait...

I immediately took out my wallet and opened a hidden compartment and there it was.



The picture I've kept hidden for all this years. I forgit I still had it after all this years. I still remember the exact date I took that photo.

It was a cold evening of December and we decided to go out with my friends.

It was all going well until it started to pour really hard and all our navigational instruments just started malfunctioning one by one. Google maps weren't loadig at all and our compasses pointed at different directions.

We were driving for hours, almost clueless of where we were, only following an empty asphalt road for miles until we finally found a town in the middle of nowhere.

I didn't really feel easy with that town, it didn't even have a name on it. The map didn't even make sense and our compass just weren't working properly.

It was an eerie town but it was too good to be passed. The heavy rain finally stopped so they all decided to go out of our cars and explore the town except for one person, Glynis. She stayed with me in the car waiting for everybody to leave, and when everybody was gone she went outside to the hood of the car and asked me.

"Hey Jer, there is this man like figure over there who have been following us throughout our trip." She told me while wiping off the water droplets left on the hood with her fingers.

It's somewhere on that building just standing, it looks like it's staring at us.

I immediately took a photo so I could have a closer it and see if I could find out who that was.

I try to puzzle back the memories I've kept hidden for years, the more I look into the picture the more I remember, but there was this one scene which is still fresh in my mind, it was our conversation after she told me about the figure.

"But Jer, remember when we camped last night?she asked.

"I saw you talking to something under a bridge far away from the camp. You thought everybody was busy exploring the area so you got out and went into the woods so l followed you" .

"I didn't really get what you were talking about but I can see that you two had an exchange of thought"

" She told me in a worried tone.

"What?!" I replied.

"I don't remember going out of  and talking to some random stranger yesterday!" I replied.

"But Jer, I'm sure that was you, what were you doing? " she asked.

That was the last conversation I can remember between the two if us before everything just started to go wrong

The final frame of my memory was hearing some of my friends screaming then it all just went black after that. Nothing, even the names or faces, Im not sure why I could remember almost everything about Glynis, as if my memory was.... selectively altered.

Those were the memories that kept coming back to me everytime I look at that picture so I've kept it ever since.

There's always this  hidden memory of someone flashing inside my mind. That's why I'm trying to gather all of us again so I can answer my questions.

So this is you in the picture. Why were you gone? Why did you change? What happened to you. Those were the questions tried to ask her but I was so baffled that she was right there in font of me, Glynis.

Why only her.

Finally the paramedics arrive and they carried Khaila to the train infirmary in a stretcher where they gave her everything she needed.

Dan and I both went back to our room still both baffled about what just happened.

"I still cant believe she's involved" Dan told me while holding on to the cup of coffee he just made. His hands were all so slightly shaking.

I was listening to him but I didn't say anything because I was so drowned in the thought that Glynis knew about that photo.

She took Khaila along with the paramedics all so quickly so l wasn't really able to talk to her properly.

I stood up and went to the kitchen lounge to make myself a cup of coffee.

I told Dan as I open the door.

He nodded.

I was still thinking about that picture that

hidden in my wallet for so long.

And finally after everything, I was finally alone in a room.

I can hear the metal joints of the room rubbing on to each other whenever a minor bump was on the rail. It was so quiet that I could hear gusts of wind entering the room trough cracks and openings, they sound like they were trying to whisper something.

I can hear the coffee beans grinding as they let out a soothing aroma that filled the room.

The sun was almost going down, it's like it was preparing itself to hide among the mountains once again. I look out at the window, it's already sundown.

I was about to pour hot water in my mug but my finger slips and it slid off the table, falling to the hard floor shattering into a million sharp pieces, I wasn't able to do anything but watch as the shards scatter everywhere.

"****..."

"So you want to hide among the mountains again, after everything that happened?" said a girl sitting right next to the window

"You never learn do you?" She added.

The golden rays of the sunset struck her hair perfectly, giving it an ambient glow of golden brown like color. Her eyes are so fixated at the view from the outside. Her face is so blank yet it's filled with emotion and memories she wished she never had. She was just staring at the horizon outside of the window.

"G....glynis, how long have you been sitting there?" I asked as my eyes widened. I was breathing deeper and deeper, I cant get my eyes off her.

"Seven years? Haha" she jokingly replies.

I got back to my senses and realize what just happened. "Shit the glass" I knee down to pick up the shards of glass that was scattered throughout the room.

I was about to pick up the biggest shard of glass I could see, the rays of the sun beamed through the sharp tip of it. The tip reflected a blinding ray of light into my eyes obstructing my vision but i still continue to extend my hand towards the broken shard.

"Stop don't touch it , you might hurt yourself, you might hurt us...again.

She stands up from where she was sitting and slowly walked towards me. Her eyes locks at mine. I was just standing there not knowing what to do or what to say.

I'm about to push her away but she kneels down to pick up the broken piece of glass in the ground.

"You know what would happen if I use this to cut my arm?" She asked.

"W-what" I asked.

"Look" She then started to gently slide the edge of the glass into her skin. A thick line of blood started to drip out of her arm then she looked at me right in the eye.

"I know you felt it too"

"H-hold on!, what the?!" I drown in confusion as my arm felt a sting.

"Because I'm also connected Jer."

My mouth remained agape until tears began to flood Glynis's eyes at my continued silence. The evening sky alighting her tearful eyes.

"You had no fuckig idea did you?" She asked as even more tears flowed out.

She was hitting me, she's so angry at me, but thers nothing I can do about that. The blood from her wrist stained my clothes as they dripp out from her wound.

I also felt the pain in my wrist but seeing glynis cry in anger was enough to cover up the pain.

"After seven years, seven fucking agonizing years."

I didn't let her finish her sentence before hugging her, I know that was a **** move but that was all I could do to calm her down.

As I was hugging her I felt her rigid body instantly relaxed in relief. Moments have passed and she wiped of the tears on her face.

"I'm sorry this had to happen Jer" she replied as I cover up her wound with bandages.

"It's not your fault" I respond.

Her radiant smile appearing once more, then she said something that I will never forget.

"Then make me a promise"

What she asked was something I've never imagine.

"I felt that pain in your chest too Jer, but that's my only request " she told me.

I'm sure she felt all the pain in my chesr when she said it but I have to do it for her and for everybody.

I take my sight away from her to look at the beautiful scenery outside of the window. The sun was already gone and darkness began to spread all the way to the mountains in the distant.

Before the final specks of light disappear I clench my fist and look back at her.

"I promise"

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