NOTES:
Ictha meets Sofie! She could’ve waited 2 hours longer though…
Whoever it was that left kudos for chapter 1, thank you! I know it was only one person but it made me want to keep writing it. Theres a ton of back and forth dialog in this chapter btw.
This chapter is in Sofie’s POV
It's so loud. Why does everyone yell when the teacher is gone? I feel like my head is spinning. The teacher is back. Silent. Everyone can see her face. She looks horrified. The intercom is on.
“Everyone, go into lockdown. There is an intruder. Stay away from a tall female with straight, black hair and bangs. Her outfit is all black and white.” The intercom glitches out.
The teacher whisper-yells, “Anyone quick, help barricade the door! Everyone who isn’t helping, grab an object. Preferably heavy!” She starts to help barricade the door herself.
I hear the intercom again. “Everyone in the 12th grade wing, evacuate immediately!” I stand up quickly. That’s me. I’m in the 12th grade wing. “The intruder…” Just like the look on my teacher’s face, I can tell that the person on the intercom is horrified. “She has… one eye. Abnormally. Only one socket, only one eye. Right in the middle!” I quickly grab my phone and one of our provided textbooks.
[Goblin <3]
[ME]: Larra!
[ME]: are you okay?!
[ME]: please tell me youre okay!
[Larra]: I’m okay
[Larra]: I got out
[Larra]: I think the intruder has a target because my class and others evacuated through the door once she got far from our door
[Larra]: she completely ignored us
[ME]: …
[ME]: do you know who the target could’ve been??
[Larra]: no clue
[Larra]: she was just walking through the hallway and peeking into the class windows
[Larra]: its obvious she was looking for someone
[ME]: when you saw her last, what classroom was she at??
[ME]: was she past mine?
[Larra]: I dont know what class she was at last but it didnt look like she was past yours yet
[Larra]: I love you
[Larra]: please get out safely
[ME]: I love you too
[ME]: I love you so much
[ME]: Im sorry ahead of time
[ME]: just in case…
[Larra]: don’t say that
[Larra]: you will be okay
[Larra]: just don’t let her see you and even if she does, you are strong
[ME]: no I’m not
[Larra]: yes you are
[ME]: I have to go
[ME]: I love you
[Larra]: I love you too
[ME]: I’m sorry
I jump at the sound of the doorknob being messed with. I see a singular eye in the window. It’s staring directly at me. I feel frozen in place.
“Sofie…! Get down!” Someone below me tugs on my sleeve, getting my attention. I look around to see that most people are hiding. Some of them are standing, but they are out of sight. I quickly crouch down. At the back of most of the classrooms, where I am, there’s long tables attached to the wall. I crawl underneath it next to the kid who told me to get down. He was sorta a friend, but we only really talked during class.
I whisper to him, “I’m scared…” I shut my eyes tight and cover my ears. “We locked eye contact. What if she comes in here?!” I accidentally raise my voice a bit too much and the boy covers my mouth with his hand. Normally I would get really mad when someone touched my face, but this time it was important.
CRASH! I see the tables and chairs that were previously barricading the door fall. I flinch and shriek from the loud noise. I shuffle further back into the corner and grab my phone, ready to text my sibling again.
[Goblin <3]
[ME]: I’m sorry
…
[ME]: she’s in here
[ME]: I’m sorry
[ME]: I love you
I don’t even bother looking for a response. The little window on the door is broken. That’s how she pushed the barricade down, I’m assuming.
The door opens. She’s a lot taller than I imagined. “Where is she?” My heart skips a beat. “All this panic. I just wanna see her.” Who’s ‘her’? The intruder walks in a couple of feet, and immediately, people start throwing things at her. Books, pencils, water bottles, folders, notebooks, just anything they could find. She gets knocked down. “Agh! What do you people not understand?! There’s just someone I’m looking for!” She stands up and looks around. “Before I came in, I saw her in here. Her name is Sofie. Just let me have her. I will leave everyone else be.”
One of my bullies starts yelling. “She’s over there!” He points to me. “Take her and spare us!”
I feel my heart drop. “NO!” I look to the boy next to me, signaling through my eyes to move, and he does. I crawl under the table past him so that I can get to a better area to run away. I whisper to myself. “No… please…! I don’t wanna die…”
“She’s moving! Over here!” My bully points to me again and I decide to crawl out from under the table and stand up to escape while I can. My legs won’t budge. Why did I even stand up if I can’t run away?!
I see the intruder’s face and feel a terrible feeling in my stomach. Her eye… it wasn’t a lie. She smiles slightly. “There you are…” She sounds different than before. Calm. Kind. But she obviously isn’t. “I missed you…” There’s an eeriness to her tone. She sounds kind, but that’s the scary part. She starts to walk over to me, and I stay frozen. I’ll die for sure.
“I’m glad you came out…” When she gets close enough to me, she grabs my wrists and pulls me. “Let’s have a little chat.” She drags me behind her and out into the hallway.
“What are you doing?! Who are you?!” We make it into the hallway.
She looks at me with surprise. “You don’t recognize me?” That initial shock changes to a frown. “I guess you wouldn’t. I changed so much in five years.” She crosses her arms and looks down at me.
“So…? Who are you?” I can almost feel an anxiety attack coming on. Everyone is evacuating and ignoring me. I’m being held here without my consent.
She sighs. “I can’t exactly say it.” She starts to pace a bit infront of me then randomly stops. “I don’t know my name. I also can’t hear or see it.” She walks back to me and bends over to get a good look at my face. “You changed a lot.”
It feels like I will explode right here and now. I don’t know if I’m scared or what. “Why do you want me, out of all people…”
She stands up straight. “Are you seriously that dumb? I obviously knew you. You must’ve forgotten about me. I thought so.”
“Fine. You don’t need to tell me your name. Can you at least tell me what we were to each other…?”
The girl stands there for a moment, just staring at me. It’s as if I can see gears turning in her head, just by the look she’s giving me. “Think back. 5 years ago. That… ‘incident’. Remember?”
I don’t get it immediately, having to process it before the shock. “Ithaca?! It’s you?!” I feel tears accumulate in my eyes and a lump in my throat.
She smiles wearily. “Hmph- I still can’t hear it...” She wipes my cheek. “Whatever my name is, yep, it’s me.”
I hit her hand away from my face. “YOU IDIOT! YOU DID ALL OF THIS JUST TO SEE ME?! EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?!” I feel the lump in my throat again and my speech stalls. I wipe my face. “You… you never came to see me!” My voice is squeaky.
I look up to see her face, plastered in guilt. She lowers her head, as if bowing to plead for forgiveness. “I know… and I’m sorry…” She grits her teeth. “-but I couldn’t find you!” Her head shoots back up. “You don’t know how hard it’s been for me! You got to live a human life with human people and human things! I got turned into this!” She points to her single eye. “I had to go through ruthless training every day for a year! I know that might not sound like a lot compared to the five years I was gone, but for the other four, I had to run away from the thing that took me.” She holds up her hand then sticks out her index finger and thumb. “I am THIS close to going insane.” She throws her hand down and breathes heavily from the ranting for a few seconds before running away to avoid her tears being seen.
The entire time, I was just standing there in shock. I could’ve handled it any other way. I try running after her. “Wait! Don’t go! I’m sorry…!” I start crying again. Just like I told Larra, I’m weak. Mentally and physically.
I get so caught up in my thoughts that I don’t see the wall about to hit me. More like I’ll hit the wall. I fall to the ground. I slowly stand up and rub my head. I hear heavy breathing, so I turn around to see who it is. Ithaca is leaning against the wall across the hallway. SHE is breathing heavily?
She looks up towards me and raises her eyebrows. “Why are you here…?” She stands up straight. “Your nose…” She slowly walks to me with her hand out as if I was a kitten outside and she was trying not to scare me. I attempt to back up but fail, hitting the wall. She stops walking to me. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for hurting you and running away. Can I please help you…? You’re bleeding.” I pull my hand to my face and feel the blood right above my lips. Utilizing the little bit of sympathy in me, I walk closer and guide my face to her hand, looking down. She carefully wipes under my nose, smiling with a hint of sadness. “I suppose I should go. The police will be here any minute.” She takes a step away then slowly walks away from me.
I quickly grab her sleeve. “I don’t want you to go!”
“I have to.” Her face is now expressionless as she looks back, like a mask to cover up her emotions.
I hug her from behind. “Then I’ll come with you!”
“No.”
“Why?!” I let go of her.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I won’t! I can protect myself!”
“Not with what you will have to deal with if you come with me.”
“Earlier, Larra was worried about me too. I handled this, and it was pretty scary, so what’s so wrong with being with you?!”
“‘Pretty scary’ is no definition for what I face every single day. I barely survive on my own, so having you as well will just be much worse.”
“So, I’m a burden…?” I take a step back.
“What?”
“I’m sorry…” I lower my head.
“No. You aren’t a burden.” She turns around. “I’d love for you to come with me, but you can’t.”
“There’s no one else that is really important to me other than Larra. You know I’m an orphan. I have no parents to go home to. I don’t even have a home in the first place!”
“I don’t want you to come with me because if you do, you are basically killing yourself. I had no choice. I had to do this. If you really want that, if you really want me over your life, then you can follow me. I will not let you come with me, so if you want to, you have to figure out a way to sneak on my ship or convince me. If you don’t do that then you stay here. On earth. Where I won’t be.”
I just now realize that she means she’s leaving earth. This whole time of trying to convince her and I didn’t even know what she was talking about. I’m an idiot. “I need to find Larra. When we get out, can you come with me? Please…?”
“Whatever. Fine. I need to leave soon though. I don’t know how long it takes for them to get here.”
I don’t know if she’s talking about the police or if it’s the alien things that took her. I rather not mention it. She probably doesn’t like talking about it, hence why she didn’t say their name or what they were.
We make it out of the building, the whole walk being silent. There’s almost no one in the school at this point and there’s just no one outside. Now we’re walking across the road. Earlier I called her by her real name. She couldn’t even hear it, so it doesn’t matter. I should’ve said her nickname.
“Ithaca.” Nothing. “Hello?”
“Sorry. Didn’t realize anyone was talking to me.” Knew it. We keep walking.
“Ictha.” No response. Her nickname doesn’t work either.
“What?” She stops for a second.
“Ictha…?” I start to fidget with my fingers.
“What does that mean?” I can tell she is nervous.
“I don’t think it’s really a word… it’s the nickname I gave you when we were little.”
She gasps. “Do you know how great that is?!” She hugs me tight, in the process, picking me up.
“WOAH-” I can’t get my arms around her because she bear hugged me. “Agh! You’re- welcome! I can’t breathe!” I start squirming.
“Ah- sorry… I forgot how strong I am…” She lets go of me, accidentally making me drop to my knees. I stand back up. “You have something to address me by. Now I’m not as stressed… Anyways, we should keep walking.”
“Maybe you should follow me this time. I’m bringing Larra with me, so we need to find her first.”
“You could text her.”
“Right!” I reach in my pocket for my phone and realize I left it under the table in the classroom. “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! THIS ISN’T GOOD!” I start running, expecting Ictha to follow.
“Where are you going?!”
“To the park! It’s our meet up place if one of us gets lost. It’s been like that since almost forever.”
We make it to the park, and I start searching for Larra. I find them hiding in a twisty tube slide. “OH MY GOD, YOUR’E OKAY!” I grab their wrists and pull them up and out of the slide. “I thought I lost you…” I hug them tight.
“You shouldn’t be talking! I was terrified, and you were the one who almost got caught by the intruder! On that topic, do you know if the police took her yet?”
I freeze. “Haha- um…” I exhale sharply. “So, I kinda brought her along? She is actually Ictha and you know me, I couldn’t leave her. She went through so much and she looked so sad. I missed her so much, I just wanted to be with her! It makes se-”
“Stop it.” They push my face away. “You said… SHE was Ictha?!”
“Uhh… yeah.”
“Okay, but you can’t go with her because of that. She invaded the school and now the police are after her.” They cross their arms.
“But wait- I have a really good solution for that!” I smile, unintentionally making it look mischievous.
“What? Running away with her in the woods? Digging a bunker? Hiding for the rest of your life with a criminal? I mean, I missed her too, but not that much.”
“…”
“What?”
“Have you ever been in a spaceship?”
NOTES:
Ictha: *breaks into school*
Sofie: “NO!”
Ictha: I know where you live.