The Arise, Part I: Chapter 4
“He’ll be alright,” Jashui says for the hundredth time.
Cillin still can’t take his mind off is father as he and Jashui walk down the path to his home. Jashui knows Cillin was released at the age of six, he also knows that Kentae is Cillin’s father and is hiding out in the cave. Other than Jashui and Kentae, Cillin has no one to talk to or trust. He told a boy named Rayse of his secret years ago, but they weren’t friends anymore, everyday Cillin wonders if Rayse spoiled his secret.
“Cillin, will you talk to me, you haven’t said a word since lunch. I mean you don’t usually say much anyway but…” He doesn’t finish the sentence, Cillin doesn’t even crack a smile at his joke either.
“That cave has been here for decades, maybe even centuries.”
“Which means that it is strong”
“Or it means that it is about to crumble!” Cillin snaps. Jashui looks away, Cillin doesn’t, he doesn’t apologize either.
Jashui turns to see a tear roll down Cillin’s cheek, Cillin rarely cries but when he does, it means things are serious.
“Hey,” Jashui says grabbing his shoulders, “It will be fine.”
“You weren’t there last night,” Cillin says as he wipes the tear off his face.
They continue walking in silence, refusing to look at each other. Again, Cillin has no one to talk to. He feels like he has no one who can ever understand.
When they reach the cave, Cillin isn’t sure whether to bring Jashui with him. He doesn’t know what to expect, if it is fallen in, he will break down, in front of Jashui.
What will he think, Cillin worries, I am supposed to save the cove, I can’t be defeated by this.
“You ready?” Jashui asks, urging him forward.
Cillin realizes he stopped walking. He isn’t sure he can walk any farther. Just a couple turns into the cave, and he will know, he will feel. He can’t delay this moment forever, but he wants to, he needs to, he can’t go in that cave. That cave holds his life. If it caved in, he doesn’t know what he’ll do. He wonders if there will be anything he can do.
Jashui pulls him in anyway. Cillin can’t hear anything but their shallow breaths. No faint creaking of his father’s rocking chair. No soft footsteps. No voices. Nothing. Every step down the path just makes the dread heavier.
Cillin stops, his eyes wide. He loses his voice and sucks his breath into a gasp that will last forever. The cave is gone, rocks fill the archway, leaving no gaps, letting no light shine through. He has no idea if Kentae got out, or if it was only the archway that collapsed. The roof of the cave could’ve crushed his father, and he wouldn’t know.
Tears fill his eyes as he drops to his knees. Everything he has ever known is gone: his home, his mission and his father. He has nowhere to go. He has no one. He feels Jashui’s hand on his shoulder, but the cave around them is blurry from his tears. They fall to the dusty cave floor, dampening the ground. The world fades into sadness. Cillin forgets about everything else. All he can think about is what he lost in that cave. Could his father have made it out? Why had his father stayed in the cave?
Then Cillin remembers the crack above his bed. If his father is still in the cave, that is how he will know. But does he want to know?
Immediately, he gets up and brushes the tears from his eyes. His cheeks are still puffy and red, but he doesn’t care. He must help his father. Or at least he has to try.
“Cillin where are you going?”
Cillin had forgotten about Jashui, but he is glad Jashui is here. It will make things less suspicious. He also might need him, depending on what he finds. If he finds anything at all.
“I— I’m going to find out if…” Cillin can hear the sadness in his voice. So can Jashui.
Cillin says nothing more and leaves the cave. Jashui follows him. They walk in silence again; tears well up in Cillin’s eyes, but this time he can keep them down. He can’t focus on that right now.
After what feels like days, they finally reach the crack in the wall. They have traveled off the path; the crack is hidden by a group of trees for more safety. It is too dark in the cave to see anything; Kentae made sure of that. Cillin wishes he could see inside.
“How is this going to help us find anything?” Jashui asks.
Cillin doesn’t respond. He can’t. Instead, he goes to the crack and tries to look through even though he knows it is hopeless. He is about to risk knocking down the cave to make it bigger, but something in the bushes under the crack catches his eye. It is white and tangled in the branches. When Cillin pulls it out, it feels like paper. It’s a note, from Kentae!
Cillin’s hands shake as he slowly and carefully unfolds the paper. It could be amazing news, or it could be his father’s last words.
Son,
I am confident that you can find this note. I know the cave looks bad from the outside, but I guarantee you that I am fine and that most of the cave is stable. Only the archway collapsed.
I know that you are concerned about me, but there are more important things. You and I both know she will be released soon, but we need to change the original plans. Don’t tell her anything until I can be there with you. I know this complicates things a lot, but we have no other choice, it might even make things better with her.
You can’t stay in this cave until I can clear the archway and support it more. I can’t put you with a mentor either; it is too risky for all of us. You can stay in the Old Office building, but I will have to put her with a mentor—just this once.
As for food and resources, you can access the shipment building if you need to, but I wouldn’t advise it. It will be hard, but for now you will have to eat the food the school provides but nothing else. The Old Offices have some Wilder food as well; it lasts for years. I cannot do much more for you, I hope with all your training you can figure this out. Do not continue anything for the mission. Just worry about yourself for now.
I am sorry things had to turn out this way, but this is just a minor setback. Be grateful it was not more than this. We can persevere; we can’t stop because of a few earthquakes.
Keep going,
Your father
Cillin put down the note, not sure whether to cry, laugh, yell or do them all. How can his father act like the cave-in is just a small problem? It could change everything.
At least Cillin knows her name, so that he can know when she is released. Malaysia.
✾
Malaysia looks at her phone to find that she has no notifications. She has been debating whether or not to text Anika.
Are we really friends, or am I just desperate? Malaysia wonders.
She sets down her phone and sighs, sinking into her mattress. How will she ever call this home? It is so different.
A knock on the door startles Malaysia. She gets off her bed and opens the door to find her mom home from her new job. She is smiling so all of Malaysia’s hopes of moving back home are gone.
“Hey, get your stuff ready. We were invited to dinner by a family at my work—they have a girl your age. We are leaving in an hour,” she says.
Maybe it will be Anika’s family. Or maybe Malaysia is already missing Averie. It could be a new family with a girl her age. It does seem a little easy to make friends here.
Malaysia realizes that she is still in pajamas. Another thing to worry about: what to wear. She starts digging through her suitcases and doesn’t find much that she feels too confident in.
It takes her almost forty-five minutes before she finds something. It is a light green shirt with lace lining the bottom and jeans: not really her style, but it was worth a try. She could change her style now. In fact, she could change everything about herself if she wanted to; nobody here knows her too well. Once she puts it on, she grabs her phone and puts it in her back pocket. She stops herself from grabbing her slate gray jacket.
When her mom comes back, Malaysia’s room has clothes all over the floor. Her hoodie is thrown across the ground, and the bed sheets are messy. At least they aren’t coming to her house.
The drive is short, around ten minutes. But it feels like forever, Malaysia has never been more nervous. It isn’t that big of a deal. Then again, she hasn’t ever gone this long without talking to Averie. And she doesn’t have any other friends.
The house is huge. Malaysia counts three floors, and she can also tell the house has a basement. It is painted light blue and has a big backyard. Surrounding the house is a wooden fence lined with bushes all perfectly trimmed. It is so different from Malysia’s new apartment. She already misses having a backyard.
They are greeted at the door by a cheery woman. She has long brown hair and welcoming hazel eyes. She is wearing long pants and a yellow shirt that smells of chicken.
“Tiana! I thought that was you!” She exclaims.
“Sorry that we are early Grace, I hope it is not a problem,” Malaysia’s mom replies.
“No no, it’s fine come in!” Grace ushers them inside.
They follow her inside, and she leads them to the living room. Malaysia sits on a sage green armchair by the fireplace. It seems so weird in this new town. Everyone she has met so far is so welcoming and kind. Most of the new kids at Malaysia’s old school sit alone for a couple weeks before they even talk to anyone.
Malaysia sees a girl on the white couch across from her on her phone. Malaysia hadn’t noticed her before. She looks to be about twelve or thirteen. She was wearing sweatpants and a white hoodie. Definitely not Anika.
“Nia why don’t you show Malaysia your room instead of staring at your phone,” the woman called Grace says.
“Malaysia, what kind of name is that?” Malayia hears Nia mumble.
Malaysia’s mother nudges her in the shoulder. Malaysia is practically pushed upstairs with Nia. Nia isn’t too happy either.
Nia leads Malaysia up to the top floor of the house. The entire floor is her room. It isn’t that big of a space, but it is bigger than anything Malaysia has ever had. There is a queen-sized bed tucked in the corner, a nightstand on one side of the bed, and a half-empty bookshelf on the other side. On the other side of the room there is a TV with three beanbags in front of it. There is a giant carpet and a basket chair in the middle of the room, and a dresser pressed up against the wall. There is a black wardrobe beside the dresser. In the back of the room, there is a glass door that leads to a small balcony.What Malaysia can’t believe is that there is a bathroom in the room. Malaysia would love to have her own bathroom.
“Pretty nice isn’t it,” Nia says.
“Uh, yea,” Malysia replies. She doesn’t know what else to say. It is pretty awkward standing in some random girl’s room.
“You can sit anywhere except the bed,” Nia says as she plops onto the bed and pulls out her phone.
Malaysia sits on the basket chair. She wonders whether she should try and talk with Nia or not. She doesn’t look very interested.
“So how long have you been living here?” Malaysia asks hesitantly.
“Whole life,” Nia says. Eyes still on her phone.
Malaysia gives up and pulls out her own phone. Still no texts. From Averie or Anika. It was hopeless.
Malaysia heard her parents laughing from downstairs. They were having so much more fun than she is. Malaysia hopes that at school everybody won’t be like this.
A few minutes later Malaysia and Nia are called back down for dinner. They go back downstairs and go to the back of the house past the living room. There is a big table in the middle of the room, with red wooden chairs around it. Malaysia sits next to her dad on the far end of the table away from Nia.
Grace talks with Malysia’s parents most of the time. Malaysia just picks around with her potatoes. It isn’t that they are bad, she just felt weird here. Something is off. Then the fork glitches…and falls right through her hand.
Malaysia wakes from her trance. She thought she was imagining all the glitching, but she definitely didn’t just imagine that fork going through her hand. She asks to go to the bathroom and Grace shows her down the hall.
She shuts the door and locks it. She just stares at herself in the mirror. What is going on? Surely, she isn’t this worried. She can’t be hallucinating. It all started with that crack in the road. When Malaysia thinks back to that moment, she realizes the crack wasn’t just absorbing the city, it was replacing it with something else. It looked like the room from her dream three nights ago.
A tear streaks down her cheek. She isn’t sad, she is terrified. This is her life now. She realizes that things will never be the same again, ever. No matter how long she waits, no matter how bad this gets, no matter how good she is. She can’t have the life she yearns for.
This is a nightmare.
