Chapter 28

“What now…” Silva repeated. She was sure that her friends too had difficulties in recalling and describing what they had faced.

“We… We got what we wanted...” Mika meandered off.

"But, what did we agree with? And what was that place? Who were 'they'? And why can't I feel… Why can't I feel what I should be feeling?" Silva found it hard to stop. "I know I should be scared, but how come there is nothing? I don't even worry about it! I can't start worrying that I don't worry!"

There was more she wanted to say, but looking at her friend downcast faces, she finally ran out of steam.

After they had sat in silence for a few more minutes, Steven broke the silence.

"I am sorry… I don't know how I can make it up to you two, but…"

This was not what Silva had wanted to hear.

"It's fine." She bluntly accepted the apology and received a disapproving look from Mika.

"Why don't we go through everything, step by step. Starting with yesterday… Steven if you would." Mika signalled Silva to listen.

What Silva heard was disturbing. She did not blame Steven, but knowing what he had done… It was a sobering thought.

Death had never been a close thing for her. She did not have grandparents, or at least not ones she knew anything about. Nor had she gone trough any tragedies that involved death. She had lost her mother, but she knew that she still was out there somewhere.

But Steven… He would have to live with it. There was also a possibility of those people looking for revenge. If they were lucky, the other party would blame Refugees, but...

Then Steven kept talking. His experience in the otherness they had been pulled in was the same as hers down to every detail. And he too experienced the lack of proper response to such a traumatic event. What should be a traumatic event.

Mika also chimed in with the same conclusion. Her story mirrored Steven’s and when Silva told hers it was the same with her.

"In the end, it's like we ended up kidnapped by aliens." Steven face twisted in displeasure. "We have the story but no proof and nothing we can do, but wildly speculate."

"Do you think they were aliens?" Silva asked repulsed by the thought alone. Magic she could stomach somewhat, the supernatural was okay, even mutants or science experiments gone wrong, but aliens? That was where she drew the line.

"Of course not." Mika dismissed and ignored Steven's grumbles that followed. "So returning to the main question. What now?" There was silence. "Okay, let's start small. What do we do today?"

"I… I'll go to classes. My father is already at work and if I am lucky he won't even notice that I was gone. I won't tell him if he does not ask… And after school. There… Is much to think about." Silva revealed.

"I am ditching. I am gonna call Ben and see what happened next. We have to sort out our stories. His father will want to talk with me too. It's gonna take most of the day. I hope I'll have time to meet my siblings." Steven had his day laid down for him.

Now it was Mika's turn to speak. Silva's friend looked confused by the events that had unfolded.

"I am not sure. I wanted us to be more low-key, but now… No, that should still be our best option. I'll go to classes as well. But after school, maybe we should meet up?" The distress was palpable in Mika's voice.

This meant that Mika wanted to meet Silva specifically. Steven already had his plans. She would be lying if she said that she did not want a company after school, but...

Would Mika's presence be the best option here? Silva still had a mountain of feeling to shift trough. Most of those feelings touched upon her friend.

Now with even more pilled up, Silva wanted an alone time to try and sort some of those complicated emotions.

What's more, it had been Mika's responsibility of getting Steven back in shape. They had succeeded, but also almost lost their friend.

Silva knew that he was Mika's best friend. And after almost losing him... She probably did not want to be left alone.

It also meant that there really wasn't a choice.

"I'll message you when I am done with school, we can meet up then." Silva finally gave up on finding a proper solution. Her emotions could wait. "But what about tomorrow? Or the day after?"

Again there was a silence at the table. Silva had not forgotten that they all were barely adults. Technically she wasn't even that, even she liked to think otherwise. There was still more than half a year until she turned eighteen.

At their age, they should be worrying about school and silly romances. About after school activities. What to do after they had finished school. About whether they should aim for a high school or start working.

Instead, they were talking about their lives literally. They had to worry about their own survival in a very real sense. And Steven had taken… No, they still did not know if those men had died, not to mention the problems with his family...

Mika had her own demons and what about her?

A girl that only now was starting to think about romance, a girl that only a couple of months ago had no friends. No real talents. And now she and her friends had taken upon them a pact with an unknown entity for an unknown price.

At one point Silva heard Mika murmur under her breath.

“Tomorrow and day after... We will worry about one thing at a time. We will do it step by step.”

Silva sighed. This night promised itself to be another sleepless one.

---

The rest of the day went past quickly. Silva had met up with Mika, but neither of them had the energy to start anything substantial. They had sat in a cafe for a couple hours doing nothing.

After that, they had found another bathrobe for her father, to replace the ruined one. It even looked the same.

But none of the serious topics had come up. In a way, it was nice to just chat about nothing, but it had felt superficial as their real emotions were in turmoil, just under the facade they had kept.

Now Silva was preparing herself for the night. She had feared the day but by the end of it, she had realized that it had gone past with frightening speed.

The silver lining was that Silva's father had not noticed her absence in the morning. He was only a little confused by the new bathrobe, but Silva had managed to give a jumbled explanation of her friend needing one. He had given up by then and let it slide by him.

Overlooking her room, Silva finally felt at peace. It was a small one, but it gave her solace. Her bed was still a mess, left there when she had hurried to leave. She had not bothered to fix it when she had returned home.

Now Silva had the time to reflect on her own actions, but she found it hard to judge them.

It had been only a day. She had not magically gotten smarter or wiser. Mika was right about taking it step by step. One day had gone past and tomorrow will follow.

So what problems she could try to solve tomorrow? One thing she could do was to practice with her ability. She also had skipped her jog today, so tomorrow she had to do that. At least it was a weekend and she would not have to rise too early. It was guaranteed that she won't sleep well.

Could she do anything about the deals they had made? Not as far as she could tell. Those will have to wait until they can see the consequences.

That left the confusing feelings she felt for Mika. The next ten minutes were spent by her trying to organize what she knew for sure and what she had to think about.

It turned out that the only thing Silva knew for sure was that they were friends. The rest was her speculations and inner uncertainties.

Silva figured that she would not be able to figure out if any of her speculations had any truth to them. So what about her uncertainties?

Did she want to get close to Mika? The answer was yes, but did it mean dating?

For a moment Silva fantasized about it. Truthfully it seemed nice. But it also did not mean that she wanted to do it. It was already hard to juggle the things in her life that was already there.

If Mika asked her out, if she confessed, then would she agree?

One thing was for certain, it would be hard for Silva to turn Mika down. And if she had so much trouble of figuring it out wasn't it easier just to go for it?

It felt like she was running in circles, so Silva stopped her train of thoughts to try and calm herself down with practising her ability.

There had not been any time to do that today, but, as Silva had foreseen, she would not be able to sleep. She would be able to experiment plenty in that time.

At least the exploration of her inner world had been going well. It was the only thing that Silva had been able to move advance. Or what she thought was advancing.

Silva's determination filled practice had been rewarded. She had started to catch some glittering particles dancing around her inner streams before those joined the streams. So today she wanted to try and catch a glimpse of the source of those particles.

As Silva immersed herself in the inner world what awaited her was the usual sight. Her inner world was just as beautiful as usual. Looking at it soothed her stormy mind and she let herself flow along the streams. Everything that did not belong here was left out.

The observation of the new particles was going smoothly. And there was an unexpected amount of them. Silva had observed a minuscule amount just yesterday, but today there was a cloud of them. And there was one more thing that she had noticed. There was a source of those particles.

Of course, Silva knew that there was a source. It was a logical conclusion, but now she felt that she could trace it. That she could find it.

The process of how to achieve it came almost instinctively to Silva. She sought for the paths that these particles took and searched for the start of these paths.

Soon Silva found herself at the limit of how far she could stray away from her inner streams.

Silva

could not go any further without exiting her world. And for that reason, she did exactly that.

Slowly Silva opened her eyes. The particular miraculous particles path she had followed had led her outside world, just as she had expected.

To clear the blurriness out of her eyes Silva blinked furiously. When the sight cleared up, she saw what she had been looking for.

The small particles were everywhere. These particles were so small it was impossible to see them, or that should have been the case.

With fascination, Silva observed the particles. It did not matter where she turned her head to, these particles were everywhere. They passed through walls, through objects in her room, but not through her.

When these particles landed on her body they seeped into it. Slowly Silva was absorbing them even with no conscious effort from her.

The source of her ability, the source of her power. Silva had found it and it was as strange as she had thought it would be. She kept looking around. The world still looked the same aside from the new addition.

There were no impediments to her vision. The new part of the world did not impede her in any way.

Soon Silva's eyes started to hurt and she had to shut them. Small teardrops rolled over her cheeks as she tried to blink out the strain she was experiencing. When she opened them again the newly discovered part of the world was gone.

Silva hurried tried to find those small dust like stars again but had no luck. Thinking back on the steps she had taken to do it for the first time she had realized that she needed to repeat them.

Back in her inner world, Silva replicated the process that she had gone through before and then something occurred to her. She did finish the attempt and once again saw the world, coloured by the energy, but the thought did not leave her.

"It was too easy…" Silva muttered. She was happy, of course, she was. She was closer to mastering her strongest point, but the ease she had done it with did not sit well with her.

It had happened as if Silva had known what exactly she had to do. Instinctively… Yes, that was how she had thought of it before. It was just like that, just like she had already threaded the path before. She only had to repeat her steps.

The actions had been hers, but the touch of the otherness was still there, somewhere. The guidance of… Something. The feeling of similarity to the morning encounter returned to Silva.

The difference was, back in the green-screen world, Silva had not controlled herself but was moved by an outside influence.

Again Silva experienced the same dullness she had felt before. Like before, in the morning, when she had tried to feel fear and panic.

These emotions did not come to Silva. It was like she could not fear the presence that had influenced her. It proved her suspicions. She could not fear that entity.

That entity affected Silva much deeper than she had realized. Deeper than she could realize.

There was a conviction inside Silva. The conviction that she will be guided and taught. This presence wished for her to be doing well.

Silva knew it to be true and it occurred to her. They had agreed… They had agreed to receive the guidance of this mysterious presence…

The search for her phone was frantic. Silva wanted to tell her friends as soon as possible. She checked the time, and while it was late, already past 1 am, she still sent newly made realizations.

If it was true, then Silva's friend's too will find it easy to progress. Mika already had taken the first step and Steven would be able to do the same.

This entity was willing to help them. These deals had given already given them something They had helped them to find a teacher.