Calypso knew that she was producing more cracks by practically ripping up the ground. She knew that there’s greater chances of her bleeding out before even getting to the doorknob. She figured that the thing is just as damaged as her, and just as slow. None of that was important anymore.

Though she did jump, as the door opened on its own.

Outstepped an echo of Calypso. A Calypso of the past, before any of this. An overly glum girl that walked like a zombie, as this oh-so-poor girl had her face practically in her morose novel of the week.

The one on the ground was amazed at how fast the echo walked past her, considering. But she was able to look at the echo’s face, somehow so detailed, like it was a moving picture.

Sullen eyes yet stiff face, as if there has to be constant decorum. Pout lips that hung with the put-upon stress conjured up, and cheeks positioned in such a way that it could catch and guide tears the moment they happen.

It was so debilitating, seeing it from the outside perspective. No wonder people were at a loss to help her. And no wonder the ones that want to, they ultimately gave up on her.

Those voices began to rattle within her mind.

You're so nice...!

C'mon, don't feel that way--!

You've got nothing to complain about.

With the grades you've got, and you don't care about school? Why are you wasting your potential, Ms. Grimes...? You're wasting it! You're wasting your life!

Calypso tried to lift herself back to life--

Who cares about... What was it--? "Being empt--?" Whatever. You're making the people around you feel bad. Knock it off.

You're just making yourself miserable.

Only to lose that energy to keep going again, falling limp.

And yet, something told her to look at her gem. With a struggling, black blood covered hand, Calypso made it face her.

A faint, pale color.

But. Despite how pathetically it shined, held out the smallest faintness of light.

Calypso Grimes from Riverside High has not only won for her school in this Oral Outreach program, but has won herself a hefty scholarship prize in the process! We the Judges of this presentation event recognize her wit, her almost Virginia Woolf-lite prose gripping us, and her seemingly boundless depth. I present her prize with honor, knowing that this was incredibly taxing for her, and to praise her further, because no one would've guessed that with the brilliant performance given. Her future is nothing but bright, and it's all because of you, Ms. Grimes!

Always in your own dangone head, Cal... Step outta it sometimes. I know I won't be around anymore, but remember to do that time to time. Love ya', cuz.

You're fucking gorgeous, Cally. Don't let nobody tell you different... Not even me, whenever I ruin it with being stupid. I wish... Y'know. But don't dwell on it. Just believe me, even if you can't see it. Just believe...

It was the first time Calypso had legitimate proof and confirmation. Finally. Finally, it all felt so real--Calypso couldn't help but smile. The energies that suddenly swelled from her chest to across her entire body wouldn't let not to.

She had to see this through. Or at least die knowing that she tried.

Like the worm she was, Calypso continued to slither—claw—drag herself towards the porch of her former home. Hoisting herself up with her arms with each step that felt like scaling Everest.

Making it over just in time, before the toll of losing a leg was imposed upon her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it sail into the darkening air, and pressed on. Managing to make it into the living room, this oh so familiar living room.

Glancing over, the echo of her mother sat in her usual spot, back then. The massive TV’s light beaming over her form to the point she was a mere shadow. Apt.

The monster tried to take the opportunity, only to crash right beside of the new mangled girl, when it desperately wanted to make the final blow. It was too spent. Too far gone at this point.

That gave time for Calypso to roll away, hitting the wall adjacent to their old stairwell for support. Once again, she scaled steps by slamming her palms on each one, over and over, groaning and shouting out in defeated determination—needing to do so as part of the process.

At some point, maybe it was at the beginning. But at some point, the monster feebly grabbed at Calypso’s arm and tore it off clean. Leaving her with the ruined hand that also had her soul in the palm.

She tried to keep screaming, but it whittled down into whimpering coughs. There was no strength anymore, just jerking motions that only resulted in causing her “body” up. Riddled with involuntary spasming, covered in too much blood that was supposed to be inside of her. But it was that neglected aspect of herself, that eluded her to near insanity, was the only thing left of her.

It was at this point where Calypso’s opened back failed her. It had torn itself to great, and caused the girl to buckle back down two steps. When she was nearing the very top.

As her cheek slammed against one of the steps, Calypso feebly opened her mouth to clamp down with her teeth. Whimpering as she kept herself hoisted, no matter what. The force of her bite making the step creak as she held on. All she could hear, other than her dwindling gargling, was that step slowly creak.

Blinding her to the sounds of the creeping behind her, until it was too late.

The following sensation was completely alien, yet familiar to the dying Calypso. Being pried open in a hurry, the feeling of muscle being tugged at opposite ends, before the feeling of force against her.

Screaming out to the point of it making her throat raw, at the awareness of being worn like a suit.

She tried writhing against the monster’s body. She tried letting go of the steps to fall down, only for her own mangled hand to betray her. The efforts didn’t matter anyways.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

A skeletal arm erupted from the stump of her arm, soon followed after a bony leg. Shuddering without her control, as a series of scythe heads began crawling out of her opened back.

With her own strength suddenly reignited, the monster’s arm reached up and clawed the side of Calypso’s face off, peeling it off as if it’s a shroud. Revealing the near-featureless black skull underneath.

Calypso could only whimper. Whimper at the unfairness, whimper at her weakness. Whimper at the fact that now she cannot see clearly—now with only one eye. Whimper at the various voices from her past were all that she could hear, not even her dwindling heartbeat anymore. That she couldn’t even ball up her own fist in pitiful frustration. That despite everything, she's going to die with the feeling of shame at being a terrible person--frustration yet destructive zeal with dealing with Alice... The guilt that it only took her now, to turn her life around.

But she couldn’t ignore that unfinished gemstone in that palm. What it represented. And how much she valued it more than ever right now.

With that destroyed fist, Calypso pounded at the step it rested on, caving it in.

Thus confirming her slight second assumption.

“Tha.. Fo… The… Boos…” the corpse eked out her possible final words.

With a final heave, Calypso used the strength that was killing her, against the monster—lifting her into the air and coasting above the last series of steps she could not make on her lonesome.

Sailing until she hit the wall that signaled the entryway to them, Calypso had scaled the stairs. Finally making to the top of them.

And dreaded this encounter or not, she had to face it.

But she couldn’t help it. Even if she couldn’t clearly see him, the presence alone caused her to not just cry. But weep.

“Hey hey hey, sweetheart, what’s wrong with ya’…?”

The voice, hearing his voice again somehow hurt more than the monsters culling Calypso from the inside. Knowing that it’s still not him, that it’s just an echo of a previous conversation with him.

“In… gu…” Calypso closed her eye, sputtering ungracefully. “I… Got hurt, D-daddy…”

She could hear her father’s footfalls. Remember him taking a knee, kneeling for her.

“How much does it hurt…?”

“N-no…Not much… But I hate how much…” Calypso struggled to recite it, say it, even now. “I… Cry…”

Her father sighed. She can still picture his worn smile.

“No one can help crying, sweetie… We all do it. Every single one of us’ done it and we’ll keep doing it, even your dear ol’ Dad.”

Calypso simply huffed out a wail, that croaked into nothingness. While it was more or less what she did 3 years ago, it was an excuse for her to just do it, to get through this.

“It’s like getting sick, y’know? It sucks going through it, but hey, once you do get through it—you know what it is, you know what to do when it happened the next time… So sneeze all ya’ like, sweetie, get it all out…”

The man had a tangible pause. “…There I go, getting my sayings mixed up. Parenting is hard, kiddo—”

Calypso laughed softly. A small relief during this agony.

“Now I want you to keep this in mind… Whenever you cry or feel sad or bad—anything. It’s better to feel these things, because that means you’re human, you’re alive. You’re meant to feel these things, no matter what anyone tells you, even me or your mother whenever we’re feeling something bad ourselves. You rather feel everything versus nothing at all. Got it~?”

That did it.

It was a bloody hand, but Calypso wiped and wiped and wiped and wiped at her eye. Until it was cleaned and cleared.

Opening it, as it was deary, doughty, molded by her eternal grief of losing him not too long after this talk. When the little that she felt, or the too much that she felt, was completely numbed by his passing.

His brown hair, peppered with varying gray and swirled to a clean hairstyle. His perma-stubble. His larger-than-life smile that perfectly crested his face. His plain green dress shirt that had rolled up sleeves, battered jeans and brown shoes. Either always working or always taking rests. But always made the time for her.

Her kneeling father smiled at her with his eyes closed.

Calypso mewled out something she didn’t say then. “I m-m-miss you ssso much, D-daddy…”

Her father simply said the next thing she’ll always remember, “Love you too, sweetheart.”

Calypso saw the final piece she needed shoot out of the man’s heart, quickly raising her hand up as it slotted into place.

The monster that was the side of her face screamed out in terror, shaking their head in fear. Finally, it’s turn to understand what it meant to be helpless in a scenario it can never win.

Calypso slammed her gem palm into the side of its skull, as it continued to shriek, escape, anything. Crumbling into dust as light grinded it away, it being very different this time. The beams were getting stronger, more lethal… This. Whatever this light came from, it simply shined from everywhere, wrapping around the damned creature just like how the Sun simply shined in normal, everyday life. Pure warmth eradicated this interloper.

The monster’s arm slowly became Calypso’s once again. Its face morphed back into her face. Everything, inside and out, all hers again.

Not only did this light eradicated the monster, but the chamber surrounding them all as well, all becoming one with this brilliant shine, expanding softly until Calypso could see nothing but it.

She floated within this brilliance. Her body somehow restored, her face cleaned of her tears, becoming the very center of whatever this plane is.

Looking down at her palm, the gemstone was complete. A pale pink with milky waves, waves that move within the smoothed-out surface. A pristine texture, until a very sharp and noticeable red shard embedded within it.

And as Calypso looked up, she saw her maimed friend again. Looking at peace yet forlorn at the same time.

Alice floated up to the still dazed Calypso, taking her hand that held the gem, and hold it with her only one.

“Like I said…” Alice said softly, pained. “It’s up to you, to do what you want… Just know that… It’s your choice and all. And just know that… I really did… I really did love you, Cally. My first and my only.”

Calypso thought she couldn’t possibly cry anymore, laughing at herself as a wavering smile formed on her remorseful face. “No more j-jokes… We finally admit it and I’ll never get to see you aga-again…?”

“It would take death for us to finally admit it…” Alice trailed off, looking down. Before gazing at Calypso’s face one more time.

As Alice faded, she leaned in and puckered her ruined lips at her friend, desperate for that one last kiss. And before Calypso could meet with hers, her dead friend disappeared into the beyond. Never to receive that final, beautiful catharsis.

***

Calypso woke in her hospital bed. Her eyes, the only thing that wasn’t wrapped up, were blank and empty.

Out of instinct, she moved her arms within her casts, barely able to wiggle her bounded fingers—her middle clamped down to the machine monitoring her vitals.

And she couldn’t even take in the peace, hearing the beeping. Because she heard the guttural whimpering of a monster.

The broken girl turned her head towards the sound. Her expression was masked, but her heartbeat spiked as she stared at what she saw.

What was left of the skull monster, was a withering, physical shadow that shivered in the corner. It tried reaching up, at the windowsill that was just a few inches away adjacent, but it was far too weak now. It knew so. Looking back at Calypso, fearing her.

Calypso continued to stare. And stare. Her stare dead, lacking any compassion, light… Humanity.

Slamming her bandaged hand against her bed’s railing, Calypso forced herself up. Her head still craned at the disgusting thing, her stare unmoving and unwavering. The monster, all it could do, was whimper and shiver.

There was no chance.

Calypso leaped off the bed, falling onto the floor as her machines smashed onto their sides. The monster tried to scramble away, but it was too late for it.

The girl quickly tugged, missing once—twice—four times, but finally tugged off the wrappings around her mouth. Dragging herself towards it, before throwing herself onto its weak body.

Calypso opened her mouth wide, and began eating the monster. Consuming it, bit by bit.

It couldn’t scream anymore, because the girl went for its throat to begin with. Reeling her head back, before racing it back down with her jaws stretched out. Forcing everything into her small mouth, swallowing what ultimately amounted to flavorless goop.

She craned her head to the sounds of questioning, shouting, beyond her door. With her wild eyes, she looked back and forth, and ultimately chose to keep eating the corpse until she was done.

Snorting everything down into herself, as people busted down her door.

“Lemme thr—” a croaky voice commanded. A familiar croaky voice. “LET ME THROUGH, THAT’S MY BABY!”

Her mother raced over, holding her dear daughter tight as she got Calypso from the floor.

Penelope tried vocalizing her clearly pained, anxiety-filled relief and sadness. Glad to have her baby still, but seeing her so hurt and nearly losing her beloved again…

And judging by her reactions, Calypso reasoned that she made no mess. As if none of this happened.

And that, that was what made her breakdown once more.

She cried along with her mother. Alone within a full building. Alone with each other. Because what they were weeping together over, was completely different from one another.