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THE ACCEPTANCE
"CC! I thought you're attending the kick-off party? Why back out now? That was only just a few hours away, for goodness sake!"
I lifted my gaze from the book in my hands and connected it to the seething, long raven-haired lady, blocking the lamp's light to my side. As I did, I caught a whiff of her vanilla-flavored perfume.
"Stella, dear, the organizers of that kick-off party are genuinely crazy. Who's in sane mind would require a graduating college student to have a parent's permit and a medical certificate just to attend that freaking event? Seriously? Where did you hear such a crazy thing? None! Only this time!" I huffed, fighting not to roll my eyes at her. Knowing her, she would be pissed off at such attitude. But oh well, that was the point anyway. Well . . . not today though.
"Besides," I continued, "what do you want me to do? Travel twelve hours to my hometown to get my guardian's signature and travel back again just to attend some party full of show-off Homo sapiens?" I frowned briefly at the thought-to the fact that there was no way I could ever locate my guardian even though I wanted to. That senile man could reach out to me anytime, but that didn't go the same way for me. "No way! I'd rather sleep here. You and Tessa just enjoy that absurd party, 'kay? Now, outta light's way." I forced a smile and shoved her out of the lamp's light.
"You, little ras-"
Before Stella could spit some unlikely words, another lady barged in inside my room and flopped down to the bed beside me.
"Mission accomplished, Stella babes!" Tessa announced, her voice tingling like a wind chime. She winked at Stella and flipped her curly shoulder-length dark brown locks.
I squinted my eyes at them. "What did you accomplish?" I asked, having a sudden bad vibe about them exchanging creepy smiles.
Tessa, pretending to inspect her nails, nonchalantly said, "Oh nothing. Just some extremely important job needing an expert's touch."
I turned to Stella, who was silently exiting the scene, and then back to Tessa's failed innocent-looking face. My eyes slowly widened at the sudden realization dawning upon me.
Gods of Olympus! These two just didn't do it, did they?
"Tessa, Stella, don't tell me, the two of you-hey! Come back here!"
Before I could speak out my point-blank hunch, Tessa stormed out of the room laughing her hearts out together with Stella who was yelling: "Your dress is downstairs. Just come and get it! Go make yourself pretty! Love ya!"
"Don't worry, Cee! We're the Masters of Forging Signatures and Handwritings! The world will end before they could tell it's fake! We luv ya, Cee! To infinity and beyond!" Those were Tessa's last words followed by villainous laughter before the loud slamming of the door echoed in the hallway.
That abrupt confession left my jaw hanging for a moment. It was as though someone poured freezing water over my head.
Oh no . . . they just did, didn't they?
MY EYES SHOT open behind the brown shades as those scenes randomly played in my mind. That was just a few days before that day happened. I still couldn't believe it . . . I should have been with them. I should have been-
"Where were you when they need you the most?"
Stella's mom's question pierced coldly on my gut. The bitter recollection rang endlessly in my mind, attempting to break me all over again inside.
"You abandoned them!"
My hand flew instinctively unto the base of my neck, hidden beneath the olive-green turtle neck I'm wearing.
I could still feel it . . . the warm yet icy cold hands of an enraged mother who deeply loved her lost daughter, squeezing the light out of me with those furious eyes.
Abandoned? Did they even know of what really transpired that night? Could they bring themselves to believe me? I knew better . . . they won't. They didn't even give me the chance to explain my side of the story then. They immediately shot me down and left me tending these loud noises of unspoken truth all by myself. They'd never gave me a chance despite my pleads and cries.
They presumed right away I'd orchestrated it all.
They thought I'd planned it all along.
They accused me of something I didn't and won't ever do.
I set Tessa and Stella up to their death, they said.
I got them killed, they said.
All because they had what I didn't─a picture-perfect family─and that I envied them for it, they said.
What a stupid, shallow, and irrational reasoning!
And that was why I went here.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I took a few deep breaths and tried my hardest to prevent the heavyweight in my chest get the better of me again.
You just have to hold on for a little while. Relax. Relax even if you're a blithering mess inside.
Sighing, I removed my shades and stared at the shoreline on my right side; somehow feeling a bit calm as I gazed upon those small waves hitting the seawall. But it didn't last long as the same car I found the other day in front of my house accelerated further on the empty street of this so-called Marsh Island.
With gritted teeth, I shot the driver's direction a deadly look, attempting to intimidate him, but failed miserably. The same smiling man, Oren, seated on the shotgun's seat, offered me a kind yet evidently nervous smile from the rearview mirror. He must have been more shaken than I was with this car's speed.
"S-Sorry about that, Miss Vasquez. My friend here always makes it a point to arrive on time. And that's─"
Black floored the car, sending Oren and I further back into our seats, hands tightly clutching our seatbelts. Oren squeaked, face as white as sheet, while I spat out Hail Mary and Our Father at every sharp curve and turns our reckless driver planned to send us out to our death due to a heart attack.
"Jesus, son of God and Mary! Can you freakin' slow down?" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "'Coz I still got plenty of things to do in my freakin' bucket list and getting cardiac arrest isn't one of those!"
Black simply glanced back at me on the rearview mirror, and as if to spite me, the car abruptly stopped with a loud screech, eliciting high-pitched screams from Oren and I as we catapulted forward and back up again to our seats. Both of us stared motionlessly to Black, aghast and downright stupefied.
"You─"
"I think I peed my pants a little," Oren squeaked out, drowning the strings of curses my mouth had locked and loaded.
I involuntarily face-palmed myself.
What did I just get myself into?
It had been two days after Oren and Black, our freakin' reckless driver, came to my doorstep. And I couldn't still believe that I had really left my comfort zone to come here. To think that I was fervently against it days ago.
And that was all just because of a letter I wasn't even sure if those two indeed made before.
You're not even certain if this place you blindly throw yourself into has a connection to what happen then as well.
I heaved a deep sigh, shaking my head a little.
Since when did you start acting as reckless as those two, Celestine?
I must have been as absurd as those two were if I was really doing this. Right, that was the only valid explanation for this completely crazy decision I've had made!
The car started to move again. Fortunately this time around, Black grew some conscience at Oren's thoroughly startled, messy appearance and drove slow. Still, we had our hands securely wrapped around the seatbelt just in case he grew some devil's horn again and attempted to chuck us down to our graves.
The shoreline's view disappeared as we entered a huge ornate black and gold wrought iron gate, which was then replaced by a seemingly endless line of enormous trees on either side of the concrete, uphill trail.
Feeling soulless after four hours of flight and another few minutes of a car ride, I trained my drooping eyes outside, feeling hypnotized to sleep against the blur of trees.
Then we passed by a striking, familiar man.
My forehead creased, eyebrows furrowing as I looked over my shoulder to see the distant hooded figure jogging down the trail.
Maybe just my imagination.
After what seemed to be forever, the car finally came to a surprisingly safe stop before the last security post as this pamphlet in my hand stated.
Oren, exchanged talks with the sentinel in front of three computers and various CCTV feeds above the head before the same black and gold ornate gate similar to the former opened for us, and we were already able to get through.
Once inside, my eyes were instantly drowned at the sight of various warm, summer flower gardens spread on either side of a wide circle. At the center of the wide circle was a statue of a Greek woman, I presumed, holding a jar with continuously flowing water to her side. The car half-rounded on it before pulling over a threshold with a statue of stallions on either side of the base.
The door of the car to my side opened up, startling me a bit, as I was too engrossed admiring everything my eyes landed on. It was quite hard to believe that such a marvelous place could be found on an isolated island somewhere in the Pacific. Quite frankly, I was surprised this wasn't known yet.
So much for a scam, right?
With my heart's pounding erratically, I stepped out of the car and was welcomed by Oren's warm smile and the sight of a humungous Victorian era-inspired mansion. I craned my head up, trying to count how many floors it had. A flash of silhouette from the corner of my eyes caught my attention and so my focus flickered to my left only to be greeted by the vast expanse of evergreens.
Uh . . . What was that?
Still not able to take in everything before my eyes, I hardly heard Oren said the words that reminded me of the very reason for coming to this place.
"Welcome to the Esotera Court, Miss Celestine. Enjoy your stay!"
Easing back my squinted eyes, I turned to him with a small smile.
Yeah . . . I surely will.
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