"we are magic.
we are moments.
we are dreams
and we are memories.
we are everything.
and in the depths
we swim deeper to
discover that we
are not born whole
so we cannot be
broken. we are born
in twos, and we are
searching, searching
for the other piece,
that other person
to guide us home."
- r.m. drake
Damien didn't make an appearance for the rest of the weekend, so it was relatively quiet around the dorm without Serena or any strange visitors stopping by unexpectedly for Ophelia. She finally was able to finish her book last night, she was ready to move on to the next fantasy story. She couldn't stop thinking about how peculiarly mysterious Damien was, she felt like there was a little bit more to it. Ophelia described the strange encounter to Serena on Monday when she walked into their dorm room around 7 at night yelling at Christian on the phone.
"He just showed up?" Serena's expression was a mix of curious yet concerned.
"He wanted medical attention," Ophelia laughed thinking about how silly the situation was.
"Ophelia, that was the prettiest man I ever have seen in my life," Serena grabbed Ophelia's arm and began gushing over his eyes. There was something about Damien that nobody could put their finger on, something strange, however strange it was, everyone found it to be captivating nonetheless. Everyone besides Ophelia saw through his exterior to his interior which needed some fine-tuning.
"He's kind of a jerk, he also was with Madison at his Halloween party, so there's that," Ophelia explained her distaste for men like Damien, they reminded her of Michael.
"I hate to say this, but I think it's time for you to start dating again, you can't sulk and make new excuses every time a man wants your attention, you've mourned your relationship with Michael for long enough, it's been six months now," Serena ripped the band-aid off, Ophelia raised her eyebrow at first offended, but she processed her point of view. Perhaps Serena was right, but Ophelia didn't think she should start with Damien.
"I'm going to go fold my laundry, I'm not talking about this," Ophelia smiled at Serena before running off to the laundry room down the hall.
Ophelia went through each article of clothing until she got to Damien's white t-shirt that was now dry and clean, she stopped in her tracks thinking of what he said, "keep it" the moment and the mental image of his face replayed in her mind, she couldn't help but smirk at the unpredictability of him. Ophelia piled the now folded laundry into her plastic blue basket and brought it into her dorm room setting it down on her bed. She was hoping desperately Serena would have moved on from the conversation, as her attention span was never the strongest, to begin with.
Serena was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed scrolling with her finger on her phone, Serena was very interested in whatever it was she was looking at, her eyes popping at the screen so Ophelia decided to check it out. What was she doing? Searching for Damien on social media. Within the time it took Ophelia to fold her laundry Serena had become a detective with just a first name to go off of and the city he currently lived in.
Unfortunately, she came up dry.
"Who doesn't have an Instagram account?" Serena shook her head in shock that somebody could possibly be able to live off the grid like that.
"Some people don't care about their online presence, I know, hard to believe, Serena," Ophelia teased the more superficial Serena.
"I just don't think it's fair, he can stalk you but you have no way to stalk him back," Serena twirled her finger around the ends of her waves.
"Who says I want to stalk him back? How is Christian?" Ophelia was quick to remind Serena of her own disastrous love affairs. She scrunched up her nose at Ophelia and stuck her tongue out.
"I have to go to the library tonight before they close, can I borrow your car? The university library doesn't have the book I'm looking for," Ophelia gave her best pleading eyes to her best friend considering she had just teased her and didn't have her own car on campus.
"I would let you but the old girl is in the shop, I hit some animal this weekend, it was huge, fast," Serena shuddered thinking about the accident.
"Oh my gosh, did you kill it?" Ophelia questioned her.
"No, it got up and ran off after making a horrible screeching noise, whatever it was, I was more scared of it than it was of me, that's for sure," Serena turned on the television.
The news reporter sent panic through the screen as he described vicious bear attacks that have been occurring throughout our area. He warned everyone to carry protection if they were going to be in wooded areas as the bear or bears seemed to be targeting humans. Ophelia wondered if that was the animal that ran into Serena's car.
Since she wouldn't be able to borrow her little blue Corolla, she packed her backpack to prepare to make the last bus to the library as it was across town.
"Don't let the bears get you, the library is in front of Marshall State Park," Serena tried to scare Ophelia before she headed out the door.
"I think I'll be okay," Ophelia laughed it off but she still double-checked her bag for her emergency pepper spray just in case these bears did want to make an appearance.
It was dark outside now nearing eight o'clock, the library would be open till ten. Ophelia was seeking new mythology books after finding herself in love with her last one. It left her romanticizing about living in a world like that.
She waited patiently at the bus stop by herself, it was windy outside, the type of wind that whistled through the trees. The unsettling kind. When the bus eventually screeched to a halt in front of the sidewalk, she boarded it carefully climbing the steep stairs, paying the fee, and finding a seat as they were all mostly empty only two people aboard besides the bus driver and Ophelia.
She tucked her earphones in playing some soft music as the bus rode across town making stops along the way.
The local library was a beautiful stone building with two long staircases in the front. Ophelia scanned her library card and asked the librarian where the books within the genre she was looking for would be.
She found that there were plenty of options to keep her hunger satisfied and her boredom at bay. Choosing the story about Adonis, Aphrodite's mortal lover. Ophelia was familiar with the story already considering she had read it a few times over and it was one of her favorites. She thought the concept of invincible falling for the vincible was beautiful.
Finding a nice quiet corner of the library with a comfortable cushioned chair to curl up in, there Ophelia got lost in the magnificent world of gods and Goddesses, magic and power, love and virtue.
She daydreamed about what it would be like to meet these otherworldly beings, losing track of time in her fantasy world for so long that the librarian had to snap her back into this reality to let her know the library would be closing in five minutes.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sure you'd love to be getting home, I apologize for keeping you waiting," Ophelia yawned and collected her things slipping the small story into her deep purple bookbag and making her way through the tall shelves of books, the winding maze staircase, all the way outside at just about ten at night.
As the moon was now out and the sky was sprinkled with tiny stars, Ophelia found it was noticeably colder out, she zipped up her gray sweater pulling the collar closer to her neck to provide warmth, and slowly walked across the dark parking lot to stand underneath the bus stop sign for the last bus of the night back to the university.
Ophelia felt the uneasy feeling that she wasn't alone, but couldn't figure out if it was because it was nighttime and it was dark outside, there wasn't much light to make the lot visible as there were only two lamp posts. She looked back frequently squinting into the blackness of the night, but nobody was there. She rested her back against the dirty marked glass of the bus stop shelter feeling relieved she had made it safely.
Ophelia sunk onto the scuffed black bench sighing an exhale of relief when she heard rustling in the bushes behind her, she stood up quickly taking a defensive position but just a sparrow fell out of the small twigs and leaves. Ophelia was paranoid and frightened now, she pulled out her phone and texted Serena so she didn't feel so alone. Serena thought Ophelia was being silly and she apologized for teasing her about the bear, but she felt there was nothing to worry about. Ophelia rummaged around in her back, clutching her pepper spray with a closed fist.
The cold wind blew leaving Ophelia shivering, the whistling sounded like quiet screams in the black night sky but for some reason as Ophelia listened closer the screams sounded like it was whispering her name. She squinted in the direction of the sound, looking all around for a person playing a trick on her, but the streets were empty not even a stray car drove through. Ophelia stepped outside of the shoddy bus shelter and slowly approached the bushes where the sound was the loudest.
A terrible shrieking noise cried out, echoing from deeper into the woods that ran for miles. Ophelia's heart began to thump so loudly she could feel her rib cage vibrate. She thought about the gruesomely fatal bear attacks on the news. Ophelia had a terrible feeling that she was not alone in these woods.
Before she could cut her losses and get out of there, a creature stalked out of the shadows with glowing red eyes. As it came into the dim lighting of Ophelia's phone's flashlight, she saw that it had the head of a goat, the body of what seemed to be a lion, and the tail of a snake. Ophelia grimaced blinking rapidly, she couldn't believe the animal that stood before her. It roared its terrible call again before charging her, drooling at its jaw ready for its next meal.
Ophelia stumbled backward awaiting the worst, tripping over her anxious footwork, she fell to the ground scraping her arms and palms against the rough rocky terrain before scrambling to her feet to run for her life.