Kaleidoscope: Chapter 1

Corinne loved libraries. They were so quiet, so peaceful. They were especially nice for Corinne, as exactly a year ago, she had suffered a head injury that left her wounded in a way only libraries could heal. It was as if her head had been hit so hard, it opened up and her memories had spilled out everywhere, leaving her with next to nothing going on up there. Even her name had escaped her, but luckily she didn’t have to remember that one. Clasped tightly around her neck, Corinne wore a locket engraved with the only information of her life she had: a name and a date.

She assumed the name was hers, and perhaps the date her birthday. Not much to go on, but she had always held onto hope that a library would have the answers for her. A great source of information, and a great place to get questions answered. And Corinne had a lot of questions. As it would turn out, being completely empty in the head was not the thing that concerned her the most. 

Corinne let out a light sigh as she closed a book. She was sitting at her favorite spot, a seat in the very center of everything where she could see everything and everyone. Corinne haphazardly slid the closed book to the side. It bumped gently into the pile she had gathered, nearly knocking them over. To her left, she reached out to grab a different book, but the hem of her sleeve got caught on the edge of the table, peeling back the fabric. Corinne made a face as the ever changing tattoo on her wrist came into vision: two letters, and three numbers. The letters remained the same always, but the numbers appeared exactly a week after her injury. Back then, they read 358. Today, they read 001.

An itch crawled over her skin where the numbers were, but she ignored it, flipping open the next cover. There were so many books and so little time. She read as quickly as she could, listening to the clock tick quickly behind her. A couple chapters later, and the itch on her wrist turned to an ache. She scratched at it without looking, causing her skin to get red and bumpy. When the ache turned to a sharp, painful burn, Corinne covered it with her entire hand. At least, until it felt like something was moving under her skin. 

Slowly, Corinne raised her fingers and turned to look at her wrist. A knot twisted in her stomach as she looked at her splotchy, irritated skin. The 001 wasn’t there anymore. It had been replaced by 9:00.

Interesting.

"Corinne? Are you alright?" a soft voice asked hesitantly. It was the librarian, though Corinne could barely hear her through the ringing in her ears. She nodded without looking, forcing her left hand to let go of her right wrist. She set both of them down on the table as far apart from each other as possible, taking in deep breaths.

Well, that was certainly concerning. As was the fact that her body was beginning to go numb. At least the pain numbed a little, too. Corinne could feel the librarian’s presence still, standing behind her anxiously. It was slightly comforting for a moment, when suddenly an entirely new feeling consumed her, crushing that comfort. Someone else was watching her. 

Corinne looked up from the table, beads of sweat glistening on her forehead. At first, she looked directly in front of her before shifting her gaze slightly to the left. There was a man, no, a boy, standing two tables away from her. They made eye contact and she squinted, trying to figure out if he was smiling or not, when he vanished.

Corinne blinked, her eyes instantly widening and her chin jutting back in surprise. Then suddenly, something grabbed the back of her chair, and she let out a shriek as she was whirled around. Almost the instant her body had completed the 180, whatever had grabbed her shoved back on her chair, leaning it against the table and causing her feet to lift off the ground. Now everyone was looking at Corinne, her face inches away from that of a boy with a menacing grin.

8:00

“Found you,” he said quietly, hints of both excitement and malice in his tone. It was the most unnerving sentence that had ever been spoken to Corinne, and the only thing she could think to say back was, 

“Excuse me?” That was definitely not what the boy had been expecting to hear. In fact, he looked like he had already planned out what she was going to say in his head. He had the perfect response to it, too, but then she ruined it. His smile faltered ever so slightly, his grip on the chair loosening before he vanished once more.

Corinne let out another surprised yelp as her chair fell forward, sending her to her feet. After that second disappearance, the girl’s heart rate increased tenfold and she was on high alert. Initially, she could have convinced herself she was imagining the boy disappearing out of thin air. Now she knew she was not. One second he was there. The next he wasn’t. And a couple seconds after that, he was standing on the table behind her.

7:00.

"You know, I was going to congratulate you on your excellent hiding skills," the boy continued, apparently having recovered from her unscripted outburst. “It certainly took me a while to find you.” The boy walked across the table, kicking a book here and there as he ran a hand through his hair. Corinne winced with each step he took, beginning to take her own steps backwards. He walked like he owned the place, and at the moment, he did. The way he moved, the way he was smiling, it put a spell on the room, and no one dared speak up. That wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for, though. At least, not from Corinne.

The boy ceased in his pacing to look at the girl expectantly.

“Well? Aren’t you going to say something?”

6:00.

Corinne swallowed hard, her fingers twitching.

“I -”

Again, he vanished, this time appearing directly in front of Corinne. Out of instinct, the girl gasped and threw out an arm to strike, but he was too fast, and he used her power against her. He grabbed her burning wrist, stepping swiftly out of the way before yanking and tossing her forward. Corinne yelped as she flew forward, tripping over her feet and plummeting to the ground.

“Aha!” The boy exclaimed, clearly amused. “Not as quick as we once were, are we?” Fear shot through Corinne as she skidded across her hands and knees, coming to stop just in front of a bookshelf. Panic pulsed through her as she flipped over, pulling her legs to her chest as her eyes aligned with the boy’s once more. His arrogant stare burned into her, causing her chest to tighten and her breathing to quicken.

5:00.

Pain tore through Corinne as the numbers changed again, and she squeezed her left wrist tighter than she thought possible. The boy arched an eyebrow at her, his confident face displaying a tinge of confusion. Clearly, he had expectations of her, and she was not meeting them.

“Why are you just sitting there?” he scoffed, looking her up and down. He stepped dangerously close, and Corinne was afraid he was going to chuck her again, but a distraction saved her.

“Corinne,” a voice asked quietly from the back of the room, making the boy pause in mid-step. He turned his head around swiftly, both him and Corinne meeting the terrified gaze of the librarian. “Do you know him?” she whispered. Corinne clenched her jaw, doing her best to suppress her tears as a laugh escaped the mouth of the boy.

“Corinne?” he repeated, shaking his head with a scoff. “Is that what you’re going by here?” He let out another laugh, rolling his eyes. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he teleported back atop the desk.

“Well, go ahead, Corinne,” he snapped at the terrified girl. “Tell them who I am.” He smirked at the girl proudly, waiting for her to get on with it, to play the game he had set up for them. But when a moment passed and Corinne could do nothing but sit in silence, her eyes watering, his smile faltered.

“You do know who I am, don’t you?” he asked, his tone hesitant.

Corinne drew in a shaky breath, and the boy’s eyes twitched when he realized nothing in her gaze spelled recognition.

"Do you know who I am?" he shouted at her across the room, though it was clear by his expression he already knew her answer. Silently, she shook her head, then flinched as she watched the boy throw his hands up in the air, spinning around and cursing under his breath.

4:00.

“Unbelievable,” he muttered. “Unbelievable! All this time we were wondering what you were up to! All this time we thought you were planning something. We were actually worried about what to expect from you.” He whirled around to point a raging finger at Corinne, and all she could do was stare. She hated herself for being quiet, and apparently so did the boy. 

He sighed after a moment and tried to regain his composure.

“Fine,” he said, “If that’s how it’s going to be.” The dark change in his tone scared Corinne more than the shouting, and she slowly pushed herself back to a standing position.

“I’ve always wanted to kill you, but it won’t be the same now that you don’t even know my name.” He exhaled, his body language almost reluctant, as he pulled a small, dark object from his pocket. 

2:00.

The boy lifted the gun, his finger resting loosely over the trigger. A second ago, Corinne might have had a heart attack, but as the numbers on her wrist dwindled, a new feeling began to trickle over her. She felt fuzzy as the shapes and colors around her started to bleed together. It felt like she was fading, and she barely heard the boy as he spoke. 

“Just so you know, that girl I came for today?” Their eyes locked as Corinne felt the numbers on her wrist change for the last time. “She would have moved.”

He pulled the trigger, but just before that, everything in Corinne’s world went dark.