Volume 1 - Chapter 4: The Day of Miracles

From that moment up to high school, Cathedra was pretty much alone. Word of that little scene she made in kindergarten seemed to follow her wherever she went.

Even the orphanage staff, who were usually so kind to her, now avoided her like the plague.

She went to school alone, ate lunch alone, went back home to the orphanage alone, and spent the rest of her time in her room alone. That pretty much summed up Cathedra's life.

Until Diane came along.

It was one summer's day when Cathedra was sitting underneath one of the trees in the courtyard, eating her lunch alone, as usual. She loved it here because the tree's angle hid her from sight. No one usually went here because it was near the teachers' lounge, so students could not go about their mischievous businesses without running the risk of being caught.

If she ate lunch somewhere else, there was a high chance of running into bullies who had no other definition of fun but to pick on her.

It was a quiet day today. No one talked to her or paid her any attention. No one even called her freak when she passed the hallways. It was a miracle that rarely came and she wanted to savor every minute of it.

"So transfer student, why don't you hand over your lunch money as toll for intruding in our spot?"

"That's right, hand it over."

She knew these voices. They were Kevin Stoll and John Blaine, the school's #1 bullies who loved picking on her.

When Cathedra overhead the school bullies say to someone else other than her, she believed that even that was a miracle in itself. Nevertheless, she strained her ears to listen, wracking her brains for any possible way to help out the transfer student from this dilemma.

There was a loud thump, which sounded like fists colliding against bare flesh. The odd thing was that, there was no groan or cry of pain whatsoever that followed the relentless punching.

Curious at this peculiar occurrence, Cathedra cautiously got up from the refuge her tree provided and crept slowly near the edge of the corner of the building. Her heart thumped wildly, knowing that this might end dangerously for both her and the transfer student if ever her plan would go downhill.

She peeked from behind the corner and witnessed Kevin and John hitting a petite girl with short brown hair over and over again. The sight was unbearable. The girl's blood splattered everywhere yet she stood firmly without wavering.

"Why. Won't. You. Scream?" Kevin punctuated each word with a punch from from his big, muscly arms.

Not bearing the painful sight, Cathedra tried her best to change her voice and scream, "Teacher! Teacher! Over here, there's someone bullying a student!"

At the sound of her voice, Kevin and John turned on her heels and ran, leaving the transfer student blood and bruised but still alive and standing.

Now that the threat was over, Cathedra showed herself to the transfer student.

"Are you alright?"

The little girl turned around to the direction of Cathedra's voice. Cathedra's eyes widened in surprise at what she had seen.

Her rosy, porcelain cheeks swelled to the size of a balloon. Thankfully, her nose didn't look broken at all, but blood dripped from both holes.

"Where's the teacher?" She replied in an angelic, sing-song voice. Cathedra was appalled that the guys managed to punch a fragile, feminine girl like her without any mercy. The most astonishing fact of all was that the girl didn't even seem to be concerned about the bruises and swelling all over her face.

"There's no teacher. I made that up to scare the guys away."

She wiped the blood dripping from her nose. "Oh, I see. Thank you for that."

"You're welcome."

An uncomfortable silence lingered in the air. Cathedra realized she had gone for so long without engaging in a conversation with another person that she already forgot how to talk to people.

"I think you need to go to the nurse's office for that. I'll take you."

"I'm okay, thanks for worrying. This happens all the time." She smiled, "My name is Diane." She pronounced her name as 'dee-yan'.

"My name is Cathedra."

Diane held out her hand with a beautiful smile on her face despite the bruises and her bloody knows. To some she might look hideous, but to Cathedra, this bloodied and battered girl looked like an angel.

Cathedra took Diane's hand and shook it.

"Hey, you alright?" Diane exclaimed.

"What? Why?" Cathedra asked. Why would she not be okay, this was the happiest day of her life, but why was the world so blurry...

Tear drops fell on top of Cathedra's outstretched hand still clinging to Diane's. In the excitement, she didn't even realize she was crying at the relief of having a kind soul talk to her, let alone shake hands with her.

Diane began to chuckle but gradually began bursting out in laughter. She patted Cathedra's head, "There, there. And here I thought I was the one who got bullied."

Her kind touch was Cathedra's undoing. She burst into tears and cried aloud while Diane hugged her and stroked her head.

From that day on, Diane and Cathedra were inseparable. They had lunch together, went home together, and did everything together. For the first time, Cathedra had someone who didn't cringe every time she opened her mouth to speak.

So this is what having a friend feels like, huh? Cathedra thought to herself.

One lunch break, while waiting for Diane underneath the tree, Cathedra was scribbling a draft of her first novel in her notebook. The novel contained the scenes she saw in the storybook, back in her kindergarten days.

Since that day at kindergarten, she didn't tell anyone what she saw in the storybooks anymore. The thought of seeing things that other people couldn't still terrified her but she tried hard not to think about it by avoiding any book she can see other than school books and textbooks.

But there was something about the fairy tales that drew Cathedra in, like a moth to a flame. Try as she might to stay away, she always found herself perched atop a chair and flipping towards the last page to see the moving picture after "And they lived happily ever after".

She could never stop herself from writing the truth about what she had seen.

The three words she had seen back then in kindergarten was only one word repeated three times: Lies, lies, lies.

The moving picture showed a different form of the fairy. She had raven black hair, skin as white as snow, as though she haven't been exposed to the sun at all, and a mole at the top right part of her lips. And she didn't just curse the beast to teach him humility and love. No, the true reason ran far deeper, more sinister than anyone could ever imagine.

The five words after the moving picture were a plea: Please tell them the truth.

Lost in writing about the truth the fairy tale begged for her to reveal, Cathedra's heart almost leapt up her throat when Diane snuck up behind her and said.

"What is that?"