Chapter Text
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As she prepared for the day, she could hear her phone beeping repeatedly. She knew it was just Caleb, sending his usual string of messages. She ignored them—for now. After all, as his primary care physician and psychiatrist, she knew he would be seeing her soon for a scheduled session.
It was moments like this when she felt truly grateful for Caleb’s presence in her life. He inspired her to do her utmost each passing day.
As she showered, she removed her glasses and left them on the bedside table. After finishing, she dried her hair with a towel, her mind drifting back to the days when she and her parents used to visit Caleb and Grandma Josephine in the Bloomshore District. Caleb would always insist on drying her hair after they played in the rain.
Why do I feel like everything I do somehow involves him? she wondered briefly, then shook her head at the thought and slipped her glasses back on before heading to the kitchen.
She juiced some fresh oranges and took out the leftover apple pie from the night before—one she had bought from the nearby bakery.
Sitting on the barstool by her kitchen island, spoon in one hand and orange juice in the other, she made a mental note to retrieve her phone from the bedside table and finally check the messages Caleb had surely been bombarding her with.
She tapped the phone to wake it and, with a deep sigh, read through the messages:
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📱 Sugar Apple: How are you, by the way? Don’t forget to take time to make that orange juice. I do remember giving you a juicer for it. 🤔
📱 Sugar Apple: Also, dry your hair with the towel after your shower. I know you get chills in the early morning. I still can’t believe someone with an Ice Evol gets cold so easily. But hey, that’s just you, I suppose. 😀
📱 Sugar Apple: Zaynie? Are you there? You’re not ignoring me and letting your phone beep endlessly, are you? 😏
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Zayne pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. It was slightly concerning how well Caleb knew her daily routine.
Then her gaze fell on the contact name she had given him in her phone— “Sugar Apple.”
Setting the phone down, she paused for a moment, lost in thought.
“Hmm… I think it was back when we first got introduced…” Zayne murmured, the memory quietly unfolding in her mind as to how over the years she chose that contact name for Caleb.
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Sweet Scent Memory Kindled:
“Now, be on your best behavior, Zayne. We’re going to meet a good friend of ours,” Mrs. Li said to thirteen-year-old Zayne, who was preoccupied with jotting notes in the book she was reading.
She didn’t know where they were headed—only her parents did. As her gaze drifted to the scenery passing by while her father drove the car, she deduced that they were likely in the Bloomshore District, given the absence of the technological sophistication typical of Linkon City.
“You don’t have to worry too much, Mother. I’ll be fine,” she said with utter certainty, prompting her parents to exchange glances filled with both amusement and concern. Zayne had always sounded too mature for her age—even as a teen.
Her father parked the car in a driveway. The moment they stepped out, Zayne found herself face to face with a young boy with dark brown hair and light violet, galaxy-like eyes. She froze in place—the same way she imagined the people she had accidentally frozen with her Evol must have felt.
Not you. Please not you… she thought inwardly, doing her best to hide any trace of emotion.
“Good day, Josephine. I hope we’re not bothering you with our sudden visit?” Mr. Li said to the kind older woman, whom Zayne now saw speaking amicably with her parents.
“Nonsense! I’m sure Caleb here would be more than happy to bond with your daughter. My, she’s grown so lovely since I last saw her,” Josephine said warmly, her eyes settling on Zayne, who clutched her book tightly, doing her best not to look at Caleb.
“Alright, Caleb. I’ll be speaking with Zayne’s parents for a bit. Would you mind spending time with her in the backyard garden?”
Caleb looked mildly bored, glanced at Zayne for a second, and then shrugged. “Whatever you say, Gran,” he replied, already walking toward the back of the house. He cast one last look at Zayne over his shoulder.
“This way.”
Zayne nodded and followed him there, her hands gripping the book tighter than usual. As she walked behind him, her heart hammered painfully. She had never once thought their paths would cross again.
She could still remember the young boy from last year’s tragedy—the Chronorift Catastrophe—which took many lives and, with it, created orphans. This boy was one of them, and she knew it firsthand. Being part of her family’s prestigious medical lineage, it was not unusual for her to find herself among such scenes. While she was young, her parents often took her to the hospital.
She remembered that it was during that very tragedy that she saw countless corpses—people who had lost their limbs, their legs, their hands—with blood painting the hospital’s pristine white floors and walls in gory, bloody red. Amidst them, she saw one peculiar ten-year-old boy huddled in a far corner, his sobs loud and painful. Yet with the urgency and shouting of others, it was no wonder no one heard him. Tentatively, she approached him.
“Are you lost? Do you need help finding your parents?” she asked softly, making sure not to touch the boy without his consent. The crouching boy, his face hidden in his arms as if they were a pillow, looked up at the sound of her voice, and she saw his light violet, galaxy-like eyes fixed on her.
“I… I lost someone, and now I’m forced to play house with the reason I lost them,” he said cryptically, making Zayne frown and think the boy lost his parents.
“What fruit do you like?” she asked instead, trying to change the subject to something lighthearted for the boy so he wouldn’t be more distressed than he already was.
“I don’t know. I’ve never had one,” the boy replied, wiping his tears away with his sleeve.
“How about this, then?” Zayne took a plastic bag from her pocket, revealing a bag of apple slices she had gotten from her parents. “Would this do? I promise you, they’re quite sweet.”
The boy slowly took it from her hands, glancing at her suspiciously. She sensed his caution even without any prompting. She opened the bag, took out a slice, and ate it in front of him.
Seeing that, the boy tentatively took out an apple slice and nibbled on it first. Then he bit into it, his eyes widening at the sweetness. Renewed by the taste, he began to eat them vigorously.
“Slow down. Take your time eating them,” Zayne chastised, as the boy started to cough from how quickly he was chomping down the apple slices. She patted his back to alleviate the sudden coughing fit he had from gulping the apple slices too quickly.
“What is it?” The boy questioned her.
“It’s apple slices.”
“I like it. Thank you.”
Zayne smiled at his gratefulness. Just as she was about to placate him more, the whole hospital was in a panic. When a monster she could not name came forth.
“By God, it’s one of them!”
“Everyone run, get to the upper floors!”
“Did someone find my baby?!”
“Hurry, get out of here!”
Distant sounds of pain and screams could be heard and just when all seemed quiet it saw them. When it lunged at them Zayne took the boy’s hand and made a run for it. Their quickened steps were what they could only hear as the screech of the monster in question took off for the worst. With no adults in sight and those that could help them busy with the other monsters. She felt it was her responsibility to make sure the boy got to safety at least.
With the boy’s hand clutched in hers, she entered one of the examination rooms at the hospital, and they crouched underneath a table.
“Keep quiet,” she whispered to the boy, who clutched her hand tightly.
The room was silent. A second passed, then a minute, and both their hearts wracked with fear as the door blew off its hinges, sending wood scraps into a messy heap on the floor.
The monster crept in, its tail swishing forward, yellow scraps of skin glowing iridescently, jaw snapping, nose twitching as it searched.
“It’s trying to track us by our scents.” Zayne thought, her mind taking note of what she sees of this creature. It was looking on to the surroundings moving from place to place. Almost like “Wandering.” She internally mumbled, her eyes focused on its movements while the boy squeezed her hand tightly.
With its back to them she thought they were safe and it would go away soon but her whole body froze when with a flick of its tail it took off the table where they were hiding in, throwing it off away. It snarled viciously as it spotted them. Zayne stood up and recklessly moved in front making sure the boy stayed behind her. “If it attacks us. At least my body can act as a shield for him. He’ll be able to run away at least.” She made light of her life when she was faced with the decision of saving the boy’s life over hers.
The creature growled and pounded its claws just as it prepared to pounce on her. She felt it—an icy, freezing embrace that spread inside her and throughout her entire body. Her heart thumped erratically, and she experienced a strange grounding sensation that seemed to dance with the chilling force overtaking her.
The creature’s attack never came. By instinct—or perhaps by design—her hand moved on its own. As she braced it against the creature, a massive, glacier-like projectile surged from her palm. Tools around them levitated with its emergence and shot toward the creature.
The frozen blast struck it dead center, sending wisps of icy air spiraling through the room as cracks spread across the walls and floor from the impact. The creature screeched in pain before crumbling and disintegrating into dust.
Zayne felt exhausted, and when she turned to the boy, her heart clenched—he had blood on his right shoulder. A splintered wood spike from the creature had punctured it. His face was pale, and his breathing was unsteady.
Her legs gave out, and she collapsed beside his fallen form, face to face with him, her eyes locked on his.
"Don… Don’t close your eyes… Don’t die… on me,” she begged—this kid, this boy she had just met and whose name she still didn’t know. Her consciousness was fading fast, and she felt the guilt and regret of knowing she might not be able to save him.
“Keep looking at me with those eyes…” she whispered.
“I… will… forever…”
She wasn’t sure if she had heard him right—or if it was just her imagination trying to comfort her, making her believe the boy had responded. How could someone so pale, so close to death, still have the strength to speak?
“Zayne! Oh no!”
“The children!”
Everything happened at once. She heard people rushing in, felt herself being lifted away from the boy. Their hands, still clasped together, were slowly separated. The boy was lifted as well.
“No… Don’t… take… her… away…” the boy pleaded, just before their fingers finally slipped apart.
The children were forced apart, and Zayne never learned who that boy was.
When she woke from what had happened, her parents told her she had used Evol —a supernatural ability present within every citizen, which awakens when the individual is in danger. But they also discovered something serious inside her, something grave enough that her parents decided she would be homeschooled for the rest of the year. From that moment on, they became vigilant—both of her and of her newfound power. Ironic enough, she found that the creature that attacked them were now given a creature category name under the term "Wanderer/s".
"Well, here’s the backyard garden. I sometimes plant with Gran here,” Caleb said, snapping Zayne out of her walk down memory lane.
“I see,” Zayne replied as her eyes scanned the area Caleb gestured toward. “Any tree with shade where I can sit and read?” she asked, prompting Caleb to grin at her.
“Right here.” Caleb pointed and led her to a large apple tree. It was bearing fruit, though judging by the color, they wouldn’t ripen until later in the week.
She sat beneath the tree and carefully opened her book. Caleb remained nearby, standing at first, then leaning against the trunk beside her.
She glanced at him, and with the wind gently blowing and the sweet scent of ripening apples around her, she couldn’t help but whisper, “Sugar Apple.”
“Huh? Did you say something?” Caleb asked, ever the curious one.
“Nothing. The apples smell sweet,” she replied, trying to focus on her book—but failing.
“Yeah, I like apples,” Caleb said before sitting beside her, enjoying the warm air and the calmness of the garden.
“I know,” Zayne thought, whilst turning a page on her book.
All this time, she had wondered what happened to the boy—was he dead, alive, injured? And now, he was beside her, smelling of the apple tree and its fruit.
“Thank you for staying alive…” Her heart and mind, whispering silently within her, for the first time felt the calm they had long missed as her body rested quietly next to his. She was glad the boy from that terrifying moment had survived—and was now here with her. Though guilt kept her from asking whether he remembered, she would settle for this quiet interlude instead.
Sweet Scent Memory Kindled Ended:
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Remembering that moment led Zayne to reply to Caleb’s messages:
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📱 Sugar Apple: Zaynie? Are you there? You're not ignoring me and letting your phone beep endlessly, are you? 😏
📱 Zayne: I would never ignore you. You could say I’m hands-on when it comes to your well-being.
📱 Sugar Apple: And as for me, I’ll make sure to keep my eye on you—forever.
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She sometimes wondered if Caleb truly remembered her after all these years—if he knew she was the girl who had been with him at that time, when they had nearly lost their lives. But she believed that some questions were better left unanswered.
Taking a bite of the apple pie with her fork, she realized that maybe it had been that moment that started her sweet tooth—or perhaps it was just Caleb’s influence.
