The Island's Own Space

The cave

The next morning, Bella woke up early in the morning. After she heard that there were others like her who came and once left the island without any troubles, she decided to meet with them to get some information so she could go home.

However, Bella was worried because she doesn't know anything about the island. Her knowledge was limited. She was walking back and forth inside the room she has been staying at since the day she arrived.

Bella sighed when she still couldn't think of a solution on how to know where the other outsiders were or how to reach them. Her eyes landed on Lyca who was watching her walk back and forth since earlier.

"Just how am I going to go out and find the other outsider when I don't even know where to start." She mumbled to herself.

"Grrr." Lyca growled low and walked to Bella. She looked at Lyca with a frown on her face.

'Follow me.' Bella heard Lyca's voice inside her head and suddenly jumped.

"Right, you live here!" Bella squealed and ran to Lyca who was in the door and hugged her. "You're my savior, Lyca." Bella smiled and stood up excitedly before opening the door as quietly as she could.

The sun has still hasn't risen and she doesn't want to wake anyone except one person, Matias. Bella was planning on telling Matias about her plan. She knew that she couldn't just leave the village without anyone knowing.

Bella couldn't tell Lucaon about her plan because of how he reacted when they talked about the outsider yesterday. She thought that Lucaon might try to stop her from going outside because Wyatt was still actively looking for her. But Bella was already so desperate to go home that even Lucaon wouldn't be able to change her mind even if he tried to. The only way for Bella to stay on the island was to lock her up, but of course, Lucaon would never do something so selfish just for his sake.

Bella went to Matias's room and knocked twice. It took a few seconds till Matias opened the door. He was rather surprised to see Bella awake at this time of hour and that she was standing in front of his door.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up. I wanted to tell you that I will go out of the village for a couple of hours or maybe it will take me a few days to return. I will bring Lyca with me so I will lose my way." Bella said.

"Okay? But why are you telling me this?" Matias tilted his head in confusion. He was confused as to why Bella would tell him her plans instead of telling Lucaon.

"I... Lucaon will definitely stop me if I tell him. So, I was hoping that you will keep this a secret to him." Bella explained in a low voice.

She knew that Matias keeping a secret from Lucaon would be hard, especially when it was about her. Bella suddenly felt guilty, she felt like she was just passing the burden of not telling Lucaon about her plans to Matias.

"I think I can hold him down for a few days." Matias said.

"Just as I thought, you can't keep a secret from him with that personality of his." Bella mumbled to herself, which Matias chuckled. He heard what Bella whispered and totally agreed.

"So, you better hurry before he flips the whole island upside down just to find you." Matias smiled at her and petted Lyca's head.

Bella smiled back at him and said goodbye before leaving with Lyca leading the way. They ran down from the peak back to the shore. Bella just kept following Lyca because she knows every route on the island better than Bella.

However, because Bella didn't know different paths in the island and she just kept following Lyca since earlier, Bella was confused why they returned to the shore where Bella regained her consciousness after falling from the cliff.

Bella was certain that this was that place but when she looked at the direction where the cliff fell at Bella started getting even more confused.

"Where is the cliff?" She asked herself as she stared at that particular direction.

'Follow me. Hurry!' Lyca spoke through Bella's mind and made her snapped out of her thoughts. She took one last glance in that direction before following Lyca who was already running towards the dark part of the shore.

Lyca kept running and running before she stopped in front of a big tree and started digging. Bella looked at her, not sure what Lyca was trying to do. She was just about to ask Lyca what she was doing but when she saw the serious expression plastered on Lyca's face with a hint of hurriedness, Bella decided to stay quiet and let Lyca do what she was doing.

After a few minutes of digging, a considerably big hole was seen and it looked like it was leading to some kind of cave. Lyca went inside first and urged Bella to go next. Bella hesitated for a second but still decided to trust Lyca. She sealed the hole with dirt and proceeded deep in the cave.

Bella and Lyca walked for another ten minute before a light appeared illuminated the dark cave. Bella was surprised by the sudden light and jumped on her feet. Lyca pushed her from behind.

'Go.' Lyca said only one word but to Bella it seemed like there were a hundred, no, thousands of words after it.

Bella unconsciously gulped and slowly walked further into the light. The light was coming from a torch but unlike the torches Bella had seen in her whole life, these ones were blue colored fire. She was so fascinated and intrigued by the blue torches that she didn't notice the scratches on the wall.

When she finally looked around the place did she only notice the scratches.

"What are these?" Bella whispered to herself and brought her hands to the wall. She didn't know where the scratches were from or who made them but the thought of someone scratching a wall made of dirt scared her.

She quickly looked around but she saw no one. There was not one single soul inside the cave, not even Lyca. Bella was starting to panic when she didn't see Lyca with her but calmed herself down when she thought that Lyca wouldn't leave her alone.

She once again looked around but all she saw were the blue colored torches and scratches in every wall. Bella approached one of the walls and tried to find any meaning or pattern on the scratches but she really had no idea.

Bella sighed and sat down. She only felt the slight pain on her legs from running and walking nonstop now that she was inside the cave.

"Is this the people's alphabet or something? Why would Lyca bring me here?" She said Bella's voice echoed through the whole cave. She put her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her palms.

"Is this some kind of island code?" Bella's mind was so fuzzy trying to figure out what the scratches meant that she was beginning to think about unnecessary things.

Although, her thoughts weren't actually unnecessary because as soon as she finished her sentence the blue torches suddenly lit up more brightly and blinded Bella temporarily.

"Ugh, what just happened?" Bella closed her eyes and waited a few seconds before she opened them again.

"Huh?" Bella's vision became clearer. The light was gone along with the blue torches that were the only source of light of the cave, however, it wasn't dark at all.

The scratches on the wall were glowing in a blue hue. The scratches that didn't make sense earlier were now making sense. And the blue hue was the reason for it. It became the pattern, which made Bella able to understand it. The scratches were actually words made into a code.

"Just what happened here? Did I activate something without knowing?" Bella stood up and checked the spot where she just sat. There were no buttons of some kind than what Bella expected.

"Wait, is it because of something I said?" Bella questioned herself.

She recalled every word she said and it wasn't hard for her to find which one was the reason for the sudden change of the cave.

"Island code." Bella whispered and the blue hue on the scratches returned to the unlit torches.

Bella found it cool and admired what just transpired in front of her. She realized that how could there be lit torches when no one was around? How could the torches never run out of fire? The reason was because it was some kind of magic that Bella only saw on televisions.

She repeated the phrase and the light from the torches flew towards the scratches. Bella stared at it for a few seconds, she was admiring the glowing text written on the walls.

"The island is full of secrets. I was searching for antique items when I noticed that the island where I arrived wasn't the island I planned to go to." Bella started to read what was written. SHe frowned after reading the first paragraph.

"Is the one who wrote this an outsider?" Bella whispered underneath her breath.

"I noticed that the island was much bigger than I thought. I kept walking around taking pictures and looking for antique items when I realized something." Bella resumed reading. Her face became fear stricken after she read the next lines.

"The path that I took wasn't there. I traced all of my footprints on the muddy ground and thought that it would lead me to where I originally was. But it didn't. The footprints that I am sure were mine lead me to an unknown shore. It wasn't the shore where I left my boat, instead it was a shore with no sands nor trees. The beach was bare. It was an incredibly long shoreline and at the end of it was a lone big tree," Bella paused. She remembered that the entrance to the cave was also a big tree.

"And just below it was a hole that looked like a big rabbit hole. My feet just led me closer to it and I accidentally fell down. And that's when I found this place and learned about this island's secret." Bella was now certain that the big rabbit hole that the person who wrote this was the same as the hole where Lyca and she entered.

"I found a forgotten cave. It has blue torches that never run out of oil and keep burning. I was intrigued by it and started researching about it. A few months after my hard work, I learned that the blue fire that can never be extinguished was actually a sort of magic. Right after learning about that fact. One of the torches was extinguished, no, rather it left the torch and flew towards me. The blue fire enveloped my body and something about me changed. I could now control the blue flames of magic." Bella stole a glance at the blue torches and gulped the lump that was building in her throat.

Bella went back to the scratches but for some reason, some of the sentences were gone or maybe it was incomplete. And the last sentence written almost answered all of Bella's questions.

A tiny letters on the lower part of one of the walls and was the only sentence that was not induced with the blue hue read,

"The island's space moves." Bella whispered as she felt shivers run down her back.