Games of the Heart

Shadowless

The afternoon sun shined hotly down at Eliza and she squinted against the bright light as she made her way across the nearly deserted campus.

Everyone was in the gym right now for the high school intramurals closing ceremony.

Everyone, but her, obviously

The week was the most fun she had since the school year started. She had fun watching the different sports competitions and cheering for her friends. She also enjoyed eating from the different food stalls and playing games from the carnival booths some of the classes had set up. Alex was her usual companion if he didn’t have a scheduled game, he had signed up for a lot actually, but if he did, she went around with her friends or with Anthony, if she could find him.

There were delightful victories but sad losses for their grade. Their girls and boys volleyball teams lost a lot and were low in the rankings. The scrabble team was only in second place. Their speed stacks team was a joke. And their badminton team nearly won but lost to the Grade 12 team. At least they won the basketball tournament, the 100 and 500 meter races, the relay race and the kickball tournament, among others. They were up for over-all championship if they were announced winners for the cheer dance and popjazz competitions and Eliza had been looking forward to screaming out her lungs if ever it would happen.

The guilt of ignoring Marco for the past week as well loomed over her like a dark cloud as well as Anthony’s words. Though she tried to push them all away from her mind, they kept nagging at her, especially when she crossed paths with him on campus.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Eliza shifted the folded tarpaulin in her arms in a more comfortable position. The ceremony was about to start any minute but here she was, doing a chore.

“You put that away.”

Eliza automatically raised her hands when her classmate, who was one of the people responsible for running their pastry stall, dumped their stall’s tarpaulin on her.

“You’re the class president anyway. You should be able to do this much since you didn’t help that much with the stall. That should be put in the storage room, by the way.”

And with that, she hurried out of the classroom to go to the gym.

She didn’t even let her get a word in, Eliza thought grumpily.

Blaming herself for even going to the classroom to check if her classmates had all gone to the gym, she quickened her pace. She could already hear the band starting to play music and the cheers from the gym behind her. The storage room was behind the high school building and she didn’t like coming here much because the alley leading to it was rather narrow and creepy. Although it was still 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon, the daylight didn’t really comfort her much.

She opened the padlock with the key and pushed the door wide open. Turning on the lights, she moved inside and quickly hefted the tarpaulin up on the table at the corner of the room.

Suddenly, the lights went off.

Startled, she jerked her head up.

Then the door behind her closed, enveloping her in near darkness as the windows were opaque and shut tight with age and disuse.

She rushed to the door, trying to pull it open.

“Hello?” she called out, banging her fists on it. “Is anybody there? I’m still here!”

No one answered. And the door stayed locked.

She felt the panic build, holding her hostage.

It was dark.

It was too dark.

“Hello!” She banged on the door again. The tears started spilling from her eyes in her desperate need to get out. Her phone was in her bag in the classroom. She had no way out. “Please! Open the door! Hello?”

She was feeling it. All around her. The darkness was choking her, the closed space making her unable to breathe. She was in absolute terror now.

Eliza didn’t know how long she was banging on the door. Her hands hurt, her throat hurt, her eyes hurt from crying too much. She was getting tired, so tired. Finally, she could no longer hold herself up and collapsed on the floor.

“Please,” she sobbed. “Please, open the door.”

She drew her knees to her chest and laid her the side of her head to the door, gasping for breath. Her whole body shook with fear and she felt faint. She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see how dark it was. She clutched her arm, gritting her teeth at the memory of that slashing pain, of the horror of seeing and feeling her blood flow down her skin and fall into drops on the floor.

“This is what you get for hurting me!”

That voice, that dreadful voice sprung in her memory. Eliza bit her lip and continued her struggle to breathe. She didn’t know how long she stayed there, engulfed in her horrible memories. Her body hitched painfully with every sob.

“Please,” she sobbed softly. “Someone help me.”

Help me.

“Eliza!” Someone shouted from outside the door.

Her eyes flew open and she jerked her head up.

“Eliza, are you in there?”

“I’m here,” she whispered through her tears. Swallowing hard, she repeated in a louder voice. “I’m – I’m here! I got locked in.”

“Get away from the door. I’ll open it.”

She wanted to move. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t even look elsewhere. It was too terrifying.

“Eliza?”

“I’m afraid,” she cried. “It’s too dark.”

“Just scoot over to the side. You can do it, Eliza. I’m here. Just listen to my voice.”

She still couldn’t move no matter how she tried.

“We sold out a lot this week.” Eliza heard a clanking noise outside the door. “I even bought the goods you made. Alex always boasted to me that your cooking was amazing but I didn’t realize it was that amazing, Eliza.”

Taking a deep breath, she slowly stretched out her stiff limbs, trying to make herself move. Marco was trying her best, she should too. The blood that rushed to her sleeping limbs hurt and she winced.

“Since we’ve done well, our classmates are thinking of using our profits for an excursion. I just hope it’s not another trip to the beach.”

She let out a watery laugh and sniffed. She closed her eyes and crawled to the side.

“Are you away from the door now?” he asked.

“Y-yes,” she stammered, curling on the floor again.

“Right,” she heard him mutter. “Here I go.”

A loud bang sounded outside, reverberating around the room, and the door trembled. She let out a shriek and covered her ears with her hands. There was another bang. And another. Finally, the door flew open. Light leaked inside the room and through her tears she saw Marco rushing inside.

When his eyes landed on her, they turned pained. He slowly knelt in front of her and cautiously put his hand on her knee.

“Don’t cry anymore, Eliza. I’m here.”

At his words, she burst out into loud sobs and flew into his arms. Marco held her trembling body against his tightly and murmured gentle words into her ear.

Thank God he found her.

Thank God.

**********

The closing ceremony was not even halfway over but Adam was already glaring at Alex from the Grade 12 seats in the gym.

He smirked.

Around him, his classmates and the other Grade 11 students were celebrating their cheer dance competition win. If they also win the popjazz competition then they were going to be the overall champions this year. And Alex knew Adam didn’t like that one bit.

He glanced next to him. Anthony was yawning. Eliza was still nowhere in sight. Frowning, he looked around for Marco. He wasn’t here too. Where the heck were they?

“Hey,” he nudged Anthony with his elbow. “Where’s Eliza?”

Anthony gave him a sideways glare. “How would I know? I’m not her keeper.”

“Then do you know where Marco is?”

“I sure as hell am not his keeper.”

He gave him a look of frustration and turned around his seat to where a group of Class A students were sitting.

“Do you know where Eliza is?” he asked them.

They looked at each other. “No. Hey,” they asked other people. “Do you know where Eliza is?”

“I think I saw her going somewhere with our stall’s tarp,” one replied.

“Really?”

“I’m not sure though. I was running to get here fast.”

But then where was Marco? he thought as he thanked them and turned to the front. Were the two still outside, making up?

Or did something happen to her?

He couldn’t get this prickling worry from his mind. Eliza wasn’t answering his texts too.

“Hey, I’m going to go look for Eliza,” he whispered to Anthony.

Anthony shrugged. “You don’t need my permission. I’ll be gone in awhile too.”

More like he was going to leave halfway through the ceremony.

He made his way down the bleachers and walked out of the gym.

“Fernandez!” a boy from Grade 10 came running to him as soon as he was outside. His voice was urgent. “You need to go to the clinic.”

His heart started to pound.

“Why?” he asked.

“Eliza Rosa. She—“

He didn’t let him finish. He had already started running to the clinic.

Fear pounded in his veins as he thought of the worst.

Why was she in the clinic?

Was she sick?

Why didn’t she tell him?

So many questions raced through his head. But the one that he kept thinking about the most was: was she alright?

It didn’t take him long to reach the clinic. He burst through the doors and halted to a stop, searching for her. Then he found her. She was resting on one of the cots, her face pale and tired. Marco was sitting on a chair next to her, holding her hand.

“I’ve already called her father,” the nurse told him kindly when she spotted him. “He’s on his way.”

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked, though he dreaded the answer.

“Her classmate brought her in and said she wasn’t feeling well. The doctor is still out tending to a freshman who sprained her ankle so I took her temperature. She has fever. I already gave her medicine.”

Alex looked at Marco and the other shook his head slightly. He clenched his jaw.

This wasn’t simply just a fever.

He thanked the nurse and approached the cot. Eliza was restless in her sleep and on closer inspection, she looked like she had been crying from the redness around her eyes. A tear slid down her cheek and his chest tightened.

“What happened?” he asked Marco without removing his gaze from her.

“She got locked in the storage room,” Marco answered quietly. “I wouldn’t even know she was inside because it was dark inside when I tried peeking through the windows. Seems like the electricity also went out there.”

“Why would she go to the storage room?” He was perplexed. “And alone? She doesn’t even like going there at all.”

“I asked some of our classmates where she was as we were going inside the gym for the closing ceremony. Seems like they sent her to put something back in the storage room. When she didn’t come even after the ceremony started I thought something must have happened so I went there. And I was right.”

Alex nodded, giving him the go-ahead to continue his story. Marco let go of Eliza’s hand and leaned forward on the chair, bracing his elbows on his knees and holding his hands together.

“The lights were off and the windows were opaque so I couldn’t really see anything inside but darkness. I was going to leave when I heard someone crying inside. And I realized she was in there.”

Alex touched Eliza’s cheek and with his thumb, wiped the tear away.

“Has she gotten herself checked?”

“For what?” he asked a bit harshly.

“For her phobia? Doesn’t she have… I don’t know… nyctophobia or claustrophobia?”

Alex felt his chest burn. He didn’t know how to answer him.

Fortunately, he was saved from answering Marco when Eliza’s eyes fluttered opened.

“Eliza.” He sat on the cot. “Are you alright, Liz?” he asked her gently.

Her eyes glistened with tears. “Yeah,” she whispered. “But I was so scared.”

He took her hand, squeezing it. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice pained. “I’m so sorry, Eliza. Please. Tell me what can I do make it go away?”

Her eyes glanced at Marco before returning to him. “I’ll be fine, Alex. Don’t I always get pass through things like this?”

“Yeah, but—.” Her hand squeezed him, her eyes begging him to stop talking about it. He gritted his teeth. “Fine. Just… just promise me one thing.”

“Anything.”

“That you’ll tell me okay? That you’ll always tell me.”

He didn’t need to elaborate because Eliza immediately understood.

Their promise. That she’ll always tell him when everything gets too much. That they keep no secrets from each other when it comes to that horrible memory.

Nodding, she squeezed his hand. He was satisfied. At least for now. But he was going to prepare for how this incident may affect her in the future. And he had to tell her father.

Dang it. He should have looked for her. He should have been looking out for her. Thank God for Marco.

Turning to Marco, Alex said, “Thanks, man.”

His eyes were concerned when they lifted from Eliza. “You don’t have to thank me, Alex. She’s my friend too.” He looked at Eliza. “I am still your friend right?”

She giggled and the sound was like music to Alex’s ears.

“Of course you are,” she said.

Marco smiled and turned to get her the glass of water from the side table. Alex didn’t miss the look of regret that passed her face as she stared at him. He shook his head. Eliza still haven’t told her the reason why she’d been avoiding him but seems like they had made up because of what happened today. But Alex wasn’t that obtuse like he was before. The reason she’d been avoiding him was probably because his popularity had began to burn her.

If he need to protect her from Marco, then so be it.

Anything.

For her.

***********

The dried leaves on the grass made crunching noises as Anthony stepped on them. He stopped walking and stared at the door of the storage room. He heard about what happened to Eliza when Alex called his phone. And though he had been halfway home, he turned his self around and returned to school.

He didn’t go to the clinic right away. He directly went here. When Alex said that Eliza had accidentally locked herself in, doubt filled him. Not many people knew this but the knob of the door to the storage room was broken after being picked countless time by students who were looking for a place to hangout and gamble or by delinquents who were cutting classes or smoking cigarettes without alerting the teachers.

The school janitor had hammered a hasp on the door instead of replacing the knob and sealed the room with a heavy padlock. So there was no way, no freaking way Eliza could have ‘accidentally’ locked herself in.

He glanced at the hasp where the padlock should be. It was broken, barely hanging on the staple.

His eyes roved the ground before locking onto something metallic glinting against the sun. Bending down, he saw that it was the padlock and picked it up. His gaze tightened and he looked back to the storage room. Apprehension clenched his stomach and his fingers tightened around the lock.

This was no accident.

Someone had locked Eliza in.