Pendulum || TAENNIE FF

⚔Chapter 47: Fall back

A U T H O R

"How did she get in? No one knows about the passageway but us!" A feminine voice said.

Heather could barely open her eyes but she can hear voices surrounding her. It was blurry and the echoes caused her to be in pain. She grunted and tried to see the creatures with her.

"We should take her back. She might be a spy sent by the royal family! We will all be in danger if she wakes up and reveals our hideout." The lady was panicking. Heather opened her eyes more but all she could see are blurry townsmen in panic.

"Can't you see the poor child is unwell? Call Master Woora right away!" She felt her hand being held by the lady who wanted to treat her. "Miss, can you hear me? Don't you worry. We will take you back as soon as you're fully treated."

She heard the door open and footsteps of someone rushing were heard. "Where did you find her?" It sounded like an old lady. Heather slowly turned her head to where she heard the voice. "She can hear us right now."

"My kids found her in our village's entrance. She found it, Master Woora."

"She found it or she accidentally got in?" The old lady came closer and felt Heather's forehead. "She will be all right after she takes the medicine I give her. She must've been in shock. Take her to my cottage and report this to my brother right away."

A man carried Heather and brought her to the old lady called Woora's cottage. "Who are you?" Heather breathlessly asked. "I mean no harm. Don't let them capture me."

Woora sighed and sat beside the girl. "No one's capturing anyone. You got in by accident. One of the village kids probably opened the passageway by mistake." She grabbed a wet handkerchief from a small pot filled with herbs and pressed the wet cloth on Heather's forehead. "Now rest. We will discuss what to do to you when you gain full consciousness."

--

Flake stopped at the door when he heard a silent noise coming from the pavilion. He was bothered, causing him to return inside to find out what it was. He passed through the passageway and looked around the garden. "Heather?" He called, noticing that she's not on the bridge anymore. He found her cloak on the ground and quickly took it. "Heather!" His voice only echoed back to him. "Where did she go? There's only one way to get out..."

Flake left the place and went to look for her outside, assuming she found another way out without him noticing.

"Where are you going?" Maya asked when she saw him in a rush while she was on her way to fetch Heather from them. The cloak he was holding caught her attention. What bothered her more was the nametag pinned on it. "That's Heather's cloak. Flake, what did you do?!"

"She suddenly disappeared. I don't know where she is." 

"That can't happen... We'll go and look for her." Maya ran and went to Chase and Firo at the cafeteria to tell them what happened. "Flake said she suddenly disappeared. Heather can't just disappear like that! Something must've happened to her."

"She's back to wandering around again," Firo said and stood up. "I may know where she went, but just in case I'm wrong, the both of you try looking for her around the school." He suggested and left to look for her near the silver river. He found her there once so there's a chance that she's there this time.

The path was long and confusing but Firo was able to get there before sunset. He ran towards the big tree and sighed in relief seeing her sitting under it.

"What happened?" He asked and sat beside her. "Flake said you disappeared."

"I'm leaving." She simply answered and looked at him. "I'll talk to them before our meeting starts tomorrow."

"But you worked so hard to get in. I may not know what happened but Heather, you love writing. I've read your entry that time. There's no way they can find another student who's better than you." Firo tried to change her mind but Heather shook her head and stood up. 

"I don't need your flattery. I'm not backing out so just let me do what I want."

Firo didn't want to upset her more so he stayed silent and followed behind her back, escorting her to the dorm. "Heather!" Maya called and hugged her. "You had us worried. Where were you?"

"Just...somewhere." She tiredly walked towards her bed and lied down.

"She's exhausted. We'll just talk to her tomorrow." Maya said to him and closed the door. 

Hours went by quickly and lunchtime finally came. Heather went straight to their workplace after classes ended and met them in the pavilion. "I want to quit." She suddenly said, surprising the team.

"Heather, you can't. You just got here and...hey you have potential. You could always try again on our next release." One of the members said.

"Thanks for being with me for a short time. I just figured that this might not be for me after all." She said with a bitter smile in the end.

"Just because you couldn't make it to the final compilation?" Flake spoke and walked towards her. "Ink Fictions require perseverance and you want to quit because of one rejection?" He was holding his anger back and she could see that.

"It's not about perseverance Flake. I have no problem with the rest of the team. The only problem is you. I would keep writing hundreds and thousands of stories even if all of them are rejected in the end because I love to write. What you did was just absurd. If your perseverance means ignoring and throwing away my work until you find it good enough then I'm not cut out for this. I'm talking about valuing each of our hard work even if it didn't meet your darn standard. What can I do? I don't have the qualities needed to become one of you." She took out the nametag that was given to her on her first day and crumpled it in front of him like how he did it to her stories.

"Heather..." The members softly called.

Tears were forming in her eyes but she did all she could to hold it back. "I'm grateful for all the lessons you guys have taught me. I'll go ahead." She turned around and wiped her years on her way out.

--

Too much?😅 

Can someone already foresee what's gonna happen in the future chapters?👀 There's also a little preview of "somewhere" important that will play a big role in the book🤭

I hope you guys liked it and see you again next time!!🤗