CHAPTER ELEVEN: Time

Jessica Jung spent all her days trying to find her lost prince. Lately she had been feeling kind of weird, with lots of things about love, fiction and whatnot popping into her head. And she had been thinking that in a mainstream love story, it was the prince who would get his on his beautiful white horse and find the lovely princess, his damsel in distress, the love of his life. Mister charming would unsheathe his sword or whatever, slay the dragon and save the girl from certain death- or she would probably already be dead by the time he got to her, maybe his horse is just too damn slow, and some kind of godly magic would revive her- by kissing her and then they would both get their asses on his royal horse and they would ride off into the sunset.

Now that is quite the happily ever after.

And Jessica, well she was hopeful most of the time but right now her hope was fading.

She didn’t think that she would get that kind of fairytale ending. Reality is cruel, that’s why we have stories because were too old to build forts out of blankets and run in the streets or play pretend.

And yet here she was trying to be Miss Princess Charming.

Here she was, going crazy, looking for a person she only knew for less than two months.

He wasn’t even physically present and there he went on with what he was or was not doing, leaving her and driving her insane, almost to her breaking point.

Right now she was lost.

Lost in the middle of nowhere and not even a map would save her kind of lost.

And even though she was out from the whole day yesterday until four in the morning today, she didn’t find anything new.

Now it is 3:00 in the afternoon and she had just awakened from her eleven-hour beauty sleep.

She still didn’t know what to do.

She didn’t know where to look but up, up at the stars or the ceiling or whatever.

And she rolls around her bed in frustration. It has been about eight days since her weird dream.

She still didn’t have a clue.

‘I must have gone mad.’

She leaves her bed and sits down at her dresser, staring at the girl in her mirror.

‘I talk to dead people.

Not just that.

Oh god.

I can even touch dead people.

I got left hanging by a boy, the first boy I actually thought I could start a life with.

And all he leaves me is a creepy note.

It’s like Sherlock Holmes only with ghosts and I’m not smart enough.’

“What am I gonna do?”

She looks down on her ice princess necklace, the pointed edges of the little diadem. She holds the pendant as close to her heart as it can get, the cold from the silver and the precious stone slowly disappearing in her warmth. She sighs.

How on earth is she gonna save him when she doesn’t even know what danger he’s in?

How is she gonna do that, when there’s barely any place left to look in that she’s familiar with?

She sighs.

“Maybe I’ll go see Krystal.”

Jessica drags her body into her shower to get ready to see her dearest sister. As she bathes, she goes through all the things that have happened in the past few days- like she always would, when she was her bath time.

She dries her body carefully like she always does, no rushing. Then, she dons a pink sundress and wraps the towel around her hair. She walks to her dresser slowly and pulls the chair from under the table, closing her eyes when the screeching sounds of the chair’s legs scraping the wooden flooring in bedroom breaks the painful silence.

The blonde girl looks at her reflection in the mirror again- admittedly, she’s been doing that a lot lately- and without looking away, she reaches for the open box pressed against the mirror. The note he left with the box and the necklace is still there. A smile crosses her features as she remembers the last time they saw each other.

And soon her smile disappears.

She feels for the necklace, but the only thing she seems to be touching is velvet and paper. She looks at the empty box and her eyes widen in shock. She panics.

Jessica frantically searches for the necklace. She begins pulling out drawers, lifting boxes, looking around in corners.

The necklace is nowhere to be found.

Jessica collapses face first on her bed, her head buried in her pillows. She screams as loud as she can into the soft surface and bangs her fists on the bed. Tears escape from her eyes.

‘So petty,’ she thinks.

She screams some more.

It really was just a necklace. She could get a thousand of those.

‘Or maybe not.’

But really, a thousand copies of those, or even more expensive jewelry could never add up to the  value of this one gift that came from him. After all, he could have given her a plastic rose- the ones that you could buy for less than a dollar in L.A. on Valentines- and she would’ve kept that and treated it as if it were the most expensive gift in the world.

Not all the riches in the world could compensate for anything as special as this.

Just as nothing in the world could compare to him.

And she only knew him for a short amount of time, yet she felt like it’s been years. It felt he’s the one who’s made for her.

But now he’s gone.

And the one thing she has as a reminder of their love- or whatever it was- is gone as well.

It was the only thing she had left of him. It was the only piece of him she could hold on to, aside from the memories she has with him.

It disappeared just as the angel boy from her dream did.

And now it was lost.

Just like he was.

And she couldn’t find it, just like she couldn’t find him.

Just like she couldn’t save him.

Now she feels like there is really nowhere she can go, no one she run to. And so she finally picks herself up from the ground- or the bed- and takes the towel off from her head. She sits in front of the dresser, tears streaming from her eyes, and she combs through her tangled blonde locks. She puts on a pair of studs- diamond- and she touches the part her neck where the pendant was supposed to fall.

Without the chain around her neck and the pendant on her chest, she felt empty.

She felt incomplete.

She sighs.

Jessica takes a pair of shoes from her closet and sits on the bed as she puts them on. She then grabs her bag- with the notebook- from the same place behind the door and marches out the house.

She needed someone.

And right now the only she knew who would be able to understand her is her sister.

She needed her sister right now.

She needed to see Krystal.

Jessica left the house at about 4:30 and she got to the cemetery by 5:00. She took her time walking and admiring the view, stopping at random bushes to adore the variety flowers whose bright colors demanded her attention. It helped her forget how much stress she was under at the moment, so she didn’t rush. She looks at the sky, admiring the clouds and the sweet sweet blue that painted the endless space above. She that blue would soon turn to a mix of pinks and oranges and yellows swirling around and above her head. And then it would soon be dark and the sun would disappear.

And still she strolled, spending her time like she would blow money on a shopping spree when there’s a sale at the local mall. First she passed by Krystal’s grave, leaving a fresh batch of white tulips on top of her gravestone and smiled. She didn’t stay very long, not even bothering trying to talk to Krystal from there like she used to before she knew she could actually communicate with dead people. She stepped away from the gravestone and back on the stone path that was laid throughout the cemetery like a maze. Finally she reached the grassy area where the stone path ended and she knew she was near the forest at the back of the cemetery.

She continued on to the back like she did many times before until she found the rock she and her sister would sit on when they would talk.

She was surprised to see that Krystal didn’t appear before her.

Jessica smirked, then let out a small giggle and sighed while rolling her eyes.

She knew her little sister was less serious and more mischievous, unlike her. And Krystal liked to do this sometimes. So she called out to her.

“Krystal Jung,” she said. “Stop joking around and appear before me now.”

Jessica closes her eyes.

“I will count to three and when I open my eyes you better be in front of me.”

“One.”

The blonde puts her hands on her lap, holding her bag in front of her.

She smiles, yet she still doesn’t feel anything.

‘Krystal is really playing with me huh?’

“Two.”

‘She should be in front of me by now,’ Jessica thinks as she holds her pose steady, still wondering why she doesn’t feel the presence of anybody standing in front of her.

She begins to worry, thinking that maybe Krystal left earlier today because she got so used to not seeing Jessica for days.

And Jessica didn’t want that.

She purses her lips.

“Three.”
 

The ice princess bites her lip for fear that Krystal, the only one who she has left, has left her. Maybe she took flight like the angel in Jessica’s dream, and Jessica hoped not. She had been left alone too many times in the past few days. She cannot afford to lose Krystal too.

And so she opens her eyes wide.

She blinks.

To her surprise she finds Krystal Jung standing there with her back the ice princess. Jessica lets out a sigh of relief.

Her sister was the same as ever.

Same skin tone, same hair color and length, same beautiful face that resembled her own.

The only thing that was off was that Krystal was wearing a white tunic, like those the Roman Gods and Goddesses in history book wore, and a woven gold belt was tight around her waist. What was more peculiar was that the younger Jung sister had a pair of wings, like those of an angel’s, stuck to her back. They were pure white, and suddenly they spread out, leaving a gust of wind that sent the fallen leaves and petals dancing in circles with the wind.

Jessica shields her face and holds her hair to the side before she stands up.

Why did she feel so uneasy about this?

“Krys-“

“Why did you come?” Krystal says, not moving.

Jessica refrains from answering, shocked at her little sister’s sudden outburst.

“WHY DID YOU COME, UNNIE?” She shouts even louder and turns around to face her sister. She has tears dripping from her eyes.

The sun is setting behind Krystal. And Jessica never noticed before, but as the golden ball of flame disappeared into the horizon, she could make out the faint glow of a warm white light above her sister’s head.

It was a halo.

And Jessica knew.

Krystal starts floating in the air, her hands rising up as she closes her eyes. The sun was disappearing fast.

And so was she.

“Krystal, no!” Jessica pulls her down, tears streaming from her eyes and down her cheeks. She jumps, grabbing Krystal’s hand, trying to take her back from the Gods.

“Unnie, let go of me,” the younger Jung sister says without trying to resist the older’s forceful tugging on her arm.

“No!!” She screams as she tries to pull harder.

“Unnie... You shouldn’t have come. It would’ve been easier for you to just concentrate on what you really have to do. You’re running out of time...”

“What I really have to do? I don’t know what you’re talking about!!” She pulls, and for a moment they are stuck in this position.

“It’s over unnie. You’ve moved on. You didn’t think about me for days.” She smiles a pained kind of smile. “I’ m glad...I can rest in peace now.”

“NO!! THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT!” Jessica screams, trying to pull even harder. Before she can tell, she is floating mid-air, two feet off the ground, holding desperately on to her sister’s arm.

“If you didn’t come, it might have been easier on you unnie...I’m sorry...”

Jessica feels drops of water on her arm. She looks up to see if it is raining.

Then she realizes they are tears.

They are Krystal’s tears.

And she’s flying three feet off the ground.

Five feet.

‘She’ll never rest in peace if I don’t let her go.’

Eight feet.

‘It’s hard but,I really have to...’

“Krystal, I’m not ready!!”

And all she can see is her sister’s pitying eyes looking down on her.

She realizes no one is really ever ready, a small part of her will always hold on to her sister. She will always remember Krystal. And maybe she thinks she hasn’t moved on, but in reality she has, and this is that small part of her that is still holding on.

Twelve feet.

“Unnie...I love you...”

Krystal smiles. Her halo is glowing bright, like a star, a golden light illuminating the darkening sky. Once again, she spreads her wings.

Fifteen feet.

“I love you too. So much.”

And suddenly Jessica is standing air, right in front of Krystal. She looks into Krystal’s tear-filled eyes with her own and she reaches out to hug her sister.

“I love you. I will always love you...” Jessica whispers as she plants a kiss on her sister’s forehead and tightens the hug.

“You too, unnie.” They both look away.

"Always."

And with that, Jessica releases her sister.

She falls to the ground.

Goodbye, Sis.

I'll miss you.