Callisto couldn't shake this feeling he had had for the past few days. Marigold hadn't been answering his phone calls or messages. He stopped by her shop to check and found Zora working alone, saying that Marigold told her she was very sick and needed time off. Marigold was not one to not work, and she definitely wasn't one to be unavailable for several days and not notify him.
He headed over to her house and parked in the driveway. He got out of his car and noticed that the grass and weeds had overgrown, which was not the norm.
"I hope she's okay, I know she and her friend had a big blow up," an elderly woman said from the street, with concern written on her face.
"Her friend?"
"Yes, the man that works at night. He left a few nights ago, and I haven't seen either of them since."
Callisto could feel his breathing pick up.
"Thanks for keeping an eye out. I'll go check it out." He turned to walk towards her door.
"Are you her boyfriend?" he heard the woman shout after him, as he continued to walk.
Her front door was locked, but since she had invited him in previously, he was able to appear on the other side of her front door. Her first floor was dark and cool;he noticed that everything was in a state of disarray. He started to question if she had been robbed or attacked. If she had, she should have been able to fight them off as she was stronger than he was. His mind kept going from a scenario worse than the last one while he walked to the kitchen. He was looking for Judas, but all he found was a bowl overflowing with cat food and an overturned water dish.
He headed slowly up the stairs, as he reached the top, he saw Judas sitting in front of Marigold's room. It seemed like he was waiting for him. Callisto followed him into Marigold's room, where he expected to see her in bed, but she wasn't there. There were clothes covering the floor as well as her vanity overturned and various holes in almost every wall. Whatever happened here, it was clear there had been a struggle. Judas meowed at him from the cracked bathroom door. He slowly opened the door to find Marigold lying in a tub full of water, staring at the wall in front of her, seemingly unaware of his presence. The bathroom was in the same state of disarray as the rest of her house.
He knelt down by the tub and placed his hand against her cold, wet hair. She still didn't say anything, but continued to stare straight ahead, blinking occasionally.
"Marigold, what happened?" he whispered, while he continued to run his hand through her soft curls.
She didn't respond.
He grabbed her face to turn it towards him. "Marigold, are you hurt?" His voice was more stern.
Her eyes finally met him, but like her hair, they were cold. He saw a tear escape as she turned her head back to continue to stare at the wall. He saw that her body had the appearance of wrinkles all over it, suggesting that she had been in the water for some time. He placed a hand in the water to feel the temperature, he quickly pulled back his hand realizing that the water was ice cold.
'How was she not shivering?' he thought, as he stood up to look for a towel.
He placed the towel on her bed and gathered a few blankets. He went back into the bathroom and picked her limp body out of the tub to place her on the bed. He felt her skin, it wasn't cold at all. He dried her body off her body before he wrapped her in blankets and laid her in bed. She hadn't said or mumbled a word since he had been there, he didn't understand what was going on, or what he needed to do. He knelt next to the bed to kiss her forehead; it was then he realized that she didn't have her energetic field up. While her mind was quiet, he could feel what she was feeling. He felt hopeless, grief, rage and then nothing. He felt completely numb.
'Cove found out about you two and he confronted her,' he heard, and assumed it was Judas.
'I'm guessing it was bad?' Callisto asked, while continuing to stroke her forehead.
'Bad would be an understatement. He told her that she deserved what Noah did to her, that she was naive to think you loved her and that he was never her friend. He was sent here by their clan to keep tabs on her so she wouldn't do anything like that again. He left after, and we haven't heard or seen him since. She destroyed the whole house and has been in the tub for two days just staring at the wall.'
Callisto lowered his head and closed his eyes. When he looked back up at her, he caught her eyes watching him.
"Why are you here?" she asked, in a voice barely above a whisper as she folded herself into the fetal position.
"I was worried about you and you weren't answering any of my messages. I went by the shop and Zora told me you were at home sick."
Her body started to shake and Callisto realized that she was laughing. He stared at her with a puzzled expression.
