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.
"Look Cal, lets cut the crap. We both know we can't be in love with each other. You came here to see if you could fuck me because that's what I am to you, right? Just saw an outcasted freak that was easy to get on her back. So why don't you just take what you want and leave," she spat at him while sitting up, her eyes focused on him, full of tears and rage.
"Are you finished?" he asked in a monotone voice, sitting on the floor, staring at her with a flat expression.
His response enraged her. She grabbed a nearby lamp and threw it past his head. The lamp shattered into thousands of pieces. His eyes never left hers, even as the lamp whizzed past him.
"Stop trying to push me away, Marigold." His voice and expression were still flat.
They sat looking into each other's eyes, as Marigold released a shrill scream. Callisto had never heard a scream like this, it sounded almost like a dog whistle to him, piercing his ears. She flew off of the bed with speed and pushed him against the wall, her hand wrapped around his neck. She was weak then, and he could have easily overpowered her. But he didn't try to resist her. His eyes locked on hers. Her usual warm brown eyes had become cerulean blue.
"I love you, Marigold, for as long as you will let me," he calmly stated, as her breathing slowly returned to normal as did her eye color.
She lowered her hand from his neck and she stepped back. She lowered her head and sank to the floor, sobbing and holding herself. He lowered himself to the floor with her and held her, while her body shook.
Callisto knew that Marigold was hurt, but he underestimated how hurt she was. He had never seen her come apart like this. After the empathy settled, he felt rage. Marigold's rage was nothing compared to the silent rage that Callisto was feeling. But what she needed wasn't rage, it was tenderness and love. He gathered her up once she was more settled, and placed her back in her bed, and pulled the blankets over her.
He headed downstairs to clean up and get her house back in some sort of order before she woke up again. A few hours later, he had managed to clean most of the downstairs area and had ordered a new couch. He was able to have it expedited to be delivered tomorrow. He began repairing some of the holes in the walls, when he heard Marigold come down the stairs. They briefly made eye contact, then Callisto went back to putting putty on the walls.
"I'm sorry, you didn't deserve any of that." Her voice was raspy and small.
It filled the silence between them. Callisto paused repairing the walls, sighed, and turned to look at her. When their eyes met for a second time, she looked down and began to fidget with the blanket she was wrapped up in. Her usually bright eyes were red and puffy.
He wanted so badly to be mad at her, but his heart ached for her. He wanted to console her, to assure her that everything would be okay. But that would be a lie, he didn't know if everything was going to be okay. He just knew that he was going to be there for her, whatever she needed.
He extended his arms toward her and she ran into him. They embraced each other tightly as he kissed her head. After a few minutes, he pulled away from her.
