"Trinity! Trinity! Over here!"

The voice was barely audible in the large school cafeteria as Trinity made her way grudgingly at the boy who was standing on his toes, waving his muscular arms in welcome. She was by the table when the boy almost knocked her over with the one-armed hug he gave her. Her aversion to physical contact was a battle that she had admitted defeat when it came to Mike Collins.

Mike was something of an insistent puppy in Trinity's life. No matter how many times she had tried turning him down for a date, he was always busy concocting another scheme of how he would ensnare her in his everlasting love. His favourite term for the situation was that she would 'come around'... whatever that was supposed to insinuate.

"Hey, Trini!" Mike's enthusiastic voice, unlike Melanie's, felt like the numbing sensation one had after consuming too much sugar. And the fact that he still kept calling her 'Trini' despite being numerously cautioned against it did not help the feeling for Trinity. In what universe did he expect that to be appealing in any sense?

"Hey, Mike," her reply was almost mechanical as she drew her food closer to her. She had spent years cultivating a nice and cordial way of remaining polite in public, all the while clearly hinting at how she did not want to be involved in whatever social madness was happening at the present. Of course, this worked on everyone but Mike, who went on with his rendition of I-Know-One-Day-You'll-Fall-For-Me.

"Let her eat first before you start hounding her, Mike," the blonde girl seated to Mike's right interjected as she subtlety pulled Mike away from Trinity. The girl's name was Angela Webber as far as Trinity's memory stretched. She, together with Mike, were the only two people who could say came close enough to be Trinity's friends since they started high school.

But of all the people Trinity willed her body to speak to, Angela was the only one who was least frustrating conversing with. The first few weeks of their friendship felt good. Angela knew when to leave her to her thoughts and when to interject with information that would help get her through it. Socializing with her made Trinity believe she could actually get past this conundrum called social life.

That was until she walked in on a conversation in one of the washrooms. Angela was popular with the boys. She had them dancing around her palm and she enjoyed the attention. Trinity never really saw it as an issue. Everyone had a flaw and it seemed this was her friend's. But it seemed she couldn't get one particular football player to look her way long enough to be mesmerized by her beauty. And the cause of that was in Angela's words, "that annoying little loner bitch."

Trinity debated at least twice a day on annihilating Angela's chances by actually taking Mike up on his offer of a date. Then the jock would open his mouth at lunch and the thought would vanish from her mind. But she needed a social life if the councillor and her mother were ever going to leave her alone.

So she was forced to stay friends with an overgrown puppy who didn't know the meaning of the word 'No', and a jealous bitch who desired nothing more than seeing Trinity vanish from the face of the earth.

The joys of her life never seemed to stop flowing.

"You sure you can't come to the party today, Trini? It won't be nearly as fun without you?" Mike's comment was nothing but a lie and anyone attending that party would prefer Trinity to be absent. Teenage life was a miserable affair that Trinity had stumbled upon in her existence. The fact that girls could now enhance their beauty shortcomings with makeup and boys had glimpsed the pictures of swimsuit models in their older brother's magazines to know exactly what unrealistic expectations to want from a woman's body made relationships comical.

Trinity had ventured to a few parties. Hated all of them in increasing intensity until she vowed never to set foot in one until she was through with high school. But a sideways glance at Angela's tense face had Trinity wondering what harm would come in stirring the pot just a bit.

"Was it today? I completely forgot."

"Well, we did have that Math test earlier than planned so that might have messed with your sense of dates," Angela's voice was anything but civil no matter how anyone looked at it. Trinity wondered when she and the girl had come to being passive-aggressive with each other over a boy. Was friendship really just a means to an end when you were young?

"Could be," she was still contemplating how long she was going to stir this pot. Was she being petty just like Angela by trying to antagonize her? It seemed childish to keep this up any longer really. She might have been antisocial, but being mean was a step she was not ready to take.

"So, are you going?" Mike reeled the conversation back to the matter he wanted an answer to. It was at parties where many relationships started and ended in high school. A fact Trinity knew Mike was gunning for full throttle.

"No. I have other plans today. Why don't you and Angela go? Angie is much livelier after a few shots of tequila."

The reaction was exactly as she had predicted. Angela trying to hide her beaming face at her absence tonight and Mike downright looking like Christmas was cancelled. But this was best for everyone. And as Angela went on all day discussing her attire plans to Trinity, the girl wondered why she never valued her own happiness.

* * *

Trinity was heaving a sigh of relief as she opened the door to her home. Friday was easily the best day of the week for her. Gym was a class that Mrs Kelly didn't particularly care who attended despite stressing its necessity. So Trinity took it as a free session and always headed home early whenever she felt like it. But the true joy of Friday lay in her not needing to pretend to like anyone she didn't for a good two days. The joy that brought to her was incredible to the point that she went about doing the chores at the house whistling merrily.

She was in the kitchen about to put the load in the dishwasher when the black box on the counter had her happy mood evaporate immediately. The gift wrapping from that morning was done away with and a note lay underneath it. Moving closer, she could make out her mother's handwriting on the white paper.

'When you're ready.'

When she was ready... Trinity could not fathom why her mother was fixated on shoving the idea of a father down her throat. Since she was a child, she had little to no memory of her father. But one stood very vivid in her mind. The day he said he'd come back and left. That was the first night she saw the man fight the creature in her dreams. And the last time in eleven years the man she was supposed to call 'Father' crossed the threshold of their home.

She wanted nothing to do with this man. She was going to put his memories and this gift he sent her where they belonged; in the trash.

As soon as her hand came into contact with the box, Trinity's vision was obscured with nothing but trees. The kitchen she was standing in just a few moments ago was gone. She could see nothing but vegetation, and the ominous-looking cave that stood in front of her. She could feel something in the air... something alive.

A certain hum.

"Ditching gym again?" she recognized the voice that came from behind her belonging to her brother. The instant she turned back, the magic of the moment vanished and she was back in the kitchen. What was happening to her? Was she finally losing the little grip she had on her sanity?

"What? Still mad about the surprise birthday party?" Tevin appeared none the wiser as he made his way towards the fridge, disappearing behind the door for a minute before he emerged with a can of soda in hand.

"Well... You did promise you wouldn't have one for me didn't you?" Trinity tried to keep her voice even as she went about loading the dishwasher. Her imaginary world was a problem she confided to no one, not even her always understanding older brother.

"Forgive my insolence, Godfather. I shall never stray from our brotherhood ever again," his absurd joke had her laughing despite just having suffered a hallucination she had no idea what triggered. And through the night, it was impossible to recollect just what had occurred in the kitchen that afternoon with the horror film that Tevin had decided was the best idea for a late-night movie. His fixation to gore and violence was always a weird trait Trinity mentioned only a million and one times to him.

"Come on," Tevin laughed as Trinity dug her face into his arm for the umpteenth time during the movie, "You know there's no way a five-year-old can slice clean a grown man's torso right?"

"I don't know... that's what I don't like about these movies."

He snorted loudly at her irrational fear and continued to point out the many irregular killings that made the movie an overall let down to him. Trinity would venture a look at the screen now and then but something about the unknown of the supernatural didn't sit well with her. She detested anything she could not understand fully. But Tevin made the moments bearable. And by the time the credits were scrolling on the screen, Trinity couldn't stop laughing at every idiot in the film who met their comical and exaggerated end.

"You're a bad influence on me," Trinity spoke as she took the popcorn bowl for a refill to the kitchen as Tevin was scrolling through the lineup of movies available, still convinced he could find something that would scare him senseless.

"Probably... Night of the Killer Panda? Now they're just messing with me."

Trinity had the bag of popcorn in the microwave when her sight landed on the black box still at the centre of the counter. Her mother's words etched on the piece of paper still a weight on her mind. This morning was the first time in a while that her mother had brought up her father. And then there was the hallucination she had when she touched the damn thing. Was all of this just a coincidence... or was there more to this craziness than what lay on this surface.

Ping!

The sound from the electronic had her jumping back from the counter. She had been unconsciously moving towards the gift.

"Not getting any younger here, Godfather!"

Tevin'squip had Trinity smirking as she filled the bowl with more popcorn and pickedthe six-pack sodas from the fridge. She exited the kitchen with questions thatmight never be answered and a black box currently snuggled in her sweater'spocket.