"-a-and then t-this big b-b-black thing j-jumped out at m-me.... I swear i-it was a Callabus! I swear, River! On my life!" I sighed. That was the twelfth person today who had sworn on their life, they had seen a Callabus. It seemed to be a theme going around over the past month. 'I saw a Callabus', 'The Callabus- it was there'- 'I swear over my life I saw it'- it went on and on and on.

       "Well Miss.... Miss-"

       "Carr."

       "Miss Carr," I said, nodding at the lady in front of me. "Can you please- describe how the 'Callabus' appeared to look?" I kept the quotations to myself, for if any of the patients in here saw them, they would all try to murder me. I volunteered often at a rehabilitation center, even though I had to keep it secret from my parents. Why did I have to keep it a secret? Because this kind of stuff was banned. Research in mythical creatures had been forbidden. No one knows why- all I know is that my parents were one hundred percent against it, and I was considered illegal. Miss Carr grabbed her black hair tightly in her hands as if she could pull it out. She sighed.

       "I-it looked like a horse," she started, her voice already trembling.

       "A.... horse." I held in my laugh, because I knew I wasn't allowed to ridicule the patients.

       "Yes. A horse. But at the same time it didn't look like a horse." I jotted down notes in the pad I was holding. The girl's voice became softer, as if the trauma seemed to be lifting off as she explained it. "It looked like a horse in shape, but it seemed to be made from smoke. It had the basic shape, solid around the legs and body, but where the main and tail should have been-" she shuddered. "It grew into a long trail of smoke. But that- that's not the worst part." I tilted my head curiously to the side.

       "What else?"

       "I-" she took a long, soothing breath. "It said my name." Carr's eyes looked hollow. She pulled her poorly-knitted shawl closer to her shoulders as she looked down at the rotten-wood flores. "'Psyche,' it had said. 'I've been looking for you. Do you remember me?'" Tears began to form in the girl's-Psyche's- eyes. I just stared at her for a long moment.

       "And... Do you remember it?" I felt like a child listening to their mother's made-up fairy tale, urging for more answers to their many questions. Psyche shrugged.

       "The voice sounded vaguely familiar- maybe I heard it once when I was younger, like at a fair or something- but I had obviously never seen the body before." I nodded as I scribbled down 'heard, not seen' in my messy writing, and looked back up at Psyche. She still had the dead look in her eyes, the dark circles signaling no sleep just adding to the effect.

       I touched her shoulder as I stood up, dusting the dirt and dust off my 90's high waist vintage jeans I had 'borrowed' from my mom. 

       "You should get some sleep." I told Psyche. "I'll get back to you as soon as I can, if we find something." Psyche stifled a yawn as she laid down on the straw mat placed under her.

       "Thank you, River." she whispered before falling into a deep sleep, away from all the worries of the world.

⛯

       "We've got a problem, Sissel." I said, smacking my notebook down on her desk. Sissel Gaines. She was one of the few head personnel at the center.

       "What is it." she groaned, looking up at me. She had the same dark circles that Psyche had, which meant she too had gotten no sleep. But I couldn't blame her.

       "There's another girl here who has seen it. Psyche Carr. She's a year younger than me, 14, and has been here three weeks." Sissel groaned, fiddling with the end of one of her dreadlocks, pulling it apart a little bit. Over a hundred people this month had claimed to have seen a Callabus.

       "River-" Sissel started, pausing for a long moment and fiddling with her dreadlocks again. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

       "Yes?" I questioned. It wasn't really like Sissel to share much. She kept information to herself, whether that being information about her daily life, or about the program itself. Sissel sighed.

       "With all these sightings, River, I'm beginning to think that there's really some sort of creature out there."

𝐀/𝐍: 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨! 𝐈'𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭! 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝟏-𝟐 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬! 𝐈𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭, 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐈'𝐦 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞, 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟 *𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬*. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬. 𝐈'𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠!

-𝐍𝐚𝐭