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It had only been a few days since Calintha had been set up in her small apartment, located just a few blocks from her new school. It was quite the trip since she'd woken up in the hospital a few weeks before. Her mother had been less than pleased to see her again, but had fortunately enough heart to kick her out of the house and pay just enough for Calintha to eat and breath each month.

The apartment was gorgeous to her though, with multitudes of windows lining each wall and enough space for her and her plants. And now she was sitting at a cute little cafe on a terrace separated from the bustling sidewalk by only a small fence. It was the best little place, and served a fantastic array of organic salads.

Yes, everything was perfect, save for one little detail. Every night Cali was plagued by horrors which would leave her gasping for air in the dark of the night. Creepy feelings lurked around the corners of the city, like something sinister was stalking about. She couldn't remember anything about the school she'd attended for years except for the very beginning. They said it was a human organ trafficking ring; but that seemed like a load of bull to the blonde teen. It was a puzzle that she could not figure out, and it was driving her mad.

Staring off into space, she absentmindedly picked at the salad in front of her; pondering the mysteries of life.

Snapping up from her absentminded contemplation she looked around for a moment before settling eyes on the boy in front of her. He was pale and freckled and most of all, he was familiar. "I...I'm not sure." She paused and really looked him over. He looked different without the black cardigan... and at that moment, Calintha's mind put two and two together.

She abruptly stood, hitting her knees on the table and rattling the dishes loud enough for her table neighbors to stare in distaste. "You! Your from-" She cut suddenly, dropping to nothing but a faint whisper, breathless "Barren Pines."

Shocked, she slumped down into her chair and looked at the boy in front of her with wide brown eyes. There were too many possibilities for her brain to wrap around, and she didn't even know where to begin. Sure, Calintha knew there were other survivors, but she'd never had much interaction with them that she remembered. She had begun to believe that it was a lie, and that it hadn't existed. The solid proof standing in front of her shattered the small protective bubble she'd built up, leaving her speechless.

She looked down to the side and blushed slightly, avoiding the eyes of the boy in front of her. Nodding slowly, she gave consent just a moment after the boy had already sat down. Calintha was at a loss of what to do or say, particularly to his next question.

Was she alright? Yes and no both came to mind, and neither seemed any better or worse than the other. "I... I don't know. I don't know anymore." Shaking her blonde head Cali brought herself out of her stupor and looked into the eyes of the boy in front of her. His name was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't recall what it was.

"Sorry for the shock. I was just beginning to believe it didn't ever happen, you know? I haven't talked to anyone else since-" She paused. "Well, since I woke up."

Calintha balked a little at the mention of good things. "Good things?" She lowered her voice to a frenzied whisper. "Good things?! How on earth could you rationalize...that school as a good thing." Though, now that she sat back and thought about it, she didn't know what was so bad other than she couldn't remember some things. What had been so bad about it?

"I'm Calintha Johnson. I'm not surprised we that we didn't meet...I spent most of my time in the greenhouse." Unconsciously, Calintha raised a hand and touched the necklace hanging at her throat. She had managed to keep the key to the greenhouse that had been at the back of Barren Pines, and she almost always had it on her.

Dropping her hands, she started to pick about at her salad again, but this time she actually decided to eat a few bites. "I don't even know why it was so bad." Just a nagging, gnawing feeling that everything at that school had been terribly terribly wrong, but no clue why.

Calintha couldn't help but give out a laugh at Ignacio's explanation. It was a lifeless laugh, almost with no emotion involved. The people at the tables around them stared a bit before turning away. "A monster mash eh?" She laughed again, this time more disbelieving than anything.

"Dead? Dead?" Clearly, something had not been quite right in this boys head when he woke up. "Look-" Her voice dropped again, unwilling for others to hear their conversation. "I don't know what game your getting at, but you don't just die and come back to life. You don't. I don't know what happened at that school, but I can tell you right now that I'm not dead. You may be some kind of freakin Jesus, but I'm not."

And that was that. Clearly she wasn't dead. Living flesh, beating heart, breathing air- last time she checked Calintha was pretty sure these things meant you were living. Regardless of how shallow a life you lead. "I'm just me."

"Bacterial Meningitis?" She ran the words over in her mind a few times. They didn't seem particularly familiar, but then again there was that nagging feeling again. "I guess? Maybe anyways. I'm not really sure."

She looked up from her salad and stared at Ignacio with large eyes, but this time she really looked at him. Bacterial Meningitis... something seemed familiar, but every time she was close to snatching it, the information shifted away from her. It was like a terrible confusing dance at which she was failing horribly.

"They..." She almost had it. Calintha struggled with her fuzzy memories. "They said you were dead? Was that you? There was an outbreak or something." Everything was a little clearer, but no less confusing. "But that sort of fits into the human trafficking explanation that they told me when I woke up."

"Inhuman? And yea... no problem. A lot of people call me Cali." The whole thing though sounded iffy to her. Though, the girl hadn't been able to figure out why she had avoided meat so much since she'd woken up. The girl, even though she was a dedicated botanist, had never been a vegetarian until that year. But that was silly, this whole thing was silly.

"This is so silly. Here we are in a nice little cafe talking about bacterial meningitis and inhuman hunger, whatever that means." She pushed her plate away from her, no longer willing to eat any more. "I don't know what kind of game your pulling, Ignacio, but I don't think I like it."

"I shoved my plate away because I don't feel like eating anymore. The salad was almost gone anyways." It was a lie. Calintha had shoved her plate away in frustration at everything that Ignacio was telling her, and at everything she couldn't remember.

Inhuman hunger for flesh though, that seemed straight out of a zombie movie. Or straight out of nightmares.

Her nightmares.

Cali grew cold at just the thought of it- how on earth could this boy that she'd never really met before know what she dreamed of in the middle of the night? "How do you know my dreams?" The words were soft, but the look in her eyes as the blonde girl stared at him was as hard as rock. Apparently her life had turned into some kind of prime time special that she wasn't privy to.

Though, if Ignacio could offer answers to her night terrors, then perhaps his wild stories weren't too terrible. Calintha would do just about anything to know what really happened, though she was not prepared for it in the slightest. How do you tell someone that they'd eaten the living flesh of another student? Hallmark certainly didn't make cards of that caliber.