Secrets Kept Upstairs

Chapter One

"Wake up, Callie," a voice whispered ominously behind her.

Callie yelped in surprise and turned around quickly, almost knocking herself to the floor in her haste, "What the-?" She questioned as she looked at the empty space in front of her. 'Oh hell no,' Callie thought as she scanned the darkness for any signs of the person who could have whispered creepily behind her, only to find an empty street and abandoned sidewalks. Goosebumps lined her skin, prompting her to pull her jacket closer to her body.

"Hel-" Callie started tentatively before gaining some sense and shutting up. She had watched enough scary movies to know that calling out to a creepy, disembodied voice never ended well. She picked up the pace, practically sprinting to where she could see civilization up ahead.

"Callie, stop running and wake up," the voice demanded, louder this time and still sounding as if it were right behind her.

'Ohmygodohmygodohmygod,' Callie thought frantically as she ran even faster. Her lungs felt like they were about to collapse seeing as this was the first time Callie had ever done anything more strenuous than a brisk walk, but she pushed harder. She refused to be caught by this creepy voice. 'I don't know what would happen to a Hispanic girl in a horror movie situation like this one, but I really don't want to find out.'

"It's time, Callie," the voice urged, sounding almost as desperate as Callie felt, "It's time to wake up now."

The floating voice didn't sound angry or like it wanted to hurt her, but that didn't stop her from pumping her arms harder and running faster than she thought possible for a human sized potato. Any kind of voice whispering in the dark was one to be avoided in her humble opinion.

After what seemed like hours, Callie finally reached downtown and passed an elderly couple that scolded her as she raced past. She didn't stop running until she reached the hustle and bustle of the middle of town. Then, and only then, did Callie screech to a halt and hunch over, putting my hands on my knees in an attempt to catch my breath. The lights and people around her did little to settle my racing heart.

'What the hell was that? There is no way, absolutely no way it could have been an actual person messing with me. And I am definitely not going crazy...or maybe I am. How would I know?' Callie thought distractedly to herself as her eyes darted left and right, trying to find an invisible floating voice in the crowd.

"Please, Callie," the voice came again, this time from her right.

Seriously?

"Are you-," Callie whispered lowly as she looked around discretely, "are you a ghost?" Maybe it needed her to help it contact someone from the Otherside. This could be a textbook Ghost Whisperer situation! That definitely settled better in her mind than schizophrenia.

"No, Callie," the voice chuckled – it actually chuckled at her! "I'm here to help you," the voice sounded soft now, gentle even, "but we must hurry. We don't have much time."

"What?" Callie asked bewildered, looking down at the ground and talking out of the side of her mouth, hoping that looked normal enough for people to ignore, "I don't need your help with anything, disembodied voice, and I would really like you to leave me alone now."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Callie," the voice replied gravely, "We need you."

"We? Need me for what?" Callie questioned, her voice rising in her confusion, causing a few heads to turn in her direction. She grinned sheepishly and quickly looked away to dig through her bag. Callie pulled out her phone and held it up to her ear.

"Who is we?" Callie demanded, talking into the device and looking less crazy, "Actually, pause on that first question. Answer this one first because it's way more important: who the hell are you?"

The voice let out a sad sigh, "I can't tell you that, but that's not what's important right now."

"See, that's where you're wrong," Callie replied, "I think it's very important. I think if you don't tell me who you are right now, there is no way I'll help you with whatever you need help with," Callie warned in her most threatening voice.

"I really can't tell you, Callie," the voice said again.

"All right, well, I guess this conversation is over," Callie replied testily, "Good-bye forever." And just for appearances sake, and – if she was being honest – her own satisfaction, Callie pressed on the blank screen of her phone, effectively hanging up on the voice/non-ghost/invisible person.

"You know that's not how this works, Callie," the voice sounded after a few seconds of tense and hopeful waiting.

Callie let out a frustrated groan and grumbled under her breath, "I was hoping that was how this worked."

"I can't leave until you wake up," the voice replied insistently.

"Okay, I don't know if you've noticed, but I am awake," Callie said as she flailed her limbs around in front of the wall she was now talking to in order to further prove her very valid point.

"Callie?" Another voice called out to her, but this one, fortunately/unfortunately, was human. And familiar. Very familiar.

"Jacob!" Callie responded enthusiastically as she quickly turned on her heel to face him with a smile wide enough that Callie could barely see him through her squinty eyes. She was hoping her charm would be enough to distract him from the fact that she was basically yelling at a wall.

"Everything all right? You looked like you were talking to that wall," he asked her warily. Well there goes the charm idea.

"Yup! Yup, yup, yup," Callie replied with wide, unblinking eyes, "Everything is great. I was just...talking to myself," Callie finished in what she hoped was a convincing nonchalant voice.

Jacob opened his mouth, but no sound came out, so he closed it again. Callie let out a self-conscious laugh as her gaze flicked to his lips. He stared at her and Callie stared back, hoping he would go, but also hoping he would stay.

"Are you sure you're okay? Because you're talking extremely fast and being very weird," Jacob said after several more seconds of staring.

Callie let out a loud, boisterous laugh that was 1000% crazy, but could you blame her? Her nerves were almost fried because of the talking voice in her head telling her to wake up from god knows what and her unreasonably sized crush on Jacob basically destroyed her brain to mouth filter, making her sound like a complete idiot.

"I'm always like this," Callie replied with another nervous chuckle and a nonchalant hand wave.

He still looked like he was trying to figure out if Callie was on drugs or just being herself, but an unsure smile eventually made its way onto his adorable lips, "Okay..."

"Right, well," Callie cut in before he could continue, "I should really be heading home now," Callie said, raising a thumb and throwing it over her shoulder casually. "You don't know what kind of psychos come out at," Callie looked down at her phone to check the time only to see it was, "6:30 pm."

"Right," Jacob said with amusement lighting his immaculate features, "You don't want to run into any old people on their way back from their early bird specials. They can get vicious trying to get home before the news starts."

"See, you get it," Callie replied with a genuine laugh before backing away from Jacob and lifting her hand in a parting wave, "I'll see you later, then."

"Yeah, see ya," Jacob said with – what her hopelessly romantic brain hoped was – a fond shake of his head before turning his back on her and walking into the crowd of people once more.

"Callie," the voice sounded again, "wake up. Now."

Well, at least the voice had manners, waiting until after her tragic conversation with the star of all her fantasies.

"Why me?" Callie asked the sky, half hoping it would reply with all the answers Callie needed. "Am I actually going crazy? I have a voice talking to me in my head telling me I need to wake up from, what? Reality?"

"This isn't your reality," the voice responded emphatically.

"No," Callie replied quickly, shaking her head and walking away from the crowd, "No, I am not doing this. I'm not going to listen to you tell me how nothing is real or that I'm not real and my actual body is sleeping in a lab somewhere and this all just a dream."

The voice laughed, "Don't be ridiculous, Callie, of course this is real," the voice sobered, "but your life here is not. You must come home. You must save us."

Callie was almost home, but the voice was unrelenting. Callie didn't have time to deal with a talking voice. 'I have a calculus test tomorrow that I haven't started studying for.' she whined to herself.

"Look," Callie said as she continued walking, "I don't know if you're real or just something my stressed out brain conjured up, but I need you to go away now, okay? I don't have time to save anyone except myself from failing calculus."

"I didn't want to have to do this, but you've left me no choice," the voice replied solemnly.

"What?" Callie asked, panicking slightly. She was alone again, the streets and sidewalks void of any and all people, and silently cursed her stupidity. 

"What're you-" Callie cut herself off with a loud gasp as she doubled over in pain, her head narrowly missing a lamppost in her quick descent. It felt like a white-hot branding iron had been placed against her chest and temples, while molten lava traveled through her intestines. Her vision clouded over as she tried to hold in a scream. Then, suddenly, the world flashed white and Callie felt a tugging sensation in her stomach.

Callie heard a fading voice whisper, "Save us, Callie," before everything went black.

Chapter Two

There was a breeze wafting over her body and under her clothes. That was the first thing Callie noticed. The second thing she noticed was the dull pain coursing through her entire body, which lead to her unwilling release of a pain-filled groan.

The expression of her pain seemed to disturb whatever environment Callie was in as she heard the rustle of leaves and the scurrying of some kind of animal in underbrush.

'Animals? Underbrush? What the-' She opened her eyes to a lush forest all around her. 'I don't think we're in Freeding anymore, Toto,' she thought to herself as she tried to comprehend her current situation.

Did the creepy voice knock her out and drag her into the middle of some random forest? What the hell!

Callie struggled to get her aching body into something resembling a sitting position on the soft grass below her. Now that she wasn't lying on the floor, she could clearly observe her surroundings.

There were tall, sturdy looking trees surrounding her as she sat in what seemed like a small clearing. A thicket of bushes grew to the left of her and a few dandelions were sprouting in the grass. And sitting directly in front of her, with its nose twitching and ears sticking straight up, was an adorable little bunny. Callie couldn't help the "Aww" she let out in response to its cuteness. She had never seen a bunny in the wild before. Mostly because she'd never been in the wild before. And why was she in the wild now? Oh right....

"Hey," Callie practically shouted into the open expanse of forest before her, effectively startling the bunny and every other creature within a four-mile radius, "What the hell, disembodied voice? Are you just gonna leave me here?" Callie's whiny voice carried into the endless greenery of her surroundings. Her only response was the rustling of leaves.

Oh, how wonderful! Of all the times Callie wanted that stupid freaking voice to just disappear it chose now to listen?

"Answer me goddamnit!" Callie screamed furiously at the sky.

Nothing.

Callie let out a particularly nasty shout of frustration and threw her body back into its previously reposing position. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared heatedly at the sky.

As Callie lay there, angry and confused, she tried to come up with a plan of action. If this jerk of a voice didn't come to her aide and tell her how to get out of here, Callie would have to do it on her own.

'But how?' Callie thought despairingly after a few seconds of fruitless brainstorming and intense staring. She had no idea where she was and the only other life form she had seen since she'd gotten here was a skittish bunny!

'Speaking of bunnies, I think I hear it coming back,' Callie thought happily. She could use the company. 'They never can stay away long,' Callie thought smugly as she slowly began to sit up to receive her quickly approaching companion.

But when her smug face turned to greet the little fur ball, Callie was met with something a lot less furry and a lot more human.

The figure that had entered the clearing came to an abrupt halt and examined her with narrowed eyes. Before Callie had any time to react to the stranger, he had a gun pointed at her face.

"Holy shit," Callie yelped in surprise and fear as she frantically tried to scoot herself away from the scary man and his scary gun.

"Who are you," he demanded in a low, gruff voice - he was definitely not a friendly bunny.

"I-I'm," Callie stuttered, trying not to pass out from sheer terror as she raised her hands, "My name is Callie," she replied in a high-pitched and quivering voice.

"Who do you work for."

"Wh-what?" She replied, confused. Work for? Callie had recently gotten a job at Baskin Robbins, mostly for the free ice cream and less for the 'work experience,' but she highly doubted he wanted to know that, so Callie was at a loss.

"Who," he repeated tersely, "Do. You. Work. For."

Should Callie try with the Baskin Robbins thing or... "What does that have to do with you pointing a gun at my face?!?" Callie replied frantically.

Instead of answering, the man just raised his gun pointedly and adjusted his stance, seemingly getting ready to shoot Callie.

"Oh my god," Callie let out breathily, "Please, I don't know what you want from me, but I swear I'm harmless." Her heart was beating so fast she thought she was going to throw up from fear.

Callie didn't know what else she could do to convince this man that she wasn't the threat he thought she was, but then she remembered Oprah... and April Kepner.

Callie took a deep, steadying breath, "My name is Callie Baranda. I'm 18 years old. I'm from Greenclove, Freeding. My-my parents died in a car crash, so I-I live in a foster home. I'm a good student and a hard worker and I didn't do anything wrong. I swear," Callie said it all in such a rush she wasn't sure he even understood a word of what she said.

The man had lowered his gun slightly and relaxed his stance, which made her unclench about 400 muscles. Thank you, Grey's Anatomy.

Now he was looking at her curiously, still trying to determine whether Callie was a threat or not. She might as well let him know she was the human equivalent of a marshmallow.

"I'm only trying to get back home," Callie let out weakly. "I have a calculus test tomorrow," she finished with a pathetic shoulder shrug.

The man completely lowered his gun and Callie let out the biggest breath of her life.

"Okay," he replied, seemingly convinced she was harmless, bumbling simpleton.

"Oh, thank god," Callie said as she let her eyes slip close for a moment.

"Stand up," the man demanded again.

Callie's eyes popped open to look at the demanding man still standing before her as she sat cross-legged in the grass.

"What? Why?" Callie asked, defensive and wary of the gun being tucked into the waistband of the man's jeans.

"I need to search you," he replied gruffly never taking his eyes off her.

"Excuse me," Callie replied with raised eyebrows and narrowed eyes.

"For weapons," he continued, "I can't risk being shot in the back once I let you go."

Man, this guy was paranoid. 'Do I look like someone hiding a gun in my bra?' Callie thought, 'If anything, I should be the one paranoid about being shot in the back! He's the one with the gun!' But she figured it would be easier to let him search her than fight him on this. He was the one with the gun after all.

Callie sighed, "Fine," she agreed, huffily getting to her feet.

He inclined his head slightly, as if silently thanking her for her cooperation, but Callie doubted it. He was probably just flicking a bug off his face. Thanking her seemed like the last thing on this guy's mind. Then he approached her in four long strides and promptly started patting her down.

Callie's arms were lifted and she was trying very hard to fight off the blush creeping up her cheeks as he moved his warm hands all over her body.

Could you blame her though? This guy may be a jerk, but he was a hot jerk, like a really, really hot jerk.

She didn't have time to appreciate him before he whipped out his gun and she had to fear for her life, but once the gun was gone, so was her dignity and she began her perusal. He had dark hair that was combed back, out of his face so as not to distract him from all the gun pointing he probably did in a day. There were dark eyebrows atop of green, maybe brown, no hazel - well, whatever colored eyes he had, they were gorgeous. Then there was his jaw - it was chiseled - with a few days of scruff across it. He looked young, but exhausted, something that showed in the way his eyebrows were constantly drawn together and his lips were quirked down in the corners. This guy obviously had issues.

"Okay," he announced suddenly, and Callie realized his hands were off of her and he was standing in front of her with a grumpy look on his face, eyebrows scrunched together, "You're clean."

"Yeah, I could've told you that," she grumbled back, looking to the side and trying to hide the fact that she had been shamelessly checking him out. He didn't need any kind of ego boost; he did almost try to kill her.

Then she heard the shuffling of feet against grass and quickly snapped her eyes back to the space where the hot man had been only to see broad shoulders and dark fabric walking away. Callie knew she couldn't let him go. Sure, he'd just held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her, but he didn't - and she really wanted to go home.

"Wait," Callie called out hastily to his retreating back.

The man stopped in his tracks and turned slowly to face her with an almost imperceptible sigh and eye roll, but Callie saw it - Callie saw it and mentally rolled her eyes in retaliation.

"What," he said tersely.

"I-" Callie didn't know if she should be asking this specific douche- person this, but then she reminded herself that she had no other choice and firmly said, "I need your help."

The man's dark eyebrows lifted in surprise at her demanding tone, and it seemed that was all the reply Callie would be receiving from him.

"Well, this is how I see it," Callie started bluntly, "You almost killed me, so you owe me a favor."

"I already did you a favor," the man replied. It was obvious he'd rather not be having this conversation.

At Callie's look of confusion the man said, "I didn't kill you."

Callie resisted the urge to groan in frustration and punch him in his hot face. Instead, she gave a tight lipped smile and clasped her hands together, tightly.

"Okay, well," Callie said after recovering, "I count that more as human decency than a favor."

The man scoffed.

"Please," Callie tried again, softening her voice and letting her hands drop down to her sides helplessly, "I have no idea where I am, and I just want to go home."

The sigh he let out sounded like one of resignation. Callie's hope flickered dangerously in response.

"Where do you live?" he asked, annoyance coloring his deep voice.

Callie had to fight the urge to fist pump in victory. She decided it would be better to hurry up and tell him before he changed his mind, "Are we anywhere near Greenclove? I live on 164 and 75th."

All Callie got was a look that made her feel like an idiot.

"What?" Callie asked defensively. She wasn't an idiot.

"There's no Greenclove in Ellisium," the man replied slowly, as if he had read Callie's thoughts and was basically saying 'no, you are definitely an idiot.'

"I'm sorry," Callie replied after absorbing his words, "Elli-what-now?"

"Ellisium. The dimension we're in," he said, his voice rising at the end, questioning her sanity.

What.

"So we're not even in Freeding?" Callie questioned loudly because she was panicking and  this patronizing man was not helping.

"No, wherever that is, we're nowhere near it," he said with a tone of finality, sealing Callie's doom.