So it was in that state of mind that she then ran into Aeron, bouncing off of him and left sprawling. He gave her a hand to get up, and she numbly accepted. He stood her back up, and asked her, “What`s wrong,” in a surprisingly concerned voice.
“Why would you care,” she demanded, fat angry tears now rolling down her face in great numbers. “You`re just an uncivilized egoistic jerk,” she sniffed, “So just,” she bit off, “Go back to the mistake that made you!” Her tears were now streaming behind her as she ran off into the crowd, somewhat blindly sticking her key into the van`s ignition. She began driving herself home, so upset she didn`t remember the other two would now be stranded at the party.
Alyss spent a sleepless night, restlessly tossing and turning. Dreams came to her in fragments and pieces. Aeron`s words tumbled through her mind over and over. “I should have remembered, should have remembered her.”? She tossed and turned.
Legs desperately pumping, throat burning, lungs huffing in and out. He glanced across at her as she twiddled her fingers, speeding up so that all he could see was her hair swishing in the back. He looked at his goal so desperately and thirstily, the gnarled hand reaching up for his foot went unnoticed. With one great gasp he fell into the leaves, struck by the heady mixture of decay and the clarity the rain had brought to the scent of the forest.
She ran back to him, more anger than worry on her features. He tried to get up and brush off, but his cheeks darkened when he fell again. She started growling.
“I swear, I didn`t mean to, but I just can`t seem to get up. It`s really not my fault! I-“ She whirled around to face him and put a finger to her lips, then rotated so she again faced the tree. Her growl grew stronger, a haze of pink mist surrounding the tree. She spoke in the tongue of her people, and blue spots sparked around the tree. Its leaves rustled, and ne creaking branch came down to his level. He stared at it with wildly, eyes darting from it to her.
She smiled. “It is going to apologize properly. You need to shake hands.” He looked at her in complete bewilderment, then smirked with doubt. He casually held his own hand out, and jumped when the tree shook it. She looked at it more strongly, and it shuffled out of the clearing.
Catching his gaze still on the tree, she smiled and caught his hand. Laughing, she pulled him forward, and they both ran off under the trees.
Alyss mumbled in her sleep. Two noses were pressed at her bedroom window. “She has awoken,” the left one said. “The binding is losing its grip of her” They both looked at her expectantly. A sparkling purple aura surrounded her, slowly dieing down again.
“It has begun,” the voice on the right said with authority. Both disappeared into the night.
The week moved too slowly, the excitement of the party making everyone restless in their classes. The day finally came, though the sun had barely swallowed the stars when Jackie showed up on Alyss`s stoop. There was barely a cursory “Hi,” as she was unceremoniously pulled out of the house and dragged to the car. “What are you doing!?” Alyssa demanded.
“Fixing your look. You`ve only got the whole ladylike thing going on in your wardrobe, if the last week is anything to judge by, so we need to get you something more suitable for the party today. I`m thinking clothes, hair, and especially nails would be good.”
“You are never going to let me live down the first day, are you?” Alyss grimly clutched the handle bar above her door as the car sped far beyond the speed limit. “You really have no right to say anything, going twenty above the limit is much worse than some chipped nails,” she responded dryly.
“Meh, I`m a car kind of girl,” Jackie responded, eyes shining. This is one of my favorite models out there. I saved up forever to get this thing!” She patted the dashboard fondly, cooing, “Aren`t you a nice girl, Ruby?” Alyss choked with laughter in the passenger seat. “The car has a name! A name! You`d think she was talking to a baby,” she laughed, wiping away in imaginary tear.
“Yeah, well,” Jackie replied, stung. Their speed slowed down to the limit. “Hey, why did you come here so late in the year?”? Jackie asked.
Alyss was silent for a moment, staring out the window. The scene came back to her so clearly. The doctor said I would get better if I weren`t in such a damp climate, he said we have to move to a drier area. Ugh, I don`t get why you never care about anything. I`ve almost died a few times from my asthma attacks, and all you care about is going to work and keeping the house shiny clean. Why don`t you care about your daughter at all? Why didn`t you care when I brought a boy into the house? Why don`t you care about anything that matters?
“Alyss, are you okay?” Darien asked, coming into the room. “Yeah, sure, why not,”? she blew him off, stomping away. “Hey, this is serious! I want to know what`s wrong with you right now,” he said, smiling.
“They aren`t doing anything, but the doctor said we have to move. He said I`d probably die the next time it happened.” The aching pains, the constant lethargy. He`d seemed to feel that the moisture and heat of beautiful Florida didn`t
