“I don’t want to hear it. Please. Just leave, all of you.” They looked at each other, puzzled, concerned, but after my nuclear meltdown, they realized I needed space, and time to think.
I laid myself down, and listened to the sound of footsteps retreating softly. Finally, I heard the door close behind them.
Well, that went from ‘great’ to ‘suck’ very quickly, I thought. The Morrigan warned me the decision of who to trust would be difficult. Now, the question was not a matter of ‘could I trust them not to turn on me,’ but ‘could I trust them to tell me everything.’ I realized what I thought was true is only a fraction of the truth.
I want to let all of this go - but I can’t... The anxiety began homesteading in my chest. Perhaps this is good fear. An instinct to protect me from danger.
But on top of the threats from Evil, and all its minions, I now had something new to fear. Myself. The magical power inside me was now on the loose, and if I didn’t learn to control it, very bad consequences were a certainty.
The world I knew was crumbling around me.
I knew one thing for sure. I had to make it clear that any lie, even a lie of omission, would not be acceptable any longer. Needless to say, I didn’t leave my bed for the rest of the day.
Knowledge is Power
- Keira -
The next day came, and I was still lying in the same spot from the day before. My head was still spinning from everything that had happened. My best friend had dropped a huge bomb on me during a vulnerable time, and now I just felt stupid for not noticing the signs that were in front of me the whole time.
In fact, it felt like everyone was hiding a secret of some sort, and that secrecy thoroughly irritated me. On top of that, I didn’t even know if things would have been better, or worse, if they’d revealed everything to me at once. My stomach grumbled, and I tried to silence it mentally, but it gave me nothing but backtalk. Yesterday, I had lost my appetite and desire to do anything; I refused food when it was offered to me, and I hadn’t yet left my room. The unfortunate consequence was that now, I was starving. My room was catastrophe of mangled picture frames, broken ceramics, clothes spilled out everywhere. It was a mess, just like me. Hurricane Keira made landfall, like I’d dropped everything into a blender. I looked around, but my phone was nowhere to be found. I pulled myself out of bed and scrounged up some clean clothes. I had to shake out the glass shards before I could put them on.
With reluctance, I went down to the kitchen, hoping to grab some quick food to shove in my face. I kept my head down the entire time, and ignored Katie and Keegan when they each raised a hand to wave at me, before glaring at each other. Jinx! I would have smiled if I wasn’t feeling so thoroughly surly. At least the others knew better than to bug me today.
I grabbed some toast and a leftover muffin. The sense of being overwhelmed did not do wonders for my appetite, but I was required to shovel some fuel into my furnace. I wandered through the cavernous house, looking for a place to eat, somewhere I wouldn’t be bothered. I walked down an unfamiliar hall and I encountered a set of large French doors that I hadn’t yet investigated.
The room inside was gigantic; some sort of formal dining room. A long, black dining table, complete with two tall silver candelabras. Perfect for that Royal Feast I was planning.
I was drawn to the head of the table, where I spotted a large wooden box. I took my breakfast over, and scooted a chair out. As I nibbled, I stared at the box. An ash gray wooden case, shoe box size, made of solid wood. Solid. As in no way to open it. I gave it a small shake; something rattled inside. This must be Edna’s Shadow Box, I thought to myself. Edward had dropped it off, so maybe this was it. Now how the hell was I supposed to get it open?
I picked at my muffin and toast. Even with a million questions needling me, I needed a break from all the doubts and naval gazing reflection. I felt my little mind flame pacing about, bored. What’s your deal, Zippo?
I was startled when I felt a cold, wet dog nose pressed against my leg. After I nearly jumped to the ceiling, I looked down at Dante.
“Just like your owner, always popping out of nowhere.” I gave Dante a quick pat on the head and resumed picking at my muffin. Dante laid the old ‘puppy dog eyes’ on me. “Not a chance, ya mutt,” I grumbled. Yeah, right. Like anyone can resist those ‘puppy eyes’. Inevitably, I caved. “All right, here,” as I pulled off the crust of my toast for the dog.
“You’re going to spoil my dog, you know.” Brann was leaning against the doorway, inspiring me to jump to the ceiling yet again.
Speak of the devil... or warlock.
“What’s your point?” I grumbled, a bit prickly at Brann’s sudden entrance.
“The point is…” he began, but my attention clicked over to more interlopers, crowding behind him.
“What is this? A fucking intervention?” I demanded.
“We thought you might want to talk about yesterday,” Brann replied.
There are times when I’ve let my feelings get the best of me and my brain fries up. My emotions have always turned cold and fearful, and anxious, then I don’t want to deal with it. This is one of those times.
But the troubled look on Katie’s face makes me second guess myself. That, and the fact that I swear her ears looked... pointy.
“Fine, here’s the deal,” I said, unable to
