I'm resting back in my 'room' that, Ricky brought me back too after we spied on the leaders having a disagreement... Ricky unfortunately had to leave to go back on duty. He promised though he would check in on my friends for me and come see me later to let me know the state that they are all in... Especially, Kelsey...
I'm still trying to process alot of stuff in my mind. Then... A memory tugs at me from under the surface. I see my hands reaching into a cupboard at the small house, turning a core ball over. I stole it? How badly did I want to go back home subconsciously? Has it be confiscated from me or have I hidden it somewhere?
I shrug my shoulders and then I feel power flowing through my fingers. It starts of small, but a small ball of light is there. I concentrate on it hard, my powers are still here? And then left behind is the core ball in my hands. It's pretty 'weighty' in my hands and I try to activate it, but nothing happens. I give up after some time, sigh and manage to make it vanish, but I can feel it's near and within my reach somehow, unavailable to others.
I flinch when I hear my door creaking open. It's Shelby and she's not wearing her mask. She looks tired and puzzled, only sort of just peeking in. "Hello?" I whisper hoarsely and I see her jump back a little, but she doesn't outright leave.
"M-Morning..." She whimpers back in a kind of childish voice. Her hands are fidgeting, eyes darting all over the place. "Can I help you?" I ask feeling like she might not be a threat to me...
I see her shoulders rise and slump, then she pushes a strand of her dyed hair behind her ear. "Where's Declan? His usually with you..." I tell her.
"His sleeping." She answers, not giving me much to go on. She's not very talkative is she? Hell... She's usually pretty 'aggressive', but this girl before me now hardly seems the same as the girl I met before... wait, I've been pretty 'out of it' according to Owen and living a different outcome! Maybe her entire persona is different this time around?
"What's the weather like this morning?" I ask. I see she perks up a-bit at me asking a 'proper' question. "It's cold, Father said we might get a bit of a blizzard today." She responds, cracking a small smile. I smile back to her which seems to make her happy. Then I hear a door opening and closing followed by some foot steps. Her eyes go wide and she darts into my room, gently closing the door, but keeping an eye out.
I hear another door open and close a second and later. She seems to breathe a sigh of relief and turns around, looking at me. "Do you..." She trails off.
"Do I what?" I ask.
"Wanna play?" She smiles, her eyes lighting up. Should I be trusting this girl?! She has her hand out for me to take. "Father doesn't have to know. 15 minutes? I never have anyone to play with in here! You're the first girl my age I've seen in here!" She tells me, clapping her hands.
"Sherbet, I-I don't know if I'm really allowed to leave this room..." I tell her.
"If anyone asks, I'll cover for you!" She smiles, still holding out her hand. I roll my eyes and give in. "Alright, what's the worst that could happen?" I say, throwing the sheets back and placing my pillow to be 'me' and then covering it up again. "Yay!" She squeals, grabbing my hand and pulling me outside the room and down the hall, but not before us both gently closing the door of my 'room'.
---
I take a breath in as I'm sitting on a bright pink bean bag in her room that pretty much looks like a child's... She's inside some kind of, 'pop-up' tent, colouring in a colouring book and her legs kicking back and fourth as she focuses. I sigh and rest my face in my hand, turning my head to look at her bed. It's fairy themed.
Declan is on it, curled up sleeping, his tail moving every so often. I look back to Shelby. She's now humming a song and a crayon rolls out of her hand. I pick it up and hand it to her. She begins to thank me when she stops mid-sentence, looks frightened beyond belief, drops the crayon and she's pushing herself away from me, looking like she's about to burst into tears.
"W-what! H-how! How! What are you doing in here?! Where am I?! What's going on?!" She yells at me and I jump to my feet, backing towards the door. "W-what do you mean?! Y-you are the one who brought me in here!" I respond and I see Her eyes widen. "I-I did?!"
"Yes!" I yell back. She looks sad now and then looks back up to me with anger. "Get. Out. Valerie." She growls and I nod, accepting the situation for what it is and pull the door open to step outside, ignoring her. She's cursing about the pinkness of the room, then squeals just as I feel a hand on my shoulder.
I gulp.
I turn around slowly to look and now I see Shelby is hiding back in the tent again, she's rocking back and fourth, holding Declan with a tear streaked face. He lets out a small, sad 'meow'.
"It's okay, Sherbet... You just hide in there. Valerie won't hurt you one bit, I promise, she's harmless, but I do need to get her back to her room though."
I see she's glaring, but it's not at me and starts crawling out of the tent.
I relax that it's just Owen and I look at him. He gives me a somewhat 'annoyed' look. Yikes! "Come on, let's go." He says without a bit of empathy and he forcefully drags me out of the room, leaving a puzzled Shelby behind.
---
Owen brang me back to my bed and now his taking my pulse. "Valerie" He says pretty casually.
"Yes...?"
"Why did you disturb, Sherbert?" He says, looking up. You can see his warm, honey brown eyes.
"I didn't, she approached me."
"Oh, I see... Apologies for blaming you then."
"Owen, why was she... Different?"
"She's been through alot in the past, Valerie... I feel perhaps it's best if you leave our pasts alone."
"S-sorry!"
"Don't blame yourself, it's not your fault to begin with."
And then he let's go, placing my wrist down again. "Owen..." I say.
"Yes, Valerie?" He answers, pulling off latex gloves and disposing of them.
"When can I leave and go back to my fiends?"
"Valerie-"
"Please, you can't keep me here! I want to see them!"
"I know you want to see them, but it's my job to make sure you're going to be okay. How much worse can a few days be? I haven't been 'totally unbearable' have I, Valerie?" He says getting a little grumpy with me.
I nod slowly and back down. "No, you haven't been."
"Thank for for your reasonability, Valerie."
I sigh. "Is there anything I can get you?" He asks me.
"No, I just want to be left alone, Owen.."
"Alright, I will respect that. Afternoon tea should be in a few hours." He says and I nod watching him turn around, pack up a his medical kit. I pull the blankets up and turn my head feeling that my eyes are tired and heavy. "Do you mind if I rest a bit?" I murmur out.
"Not at all! You go right ahead, Valerie" I hear him answer while sorting through something.About two minutes later, I hear a voice.
"Son."
"Owen, sweetie."
"Mother, Father? What are you doing here?!"
"Something- I- I mean, *we* should have done a long time ago."
"And what is that, Father?"
"Prevent you from getting in *our* way of course my 'dear', 'darling', Owen just like the daughter who abandoned us before did." Rain whispers.
"What in Kiki's name are you both talking about?! She didn't abandon you! She let you go because if you love someone, you let them go. She wanted you to learn some lessons to one day return home! And can you not see I'm just as busy as you both?! I'm afraid that I have Valerie to be looking after."
"Oh, really? Well, allow me, us to take her off you're hands for you."
"You will do NO such thing!"
"Really? Because... I think we already have, Son."
And Sebastian clicks his fingers.
"Rain"
"Mother, what the hell?! Step away from her!"
"I'm afraid that you're not in charge of her 'care' anymore, Owen. She's valuable, elite, a real diamond in the rough."
"Father, your talking is nuts and frankly, you haven't made any sense in centuries! Mother, I will not ask you again! Step away from my patient, Valerie."
"You're time is over, Son."
"Father-"
And I squeeze my eyes shut, hearing the sound of a gun-shot and a body falling to the ground.
---
I jolt awake, hearing a scary sound. Was I just having a weird, loud dream? The room is blurry and bathed in light blue hues and grey tones. Slowly it's coming to a stand still, all normal colour returning. "Owen!" I call out, hoping that his not too far away, but what I see is horrible...
Owen is laying on the floor, groaning, heavily bleeding and clutching his stomach, hissing in pain. I gulp seeing Sebastian there and his straightening out his tie and smoothing out wrinkles in his clothing. My eyes widen.
"So glad, I didn't get get a drop of blood on my nice, clean, pressed uniform." He says boldly, ignoring my consciousness completely. "Sebastian?!" I yell out, hoping to get his attention. He turns his head looking at me and then ignores me again.
"Sebastian, what did you do?!" I try again. "Shut up, Sprout!" He growls.
"Ah-ah, I don't think so!" I scold.
"Well, I think it's time you settled down now, Valerie. I'm, oh so glad that we had this chat and that doesn't mean just you, sweetie-pie."
I gulp and turn my head seeing her. I feel her grip my wrist roughly.
"Let go!" I cry weakly, trying to pull my arm away, but she doesn't let go. "Hurry it up, wifey. Enough, 'dilly dallying!'" I hear Sebastian comment who has his hands behind his back and is just turned away from us, waiting.
"Rain, you don't have to do this!" I beg her, struggling. I see she has a needle ready. "Rain! Please don't do this! You're better than this, I know it and inside, you know it too!" I cry again and she gives me one shake of the head and I feel a sharp slight pain.
Soon enough, the world is fading to black and I can hear their gentle chuckles. "W-why didn't you just let us go home? Let me go home..." I cry out weakly and unable to do anything.
"No chance, Sprout. No chance while I'm still alive, my heart beating." I hear Sebastian laugh. "And now you're both down & out too." Rain adds on. Then it's all over.
115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSU3vGV0AWR
