"Teddy, would you like to pour the tea?"
I smirked at Lavender sitting opposite me. She had a tiny table between us with a fake tea set sitting on it.
On either side of us were two plushies sitting in the tiny chairs I was almost grown out of.
Everyone had an empty teacup I poured more air into.
I was the only one dressed up for the setting. Since there was only one frilled apron and bonnet, I got to be the unlucky one to wear them under Lavender's persistence.
She was such a cheeky girl when she needed to be. Everything was a wonderful game to her.
"Delicious" Lavender sipped her cup, keeping her pinky out as she did "very yummy."
"I don't think that's how posh ladies speak" I giggled at her smacking her lips.
"Nonsense" she smiled back and offered up a wooden wedge of cake before separating more by their Velcro strips to place on the toy's plates.
There was a knock at the door to make me dart back for darkness under the bed.
Her mother stood there with a sun hat, smiling at the tea party still set up around her.
"Ready to go?" Mum chuckled.
"Ready!" Lavender threw her arms up as she stood, knocking the table as she did.
I withheld my laughter while she rushed over to grab the hat. I darted behind furniture as i followed her outside and into the car she held the door open of.
"Big day today, Sprig!" Dad called out when everyone was buckled in and i was nestled at Lavender's feet "today you get to meet Mr Grounds! He's the nice doctor I was telling you about."
"But I don't feel sick" Lavender sighed back when the car pulled from the driveway.
It had been two years since my first night with Lavender. Since then, she loved to talk to her parents about me while I kept away from them. It only prompted them to book her an appointment to see some doctor that was different from ordinary doctors. They thought she was seeing things, and she was starting to believe them.
"He's just so excited to meet Teddy" Mum smiled back at Lavender with a touch of her hand on Lavender's knee "you can tell him all the wonderful stories about him that you told us."
I squashed down when Mum thought she noticed something, and reappeared when her hand left.
Lavender perked up again, enthusiastically.
"I don't like Mr Grounds already" I mumbled back, feeling the nervousness swelling up inside that made me huddle beside her on the seat.
"He's a nice doctor" Lavender whispered back, peering out the window at the sparkling water passing by us, littered with people and hovering seabirds.
She watched the changing scenery with curiousness. Squealing people splashing each other were replaced with towering trees branching overhead into a canopy of flowers that rained down. After that was a bustling town filled with colourful cars and all sorts of decorated stores lining the roads.
It only made the excitement of witnessing the unknown spiral upwards within Lavender who pressed her face to the window to try and see further than her limitations.
"We are here!" Dad beamed when we stopped outside a huge white building adorned with black sheets of glass. It was all so modern and neat compared to the worn streets surrounding it.
Lavender couldn't wait to meet her doctor. She tugged on Mum's hand who held her tight as we were taken further into the building that i darted through.
When we reached our destination and were called, a tall man approached us while smiling hugely.
His skin was just like mine and looked like the night's sky. His had flecks of white along his huge hands and around his black eyes. Even the sides of his flattened ears were stained.
His long tail curled off the ground and flicked to the side when he talked to Mum and Dad. His horns were perfectly curved backward to almost touch the back of his head.
He looked like a beautiful galaxy in a white coat.
"You must be little Lavender" he spoke warmly as he bent to her level now "I'm Mr Grounds; but you can call me Solo. I'm a special brain doctor who is going to see just what you are thinking, OK?"
He poked Lavender's forehead to make her giggle. I only glared at the contact when we followed him down a hall and to another man. Mum and Dad kept their eyes forward as instructed, so i could walk freely now behind Lavender.
This new man looked like Mum and Dad. His skin wasn't speckled or dark like the night. He had brown eyes instead of black, and didn't have impressive horns or a long tail.
To me, he was boring to look at and listen to while he introduced himself.
"Solomon is the leading demon doctor here" the other man gushed "he sees things that eyes like ours can't even imagine."
He perked my interest immediately. I saw his eyes focusing on Lavender intently. It felt like he was smiling straight at me when he lifted his eyes to focus them on my position only a few metres away behind the safety of a pillar i pressed to.
Of course he knew i was here. He was just like me.
Solo joined us in a separate room from Mum and Dad. It was a wide and empty room with only a table in the middle and a large mirror opposite us that ran across the whole wall. I hid under the chair Lavender sat in and peered over it.
"Let's draw some pictures together" Solo offered as he slid across the paper on the table and offered her the cup of pencils beside it "I want you to draw what Teddy looks like."
I retracted.
"He looks like a small you" Lavender replied when she started on the paper "but with teeny tiny horns."
"They aren't that small" I grumbled back when she scribbled them in.
"And does Teddy tell you things?"
Lavender nodded, still focused on the drawing.
"Does he tell you to do bad things?"
Lavender looked up in confusion.
"He's told me to draw on the wall."
"That was once!" I whispered back, remembering the harsh grounding we had received in return.
Solo chuckled and continued to draw himself.
"Does Teddy tell you to do bad things like hurt people?" he asked "like Mummy and Daddy? Or maybe yourself? "
Lavender shook her head with a frown at the man. I found myself scowling up at him too from behind her curtain of hair that shielded me.
"When did your light go out?" he questioned and then saw Lavender's confusion again "what day did you meet Teddy?"
"New year eve" she beamed, drawing in the fireworks behind us "he was a black blob when I was five. We're you a black blob too, Mr Solo?"
He laughed and peered at the mirror before facing us again.
"A very long long time ago" he smiled at his drawing and looked to Lavender's "is that Teddy?"
She nodded and he took the paper to hold it up beside his to show the mirror.
What an odd man.
"Can I say hello to Teddy?" he spoke when he placed them back down "it would be nice to meet someone just like me."
Lavender was all for the idea but I kept silent.
I didn't want to expose myself in such a closed off room. It felt like I was being trapped.
"I'm scared" I whimpered "I don't want to."
"Oh" her enthusiasm dropped "he's not going to do it."
"That's OK" Solo smiled as he stood up "I'm just going to go and show Mummy and Daddy your pretty drawing."
"OK!" Lavender beamed and watched Solo leave us there.
"You should have come out and said something" she immediately shot at me when we were alone "he's very nice."
"I don't see why he would want to meet me. He already knows I'm here."
"You like meeting new people" she encouraged "he's a new person."
"He likes that mirror more than us" I pointed out "he's... strange."
"It is a little weird" Lavender agreed.
She left he seat to go over and place her hands on it. Her reflection did the same. When she pressed her lips to it, she giggled; knowing she was doing something naughty now.
"Come on" she giggled and pulled faces "it's fun!"
I remained quiet while she kept going.
It did look like fun though. None of our mirrors at home were big like this one.
"Alright" I agreed "but only until he comes back."
I slid around the chair and rushed over to place my hands on the glass. It was cold and covered in Lavender's fingerprints now that slapped on it.
She pulled her mouth outwards and stuck out her tongue. I did the same, seeing my pointed teeth there instead of being smooth like hers.
Lavender's eyes were blue with little streaks of brown around the middle. Mine were black with no hint of colour within them.
Her skin was light brown and starting to be speckled with darker spots along her nose and arms. Mine matched my eyes and didn't even have the markings Solo did.
Her hair was light blonde and had been carefully brushed by Mum and pulled into two ponytails that were held with pretty light blue ribbons.
Mine was a wild mess of black spikes that always pulled up from the side of my head, no matter how many times I tried to slick it down.
And her tail. She didn't have one while mine was curling up behind me.
How could she want to be with me when we weren't the same?
A knock on the door sent Lavender running back to her chair. I stayed at the mirror, torn between revealing myself to Solo or remaining hidden.
But when Solo stepped into the room, I immediately went to hide back where it was safe.
Mum and Dad stood in the hall behind Solo who let her leave. Mum held a green sheet of paper with a bunch of tiny writing on it and long, complicated names.
"It was so nice drawing with you, Lavender" Solo smiled at us, bending over to meet her eye level "and it was nice meeting Teddy too."
I felt myself bubble up at the mention as i remained pressed to the wall inside the room.
Perhaps I should have shown myself to the doctor? It was too late to do it now.
"I've given Mummy a special piece of paper" he spoke and gestured to it "its for some medicine for you to keep you and Teddy growing up big and strong."
He flexed his arms to make Lavender laugh. I giggled with her and stared in wonder at the man.
He waved Mum and Dad off and kept the door open for me to dart out after them, smiling when i looked back at him.
He was a funny man who was friends with the mirrors, but I liked him.
Lavender was still in high spirits when we left the busy town behind to head back to where it was quiet.
We slept soundly until Lavender was woken by Dad.
We weren't home though. Instead, the bright skies and screams of children filled the air. The breeze was cool and smelled like warm sea-salt and crashing ocean waters.
The ocean was bigger than I could ever imagine. It touched the horizon off in the distance and covered everything in its dark, mysterious waters.
Everyone was gathered around the beach at the coast. No-one ventured outside their safe area.
I wonder what waited out there?
Lavender was in the water in no time. She squealed out when it was colder than expected and went running back with the lapping waves before trying her luck again.
She kept going further out. Soon the water around her ankles swarmed her stomach, and then her chest.
The incoming wave bowled her over when I chased after her. As she choked and coughed back to Mum and Dad, I tumbled weightless beneath the waves.
The struggle for air was absent here. Everything was peaceful when I was rocked by the waves crashing above me. I could see paddling feet dotting the water on either side of me with colourful floaty toys bobbing on the surface.
It was a kaleidoscope of colour that shimmered and danced above me while I floated there.
It was the first time I felt safe amongst so many others. It was so beautiful to just feel so free and forget the weight of the world that continued to crash around me.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
