From the corner of my eye, I could see my grandpa shooting bullets at me. If looks could kill, I would be dead. Never have I ever cursed in front of him, and never has he seen me this angry. I don't let myself acknowledge his cold, hard stare that bores into the side of my face, if I do, I won't get what I need to get out.
Lyra's confidence is now gone, and standing in front of me is a red headed girl who's troubling with her feelings internally. I want to feel sorry for her, I really do, but I can't. Not with this, I- I don't think we can come back from this.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, fury boiling from my exterior and grandpa's stares, Lyra speaks up. "I never thought you would find out, I thought everything would be fine. He would come, help you, and everything will return back to normal." Her head droops.
"Well. . .you thought wrong. Look at him, Lyra." The last sentence comes out softly. She shakes her head, refusing to see what she has done. What a secret that is spoken into existence can do to someone. "LOOK AT HIM, LYRA!" The pictures on the wall start to shake a bit, grandpa and Mr. Germani look around, their minds probably think it's an earthquake, but I know it's not. Everyone starts to hold onto something, fear generating through them and around the white, isolated room.
I'm the reason, my anger is shaking the ground beneath us. I breath slowly, just as Katana taught me. Her words ring through my ears: 'whenever you feel out of control, take slow breaths and everything will be ok'.
'Everything will be ok'.
'Everything will be ok'.
I believe it, my body believes it, my mind believes it and no sooner than seconds the shaking stops.
Her head jerks up, tears stain her pale, porcelain skin. Black mascara drips down her cheeks like water, dark and eerie water. "This is what happens- when you open your mouth."
My grandpa finally chimes in, "Quinneth, she did what she thought was right."
My head cracks in his direction, for the first time in minutes of me finding out the heinous secret my best friend held, I look at him. "She should have kept her mouth shut. Because of her, Alexander is probably going to die. Now, I've got to pray that a cure is somehow found." I now find myself standing right in front of her, the two innocents in the room edge closer, scared of what I may do. "If I don't find a cure, I'm going to kill you." My mind gasps, I don't know where that came from.
Maybe it's the amount of anger I'm feeling, or. . .something but I've never felt strongly about killing someone, even if they deserve it. Something is lurking in me, something dark and in duress. I can't put my finger on it, but the voice edges closer to the surface. Telling me things that shouldn't be spoken out loud. Things that should be buried into the depths of night.
"She deserves it." It says, "Snitches get stitches, hurt her, inflict on her the pain that you have been feeling, she must pay." I believe, I understand it. She must pay. She MUST pay.
"You don't mean that, you're just angry." Her voice is wavy, small and delicate like a child who's scared of the monster under their bed. Her hand comes to my shoulder, rubbing it up and down. Her touch is like needles, sticking me all over. I shrug her off, that touch makes me sick.
"I do. You don't know what I've been through. I haven't been able to sleep, or even barely eat."
"I under-."
"NO, YOU DON'T! Do you know what it's like to love someone and to see them get stabbed?" She shakes her head. "Do you know what it's like to kill four innocent girls because if you don't, someone will die?" She shakes her head again. "Do you know what it's like to wake up and have him be gone, to think that he has died?" Head shake. "Lastly, do you know what it's like to watch your loved one in a coma, and not know how to help them?" Her head starts to shake erratically as whimpers leave her chapped lips.
"She must pay." The voice repeats.
"I-I-I don't." She stammer.
'She must pay.'
"No, you don't." I say.
'She must pay.'
"Quinneth, stop this. This is not her fault, its' the people that stabbed him. She's innocent in all of this." My grandpa pleads.
I look to him in disbelief, "I can't believe you would side with her."
"I'm not honey, you are being irrational."
Now that comment makes my blood truly rumble. "IRRATIONAL!" My eyes revert over to Alexander, he looks the same as the other 60 times that I've been in here with him. Those dark curls hang off his forehead. My eyes glance to his arms, legs and face. Blood is all in his body, mixed in with it is the monkshoods, the poison. It's coursing through his veins, killing him every second we all stand here. Eating him from the inside like a parasite. I wonder what he's thinking? Does he see us, see me? See how angry I am? I hope he doesn't. "I'll show you irrational."
'She must pay'.
On the nightstand next to Alexander is a red cup full of water. Using my powers, I bring the water out of the cup, holding it steady as it flows through the air, right past my grandpa's face. Mr. Germani's eyes widen in shock, no one knew I could do this, not even me. A few months ago, before everything happened, Katana taught me how to move water. It took me a while to learn, but I did. Our second lesson was to shape water, this was something I struggled with, but since I'm so angry maybe I'll figure it out.
Lyra stares at me, unsure of what's about to happen. "Quinn?" That's the last thing she says, or can say as the water wraps around her throat like a noose.
Then, I start to squint my eyes and it began to choke her. She pleads with me; the water is so tight that not even air or her words are reaching the surface. With my hand I raise her off the ground.
"Quinneth stop!" Yells Mr. Germani as he tries to tear the water from her throat, but I'm stronger. My grandpa begins to pull her down, but my hand holds her firmly in the air, above me. "You're going to kill her? You're going to kill your best friend!"
'She must pay.'
"She's not my best friend anymore." Some deep voice says from the pit of my stomach. The color of her face blends in with her fiery red hair, how much pleasure I'm getting from his warms me like a blanket.
"STOP!"
"PLEASE STOP!"
"This is needed!" I yell to both of the gentlemen currently trying to save the damsel in distress. "She is the reason that he's lying in that bed, about to die. For weeks, I've been crying myself to sleep. I go in the bathroom and turn the water on so it engulfs the sounds of my sobs, my pain. Every night I think to myself how he found out I was going there, did he overhear me on the phone, or did he just know me so well that I would do that. That I would sacrifice myself for him. I HAVE BEEN BEATING MYSELF UP OVER THIS WHEN IT'S BEEN YOU THE WHOLE TIME! I want you to feel the pain that I'm feeling."
'Hurt her.'
"She's choking Quinneth, she's going to die if you don't stop." The grabbling continues, with no success.
"I'm choking! I'm dying." Tears stream down my face as I tighten my reign. Her face is now purple and her legs kick. In another life, this would have scared me shitless, but we're not in another life, this is the present. Those brown eyes plead with me, beg me to stop this vicious attack. "You stand there worried for her, but what about me!"
'Kill her'.
Before I could end her, Mr. Germani attacks me from the side. His body collides with mine as we fall to the floor. Clear water splashes on the ground as Lyra's body drops with it.
Her hands claw at her now bruised throat, gasping for the air she once lacked. My grandpa holds her, telling her that he's sorry and that everything will be alright. His eyes look to me, so much anger in that small eyeball, and a mix of disappointment in them.
"I'm disgusted with you right now." That would hurt me, usually, but not now. No words can affect me, not anymore. I'm officially numb.
🌺🌺🌺🌺
"You need to let this go, Quinn." Lyra says, tapping her foot on the parking lot concrete. "I know what I did was wrong, you don't think I know that? You don't think that I'm beating myself up over this, but guess what?"
"What?" I cross my arms.
"I wouldn't take it back for anything. He deserved to know, where you were going and doing. Imagine if you would have died? And he didn't know where you were, it would have killed him. I think you know that."
She throws my keys to me and turns back to the building. I hate to admit it, even to myself, but she's right. If he would have left me and done something like that I would want to know. And if he died, it would tear me to pieces, I don't think I would ever recover.
On the other hand, I'm still angry with her. She promised me she wouldn't tell, PROMISED. She knew what was at stake, whose lives were on the line. I need people in my corner who's going to listen to me, and keep my secrets no matter how crazy or dangerous they are.
Now, it doesn't matter anymore. At this moment, Alexander is laying in a bed, fighting for his life. Last night I was up for hours, contemplating everything. What if he doesn't wake up? What if he dies as soon as I arrive at Nygaard? What if-
I stop myself from those negative thoughts, there isn't any 'what if's' anymore. He will live, I will see those black piercing eyes with grey specs again, and feel his cool breath on my ear at night. I can do this. If I was able to resurrect four original witches on my own, then this is also possible. All I need is hope and determination.
Where do I get some of that at?
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It took a while for my grandpa to forgive me, to even look in my direction after what I did to Lyra. She's like a sister to me, and a granddaughter to him and the fact that I would purposely inflict pain on her was unfathomable. For days we didn't talk, he just came into the room checked my vitals, and left to go see his other patients. I once heard him in the hall talking of Lyra with Mr. Germani. Saying that she's scarred by what happened and hasn't been able to leave her house due to fear.
Usually, this would hurt me, the thought of her being in fear, but honestly it made me feel good. It's good that she's feeling pain and fear to know what I've been feeling like for the past few days. To know that when you close your eyes the nightmares and torment doesn't stop, it continues. Deep inside of me, I ate off of her fear, it warmed me at night. A sly grin sometimes coming across my face.
In the middle of the night, I would go to the bathroom that was connected onto my hospital room. For hours, I would stare at myself. My brown eyes, big curly hair and drained skin. Are these my eyes? Am I looking at the real me, or some conjured up version of myself? It was strange to say the least, I felt weird and still do. A sliver of me can understand what I did to Lyra was wrong, but another part felt. . .nothing. No act of empathy at all.
And the voices, don't get me started on the voices.
'She must pay.'
'Kill her.'
'She must pay.'
'Kill her.'
It lurked in my mind, and still does. The thing about the voice is that it doesn't sound like mine, but someone else's. Maybe it is me, and I'm looking for an excuse to my actions, who knows. I need to leave from this school, now.
I pull out of the school parking lot and drive to the packhouse.
Walking into the entrance of the pack house, I pass everyone in the hallway and go straight to my room. It's nice to have my room be on the second floor at the end of the hall, being on the first floor has to suck because that's where the most traffic is at. As I enter the room, the scent of apples and cinnamon flares up my nose. The room that once had clothes all over the bed, and dirty towels is now spotless. What the-
Sitting on the bed was a small card with mints next to it. I sit my bag on the nearest chair and walk over to see fancy cursive on it. I couldn't really decipher what it said, but I knew whose name it was, Coletta Germani. I smile, usually I would be mad that she had someone come in here and clean the room for me, but it's nice. I was loathing having to come and clean up, now I have free time.
To do what though?
Col made it to where I could only see Alexander at certain times. At first, I would be down there for at least 9 hours at a time, but then it became unhealthy so she limited me only 2 hours between 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock. Currently, it's 2:30.
What do I do?
Mostly around this time I would be going to the internship, but that ended weeks ago. Or I would be at work, but today is my day off. And since school's not in session, there's no homework. Guess I could explore the place.
Locking the door behind me, I head down the hall to the stairs. When I first came here with Alexander, I thought this place was a castle, or just a far-off magical place. They have everything here, from their own school, movie theater, grocery store and restaurants. You don't even need to leave Golden Summit they have it all.
From a few days of me being here I was lost, didn't know where anything was. Aora and Skipper, being nice girls, gave me a second tour and even showed me places Alexander didn't. In the back of the town there's this water fall, even better than the St. Helena Waterfall. The water is a clear baby blue color that flows quietly into a lake. My eyes couldn't even contemplate its beauty. Tons of flowers I couldn't even name surrounded it. Yellows, purples and blues decorated it making it look like a Pinterest picture. This is something that I have to paint one day, if I ever had a child, I would want that painting in their room.
I sat on the rocks as Aora and Skipper stripped down to their undergarments and swam in the lake. Aora splashed water on her best friend while Skipper dunked her under the water. I remember feeling a jolt in my stomach, me and Lyra used to be like that. Don't get me wrong, I still hate her for what she did and late at night I want to kill her, but all in all, I miss her.
Her beautiful smile, cherry perfume smell and her inappropriate jokes. I don't know if I ever could forgive her or be friends with her, but only time will tell.
On the first floor I see a bunch of pack members going out the doors and some come in. Everyone here looks so... put together and tough looking. Alexander told me that they trained every day, even if they were not warriors. They believe in everyone being strong and able to defend themselves, in case they have to go to battle or get attacked they can have backup warriors.
A few days ago, when I came back from work, I saw two students training outside. One of the girls was named Kristin, who was a student of Alexander's, and Skipper fighting. It was intense, Skipper hit the girl right in the face and she didn't even go down. They're like fighting machines. I wish I could fight like that one day, but me being human they would put me in the hospital. I've had enough days of being in the hospital, trust me. Turning down the hallway that leads to the outside town I hear voices nearby. They're whispered, obviously not wanting to be heard.
". . .does anyone know about this?" asked a deep voice. Creeping up slowly, I lay flat against the wall.
"No Alpha. I just acquired this information." I notice that voice, it's Oscar. Oscar was the first person I met here at the pack house, besides Aren, Christian and the others. He was nice and seemed like a good friend of Alexander's. He's one of the best scouts that Nygaard has ever seen, it's what I hear. He must be talking to Mr. Germani.
"Keep this hush hush Oscar. If anyone knows that only three out of the four witches were found, everyone will panic."
WAIT WHAT!
ns 15.158.61.55da2
