Venus in Real Life

12. Sleeping beauty

Mei had a peculiar way of reasoning. She connected the ideas in a way no one else did. Usually, the less common connection to anyone else was her go-to.

"Daire, you said they were Apollo's descendants, right?"

"Yes, when they were no longer welcome in Greece, he took them to Atlantis. Why?"

"You know, I've always been fascinated with the many pantheons and legends, and I just remembered a story my dad told me long ago. There is a herb that is called the Sun Herb. Let me look for the story." Mei tapped quickly on her phone, and a few seconds later, she found what she was looking for.

"Here it is, look: "Daphne was the daughter of the earth, Gaia, and the river, Peneus. She admired the goddess Diana and, like her, enjoyed the woods and hunting. Daphne refused all suitors and wished to remain unmarried, as Diana did. Apollo fell in love with her, but she did not want him. The more he pursued her, the more Daphne ran from him. When he was about to catch her, she asked her father the river for help, and he turned her into a bay tree. Apollo said that if he could not have her for his love, he would have at least the leaves of the tree to decorate his harp and wear as a crown." Bay leaves, the all-purpose herb."

They all looked at one another after Mei finished her story. It seemed like a weird old times tradition to transform the person they wanted but couldn't have into an inanimate object, so nobody else could have them. How good was that it didn't happen anymore. After a few seconds of awe for how weird and possessive guys were back then, the light started to come to their minds, and Mei's idea seemed to be their chance, the logic no one else had, and thank the gods for that. Smiles started to form in their faces, and Daire started checking on her jars for some organic leaves to prepare a bath for Venus, as she couldn't drink the tea. It was definitely a little far-fetched but was way more than they had so far. It felt like the right step, so they went for it. Ciel ran upstairs and started to fill the bathtub. Halfway was enough, and the water had to be hot. Mei put the kettle full of water on the stove, and Daire ran upstairs with a jar full of the fresh leaves

"I knew I had ordered some recently," she smiled widely.

The kettle whistled, and they added the leaves.

"I'll quickly write a chant, and we'll be ready." Daire disappeared in the hall, and the twins waited patiently the three minutes the leaves needed to be in the hot water.

The door of the guest room in Daire's apartment flew open, and a very excited Ciel went in. Hugh was still asleep with a protective arm covering Venus. Ciel approached and whispered his name not to startle him, yet it wasn't hard to wake him up.

"Any news?" He said, not very hopeful.

"Yes, we have news," Hugh sat on the bed fast but carefully and asked Ciel what was happening, as she filled him in the details. He got on his feet and smiled widely, there was hope, and he felt great about it.

"Now, I need you to leave the room so I can take some of her clothes off."

"And how do you plan to take her to the bathtub?"

"I'll cover her with a bedsheet, and then you'll carry her, now go!"

He was more impatient now that he knew something could be done. Again the pacing. Mei approached him.

"If you want, I can doze you off."

"No, I need to be awake. I want to see if this works."

"Then I can help you relax. Want?" She said with a smile that meant "I know you do," as he gave in and nodded.

"Not much, I have to be alert, just a little so I don't start walking on the walls."

She raised her hand, and the little sparks formed in her fingers as his face and body evidently let loose. He was wearing his best smile, and his heart was jumping. For a day that he didn't push all his feelings away, it felt amazing.

Ciel came out of the room.

"Mei, bring the water with the leaves. I think we're ready."

While she was saying that, as if on cue, Daire came out of her room. Quickly, Mei poured the light green water and the leaves in the bathtub and mixed in clockwise circles with her hand, pushing a little bit of energy into it, as her sister and Daire agreed.

"Hugh, now it's you," Ciel said.

He quickly nodded and crossed the hall to the room, carefully picking Venus up and carried her to the bathroom, delicately putting her in the water. Mei approached him and told him, "We're doing some chanting and... yeah, so, I think you can wait outside. We'll be with you soon."

"If it works, do you know how long it would take?"

Her face said it all. They had no certainties at all, so Hugh nodded, and without another word, he left. The door closed after him, and they were ready to start. They circled the bathtub and held hands. They began raising their energy as a purple light started surrounding them and moving in waves from their bodies. Ciel and Mei concentrated on flowing the energy towards Daire and Venus, as the elder began her chanting. The room filled with the purple light.

The energy, strong and soothing, pulsed all around. Hugh was still relaxed by whatever Mei lately did to him all the time. He started feeling the warm sensation coming from the bathroom, all the way into the living room where he was.

"Please, let her come back," he asked with all his heart.

As he focused on his request, he closed his eyes and leaned back on the couch, still asking the universe and the Source for the girl in the bathtub to be returned to him.

The chanting ended, and the energy came back to normal levels as the three in the circle slowly opened their eyes. Ciel was closer to Venus's head, so she extended her hand to check her temperature. "No fever," she said for all as they squealed happily.

"Now we just need to wait and see when, or if, she wakes up," the older sister finished.

Hugh felt the change in energy and rushed to the bathroom's door, but hesitated before knocking. He paced a couple of times in front of the door when it opened. They have let the water of the tub go, and dried and covered Venus with a bathrobe. They were about to look for him to carry the girl back to her bed. He was happy to see her. She looked calm now, opposite to the frown she had most of the time since she fainted. He walked in ceremoniously and carried her again in his arms. Her body was no longer stiff. He walked back to the room and placed her comfortably in bed, sitting by her side and watching her breathing deeply. She seemed like she was resting now, and he hoped she'd wake up again soon.

Daire, Mei, and Ciel went to the living room and let their bodies drop on the couch. They were exhausted.

"Do you think it worked?" Mei asked with her eyes closed and her body leaned all the way back in the softness of her seat.

"I think, for now, it did, but it is a temporary solution. In any case, if Venus wakes up, we still have the problem that the curse is still there, so we need to be careful with her memory and her exposure to magick," Daire said.

"I think she could live with us, and I'm still to ask her if she wants to work on the store, but she could do it, I don't think there would be much of a problem, as long as she stays in the front," Ciel added.

"I agree. What still makes me wonder is that small patch of marble on Venus's shoulder, it didn't come off after the bath," Mei said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and now looking at the ceiling.

"As Daire said, we need to find a way to lift the curse as soon as possible, and I'm suspicious that it has to be with her name. For now, we just need to be careful." Ciel was slowly falling into sleep, as her body craved to be recharged. Her voice was just above a whisper, while the other girls were almost asleep as well.

In the guest room, Hugh was still sitting beside Venus, not taking his eyes off of her for any reason. He would stay up for as long as it took her to wake up again.

It was finally Thursday morning. The daylight broke in through the window. Hugh got up from his seat to open the curtains and let the breeze in. The sound of wind passing through the top of the trees and the singing of one or two birds that had nested on Daire's young Turkey oak also came through to the room.

"This is good for you," he told Venus, not sure if she could hear him or not, but that didn't matter. He had kept his eyes fixed on his sleeping beauty the whole night. At some point, the twins got up and ran to their place to quickly change and go to school. Daire also got up, made some of her rare and tasty Costa Rican coffee, and, after having an extra-strong cup, went to open the store. He decided he would stay there no matter what. If whatever they did the night before worked, he wanted to be there when she woke up. If not, whatever happened to her, he wanted to be there. He could not forgive himself if he were away, and she got worse or died. He was not even able to think about it.

"I believe the best is that, if she wakes up, not tell her what we found out about her, for now," Daire said, sipping her coffee. "If we force trigger her memories, all we did to bring her back would be for nothing."

Hugh was remembering the elder's words. They had an incredibly brief meeting in Daire's living room before the twins left, so everyone would be on the same page and ready for any new events. He agreed to that, and even if he was aware and openly recognized what was happening to him, he was still unwilling to get closer to her. She was becoming too precious for him to hurt her in any way, and he didn't know any other way.

A few more hours passed by. Hugh paced around the room, tried to read, played some lazy games on his phone, and finally sat on an armchair in the corner next to the head of the bed, and fell asleep.

Venus opened her eyes for the first time at about eleven in the morning. She found herself wrapped in a bathrobe, neatly tucked in a warm bed with very soft and comfortable covers. Lazily extended her arms and stretched before Venus noticed that there was someone in the room. A room that she slowly noticed, she had no idea where it was. A small panic was starting to knot her stomach until she saw that the person beside her bed was Hugh and that he was asleep. Why was he there? He looked so cute when he was sleeping, but she wondered why he was frowning. She innocently stood up and got closer to him. Slowly, because for some reason, she felt so lightheaded, she took two short steps and extended her hand to his frown. Her right thumb softly touching the point in which his nose met with his forehead, and her other four fingers dived in his disarranged, black hair. It was very soft, she thought. She was fascinated with the feeling. His hair made small waves as she moved her fingers interested. His frown disappeared shortly after, and his eyes started to open. Venus didn't notice because she was happily playing now with his hair. He, on the other side, was motionless. She was so close to him and smelled so good, he was sure he was dreaming. Her giggles and smile that reached and made her emerald eyes shine bright, the low warmth of her body, compared to the high fever she's had the previous days. He had to be dreaming. This was too good.

"Are you having fun?" He said, still believing it all was in his sleep, as she jumped back and got crimson red.

"I'm sorry," She apologized.

"You did nothing wrong," he said.

"You were frowning on your sleep, so I thought I could help, but your hair feels funny. I'm sorry I woke you up," Venus said.

"Woke me up? This is a dream, I haven't-" He had to literally pinch himself, and when the sharp pain of the pressing he did on his forearm reached his nerves, he jumped. "Ouch!."

His eyes focused on the girl standing in front of him. She was awake and a little too puzzled with how he was acting, her head was tilted and the scene was almost comical. She had no idea of what had happened to her, and now Hugh was acting this weird. He wanted to hug her, to swirl her around the whole room, call screaming to Daire because she finally woke up and seemed to be feeling good. Hugh wanted to but didn't do it. He took his phone from the nightstand and texted Daire -She's up- he just wrote, too shocked to say anything else.

"How are you feeling?" he started, when Daire opened the door and came in. Venus was happy to see her, but still a little shy because they haven't spent much time together. The girl instinctively moved towards Hugh and almost hid behind him, as he had an unseen smile.

"It's ok. You remember her, don't you?" He said putting her left arm in her back and lightly pushing her a step forward, placing himself behind her, and close enough for her to feel safe.

"Good morning Venus, do you remember what happened?" Daire ventured

"No," Venus said, "I just woke up here and was starting to get scared when I saw him."

"Ok. We need to know how you feel because the day you first came, you fainted, and didn't wake up for a couple of days. We've all been so worried."

Venus looked up to him and he nodded, as if for her to finally believe in what she was being told.

"I feel fine," she said, still puzzled.

"That's good. Anything hurts?"

"No, I just feel very soft, like my energy was taken from me," Venus replied.

Daire extended her hand and slowly moved forward to reach her forehead. There was no more fever, and the news was great. She smiled widely.

"I bet you're hungry. Hugh, can you take care of making something for her to eat? I need to be back downstairs," She smirked to him, and without Venus noticing, Daire winked at the guy who mouthed a sarcastic "Thank you."

"Sure, I can do some breakfast. I could take some food as well. Would you like to have breakfast with me?" He asked Venus as she smiled.

"I'd like that."

"Good! Now, you go to the kitchen, and I'll look for some clothing for her." Daire said, pushing him out of the room and closing the door after him. Now it was a good time for him to relax a little and share the news. He took his phone out again, and this time texted Mei.

"Hey, dude. Good news, Venus woke up."

Mei knew his ways, his emotions got always stuck on the way out, and she understood, even if she didn't like it.

"Dude... Anyway," Mei sighed. He had recovered his joking, silly mood. She was happy, both for Venus and for Hugh, and she hoped he, for once, used his head and did things the right way with her. Hoped but had no expectations. She knew better.

"Ciel," Mei called from afar. They were changing classes, and she went to look for her. She could have just texted her, but she wanted to see her sister's face when she shared the news. Her sister stopped walking and saw her with tired and curious eyes.

"What happened? is it Venus?" Mei wondered how she was never able to tell her sister something she didn't already know, and that was both annoying and very cool at the same time. How did she always manage to know? She had that "how do you know?" face that Ciel knew so well, and still, without Mei saying anything, Ciel continued, "Oh, she woke up. That's great, Hugh texted you?" Mei's eyes were more annoyed now. Still, without her even opening her mouth, Ciel added, to irritate her a little more, and with a smirk, "I'm not in your head, you just have it all written in your face."

"I still don't know how you do that all the time."

"Because I know you. I'll see you after class to go see Venus, ok? Now I gotta go, I'm late," And she rushed away to her class.

"How does she do it?" Even though it had been like that their whole lives, and she didn't get surprised by it anymore, Mei still kept wondering all the way until she got to her class.

Back on Daire's place, Hugh had made some breakfast, and since he knew Daire had only had coffee, he cooked for the three of them. Daire sat in awe in front of her plate of eggs benedict with toast, spinach, and hollandaise sauce. "It is not that I didn't trust you, but I thought you were a "Cereal and milk" kind of guy. My stomach and I are happy to be wrong."

He side-eyed her with a scoff and continue putting plates on the table, one for Venus, and one for himself.

"My mom used to say that she'd not be around forever, and I should learn to cook for myself or I would starve. It turned out very fun actually.." He took a seat in front of Venus, as Daire was between them in the head of the table. "I hope you like it," he said to Venus.

"I'm sure I will," and she took the first bite. It was so obvious when she liked what she was eating, she made small happy dances, or squealed, or giggled right after taking a bite. Hugh got to know that from day one and was pleased watching her, again happy, slightly moving in her chair while eating something he made. She was still alive, and there was nothing better at that time for him. He was happy just having that.

Daire fakely coughed a "You're staring," with which he woke up from his dreams and started eating. The food was good in taste and texture. He was proud of the results, mainly because his special girl was liking it.