The Tale of Two Sisters

CHAPTER TEN

Penelope still sat on the chair, waiting for her sister to wake up. She put the paper bag, that filled with pastries on the table, beside the vase of flowers. 

Still did not see the sign of her sister is going to wake up soon, Penelope walked around to find for the cafeteria, as she is getting thirsty. She stood up and walked to the door. She turned around to watch her sister back before she left, but sadly, Lisa still has her eyes shut.

"Lisa..."

Penelope said under her breath and left the room for a moment.

"Ah, finally! Good riddance!"

As Penelope left the room, the Phantom Whisperer, who hid somewhere in the dimension where people cannot see with their n***d eyes, appeared beside Lisa.

Hex stomped around, though it did not make noisy sounds in the ears of the real world, Lullaby and Ivy still can hear it.

"Can you stop it? It hurts my ears!"

Lullaby shrieked as Hex kept stomping around, like a kid. 

"Nyeh nyeh nyeh, shut up, Lullaby! No one is asking your opinion!"

Those two kept fighting, while Ivy walked closer to Lisa, as she is watching some sort of valuable possession in front of her eyes. After a moment, she smiled.

"My Queen, what kind of fate is waiting for you in the future? How are you intertwined with this fate?"

Ivy said it under her breath, ignoring those two, who are still fighting. She then proceeded to take Lisa's hand and held it, firmly, like she was her mother. Suddenly, Ivy narrowed her eyes and turned to Lullaby and Hex.

"Let's go."

Ivy's cold and distant, yet sharp voice, made Lullaby and Hex jumped and immediately followed her order. All three of them disappear in the thin air, into the other dimension, as the sound of the door's handle sounded.

"Hmm, weird. I thought I heard someone in this room."

Penelope returned from the cafeteria, as she bought mineral water and several other snacks to eat while waiting for her sister. Though she thought that she heard someone or somewhat two or three people talked in the room, she did not find any of them.

"Guess maybe I heard it from the next room."

Penelope then sat on the same chair as she did before while putting the snacks on Lisa's bed, in the open space. As she ate, without letting the nurse now, somehow she felt like something is burning inside of her pocket. She put her hand inside of her jean's pocket, just to take it out immediately when she felt the burn.

"Ouch!"

Though it is hot, Penelope did not get her skin burn, as the blister is resonated with her. Then, Penelope tried again to take out the thing inside of her pocket, which turned out to be the locket.

"Veldroid's locket, huh?"

"Gasp! That...!"

"Shh!"

Penelope said to herself. She then again, looking at the locket, intensely, and then, she tried to do the same thing as she did during her time in the infirmary. 

She focused on her palm, to create a small flame this time, as she wanted to know whether this is real or not.

"Okay, if this is real, then this time I make it small. Okay, come on, focus."

Still sitting beside her sister, who is still fast asleep, Penelope gripped her fist and started to imagine a small flame in her hand.

"Okay, come on now. Don't be shy, come out now."

Penelope talked to herself, quietly, as she still has a tiny bit of hope to accept that all the things happened are real, only if she succeeded to make a small flame.

"Well, don't be shy."

"Is she...okay?"

"Maybe she is a weirdo."

Penelope concentrated even harder than before, but again, all of it seems fruitless. She did not see any flame on her hand as she slowly opens her eyes.

"Another day, another ridiculous thing. I should stop imagining things now."

Penelope wanted to grab some of the pastries as she urged to try one of them. 

As she wanted to grab the paper bag, suddenly, the tip of the paper bag started to smoke, but Penelope did not see it, as her eyes focused on the locket.

"Why do I have this locket in the first place, if it doesn't give me anything?"

Penelope kept staring the locket that she did not realize that the paper bag is not burnt a little. After admiring the pendant for quite some times, then Penelope sniffed something weird.

"Wait, this is, the smell of smoke. I wonder where it came from- Oh my god!"

Penelope shrieked when she realized that the smoke came from the paper bag that she held.

Even more importantly, the burnt came from where she held the bag!

"This is bad! I need to put off the fire!"

Without thinking much, Penelope quickly poured the water from her drinking bottle on the paper bag, until it was no longer smoking.

Penelope looked at the paper bag again, to see if the burn happened because of something flammable, but she cannot find any of that thing inside the room. Then, something struck her.

"Is it because..."

She looked at her hand, where she imagined the small flame on it.

After that, she laughed.

"Pfft! No way, it can't be real! I mean, how can I really make a flame with just imagined it? Like, I touch this flower, and it burns-"

Penelope proceeded to touch the flower in the vase, but the next thing she knew, she screamed.

"Omg! It burns!"

The flower that she held, suddenly engulfed in flame, though it was a small flame, the petals quickly burned. 

Panicking, Penelope threw the flower out of the window and shut it quickly.

"Yep, she is an idiot."

Throughout the situation, the Phantom Whisperer indeed still in that room.

They had been watching both of the sisters in the other dimension.

Lullaby and Hex kept making fun of Penelope, on how idiotic can she be.

"I wonder what will she do next."

"She is an i***t. I bet she will burn her sister's hair."

The two of them continued to joke around, but Ivy silently watched Penelope, with some interest and observant. 

"Interesting."

After Penelope threw the flower away, she stood in front of the closed window, frozen. She did not believe in what just happened earlier. She then went to the chair, to grab the locket back, and looked at it.

"This is not a dream."

Penelope mumbled silently. She had that anxious looks in her eyes.

"This is real."

She put her hand on her forehead, trying to think straight though she knew that it can no longer happen.

She just witnessed something that does not belong to this world. She felt that her knees were gone weak, that she had to sling to her sister's bed.

She did not know what to do, or to say, or to believe anymore. 

So, just for now, she wanted to rest.

She wanted to rest by her sister's side.

And, she wanted to tell her sister about all this craziness that happened to her.

After thinking like that, Penelope suddenly became calmer than before she acknowledged the other world do exist.

As she hanged to her sister's bed, suddenly she realized that her sister wore a black ring.

"Weird. I never saw Lisa had one of these rings."

Penelope wanted to look at the ring closer, as she tried to touch it, with the hand, which she still holds the locket.

At that moment, something uncanny happened.

Both of the locket and the black ring started to shine!

Both in their own colour!

One with the flaming, red blaze, while the other in the dark, sleek light.

This certainly attracted the Phantom Whisperer, especially Ivy.

"That's-!"

"How can-!"

Both Lullaby and Hex lost their words, but Ivy just watched it, while trying to hold the excitement to herself.

"Interesting."

But for Penelope, she quite shocked with that.

"What the..."

She stared at it, disbelief. 

Suddenly, both of the things started to shine even brighter, causing Penelope to evade her eyes from seeing it.

"Ah!"

This time, she felt the burn inside of her hand. The longer she held the locket, the painful it becomes. 

But what happened to her is not her concern right now.

The ring on Lisa's finger started to spread black veins inside Lisa's skin. It later spread to almost half of her hand. Lisa panicked, as she did not know what the follicles will do, but one thing for sure, she knew that it will be harmful to Lisa.

"Oh, no, no! What should I do?"

As Penelope is panicking, the Phantom Whisperer watched them, silently. Nobody said anything as they too were astonished on what happened. 

But not for Ivy.

She smirked, as she found it amusing.

Penelope then noticed that her hand, which held the pendant, is still clinging to Lisa's. She immediately pulled her hand back, though she did not know what it can do to undo the veins.

However, the veins did stop spreading, and it went back to the ring, leaving behind Lisa's hand to its normal state. Penelope looked at her sister, wondering if the incident happened earlier did something to her sister.

She tried to wake Lisa up because she no longer wants to wait for Lisa to wake up by herself.

"Lisa? Lisa? Please wake up..."

Penelope kept calling for Lisa, as she worried that the black ring did something to her sister. After a few attempted to wake her sister up, no sign showed that her sister is going to wake up any soon. Penelope began to cry a little.

"Lisa, please wake up..."

Penelope put her first on the sheet, burying her face down, as she scared that her sister might go, forever.

Suddenly, Penelope felt a pat on her head.

"Can I get a few minutes sleep? You're being too loud and clingy..."

Penelope looked up to see whose voice is that, and she smiled, happy when she saw whose voice is it. Lisa's face looked pale as she smiled back at Penelope, but she tried her best to not look like a sick person, as she teased her sister.

"Now, why with the crying session?"

Penelope did not talk back as she immediately hugged her sister.

Though Lisa was quite surprised, she hugged her sister back.

"I'm back."

"Things are going to be much more interesting from now on."