Illusion and Reality

Finally going home

“What now?”

Looking around all I could see were gigantic trees and no escape. Astrid started looking at every tree carefully.

“Grandma said we will find the way here, it must be here, it is hidden from our eyes,” she replied.

I started wandering around aimlessly searching for a shortcut to get home before the stone loses its powers, making sure I could still see Astrid, “What exactly are we looking for?”

“Try to find something different, which does not belong here,” I heard Astrid’s voice.

All the trees looked the same to me, dark brown bark with green leaves. How could I find something different? I felt like searching for a needle in the haystack.

I did not know much about the trees but I knew one thing for sure, no normal tree has leaves with silver veins.

“Astrid, I think I found something.”

Astrid came running towards me, I pointed towards the leaf. She took out a powder from her bag and threw it on the bark of the tree, a similar hole appeared in the middle of the bark, extending with every second until a door formed.

Stepping inside with a good feeling, I could barely contain my happiness, we were finally going back home. I could hardly wait to announce the news to Lily.

Stepping out of the door, something felt different, It was the same garden with colorful plants everywhere but something was not right. I thought it was only my suspicion, but Astrid also stopped in her tracks.

“What is it?” I asked quietly.

“Something is wrong, I can feel someone’s presence,” she replied, studying the surroundings carefully, “let’s go inside and check on Lily.”

I nodded in agreement.

Entering inside, a shock was waiting for us. Instead of Lily, Valeria was sitting in the living room, sipping tea and holding a book in her other hand.

“Val?”

After hearing my voice, she turned in my direction with a smile she stood up, leaving the cup and the book on the table.

Astrid stood on her spot, staring at Valeria with squinted eyes, “What are you doing in my home?” she asked in a hard tone.

“Oh, hey guys, welcome back. I am happy to see you both,” she said, giving me her usual hug, with a big smile on her face.

“I am happy to see you as well, Val,” I hugged her back with a giggle.

“I know you must be surprised to see me here but I had no other choice and Lucius asked me to stay here.”

“What?” Astrid asked loudly.

Valeria glanced in her direction, her smile faded slightly as she looked at Astrid’s face.

“Enough of this welcoming us back in my own home. Start explaining what happened here and why did Lucius ask you to stay here?” Astrid asked sternly.

“Something happened when you both were not here,” she replied nervously.

“Where is Lily?” I asked, she was not the one to stay in her room after knowing we were back.

“She is in her room but I do not think it is a good idea for you to see her at the moment….”

Without listening to anything else, I ran towards her room. I needed to make sure if she was okay, Valeria would never come inside Astrid’s house unless it was absolutely necessary.

I knocked on Lily’s door and waited outside, when she did not open the door, I knocked again, ”Lily, it’s me, Sam. Open the door.”

There was no reply from the other side of the door, I opened the door without wasting any more seconds. The room was too dark for me to see anything clearly, only the sunlight passing through the curtains was providing a faint purple color to the room. I walked towards the window and opened the curtains.

Looking around it was nothing was Lily’s room, everything was scattered and messy. Pillows were on the ground, cushions here and there, the vase was broken on the table.

“Lily?”

She was sitting on her bed, holding a pillow tightly in her lap, with disheveled hair. She looked at me with tear-stained red eyes and a blank face. A scar was running down from her forehead to her left cheek.

I stared at her with a lack of words. I approached her slowly and carefully.

“What happened, Lily?”

She did not reply and kept staring at the space, without glancing at me even once.

“How did you get that scar on your face?” I asked softly.

Her jaw tensed, “You. It happened because of you. You are the reason for everything happening to me. I am stuck in this mess because of you, you can never do anything right in your life,” anger was visible in her words, they were laced with venom, “my biggest mistake was meeting you, my family and I pitied you and that’s why we welcomed you in our home. Look where it got us. No wonder your family never wanted you," she said loudly, pointing her index finger towards me.

I stared at her wide-eyed, not believing my ears.

“My family is worried about me, but you? Your family doesn’t even care if you are there or not. I mean why would they? Look at you, you are a self-centered person who just wants sympathy from everyone. You are cursed, not this place or that pendant.”

“How can you say that?” I asked, in a shaky voice.

“Get out! I never want to see your face ever again,” a tear escaped her eye which she wiped quickly and turned her back towards me.

I walked out of her room, too shocked to say something. I could not believe my ears. Lily would say something so mean to me. Realization hit me, I lost the only person who was always there for me, no matter what happened. I felt the needles piercing through my heart.

I wiped my tears and went to see Astrid and Valeria in the living room. They were discussing something serious.

On seeing me, Valeria gave a sympathetic look, which reminded me of Lily’s words.

“Give her some time, she will be fine. She has been through so much.”

I gave a small smile to her and sat in front of her, next to Astrid, “What happened exactly?” Astrid asked.

“I was in my house when I saw some hoodied men walk towards your house. I thought it was weird and came here to see if everything was fine. But when I came here, Lily was on the ground and a man was standing with a sword in his hand. I used my magic to get him away from Lily, otherwise, he would have…..” she looked at us and continued, “I was not strong enough to fight five more men, they cornered us. I tried my best to fight them but we were losing the fight. Then Lucius came out of nowhere and helped us. After those men realized they could not win, they ran away and Lucius went after them.”

“Lucius went after them alone?” Astrid asked immediately.

“Do not worry, I used magic on them they would not have recovered from it soon.”

“Who were they?” I asked.

“I do not have any idea, their faces were hidden but they all had a mark on their arm.”

“What mark?” Astrid asked curiously.

“It was a circle with a bird in the middle. Something was different about these men, they were not normal, they were stronger,” Valeria replied, “after I used magic on the first man, he recovered almost after a few minutes later, anyone else would have stayed unconscious for hours.”

I looked at both of them. I hoped Lucius was fine but did not want to say something about him.

I wanted to see him one last time before going back.

I inhaled a sharp breath, “Astrid, we have to hurry now, we don’t have much time left.”

“Oh, so met the witch after all,” Valeria said with a smile.

“How do you know that?” Astrid raised her eyebrow suspiciously at her.

“It is not that hard to guess,” she shrugged casually.

Astrid did not say anything but kept looking at her suspiciously for a few seconds before turning towards me, “I will get the ingredients ready,” and walked out of the room.

“Looks like you are finally leaving,” Valeria said with a small smile, that failed to reach her eyes.

“Yeah, we do not belong here Val, but thank you so much for everything you have done, thank you for being my friend in this strange world. I will miss you.”

“It was good to have you as my friend, Samara. I will never forget you,” she replied, as tears welled up in her eyes.

Hearing her, I thought about Astrid, she was also alone here. They are similar to each other than they knew.

“You don’t have to be alone here, Val. You and Astrid are neighbors, you can be friends as well. Neighbors are like family,” I said to lighten up the mood.

“I am not so sure about it. I have already told you she does not like me,” she replied slowly.

“You don’t know each other, how can you dislike each other when you don’t know someone. Don’t give up without giving it a chance, just give it a try.”

She smiled, “It is not that easy, Samara. Our world is different than yours. Our families do not like each other.”

“You don’t have to be like them.”

“Some things sound easy until you do them.”

I did not respond to her. My mind went towards Lily, I could fight nightmares but how could I fight my own best friend. She hated me it was clear with her every word.

“She does not hate you.”

I turned towards Valeria, “How do you know that? You were not there to listen to what she said to me,” I looked at my hands in the lap.

“She is in shock right now, she does not know how to deal with this. Putting blame on someone is the easiest thing to do than deal with the situation,” she replied.

“I think you are right,” I smiled at her.

We stayed quiet for a few minutes, “Lucius isn’t back yet, do you think something happened,” I asked almost in a small voice.

She looked at me with a strange look, “I am sure he is fine, he knows how to defend himself.”

I sat there silently.

I felt something on my wrist, “Val, your bracelet,” I said, trying to open it from my arm.

“No!” she said louder than she intended to, she smiled at me, “it is yours now, you can keep it. Think of it as a gift from me, something that will remind you of me.”

Before I could reply, Astrid came into the room from the garden, “I need an herb but I do not have it here. I have to go to the forest to collect it.”

“What do you need? I will bring it, you should start the preparations for the spell,” Valeria volunteered to collect the herb.

Astrid gave her a stern look, ”I can get the herb by myself.”

Valeria replied with a smile, “Your choice.”

“How much time do we have left?” I asked impatiently, I did not know if we could waste the time on collecting herbs, what if it took so much time and the stone lost all of its powers. It could only be used once.

Astrid looked at Valeria first, then glanced in my direction, “A couple of hours. I will try to come back as soon as I can. Do not leave the house, no matter what happens.”

“Take care of yourself, Astrid,” I said as she was about to leave.

She gave a small smile with a nod and put her dark red cloak on.

I sat in the living room, anxiously waiting for Astrid to come back, every minute felt like an hour.

“Here, have some chamomile tea,” I looked at Valeris, “this is the only one I could find here.”

“Thanks,” I took the cup and took a huge gulp which was a mistake. Soon I was coughing out the tea.

Valeria started rubbing circles on my back, “Careful Samara.”

I wiped my mouth with the tissue, just when Astrid came from the front door, giving us a puzzled look.

“I got the herb, now I just need the blood,” Astrid said, quickly putting everything on the table.

“Can you call…” Astrid stopped herself in the middle of the sentence, “nevermind, I will call Lily, and then we can start this.”

I nodded in agreement.

A minute later, Astrid came running to us.

I looked at her with furrowed eyebrows, “What happened? Where is Lily?”

“Lily is not in her room.”