IceShine

IV

As I get in the bathtub, I take in the bathroom. It has the same brightness as the bedroom. The bathtub, toilet and vanity are pure white, whereas the walls and the floor were made out of wood. The small window beside the bathtub looks at the behind the house and the whole city.

After looking outside for almost two minutes, I sigh and turn my attention to my hands. How in the world has my life changed in one day. Let’s take this from the beginning. I woke up from my nightmare, went to school, got bullied, started making my way home, stopped to defeat a Shadow Monster, was seen by the new kids, got dragged to their home, met my father’s best friend and now I’m living with them.

Yeah… Not fast enough!

I can’t believe I didn’t notice their names… It was obvious who they were… I can’t believe that I let it slide. I even sent 4 letter to that name, for God’s sake. But wait… He said only the second one got to him. The first was sent back, I remember… and I was devastated, because I thought he didn’t care… So I sent another one, and then other 2… But these two never went to him, or were sent back to me… Weird…

Anyway, I’ll speak to the post office… they will tell me what happened. I’m so confused right now… On one hand, I’m so happy that Jason and Fiona came to me and asked me to stay with them… Mother and Father spoke of them quite a lot, and the truth is, I was thinking of going somewhere else to stay for a while, as the memories became too much sometimes.

They were really close to them. And if it’s the same as my Mother, Fiona had a difficult time in the beginning. I remember her telling me that, when my Father first told her about his powers, she was really scared. But she wanted to be together with my Dad, and that’s why she didn’t leave him… She stayed with him till the end. Oh God, not again with the tears.

And on the other hand, I feel heartbroken… because what will happen now? There is a guy out there who wants to kill me. When I was alone, I didn’t mind because I was gonna leave this world without someone getting sad over my death, or trying to protect me. But now, I have Jason and his family on my back… and I plan on protecting them with my life. This time, I’ll be there on time.

When I look at my phone, I see that I’ve been there for almost an hour. I quickly get out, and change into the clothes that Miranda brought me. A pair of black yoga pants paired with a green T-shirt. She even brought me new underwear to wear… Okay, I got to give this to her… Even if she drives me crazy sometimes…

When I go out of the bathroom, I see she’s fidgeting in the bed like she can’t keep her butt down for even a second. Yeah, that’s what I meant drives me crazy… When she sees me coming out she jumps up and comes straight at me.

“Oh, I was so sure that green was your color.”

I look at her quite confused.

“Thank you… I suppose?”

“Oh you shouldn’t thank me! Oh, I want to talk to you about everything so much… But we must go down, the dinner is ready, and they are waiting for us.”

As she goes to take my hand, I take a step back and smile at her wickedly.

“No, thank you… If I let you take me by the arm again, then I’ll be sweaty when I get down, and that’s something I’d like to avoid.”

“Oh, you’re good! Okay! Then follow me!”

She smiles at me and goes out of the room jumping from one foot to another. As we’re walking she begins to speak to me.

“You know, when I talked to you this morning, you were REALLY rude… and, just so you know, I don’t like rude people!”

“Okay, in my point of view, you were just a stranger in a school full of people that hate me… and because many before you have tried before, I mean get close to me so that they learn even the tiniest thing about me, then go and tell their friends and then all of them call me freak, I just did the usual ‘I hate you already, go and jump off a cliff, I don’t care’ routine...”

“Why are they all calling you freak and treating you like that?”

“Just because of the eyes, I believe… Not that it matters, but anyway...”

“They’re just so stupid! I bet you’re all the boys’ secret admiration… and all the girls are just SOO jealous of you… Really, you should have listened to them talking s**t about you… It was hilarious… They seemed so determined to belittle you that in the end they couldn’t find any more words to describe you to me…”

She laughs and I laugh bitterly.

“So they went ahead with the speech, huh?”

“The speech?”

“The ‘Stay away from the freak’ speech!”

She bursts out laughing.

“Yeah, I knew you had humor! But anyway, if you mean the crap they said about you, yeah, they did the speech… Oh, I so wanted to slap them! But, I held myself back and just told them off!”

I look at her in astonishment.

“What exactly happened?”

“Oh, they were talking trash, and at one point I had enough, like I was so mad that you could literally see smoke coming out of my ears! That’s what usually happens when I get really mad, and you don’t want to see me mad! I’m just warning you… Anyway, I asked them how they know all these things about you, and if they had talked to you even one time… and they were like ‘Uh, no, we never really talked to her but we see what she is like, dealing with her every day’, and then I was like ‘Then shut up you know nothing about her’, and then...”

“Okay, okay, I understand and thank you for standing up for me...”

By this time, we had arrived at the bottom of the stairs. She turns and gives a small smile, so beautiful that it breaks my heart.

“Everything for my ‘sister’”

That sentence sent my mind into overdrive. I really want to cry right now, when a few minutes ago I was amused by her way of dealing with things. Yeah, she is really gonna drive me crazy.

“Come on, now!”

She takes my arms and drags me the rest of the way. We go inside a room, next to the living room. There we find Jason and John, already situated. I smile at them both.

“Hi...”

Jason smiles at me.

“Hi, sweetheart! Have you relaxed?”

“Yes, very much so… I also took a bath. I needed it.”

Miranda gives me a gentle push with her hand, and says:

“Sit with the guys. I’ll go and help mom bring the food.”

“Oh, should I help you with it?”

“Not today, sweetie… Today you’re the guest of honor!”

And like that she’s off.

“Come and sit here...”

John says, and taps the seat next to him. I go and sit beside him, and he smiles at me. Then I remember my letters, but before I could ask, Miranda and Fiona got inside the room and put 3 platters of freshly made food in the middle of the table. They sat down and everyone started filing their plates.

…

After we ate, we started talking… well, mostly Jason. He was telling me different stories about my father in his younger days. Most of the stories are funny, so I have some tears of laughter in my eyes.

“He was really loud and never listened to what the teachers were saying… and that’s why when he said that you were a quiet and obedient little girl, I was so surprised… Thankfully, you took that from your mother!”

Fiona laughed.

“Yeah… But Linda was not always quiet… I think you forget what she did when Arthur forgot their anniversary…”

“Oh, yeah! I was really sorry for him when I saw her expression! It screamed horror...”

I laugh with them… It’s been a lot of time since I laughed that hard. When I calm down, I see Fiona looking at me smiling sweetly.

“You’re really reminding me of her… even your laugh is the same...”

I smile a sad smile.

“Were you alright those two months? I mean, any attacks, anything?”

Jason asks, worried.

“No attacks from the human mage. But a month ago, several things started attacking me.” He looks at me shocked.

“What things?”

I close my eyes and try to calm my breathing. I suddenly become anxious, and I fin it hard to breathe normally.

“Are you okay?”

Asks John from beside me. I look at him and give him a little nod. He gives me a pat on the shoulder.

“Shadow monsters.”

“Shadow monsters? But these can only be made by...”

Jason doesn’t dare finish his sentence. So I do it for him.

“Dark magic...”

He stares at me shocked. You see, dark magic is not exactly shadows and darkness. It means any ill form of magic power, whatever the element concerned is. So it was a f*******n craft in the Kingdom of the Elemental Warlocks. And as it was f*******n, humans never knew about the mere existence of it. I continue explaining.

“Those Shadow Monsters first appeared before me when I was about 5 years old. I believe he didn’t say anything to you because it was only one time, and he didn’t want you to worry. My father couldn’t win against it, so he weakened it, and took it home. He put it in the basement, and started studying it. As he told me, those monsters can only be made with Dark Magic, and he tried finding a way to defeat it. But whatever he did, he couldn’t. So he started thinking about what would make something like this disappear. And found a way. With his magic, he begins trying to open the portal back to the Kingdom, so that he could push the Monster there. After several attempts, he did it. And because he was sure that someday there would be more of them, he made a key with his power.”

I lift my arm and take hold of the key around my neck, and show it to them.

“With this key, and my power as the Selinor I can open portals. But It doesn’t work when someone else is using it. You have to know to make the symbol of the Selinor to use it. And as you know, no one can make it appear besides me.”

I put the key inside my t-shirt again.

“A month ago, the Shadow Monsters started appearing again. And I can say that I send at least 2 to 3 a week...”

Jason looks at me with worry and guilt.

“Oh, God… I’m so sorry, Lila… I could have helped you if I were here sooner...”

I smile at him.

“Don’t be like that. Enough about the what ifs… What matters is that you’re here… and that you’ll help me from here on out.”

He smiles back at me. He exhales and stands up.

"Well, you better go to sleep kids... you have school tomorrow."

"But daddy..."

"No Miranda... Tomorrow, besides school, you have to go and help Lila pack her things from her house."

He turns to me, smiling sadly.

"I don't want you to go there by yourself... So you have to save energy for tomorrow. Goodnight."

He says and gets out of the room. I remain looking at his back for some time, until I hear Fiona getting up and starting to clear the dishes. I quickly stand up.

"Let me help you."

"Thank you."

Miranda and John both help us move the dishes to the kitchen, that I realize is right opposite of the dining room, and then shops us away with the same excuse as her husband. When we get upstairs, Miranda speaks.

"Oh, I forgot to show you our rooms."

She points at two doors that are on the opposite side to my room.

"This one with the pink ribbon is mine. And this one with absolutely nothing is John's!"

"Don't be like that Miranda, you lost the bet..."

My curiosity gets picked on and before I think about it I ask, completely ignoring Miranda's pout.

"What bet?"

John looks at me and I see mischievousness in his eyes.

"When we got here, Mom and Dad said that we had to choose rooms. And we both wanted this room. So we bet on coin flip and I won. Even though it was her idea..."

"I should have said at 3..."

I giggle in spite of myself. While Miranda keeps ranting about how it was unfair, I notice John staring at me. I look at him questioningly. He shrugs and says:

“I'm glad you are here laughing..."

He then turns and goes to his room, muttering a 'Goodnight', right before he closes the door. Miranda then stops ranting and turns to me.

"Where did he go?"

"In his room..."

I say as a matter of fact.

"Ooooh, he's so gonna get it tomorrow morning! How can he do that? He is my brother he should listen to me when I talk!"

She exhales and then turns to me, more serious.

"Will you be alright going to your room, or do you want me to go with you?"

"I'll be fine, it's not like it's so far away from here... I can even see it from here..."

She giggles and hugs me.

"Goodnight! Sweet dreams."

"Goodnight."

As the last letter leaves my mouth she's already going into her room and closing the door. I sigh and begin heading to my room. When I get to the door, I contemplated her words for a little while... Sweet dreams... Ηmph... as if that will happen...