IceShine

IX

I’m running. Something is behind me and is chasing me. I’m afraid, so afraid. Then, my parents suddenly appear and stop me from running.

“Mom, Dad… Come on we have to run! He’ll catch up on us!”

But they don’t answer. They keep on looking behind me, with straight faces, like nothing is wrong. What’s the matter with them?

Then I hear the thing that was behind me, quite closer now. I start running again, trying to pull my parents with me. But they’re not budging. In contrast, they take my hands and turn me around, to look at what is chasing me. I let out a scream, at the force of their action, but my pained scream, soon turns into a horrified one.

There, before me stands a man… a man that I know all too well… A sick smiles creeps on his lips and lowers his head to murmur in my ear: “You’re mine, and soon I’ll get you…”

I scream loudly. I’m afraid… I’m scared… I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what I should do to escape from him… He’s got me in his grasp this instant…

Then I hear my name being called and everything turns white. I become more and more scared, my heartbeat accelerating more and more!

“Lila!”

When I open my eyes, Miranda stands by my side clutching my shoulders. As soon as I open my eyes, I get up and clutch my chest…

“Lila! Thank God, you’re awake… I was ready to go and wake up Dad…”

I’m trying to catch my breath… It was just a nightmare… Another nightmare… One more time that he spoke the same words to me in my sleep…

“Drink this…”

I turn to look at Miranda holding a glass of water in front of me. I try to take it but my hands are trembling so much, that I can’t take hold of it quite alright, so Miranda helps me, and brings it to my trembling lips. I gulp all the water at once, and Miranda takes the glass and puts back down on the bedside table.

“Better?”

I nod slightly my head, but don’t turn to look at her. I bring my knees to my chest and my arms go around my legs. When Miranda sees that I continue trembling, she gets in the bed with me and hugs me.

“Since when?”

“What?”

“Since when are you suffering from nightmares? Because from your reaction just now, I assume that it’s not the first time… You know you were screaming quite loudly, and I think it’s a miracle, that no one but me heard you… So, it must have been something really scary.”

Then I turn to look at her face, to see a frown of clear worry. I sigh and turn my head around to rest my forehead on my legs. A few minutes pass in complete silence, and I must confess that I find it weird, that hotheaded Miranda doesn’t speak up to pressure me.

“Since my parents died…”

I break the silence with my whisper. In fact it was so soft, that I thought she didn’t hear anything. But the arm that got tighter on my shoulders told me otherwise. After a few seconds, she sighs and untangles my body, so to put me again down on the bed. I feel so weak after that dream, that I just let her.

When I was under the covers, she stood up, took off the jacket she was wearing on top of her pijamas, and got under the covers with me. She faced me and took my hand.

“We have a few more hours before the sun goes up… Sleep… We both need it…”

She was quite right about that. After all, it was their first training. She and John, already seem to take the hang of their new powers early on. On their very first day, they actually managed to control their powers nicely. At my first training I was able to do nothing, I lost control way too quickly and my father almost got killed by me many times.

When night came, they both were so tired that even eating was sounding to them like a chore. I’m sure tomorrow will be greater than today… I’m really proud of them, as is Jason.

So I guess, I must call him…

…

The next morning everyone is sitting in the table for breakfast. Miranda didn’t tell anyone about what happened last night. I asked her not to… I don’t want to bother them with my problems, and most specifically, I don’t want to tell them about the man in my dream.

I’m afraid he’ll do something to them. So, until I’m sure that we are strong enough to beat him, I’ll not tell them anything… I care for them too much.

“So, are you ready for your second day of training?”

Fiona asks happily. John and Jason just give her a crooked smile (like father like son, I tell you), while Miranda seems unable to stop moving in her chair.

“Of course! After a good night’s sleep, I’m ready to do everything!”

A pung of guilt strikes my chest. I woke her up with my screams last night, and she probably wasn’t as comfortable with me on the bed, as she would be n her own bed. But that thought quickly goes out of my mind when she puts her hand on top of mine on my legs. She doesn’t look at me, no. She looks at her mother, telling her of what she was able to do yesterday.

I give her hand a squeeze, and that seems to be enough for her, so she takes her hand away from mine.

“I have to go to the office this morning. I need to study a file for the court tomorrow, and I forgot to bring it back on Friday. You begin without me.”

“Okay, daddy!”

Miranda says in a too cheerful-for-morning-tone, and I see John rubbing his ears. I let out a small giggle, which brings his attention to me. All through breakfast, he was looking at me, as if he knew what happened last night.

There’s no way that he knows what happened, but I’m sure that he knows that something is up… And not only from mine, but his sister’s attitude. I hope I’m wrong, though… I don’t need him to worry about me too…

His eyes scrutinize me trying to read my mind. I continue looking at him, lost in his eyes, as if a spell befell on me. But, Jason getting up from the table, brings an end to this spell and I turn to look at him.

“I’m going now. Be good kids, until I return, and don’t cause Lila too much trouble… I’m talking about you, Miranda.”

“Why? What did I do?”

“What you didn’t do is the problem… Yesterday, you didn’t let her tell you anything! You just disrupted her for idiotic reasons… So please, today do me the favor and let her talk before you do anything or ask your questions…”

Miranda pouted and eventually said: “Fine.”

Jason turned to look at John, who gave him a nod. Jason reciprocated the gesture, kissed Fiona and went out of the room. We stayed in our seats in silence, when Fiona breaks it.

“So, what happened last night?”

Miranda looks at me, discreetly. Then clears her throat and turns to fully look at her mother.

“What happened last night?”

“You slept in Lila’s room… Don’t think I didn’t notice that your room was empty this morning…”

Miranda sighs, and I notice John looking at us questioningly, wondering what they’re talking about.

“Okay, all right! I couldn’t sleep, so I went to her room to keep me company, until sleep took over both of us.”

Okay, she just saved the day… I think. I drink a sip of my coffee, while Fiona turns her attention to me.

“Lila, don’t let her get to you… If you didn’t want her to sleep, next time just wake up John to take her away, all right?”

“Mom!”

“Shh, Miranda… She could have been sleeping! So, don’t bother her anymore!”

I giggle and say to her.

“Fiona, it’s all right… I was awake. But next time, please check and if I’m not awake, turn and leave… Because, you don’t want to wake me up in the middle of my sleep…”

“Okay, okay… I’ll check next time!”

She folds her arms and pouts at us. Fiona and John laugh at her antics, and I just thank her silently in my mind, that she didn’t say anything.

“Okay, enough about breakfast, go downstairs and start your training… and Miranda please…”

“I know, I know, I won’t ask stupid questions!”

Before she finishes her sentence, she’s up and going towards the basements’ door. This time I laugh at her too, with John and Fiona. Then I turn towards her.

“Fiona, I’ll help you bring them to the kitchen. John, go with her and I’m coming in a few minutes.”

“Wait, I’ll help too, it’s too many of them.”

I nod to him, and we both help Fiona bring the dishes to the kitchen. After, that she shoos us away to get started with the training.

When we get to the door, we see that Miranda did not close it, and so we both go in and start going down. But as soon as I take my third step, he catches my arm and gets close to me. I turn to face him, and see that he looks at me quite seriously. Then he brings his mouth close to my ear and whispers.

“Just so you know, I know that both you and Miranda, are hiding something…”

Just as quickly he came close to me, as quickly he got back and looked deep into my eyes. Then I understand that my heart beat is accelerating more and more, and I question, when did it start beating so rapidly.

I shake my head, trying to calm my heart and give him a small smile.

“We were that see-through?”

“No… Actually, you both were astoundingly believable, but Miranda can never hide anything from me. I can almost smell it when she lies…”

I laugh a little at that. He tightens his hold around my arm a little.

“I won’t ask anything… absolutely nothing… I just want to know that you’re both okay… And for you to promise that!”

He looks worriedly at me. I can’t say much when he looks at me like that… And even though for me, not everything is all right, I have to reassure him somehow. Without being able to look at him in the eye and lie to him, I lower my gaze to our feet.

“Everything is all right… You can be sure of that.”

He continues to look at me. He lets out a deep sigh, and with his other hand takes my chin and turns my head towards him. This time I can’t ignore his probing gaze…

“Are you sure?”

Yes, I’m absolutely sure that I’m not well with my nightmares every night! But of course, I can’t let him know… at least not yet! I gulp and look at him straight in the eyes. Oh, at least I hope I sound convincing.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

I manage a little smile. He continues to look at me for a moment. For a moment I thought that he didn’t believe me, but when he sighs and lets me go, I mainly feel two emotions: first, relieved that he believed me, and second cold. Cold, like something teared out of me. My heart is still beating hard, and at first I don’t notice that he starts walking towards the basement.

I follow him, downstairs and find out that Miranda, has already began.

“Oh, finally! I was getting bored and so I started without you.”

She gets in stance and starts firing flames once from her right, once from her left hand.

I look at John, he just sighs and starts doing the exercise he was last doing yesterday. He tries to put out long logs out of the palms of his hands and make them go around a big sphere that hangs from the roof, and bring it down. Yesterday, he couldn’t exactly do it. He was always making it to the ball, but couldn’t take the sphere out of its holds to the roof to bring it down.

I go closer to him and take his hands on mine.

“You need to think before you feel. Think about what you want to do, then feel it coming out of your hands. From then try to concentrate more on the feeling, until you bring that sphere down.”

As I say this, I gently massage his palms as if to make him feel more relaxed. He is too tense, and that is something that could harm his hands. When I finish speaking, I feel he is more relaxed, and I turn to look at his eyes, to find him taking deep breaths with eyes closed. Finally, he opens his eyes and stares at me with a small smile, nodding.

“Thanks.”

I reciprocate the smile and leave his hands, so that he can try again. As he begins, my attention turns to Miranda, that, as yesterday, can control fairly her flames but does not make the center of the big aim that is on the opposite wall of where she’s standing. I go closer to her and stand beside her.

“Fire is one of the most powerful elements a Warlock can have… it works closely with emotions. You must learn to control your emotions before anything else, and always keep them in check. You’re feeling restless, and that shows.”

She stops and looks at me.

“From what?”

I smile at her.

“Your flames are going at four different directions, without having a common aim.”

She sighs, and goes to grab a water bottle from behind her. As she drinks, I say.

“Thank you, for last night… and this morning…”

“It’s nothing… Just… Please, if you have again a nightmare, come and wake me up. Yesterday you really scared me when you woke up. You were trembling like a fish out of the water.”

“I’m sorry… It’s just… Ugh, I can’t explain everything right now, but if it makes you feel better, when I see a nightmare as bad as this again, I’ll come straight to you.”

“You mean… You have nightmares often?”

“Fairly often…

Like every night!

“But it rarely gets to the point I scream and is as bad as yesterday’s one… I have learned to cancel it, don’t worry.”

She looks at me skeptically.

“Really, it’s all right… Nowadays, I don’t even remember even what the nightmare was…”

“Are you sure, you’re going to be all right?”

I sigh, gulp and get my voice ready, in hopes to make her believe that everything is all right, like I did with her brother minutes ago. I smile.

“Yes, I’m sure… No get back to training!”

“Aye, aye, Captain!”

She laughs and starts again taking aim and firing flames from her arms. This time, she does it excellently and turns to look at me with a smug look. I laugh at her antics and turn my attention back to John to see that he just got the sphere down with the logs that come out from his hands. Yeah, like I said before: they’re really good!

…

“Ah, I can’t take it anymore!”

Two hours later and Miranda is breathing heavily, while lying down, face up. John is standing beside me and looks at her. We both laugh at her and just then Jason gets in through the door and when his eyes focus on me he says:

“Lila, someone is here to see you…”

My eyes open like saucers. I can’t believe it he’s already here… I mean I phoned him just this morning and he’s already here! I run upstairs and faintly hear Miranda, John and Jason following me. When I get to the living room, I see him speaking to Fiona, just like he was 1 month ago. Short black hair, with green eyes, tall and lean, and always wearing black clothes.

“Greghory!”

I run to him and hug him tightly.

“Hey, little one! I didn’t think you’d miss me that much…”

I stop the hug and turn towards the Korlin family.

“Guys, this is Greghory. He is the ancestor of the Protector of the young prince, the strongest Warlock of the Kingdom!”