IceShine

XII

After that conversation with the twins, I felt much better. Maybe the crying did the treat. After that, John got out of my room, Miranda helped me dry my tears and look presentable, or not so red, that her parents wouldn’t know I’ve been crying.

We decided to not tell anything about my nightmares to their parents. They would worry and they would only do something that could prove dangerous for all of us.

We go down the stairs and straight to the dining room where only John is seated. When he sees me he gets up and comes closer to us. He looks at me and asks worriedly:

“Better?”

“Much…”

I say the word with a small smile to give him some peace mind, which I believe is working, as he smiles at me, takes my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. I’m losing myself in his eyes, as his hand continues to squeeze gently mine, making the room silent.

“Now, stop making googly eyes at my friend and sit down. I’m hungry!”

Miranda says, breaking the silence, and I turn to look at her, to see her already sitting on her seat at the table. My eyes turn towards John, who by now has taken his hand back, only to see him, clearing his throat with a red tint on his cheeks. Before I have time to process what I saw, Jason walks in with a smile on his face.

“Good morning!”

“Good morning, Dad.”

Says John, who seems really happy with the change in subject, and his cheeks seem to have returned to their natural color.

It must have been my imagination.

I go and sit beside Miranda who looks at me with a big smile on her face. What’s wrong with her?

“What is it?”

“Nothing!”

And her smile just gets bigger. She turns to look at her brother, who now is sitting opposite me and talking with their father, also seated.

“Okay… I guess…”

I say the last part quietly. I will never understand what goes through her mind. It’s too complicated for me to comprehend.

Fiona gets inside and sit beside her husband, and we start our breakfast. Everyone chats away, and I listen giving small smiles here and there, or laugh when they talk about “something Miranda wants to forget”, as Miranda says.

As I wanted to never say these words again, I missed these things. I missed having breakfast with my family. I missed laughing with them about something awkward I did. I miss my parents, and their ability to make me relax about anything that bothered me. I miss them and the way they made me feel special when someone bullied me about my eyes.

I must trust these feelings and move forward. Dad would be absolutely livid if he was watching me drive away the people that care about me. I must open up, and I’ll do it. I’m not alone anymore.

And, I’m sure as hell, prepared to give my life to protect these 4 people that are trying to help me get out of the darkness.

…

When we get back from school, Miranda takes John by the hand and they go to his room to talk. Today, the both of them are acting weird. Actually more than weird. Miranda has tried to talk to John multiple times and when we were together, she was winking at him nonstop, whereas John was glaring at her and asking her if she started having ticks, to which Miranda would smile and say something along the lines “Tik, tok, tik, tok…” and something under her breath that I couldn’t catch. Then John would glare at her even more intensely, get up and go to his seat, saying the class is starting.

I really can’t understand them after all!

I get inside the kitchen, and find Fiona cooking.

“Hi.”

“Hello sweetie! How was your day?”

“Nice and confusing. Your kids will always remain a mystery to me!”

I tell her about what has been going on since the morning, and she just smiles… Oh boy! That’s exactly the same smile Miranda gave me this morning!

“Oh, don’t worry about them. They have their own kind of communicating, that many others can’t understand. You’ll soon get used to it, to a point you’ll understand what they’re saying from their facial expression!”

She says laughing, and I just smile at her. I eat a banana, talk a little more to Fiona, and go to my room to change clothes, for our training.

When I get out of the bathroom, I hear my phone ringing. I go to pick it up, and press accept like a madwoman when I see it’s Greghory.

“Where is my favorite princess?”

“Just got back from school… What time are you coming with the girl?”

“We’ll be there at 10 minutes.”

“Okay. Just so you know, Fiona has already prepared a feast for the both of you.”

“Oh, that’s very sweet of her.”

There’s silence after that, and so I go straight in.

“He heard us.”

“What?”

“John heard us last night before you left. He knew everything this morning, and confronted me about it. Miranda heard us talking and now knows everything, too.”

He stays silent for a little while.

“They know everything?”

“Everything… I didn’t leave anything out…”

He sighs.

“Well, princess… it seems like you couldn’t decide so Mother Life decided for you.”

“Something like that, it seems…”

“Okay, princess, I’ll see you soon.”

He hangs up, and I fall back on the bed. I look at the ceiling and let out a big sigh. I bring my hands up, rub my face and get up to go and inform the twins about Greghory’s coming.

…

For my luck, they had finished their discussion. And I say luck, because John looked really, really angry, while Miranda looked really, really happy! I have absolutely no idea what went on inside that room, but it can’t be good. So I just ignored their expressions, informed them, left them to change and went down to sit in the living room. I sit in front of the window looking outside the sky. Today was a very beautiful day and I just can’ t help but admire it.

Suddenly, I notice movement in front of the house, and turn to look at it. Greghory is here. He parks the car, and he and a girl I have never seen before gets out. She must be the one he was talking about.

She is really beautiful. She has long blond hair with some strands lighter than others. She is wearing a brown skirt that goes just above her knees, and a white jumper. She has a heart-shaped face and I can’t see her eyes, for she wears sunglasses.

I turn around to go find the others, and I see John at the door staring at me. When did he come?

I give him a small smile.

“Greghory is here.”

He nods and clears the way for me to pass. I go to the door and open it, before they can ring. Greghory looks at me astounded.

“Don’t look at me like that, I saw you park from the living room.”

He laughs and grabs me to hug me. I hug him back and behind him I see the girl. She has taken off her sunglasses and I see her eyes. It’s a beautiful blue with gray hays, so that it seems white, if looked from far away. Looking into her eyes, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve seen them before… Without her sunglasses, I get a better view of her face. It’s so well sculpted that it reminds me of a doll.

But then I notice the look she is giving me. She stares at me with malice… hatred… What in the world?

I don’t have time to comprehend her reaction, as Greghory stops hugging me.

“Lila, John… where is Miranda?”

“HERE!!”

And here she comes gliding from the handrail of the stairs. But when she gets at the end, she just falls off, face first.

“Miranda, I told you to stop doing that. At which time you fall, will you learn to hear me?”

“And I was so sure, that I would get this right this time around… A little boost of confidence would help, John!”

“Boost of confidence? Are you kidding me?”

Greghory laughs as the twins continue bickering.

“Are they always like this?”

“In my time here, today is the first day that every time they’re in the same room they fight. I don’t know what to expect the next days…”

“Oh, boy…”

Tired of their bickering, I go and stand between them.

“Okay, now stop fighting… It’s enough for today…”

“But-”

“No buts, Miranda. From morning all you do is fight… I don’t know why, but at least try to do it when we don’t have something more important to do… Like letting Greghory finally introduce us to the Nunny’s descendant…”

Miranda pouts at me but nods. I turn to look at John, with a stern look on my face.

“Don’t look at me like that… It’s her fault that we’re fighting today!”

Miranda scoffs but doesn’t answer him. Now I look at Greghory, to see him close to tears from trying to hold his laughter in. I glare at him and he clears his throat to come out of it.

“Okay… So…”

He gestures behind him, and the girl comes to stand beside him.

“This is Bina… She is the Successor of the Nanny, and she controls light.”

“Hello…”

She says timidly, with her cheeks going red. She seems like a really shy and timid girl. So, what was that look earlier… Ugh, my imagination is really running wild today!

“Wow, you are really beautiful!”

Says Miranda, and that causes Bina to become even redder. I laugh and bring my hand towards her.

“Hi, my name is Lila, I’m the Selinor, as you might have guessed from my eyes. As for these two idiots, this is the older twin, Miranda, and she controls fire. He is the youngest, his name is John and he controls wood.”

She looks at my hand carefully, not sure how to take it. She turns to look at Greghory who just nods at her, and then timidly takes out her hand and shakes it with mine.

“Nice to meet you.”

She gives me a really small and embarrassed smile. Then silence, which Greghory breaks.

“Now that we’re all here… Let’s go down to the basement.”

He starts walking towards it, and Bina looks at him terrified. Miranda also notices that, and says jokingly.

“Don’t worry, we won’t r**e or kill you down there! We’re an absolutely safe bunch of people.”

She puts her arms around her shoulders and they start the descent of the stairs with John and me behind them.

“Hey, have they come? I thought I heard talking…”

Fiona comes out of the kitchen just as I’m about to go down too.

“Yeah, just now. They’re already downstairs, so you’ll meet them in a while. We won’t do any heavy practice today as it’s her first day, so when Jason comes, come and get us for dinner.”

“Got that, sweetie!”

She smiles and goes happily back to her kitchen.

…

When I’m down, Greghoy has taken off his jacket and has put the three of them in a line.

“Oh, you’re here… Come, come…”

He makes a “Come on” gesture and I go stand beside him. Then he starts talking.

“So, as you all know we have some big problem… Shadow monsters are appearing out of everywhere and are targeting us, the descendants. We know that the one who controls them is the one sending nightmares to Lila. As we all know, he achieved taking down the previous Selinor, and some of the previous descendants, but we must not let him again. Because what he wants is to kill all of us. The only ones that remain of the previous generation, is your parents, John and Miranda. We must protect them too. Especially your mother. No one of us will ever again die by his hand. You’re new to this, and I can understand that it’s very difficult, contrary to Lila and I, but worry not. We’re here to help you.”

He looks at Miranda, who looks down, reminded of her outburst when she first controlled fire.

“Also, we must know what we’re up against. Lila?”

I turn to look at him finding him already staring at me.

“Have you ever seen him?”

I look down and clench my fists.

“Only traces of him… His eyes are white, and his hair is dark… Other than that, it’s only his voice I hear.”

He puts a hand on my shoulder and smiles at me.

“Okay, it doesn’t matter. Sooner or later, he’ll show himself.”

He takes his hand away and turns to look at the others.

“John, Miranda… Now that you know, I want you to do me a favor. I want one of you every night to sleep in the same room as her. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen her coming out of a nightmare but it’s bad… Like really bad. I don’t want you to leave her alone at night. Or at least sleep with open doors, so you can hear her when she screams…”

They both nod with a very serious look on their face.

“Also, as Lila tells me you have begin your training… But Bina hasn’t…”

He turns his attention to the girl, and looks at her kindly.

“We will begin your training tomorrow. Today, I want you to try and familiarize yourself with your powers. Have they ever activated?”

Bina bites her lower lip and looks up.

“I’m not sure how to say this. My powers were activated for the first time two years ago. I was walking home from work, when someone grabbed me and pulled me in a secluded street. There he tried to…”

She gulps down.

“He tried to r**e me and kill me. He put a knife on my throat… I tried to resist and then… some kind of light got out of my hand… I didn’t know what that was and that was enough to make the man fall down and pass out. My powers didn’t activate again, until some weeks ago a Shadow Monster attacked me. I didn’t know what happened, but again a light came out of my hand, but this time it wasn’t enough. Then Greghory came and killed it. The rest of the story you know…”

She turns to look down. Miranda, who is beside her pats her on the shoulder and smiles at her.

“You don’t have to worry… everything will be fine, now that you’re with us…”

Bina smiles at her. I turn my attention to Greghory, who is looking at Bina with a very kind smile. That makes my eyes bulge out…

Oooh, boy… He is in love!