by O. Rose
They turned in unison, a swift about face, and all she could see was her reflection.
And the boat.
She could find him.
∞
“Charity.”
“The one you abandoned?”
He didn’t appreciate the term. “I gave her freedom, the same thing we’re trying to do for-”
“It isn’t the same, don’t pretend otherwise.”
Holly was presumably in bed and they’d retired to the front yard, neither willing to accept the end of a day’s struggle.
“She found a way to watch,” Levi said, turning to his brother. “This is my domain and she won’t see it again, but if she’s looking for you then even that glimpse may spur her to action.” He eyed Adam. “How devoted do you believe her to be?”
He was loath to answer because the truth was he knew, though he’d made it plain from the outset that he was not of the same mind. “More than I wanted her to be. At this point she’ll remember less and less of life before meeting me. She mistakenly believes I gave her immortality. I have no idea how she grabbed hold of it, but I did nothing.”
“So, she will continue to search?”
“I believe she will.”
He sighed. “And what was she like, before she met you?”
“I never asked about her life, but when I found her she was friendless and alone. Substance abusive, homeless. I took her out of a warehouse, thought I’d play the rich benefactor for a while, and before I knew what happened she was different. The physical ailments were gone and she was alive,” he looked to the massive moon. “I didn’t mean for that to happen,” he added, defensively. “But it did and there was nothing I could say, no language got through, to make her believe I didn’t do it. I didn’t want to leave her like that, I knew what it might do to her. It’s been years.”
“But you thought it would be a good idea now?” Levi fumed. “To say ‘goodbye’, knowing full well she wouldn’t accept it? Now she can see you! How did she learn it?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea! I have no doubt she was a high school dropout and that is advanced work, but I taught her nothing.”
Levi glared at his brother and instructed, “You will go to her again. Arrange to see her at the Assembly and in the time left find a way to deal with her. She will not come here and she should have no contact with Holly. If she is truly obsessed with you that can be dangerous.”
Adam couldn’t disagree. “Fine. I will find her and set up the meeting.”
The discussion at an end they both turned their eyes skyward again, observing the night their beloved created.
∞
Holly was asleep, yet wakened to the feel of eyes. She felt as though someone was nearby, unlike anything she’d felt before and she knew that if she’d noticed, the brothers did too.
The feeling disappeared as quickly as it came and she thought it must’ve been something they did. They drew a curtain, cut off the inquiring gaze.
Was it someone trying to find out about her? They’d said some would. That others would notice the change in them and try to find the cause.
There was that word again, ‘change’. Many things had changed for her. She had a new name, a new identity. A new grasp of her past.
How long ago was it that she sat in the car with Lori? When was the last time she walked the crowded school hallways? She was a part-time student, her concept classes took three hours to complete and she couldn’t participate in anything else. There were no clubs for girls who couldn’t bring forth the most basic of assistants, who couldn’t make a simple flower bloom. She had no affinity for anything they taught.
Now, she called the night to replace the day.
One thing remained the same, however, and that was her inability to comprehend the future. Holly couldn't imagine what would come tomorrow, let alone in a hundred years and there was nothing she could do to stop time from passing. She sort of wanted to, for the comfort of the familiar. The idea of how different the world would become, while she stayed the same, was dreadful. It was as bad as waiting to die.
Waiting to live and live and live.
Buildings would rise and fall. There would be fires and tsunamis. Tornadoes and bad movie remakes.
None of it would matter to her because she could never be part of it. Classmates called her ‘necromancer’. The world rejected her as something that shouldn’t exist.
“But I do,” she said to herself as she sat in the bed, legs drawn to her chest. Her hair hung over her shoulder in a thick, messy braid. “I do exist.”
She held her hands out in front of her, palms up, and after a moment’s hesitation determined to see sparkle.
Golden glitter danced before her in a sphere, held captive by her imagination.
The sudden opening of her door made her drop the reflective particles; they spilled onto the blanket as Adam and Levi moved into the room.
Both breathed sighs of relief.
“We’re sorry,” Adam said. “We felt a shift, I guess that was you learning something new?”
She shook her head and answered, “I don’t know? I didn’t know if it would work or that you would be able to tell.”
Levi’s nod was quick. “If you’re fine,” he took his brother by the upper arm and towed him from the room. “Goodnight.”
She wasn’t able to reply before the door was closed again.
Holly looked to the shimmering pile, leaned closer and blew.
Instead of scattering across the bed it painted the room.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Charity was in raptures when he returned to her, she found him in the apartment in the evening. She could tell he wasn’t pleased and she apologized for spying, promised she didn’t do it on purpose.
“I couldn’t do it again.”
“Hm,” he wasn’t convinced. “In any case I will stay away,” he ignored her protest. “Because I have something to do.” He reached into his coat pocket and withdrew an envelope. “Take this, I will be here and we will meet again then.”
“The Assembly,” she read the words and looked to him. “Whats that?”
“The invitation will explain all you need to know. As I said I’ll be there and we will see each other then. Follow the instructions.”
When she lurched forward he saw a disturbing gleam in her eye. It was one he recognized, the same shine he saw in the queen who was Holly’s mother. Her grasp on his sleeve was tight.
“You said you’ll be there.” Manic.
“Yes,” he pulled away and disappeared.
She stared at the place he’d occupied for fleeting minutes, he’d stood there so many times before and now was so eager to get out. He paid for the apartment with it’s skyscraper views, yet it didn’t mean anything to him. Sharing the space with her was nothing.
Those were fighting words and she would fight for him, fight to keep him. They were hiding something in that house, she knew it. It was pulling him from her, tearing them apart and she wouldn’t let that happen so easily.
She looked to the invitation, it didn’t explain much about the gathering, what kind of history there was to it or how many guests were expected. A masked ball, it said, along with the time, date and place.
A week away.
She had a week to figure out how to snare him.
∞
Holly dreamed a dream that was real.
She stood in a circle of tall crystals, the gems shone in the moonlight. She was bathed from head to toe in white. Her reflection showed a girl she’d never known herself to be; she’d turned her head for a moment, caught sight of herself. Her dress was flowing and strapless, strings of pearls draped off her shoulders. She wore a crown and her hair fell down her back in waves.
She looked magical.
But, she didn’t have the time or inclination to admire herself. It was a glance and nothing more. She had something else to do.
What was it?
She felt the grass beneath her bare feet. Flowers bloomed where she
stepped and she bent to pick one; just as she was about to toss it into the center of the circle she woke, the flower still within her grasp.
She sat upright and after a quick examination wondered how much of the dream happened. All of it, surely, but she was in her night clothes still. A t-shirt and shorts. Where was the dress, the crown?
A quick look around the room proved useful, the garments she’d worn were there now. A dress makers doll wore the frock and the crown was on it’s head.
She considered telling the brothers, thought better of it and determined to see her dream through to the end. She would find that place and she wouldn't wait. It wasn’t a sense of urgency that drove her, it was curiosity. She wanted to know what was going to happen.
Being alive made her a princess, the crown offered confidence, the dress a new layer of self.
Her door didn’t open to the foyer even though she asked it to; the house was holding her back. Afraid she wouldn’t return, concerned by the change that happened inside without it’s permission. Yet it didn’t let them find her, even though she felt them looking. Opening doors that led to nowhere.
“I promise,” she whispered, “that I’m not leaving for good. There’s something I want to see and then I’ll come back.”
Words meant a lot. Promises were binding. The house let her go.
Out into the night and she pushed it back, rewound time so the moon was huge and low again. She could see the city over the wall, the sky was pinkish and orange, clouds were rolling in. Even here the air smelled like snow. Was that her or natural weather? She couldn’t tell.
She held the flower still, tiny, blue and star, as she passed over the invisible line that led into the woods. She walked the dirt path, the sounds of crickets faded, and a dim glow shown from afar. The luminescence brightened with each step she took until she found the crystals. They were bigger in person and she found herself, inadvertently, retracing steps from her dream; each movement was the same.
With two flowers in hand she sent them sailing into the center where they twirled a dance and landed to grow a mirror of mirrors. It didn’t reflect her, though the crystals were echoed, no matter how she walked around it.
Holly stared at the mirror; from which side she didn’t know, she’d lost track. What was she supposed to do? The dream ended before she got to this part.
She tried touching it, but nothing happened. She tried speaking to it, but nothing happened. She tried reflecting moonshine, but that had no effect.
When she removed the crown she could see herself.
What did that mean?
Not yet, said the mirror. Not yet. You haven’t decided.
What did she need to decide?
Holly isn’t enough.
Choosing a new name wasn’t enough; the crown didn’t fit her yet because she hadn’t decided it would.
“If it’s mine, then I’m meant to have it,” she said. Yet, many people were meant to do things, great things, and they never accomplished any of them.
She didn’t have to and if she did then what else would change?
Everything was changing, everyday something was different. Whether she saw it or not, someone somewhere was making things different. Every step, every look to the past.
In her past she was a princess with no power because she didn’t let herself have it. After the incident when she was young she tried not to use abilities she was naturally inclined to. She was learning what she’d forgotten, but did she want to speed ahead? Or, was she content leaving things the way they were?
How would she change if she put the crown back on?
∞
They were at the edge of the forest when she returned, crown in hand and shoulders slumped.
“There are many things about to take place,” Levi said. “That was an unknown we might not be able to deal with.”
She knew he was trying to console her, but she felt like a coward.
“What exactly happened?” Adam asked as she passed.
She felt their eyes rake over her body, head to toe. “I was dreaming, a dream that leaked into reality? I don’t know how to describe it. That was where the dress came from and the crown too. When I woke up I wanted to see how it ended.”
“And?”
“And there’s a mirror, but I couldn’t see my reflection. I finally realized it was the crown.” She looked up to the sky as it was suddenly day and snowing. Blinked and squinted. “I had to make a choice and I wasn’t ready,” she turned her gaze to Levi. “How did you know?”
“I felt you there,” was his simple reply. “Take your time. We don’t know what will happen and there’s more to do in the meantime. The Assembly is six days away and we need to prepare.”
“You can wear this dress,” Adam touched one strand of pearls. “Hazel will find you a mask and fix your hair.”
“But before that,” Levi said. “You need to learn more about it.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The book was calling to her. She heard it when the children were quiet, when they left for school in the morning, telling her to open it, to read it.
Look at me, it said. Look. What harm could that do?
She’d not set foot in her workshop since the day it was left in her home. She didn’t know what it hoped to gain from her, what would happen if she did pursue it’s contents, but she was determined to never find out.
“Mom?”
Olwen returned and the book went silent. “Yes? Which one?”
“This,” the workbook was presented.
Ella was ten this year, double digits and every inch a budding fashionista. The child had no care for what anyone else thought of her clothing choices, though in private schooling she and her brother wore uniforms daily. The bane of her existence. She would rather sport leopard print leggings and Uggs and she wasn’t at all pleased with the STEM focus push. She watched videos of clothing hauls and determined to find her fame on social media one day.
Olwen thought it concerning and sought to limit exposure, along with pointing out the various issues people in the limelight attracted. Fake friends, scammers. Stalkers. Inadvertently harming the self-esteem of others.
In general Ella was a conscientious child, especially when she was younger, so her mother hoped that time would see her through this phase.
Jax, eight, played hard. He was out and about daily with neighborhood friends, hiking trails and building forts. There was a plan in place to have a massive snow war on the first day of canceled school. They were taking bets on when it would happen.
She wondered who he would be in the years to come. He was the type of boy who held doors open and didn’t mind saying ‘I love you’ as he got on the bus. Someone worthy of praise, she felt sure.
“You need to read the problem carefully,” was the advice she could give. Anything more would be cheating.
The sigh was full of attitude.
When it came to Ella it wasn’t that she couldn’t, it was that she would rather not. She’d hit a wall Olwen observed multiple times in the modern ages, when children were in elementary school. For the first few years all was a grand adventure, after that life went downhill.
She was considering pulling her, but thought she should wait until Jax hit the same spot. The idea of home education was appealing; learning without desks. She’d never done it before.
It would be something different, to teach them more about magic at home than their contemporary schools would. The trend was science.
Come look.
She really had to get rid of that book.
∞
No matter how much she read she didn’t gain any understanding.
Holly shoved a thick tome away.
“This isn’t working,” she huffed to Adam, the one who remained. Levi was gone to contact people, people she didn’t know. Immortals. “Its reading Greek, none of it makes sense.”
“That’s because it’s all less than theory and that means you have the point,” he took the book awa
y, sent it flying across the library. “There is nothing for you to learn, though you did keep trying. It’s been hours.”
“What do you mean? That was all worthless?” she was shocked.
“No, nothing is worthless. What you needed to find was that it doesn’t make sense and it’s fruitless to try to find answers. I’m sure you will someday anyway, we all did at one point or another. Sometimes we start looking again, even knowing there’s nothing to find.
“That’s what the Assembly is. It’s a gathering to affirm that we know nothing and nothing can be done about it. We’re stuck where we are, don’t know how it happened, and we can’t change it.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Some have gone insane, became serial killers. Ever heard of Jack the Ripper?”
She nodded.
“That’s something we do, stop them. My brother and I, that’s part of the role we took. All we can do is lock them up in places they can’t escape. Unfortunately, that doesn’t solve their problems and if someone like that ever got out,” he sighed. “We can only imagine they’d be worse than ever.”
“Can’t they escape?”
“Not everyone is powerful in the same ways, just like humanity in general. What we believe, after studying what history there is,” he gestured to the shelves upon shelves of books. “Is that one of the reasons people like ‘Jack’ lose their minds is a perceived lack of power. It’s no different from people rushing toward a grave. They don’t think they have control, or they believe someone has more than they do, so they take what they can get.”
She released a long exhale. “This turned into a psychology lesson.”
“Not really,” he shrugged. “We think of it as intelligible sense. Look at the people around you long enough and you’ll start to see patterns of behavior. That’s all it is, no need for a textbook. In fact, I tried to learn from scholars decades ago. In my opinion they’re making the simple complicated.” He sat back, hands behind his head. “People aren’t hard to understand, their motivations come back to the same things. If the so-called Golden Rule would be observed? Everything would be easier. But, they won’t and that wouldn’t really work anyway. Some people enjoy their misery, it makes them feel important.”