by J P Anderson
"Here goes nothing." she snorted placing her hand into the goo hearing it squish and the door creak open.
"Miss. Genevieve Grave, daughter of Henry Grave, king of Akadia." A choppy animatronic voice said from the door.
"That's me." she whispered sarcastically walking through the doorway. She walked slowly through the forest of old separated oaks, kicking leaves a thinking of simpler times. I didn't have a name. I was just Gen. Now I'm Miss. Genevieve Grave, daughter of king of the world. Going from any old nobody to everyone's somebody is a lot for one day. But being shown that I have a father, a sister and a brother is way too much. And on top of that all of these amenities are on a planet millions of miles away from Earth separated by a door in the middle of a forest is just catastrophic. And I have to give up my best and only friend. No freaking way. Not happening. If I can't have Pete there to tell me when I'm being a hateful childish teenage girl there just isn't any point in pretending I'm staying there. When she finally looked up she was standing in front of a Volkswagen Bug on the edge of the forest. She walked over and looked at the ancient car.
"This thing has seen better days." she muttered kicking the cobwebbed flat tire and dusting off the hood.
"Why do you seem familiar, like I've been here before?" she whispered retracing where someone had traced a heart of the windshield. Mesmerized she climbed onto the hood never taking her eyes off the traced heart in the dust. She pulled out her phone after it vibrated at least 10 times from a flood of delayed messages. Sorry, I didn't get your message I was out of World. She thought maniacally. She pressed contacts and clicked on Peter Gallagher. She brushed her finger over send about a million times before she finally had the nerves to press it. It rang twice and right before she hung up a frantic voice came on the other line.
"Hello?" Peter gasped.
"Pete?" she asked as if she wasn't 100% sure that was her best friend on the other line about to chew her out.
"Genny Baby, I was so worried, are you okay?" he asked his very best 'I'm so terrified' voice.
"I'm fine I-"
"Then why the hell would you do that to me! I was worried sick. I ran all up and down New York trying to find you. Where are you now?" Peter screamed. She choked. She couldn't tell him, she gulped in breath after breath trying not to cry.
"I can't tell you Pete." she squeaked gasping in and sniffling out, "I've called to," bigger sniffle, "say goodbye." She finally let the bomb go and the line went silent. So silent in fact she even checked to see if he was still there. He was just doing what Peter always did when he was faced with hard news. Processing it.
"Where are you?" he asked in a sober cold voice.
"Peter, I'm sorry, but you have to go to Berkley and this has to be the end of you and me, it's how it should be." she said taking command of her voice and not allowing it to tremble.
"Gen, you're my best friend, why are you doing this? Is this because of the fight? Because I'm so sorry for whatever I said. Genny just tell me where you are and we can talk about this. Please, I love you." she closed her eyes, letting the tears fall freely. He always knew exactly what to say to break or fill her heart. He knew how to press every soft button or sooth any scratch. That's what made what she was about to do 200% harder than it should be.
"I'm moving away, far away. Goodbye Peter. Forget me, I'm not worth remembering." she said all too quickly and hung up the phone and through it like it was a slimy snake. She closed her eyes, her hands shaking like crazy her eyes dark and swollen.
"That must have been hard." Someone said not to far from her. Her eyes opened in a flash to see Acruz leaning against a tree, smiling. He was different on Earth, more human. He wasn't wearing a white suit with his ridiculous cane anymore. He was wearing a regular white button up shirt and worn blue jeans. His hair had been washed and was slightly wet; it was no longer pin straight but slightly wavy. It wasn't much of a change but it made him look more human and less Godlike.
"Yes we own normal clothing Genevieve, goodness did you think we all walk around in robes of gold? You think I'm like the fifth Fate? I suppose I could deal with that demotion." he said walking towards her. She scooted up the car, away from him, as she laughed uncomfortably.
"That conversation was not meant for your ears." she said addressing his nosiness and shying away from his good looks and pompousness.
"Then I heard nothing. Although I am so sorry to hear you won't make it to my wedding." he said walking to the side of the car as she scooted to the other side never taking her eyes off of him.
"I'm not going anywhere." His face fell. He, for the first time, looked genuinely off-put. She took advantage she pounced
"The great Acruz Deveartae looks confused. I'm not going anywhere; I'm going back to Akadia as soon as I find my horse." she climbed across the hood and swung her legs to the ground and landed inches from Acruz, looking up him radiating body. Too close, Gen, step back. Instead of listening to her inner voice she looked up. His blue eyes where too much although she was a girl of alright self-control she felt herself leaning towards him and him the same looking into her eyes with matched intensity. Her mind flooded with memories of her sister, his words, the dream, her mother's picture and her father weeping in the arms of Alister, the man she was becoming infatuated with. She blinked, the spell broken. She stepped back. I looked into Acruz's eyes but now his eyes looked cold and angry instead of soft and dare I say affectionate towards yours truly.
"You mean my horse," he said using both hands to pat his chest.
"Yes, my horse," she said mockingly.
"I can't believe you stole my horse, and now, are trying to lie about it, and to my face no less!" he yelled in spurts of words then large thoughtful pauses then ending with a mocking head shake and finger wiggle.
"That was your horse?" she asked raising her eyebrow and shrugging as if innocent "However was a girl to know?" she asked in a high pitched childlike voice.
"Yes, Gen, that is my horse and I would like it back." he ordered.
"Well you'll have to race me for it." she smiled wickedly, shrugging playfully. His face went from stern anger to mild shock.
"What did you say?" he asked an amused skepticism painted on his face.
"You heard me Antagonist, race me, unless his majesty he can't beat a sleep deprived girl in a test of agility." she said walking around him tracing her finger on his shoulder blades, across his back and to his other shoulder to face him again. "You're not kidding are you? Well it's a little childish but-" He ran ahead of her without finishing his sentence.
"Cheating bastard." she yelled running after him through the forest. She stopped, catching her breath. Then she hit her palm to her head.
"What an idiot I am."
"Pause," she whispered under her breath. She closed her eyes and pictured the door and did the 'I dream a Jeanie' routine. When she opened her eyes she was surprised to find Acruz tapping his foot by the entrance. She looked around, a bird was paused in the sky, the ants on the tree next to her were paused, yet Acruz stood impatiently tapping his foot, unmoved by her power.
"You cheated," she said poking his solar plexus.
"As did you," he countered in shock that I would even bring it up. "Here, I shall level with you." he said as if it physically hurt him to say it.
"I'm listening." she said, crossing her arms.
"I shall take my horse back to the castle, and I will teleport you to your room."
"That's not a deal, I can teleport myself," she said motioning to leave but he grabbed her wrist. A violent spike of something went through her enough to make her openly gasp. She looked up at Acruz but he released his hand before she could identify what had happened. Her hand shook and her breath slowed as she tried to slow her fluttering stomach and beating heart.
"What the hell was that? You hurt my hand!" she shrieked.
"You can't teleport that far away, if you would even try such a distance you would be seriously injured." He said his voice strained. She noted how h
e didn't answer her question.
"Then how can you?" she asked skeptically, making a side note that Acruz was shaking and gripping his hand, the same hand he had use to grab her wrist.
"I can, because I am more studied than you and a more powerful witch, and teleporting is actually one of my powers, not just a power that most strong witches have." he told her, his patience running out further with every word. "Do we have a deal?" he asked as he tapped his foot.
"How do I know you're not just going to teleport me to the middle of nowhere or leave me here a trot away?" He smiled and laughed dryly, notably stepping away from her as if it made him uncomfortable or nervous.
"Trust issues, why not trust me?" he asked his best imitation of innocent, failing miserably, to be sure. "Here," he pulls something out of his pocket.
"Hold out your hand," he ordered. She did so skeptically. He held his closed fist out above her open hand and dropped something into it, making sure not to touch her skin with his. She looked at the content of her hand. A ring. Not just any ring, a diamond ring. A simple rock on a silver band. Surly Acruz would not give me my sister's wedding ring as collateral for a safe return to my room. If he is, than he is surly an idiot.
"It's not Andria's wedding ring. It actually belongs to you." She looked up at him.
"What do you mean it belongs to me?" she asked stepping towards him.
"Do you want to get home or not?" he asked bluntly. She paused, considering if knowing what he meant was worth walking the thirty or so miles to the castle.
"I don't take gifts, from anyone." she answered. She sighed, she really didn't want to have proof that she was being nice to Acruz or that she gave him something dear to her. But she was being nice, and even though they were being too close and then horrible to each other she realized that this was more than likely always going to be their relationship and she should just deal with it. He gave her something dear to him and she should return the favor, even if it was just collateral. She took off the faucet connector that looked like twenty washers connected, off her pinky finger and looked at it between the tip of her thumb and pointer finger.
"One time, my best friend Peter and I were trying to fix his kitchen sink, and there was something stuck in the faucet, so I stuck my finger in there, and this washer got stuck on my finger for a good month, and Peter said that it must have been fate that I got such a pretty ring for a good deed. And um, it's the only ring I'm wearing right now, so if I'm meant to wear only one ring, I guess its fate that this ring, belongs to you." she said holding it out and finally looking up.
"Who knew someone could care so much about a washer, if it means that much to you I can't take it." he said reaching out and closing her hand. Her eyes rolled back and her heart thumbed going overtime. She couldn't breathe; breath literally wouldn't go in and out. Her heart started to burn, he wasn't letting go. He was killing her, she was sure of it. She looked up at her killed and he was staring at her mouth opened slightly arm stiff as a board, hand starting to sweat.
"Let go," she finally chocked out. He released her hand in an instant and stepped back breathing as heavily as she was.
"What did you do to me?" they asked each other at the same time. They both looked up into each other's eyes. I should not want to kiss him, that should not be all I want to do, and yet. I'm still stumbling towards him, unbeknownst to my damn head. They said nothing to one another, just stood themselves up, never taking their eyes off one another the entire time. Finally Gen had had enough.
"Are you marring my sister so you can kill her?" she asked never taking her eyes off his. His eyes flickered with what she would like to have assumed was fear, but she knew better, it was caution. This was uncharted water for the both of them, and caution was both needed and wanted by both parties.
"I am marring Andria because," He stepped out of the shadows and close to her. She was cold, making sure not to touch him as she looked straight up into his ice blue eyes.
"Because what?" she asked, her voice as monotone as could force it to be.
"Because I've been chosen to keep the peace where the peace is no longer being kept." he answered grimly.
"How very, diplomatic of you, your daddy must be very proud, following orders, standing silent while people fight over how you'll kill her. Silence is golden right? Just keep quiet and they'll never you're here." Her face was in a horrible smirk, she leaned in as if to tell a secret, "FYI, we know you're here and we don't need your kind of peace. Were just taking the bets on who will be the one to put the bullet in your pretty little blonde head." she grinned morosely and reached out and took his hand as if to proof it didn't affect her and tried to shake off the chill down her spine and ants in her shoes. She put the washer on his pinky.
"Here, the peace is kept, I want you to have it, take me home." she ordered. Acruz had stood silent as she bashed him but now had a rather perplexed look upon his face.
"You have it all wrong, you know that right?" he stated not really looking at her, more inner soliloquy with an audience.
"How so?" she asked genuinely confused.
"You think that my motives are cold and unfeeling, the works and thoughts of another, but rather, in all realness, perhaps what you fear the most is that they are indeed my own thoughts." He yelled, his voice betraying his intended unemotional explanation.
"You realize that that made no since right, I mean, no since, like, no part of that, made a smidgen of since in my mind." she said, making a mockery of his attempt to mesmerizes and scare.
"It made perfect since, it is you who is avoiding my question!" he yelled.
"I heard no question." she said nonchalantly. He grabbed the neck of her shirt and pulled her into him so there lips where inches apart.
"You have no reason to hate me and yet you do, why?" he asked pure frustration and hatred dripping from each word, his eyes mad with passion. When she refused to answer he screamed "Why!" She put her hand on his and pulled herself closer so their lips where almost pressing.
"Because you are a murder, a murder that has a way with words is still a murder Mr. Deveartae, and you can do all the sorcery you wish to make me like you but it will not work, the spell will always break." He let her go, a cloud of passion lifting as if where never there. As if they were just cold acquaintances that happen to catch each other's eye at a party. Her hands shook, her lip quivered. Acruz pushed his hair back, looking up to clear his emotion.
"I'm sorry, I should have controlled myself better," he apologized but as soon as he stepped closer to her she stepped back.
"What? Now you fear me as well?" he asked annoyed and then laughed dryly. "It would figure, I finally find you and then you mistrust and fear me within a day."
"What are you talking about you venomous old man?" He laughed again.
"You think me poisonous? You should see my finally, it's to die for." Acruz mocked, not seeming to want to threaten her as much as make a mockery of her fear.
"Humph, shall we go back and forth all night long?" she asked.
"Cat and Mouse, with you, sounds like fun," he answered shrugging his eyebrows and walking towards her, each step he takes towards her she takes back until her back is to a tree.
"You're disgusting," she brayed.
"And you are in denial," he claimed playfully, his eyes half closed to hide the hurt he could not hide elsewhere.
"About what?" she asked.
"Your infatuation with your sister's fiancé, of course, you feel the same as I yet you viciously deny it." he boomed through the empty forest.
"You're a delusional snake. I would rather love the devil," she told him looking into his eyes and then looking down. He put his hand on the tree next to her head where she was leaning.
"Some would say there is no difference," he half-joked speaking very quickly has he often did when nervous, leaning a little forward.
"As I assume there is an equal sum that would say talking in third person is conceited," she pointed out with a beaming smile, movin
g her head a little forward.
"The same some that would agree you are in love," he pointed out raising his eyes to meet her leaning even farther into her.
"Yes, I am. But not with you, do you love me is that what this is all about?" she answered in cold silence. This was no longer a game. His face went hard and he stepped away from the tree.
"You should be so lucky to be loved by me," he brayed, "Then who has stricken your fancy?" he asked his tone as neutral as it could go.
"I don't see how that is any of your business," she answered moving her head to the side, dismissing him.
"It is not Alister Grey is it?" She turned her head as soon as the "Al" escaped his lips.
