by J P Anderson
"Oh my goodness I needed that. Thanks Pete, I can't believe you went to Earth just for my most tasty treat and scrumptious beverage." Genevieve commented giving him a hug.
"Yeah babe, since Acruz's, um, death the door has been more or less open to anyone who knows about it." Peter explained. Gen nodded, she had just gotten Acruz's bloody tear stained face out of her mind and then Peter had bring it up. She went to her brother, hoping he would know not to talk about him.
"So, how's my big brother?" Gen asked. "Is this for me?" she added stupidly motioning towards the bear.
"It most certainly is. Where do you want it?" he asked.
"Um, anywhere is fine. You didn't have to get me anything." she told him, taking to bear and tossing it on her bed before she hugged him. She had never in her entire life, ever, had so many people care about her well being before. She had Ms. Crumm or Paige, as she is known here by, come and check up on her once or twice when she was sick. Peter would come and bring Gen her homework but other than that, no one cared she was gone from school or society, except for perhaps a dip in crime.
"How long have I've been out, a couple days?" Gen asked, getting back into bed. Therius and Peter awkwardly walked over to her bed and eyed Alister, who was sitting in Gen's desk chair with his legs crossed loosely.
"Um, babe I don't know how to tell you this but you've been in a coma for a little less than a month. You just woke up for the first time a couple days ago for about ten minutes and then collapsed again." Peter told her. She sat back, aghast.
"Coma? Why would I be in a freakin' coma?" she yelled.
"These things happen. You suffered serious damage to vital organs, you're lucky to be alive at all." Therius explained.
"I just can't believe that I was in a coma, for how long?" she asked again. "Twenty three days in all, you woke up once, of course it's when I'm in the bathroom, but Andria said you looked good until you passed out again." Alister jumped in to say. Gen started to hyperventilate.
"Did I miss the funeral? Is everyone okay, where is Joshua and Andria?" A furry of questions spewed from Gen's mouth before she could think to filter them.
"No one can, um, find the body, we were concerned about getting you to a doctor and Andria collapsed seconds after you because of all the blood. No one thought to get Acruz's body and when Therius and I went back to retrieve it, it was gone." Alister explained. She almost vomited when he said the word body the way he did. Like the "it" he was referring to wasn't his best friend, it was just some carcass that unfortunately was inconveniencing his schedule to go scrape off the ground. It was enough to make her want to scream, but she simply went to her happy place and turned to conversation to something, anything, else.
"And Joshua and Andria?" she asked.
"Joshua was knighted by the king for his services to Akadia, so they are both living happily together." Therius told her, half-jokily.
"Do you mean they just totally overlooked the fact he was seeing her illegally for months and knighted him just because?" Gen asked incredulously.
"You mean when he risked his life to kill a murder that was chasing the princess of Akadia through the forest with mal intent after he murdered the heir to the throne of Akadia in cold blood?" Alister asked.
"Well if you say it like that!" Gen argued.
"Sister, please. I know you are under a lot of stress but everything Alister said was true. And even if Acruz wasn't going to kill Andria the truth of the matter is that he hinted at it all weekend and killed you in front of everyone. Whether you like it or not, the man that slaughtered him was and is a hero." Therius tried to reason with his sister as best he could but she would have nothing of it.
"Can we just talk about something else for Christ sake?" she begged.
"Actually, I need to talk to you alone for a minute." Peter said, raising his hand to speak. Therius rolled his tongue around his closed mouth and raised his eyebrows before standing and motioning for Alister to follow.
"I think it's time for Alister and I to be hitting the old dusty trail, isn't it Alister." Therius hinted. Alister on the other hand, rose slowly from the bed and lazily followed Therius to the door. Alister walked through the door but Therius just rolled his eyes and opened it, winking before closing it with him on the other side.
"So what did you want to talk about?" she asked.
"Babe, I'm decided to stay here." he told her as if he were telling her he was getting married.
"Um, that's great? I didn't know you would be doing anything else." she answered with far too much question in her voice.
"Well, Alister and basically everyone else were against me staying. But I just don't think Berkley is for me. I like it here, it's really quite beautiful." he told her.
"Peter" she warned, knowing for far too long to believe that.
"Well I wasn't going to say anything, because I thought it might upset you, but Acruz told me at that party thing, for your eighteenth, that I should stay, that I will find more happiness here than I will on Earth. He looked pretty serious, and I mean, I don't have any reason not to trust him. He has no reason to lie to me. But, I didn't want to say anything because I know that your soul is grieving." Peter explained.
She loved and hated how well Peter really knew her. She noticed he didn't say that she was "in love" with Acruz like everyone else was, he knew, although there was no way her could really know that for some reason her and Acruz's souls where connected somehow. That was really what it was. It was like they were magnets. On one side, they can't stand to be close to one another but on the other side they can't keep off each other. Attracted because they were opposites, not because they were somehow star crossed lover meant to be with each other because the fates have a since of humor, but because for some reason they were attracted to one another. She nodded to the best of her abilities and bit off another Sour Punch Straw. He pulled out a strawberry pack and a Dr. Pepper.
"The original twins, you and I. The same but completely different, you know? I was the Andria before we got dumped in this alternate universe where blonde dudes with records can marry eighteen-year-old hotties and it's apparently completely fine to kill them as long as they might or might not have been trying to kill someone." Peter joked.
"Yeah, cheers to new beginnings and never forgotten pasts. Oh and to eighteen-year-old hotties!" she raised her Mountain Dew.
"Cheers to Acruz. The bastard might have been coo coo for coco puffs but he knew how to pick his woman. And really, what else matters other than who you're with." Peter said raising his bottle to hers and knocking them together. He gulped his down. She however, put it to her lips and slowly and soberly drank to his cheers in solemn respect. After they talked for a few minutes someone rapped the door. Whoever it was opened the door in all sorts of a rush, with Alister grabbing his arm trying to pull him back, saying something about how Peter wanted a word alone and Henry shouldn't disturb them.
"Hello" he greeted in an out of breath, awkward sort of way when he had finally barreled through the door.
"Hello Henry, you look awfully frazzled, what do I own the pleasure of this unexpected visit?" Gen asked in her most respectful tone.
"I, um, well I just wanted to make sure you where quite alright, and now that I see that you are I'm going to leave." he said, turning to leave. Alister held out his hand to stop him, he shook his head and motioned for Henry to turn back around.
"The towns' people seem to be in an uproar over the Acruz incident. They seem to have it in their minds that he killed you and we need you to make a small speech, saying that you, well, aren't dead and are in fact back to stay, if that is indeed your intent." Henry told her. She had never spoken in front of many people before, the idea wasn't exactly frightening but it did have a certain edge to it. How many people was he talking about? Ten? Ten hundred? She decided that she needed to go with the flow, besides if she was going to be queen she was probably going to have to talk in front of people.
"Um, sure, when? Next week?" she as
ked.
"Actually we were thinking more of, right now." Henry clarified. She choked out a laugh.
"Oh. Like right now?" she choked.
"Yes, Genevieve, right now." Henry said impatiently. "I shall give you fifteen minutes to freshen up and then Alister and Therius will take you to the North tower." he told her, walking to the door. With one hand gripped firmly on the door he turned his head in her direction.
"I am glad to see you seemingly well. I was, well, we were all, very worried you won't pull through." and with that and of course the billowing of his red satin cape her father was gone.
"That was Henry saying he cares, cherish it. It's rare and usually very brief." Alister commented walking over to them and taking Peter's Dr. Pepper right out of his hands and took a swig. She laughed for the first time in a long time when he gagged and hardly swallowed it. She tried to get out of bed but a sharp pain went through her bent spine and she fell into Alister screaming in pain, his face went from joy to horror as he caught her and set her slowly to the ground.
"Oh dear, are you quite alright?" Alister asked stupidly. She laughed a weak, whimper of a laugh.
"Oh yeah, peachy keen, I just got up a little too fast. I'm fine really." she tried to assure them as she got up and walked to her armoire.
"So are you okay?" Alister asked in a serious tone from behind her. She turned to find herself unexpectedly very close to him.
"Um, yeah," she nodded; "I just said I was fine." she answered awkwardly, not understanding the question.
"I mean with Acruz's death. I can obviously tell your upset about the situation but I can't exactly read if you were just upset in general or if it was partly about Acruz. Are you fine in that respect, is, I guess, what I'm asking." he rambled. She thought about what she should tell him. Peter had slipped out with Henry, which she had shamefully just noticed. What am I suppose to say to that? Yes, the guy gave his life to save mine, he was in totally in love with me and I, if I'm being completely honest, didn't exactly hate his guts. Yes, Alister, I'm just fine with my, would be, future soul mate's death. He's right he really can't read me.
"Um, I'm trying to deal. That's all I can really do just now. I need to focus on giving my speech, and then I can deal with, that." she choked out. He came over to her and put his hand on her bare shoulder which her nightgown didn't cover. She bit her lip, no spark with each touch, just a room temperature presence invading her space. She turned around, unpleasantly surprised to find he hadn't stepped back. She should be happy. She had a great guy who was at the moment throwing himself at her.
Should being the operative world here, Gen, her inner voice told her, I am happy, I am happy. Let him come in, how bad could it possibly be? He's here, you're here, and no one else is here. Acruz is dead, he is never coming back. Are you going to let some spark that never led to anything ruin your chances at possibly the only guy in Akadia that actually might want to be with you? No, yes, maybe? Should it be this hard? If I'm questioning my affection this much does it exist? Do I want it to exist? Genevieve Grave, look into his eyes and ask yourself, do you want to settle for a room temperature presence invading your space or do you want that spark, his spark. You know in your heart he isn't gone, you know you wouldn't survive such an event. Her inner voice lectured. I'm not so desperate that I need some man to live, I'm Genevieve Grave, and I belong to no one. Gen told her inner voice, trying to believe the words as she thought them. Yes you are, but you know as well as I that you're not just in love with Acruz you're connected to him. You belong to him as much as he belongs to you. That's why you saw him in your dreams, that's why you took his hand and left Alister, that's why you're going to do it now because as much as Alister is the logically choice your soul isn't logical. That spark isn't chemistry, it's magic, your magic, it's fate in the making. He waited more the twenty years for you, how long have you waited?
"I can't. I can't…don't love you." she declared finally.
He laughed. It was such a disgusting thing to laugh about.
"What the hell? Is this a joke to you?" she asked in a far too threatening voice. He just kept laughing.
"Gen I've known since the moment we were at dinner the first night you were here. I was looking at you look at Acruz and him look right back at you. It was like watching Romeo and Juliet meet, sparks literally flew, static filled the air and the flames shook, it wasn't just you who noticed."
"So you knew I didn't like you and you still flirted with me? Tried to get me to go with you, listen to you? What kind of sickness is that?" she asked angrily. "Acruz may be the Romeo type but I am sooooo not Juliet." she added. She thought he was just mad because he lost the fight but he wasn't fighting for her, he was fighting to see if he could make her love him, turn her against her destiny. He grinned.
"I admit, I was rather interested with the concept of Andria's twin being Acruz's phantom-"
"Phantom?" Gen interrupted.
"Yes, that's what he would call you, his dark phantom." he told her. "When I saw that you were conveniently making your appearance right in the middle of a massacre you were more a nuisance than anything else."
"Little harsh, don't you think?" Gen asked feeling a little more than hurt by his seemingly indifferent words.
"I thought you 'hated riddles' I was only aiming to please." he joked. "Gen, I knew from the moment I saw you that you were not going to just sit and let Acruz pass you by. I was fascinated by your genuine strangest and your obliviousness to that fact. You caught me by surprise again and again by your bold and rash actions. You really are his opposite, you know. Acruz is all about the plans and paths. Destiny this, fate this, it's lyrical, very 'romantic' as human's would say, but quite annoying when one is thinking rationally and the other well, isn't." he conveyed.
"I have a favor to ask you." she admitted. He raised a rather large eyebrow at her. "I want to know everything, everything about Akadia, about my family about Acruz and the Deveartae's and everything that makes up this world." she asked.
"That's quite a lot, what do I get in return?" he asked skeptically.
"Do princess's boyfriends get crappy east facing rooms? Do they have to sit at the end of the table? I can get you out of this living hell and make you a prince again." she offered.
"Are you saying we pretend we are together so that I can get the perks of being royalty?" Alister asked his face hilariously unconvinced.
"Are you saying you don't want-?"
"No! I'm simply clarifying, but this can't last forever…" Alister added.
"Yes, but when my father steps down and I become queen I can do whatever I want, you can have your own country." she offered.
"Gen, are you offering me a country, because now I'm quite sure you're trying to be comical." He smirked.
"I can do whatever I want when I'm queen. I don't need all this land. Besides, you have more time under your belt being a prince than anyone else in Akadia." she told him. She could tell he didn't believe her. He held out his hand. She looked at him questionably.
"Hold out your arm." he ordered. She did. He waved his hand over it slowly. "Nay forato, say frettera nax colan." he said in a strange tongue she had yet to hear, moving his arm over her arm.
"What are you doing?" and then she knew. Her arm started to burn. She looked down and being burned into her arm where the very words he had just said.
"What the hell is that? Did you just curse me?" she screamed. He just shook his head. She tried to pull back her last good arm but his grip was ridiculous.
"I'm using magic to check your souls intent." He finally informed her.
"You can do that?" she asked.
"Your right, you do need teaching." he laughed.
"And? Am I pure?" she asked. He sighed.
"As for your intentions, yes."
"Am I interrupting something?" She turned around to see Therius leaning against the door frame in brown trousers, a black blouse and a brown jacket. His hair, still a shoulder length medium brown mess of loose curls
and waves, was tucked behind his ears. They broke apart and Gen snapped her fingers together. As she did so a spark from the friction seemed to ignite her clothes and morph them in a wave of sparkles that covered her and like a wave, washed back out leaving a completely different outfit as the sparkles slowly dissolved from the ends of her black southern bell type dress.
"Acceptable?" she asked, twirling in a circle, opening and spinning her little black morose umbrella.
"Like a little mini Sanibella Ms. Crumm." Therius said.
"Huh?" she asked, folding the umbrella and placing on the coffee table only for it to dissolve as soon as it left her fingers. Therius laughed and took her arm, guiding her with a certain amount of haste to the door.
