Rebirth: The Awakening Of A Witch (22 page)

“Ugh!”
I groaned as I let myself
collapse
on the bed
, my legs still dangling on the side
. I
absolutely
forgot that I wasn’t in my
own bed
and was totally swallowed up in my thoughts.
Only when I felt a sudden movement on
my
left did I w
a
ke up from that trance.
I immediately sat up and turned
to her
with a sheepish grin.

Elise just smiled at me and held out
an oversized shirt.
“This was all I could find. I would’ve given you one of my pajamas but I forgot those
when we transferred here.
”

I frowned as I thanked her for the shirt. “
Where did you
guys
transfer from
anyway
? I almost forgot to ask you that
.
”

“Propheria
.
”

“Really?” I asked, astounded at what she said.

“Yes,” she replied with a
questioning look. “What were you expecting Propheria
to be, Skylar?
”
she asked
as she
comfortably
sat on the bed,
embracing
her
legs
with
her
arms
and rest
ing
her chi
n
on her knees
.
She had
an amused smile
on her face.

“
More like those witch towns I see in movies
or read in books,
”
I shrugged, blurting out
the first thing that came to mind as
I immediately
took
myself
on a
n imaginary
journey
t
o what I expected to see there.

She laughed and
started
s
haking
her head when she was able to gain her composure back.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but Propheria’
s totally not like that,
”
she smiled at me, making me more curious
a
bout
what Propheria
’s
actually like.
“You’ll love the place
when you
finally g
o
there.
”

Wow. I never actually thought about going there. Now that she
plant
ed
that
idea on my mind
, I felt more intrigued about
it
.
I was
totally set on
quizz
ing her more about
the place when I saw her stifle a yawn.

I
s
miled apologetically at her
before standing to leave the room
, fully planning on
head
ing
to the bathroom right across
from it
.
When I closed the door to Elise’s room, I immediately felt Adrien’s aura
. His room was
probably
near
. The curiosity of
seeing
how
his room
looked like
almost made me walk away from the bathroom door
and start wandering around
looking for
him
. I shook the idea off
and
turned
the
knob of the bathroom
door
.
By the time I got back to Elise’s ro
om, she was already fast asleep. I smiled as I saw her peaceful
, sleeping
face
. I really wouldn’t have
guessed
in a million years
that she
was capable of fighting off bad guys
in her present state.
I flicked her bedside lamp off
and snuck under the covers on my side of the bed.
I was slipping into dream land within moments.

“There you go, Boxer,” an old woman cooed as she t
ossed
a few biscuits on the ground for her Yorkshire terrier.
Right behind them were two young boys with deeply furrowed brows, staring at the ground
as a third boy was carefully laying out a set of cards on the perfectly manicured grass.
I turned my attention the
little girl as she passed by in front of them
,
driving
her bicycle
with
her mom directly behind her, holding
a long
handle behind the bike to make sure
she drives
at
a reasonable
speed
.

I puffed my cheeks as I took in more of my surroundings.
Everyone acted so normal. They
handled the Sunday afternoon with such a carefree attitude
. Why wouldn’t they?
They don’t have to worry about supernatural stuff. I sighed my frustrations out as I leant back on the wooden bench I was currently perched in.
Someone gently poked my shoulder and I forced my eyes to
give him a side glance. Cole smiled widely at me and I just rolled my eyes at him.

“Oh, come on. Being one of us isn’t
that
bad Prin—” he stopped when I glared at him. He raised one hand in surrender
and
tilted
back slightly away from me.
I
ignored him and turned
my attention back to the people in the middle of the park.

We were currently s
it
ting in one of the
wooden
benches in Rattford Cliffs P
ark. After what I learned about myself last night, I really didn’t think that being surrounded with normal people was a great therapy. I just ended up
wishing to have that
ordinary
life back, without having to worry about anything
else like being a witch, having powers, or being killed.
Then again, I realized that I didn’t really have a normal life, because from the moment I was born I was already a witch, very different from any of my friends.
I just wasn’t aware of any of it.

When I woke up this morning, I remembered wishing so hard for everything to be a dream, that none of the
chaos
and revelations ever happened the night before, but I saw that futile wish crumble in front of me the moment I opened my eyes. When I realized that I wasn’t in my own
room sleeping i
n my own
bed
, everything from the night before came
streaming
back to me in a
flash
flood
.
I instantly sat up on the bed and covered my face with my hands. I was still in that pos
ition
when the door to Elise’s room opened as someone came in. I immediately knew it was Adrien standing beside me.
He didn’t talk and just stood there,
leaning against Elise’s
dresser as he
star
ed
at me with an uncertain expression on his face.

When I looked up at him, he
actually
looked like he was panicking. I raised my eyebrows at him, wondering what he was thinking. “
A p
enny for your thoughts?”

He shrugged. He seemed to have relaxed a bit, but his
ambiguity
was still obvious as it clung to every part of his body. “How are you feeling?” he
slow
ly asked
as he stared at me with a watchful expression
.

Was that what he was bothered with? I blinked at him, trying to be sure. “I’m fine, I guess. I still can’t believe what’s happening
,
but I’m hanging on,” I replied, nodding at him. I smiled when I s
aw him totally relax. Did he actually expect me to
break
and shatter
into pieces
? Well, any normal and sensible human would
. Somehow I expected myself to act that exact same way
when
I w
a
ke up this morning. Surprisingly, it didn’t happen.
And I didn’t actually feel like I was going to break down anytime soon.

“Adrien, I’ll be fine. I won’t be having a nervous breakdown,” I stated and watched as he chuckled.
The coldness
in his eyes
that I
’ve grown
used to seeing wasn’t there, and I couldn’t help
smiling back at him. I didn’t actually know how I was being so resilient to any of this. I know I still couldn’t fully grasp the reality of it all, but breaking down and sulking in a corner surely wasn’
t
in
my options
for handling the situation
.
He suddenly pulled me out of the bed,
starting those little electric waves
through my body, completely waking me up.
He told me to come down for lunch and I grinned sheepishly when I realized
that
I
actually
slept
in
that late.
He left the room
and gave me time to wash up and get dressed
.

I saw
the
brown sleeveless tank top
and
the
skinny jeans
I wore last night
neatly folded on the opposite side of the bed
. They must’ve already washed it
. I smiled
at their thoughtfulness and hurriedly went to the bathroom right across Elise’s bedroom.

Once
I joined them for lunch, the twins urged me to go with them to the park.
I didn’t really have any choice
,
so I sent Nana a message, telling her I’ll be home this afternoon. I also t
exted
Nick and
Anne
,
telling them I went home with Elise, confirming the story she told me she texted them hours ago.

As Cole poked me again, I
was brought back to the present. I
realized they only brought me
to the park
to try
to
get my mind off things. They were actually trying to be helpful, and I felt glad about it. Maybe the reason I was able to gain this emotional and mental strength is because I know that I have them with me, and that I finally wasn’t alone anymore.

I smiled back at Cole and waved at Elise and Adrien as they made their way to us, carrying bags of snacks and drinks. As soon as they were standing in front of us, I saw Adrien reach into his pocket and
fished
out a small box tha
t was about the size of my hand. He reached for my hand, turning it around so my palm was facing upwards and gently placed the box on top of it.
I ignored the little electric
signals
his small
action sent and thoroughly focused my attention on the box
. I frowned, looking at it.

“What is it?”

“Open it, silly,” Elise said, chuckling.

I slowly opened the boxy and gasped at what
laid there
. Inside it was a beautiful, vintage-looking necklace
, its chain completely made of
silver
alloy.
It was a simple necklace, but what caught my
e
yes was the pendant it was carrying.
A tear
drop
crystal holding the same color as my marble tree was comfortably resting on the black velvet
cushion
of the box. I felt my mouth drop open as I slowly traced the crystal with my fingers. “It’s
wonderful
,” I mouthed out silently.

“Belated Happy Birthday, Sky!” The twins chorused.

“Happy Birthday,” Adrien quietly said.