Chapter 2
Dealing With the New
Change is hard for everyone, but change is necessary to truly live and grow.
As the night descended upon us, the rough, exhausting day seemed to be over. We rose from the table at the restaurant and started to leave, when I saw that same beautiful guy I had seen at the mall. My heart sunk when I saw the girl he was with.
Her arm was linked with his, and she was smiling as her silky blonde, almost white hair flowed to her waist. She looked a little older, possibly early twenties. I thought he was closer to my age.
"What're we looking at?" Gear asked while tossing his arm across my shoulders as everyone started heading out to the vehicles.
"Not... nothing," I said with a tremble.
I swallowed hard, trying not to let my eyes gawk any longer. I turned to him just as his wife, Olivia strolled up to his side. She smiled warmly at me. She was petite, much like the rest of us. Her golden ringlet hair was soft and bouncy.
"You look like you're ready to start school," Olivia said with her gentle grin. "New hair, new clothes, new shoes... new you."
Ash had murdered my long hair that had reached my waist. Now it barely draped past my shoulders. My clothes.... ugh. I wasn't used to the tight jeans with purposely placed gashes and fray. They're brand new and look to be years old. Apparently aged denim was a fashion statement - though I had no idea what statement it could possibly make.
The shirts were either really tight or flowing and loose - nothing in between. Tonight, Ash had put me in a white shirt that fell from one shoulder. Again, no clue as to why this was fashion. It seemed like someone messed up on the pattern and made one sleeve too long.
"Yeah. A new me," I said through a hoarse whisper.
My eyes drifted back to the guy. He was heading toward the game room attached to the restaurant. I just wanted to... I don't know what I wanted to do.
As Selesha and Jay walked by, I turned back to Gear.
"Can I meet you outside? I just need to use the restroom," I lied.
"Sure. You can ride back with us."
I nodded and headed toward the restrooms, but as soon as they exited, I changed course and headed into the game room.
What am I doing? What am I thinking?
An array of mixed emotions swirled around and tormented me as I sought to find answers for my irrational behavior. Without my permission, my eyes sought him out of their own accord.
"Oh this is stupid," I mumbled when I couldn't find him. Had I gone crazy?
I turned around and slammed into something that smelled like heaven, felt like a rock, and burned me through to my core. I gasped, taken aback from the colliding onslaught of sensations.
Icy blue eyes stared into mine, and my heart tried to leap into my throat. My legs became rubber, doing their best to fold beneath me.
"Excuse me," he murmured with a smirk, letting his delicious voice find my wanting ears.
My mouth dried, words refused to form, and my attempt to look like anything but a fool failed miserably.
"E...ex...cuu...s..." Yep. Pathetic. I know. But that's all I could muster. My IQ plummeted in that instant, and I became an unintelligible ball of mush.
He smiled bashfully then, apparently realizing I was gawking shamelessly. I couldn't stop though.
"You okay?" he asked after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, and I blushed fiercely, still unable to speak anything of any sense.
A squeak left my lips in place of the words I wanted to say, and he chuckled lightly.
"Okay then. I need to get back to my family," he said softly, smiling as he passed me by.
A lost opportunity crumbled before me, and I shivered in his wake. How did I just manage to completely unravel and humiliate myself?
I turned to see him joining the slim blonde and the stocky male from earlier, and he glanced over his shoulder at me. Family? Does that mean she's his sister or cousin? Why the crap do I care?
Growing more and more frustrated with myself, I finally forced my eyes to tear away. I headed outside to see Gear on his way back in.
"There you are. I was getting worried."
I noticed Aster and her husband were still there as well, but I didn't know why.
"Sorry. I thought I'd check out the game room for a second. Aster and Chris waiting, too?"
He glanced their way, and then turned his eyes back to me.
"Yeah. Let's get back home."
Home. It sounded like such a foreign and meaningless word here. It still didn't feel like home. I missed Haluali.
When we pulled up to the massive home, I groaned loudly, which provoked a chuckle from Gear and Olivia. There were cars everywhere.
"Really? She's going to have a party this late?"
"It's only seven," Olivia said, shrugging.
"It's customary to see in the new by inviting over all the old," Gear muttered, offering me a wink.
"Great. Let's throw the antisocial hermit into the middle of the socialites."
Gear coughed out a laugh, and then he shook his head.
"You'll do fine. Besides, you're about to be in a school. A real school. You need the socialization. Consider it practice for tomorrow.
"There you are," Iris said as she sat down beside me, joining me on my bed.
I had slipped out of the party and made my way to the room. Too many people down there liked hugging, and I wasn't much of one for being touched by strangers. It was easy to avoid both of my grandparents, considering the third floor of the house could have been an apartment and it was all mine.
"Hey," I murmured meekly, staring at the photos of my old home.
She sighed out hard and took one of the pictures to study herself. "I know you miss it, but it will get better. I promise."
I held back the teetering tears and slapped on my brave, unaffected face the best I could. I hated feeling offensive, and I'm sure Iris and George both thought I was an ungrateful brat.
"It's just an adjustment," I muttered dismissively, though the strain in my throat sold me out.
Her aged, soft hand grabbed mine, and she stroked my cheek with her other. Since I'd been there, this was the closest we'd sat. She actually felt like a grandmother at that moment.
"Arisianna," she said softly, using my full name like only my mother did. "Change is hard for everyone, but it's necessary to grow and live. One day, you'll understand all this. For now... how about a story?"
That piqued my interest. In Haluali, there was storytelling at least once a week. There were stories of magic, powers, unfathomable darkness and beguiling light. I was curious what sort of story Iris would tell. It had become obvious she was just as superstitious as my old tribe.
"Sure. What sort of story?" I asked, leaning forward.
Oddly enough, it was the first time I'd felt comfortable at Bradbury Manor. Some semblance of home came with the simple promise of a story.
"One of magic, of course. One about us. Our family. Our legacy. Knowing where you come from helps you discover where you're going."
I chuckled lightly. Magic. Iris was so eccentric that I believed she really did swallow the possibility of real magic. Nevertheless, I loved the stories that were wrapped around the impossibility.
"So we have magic?" I asked, secretly teasing her.
She smiled, and for a second, I swear I saw crescent moons in her eyes. I blinked furiously, trying to see if it was real. Apparently my tears had glazed over my eyes enough to play with my vision because the moons were gone.
"Magic surrounds us all."
And so it began. I heard of Isis Bradbury, the first conductor for magic. A woman with a pure light and a warm heart who fought against the dark forces of Dramus Craymon and his men. The dark forces were draining witches of their essences, stealing their strength before they gained their immortality.
Isis found her soul mate, Merlin, who then became the first mortal to
achieve immortality. The pair became two swords for the same cause - keep the innocent safe.
Life or death has a way of putting things into perspective, and it's necessary to have in any good story, so Iris's story certainly poured on the consequences, making it sublimely enthralling.
I hung on the edge of my seat as she spoke with the drama needed to push the story over the edge. My heart thudded with each description of the powerful magic beings she presented with such conviction. My breath was stolen when she spoke of the wars and deaths that came with them.
Blazers who controlled fire. Electrics who shot out streaks of powerful energy. Healers who saved and took life in the same breath. Elementals who controlled the winds, the waters, the earth itself. Drainers who stole your memories and left you in a heap of lost confusion. Shape shifters called changers who betrayed the good force to be in league with the dark. It was amazing.
Soul mates and destiny. Ah. It was a romance and a suspenseful tale in one. Allora, Dramus's soul mate, was killed to weaken him, but he ran instead of fighting to save her. Merlin loved Isis too much to desert her. They were stronger together because of their bond. It was enough to make me sigh in dreamy bliss.
Dramus was the best villain I'd ever heard of, and Isis was the most sensational heroine I'd ever envisioned. One thing was for certain, Grandma Iris new how to tell a story.
But the exciting story turned sad, stealing my breath with a painful resolve as it came to a close. Tears filled my grandmother's eyes as she stared off into space. It almost seemed like a memory instead of an old fable. Her voice cracked, her breath rattled, and her body tensed as she uttered the last few words.
"Merlin fell, along with three of Isis's children. It seemed as though Dramus would win the war. But then Isis threw herself at Dramus, surprising everyone. She latched on, and then the darkness lit up with the explosion that ensued.
"A powerful eruption threw them all back, and it decimated the remaining followers Dramus had with him. The scales had been tipped, the war was over, and the light had won, but the cost was grave. Only two of her children survived, and Isis and Merlin were no more."
Ashes littered the air, and a blazing battlefield roared with dark figures swarming all around. Bright, blinding lights surrounded a indefinably beautiful woman whose name I did not know.
She had exquisitely long blonde hair, and she was filled with the utmost grace and elegance, despite the war that was raging on around her. She was fighting against the dark atrocious shadow soldiers that were thundering toward her with a vicious, insatiable appetite for destruction and death.
They were soulless and merciless as they obliterated all those blocking their path to her. The undeniable pungent smell of death surrounded them as they continued on with their terrifyingly ferocious attack. The monsters only seemed to grow as they made their way toward her.
Rain pounded on them all like downward flying daggers as the battle grew more fierce between the monsters and the woman. She was throwing swirling blue fire and streaks electricity at them. She was bending the wind to do her will as it pushed against the dark forces like an impenetrable wall.
It was almost like watching a dance as she leapt from place to place, launching her attacks. She was so amazingly agile as the power flowed through her with such indescribable intensity. She flew through them almost effortlessly, it seemed.
Then the darkest shadow of them all stood before her suddenly. He was the epitome of evil itself, and he destroyed everything around her with one massively destructive blow.
She screamed and cried out in agonizing pain when it seemed all had been lost. She threw herself at him and a colossal blinding white light suddenly erupted into the air with a deafening boom as the earth rattled beneath it.
Very slowly, the smoke began to settle. The light gradually faded until it was gone. There was still a slight bit of smoke obstructing my view when the woman finally turned back around, but it was no longer her… it was me, and I spoke through an echoed tone.
"Save them all."