ONEIRAL: The Witch, The Book and The Mirror

Chapter 3: she's-evil, she's-evil-not

They reached the kitchen after an hour of very uncomfortable silence. Each settled the stuff they bought in the table before separating and putting everything in the shelves. They were working mechanically, but there was some sense of familiarity to this that wasn't easy to explain, like if both knew what they were doing, and most importantly, what the other was doing, however, both were deep in their thoughts as to notice this. Korem's mind, for one, was racing. She was, in fact, The witch. She attacked the land and everyone in it. She was evil and dangerous, and hence needed to be stopped. She also saved his life. She had defended him from those tugs. She allowed him to stay and helped him. She goes to the damn market to buy food; she pays for it! Well, maybe she stole money from someone, maybe she's evil after all. And so, his thoughts followed a vicious circle, like the typical he-loves-me, he-loves-me-not girls do with the flowers, only that this one was more like: she's-evil, she's-evil-not. He was in the she's-evil part when he was abruptly brought back to his senses.

"Hell no!" Sel said, clearly disgusted, eyes fixed on something at the table.

"What is it?" Korem asked.

"You better keep those away from me" she said, pointing to the mushrooms.

"What? Are you allergic or something?" he asked, despite his recent she may kill me thoughts, very curious of this new discovery.

"Ugh, no, it's just, I really really don't like them" she groaned and turned back to the shelves. She retrieved a frying pan and turned to him again.

"Chicken? To eat I mean."

"Yeah, sure" she turned to light up the stove and so she missed the very confused looks of Korem. Do evil witches are this domestic usually? Shouldn't she be like, trying to conquer the world or something instead of cooking chicken? Korem kept going on his flower cycle while absentimentaly grabbing some fruit and preparing juice.

Sel on her part was not doing much better. She kept glancing back from time to time to check on Korem, who didn't seem to pay attention to her whatsoever. So, I'm the bad guy. I tried to attack everyone. Why? What did I get out if it? Cause if I cannot remember then someone must have kicked my ass. Correction, Ilio kicked my ass. What was I looking for? I definitely suck at this. Uh! time to turn the chicken. Maybe the book has some answers. Is Korem planning to murder me in my sleep? That's stupid, I wake up easily. Maybe he remembers? No, he is looking for someone. Did I kill anybody? She turned off the stove and reached for two plates. She served the food and put in on the table.

"Korem?" she tapped his shoulder. He jumped a bit but understood the signal and joined her at the table. They ate in awkward silence, until Sel left out a sight and spoke.

"So...I wouldn't recommend trying to kill me in my sleep, I wake up easily, and I may kill you instead, for waking me up" she said nonchalantly, though she mentally rolled her eyes at her. Really? Korem stared at her dumbfounded, and took some seconds to reply.

"What?" was the only thing he managed to say.

"Yeah, you know" continued Sel very lightly, not looking at him "Now that you know that I am The Witch, I thought you would probably want to save the land and get rid of the big bad once and for all."

Korem looked at her as if she had grown a third horn (cause, let's admit it, tree horns are kinda weird) Thousands of questions crossed his mind, but he only managed to ask one.

"Did you know?" She shot her glance upwards to face him, some sort of hurt in her face, and her ears twitched back.

"No, I didn't." she said, voice very low "I don't remember anything, not only from the past year, but, from all the years before."