*Book One of The Accursed Chronicles*
August was a man from a normal world, living a mundane life until one night everything changed, and he was sent spiraling into a world stuck forever in winter, full of magic, creatures, and a curse that has grip...
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As I shelved the last cleaned bowl and closed the cabinet, I sighed to myself before shoving my hands into my pockets and turning around. I pressed my back against the cabinet, leaned my weight against it, as I glanced around the eerily quiet kitchen. It wasn't a kitchen I would've been used to, yet now I was all too familiar with it.
The hearth was used for cooking over and there was a stone oven built into the left side of the kitchen, used to bake bread and pies. I didn't do a lot of baking, was too bad with measuring to get it right, but I had been doing much cooking since I had settled. Cooking took my mind off things and there was a ton of things on my mind.
Every day I had a set routine of meditating, practicing control over my power, and reading whatever Gloom would throw at me that day. Sometimes I'd beg to be allowed to go with Leuthar to the market while other times I would be made to stay and clean. I felt like a maid and a waste of space, a space that felt like it was growing and not in a good way.
My power—while I hadn't told Gloom—had felt unsteady lately and when I would be practicing control spells, they would get out of hand and burst into chaos or sometimes they would fizzle into nothing. There was no in between. It was either a bursting flame or an itty-bitty light. It frustrated me to no end, and my frustration wasn't being helped by either party.
Leuthar had been in a sour mood for a week, snapping at me and threatening hitting me sometimes. Gloom had kept secluding himself and I wouldn't see him for hours until he would come out to eat. It was like he was waking from the dead every time I saw him, except he looked more exhausted than he had before. It had only taken me until tonight to figure out that it was because of the Red Ball and how it symbolized a closing of a chapter for them.
After staring into space for the longest, I moved over to the hearth and dimmed the fire to embers with a slow wave of my hand. A small smile crossed my lips, only to fade when the proud I had felt for my powers turned into disgust. My powers were a curse from my deadbeat dad, that was nothing to be proud of.
Turning away, I left the kitchen behind and headed into the hallway, down the lowly lit halls. They felt lonelier at night, like the only thing that roamed these halls were abandoned hopes and dreams. I somehow felt the pain of Gloom and Leuthar, could understand how hard it was to watch everything you worked for be taken away, but even then, they still had each other and the memory of the efforts they had made.
Those words wouldn't work with them though, they were too negative and strict. Leuthar could loosen up sometimes, but Gloom... it was like pulling teeth to try to make him laugh or smile.
As I came by the round room, I paused in its archway and frowned. It had been another dinner spoiled by discouraging talk. It didn't help that neither really spoke about what really bothered them, especially Gloom. There was a time and place for discussing the negative talk, and dinner wasn't one of them. I swore neither of them ate enough to feed a fly, but still they were all hard honed and toned edges. If only I could relate.
