Cursed Beneath the Shadows

Newfound Realization

  I breathe in, relaxing my shoulders as I slowly open my eyes. A faint glow from the moon creeps into my lilac room, rain patterns against the window, the sounds are calming and relaxing. My bed is a little disheveled, but still, it calms me down as I exhale, I roll over in my bed. The sound of silence fills me with peace, I take out my phone from my nightstand and look at the time. It reads 4:26 a.m. I guess I slept through most of the day, huh, well I guess I should take my meds and go to bed. Seeing as I don't have anything to do.

Hours pass...

Valen POV

I wake up, the light attempts to penetrate my blackout curtains but fail, I can hear the sound of birds chirping. Slowly opening my eyes, I stare at my room, the black and grey aesthetic stares back at me, the way that I constantly catch myself looking at Ottavia.

I grab my phone and glance at the time, 9:46 a.m. I exhale and set my phone down. Setting myself up, I get off from the bed and walk over to my closet and pick out some shorts and a T-shirt to wear for now. That's when I realize my hands, dried, black splotchy ink sits in the cracks of my knuckles, and runs down my forearm. Grossed out, I make my way to the bathroom and then the water on, dispensing the soap into my hands and crashing them together, washing the black blood off of me. After a few minutes of vigorous washing and scrubbing, I scoop water into my now clean hands and splash it into my face, noticing the bags under my eyes, and how disheveled I look.

I'm sure mom must have noticed how Leo and I were yesterday. We told her that Via wasn't feeling good so she stayed in her room all day, we made sure to keep a constant eye on her and change out her bandages as quickly and efficient as we could. Mom has no idea that Via got hurt, so we were keeping it under wraps for the time being. All day yesterday was Leo and I in and out of Via's room and holding off mom from going in her room to check in on her.

While she slept, we did some work around the house and paperwork for the school term for the two of them. Leo gave the school a call and after a while of chatting, the principal was more than happy to take in the two new students.

After what happened the other day, Leo and I haven't really talked to each other much, other than the occasional "Hey, what's up?" and "How's V doing?" I could see that he didn't really want to talk to anyone really, he was in his own mind the whole day. I would like to discuss what happened the other night, but...

Leo looked worse than I did though, his pale blond hair turned silver with stress, and his green eyes faded out, the life from them was almost gone. I know what happened to her is still hard to try and keep your cool, I get it, but he fixed her wound and everything. I can only imagine how that must have felt, seeing her like that, and in that much pain. I know that when we rushed out there and saw her lying there, in that state, we both lost it. I went bat shit crazy on the guy, broke a few of his ribs, and I'm sure that wasn't all considering he cursed us out and then vanished.

We definitely made sure he wouldn't be coming back. Leo even cut open his hands and started mumbling and drawing these weird symbols all over the outside of the house. I didn't see much of it but I assumed it was like a warding spell for demons.

  I got out of the bathroom and looked over to where Ottavia's room is and subconsciously started walking over there. I stopped at the doorframe and placed my hand on her white door and pushed it open slightly, the light was peeking through her black curtains and reflecting off of her mirror she had in the corner. She was sound asleep, her dark oak hair framed her face and her ebony sheets were brought up to her chin, leaving a little room to breathe. I could see her eyelashes from here, they tickle her eyebrows and her nose is small and nuzzled against the pillow, just seeing her made me feel a certain way.