The Cold She-wolf

Chapter Four: The woman between

   For three months, I stayed in an unknown place getting trained by a shadow. It was funny at first but it did teach me a lot. I got free from Raquelia and the first person I went to see was Mindy to have her fill me in on everything I'd missed. Her house was a little duplex near a forest. Her husband was a botanist so living close to a forest was understandable. Plus, Mindy loved living in a forest area and said it was her nature or something like that.

   Mindy opened the door. A frown hitched up her face when she saw me. "Good evening, how may I help you?" She asked politely, false politeness that is. I chuckled nervously. I left after forwarding her a message to cancel my contracts and gave her access to my accounts to pay the companies back for the inconvenience. I didn't see her in person because I knew she would skin me alive and I deserved every bit of it. Mindy won't understand and I didn't want her to. It wasn't just ditching problems on my manager, it was also ghosting my closest friend.

   "Mindy, hi!" I chirped nervously. She stared at me with confusion. I pinned my lips and stared at her face, quietly. Why was she pretending to be confused?

   "Ma'am, really, how may I help you? And why does your voice sound so familiar?"

   "Oh come on, Mindy!" I exclaimed. "I know I acted like an ass but please, don't pretend as if you don't recognize me. I'm sorry about ghosting you and everyone…” Mindy's eyes widened with utter disbelief as she stared at me. She looked like she saw a ghost. "Mindy?"

   "Arabel?!"  She exclaimed quizzically. "Oh my goodness! What happened to you?!" She looked genuinely confounded so she wasn't toying with me. It was then I remembered that I changed completely. The more I learned how to wield my powers, the quicker my appearance and aura changed. My hair had turned pale white and my skin was as white as snow white. I thought Snow White was a joke until I looked at myself in the mirror. I, however, lost my red lips and found myself with lips exactly like Covergirl’s lipstick in the shade blue. I still prefer my red. Aside from my appearance, my body temperature was colder than a normal human, like hugging an iron pole that was left out overnight. And the cherry on top, Jena said my charisma and aura have turned frightening cold so my presence will always scare or intimidate people. Like an ice queen.

I hate it.

   "Did you undergo surgery without my knowledge? Is that why you went radio silent on me?" She asked quizzically.

   "No, I found out I was severely sick a few years back. It's the reason why I've been so cold toward everyone. I didn't go into hiding, I went for the only solution to my illness at a temple in China. The side effects of the treatment since it's not perfected is this."

   "As if I'm going to believe that," she scoffed, but when she saw the look on my face, she gasped. I'm an actress so it was easy to convince her with my look. I didn't like lying to her but it was the only excuse I could come up with. "Oh my goodness! Why didn't you tell me? You were sick?!"

   "I didn't want anyone to worry about me. The sickness was a result of the accident and after how terrified everyone was, I couldn't bring myself to tell anybody," I wrapped my hands around my body, pretending to be sad. "I was able to find the temple by chance, and since I'm going to die anyways, I volunteered to be a lab rat. I'm fine now but I have this as a side effect." I looked at my body and I had to admit, my body got sexier. I looked up and saw the suspicion on Mindy's face. Damn! This woman is like Amabel. She's impossible to deceive.

   "Why don't I believe you?" She sneered. "Never knew you could go for artificial instead of natural. I'm disappointed in you," she said upsettingly. "You disappeared for months and come back looking like a white-haired Snow White with a bullcrap backstory! Ara, what is your problem?!" Clearly, she's not going to buy that lie.