Falling Gravity (Season 01)

DWS (5)

Gideon walked through the halls of the circus, searching for his sister. It has been a little too long for her to not be back yet. Besides, he felt something odd around the circus. The most obvious answer should be going to the bathroom after her — but that would be creepy, so he decided to search her elsewhere. Still, the question didn't leave his mind: Where is she?

He tried using magic to find her, but his amulet just lost track of her. Gideon was confused, worried too. He didn't tell his parents and his friends, of course, what kind of reaction could that get from them? Far from a good one, he was sure. With a breath and a hand on his amulet, he continued his pace, feeling a very strong and heavy aura around him, a creepy one. It was familiar, but at the same time, it was new. It was like something he knew just mixed together with what he didn't know and made a bad combination, like salt in chocolate.

"Gideon?"

His head turned to follow the voice, a relieved smile was formed on his face.

"Paz!" he ran to her and hugged her. "I was so worried! Where were you?"

She hugged him back. "Worried? For what?"

"I couldn't find you. . ." Gideon looked up to her face. "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing, I just found something interesting," Pacifica replied. They let go of the hug. "Hey, wanna see it? It's very cool."

Gideon was a bit reluctant. "— I'd love to! But we need to go home, mom and dad are waiting for us—"

"I'm sure they won't mind," Pacifica said. "They never minded your sneaking away before, why would they now?"

The curiosity was hard to fight against, but there was something odd in this. He knew she loved adventure, but since when was she so confident? And what's with this way of talking? That didn't seem like Pacifica at all. He discretely held a tight grip on his amulet; as he expected, even his magic sensed something wrong. Too bad he couldn't get an exact answer on what it was.

"I'll call Tiffany and Lucy to join us, okay?" Gideon asked.

Pacifica smiled. "Okay."

Gideon walked away. "Be right back!" he left, carefully peeking behind him from time to time.

He took a turn or two around the halls until he finally saw Tiffany and Lucy chatting together. They noticed the look on Gideon's face and gave him a confused stare.

"What's wrong?" Tiffany asked. "You look live you've seen a spider web come out of its back."

Lucy grimaced. "Tiffany, why?"

"Well. . . Not exactly a spider web, but a Pacifica. I found her." Gideon said.

"Good!" Tiffany smiled as she said.

"But something is off about her. . ." Gideon looked over his shoulder. "She's acting a bit strange, and. . . My brother instincts are telling me something is wrong." With brother instincts, he meant his amulet.

"Shouldn't the older sibling have those instincts?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know, but both Paz and I have it." Gideon said as he turned his head back to the two. "Just. . . Come with me too. As much as I trust Paz, I'm not comfortable going alone."

Tiffany and Lucy shared a confused look, before agreeing and following Gideon back to the halls, where they met Pacifica again.

"There you are," Pacifica turned around and accelerated her steps. "C'mon, it's not far from here!"

The three followed her. Gideon was quite surprised that none of the two noticed the slight oddness in Pacifica's behaviour. He couldn't tell much of it, but she was strange — even her way of speaking was different. He let the three girls go a bit ahead and carefully slowed his pace, leading his hand to his amulet and holding it tight. His eyes went wide at the realisation.