Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 34: Internalizing

I have to admit, suddenly having eagle eyes is not that easy to adjust to. My eyes feel like a camera, and while it's cool that they can see so much, all these sudden colors and details being thrown at me at once give me more of a headache than mindlinking ever did.

How do griffins even deal with this? Maybe it'll get better over time, but I'd like my mediocre vision back right now.

I stumble across the kitchen, clutching the counter so hard I feel like I might yank a piece off. Thank god I'm staying over the weekend because my apartment has been so hard to walk around for the past few days. Normally, getting some food isn't this much of a hassle for me, but here we are. And I'm the only one here right now too, it's so great. The group went out to training without me, so I'm home alone. All alone in this giant house.

Yeah, I really need to find better ways to manage my time. So far, everything I've done has not only been utterly pointless but SO BORING. God, being a human really sucks in this world. Everything either has some advanced spell or some type of flying transportation, so the most  entertaining thing I've done this week is cutting my nails.

I guess I'll just take a walk like these past two days. After all, this neighborhood looks so pretty at sunrise.

I grab a muffin with my remaining strength and go to the closet to put on my shoes and jacket. As my mind drifts to nowhere, the vision from before comes back.

Within these few days, the mysterious vision has come back at least 15 times. It's as if my brain has an alarm clock to keep reminding me of it. I seriously have no clue what it is; it's the same setting, people, and aggressive Kannada. I don't know what the shifting gods expect me to do at this point, but I'm doomed. Utterly doomed.

"Fuck this," I grumble before grabbing the Biofreeze Prashanth gave me and putting on my shoes and jacket. Maybe staring at the bright blue lake will make me feel better. With the magical properties of it, I can get a free face wash out of it.

As I grab my shoes though, my phone starts ringing aggressively. And considering the fact that the others never bring their phones to training, I have no clue who it is.

Turning the screen on, I almost get freaked out seeing the picture of Divya's bedhead in the morning. I just changed it last night, so I'm still not used to it after having the same photo of my New York friends from last year.

I look at the name though, and that's when the surprise really comes.

"Ma?"

Why is my mom calling me?

As the phone's loud car horn ringtone goes through the empty house like an echo, I stare at the screen in unease. My mom and I, even if we're a lot better than the New York trip, are still not on amazing terms yet. We still text and occasionally call (as in like every other week), but we're not back to normal yet.

What's up now?

"Amma, is everything ok? Why are you calling so early?"

I hear a loud breath on the line. "Sorry, are you busy?"

"No, I'm about to go on a walk."

"Ok. Just like that. I missed hearing your voice, kuttu. How's everything... over there?"

Oh, it's great. I'm just getting migraines from my camera eyes and I'm terrified of sprouting wings at any moment now. It's just amazing.

"It's... fine."

I can just imagine my mom's eyebrow raise as I lie to her. She continues to probe me, but when she realizes that I'm not gonna give in, her questions gradually start to get less specific. I can just go on the walk once she's not interrogating anymore. With how bad the sun's blaring, I don't want snow on top of my sunburns.