I Know This isn't the End

VII Only Time Will Tell

"Chirp, chirp, chirp." Oh goodness, the birds' singing woke me up. Munro is still fast asleep. Oh, Munro. He's so handsome when he's asleep. I think of the silliest idea of how to wake him up. I decided to hug him tightly. He opens his eyes slowly and then all at once. "Hey you," he says. "Good morning!" I scream, hugging him. My bedroom door opens slowly and we both turn our heads to look. "Good you guys are up now." My dad says. "Dad, were you by the door this entire time?" I ask. "Well how else would I have known when you two were up?" I roll my eyes. "Now, Yasmine. I need you to go to the new bookstore and fetch me a few things while I try and fix your window myself." "Too expensive to hire someone?" I ask. "No, no. I just like fixing things up sometimes. Now, I need part two of my favorite book, Into the Night. and some new graphite pencils for drawing. I know they sell them there. I saw them online." "Well, okay dad. We'll go in an hour." I say. "No rush, sweetie. Take your time. Munro can drive my car if he wants." We look at each other and smile. "Sure." Munro says.

An hour later, we step outside. It's practically a sunny day, with a few clouds. "My kind of weather," he says. "Mine too." We get into the car and make our way to the bookstore. "Is Mr. Wellers there today?" I ask. "I think so. Him and his wife work there Mon-Sun, surprisingly." "They don't get a day off?" I ask. "Not really, it's their store. They could hire more workers but I guess they're fine working there themselves." "Hmm.. I would love to work at a bookstore." I say. "It's not as easy as it seems, Yasmine. There's a lot of organizing and labeling." "Oh I know, I love organizing things." "Well who knows? You could probably ask them if they're hiring." "Yeah, i'll ask them. And I wanted to talk to you about something." "What is it?" He asks, curiously. "I've been thinking about it, and I kind of want to be homeschooled." "Oh that's a great idea. We can be homeschooled together. I'll come over at the same time as when you study. Just need to ask your parents for permission first." I wonder what they would say. I hope they say yes. I really don't want to see Violet again, now that we know that she's Vladimir's secret evil sister. But what if she's not.. I mean, they both have invisibility powers. Both have the same dark hair, the same last name too. Considering Vladimir has two last names, he can't keep one of them a secret anymore. "I think they'll say yes. I don't want to run into Violet or Vladimir ever again. I think it'll be the safest idea to do homeschooling." I say. "Yeah, exactly."

We pull up towards the parking area, only a few cars parked. "Not many people are here, it seems." "I guess not. Well it is early," he says. "Oh look, a Now Hiring sign." I point to a new sign that's just been put up on one of the side windows of the store. "Oh, nice. Let's go ask about that."

We walk through the front doors, "Good morning Mr. And Mrs. Wellers," Munro says. Mr. Wellers gets up slowly from his leather chair, "Why hello there. Welcome back." "Good morning," I say. "I'm going to grab some cookies and tea." Mrs. Wellers says, walking towards the backroom. "I wanted to ask about the sign on your window. It says you're hiring." "Oh yes, we are indeed. However, it is for bookseller positions only. No prior credentials are needed, the only requirement is that you have had at least one year of previous customer service work." Trina comes out from the backroom with a large tray of cookies and a couple tea cups filled with freshly brewed tea. "Here you are," she says, handing me a tea cup on a small porcelain dish with a couple cinnamon cookies next to it. "I love cinnamon!" "Oh great, then you'll love my homemade cookies." She says. "And Mr. Wellers, I have had two years of previous customer service work. I worked at Gliden insurance company. I was in the back office answering calls and doing computer work." "You worked for Gliden?!" Munro asks, surprised. "Yes! It was a lot of multitasking but I managed it well." "That's a great start, my dear. If you like, you can start working as a bookseller here, after two weeks of training. How does that sound?" He asks. "That sounds great, yes I'm in." I say, smiling eagerly for the new opportunity position. "Great, I'll get you started on one of the backroom computers to fill out your application. Please follow me,"he says. "Okay, great." "I'll look for those graphite pencils and Into the Night for your dad." Munro says. "Okay, thanks." I follow Mr. Wellers into the backroom. "Have a seat my dear. You will be filling out quite a lot of information here, such as your work history, professional references, and so on. Will this be your second job?" "Yes! I only worked at Gliden Insurance Company before I moved here." I say. "Oh okay."

Moments later, I finish filling out all of my pre employment information, and we make our way towards the cash register to check out my dad's book and art pencils. "All done?" Munro asks. "Yes!" "Now dear, your training starts tomorrow. How does that sound?" "It sounds great!" I say. "Have a great day, take care," Mr. And Mrs. Wellers say as we leave through the back doors.

We step into my dad's car. "Munro, I wanted to ask you something." "Yes?" "So you can revive inanimate objects, not just people?" "Yes, like how I revived Mr. Ronnie and the library at school." "Can you revive my broken window?" I ask. "Yes, but your dad will find out about my powers and I don't want that." "Oh, that's right. He won't understand." I say. "He won't. He might even have me taken away." "I don't want that. I don't ever want to be away from you. We hug for a few seconds and share a kiss that makes my heart melt. He turns the ignition on and we head home.

"Dad, we're home!" I scream as I open the front door with my key. "Oh my gosh..." the living room has been ravaged, it's a disaster. It's all messed up. The sofas are ripped, the paintings are broken and have fallen on the ground, the chandelier has fallen and shattered. "What the heck happened here? Where is your dad?!" Munro asks, worried. We look around for clues and evidence, hoping that something comes up. Or someone to blame for this mess. Munro gasps. "Vladimir!" We see a shadow and it glitches for a second. We see Vladimir standing at the end of the hallway for a second until he turns into a shadow again. "No way, he can't do this. Where is my dad?!" I ask, very worried as to what happened to him. "Oh he's here. And she is too." Vladimir whispers loudly. "Who?!" I scream. "Me." We turn our heads to see the worst betrayal possible. Violet appears out of nowhere, standing right next to Vladimir. "Where is my dad?" I ask, sternly. She turns her head diagonally to the side. "You'll get him back, as soon as we get what we want." She says. "What do you want?" Vladimir turns his head diagonally to the side. "Your heart." He says as Munro quickly steps in front of me, his arms open at either side, shielding me from them. "No! She's mine. You can't have her. She's not the only immortal." "Oh, she's immortal you say?" Vladimir asks. We hear police sirens, as Vladimir and Violet quickly turn invisible right before our eyes. "Where did they go?" Munro asks, worried. Two policemen enter through the opened front door. "What's going on? Another forced entry?" They say. "Yes!" I scream. "Two students from my school broke in and took my dad away, we don't know where he is." They look around for evidence. "There are no fingerprints anywhere here." A few seconds later, my dad walks in. "Honey! What happened? I only went for a short walk." He says. "Dad, these two students from my school are evil, they broke into my bedroom last night and ravaged the living room." I say. "We can't find any fingerprints at all. With no evidence, we can't take anyone into custody." The policemen say. "No! They were just here, we saw them," I cry." "Yasmine, relax. They can't do much without any evidence." Munro says. "What are their names?" The policemen ask. "Violet and Vladimir." I say. "Vladimir is in prison right now." "He can't escape." I look around the living room to see just how much damage they caused. Ripped sofas, a broken chandelier and broken picture frames. "We will be writing a police report." "Thank you." My dad says. "We can fix this mess ourselves, officer. Thank you so much for coming." "You're welcome. If there's any additional evidence you find, please give us a call." The policemen leave through the front door.