The Rainbloom Witch: Within The Forest Walls

Chapter 5

   I wake up in a frightening jolt, sitting in a pool of sweat. Waves of sadness, fear, and anger all wash over me at one time, pulling me under like a riptide, The stormy waves crash over my head. Heavy tears begin to fall down my face. I don't know where all these emotions came from, I just know that I want them to stop. I feel sick to my stomach again, only this time it's undeniably real. My muscles are sore and I can barely move without feeling like I'm about to throw up.
    
     I attempt to pick myself up off the cot on the floor only to fall back over. I begin coughing rapidly, gasping as I struggle for air. My vision is fuzzy but I hear blankets ruffle around me as the others start to wake up from all the noise. Casper is the first to realize something is wrong. He immediately jumps to my side and attempts to help me sit up.
"Percy, what's wrong?" he turns to the other two who are still confused and wiping their eyes sleepily  "Cris go get my parents, Miguel go get some water for her,"
Cris and Miguel finally wake up enough, and see me crouched on the floor only being held up by Casper and frantically get up and follow his orders.
Miguel returns shortly with a glass of water and helps drink some just as Casper's parents come in, both of them look at me and their faces drop. Casper's mom sits down next to me shooing Casper and Miguel away.
"I've got this, back up your swarming her to death," She says, and the boys back up anxiously.
She rubs my back gently and I hear her melodic voice speak softly to me. "You're ok, just breathe nice and slow ok?"
I take a deep breath and focus on calming down, my breathing slows and I finally manage to catch my breath.
"There you go sweetheart," She combs her fingers through the black waves of my hair and hugs me close to her chest. I wrap my arms around her taking comfort in her. She smells like lilies vanilla, I bury my face into her shoulder and let myself imagine she's my mom for a second. Which makes me cry more, not entirely out of sadness or happiness but some complicated blend of it all. I cling to her like a helpless child wishing my mom was really the one holding me, here with me. I wish I could tell her everything, hug her, and get her comfort and support. I need her more than anything right now, but at this moment I'm willing to take this in while I can, At least until I can get to have the real thing again.

     Casper's parents eventually make us breakfast and keep a close eye on me after I feel better enough. The rest of the kids are seated around me.
"What was that? Are you okay?" Miguel asks still looking shaken as if I could fall apart again any second.
"Was it another prophecy dream?" Casper adds.
I nod my head "Yeah I think, but this one had a lot more going on, and the last one didn't make me feel sick like that," I rock back and forth subconsciously cradling my knees to my chest still feeling like I might puke if I try to remember too much.
"Yeah, prophecy dreams can sometimes have a physical effect on your body. I know you don't feel too good but do you think you could try and tell us what happened?" Casper asked,
"I can try. It started pretty normal," I gesture towards the group of us huddled on the floor. "We were all at the cafe in town, we got drinks and stuff and sat down at a table. While you guys were talking I saw this  butterfly fly into the cafe, it flew towards the barista and she started reaching for it but before she grabbed it everything went black,"
Casper nodded "Anything else?"
"No, then it got really strange. I was left in the dark for a while, I couldn't see or hear anything. I started to feel sick and started hearing this horrible coughing and crying coming from all around me. The last thing I remember is seeing those eyes again, the ones I saw that night you got me from my house"
Casper takes some time to take in all the information. I can't quite read his face, but I can tell that his expression doesn't say anything good.
"We definitely have to talk to Iris when she gets here," he rubs the back of his neck anxiously. "The butterfly you saw, was it an orange monarch?"
I raise my eyebrow curiously "Yeah how did you know?"
He takes a deep breath "I think that might be Iris's old familiar"
Cris and Miguel look at each other and then at us,
"Okay I feel like there is a lot of catching up you need to give us about whats going on here," Cris says.
"Yeah, what does all this stuff mean? What's with Priscilla? Are we in danger?" Miguel asks fidgeting with his hands.
Casper shakes his head "I don't know about danger, but there is definitely something weird going on. I'll try to catch you guys up,"

     Casper explains to them a rough sum up of everything we currently know, starting from how I'm the next in line of a long history of witches who are selected by these gods called deities through prophecies. That he and his family are familiars a species called, and like the witches, only certain familiars are chosen to work with witches through prophecies. Like me, Iris is a witch who had a familiar too but she vanished years ago and nobody has seen her since. On the other hand, there is this rogue pixie named Vince on the loose somewhere who has this determination to kill off the witches and that I have to learn magic as soon as possible to actually be able to defeat him if and when he eventually finds us.

     They both nod along as they listen and I see their expressions range from fascination to curiosity, to dread.
"So why are we here again? What do we have to do with all of this? Why can't we go home?" Cris pinches the bridge of his nose frustratingly.
"Listen I know it's a lot and it's scary and you're right you shouldn't be here, but you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and unfortunately we can't take the risk of you two taking all of this information back to town," Casper says
"Can't we just like, promise not to tell anybody" Miguel suggest.
Casper shakes his head "Considering you've already been missing for twenty-four hours I don't think it's that easy,"
Cris scoffs "I already told you our parents won't notice we were gone, You think we haven't gone 24 hours without going home before? We'll be fine" he spits
"Even so, I can't be sure" Casper sighs "You're welcome to stay here for as long as you need until we get this whole thing figured out. Nobody is asking you guys to stand in harm's way, You'll be safe here."
They both seem to consider this until Miguel shrugs looking at Cris. "Can't be too bad right? Look at this place. It's much better than being home" he says.
Cris lets out a long breath running his hand through his hair and nods "Yeah you're right," he looks up at Casper. "You guys sound like you're going to need a hell of a lot of help though, If I have to be here I'm not sitting around doing nothing, I wanna help"
"I can't ask you to do that this isn't your job you don't have magic or anything to help you," Casper says.
Cris shrugs "Maybe not, but Priscilla and you didn't ask to be here anymore than we did, so I think we must be meant to be here just as much as you two,"
Miguel takes Cris's hand and smiles. "Four of us against one super evil magic pixie guy, how hard can it be" he laughs.
"Are you guys sure?" I ask.
"Of course," They both nod in agreement.
Casper puts a hand in the middle of all of us "Team?" he smiles.
We all join a hand in the middle and nod in sync "Team," I smile realizing this is the first time I've felt this happy to have people around, I've only known these kids for a few days but they have already shown me just how great it can be to have people you can depend on. To know that they will have my back just as I will have theirs.

     There is a knock on the door and Casper's dad goes to open it. We can't see who's outside but we see Jack nod and say "Of course I'll get them immediately" When he closes the door he walks up to us uneasily, "Sorry to ruin the moment kids but Iris is here and she didn't show up  in great shape and wants to see you guys asap."