The Great War

VI

I belly flop onto my bed with a relieved sigh, "Daph, get up." Theo laughs as he pulls my limp body up. "No, Theo, stop." I whine as he practically drags me to the bathroom.

"You haven't showered in 2 days." He states as he plops me down at the edge of the tub.

"If I'm showering your cleaning me like I'm handicapped." Theo's face reddens a bit as his mind seems to wander. "Hey." I snap my fingers in front of his eyes. "Earth to Theodore."

He huffs pushing my hand away, "I'm not bathing you, Daphne." 

I whine out lazily and shrug, "Then I'm not showering." He shrugs and leans closer to me, twisting the baths handle so water spews out. "What're you doing?"

He gives me a lopsided grin as he places a hand on my waist, "Bathing you." Before I could properly react, he lightly pushes my stomach, and I fall into the tub, the water splashing and getting my entire body wet.

"You fucking bitch!" I scream as the ice-cold water soaks my hair.

"Guess you have to shower now." He laughs as he rushes out of the bathroom. His laughter gets farther away as my door shuts. I mock his laughter as I shut the tap off and get out of the bath water dripping off my shirt. I huff out semi-annoyed as I stripe off my soaking wet clothes.

𖤐

"I can't believe you did that." I grumble as I towel dry my hair. Theo laughs again as he sits across from Lilium.

"I didn't do shit I dunno what you're talking about." I mock a laugh rolling my eyes, I sit down and throw my damp towel at him. He laughs harder as he pushes it away from him onto a cushion beside him.

"I have to do laundry now." I mumble as I bring my legs up and sit cross-legged.

He shrugs, "You've needed to do laundry for a while."

I glare at him and huff, "That's not the point."

He tilts his head playfully to the side, "And the point is?" I shrug not even having had one in the first place.

"Sorry to butt in but, I for one would like to know what happened while you were out of it."

I look at Lilium and scrunch my brows, "What do you mean?"

She crosses her arms and leans back, "You would constantly twitch before flatlining even at one point cried. What was happening."

I lean back, setting my hands in my lap uncomfortably, "I wasn't really there. In my own body. Think of like astral projection but at a whole new level. I was home but I wasn't in the present? I saw Ophelia's friends, her husband. They helped me get back."

Lilium slowly nods before looking at me confused, "I'm gonna need you to put more detail into that." I laugh quietly and nod. I grab a discarded notebook from in the basket under my coffee table.

"So, think of this." I open it and flip to an empty page. I pop open a pen that was attached to the spine. I draw a line both having an 'X' at the end.

I point to the first end, "This is us, our time, our town right now." I circle it and sloppily write 'present' above it.

I move over to the second one, "This is our town, their time in the 1700s. Mani and the others are there. I went there." They both nod seemingly following along.

"I woke up in a hospital, same one I was in with you two. But that...thing was with me. As..." I pause anxiously tapping the tip of the pen on the page. Unsure if I should even mention it.

"What?"

I glance at Theo and sigh, "It looked like Theo. It pretended to be him. To trick me. It was probably what was causing me to flatline those times. It chased me, tried to kill me. I got out of the hospital and ended up in the main area of town."

Lilium cut me off, "How is any of this possible?"

I shrug and toss the pen onto the page, "I think it's Ophelia, all of it. Me being able to travel and see shit. Mani had worded it as her giving me a piece of what she had left. Before leaving to god knows where."

Theo perks up and leans forward, "So, she's still alive? Somewhere? Meaning we could find her and get her to stop this?"

I shake my head and look at him with sadness, "She's not here, not on earth at least. Not with them wherever they are. No one knows where she is currently, but there is someone who got away, someone who could still be alive."

I pick the pen back up, "You know how the fire supposedly killed them all, excluding Ophelia. Mani told me one of their friends had gotten away before anyone else could. Her name was Smilla, she was Cere's partner or some shit. She got away, she's still somewhere. She might still be in town, probably not, but it's possible."

Lilium nods and smiles, excited. "So, we have work to do, yeah?"

I nod and smile at her optimism, "Indeed, we do. We'll split up, okay? You'll ask older folk who still mention the old ways from time to time. Theo will—"

He cuts me off, shaking his head, "No, no way. We're not splitting up. Not with this thing after you. No fucking way, Daphne." His eyes were stern and stubborn, definitely wasn't gonna give up easily.

"Theo, c'mon we'll get through this faster if we split up." He shakes his head and sits back again, "Theodore." He glares at me, and I give him a soft smile. "I'll be okay, alright? It's only for a few hours. I'll call you both if I'm having problems."

He falters and lets his arms fall to his lap, "Fine. We meet up at the fountain after. If one finishes early, you text one of the other two. Location and what time you finished."

I clap my hands together with a smile, "Alright. We're settled then." I stand up and grab my notebook. "We'll eat and leave for a few hours."

Theo sighs and walks up to me; I look up at him and smile. "Hm?" He just keeps looking, I scrunch my brows in confusion. "What's wrong?"

He stays quiet and cups my face, his thumb rubbing the skin of my cheek. "Are you alright?"

He nods and smiles sweetly, "I love you."

I automatically smile again upon hearing that and lean up kissing him softly. "I love you too."