Gentle Eyes of Evil

Chapter 25: Upcoming Father, Absent Daughter

That night, once Harriet and Josephine had returned home, they found themselves separated for a couple hours. Harriet was in her own room practising more powerful spells and trying to get better with using her magic, and Josephine was out on the balcony of her own room. Josephine stood and looked up at the stars in the clear night sky, and she tried to count them, but lost track each time and found herself starting over. As she counted, she felt the warmth of a body beside her, she looked over and expected to see Harriet's familiar face. Instead, only one pink eye met her own with the other being obscured by fluffy hair, in said hair resided a black streak.

Josephine recognised the face and gave him a smile as well as a wave. Her notepad was tucked under her left arm and pressed gently against her chest to prevent it slipping onto the floor, while the pencil had been threaded through her hair that covered her right eye. "I didn't expect to see you apart from Harriet, I'll admit." The man told her with a light-hearted chuckle, Josephine rolled her eyes and raised her hand to cover her mouth. Her chest and stomach moved as if she was giggling, but of course no sound came out. She grabbed her notepad and slid the pencil out from under her hair before she wrote "Really, Luna? I'm not around her that much!...Am I?" Luna took a moment to read the page and sighed with a smile.

"You're around her...more than you probably think" He told her. Josephine listened to him and took a few seconds to write out a reply, she then flipped her pad around and showed him. "Isn't it normal for sister's to spend time together tho?" She asked, Luna looked at her for a moment and nodded confidently. "Yes, it is. But the amount of time you two spend with each other is...well, don't you have any friends or anything outside of her?" He asked her, the amount of time it took Josephine to think about it told Luna all he needed to know.

Josephine looked over to Luna, then back down to her notepad. She flicked to the next page as her current one was full up, it had begun to look like insane ramblings with all the different phrases written down. She put pen to paper and scribbled down her next question for him "But why is that a problem? Isn't family meant to be the most important thing?" Luna's eyes grazed over the page, like a reader to an interesting book, maybe even like you to this very page.

He turned his body to face her, and released a heavy sigh as his head slowly tilted downwards to the floor. He closed his eye and answered her. "Family is one of many important relationships that someone needs to make in their life. But friends, lovers, late nights, making mistakes, and sometimes even drifting away from family, are all things people need to do. It's different situations in our lives and how we respond to them that make us who we are." Luna rambled, he took a deep breath and lifted his head up a little to face her as he slowly opened his eye and continued on. "By spending so much time with Harriet, you're only making yourself the kind of person that she will let you be. Haven't you noticed how since you started spending so much time with her, you haven't seen much of the rest of us?" He asked her.

Josephine listened to his words, her face changed from confusion to anxiety when he mentioned drifting away from family, then to being attentive again once Harriet's name was mentioned. She picked up on every word of that part. Finally, she heard his question and wrote down her answer. "I thought that was just because we all got busy with different things. Besides, Harriet said she needs me to stay with her." Luna read what she said again, his eyes narrowed as his neutral face fell to an almost disappointed frown. Josephine saw his face change and felt her heart sink a little. "Why does she need you around her all that time?" Luna questioned her, Josephine wrote down her answer quickly. "She needs to keep an eye on me so I don't get hurt." She wrote down and showed it to him.

Luna's sharp eyes scanned over the answer she provided him with, his expression remained unchanged. "Why does she feel the need to do that? You were a little clumsy before the war, sure, but nothing that would need her to be like this. You were always fine without her, what's changed?" He asked her. Josephine's face changed to be defensive, as did her answer "I haven't gotten hurt since she's been around." She protested. Luna looked away from her and took a deep breath. "You weren't getting hurt before her either. Look, Josie, what I'm trying to say is that there's more to life than family, there's more to life than her. But you need to realise that for yourself, I can't make you. Just know that...me and the other's will be waiting for you, arms open, when you want to come back to us." He told her, it was harsh but it was the truth. Josephine seemed reluctant to even listen to him now, yet her ears did their job anyway and the knowledge of her siblings waiting on her was retained.

Luna turned his back to her and made his way back into the palace. At the doorway, he stopped and put a hand on the doorframe then looked back to Josephine. "Goodnight, little sis." He told her before disappearing from the moonlight and being consumed by the shadows of the bedroom.

Moments later, Josephine heard the bedroom door open and close again, a pair of bare footsteps on cold marble followed. She assumed it must have been Luna leaving the room, until she heard those footsteps come closer and closer, and she felt a familiar pair of cold yet soft hands on her hips from behind. This made Josephine jump a little as she was still processing Luna's words, however she calmed right back down after feeling the person's touch as she recognised those hands.

"Sorry I was gone for so long, Josie." A familiar voice glided through Josephine's ears, bringing with it a sense of calm and safety. Before she knew it, she felt the light weight of a head on her shoulder. "You didn't miss me too much, did you now?" The voice taunted, its hands remained with a gentle yet secure grip on Josephine's hips. She turned her head to the side just slightly to face the voice, with the person's baby-pink eyes landing back on her own.

Finally, Josephine gave a response to the question she was asked, her handwriting cursive and clear "I always miss you, Harriet. even when we're only in different rooms" Harriet's gentle eyes flowed over the words on the page, like a calm yet moving stream of water in a dead forest. She giggled softly, an ethereal sound for all those around to hear it. Much like her mother's laughter, it was almost perfect. "Good. I missed you too, Doll" Harriet replied in a soft whisper, she then leaned her head towards Josephine's and rested it against there.

"Did anything interesting happen whilst I was gone?" She asked calmly, Josephine nodded slowly and flicked to a new page. "Do tell" Harriet advised her, Josephine began to write out a reply, she described the conversation with Luna and how he was beginning to question the amount of time that the pair spent together. She detailed to Harriet how that made her feel, the anxiety and defensiveness that each displayed themselves, and how Luna reassured her that the others would be waiting for her to realise something. The whole description took up about half a page, though that was partly due to Josephine's rough handwriting.

Harriet read over these lines much more carefully than before, like the stream of water was flowing slower and yet crashed into rocks that created small disruptions to the calm nature. "I see...so he was questioning us, was he?" She asked, her grip on Josephine's hips tightened just a little. Josephine nodded and glanced down to her hands, Harriet let out a gentle sigh and looked at Josephine. "Well...it's good that you defended us. It isn't good when someone questions something you know is right, is it?" She asked.

Josephine shook her head and wrote down on the page "No. You only want to make sure I'm safe, I don't get why that's a problem?" She wrote. Harriet's grip on her hips loosened off again, yet her hands remained there. After having read Josephine's response, the corners of Harriet's lips curled upwards into a calm yet sly smile. "Me neither, Doll. Me neither." She replied.