No Comfort Zone

Twenty

"Cadence? What the hell is wrong with you? Are you talking to Jace? Is he here, like with you? Can you tell him we miss him?" Grace kept asking like a million questions. I sighed hugely. I wanted to spill the news but I guess Jace wants it to be a surprise.

"Calm down, I think he already knows." I smiled. "How are you so calm right now?" Roy asked. "Oh, no. I think she is about to snap." Grace warned. "Grace, seriously I am fine. Just wait." I said soberly. I looked over at where Jace was supposed to be but he was gone.

"Jace!" I said, panicking just a smidge. Then the body in front of me started to move slightly. "Jace!" I shouted again, excited this time. "Oh my gosh!" Grace gasped. Roy stood there speechless. Jace's no so dead body took a huge deep gasp for air.

He sat up, breathing heavy. Looking at all of us, was he...scared? "Cadence?" Jace whispered. "Yes." I said. "Can all of you see me?" he asked. "Yes." I smiled. He sighed in relief. "How..." Roy said, amazed. "That guy...he fed me his blood. Speaking of that..." Jace said.

"I am not doing it, nope, Nada, nuh-uh." Grace said. "I will do it." I said. "No." Jace said, "I am not hurting you. "Its fine, I'm not scared." I stated truly. I am not scared, why would I? I let Roy feed on me...wait...they don't know that.

Roy butted in, "Jace, I will take you out to feed after you clean up and get a ring." I looked at him, like he had just took my phone and held it above his head, making me reach for it. Which, gets me pretty upset.

"It would be great practice for the both of us." Roy said. "Whatever, lets go back inside." Grace said as Jace hopped out of the bed of the truck. "Guess that was sooner than we thought." Jace joked. "Yeah, you must've died a long time ago." I shrugged.

"You okay?" he asked. "I am fine, you are the one who just died, are you okay?" I asked. "Perfectly fine, you know, for someone who has just woken up from the dead." he laughed. I rolled my eyes at his ability to joke around about all of this.

---

"Okay, here is something simple for you to try." Mackenzie smiled, as we sat on her basement floor. Mackenzie had a few dusty old journal looking books scattered around us, one of which was in her hands as she flipped through pages.

"This place is very creepy, Mackenzie couldn't we go to you room?" Grace asked uncomfortably. "Uh, Grace my parents would know if I practiced up there. We have to stay down here, where no one ever comes." Mackenzie said.

"I wonder why no one comes down here?" Grace said sarcastically, "Because its scary!?" Grace finished. "Shush or go somewhere else." I said. "Is that an actual option?" she asked. I rolled my eyes, ignoring her.

"Here, light this candle." Mackenzie said. "Okay..." I said pulling a lighter out of my bag. No I do not smoke! Never have, but I keep it in case of things. Yes its weird...but so is my life so, deal with it. I went to light the candle. "Not with that!?" she knocked it out of my hand.

"Then how the heck else am I supposed to light it?" I huffed. "Like this." she said grabbing the candle and closing her eyes, then the candle lit up! She blew it out, "Your turn."

"I can't do that." I said. "Yes you can, just focus on your new energy. Imagine the candle lighting up in your head. Then it will happen." She assured. "This is so stupid." I said, taking the candle. "Well, stupid or not. Your still doing it." Grace huffed, sitting beside me.

I focused on holding the candle, wanting it to light up so badly. Because I don't want it to not work. That would be embarrassing.

Work, light, light, please light...

I opened my eyes to see that the candle hadn't lit at all, I sighed. "Cadence." Mackenzie said. "What? It didn't work." I said, a little bummed out. "L-look around you." Grace mumbled. I looked around and every other candle in the room was lit.