This is When We Say Hello

How Do I Even Explain

Newman came running in looking ready to fight. When he saw no one he came to kneel next time me, where I was sitting in an upright fetal position, and gently lifted my chin.
"Monica, what the matter? Did something happen?" Unable to speak I look at the wood floor to my left, handed him the letter, and studied the floor while my face began to very quickly transform into Niagara Falls. "How did you get this?"
I gingerly stand up, afraid that I could shatter or a message would be etched into the top of the dresser, grabbed the box, which I then handed to Newman. "The letter was in this box which I found on top of the dresser." Saying this while sobbing, my speech was very broke up.
"So you have that power, let's check that off the list. My question is how did he get this letter into a box and on top of the dresser, which you conjured out of your own imagination?"
"From what little I've heard is this person is very power. Could he have placed it there right after it appeared?"
"Possibly." His face grows with concern.
"Newman, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. Not that I can think of." A lie, a comforting lie, but still a lie. Great, is it that bad? "My current problem is getting you calm, safe, and asleep. I don't suppose that you are going to summon anything else." I shake my head "My room is the only room in the living room which has the couch. I need to be able to protect you, so the living room is out of the question."
"I could always use that object thingy that Brian wrote about."
"No, no. You have that power, which means it won't work for you." He looks at the door, my dresser, then me. "You'll have to stay the night in my room" He picks me up and walks into his room, puts me on his bed. He walks to a couch and lays down.
Before I go to sleep I need to get a question answered. "Newman?"
"Yes?"
"What did he mean the two most powerful families in one body?"
"Monica, sorry, I think you already know what he meant." And he was 100% right.
~~~~~~~~~
"Monica, wake up." I roll over in my bed, only to see Eliza sitting on the edge.
"What are you doing. Your dead."
"I know, and thanks for putting it lightly. We need to talk. You are in danger, okay."
"Yeah Eliza, I think I can gather that."
"Monica, I'm serious. Come with me." She stands up and walks across the room opens the door, and then steps out. I stay. She pokes her head back in and motioned for me to go with her. She won't give up on this, so I follow. We go down stairs, and she walks into the living room.
"I need you to summon something." She's got to joking right. She has to know what happened only hours ago. But when I look at her, her face is the straightest I've ever seen it. I decide that I should.
"What do you need? A set of clothes? Food? To let me sleep?"
     "Monica, I'm not alive. I don't need mundane things, and you are sleep, kinda. I need you to summon a rock."
     "A rock? Why a rock? Is it special?" She held out her hand and showed me a picture. It wasn't just a rock, it was a rock on a silver necklace. Granite, smoothed down and rounded a little bit. It had a silver chain. It was absolutely gorgeous.
     "It will help protect you. Just imagine it, and it should appear." I closed my eyes and imagined the necklace on the table in front of the couch. I opened my eyes and there it was.  "It's the Athena's Key, created to destroy the Pandora's Box, and its contents. It's has also been used to warn it's wearer and..."
     "And protect then from danger. It will guide through problems whether it's just pure logic or in battle. Yeah I know what it is. Which means it will-" I flip over the stone and drag the tip of my finger over the back. I begin to feel a ridge forming, in the shape of an olive tree, I held my finger over the engraving of the tree and the stone popped open. The room began to smell of nature and olives. I looked down and saw that the bottom half of the stone was hollowed out and filled with oil.  I stuck my finger in the stone, I pulled it out to find that my finger was not covered in oil, but rather it gave off a faint glow. The light began to spread through my hand and up my arm. It didn't hurt, in fact I felt nothing, until it reached my chest and spread up my neck to my head. I felt better, happier, and more free.
     "Put it on." Eliza pulled me out of my trance, and I listened. I mean, come on, this is an ancient artifact that we have been told about in angel learning classes since I was able to comprehend that I'm different than all the other kids.  I put it on and I feel even lighter. I started to laugh when I looked down and saw that my feet have been lifted off the hard wood floor. "Okay, now think about standing on the floor again." I drifted back down to the floor, and then I heard Eliza gasp. I didn't even get a chance to ask why, because she started to drag into a bathroom. She had me facing a wall and told me to turn my head. When I saw what was there I mimicked Eliza's gasp. I have wings. I have wings. "Yes, you have wings."
      "Did I say that out loud?" She nods her head. "What do I do now?"
     "You don't take that necklace off, and you go back to sleep."
     We head up the stairs and back into Newman's room. I crawl back into bed and ask Eliza "When will I see you again?"
      "When you next need me and the wisdom of the nearly dead."
"Wait? What you mean by the nea..." I drift off to sleep and don't get to finish my question.
~~~~~~~~~~
When I wake up, it's still slightly dark out, and Newman's not up yet. I crawl out of bed and see that there's a phone on the night stand. I grab it, turn on the flashlight, and leave the bedroom. I walk downstairs, into the bathroom I was in last night, and look in the mirror. I smile as I see the outline under my shirt. I have wings and the Athena's Key. Which means that I saw Eliza last night. Which means that she's only 'nearly dead.'
I head back upstairs and into my room. I figured that since I have the Athena's Key I'm protected. I imagine a bed with a night stand on either side and it appears. I begin to do the same with the rest of the room. After everything is in place, I check everything, just incase. I check behind, under, in between, and in everything in my room.
"I can see that you've been busy." I must have been making noise, because a very tired Newman was standing in my doorway. "You could have left a note or something. I thought that you had been kidnapped." He didn't really think that, I could tell, he just wanted me to feel a little bad.
     "I woke up early, and this was going to need to be done any ways, so I did this. I checked everything, any place that things could be hidden. You can double check, but I was pretty through."
"Mr. Rodney wants to see you at 11:30. You have an hour to eat breakfast and get dressed."
"Newman..." He looks up. I have to decide if I should tell him about the Athena's key and my new wings. "Sorry I woke you up." I can't, yet. Although he might be able to see the wings, they are going to hard to hide. I look up and there is Eliza.
"There is a way to hide them you know." Blatantly stated
"How did you know what I was thinking?"
"Well, I knew because it's my power."
"Aren't you nearly dead? That would stop anything about your powers from happening if they were still developing, right?"
"Right, except for the fact that I developed this the day that I nearly died. And because of that I am able to keep the ability and use it. Now onto your wings, you can hide them."
"How? Is there a style of clothing that I should start to wear? Is there something that I should start eating? Or something that I shouldn..."
"No, you just have to think about them disappearing into your back."
"Wouldn't that hurt, seeing as to how I just got them, there wouldn't be any space for them in my back."
"No, they've always been there. All the powers that you have, and will discover, have been there since you were born. Even the physical attributes."
"So your saying that I've always had wings." She nods her and she's gone. I imagine the wings disappearing into my back, and it's like they have never been there. When did Eliza get so smart? I leave the room to go find breakfast. While I'm walking down the stairs I'm struck with a vision.
"Monica you're such a smart young girl. Good on keeping your wings a secret. But just think about the fact that I found out about them. That's your problem. The only thing you could have done to stay safe in your little fantasy of a life was to keep a secret from me. Seems so easy to me. Yet here you are, in my life once again." I look around and see a calendar. The calendar is on March 22. Still a month. Got to try and keep them secret, and stay safe. Hidden, stay hidden.
Someone is shaking me, which pulls me out of my vision.
"Monica. Monica." Newman is on the stairs next to me, shaking me.
"Dude why are you shaking me, I just had a vision."
"Just a vision? You collapsed, began to cry, and was saying repeatedly 'got to try and keep them a secret, and stay safe. Hidden, stay hidden.' Doesn't exactly sound like just a vision." I was saying that all aloud. Shit. "What do you have to keep hidden?"
  "Newman, I don't even know. How do I begin to explain?"

Authors Note: Hey guys, sorry I haven't been posting lately. Writers block, it can get the best of us. Tell me what you thought of this chapter. What do you expect to happen in the next chapter? Thank you for reading!