Cursed

Part 17

Part 17

Calista’s POV

 

All the way home, I felt extremely conflicted. Half of me couldn’t stop laughing at Evan’s strange imposition, while another half was furious that he would try and scare me like that, while ANOTHER half was slightly disturbed by the fact that he seemed so sincere.

/So you mean there’s one and a half of you?/

Wait-What? No. I-

/Idiot/

Shut-up Peach. You know what I mean.

/Well, I propose that you compromise./

I’m pretty sure if I were in a cartoon my face would have morphed into a question mark, but since I’m not, I simply had to do with the best confused expression I could muster.

/A compromise that allows all of your three halves to be satisfied. Just pretend he’s right. PRETEND. And mention it to your mom. Then you can release some of your angry half, laugh about it with your other half, and have closure upon the issue with your third half./

Hmm, for once, your idea doesn’t sound horrible.

A grin broke out on my face as the idea became more and more appealing, until, with a skip in my step, I strode up the driveway to my home. I closed the door with a slam as I flopped onto the couch. My mom walked into the room, wiping off her hands on a kitchen towel.

“Hey babe. Where you been?”

“I was out with a…friend,”

No matter how much I tried to hide it, I flinched slightly at the word ‘friend’. The thought of being friends with Evan filled me with disgust. But my mom, being my mom, didn’t seem to notice. Instead she just walked back into the kitchen whistling. I followed.

“That’s nice babe.”

“Hmm”

I grunted in agreement before flopping down on one of the chairs, pulling some homework out of my backpack. I tried to engulf myself in advanced Algebra, but I was too distracted by the days events to wonder what ‘the opposite of 193 to the power of x, divided by p multiplied by 10 plus 6’ was. Soon, I simply gave up and spoke what was on my mind.

“My…friend. He said something strange today.”

There it was again. The flinch.

“He told me about this…religion of sorts that believed in another world. The world was called Vitacis. And they have protectors called Pernix’s.”

For some reason, my mom seemed to freeze in place. Her shoulders tense. I should have known from that. I should have stopped there. But I didn’t. I had to push her.

“And you know, these Pernix’s were all marked. And killed. So they sent the final one with a guardian to earth. Have you ever heard of that?”

“N-never. Although it seems i-interesting. You know, how Vitacis and Lectium are new worlds-”

“I never said anything about Lectium.”

The room went cold as a silence filled the air. My mom stood, still as a statue, the kitchen towel still in her hands. Finally, I pierced through the silence.

“Mom. Tell me the truth. My friend. He told me that I’m a Pernix. The final one.”

She finally turned around and the cold expression on her face scared me. When she spoke, her tone seemed to have changed. It became older, wiser.