A Heart's Thoughts

Day 6 - Part 2

Cecilia smirked as she saw Felicia's dumbfounded face, and she tried to quickly run away, but she saw shadows welling up around her, keeping her from moving any longer. When she turned around to look at her friend, Felicia had a dark expression on her face as she practically pushed Cecilia towards her with her shadows.

"Felicia? What are you doing? Let me go, I have to finish this in an hour and a half before it's too late!" Cecilia started feeling hot as anger rose within her the longer Felicia took to answer, and she started fighting against the shadows around her.

"You're not breaking in anywhere."

Felicia looked down and made a shadow wrap around Cecilia to stop her struggling, and if Cecilia hadn't known any better, she'd think Felicia was actually part of the Council's plans.

"Felicia stop acting so weird and let me go! I need to do this to uncover something important!"

"You are important, Cecilia! When will it get through your goddamn skull that you're also important?! I don't care what you're trying to uncover, I care about you!"

Cecilia's eyes widened in shock at Felicia's sudden outburst, but before she could say anything, Felicia spoke up again, "first it's Annabelle getting knocked out during a simple combat with someone she barely even knows, then it's Clover talking about powers not working and now you're actually being stupid enough by thinking you could just get in and out of the Council within an hour and a half without anyone noticing? Are you kidding me?!"

"Felicia, I-"

"No! I don't want to hear anything you have to say. You know I've always stood by your side and supported you, but I'm not going to stand idly by as my friend goes on a stupid suicide mission. Stop being so fucking ignorant and pay attention to yourself! Is this a game to you? Do you really despise this life so much?"

Cecilia gaped at her friend, who just let out a sigh after she finished talking and turned around, her back facing Cecilia.

After a while, Cecilia finally spoke up, "I'm sorry. I've been too focused on other things and lost sight of what's most important. I'll be more thoughtful from now on." Cecilia felt a lump forming in her throat as she spoke, thinking about the stress Felicia had been dealing with for her to have an outburst like that.

Felicia still didn't turn around as she spoke, but instead walked to one of the park benches outside her dormitory, pulling her shadows and Cecilia with her, until they were both seated.

"I'm going to keep you here like this until I feel it's safe to let you go."

Cecilia didn't protest, knowing it would only worsen the situation, so she just remained silent. It took quite some time, sitting in silence on that bench, before Cecilia felt the shadow wrapped around her lose their grip. She looked to her side and saw Felicia asleep, and she smiled to herself. She was going against nature, bending the shadows like that, which meant the shadows would eventually grow weaker when she doesn't pay attention to them, until the shadows are back to their original state.

Cecilia moved her arm a little, just enough to reach into her pocket and grab her phone. She was late. She quickly sent a text to Alec with her location, telling him to come to her since she couldn't move. Anthony had probably already arrived at their meeting location, so she only had to get out of Felicia's grip.

She let out a soft yelp when Alec suddenly appeared, shortly after she texted him, and she looked up.

"Can you teleport me to, eh, anywhere that's not in the grip of these shadows?"

Alec gave her a look, "should I ask questions?"

"No."

He shrugged and grabbed Cecilia's sleeve, and before she knew it, she stood at the other end of the pavement, across from Felicia and completely free of shadows. She turned to Alec and gave him a quick hug before running away, whisper-yelling a "thank you" as she moved. She knew she shouldn't run, couldn't run, but if Clover's vision earlier was right, she could be too late already.