I pushed my way through the frenzied creatures and finally reached Damian who was cursing worse than a sailor. “Just make sure they go through one at a time, and don’t go in yourself.” I barely heard him, but I think I got the gist. I pushed the Strays away from the portal and began grabbing the closest ones pulling them behind me into the portal. Once the crowd was thinned out, I dropped my guard and took a relieved breath. Damian took over, and I sat back and watched him work.
As I stood there, I felt a shiver run down my spine, and when I turned, I came face to face with a shriveled woman whose eyes were just black holes. A grin spread across her cracked lips exposing an empty mouth, and she grabbed onto my arm with her skeletal hands. “Damian!” Damian’s head whipped around, but as he ran over, the woman shot in the other direction pulling me behind her going towards the portal.
“Don’t let her drag you in!” I tried to dig my heels into the ground, but she was too strong. She bulldozed her way to the portal, and before I knew it, I was being pulled into the gate.
Once the blue light engulfed me, I was overcome with a calming warmth and every problem I thought I had were nothing but pieces of paper in the wind. As I seemed to float in the warmth, images flashed before my eyes like a personal movie.
The small girl with the jet black hair smiled up from her tea party her mother had set up and gave a blinding grin to the boy standing before her in a suit as if the tea was for him. “Is this for me, love?” The child’s blue eyes glistened as she motioned for her friend to sit at the small table way too small for him. He did as she wanted and sat in the miniature chair folding his legs close to him so he wouldn’t fall.
The girl held out a cup to him and he took it with a small smile, “Thank you.” She giggled and poured fake tea into both cups. For a brief moment, the boy’s green eyes showed a glimmer of sadness, “Listen, I can’t keep visiting you. You are much too old to need my company. You are going to school now, and I promise you will find other friends to hold these parties.”
The girl poked out her lower lip and gave the largest puppy-dog eyes I’ve ever seen. “But, Dami….! You said you were my friend! Do you not like me anymore?!” Shock filled his face and he put out his hands in surrender, “No, not at all! I enjoy your company very much! It’s just that you’re too old for an imaginary friend.”
Once they disappeared, a darker scene arose,
“She doesn’t need you anymore, Brother. She’s thirteen years old, she’s probably even forgotten about you just as mortals often do.” The boy from before was staring out a rain-soaked window, his once bright eyes dulled into a shadow of what they once were. “You’re probably right, Trent. The last I saw her, I broke her heart by leaving. It would just upset the balance if I appeared again.”
The blond boy called Trent, stood a full head taller than his brother. He placed a hand on his shoulder with a grim look, “Besides, what is it you expect? You are forbidden a Familiar, much less any other affection. You are much better to just forget the girl and move on with your life. You are young, you will learn.”
The black haired boy turned to the blond one with a foreboding look, “And if I slip?” The taller brother frowned causing creases between his strong brows, “Trust me, you won’t.”
As the last scene slipped away, I was grabbed by the back of the neck away from the comfortable warmth and into the heavy, damp forest clearing in the arms of an angry Damian. “Why can’t you follow the simplest of instructions?! Not only did you let her pull you in, you also nearly lost yourself to the Other Side!”
I looked at him sleepily and it felt as if my head weighed ten extra pounds, “You came back, Dami.” I felt darkness overcome me and I let myself drift to the safety that accompanied it. If it was dark and unknown, I wouldn’t have to face the reality of what my life really was….which meant facing the fact that I was dead and I had no life.
Damian looked down at her unconscious form with a forced scowl. As angry as he should have been, he couldn’t. She remembered their time together from her childhood, and it made his heart warm just a little. But that didn’t replace the fact that this was all wrong to begin with. It’s against the rules, and knowing Sara; his brothers, sisters, and probably even the Council would know about it soon enough. He pulled her into his arms and walked carefully back through the woods towards the house. A small smile formed on his lips and he wiped it away as the light from the windows pooled around them. “She’s not just a mortal, she didn’t forget.”
