The Storm Ahead

three

The next Monday had a Gloomy Sunday sort of vibe, a drab day resting outside the kitchen window. I sat at the table, dragging a spoon through my Cheerios. My mind wasn't on the cereal, or the looks Leo was shooting me from across the table. My mind was on the strange pull over my mind when Aiden was around. It was a feeling I had never felt before, a kind of magnetism I couldn't decipher. It was like nothing I'd read about, or anything Mom had taught me.

"This isn't like you Caroline." Leo said finally. Sitting down his coffee cup. His eyes seemed guarded, a sight I hadn't seen in years. He was trying to hide how he felt, but his emotions seemed to be rolling off of him in waves. He was tense, and I could've sworn his jaw twitched. I had to convince myself he couldn't be angry. 

"Hm?" I questioned calmly, crunching my cereal. 

"You don't think about boys, you don't daydream about them. You're rational and reasonable. This girl you are when you're with him...I don't know her." I took a second to breathe when he finished, he had a sort of edge in his voice. 

"What are you even on about, Leo? I've seen him twice-"

"Once at your house!"

"At my lake actually."

"What if he isn't safe?"

"It's nothing Leo, I don't even know him." I said, my voice holding edge now too. I don't know Aiden. I know that. But neither does Leo. He has no right to assume things about him. He's my best friend and he's getting angry at me for talking to someone? What the hell is that about?

He seemed to realize that I was done with the conversation and sat back in his chair looking at me. 

"I need to go home," He said, and he stood quickly, almost knocking the seat over. 

"Leo.."

"I've got to go, Care."

This time I let him go. Whatever he was feeling needed to be worked out. He needed to cool off and he couldn't do that with me breathing down his neck. 

I stood up and put my bowl in the sink and was about to head upstairs when I heard the unmistakeable sound of my mom pacing. She paced like that when I was little, before Dad left. And later on, when the town had riots and fights. It passed quickly, but she could hardly rest when it was happening. Now as I walked towards her door, I could hear her talking. 

"What do you mean she's getting closer?" Her voice sounded panicked, a tone I couldn't remember ever hearing. "You promised me we'd be safe, you said she wouldn't be able to track Caroline."

My body went stiff. 

"She's just a kid, Alex. She doesn't know about our world...Don't start with me Alexander she is my daughter and-. I don't want to tell her until she's ready. What if she can't handle it? She doesn't stand a chance against Beatrice, you know that."

Beatrice, I know that name from somewhere.

"She was only a baby last time. A baby. What would she try to do to her now that she's almost a grown woman?"

I built up my courage and opened the door. My mother spun around and her eyes were wild with fear. When she saw me she dropped the phone, and my worst assumptions were realized. She did have a secret. She knew what the dreams were. I couldn't tell you how long I stood there. 

My legs shook violently as anger surged through my body, and the mere seconds that passed felt like agonizing ages. Any peace I had left in my body evaporated into the air around us and my rage stung my eyes and tightened my throat. Every peaceful memory of my mother dissipated in front of my very eyes, and the woman in front of me became nothing but a woman who had deceived me time after time, leaving me in a sense of confusion and chaos.