Of Shadows and Darkness

Chapter 16

I woke up late Monday morning, still exhausted and my body still sore. There was an emptiness inside me. I felt like a husk of a person. It was probably just me body adjusting to having an influx of magic and the magic being dragged out. I stayed in bed for an hour before getting up. Everything was normal but something didn't feel right. Maybe I wasn't right.

"Dear are you okay?" asked Gran.

I snapped back into attention. "Yes, yes. I'm fine."

"Really? You've been staring off into space for about ten minutes," said Gran placing a glass of juice in front of me.

I looked down at my bowl, my cereal was soaked all the way through. I ate it all but it was soggy and bland. I checked my email for the third time today but still nothing from Gregor. Gregor's parents had banned emails as well or Gregor didn't want to talk to me anymore.

I was listless. I floated like a jellyfish from the kitchen to my room and sat on my desk. I opened one of the drawers and took out square origami papers. I know Gregor's father and the fairy said my paper folding was gone but I wanted to confirm it for myself. I couldn't believe I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't want to believe.

I took an orange paper from the pile and held it in my hand. I stared at it for five minutes before I gathered the confidence to try. I folded it in half but it wasn't even. My heart sank. When I first started paper folding the animals I made were crushed, uneven and deformed but I slowly got better.

My hands were unsteady again. My folding was uneven again- I was back in square one. I unfolded it and folded it on the diagonal- again messy. I tried to fold a rabbit but I couldn't even remember what folds to do. I opened up Youtube on my laptop and watched a tutorial to fold a simple rabbit like I did years ago.

I watched the video over and over. I couldn't follow the steps, I couldn't even understand what was happening. It was like magic.

The paper I was using was crumpled and crushed after many failed attempts. It was so ugly I hated it. I threw it away, I couldn't even stand to look at it. Tears gathered in my eyes. Why was this so hard? Why was it impossible for me to do something so simple? All the time I had spent folding paper these past few years felt like a waste now.

I closed the video and moved to my bed. I watched cake decorating tutorials and choux pastry recipes on Youtube to distract myself from spiralling into a more miserable state. I checked my email again and still nothing from Gregor.

I messaged Claire, asking what she was up to and my Whatsapp was flooded with pictures of Alpacas from the farm she and her group of kids visited yesterday. She asked about yesterday and I told her the abridged version; everything up to the fire demon stealing the egg and everything after arriving at Gregor's place minus all the times we kissed. Claire would definitely get upset if I told her about all the dangerous situations I got myself into. She was already annoyed about how rude Gregor's family was to me.

"How much longer is your camp?" I asked her.

"It's a week more for the kids but the other counsellors and I are staying a couple more days to do admin stuff. Is something up?"

"Not really I just miss you," I send back.

I almost dropped my phone when she called me. I paused the tutorial on chocolate chip cookies and answered.

"Hello Claire, why'd you call?"

"Is something wrong?" she asked. It was strange hearing her voice after two weeks.

"What? I'm fine, I'm fine."

"You're not. I can hear it in your voice and... you never miss me when I'm away during summer."