The One Who Saved Us

Chapter 3

The night ended with Cayden and Conrad walking an exhausted Valencia to Conrad's house. Valencia hadn't said anything at all throughout the journey. Cayden found himself missing her impatience and questions. But he knew she was devastated and needed to be left alone.

'Maybe I will talk to Emily about her. She's a girl. She knows how to be with girls. Maybe she will help Val out' thought Cayden. His sister, Emily, was extremely friendly and got along with almost everyone. It was impossible to hate her.

Conrad was actually planning ahead. He decided to take care of the funeral arrangement and mentally changed his schedule to fit in magic lessons for Valencia. He also decided that if she were to live with him, she might as well have a wardrobe and prepared a mental note of that as well.

As they were all waking over to Conrad's house, Valencia spoke for the first time in a long while.

"Can we go back to my house? I want to collect everything that has been left from the fire."

Her voice was the epitome of exhaustion and sadness but it didn't move Conrad.

"No, we can do that tomorrow. Right now, you should get some sleep."

Valencia, usually passionate, always-up-for-an-argument person, shrugged and continued following him.

Once they arrived at the house, Conrad offered her some food. Valencia couldn't even think about eating. She let him show her to her room.

As she climbed into her bed, she felt as if something broke within her. Tears wetted her pillow. She couldn't stop herself from crying. She cried for hours, all through the night. Something in her refused to believe she didn't have any family left, but she knew she couldn't do anything about it. She had to accept it and that was the hardest part of it all.

By the time the sun rose up, she still had streaks of tears streaming down her face. She finally fell asleep and was tortured by what she would've called nightmares if they hadn't already taken place.

She imagined her parents screaming in agony as she was walking and having fun with some boy. Only if she had hurried down her way and not met him, she would have gotten to the house in time. In time to heal them or to at least burn with them. That wouldn't have hurt as much as she was hurting right now.

As the thoughts of jumping off a bridge or dying from anything, consumed her, she was suddenly reminded of her mother. She remembered how much her mother hated suicide as her sister had committed. Her mother was distraught after her sister's suicide and voiced her hate for the action. Valencia, at that time felt nothing but sympathy for both of them and found it hard to support her mother's opinion. She didn't understand why she too didn't hate it. She should have, because then, she wouldn't be thinking of it right now.

The only thought Valencia could find some comfort in was imagining her family standing by her or watching over her. She'd always believed that when someone died, the physical evidence of them existing had gone, but they were always there with you. And because of this, she didn't think her family would welcome her if she went to meet them by committing suicide.

They could be in heaven watching over you, and if heaven is not what one believed in, then they were just there; a ghost friend.

She had comforted her mother with this thought after her grandmother had passed away, but comforting herself with it felt impossible, as it meant her parents watched her break down so many times, not heal her little brother and prove to be useless in protecting him.

Not only that, she hadn't even helped the two strangers, who, for some reason, were so good to her. She guessed that they were only helping her out of sympathy. She had always found it hard to accept help. She wanted to be as independent as possible; and her parents had nurtured that.

As Valencia was reminiscing, she heard her phone ringing in the distance. Snapping back to the real world, she realized she didn't have her phone on her and that her phone was somewhere out of the room. She didn't remember taking it out and putting it somewhere but perhaps she had done that and now regretted it.

'Out of the room. That means a chance to come into contact with Conrad or Cayden.' She mentally groaned.

Valencia realized she wasn't ready for that. But then, the only person calling her in the morning would be her best friend. The same person who must have already heard the news about her house burning down and didn't know whether Valencia was alive or not.

Coming to this realization, Valencia got out of bed, used the bathroom and refreshed herself. She noticed her swollen eyes and almost didn't recognize herself.

As she splashed water on her face, flashes from last night and the nightmare appeared in her mind and the next thing she knew was her on the floor; hyperventilating, while tears flowed down her face.

After a few moments of pain and panic, she got up and decided to take a bath. Her mother always said baths would calm her down. Clear her mind. So Valencia stepped in and let herself relax.

She told herself that she couldn't have done anything to save them. That her family wouldn't blame her. They were loving people. They could never hate anyone. How would they hate her? But the questions seemed fruitless and they brought her no comfort.

Deciding against getting out of the room, she came out of the bathroom and was about to go and lie down on the bed when she saw a note on the bedside table. The writing on it was breathtaking.

It read, 'Valencia, this is Conrad. I know you are having a hard time but the only way to cope with death is to mourn and move on. Do not let yourself die from within as you live. That is the greatest of all losses. Eat and sleep. We shall talk more soon. Whenever you are ready.'

As soon as she was done reading the note, a tray with hot and steaming delicious food appeared on the table, startling her. As she stared at it, she was surprised by its amazing aroma.

But she couldn't bring herself to eat it. The thought of ingesting food made her feel nauseous. So she got back into bed and soon fell asleep, dreaming of talking to her best friend.

Conrad was busy making arrangements required for Valencia's family's funeral. It was then that he heard her phone ring.

He had taken her phone earlier to keep her existence a secret. If, as he suspected, the Pures had come to know of her being a witch and attacked her home because of that, then it was his duty to protect her at all costs.

He was well aware of the limits the Pures would cross to get rid of the supernaturals. What still puzzled him was the warlock helping them.

The Pures couldn't have threatened a warlock enough to get him to help them. Protection spells existed for a reason. There were millions of others as well. Various languages, slight variations here and there were the cause of their vast existence.

Being so old, he knew almost every spell out there. He was also responsible for creating many of them. Potions were his specialty as well. It would be quite often that another witch or warlock would come to his door seeking assistance.

Conrad has always been kind hearted and a bit naive in the beginning. He always assumed the best of everyone. This was taken advantage of many times. He had created a potion or two for conniving minds but soon learnt his lesson once he came face-to-face with their consequences.

Conrad's mother had been a potion seller once upon a time and had always told him that their job was to just make the potions and not to question why or for whom.

That advice had resulted in many tragic incidents, one of them which took her own life. From then onwards, Conrad had changed his ways and now only made potions which were either harmless or very useful. Nothing more, nothing less.

Done with arrangements for the funeral, he quickly conjured up a meal for Valencia and himself. He magicked Valencia's meal to her table. He knew to give her space and time. But he also didn't want her being alone for too long.

No good ever came out of roaming the darkness alone. A friendly face was always a necessity; a lesson he learnt from experience.

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