Fowler School of Magic's

Figuring Things Out

She cried until she couldn't. Hugo and Rhiannon held her, patient as ever.

She felt Rhiannon run her fingers through her wet hair, still dirty from almost two months underground. Her skin crawled as she rubbed her sore wrists. The sun felt good on her skin but her skin hurt so bad. She slid her hands under her shirt, feeling her ribs and the bruises and cuts that painted her body. Her stomach growled as she wiped her eyes.

She looked up at Rhiannon then at Hugo, throwing her arms around them as her back screamed in protest. She winced and pulled away.

As much as she wanted to stay she knew Lane would kill them if he found out she wasn't waiting for him. She stood, kissing Rhiannon's forehead before she turned to enter the woods. She quickly realized she didn't know where she was.

"Where are we?" She asked quietly, turning back to them. Hugo wiped his eyes as Rhiannon smiled, "Rural Canada." Her hands shook, it was too good to be true. Too many dreams like this had taught her better than to believe it so easily. She wanted to though, she wanted so bad to open her eyes and have Rhiannon beside her.

"Let's get you home okay? Get you cleaned up and all that, okay?" She nodded and followed her back to a big red house, nearly three stories high. She followed her onto the porch with Hugo behind them.

She was still soaked and her hands were still handcuffed for some odd reason but she saw her people. Max, Nathan, Cash, Rin, Francine, and Raúl, all sitting at the table. They all stared at her a moment before shooting Rhiannon an odd look. She threw her arm around her, somehow hitting all the cuts on her back as she leaned into her.

"She's back guys. It's Calla."
"Are you sure?"
"Where was I?"
"I don't know, Pandora."

Her knees buckled and she waited for her eyes to open, to feel Lane slicing her open again and again and again. Rhiannon caught her easily. When she opened her eyes it was only her.

"Give me the keys Max."

They did after a short argument and Calla went to shower, she pulled Rhiannon with her. She never cared about her cuts and bruises or how her skin was stretched over her bones. She just kissed her in her dreams. She would run her fingers over her skin and then she would wake up and wait to go to sleep again.

She undressed with effort and heard Rhiannon gasp so forcefully she coughed. Calla turned around, halfway through unhooking her bra. Horror, she realized, she was horrified. "This isn't a dream, is it?" She shook her head, taking a step toward her, fingers brushing her shoulder. "I'm sorry." She shook her head and made her turn around. She touched her back carefully but Calla still winced. She didn't know how many cuts she had but they sure hurt like hell when Lane beat her into submission with his cane, painting her body green and yellow.

"What happened to Lane?" She asked, "How did we get out?"

Rhiannon washed her hair as she told her everything that had happened. Calla listened carefully, too dehydrated to cry. "Oh! And you told me you killed him with a deathwave or something? That'd about everything." Calla nodded, Lane was usually the cause of a deathwave. Death magic so powerful it killed everything near her. She couldn't control it and she couldn't remember killing Lane with it but it sounded like something she would do.

In the end they worked out where they would all go from here. Some of them had homes they couldn't or wouldn't go back to, Nathan, herself, Rhiannon, and Cash. Others had homes they could go back to but promised to visit, Rin, Francine, Max, and Raúl.

They would leave at the end of the month. For now they worked out where they would be living. They would stay in the rural part of Canada they'd arrived in but they didn't want to live in that house anymore. Too many bad memories.

While they worked that out over the following month, Calla focused on herself. She took walks with Rhiannon a lot, had late night conversations with Hugo, Francine, or Rin, found Max and Nathan making midnight snacks in the kitchen.

She'd found her family here.