Recovery And Magic

7

The next day couldn't come fast enough. After lunch, I spent the rest of the days keeping my distance away from Ian and spending time in my room. Mary-Beth and Blane visited throughout the day to chat and check-in until darkness finally captured the room. I laid in my bed letting the night take me away from today. To lead me to a new day. One that hasn't been ruined by my hands yet.

My eyes snapped open as soon as new daylight crept in through the window. A new surge of energy weaved themselves around my legs. Making my body roll off the bed quickly and rush out of my room. I zoomed past the hallway. My feet nearly stumbling over themselves as I trampled down the stairs.

The living room had pulled itself in a blanket of the early morning light. It was weird seeing it almost empty. Ian wasn't there. That's probably for the best. Don't want him around while I'm at this meeting thing.

Niki was over by the card table putting it away with someone. He was a tall, roundish man with red pepper and salt hair growing from the side of his head. He had a limp as he shuffled the chairs around the circle. His flat, small hands had on a pair of brown gloves that looked worn and cracked. A gold ring tied around by a thin, black rope dangled around his neck as he limped around.

Okay. So, next thing you gotta do is walk up, say hi, and introduce yourself. Pretty easy. Everybody does it. It's second nature. Then that'll keep the ball rolling. You got this. Go!

My legs remained stiff and frozen. Unresponsive.

Alright. Just say hi then. That's also pretty easy. Just do that. No pressure.

Nothing. My vocal cords couldn't flex and contort themselves to form the words. My mouth went tight as my tongue hid underneath my teeth.

Well shit, this is gonna be harder than I thought. Yeah, just stand here. Watching them. Silent. Not looking creepy. Like you usually do, perfectly natural. Nothing wrong with this.

Niki finally looked up at me, the cold white eyes snapping away the painful silence. She flung a smile that clashed with the freezing gaze, waving me over.

I gave a half-hearted wave, giving the order to move. One long second passed. My legs restarted and moved over to her. Cool, I can still move my legs. Thanks for never letting me run or move when it's most important.

"Morning," Niki said.

"Hey," I mumbled, leaning slightly back. The back of my head had my instincts spidering into my ear. No need to run now.

"You're pretty early."

I just shrugged. " I get up pretty early anyway."

First lie to the group that's gonna help you get rid of your powers. Great start.

"Oh," Niki turned around and tapped on the roundish man's shoulder. "Jabel, this is the new girl."

The man looked up and gave a soft smile. His brown eyes had what looked like a wash of gray over the irises. My back wanted to lean further away but I forced my spine to stand straight up.

"Oh, so you're Meril?" He asked, putting out his hand. "I'm Jabel. Pleased to meet you."

I gently took his hand and shook it. Getting my arm back to my side as fast as possible. Alright, you got introductions out of the way. Great. Nothing to worry about now.

"Pleased to meet ya," I nodded.

"So I understand you didn't know about magic?" Jabel asked, putting out one of the folding chairs.

Except that.

"Um....yeah," I forced out, looking around the circle. "I didn't know anything about it until a few days ago."