100 Years to Live (Completed)

Chapter 14 : Epiphany

It's not my fault Garret and Penelope went to see the sorcerers the other day. It's not my fault they all got into a big fight with lots of screaming and denying and accusing and confusing. It's not my fault Jonah, Sarah and Pete have one week to make the curing potion for a rare, deadly disease. It's not my fault Jonah called me to say "Thanks for warning me. Now I'm in even more trouble." It's not my fault he's so mad at me that he wouldn't speak to me at school yesterday.

Because it's not like I had anything to do with Jonah not coming to school two days ago. It's not like I called him or anything. It's not like I made this situation even more messier than it already was.

It's not my fault.

"Can you believe it? 17 victims of the disease already," Ethan said to me as we walked to our first period classes.

"And that's not counting any vampires that got it overnight," I pointed out.

Ethan shook his head, "If only those magical ones would hurry up with the cure already."

"I'm telling you, they didn't do it!"

"Noelle, you see how Natalie is. How can anyone but the sorcerers create a disease like that?"

"Maybe it's not as bad as we think it is," I tried to stay positive. "I mean, Jonah turned me orange once and nothing happened. Well, I was orange, but I'm fine—"

"He turned you orange?!" Ethan exclaimed.

Oh, I said too much. "…it was no big deal. The janitor almost caught us, and I was like 'turn me back Jonah!' and then he's like 'I forgot how' and then the janitor was turning the corner, and Jonah panicked so he stopped time, and it was really cool because everything stopped and it was just me and Jonah, and then he turned me back and unpaused time and everything worked out and—" I started rambling before Ethan interrupted me.

"He can stop time?!!" Ethan nearly exploded. "You never told me that!"

"He's a wizard. He can do stuff like that."

"Do you not see the danger? If he can stop time, then there is no telling what else he can do. Time travel?! Time travel is the greatest power to have. He can change fate. With a powerful wizard, the sorcerers are unstoppable. If taking you is what he wants, we can't protect you from him. No one can."

Now that he put it that way, I am a little freaked out.

"This is important information, it can change everything. We have to tell Garret and Penelope right away."

"Please don't tell Dad!" No, we can't let them know about this. I should never have said anything, it's irrelevant. There are bigger problems at hand. If they find out, they'll only have more evidence to hold against them. And it's because of me again.

Ethan was looking at me with a funny look and a sly grin on his face.

"What?"

"You said 'please don't tell Dad.' You called Garret your dad."

I opened my mouth to protest but no words came out.

"That means," Ethan continued, "you still think of him as your father, but you physically force yourself to call him Garret. You have to remember and tell yourself to use his name instead. But in urgent cases, when you don't have time to process what you say, then the truth blurts out."

I turned and walked away. "So what?"

"So why are you still calling him Garret? You've obviously forgiven him. It's been a year, Noelle. And you know your hurting him." Ethan has this way of speaking what's on your before you even figure it out yourself.