Her Curse...

12 ~ Nightshade | Edited

My cat is licking me rn-
I'm confused.
Does he like the taste of the raspberry tea bag I was just holding? Or is he as crazy as my family thinks he is?

     I couldn't believe it. After all this time, the answer was right under out noses! Though, I probably couldn't break the curse on my own, we could find out where my curse came from. Finally, I could go back to being normal! It seemed almost like it was a dream.
     "Pinch me." I piped up randomly after about half an hour of walking. "What?" Grey asked. "I need to make sure I'm not dreaming this." I replied. He chuckled, reaching over and pinching the skin of my forearm. I yelped, and he looked a little sorry.
     "Definitely not dreaming." I concluded, still grinning. "No, no you're not." Grey replied with a soft smile. As we walked, I rested my head on his shoulder. It still made me...giddy. The euphoria I felt when around him would take awhile to get used to. Maybe it was because I hadn't realized my feelings until I nearly drowned, and now I was appreciating my life much more than I had prior to that. Or maybe it was just because he was the most wonderful human being I'd ever met.
     Probably both. Gently, Grey squeezed my hand. "I don't feel worthy of being the one to break your curse...but I'll do it for you." He said softly. "Thank you." I replied happily. "This is random, but how did you and your friends meet?" I asked after another long silence.
     "Well, Zoe's my sister, and she met Naomi and Rachel in elementary school. I met Jackson in elementary school too, but after I met the both of them. Jackson and I met Zane in middle school, and then Naomi met Zane at a party. Rachel and Zoe met him shortly after." Grey explained.
    I smiled. "I met Lucas and Sora in school too. When I was on a walk in the forest, I saw Cardigan practicing her dance. Silk and Riddle are actually her sisters, they're triplets. And I met Riot when she came into town with the Cardigan a few years back." I said. "Silk, Riddle and Cardigan are triplets?" He asked in surprise. "Cardigan is the oldest, then Silk, then Riddle. But they are triplets, yes."
     "Huh. Well, that explains why they all look similar." Grey chuckled. "Yeah." I giggled softly. "Imagine if they all ended up in love with the same person." He used a hand to emphasize his reply, "chaos. Pure chaos."
      I started laughing, picking my head up off his shoulder. "Totally!" He started laughing too, "imagine though!"
      When we stopped laughing (somehow we were still able to keep walking), I brushed away the tears in the corners of my eyes. I really could imagine it: perky Silk, apathetic Riddle, and laid-back and determined Cardigan all in love with the same person. The question would be what kind of person would be able to charm the hearts of all of them?
     "I wonder if that would ever happen though." I said quietly. "Maybe. I mean, I never knew I'd ever meet anyone like you." He replied. "I never thought I'd ever meet the person who'd break my curse. And I never thought I'd be in love with him."
     Grey blushed a little bit, and stopped walking to hug me. It surprised me, being suddenly spun into his arms. But it was a pleasant surprise. When I pulled away, I smiled shyly. "I love you too, Hailey." He said. I hugged him tightly, but only for a second, before I gave him a bigger smile and began practically running to the edge of the forest. Tomorrow we would leave the forest and continue heading north to Callo.
     But tonight we would camp here, and then leave in the morning.

     Around ten minutes later, we had blankets once again on the ground, and jackets folded into makeshift pillows. "Dinner?" I asked, feeling a pang of sudden hunger. Grey chuckled, "Sure, Hailey. Do you want me to teach you how to make snares?" I nodded eagerly. "Okay. Well, when I first made them I was messing around. You know, 'fake it 'til you make it.' And I found one way that works really well..."

     And so I learned how to make snares and traps for rabbits. Mine were nowhere near as good as Grey's, but they got the job done, and rabbit was our dinner. "So good." I murmured, biting off the last of the roasted flesh from the rabbit's hind leg. Grey chuckled, looking up from his own half of the rabbit to watch me as I licked off my fingers. "You must really like rabbit."
     "It tastes different than the one we had the other day. Just a little bit." I admitted, watching as he looked down and finished his own meal. "So how does it taste different?" Grey asked after he finished. "I-I'm not sure. Maybe it's just a wolf thing. But the rabbit today was a little more...berry...y?" I said, confused. "Might be the wood we used for the fire, or what the rabbits last ate." He suggested.
     "Maybe." I took out one of the water bottles from my bag and doused the fire. "Here." Grey took a stick and dug a small hole into the ground, before using the stick to push the kindling and remnants of the fire into the hole, before covering it up again with earth. "Thanks." I replied, interested at his new way of cleaning up the fires so they didn't light anything.
      Then it occurred to me: I was breathing normally. "Grey! Grey, I'm breathing normally!" I said happily, thinking that maybe my curse was beginning to break, but then I noticed how my foot just barely touched the side of his leg. "Oh..." I murmured quietly, looking down. It was as if my whole personality had changed now that we were closer to breaking my curse. I had hope. Much more hope than I had even when I met him, because we were close to ridding me of this stupid curse.
     Grey gently placed a hand on my shoulder. "We'll make it." He said reassuringly. I moved towards him and hugged him, burying my face in his chest. "Yeah..." I whispered, believing him, as his arms wrapped around me and surrounded me in his warmth. Maybe I'd noticed it before, but his scent told of a kind person who cared for those around him and hated seeing anyone in pain. He also smelled a little like car exhaust and tar. 
     It was calming. "Goodnight." I said, leaning over to the side so I could fall on the blankets. Grey went with me, making a tiny sound in pain. At the sound, I whined like a concerned dog, but he gently moved his hand to my head. "I'm fine."
     "O-okay."
     "Goodnight Hailey. See you in the morning."
     "See you...in the morning..." It was as if the words had an effect on me, they made me instantly remember how tired I was and how good it would be to sleep, and so they made me almost instantly drowsy.

     It wasn't until I was in my dreams that I knew why.
     My parents had said the same thing to me every single time they tucked me under my covers in bed, or when they said goodnight to me. For 13 years. Even through all the fights we had, and all the times I got mad at them, they always said, "I love you. Goodnight Hailey. See you in the morning." The words were so associated with sleep that it must've been hardwired into me to fall asleep after I heard them from someone I trusted.
     Then I relived their death. Waking up to a crash and seeing something poking through my ceiling, the end of a branch. Running upstairs to check on my parents, and feeling the night air on my skin through the broken wood. Fitting my small body through the spaces between the building and the tree's limbs, careful not to slip on the leaves littering the ground. Getting into my parent's room, and seeing them both asleep, but with a heavy limb over them. Walking closer...seeing them not breathing...checking their pulse...to find their hearts weren't beating.
     Every detail was as fresh as the day it happened, unlike the memory when I remembered Naomi.
     "See you in the morning." They'd said that night. I never even got a chance to say goodbye.

     I awoke with a thin gasp, tears streaming down my face before I was aware of being back in reality. It was like a scar reopened, and I squirmed out of Grey's arms, moving away so I didn't wake him up with my shaking. I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hands, then with my fingers, and I even turned my head to wipe my eyes in my shoulder. But it was no use, the tears kept coming, and soon all the solutions I tried were soaking wet.
     My body shook with the force of my weeping, and I could barely breathe. God, I missed my parents. Did I cry this much when they died the first time? They were such good people. I-...I remembered my brush with death. Did I really choose Grey over the people who raised me? Now I felt like a traitor, like I abandoned my parents.
     A pained wail escaped my throat, sounding vaguely like the words "come back" but too far off to be totally comprehensible by any sane person. I pulled my knees to my chest, crossed my arms over the top of them, and buried my head in my arms. Before long, my arms and knees were wet, but I didn't care. I just missed my parents.
     Then a thought crossed my mind. Grey would get over me. Maybe I could see them again. The pocket knife in my bag was suddenly sounding good right about then. I reached for it, taking it out of the side pocket, when a hand stopped me.
     "I know what you're thinking. Don't do it."

Yes. I now have a character who thought about killing herself. Don't worry, she'll be fine! *doesn't sound too convincing*
She's also the first of many. I still have Arden. And possibly the children from Run For The Heavens. And Scarlett-
Yeah, I might not be okay-

But. I promise you. Next chapter is not the end of the book.

Edited. - 09.22.2020

Later.
~Nevira