Scattered Souls

Chapter 11 - Sleepless Nights

Thoughts of what the riddle could mean and whether Xypher was actually good or evil kept me up most of the night.

When I got to campus on Monday morning I was relieved to find that Alexa's skin had returned to normal again, just like Xypher had indicated.  Although it still bugged me that if he was capable of doing this to Alexa, then did that mean he was capable of doing much worse?

Alexa engulfed me in the biggest hug possible.

"Glad your skin's back to normal."

"Sorry, you had to endure that awful date." both of us said at the same time.

"It wasn't all that bad. The end was just a little weird."

"What was weird?" Scott asked, as he approached us.

"Her date with Jordan." Alexa beamed.

"Thought it was you and Jordan."

We filled Scott in as we made our way to our first class.

I decided to use our lunch break to do more research on the teapot and the riddle. Partly because I wanted to avoid Jordan(who was now creepily smiling at me quite often) and partly because I knew how important getting more information was. 

Xypher was hardly giving me much, or any information for that matter, it was obvious he was hiding something. But what was he hiding and why? How major could it be?

The riddle was still a bit of a dead end,  however I managed to discover that the musical teapot was exclusively produced upon request. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

I also discovered that the only way for a music box to play multiple tunes would be if it were custom designed for that purpose and this make was only designed to play one tune. So either I was losing my mind or there was actually something special about the teapot. I preferred the latter theory.

"Haven't heard from you all weekend." Jordan approached me just as I was leaving the library.

"Yeah, I've been busy with assignments."

"Thought you were avoiding me."

No shit Sherlock.

"I only agreed because of Alexa." and because I was secretly crushing on you until I realized how weird you really are, but he didn't have to know that.

"That's bullshit, Robyn. I've seen the way you look at me. With your heart eyes." he sounded really upset and he had inched himself significantly closer to me, leaving me feeling trapped between him and the library door.

Was this the result of his male ego being bruised?

"I'm going to be late for my next class." I figured changing the subject would help not provoke him any further.

Since when did he become such a creep?

I was still mildly traumatized by the occurrence when I got home. 

"What's the matter, love?" Xypher asked as I was sitting on my bed.

I immediately started filling him in. 

In a way Xypher was becoming a friend. The good part was that I could share all the details without holding anything back.

To my surprise, he seemed quite disturbed by the way Jordan reacted. He wasn't a proper gentleman in Xypher's opinion.

"I'm sure it was just his testosterone getting the better of him." I decided not to give it too much thought.

After dinner I decided to look for the locket again. However, I still didn't have much luck. 

I'd have to look for it at Gran's place when I got the chance. Xypher wasn't too pleased about that.

"Would you at least tell me why this locket is so important to you?"

"It's very significant."

"In what way?"

"Don't worry about that."

"Maybe knowing why it's so important might help speed up the process." I decided to mess with him.

"It's the key to everything."

"Oh my gosh." I groaned. "We've established that already. Can you at least be a little more specific?"

"It's the key to my freedom."

"Your freedom?" I didn't even try to hide my confusion.

"Yes, the locket is instrumental in freeing my soul from this teapot."

I half expected him to tell me this was all a joke, but the look on his face and the seriousness of his tone confirmed it wasn't.

"So your soul is trapped in this teapot? How long has it been?"

"I'm not sure exactly, since the early 1800s."

"That's about 200 years!" I exclaimed. "How did your soul get trapped in the teapot?"

"That's a story for another time."

I had so many questions for him, but it didn't seem like he was ready to be pushed any further.

"I'll go to Gran's place this weekend." I promised.  "It has to be there, since it's not here."

"Thank you." he gave me a genuine smile.

I stroked his cheek with my forefinger before I could stop myself.

The floating feeling was still there.

"Can you do that again?" he surprised me by asking.

I found myself repeating the process, no questions asked.

"So what are we doing about Jordan?" he randomly asked.

"What do you mean? There's nothing to do."

"You can't just let something like that slide. I can take care of it."

Did touching his cheek mess with his brain too?

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked.

"Also, I'm pretty sure Jordan is harmless." I decided to clear up that we weren't on the same page about this.

"Leave it to me." and he was gone.

Why was he hell bent on giving me sleepless nights? Now thoughts of how Xypher would be 'taking care' of my Jordan situation consumed my mind.