Convulsion

✿ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴇɪɢʜᴛ ✿

Lily

The path has turned to cobblestone, and there are paths branching off the main road like before, leading to huge houses. In between those paths are colorful buildings, pretty much looking like they were stuffed into one small space and then practically stacked on top of one another. Each is a different color and is advertising different things with signs in the windows, gibberish written on them in different sizes. I'm assuming the colorful and misshapen buildings are stores because of the massive amount of people swarmed around the entrances.

The amount of people roaming around on this road makes this place feel like an outdoor mall, but we walk through them all anyway. The main tower of the Palace is straight ahead, and I have a clear view of it from where I'm standing. It feels strangely familiar, like I've seen it before. I stop noticing my surroundings when I hear a huge bang and a gasp from behind me.

I turn toward the sound, and I end up facing a woman nearest to my side. She's wearing a simple blue dress, well, simple compared to Perla's, but fancy enough to make me wish I was wearing something more interesting. Now that I'm paying more attention to the people around me, pretty much everyone is wearing pretty fancy clothes. As I stare at the woman who gasped at me her eyes widen and she moves her mouth, but no words come out.

She starts to back up, bumping into people but not seeming to notice. Each person she backs into starts to stare at me, gasping and whispering and pointing. A crowd starts gathering around us, staring and whispering. I stop walking. It doesn't take long for a large group of people to surround us, and Steve has to come and pull me in order to get me walking again. I guess this is what Perla meant by people staring. With every step we take forward the people in front of us take a step to the side, all while the people behind us follow. Soon there's not a soul left in our path. Every single person has moved out of the way so that we're surrounded. And everyone has a clear view of me.

"Smile, Lily," Gwen whispers urgently, coming to stand at my side. Really? This is when Perla expects me to smile? When everyone is whispering about me? I plaster a fake smile on my face, trying to look as happy as possible. I guess I should wave too, just like Perla expects me to do. When I wave to all the terrified looking people, I see a little kid at the front of the crowd wave back. It warms my heart to see the little kid wave back at me, but then his mother grabs his hand and pulls him deeper into the crowd, whispering to him in a way that looks like scolding.

My heart goes from warm to frozen in seconds and I turn away from the crowd, glancing at the tall palace looming in front of us. The blue and gold crystals are starting to intimidate me, the tinted white and pink towers and tall gates daunting. I need to distract myself from all these staring people and the shine of the glittery palace, but it's hard to do that as we walk. There's something off. The crowd around us. I can't see any teenagers. Anywhere. Young adults, adults, little kids, old people. No teenagers. I don't know why it stands out to me, but it does. It stands out like the weird palm trees do among the forest, like the castle stands out among the scattered mansions and stores. Just like I stand out among this magical species.

"What's wrong?" Gwen asks curiously, tilting her head at me as we continue on toward the castle. She actually sounds concerned. But the way her eyes move from me to the crowd suggest that it's not really me she's worried about. The crowd isn't just staring at me. Perla and the Guardians are getting quite a bit of attention too. What are these people so afraid of? Gwen looks at me again and I remember her question.

"Nothing," I reply with a sigh. Why bother them with me when they have other things to worry about? When I have other things to worry about too? But why worry about me at all? I'm missing something here. I have something to do with this all, but I'm not sure what.