Gift of the Goddess

Chapter 92 - The Mors Game

"So, all you have left is your Vision ability?" Valentina asked.

"Yup, all the other pages in my book were empty this morning," I replied.

I picked up my chocolate milk and took a glance at Val. She was still aggressively writing notes from her chemistry textbook down. She practically wrote the whole book down in it.

"That's pretty insane." She replied absentmindedly.

"Ya know Val, I don't have to bother you during my lunch break. We could just talk after school." I said and took a sip of my chocolate milk.

She immediately stopped writing and dropped her pencil. She turned around and shook her head.

"No! No! I wanted to see you- I mean I want to talk now. I swear." She insisted and gave me her full undivided attention.

"SSSSHHHH!" The old librarian hissed.

Which made Val sink into her seat.

"You sure? I know you need to study." I said.

She looked back at me and nodded.

"I can study after school, besides I'll be busy babysitting anyways. So I wanted to talk to you about everything. I heard about last night too, I wanted to know if you were alright?"

I smiled and nodded.

"I'm fine, really," I assured her.

"Really? You sure? Not just trying to be a big tough guy?"

"Yeah, actually." I took a breath and tried to think about it. "I think after the whole Jormungand event, I understand that I can't save everyone. It still hurts, but it's sadly just how life is. I just need to focus on being a positive influence on the world. If I stay focused on how better I can be, rather than my failures. I can do a whole lot more. But that doesn't mean forgetting the failures. Like last night, I came in naive. If I took it more seriously he maybe alive right now. So I'll take that, and I'll grow. So that doesn't happen again."

Her eyes grew wide, and Val just stared at me. I blinked a few times and the heat rushed to my cheeks.

"D-did I say something stupid? I'm sorry I rambled a bit and-" My word vomit stopped as Val grabbed my hand.

She held it gently and smiled at me.

"Stryder, I'm so proud of you." She mumbled. Her thumb ran over my hand a bit, and she averted her gaze from me. "I honestly really needed to hear that too. I've been letting the stress of college and exams really get to me. So thanks for that."

I squeezed her hand and she looked back up at me.

"Stuff with your cousin's mom going bad again?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"No, I've just been thinking of mom a lot. I want to show her that my life has meaning, ya know, that I was gonna be a huge success..." She trailed off and squeezed my hand.

"Take it from me, I think your mom would be happier if you were smiling every day. Rather than miserable with hundreds of dollars."

She nodded and then abruptly hugged me. I jumped a bit, but wrapped my arms around her. She buried her face into my chest and I just held onto her.

"Thanks." She whispered.

Then she let go and sat back.

"On a more...not depressing note. I think we should get you some Vigilante gear. I can text you some stuff you should buy with notes as to why today." She added.