When I Died

Chapter 31

Daisy yawns so I tell her to get some sleep. She settles down and I am wide awake so I stay up, playing with my new power. I shoot some water out of the pond and catch it in my mouth. My stomach growls and all I can think of is food. I do the trick again and am surprised when the water tastes different. Like a sweet strawberry. I think of blueberries and the next tastes like them. I then think of chicken with cranberry sauce and I taste the cranberries bursting on my tongue, but no chicken. So it only worked with fruit. I pull an empty container out of the pile of food and fill it with water. I imagine apple juice and I drink a partion of it and the sweetness envelops me. I put it down and look out at the trees all is silent. A branch crack from beside me and I spin around. A figure quickly hides behind a tree.

"Who's there?" I say. No answer. "Who's there!" I repeat. Juliet comes out from behind the tree, holding a dagger, with 4 others at her belt. Fear builds inside me.

"Go on then, kill me." I say.

"No. I owe you. 3, to be precise. You saved my life. I just wanted to apologize."

I raise my eyebrows.

"For what?"

"Everything. I'm a jerk. I should be dead. But I'm not. I killed other people so I could feel good. But it doesn't. After a while, you start to feel the guilt. It envelops you. You can't feel anything but guilt. When you are like that, you realize how much you have hurt other people."

"That all makes sense, but why now? Why did you suddenly snap into this feeling?"

She sighs sadly.

"Because of Soren. When he turned around and disobeyed the careers, I realized something. He turned around after killing Crunch and tried to stop me and Ditty. He even managed to talk some sense into Ditty. Her eyes had cleared and she had looked down at herself. She screamed and plunged the knife she had had in her hand, into her own heart. It was then when I looked down at ditty that something inside me snapped. Grief struck me and I realized how much I hated Ditty's death. I had looked up and Soren, dazed and all I remember is wobbly walking away."

"What about Percy?" I ask, my heart beating.

"He ran into the bushes as soon as Soren arrived and he...." He trailed of, letting the sentence hang in the air. "It was him. He was the one who shot the arrow. He was with that kid from 11."

Tyan! I had completely forgotten him!

"He didn't seem too keen on shooting the arrow though. He hesitated before he shot it and then when your water intercepted it, he looked really relieved. I don't think he wanted to kill me. Speaking of which, I see you've eai figured out what your necklace does."

I nod. "Yeah. Look at this."

I feel my necklace warm on my chest as I start to use my power. I form an arrow and a bow, then I make the bow shoot the arrow at Juliet's chest. When it touches her skin, it breaks and splashes all over her chest. She laughs and pretends that she's wounded. I laugh as well, and all of a sudden, I know I can trust her now.

"How about you? You know why yours does?" I ask, gesturing to her own necklace. She frowns sadly.

"No, and it's starting to bug me. It's so cold and it doesn't warm up." She sighs.

"It does when you use your power, we just have to find it."

She nods.

"Come on, lets have some apple juice." She raises her eyebrows in confusion and I laugh.

~~~

Bonnie doesn't take well to the news that Juliet is here at all.

"Don't you think she would have killed us already if she was lying?" I ask, as we are alone, collecting food the next day.