The Clepsydra

Chapter 12.5

○ Aidan's point of view ○

I can see Elena's moment of elation when she's able to block my attack, but her pride is short lived when I begin to feel gravity doing a horrific thing to my balance. I tip forward, unable to stop myself after swinging my leg with the force I had...the laws of Physics are clearly not in my favor today.

We both fall ungraciously to the ground, Elena getting trapped beneath me as I crash towards her and pin her to the mats. It takes me a moment to come to grips with what has happened, but I quickly regain my senses and look down to see the damage I've bestowed on the girl beneath me.

Her eyes, like bright emeralds lighting up her tanned face, open and I see her mentally assessing what has just happened. "Ouch..." She mutters, her voice ringing through the following quiet while I ease myself up off her by lifting myself onto my hands.

Shit. What if I've broken something?

She feels frail, as if I could snap her bones if I wasn't careful. Her hair spreads around her head like some halo while strands stick to the beads of perspiration dotting her forehead. I have the sudden desire to brush some of it away where it falls into her eyes, but am then reminded of how totally creepy that would make me having almost killed her a few days ago. My hand twitches with my restrained effort to not carry out the intended action, but luckily my strength of will keeps it still.

My dad had been working hard with her all afternoon and I am worried that he has done a bit too much with it being only her first day. That's just the way my dad is though, presenting something blatantly without a sugar coating and not holding back with the difficulty of things. He would rather her know how hard this is going to be from the start rather than easing her into it.

I quickly scan her, looking for obvious injuries and feeling my constricted chest unwind slightly when my searching gaze comes up with nothing. My glance returns to her, her lips parting as she draws in a quick breath. I feel my chest tighten again at the sound, the imaginary cords around my ribcage twisting into a knot so tight and complex any boy scout would quake in his boots at the sight of it.

"You were right. I landed on my butt" She mutters out, her words whispered in the quiet enshrouding us. I chuckle, the sound scratching my throat at her commentary after the unfortunate incident I had caused. I look down at her, seeing her roll her eyes at me before I reply to her.

"I did warn you didn't I? You're not hurt anywhere right?"

She sighs, looking up at me with her brows furrowing together uncertainly. She narrows her eyes, looking past me above to the ceiling while she thinks about it. "Nope. Not that I can tell right now....my pride has been a bit bruised though"

I realize that I'm still hovering above her, and so make a move to get up without worsening our current state. For some odd reason, I feel a bit disappointed...my stomach experiencing a sinking feeling although by the sigh I hear escape her I think that she's glad to no longer be entrapped underneath me.

"Oh. Wrong time to enter the room...you guys should have put up a warning! Seriously, like parental guidance rating or something..." I spring to my feet, feeling heat crawl to my face as I see Clarisse standing at the entrance to the training arena with her one hand over her eyes.

I turn and stretch out my hand to help Elena up, but she's already risen to her feet and is brushing her hair back from her face. She looks down at the ground, clasping her hands at her sides and brushing away at any dust on her crumpled clothing after our collision. I can't see her reaction to Clarisse's entrance, but she doesn't seem fazed when she looks back up and clears her throat.

"Aidan just overbalance, Clarisse. On a positive note, I've gotten the blocking thing down to a tee" She glances between Clarisse and me before returning her gaze to the floor.

I sigh, instinctually running my hand through my hair before placing my hands on my hips. I look up across the room at my younger sister, her eyes dancing with some sort of cheeky light I know I should be concerned about. I feel myself scowl, my face heating up once again when she gives a barely heard giggle.

Clarisse shakes her head, shutting her eyes tightly and turning towards me with her naughty expression changing into one of minor sadness. Her face droops, her pallor paling from her usually life-filled tone while she tugs nervously on the bottom of the shirt she had changed into after sparring.

"I'm not sure if it was just a bit of a hallucination or problems with the mental reception, but mom is sending me bad vibes. I think something is wrong"

I turn and see that Elena has silently managed to join me at my side without me noticing. She looks over at Clarisse, her voice shaking slightly. "What's wrong, did you manage to glean what had happened?"

Clarisse opens her mouth to respond, but is disrupted by James walking down the stairs with heavy footsteps. He sticks his head in, all thoughts of the water he was supposed to fetch clearly forgotten like last month's news.

"I've just come off from a phone call with Evie. I think she might have had a run in today with some...unfortunate people." His voice sounds grave, his normally completely timbre voice shaking a bit towards the end, his sentence seeming to ebb away and getting swallowed in the silence which had consumed us all for a few breaths.

"She should be back soon. I'm going to wait for her upstairs...she wouldn't give any details over the phone." He mumbles out, looking back upstairs before sharing a glance with each of us.

"I'm sure we all want to join you" Elena says, her eyes icing over with an unnatural coldness I didn't expect from her.

I place my hand on the small of Elena's back, guiding her forward when her body completely stills at the declaration of the news. We make our way towards the stairs, the tension in the room climbing exponentially in such a short period of time as all of us think of what could have happened.

Our arrival at the ground level of the house is greeted by the slamming of a car door out front and we all eagerly walk to the front door in anticipation of finding out the events leading up to the dreaded phone call.

Clarisse's voice echoes in the dingy entrance hall, her voice ominously taking its place among the late afternoon shadows stretching their way down the floor and along the walls.

"She must be really pissed if she's slamming the door that hard"

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