Nightfall

four

   Without giving them much room to calm her down, Elara left the spell room and headed for the front door. She did not realize that she was nowhere near her car; there it sat in the driveway along with two others. She grabbed her keys from her coat pocket and gunned it home. Her mind was racing as she shut herself in. Windows and doors locked, curtains drawn, lights dimmed.

   I don't want anything to do with this... Why me? Elara didn't ask for any of this to happen to her. Yet, it wasn't what she did that brought this to her. The night had already begun, and she found it hard to fall asleep, let alone get any sleep that night. The shadows lingered in her dreams, turning them into nightmares and constantly waking her up panicked.

This went on for a few days.

   Elara forgot that her parents were to return from their trip. As expected, Elara's parents came home in the middle of the week. Elara had been tucked into the corner of the couch reading, the fireplace keeping her warm on that particularly chilly evening. Though, a book could not do the one thing it usually did by taking her mind off of what she was currently fixated on. Her mom started moving around the kitchen, fixing up a light snack as though she wasn't tired from a business trip.

   "So, mija, how was school while we were away? Anything new?"

   "It was all right," the debate has been ongoing in Elara's head if she should mention her new friend.

   "And your therapy session? It was last week, right?" This was her mother's way of lightly bringing it into the conversation, though Elara guessed it had to do with their consistent business traveling.

   "Mhm," Elara tapped her fingers quietly on the counter. "She played new music this time."

   She had only thought about the last appointment she had since the one that would've been last week had been rescheduled. Her mom gave a soft sigh through her nose, knowing that meant she still had yet to make progress on breaking her shell. Though she never reprimanded her daughter for it, knowing that it was up to Elara to move past it. She put on her smile again and said, "There's always next time."

   Her parents went to bed before she did. The tiredness from the trip back had finally caught up with her mom while her dad had barely kept his eyes open. He was dozing off on the couch next to her as they talked briefly. It was then as they went to their room that she wondered if her parents knew about the secret that lies with Arcano Valley.

   The school days that followed weren't exactly any different from her behavior before hanging out with Bennett. Once she arrived at school, she slid along the walls to avoid the foot traffic of the early morning crowds. In the class she had with Bennett, she hardly ever looked his way because she couldn't bear to look at him. All this time he knew. And she didn't. She refused to see him at lunch either. Instead, she sat in the bathroom stalls eating her food by herself. At least he couldn't walk up to her there. Not without serious repercussions. However, lunch left a terrible taste in her mouth, too, on top of an already knotted and twisted feeling in her stomach.

   Nothing had taken her mind off of what she now knew in comparison to everyone else. She began wondering who else at school knew. Who else had been keeping the same secret that Bennett had? At night, it wasn't any better. Elara couldn't sleep for more than an hour. It was terribly miserable, and the lack of sleep was slowly catching up with her. The nightmares she once had grown into vague and haunting hallucinations about shadowy creatures roaming the streets. Elara would flinch at every flickering light.

   There was nothing she could do to hide her troubles. Her parents started to catch on despite being hard at work. They couldn't ignore what was happening with their daughter.