The Wishing Well

Chapter 14

The next morning, Olivia left her bedroom to find that everything seemed strangely under control for once. Ian secured boards to the main window, and though this made the house darker than usual, there was also a vague feeling of safety. It might not save her from the bigger things walking around outside, but it would keep out the garden statues that were throwing around rocks; one less worry was enough for her to feel thankful.

"Sleep well?" he asked, from where he'd been dozing on one of the armchairs. She thought he looked rather bored.

"As well as I possibly can," Olivia told him, flashing a smile that she almost meant—a rare sight nowadays. "You can grab the books from the shelf, if you want."

Ian followed her gaze to the bookshelf that her mother had loaded, what seemed like months ago. "What's on there?"

Her smile widened a little. "Classics." She recalled the conversation with him in the bakery where he said he enjoyed classics the most. "Tons of them. My mom has some really old copies, too."

Ian returned the smile, looking intrigued. "Thanks. I'll take a look."

Olivia nodded and headed to the kitchen, where Averil was also up. "I got rid of the eggs," she announced, a little hesitantly. "I wouldn't have, but they were going bad. We're not going to have power for a while, and we can't boil them, either—"

"Don't worry about it," Olivia told her, grinning. "I'm just thankful that you did it so I didn't have to. Is Tess up?"

The other shook her head. "No...she's still sleeping. I don't think she had a good rest last night. I fell asleep first and she was sitting a the desk. She's not doing well?"

Olivia sat down at the kitchen table, feeling unease as the problems of the day started flooding back on her shoulders. Well, the rest was nice, brief as it might have been. "What's wrong with her?"

Averil sat down, too, and shrugged. "She won't say it, but she's just really depressed."

"I see." Olivia's gaze dropped to the table, where plates had been arranged even though there was no food on them. She smiled a little. "Thanks for that."

Averil shrugged. "I figured that we could eat some cookies or something. Save the food. And if the plates look nice, it'll seem like it's something bigger."

"That's a good idea," Olivia said smilingly. "Have you been to your house yet today?"

"No, but I was planning on it. We have snacks there so I thought I'd...donate." Averil got up and started digging through the pantry, probably for some cereal.

Ian came into the kitchen, holding some old green book that she didn't recognize. "I could do the same. There's tons of canned food in the basement at my place."

"Are the trees still there?" Olivia asked, playing with the tablecloth.

"Yeah," he said resentfully. "I went to check today. Nothing's any better than it was yesterday. We're still trapped inside, while almost everyone else is out."

"And did you get to talk to the other kids about choosing roommates?"

"I reminded the few that I passed, but not many of them were out. I guess they realized there was creepy stuff on the streets at night, and they thought it best to cower together after all."

"Well, good," Olivia replied, honestly pleased. "It wasn't that hard to remind them. I just hope nobody was hurt." The worst-case scenario started playing out in her mind—if they were already so aware of the dangers out, something ought to have happened.

"Me too," he muttered.

Averil came and dropped some half-full boxes of snacks onto the table. "That's the best I could find in there. Later, we can have cold soup over at Ian's place. Our new equivalent of a party."