( ✓ ) Evermore, Piper McLean¹

20. mother nature is evil

Iana's lips formed a thin line. "Did you see that before?"

The girl nodded as she kept swinging. "Yep, it was pretty cool."

"Really?" she beamed.

"Yeah. I can do something too." the girl mentioned, daringly jumping off her swing. The new girl landed on her feet and walked toward one of the flower bushes. "Watch."

Lifting her hand up, the girl focused on a single flower bud. After a few moments, the closed petals started to unravel and bloom into a full grown flower, tall and vibrant.

"Woah," Iana awed, going slack in her seat.

"Aeri! Come on, we gotta go!" a woman's voice from afar called.

The new girl perked her head up and yelled, "Coming!" she looked back at Iana with a sorry smile. "That's my aunt, she always wants to be on time but takes forever to finish her makeup."

Iana brought a hand over her mouth and giggled at her words. 

Slowly walking away from her, the girl waved a hand. "Well, bye, then!"

A grateful smile spread across Iana's face. "Bye!"

The memory was quick to disappear, and Iana found herself back in cabin 20. She stood in the middle of the main room, standing behind the front door. It was oddly quiet, inside and outside. No sound of swords clashing, now sounds of footsteps rushing. Only the sound of the wind gushing and rustling the trees outside.

I am in a dream, Iana concluded, because there was no way she could go from falling through the sky to reliving a nine year old memory to standing in her cabin all alone. Turning her head toward her cabin's mirror, she was taken aback by the shadow-like figure that stared back at her, the ones that had been haunting her for years.

A mix of emotions along the lines of frustration and worry took over her and without much thought, she took the potted plant closest to her, a violet flower that had been tampered with magic. How did Iana know? She didn't. She could just sense whenever something mystical was nearby.

"Don't do that, my dear." a woman's voice stopped her from throwing the potted plant. "I didn't risk getting caught by Zeus just to have you cutting my visit short."

Frozen, Iana stared at the figure in the mirror. What once was a spirit of sorts was replaced with a woman dressed in a dark robe, twin torches in her hands. Her face was carved like a Greek statue— pale, beautiful, and ageless. Her black hair tumbled down her back like waves, bringing out her sharp green eyes.

"Mom?"

"Well, who else?"

Getting over her initial shock, Iana placed the potted plant back on a shelf and stepped closer to the mirror. "Isn't Olympus closed? How are you in my dream?"

"First things first, I was never in your dream, okay?" Hecate offered her a playful smile. "Second, I don't do well with following orders, especially those from a god as irrational as Zeus. Now, I'm sure—"

"Am I going crazy?" she interrupted, a pool of anger bubbling in her stomach.

The goddesses face was unreadable. "You're asking the wrong questions to the wrong God, Iana."

"Then why have ghosts been following me since I was a kid?" Iana demanded, unable to hide how desperate she was for answers.

"They're not ghosts. They're your own creations."