My Sister's a Guardian (RotG Fanfiction)

Chapter 44: What Results from It All

Ranya ascended the stairs to the basement with stiff movements, her phone in one hand as if she'd been about to make a call.

"He's gone," she mumbled. "The Watcher."

My chest twisted and warped within, and tears coursed down my face. What was happening to Dad?

Plus, without him, Ranya was without a plan. And had less protection from the white mist.

My tears stopped, replaced by a heavier, emptier feeling. I sat in a pale chair at the dining table. Ranya marched up the stairs, and North and Tooth followed her. The other Guardians stood around me.

If only I could make myself fight Pitch. If I had only been brave enough, and defeated him before this all began, my family and Cathey would be safe, and people would still be alive. I wouldn't be a failure of a daughter to a mom who just wanted me to face my fears and rip her suffering out of her life.

I trod upstairs to my room, the three Guardians following, and pulled a tissue paper flower-making kit from the blue craft drawers next to my desk. The kit was extra large, with plenty of supplies. Sitting, I began to tremble. I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut. Opened it again. Still, I could not force the words out. I pressed my lips together.

Tears burned my eyes again. Even now, I couldn't force myself through my fear. If I made the Guardians leave the room, the Watcher could kidnap me. I glanced down at my palm.

Wiping tears away, I pulled colored paper and scissors from the cabinets, too, and opened the flower kit's pink box. I drew out the materials and unfurled the instructions. Slowly, following along with the latter's pictures and words, I folded some tissue paper into an accordion and trimmed it as best I could. When I finished, I twisted the pipe cleaner around the center, making certain it was tight enough, and spread the tissue into petals. I drew a butterfly on a blue piece of colored paper and cut it out. Then, fumbling a glue bottle out of the cabinet, I pasted the insect to the flower and set it aside.

I was going to do this out in the open, where the Guardians could see me, wasn't I? I opened my mouth again to try to tell them to leave, but the words died deep in my stomach.

So I closed my lips again and tried to focus my thoughts. If I wanted to live, I had to do this.

I began folding the next tissue paper blossom, then halted mid-motion. No, my mind told me, you can't think about the being of the white mist. It would put you in danger. Either you'd need to tell Ranya what you found, and she would love you more, or you'd have to face the mist being yourself. You can't do this.

All my thoughts fled from the image of the being of the white mist as if a single half-consideration would provoke the being's wrath. No matter how hard I tried to convince myself that forcing a vision wouldn't do anything in and of itself, my irrational fears locked that possibility up and swallowed the key.

I tried to cut the petals of the tissue paper flower. Yet, I couldn't even do that.

I would try to protect myself, then. Like figuring out the origin of my powers. That was safe; I wouldn't have to reveal it to anyone to help.

So as I was able to resume folding and cutting tissue paper blossoms, the three Guardians watching silently at my back, I tried my hardest to think about my powers.

Where had they come from? How could I get rid of them? Who was the first person to have even one?

I folded the blue tissue paper.

But my thoughts refocused on the dangers: What if Mother Nature didn't come? What if my symbol completed, and Pitch killed me? What was he doing to the people I loved?