A Court of Shifting Realities

Chapter Fourteen

Alright so I'm an awful Wattpad author and completely forgot to come back to this story... BUT here I am coming back now to finish it off with a bang...

Enjoy!

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I look around my apartment at all the canvases lining the walls and smile at the work I put into being where I am now. I made it into art school after graduating high school, getting a scholarship and being able to move away from my mother forever. 

Me, Lilly, Bev and Katelyn all moved into the same apartment in downtown New York City, and we all have our own lives we live before coming home at night to be a makeshift family that I have come to love more than anything.

Lilly and Bev both attend Julliard, which don't even get me started on how amazing that is. Lilly could play the cello and piano with her eyes closed and Bev has been offered lead roles on Broadway.

Katelyn attends NYU for journalism and is planning on working for New York Times. I don't know how I got so lucky with all my friends. We are all successful and have drive in our lives for something we are passionate about.

I attend New York Academy of Art and have been selling my art on the side for a year now. We are all sophomores now and just bought our first apartment together about a month ago. I hung all my paintings on the walls to liven the place up.

I walk around the apartment, home alone as the other three are at work still. I carry a glass of wine in my hand as I look at all my favorite paintings I haven't had the heart to sell. 

I do this quite often. Most nights actually. 

You see, it's not my fault though because once you experience something as life changing as visiting the inside of your favorite book series and getting to fall in love with your comfort character, that shit doesn't just go away. It stays with you, forever.

I stop in front of the canvas placed by the balcony doors and smile. It was my favorite for a reason, and I would stare at it every time I was in here. 

I became an artist for a reason. I was planning on going to Columbia University and getting an English degree to become an author. But I wanted to paint him. I wanted to paint him so well that it looked like I took a picture.

A picture of his dimple that formed only when he smiled deep enough and the shadows in the corner of his eyes and only went away when he was truly happy. The crinkles in the corner of his mouth when he looked stern and how the light caught in the black of his hair. 

I wipe a tear from my cheek and roll my eyes. It had been three years since I'd been to Velaris. It was time to move on. I was nineteen now I had a life and was about to be twenty in a few months. I needed to start being present in the real world instead of dreaming about being back there.

I walk away from the painting and walk into the kitchen to start dinner. Lilly, Bev and Katelyn get home within the hour, and we all sit in the kitchen together drinking and waiting for the chicken that I put in the oven. 

I walk into my room to change into a hoodie after Katelyn complained about it being too hot and turned up the AC. I'm pulling the hoodie over my head when I hear a crash in the living room and all three of my roommates screaming.

I pause, not knowing what to do. My phone is in the kitchen so I can't call 911 but if I go in there and there's a killer, I'll get killed too but I want to save my best friends if there's a killer, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO IM PANICING!

I slowly walk into the living room and freeze.

The three girls are standing, frozen in shock as they look in the hallway directly next to me. From where I'm standing, I can't see what they are looking at and my fear spikes as I see their wide eyes.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing because I feel like I'm having a mental break at the moment," says Lilly and Bev starts to nod her head over and over.

"We're seeing it. We are definitely seeing him," Katelyn replies.

"What is going on," I say, thinking that if it was a murderer, he would be killing them by now, so my confusion was getting worse by the minute.

They didn't reply all they did was point. And then he walked forward enough for me to see him. 

My knees almost gave out and I had to cover my mouth to stop the gasp, but nothing could stop the tears from streaming down my face.

Azriel was in my apartment, in the real world, looking at me after three years.

"Hello, mystery girl," his deep voice made a sob escape my throat and I had to go down to my knees so I wouldn't fall on my face.

He followed me down to the floor and lifted my chin up to meet his gaze. I couldn't believe he was here. He looked so big in my real-world apartment, and he had to keep his wings tucked so they didn't hit the walls.

"How- why- wha-" I couldn't get anything out as I looked up at him. 

"I came to get you, Winnie."