Payback's A Nightmare | ✔

CHAPTER THE TENTH

"Get ready," Hywel told Evelina excitedly, grabbing her by the wrist suddenly and pulling her forcefully toward where Myst, Terrentia, and Gandalf were standing.

A little reluctantly, Evelina stopped trying to break free of his grasp and let him drag her toward the two people she was dreading the most right now. Her eyes darted around frantically, but unfortunately there were no other elves that she recognised on the grassy fields of Moonglade, where it was packed tightly with all the elves, gnomes, dwarves, goblins, and other intelligent creatures of the world—even ogres, which the elves had made up with after the defeat of the Neverseen.

But she wouldn't back down, she told herself firmly, lifting her head slightly in confidence and defiance, fixing a fearless stare upon Myst and Terrentia. She was proud that her strong façade didn't waver one bit.

Myst's face was unreadable as she regarded Evelina coolly, and Terrentia had a sort of pained expression plastered on her ice-pale face. Her teal eyes looked especially bright this time-maybe a little too bright to be just excitement.

Evelina ruthlessly squashed the urge to look away from them, and bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself going and not have a nervous breakdown.

Gandalf turned his head from girl to girl, glancing at the three of them both curiously and cautiously. It was a long silence before he decided to open up his mouth and speak. "Guys . . ." he began slowly, a little hesitantly too. "Why are you so . . .?"

He didn't have to finish the sentence for Evelina and the others to convey the full question. The truth was, they all knew the answer. But the problem was, nobody felt obliged to answer him. Or that was the case until Evelina resolved to take action too. She shrugged nonchalantly, but inside she was shaking with fury. To put up with the dramatic act, she raised her left arm slowly, pointing her trembling index finger at Myst. Evelina's lips parted to erupt with a shout that caused others around them to whip their heads to stare at them with startled expressions, "She was the one who exploded at me!"

Inwardly, she cringed at her childish words as she waited along the shocked silence for the others to react. Gandalf and Hywel glanced at each other secretly in confusion and indecision. Terrentia wrung her hands together nervously while Myst's pale pink lips just curved into a wide smug smirk that got onto Evelina's nerves.

"Kind of impossible because I'm still intact, but whatever." Myst shrugged her shoulders and flipped her shiny jet-black hair. A little stunned, Evelina took a second for her to realise what the joke meant.

Before she could reiterate, Hywel cut in smoothly. "Uh, guys?" he asked. "Can you please stop quarrelling? Today's the Celestial Festival—you should be happy! And Evelina and Myst, aren't you two the best of friends? Terre, you should be helping the both of them, not taking sides!"

A firm breeze blew around them, slowly growing into a strong wind, whipping Evelina's hair around and around, obscuring her view—it was as if it was taunting her for not being strong enough to handle a little fight with her friends.

"Oh come on, did you really think that my whole world revolves solely around Evelina?" snapped Myst, her words like razor-sharp daggers, hitting Evelina in the gut much harder than it should have. Then her voice softened as she looked at Evelina. So did the edges of her face as she twirled a strand of her hair around her finger mediocrely.

"Evelina, sometimes other people like me have to face my own problems too," she whispered into the shocked silence that followed.

Evelina swallowed, nervously tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her mouth opened to ask the questions that were whirling around like a windstorm inside her mind: What problems do you have? Does it have anything to do with me? If I caused you problems, I'm really sorry. And why didn't you tell me earlier? How can I help you?