Equinox

ch9

I went home after my meeting with Orion. The bickering of my sisters had yet to cease from the time I left to the time I got back.

Selfish brats.

I surprised myself. I had never thought about my sisters in that manner before, although it was true.

They were selfish.

"Equinox, are you coming?" my mother called me from the kitchen. No doubt that she thought I was still in my bedroom.

"Yes, Mother," I piped up from right behind her, making her leap from the ground and clutch at her chest.

"Come on," she demanded regally.

Good to know that she won't stay frazzled long.

I walked over where my mother lead me. Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter were already standing in a circle with my father. I could feel the thick tension between my sisters suffocating what would normally have been a babble of excitement.

What happened?

"Equinox, grab my hand." My father nodded his head in my direction, smiling widely. He was proud like any normal father would be when their daughters get married or find something that they love to do.

Except we weren't normal, and we weren't going to go off and get married or anything as simple as that. We were going to have something that we controlled for the rest of our time.

I couldn't think "lives" because that wasn't true. The word "lives" relates to dying at some point. Dying is part of life.

We were immortal. My whole family was. My sisters and I "aged" until we hit eighteen, but we weren't born as babies. We were born as we were then, as we are now--as people who looked like adults. "Eighteenth birthday" marks the day we sprang from our parents' thoughts, and marks as many years that we had been walking around on Earth, but it didn't mark the day if our adulthood.

We had always been adults.

I sighed to myself and grabbed my father's hand. I had always loved the feeling of the warmness of his skin against mine. It was comforting.

Now, it was not. It was terrifying.

My father and mother grabbed our hands as we formed a circle. My sisters were still not speaking, which was really starting to bug me. I had never seen them so silent.

In the second that we transported from our home to the cave place, I could feel my new power reach out, trying to grab hold of something. It was like it was trying to take over.

It was terrifying.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something--someone. His fingertips were barely touching Summer's shoulder and he was trying his best to hang on.

It looked like Orion.

With a jolt, my feet touched the solid ground. My heart thudded shift my chest as I frantically looked around, trying to see him--to see Orion.

He can't be here.

"What's wrong, Ox?" asked Winter.

I whirled around to face her and froze. Her normally icy blue eyes were a milky white color. The black part was still there, it was just overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the blinding white.

My mouth dropped open slightly. I jerked my head to the side to see if my other sisters had the same thing happen to them.

They did.

Which meant that I did too.

Suddenly, a thought hit me. Why am I the only one that's not calm?

My sisters were very calm in comparison to how they normally were. They all stood still in a line like they were hypnotized. I backed away slowly.

"Equinox," my mother said gently. I looked at her, alarmed.

"Would you like to go first?"

The dreaded question. I knew my answer right away.

"Spring should go. She's the technical 'eldest.' "

My mother smiled. "Spring, dear," she called.

Almost as if she were under a spell, Spring walked up to my mother.

"Stick your hand in the bowl, dear."

Those seven words were spoken softly by my father. Both of my parents looked proud, bursting at the seams with excitement they couldn't contain.

Spring did as they said. Immediately, a breeze picked up in the cavern, even thought there were no exits that I could see. The wind caressed Spring gently and lifted her into the air. Her palms turned face up and her eyes opened, revealing her bright green irises.

Just as soon as she was lifted up, she was put down.

A loud voice echoed throughout the cave, coming from neither my mother or father. "What did you choose?"

Springs response came out proudly. "I want to be what people feel. I want to control the flowers blooming, the bees dancing in the air. This is what the year will be like."

That erupted a series of shouts from the rest of my sisters. They were angry. Very angry. Then it dawned on me.

That's what they were fighting about. That's what they couldn't agree on.

Spring just started a war.

The next few moments went by quickly, although they felt like slow motion. My three remaining sisters ran toward the bowl and stuck their hands in at the same time. They shouted want they would do, each of them trying to be the one that overrode the other's choice.

Then, a fight. The power that they had inside of them was too much. It came out their fingertips and hands, out their eyes and mouth. They punched and kicked at each other, trying to stop one another.

Then, one of their stray blasts of power came hurling towards me. I saw it coming, the glowing electricity of the thing getting closer and closer.

I couldn't move. If it hit me, I was sure I'd be dead.

So I closed my eyes, waiting for impact.

Which never came.

Very slowly, I cracked open one of my eyes. Someone stood in front of me, arms out to the side. The blonde hair of the boy was lightly blown about by
the wind from my sisters. He balanced on one leg, the other ending just below his knee.

Then he fell. He collapsed to the ground, clutching at his chest where the bolt had hit him. There was no blood. No noticeable external injuries.

Just the fact that he was hit with a powerful blast of magic.

I knew who it was before I looked down. Before I fell next to him and caressed his soft cheek.

"Orion."