Façade [Book 2] (Glamour Series)

20 | Crossing Fate

The darkness engulfed me for a long while, my back burrowed into the side of my bed's headboard, and silence blew a sinking whole across my ears.

The window at the end of my bed, adjacent to the hanging picture, gave way to foggy treetops. Wind distilled for a moment of peace, and the midnight sky burnt a crisp charcoal black. Not even the moon dared to peer out at this hour, hidden behind rolling grey clouds withholding the first fall of rain this winter.

You're waiting for him, aren't you? Joe materializes before me, on the couch at the end of my bed, his brown eyes quizzical and lips set straight. His arms cross over his chest, covering his baby-blue sweatshirt.

"Yes."

Do you think he will come?

"I do."

Joe's eyes squint at me, analyzing my facial expression. You seem to be in a daze.

My mind wasn't set to look at Joe, it just replayed the events from earlier over and over in my crazed mind.

Laurence. He was so bipolar: one minute he's ignoring me, then he's my hero, and the next thing I know he's bossing me around.

Then there was Oliver, with thick blonde hair now hanging passed his blue eyes. He wasn't a perfect man, with inner secrets to emit, but I don't care what past he contains. My roots to him grow deeper with each passing day, he's my only living friend left.

You like him. Joe states rather than questions, bringing my thoughts back to the present.

"He's my only friend." I retort defensively.

You killed the other one off, that's why. Joe mutters, referring to himself.

"Joe." I bring a solid gaze down on his cold corpse. "If you think that it was my fault that I killed you: I don't blame you. But, torturing me with it will do no good."

Joe's blank expression deadpans around my room: I don't see any other murders around here, do you? Oh wait-

He was doing this on purpose: haunting me. But why? Was it spite? Jealousy? Rage? I didn't have the answers, nor was I brave enough to ask them. My jaw clamped shut, and my ears stayed attentive to the hallway outside my room.

Two small knocks quivered around my large living space, and I bolted from my bed to get the door.

As I opened it, Oliver took a step back: a finger at his lips as if he were telling me to: be quiet. Closing the door behind me we rushed out of my room with stealthy haste.

*

In silence, I hugged my knees up to my chest. The large rock Oliver and I sit on is cold and rough, grinding it's brittled curves against our bottoms. Oliver's thumbnail lightly brushed against his bottom lip, over and over in thought.

The sea of air moistened across our faces, slaps of frozen particles swiping around uncovered skin till little bumps broke out. Every breath we took into our lungs morphed to foggy swirls when released to the small space guarded by trees. The rushing river around us formed into nothing more than a small creek. A calm overlapped Oliver and I, but this caused neither of us wanting to talk.

Until Oliver spoke up.

"Eris, I've been meaning to tell you something that I just don't know how to put it into words." He sighed, clearly struggling, "It's just so complicated."

My head nodded once: not wanting to push him for answers and not knowing what to say.

Oliver wasn't looking at me, instead, he stared off into the trees before us. He was sitting on my right, a halo of light outlining his nose, hair, and eyelashes. The water below reflected onto his neck and underside of his chin.

"Oliver?" I start after we sit in silence a while longer.

He acknowledged me with a glance my way, and a small "hmm?".

I let my knees drop and my back lies down to press itself to the moist surface below. A small laugh escaped my throat: "Never mind, I forgot what I was going to say."

Oliver lets out a huff, and smiles: "I've done that." He lies down too.

Silence again engulfs us.

The sky above was a black whole: an abyss of dark stormy clouds. We have been sitting and listening to the claps of the under roll over the hills in the distance, and now small white dots glimmer downward in the sky.

I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand, "Wow." The flakes of white all dance, twirl, tumble, and drop downward like flat pieces of decorative paper. My eyes glanced back and forth between each one, till I had to close my eyes when they sprinkled around my wavy mess of dirty blonde hair.

Oliver chuckles, "I love the snow."

"Me too." I comment.

"It's so delicate and pure."

"Purity comes from darkness." I whisper.

"What was that?" Oliver shifts so his left ear pressed to rock and his cheek squished under the large stones freezing temperatures. His eyes widen with curiosity, and a smile pecks at his lips.

"It's amazing something so beautiful as snow, can come from dark clouds like that." My finger points into the sky.

Oliver nods, his gaze following back up into the sky, his head resting to face the frigid dance of freshly falling snow.

"I wish I thought of bringing blankets." Oliver sighs.

"That's ok: I'll just make a small fire."

"Of course... I guess that'll work too." He seemed hesitant, almost as if he didn't want to commit to my idea.

We sit up at the same time, and situate to where our legs are in criss-crossed formation and our shoulders faced one another.

My lips were tightly shut, and with the snow coming down around us it would have been hard to find a negative energy to combine with the positive ones radiating from the earth. I would have to strip negative charges from the sky.

Holding my breath, through my concentration, I wait. As hard as this task is, nothing was happening.

Oliver stayed patient. That, or he was oblivious to my internal epiphany.

He would soon see I have no more control of my powers. Every day they became a little more suffocated by crashing water. And now: they had drowned.

Panic boiled in my stomach, and my heart pounded frantically within my chest. The lungs under my ribs shook in fear; my heart crying out for help. I was loosing all that made me whole, and my mouth couldn't help but keep it quiet all this time.

"Oliver." My voice was nothing more than a whisper. Green eyes open to meet his sleepy gaze. Purple led bags were forming under his eyes, but they were still listening and waiting for me to continue. "I can't."

His face skews, confusion and doubt setting in: "What do you-" his eyes flee from mine, staring behind me in surprised horror. His hands grasp my shoulders, dragging me forward, and we tumble into the muddy water below.

Straining to get a look at what Oliver had spotted, my body hunched over his, I fling my neck around to look behind us.

Terror settles in with sharp gnawing teeth, lapping his tongue at my throat.

"Eris, Eris, Eris... Tsk. You should run while you can... Prophet Girl."