Vampire Mates

23 - The Strange Happenings

“Or you could be good. Wasn’t that what you wanted when you left the palace? To bring goodness to all; you said it was your life’s goal to make that succeed. Xlinx that become bad are casted out forever, Cranelia. Do you want that? If you become goodness, we could bring light into Alfea. Bring light into your family.”

Cranelia’s eyes turned bright and she turned to the angel. “Goodness serves better,” she muttered as she reached out for the angel. The monster growled and yelled about the pros of being on their side, but Cranelia had already made up her mind. The angel took her hand and Cranelia floated. A burst of light spread from her, blinding me for a few seconds, before an older, wiser-looking Cranelia stood before me in a golden dress.

The young Cranelia was gone. This was the present Cranelia. She stared into my eyes.

“That was my years choosing between goodness and darkness. Goodness is always correct, Rose.” Cranelia whispered she opened her hand and a streak of bright light exploded. I shielded my eyes from the blinding light.

“Which one will you choose? Goodness or darkness? Your life as a Xlinx could be spent in two different ways. You choose. ”

“I-”

“You know where to find me.” I remembered the potion she had given me. The one that would make me go to her if ever I needed help.

“Time,” Cranelia said again, “I give you two weeks. If I don’t see you then…”

“I’ll be disappointed.”

Cranelia dissipated with a serene smile on her face, and suddenly, the ground shifted, and I began falling.

----

The next day, I was in a state of depression.

Good news was: my mind was finally not spinning around one stupid boy called Demetri Arch like a ditzy star-struck high school girl.

Bad news was: I couldn’t even sleep. My mind would be repeating the same mantra over and over again if I hadn’t busied myself with anything I could find: goodness or darkness? Goodness or darkness?!

I was mixing a broth, helping Gina in the kitchen. She was talking about something that had to do with not stopping the circulatory motions my hand was making repeatedly until the broth became gooey, but somehow I couldn’t concentrate. I was listening, but I was, well, multi-tasking.

While stirring the pot of broth, my head was yet again buzzing about, as busy as a bee, wondering what to choose:

Goodness or darkness?

Usually, if a person just asks you good or bad, you would just be like, good, duh? The good guys just always seem to win. Superman does. Batman does. Spiderman does.

But, for some reasons, I couldn’t wrap my head around being good.

You know how in some books, the good girl doesn’t want to be tied down to being just good or goody-two-shoes anymore? How she wants to make this ultimate change into being the badass girl or that popular and hot chick in school?

Yeah, that was how I felt, except I wanted to try and be… bad. Stand out. Finally show Demetri what I am capable of.

Yeah, it all goes back to square one, after all: Demetri Arch.

The name suddenly struck a bell.

Your brother, Demetrius Arch Spirit, the monster in the dream, not the projection or illusion that Cranelia had given me, had said to Cranelia.