Inhale.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Exhale.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Inhale.
One. Two. Three—
"Uh, Shyla? Why's the door locked?" Clint spoke from the other side of the door to the hotel room.
"Go away for a while longer." I kept my eyes shut as I continued to meditate, needing more time to relax and stay calm and composed.
"We're back with food though."
"What's wrong, Shyla?" Levi asked. He and Clint both had gone out for food a while ago, leaving me to meditate in the hotel room. I sighed out and unlocked the door with my telepathy then opened it too.
"I was meditating."
"Where did you get that candle from?" Clint pointed to the blue candle I had lit on the little dressed in the room. Another blue candle was lit on the stand by me.
"A witch never tells her secrets." I leaned back against the headboard of the bed I was on.
"You should be getting ready." Levi said. "You'll take a lot longer than us."
"Can you tell them I died or something?"
"You've already chosen to do this, Shyla. You've gotta go through with it." Levi shook his head gently as he sat down on his bed and began to pull out his food from a bag.
Clint sat on the bed beside me and handed me my bag of diner food, but I put it aside. I didn't feel very hungry right now.
•*•*•
"So do I have to call you Julianna?" Clint asked me as Levi drove through Portland. We were making our way from our hotel room to the funeral home for the viewing. The actual service would be tomorrow at the church my parents were a part of.
"Yeah." I nodded my head lightly, eyes sticking to the buildings as we passed them. "I don't want them to know about Shyla Vexx."
"Don't be ashamed of who you are, Shy." Levi glanced over his shoulder to me.
"I'll keep that in mind, Ezekiel."
"Oh God." He let out a pained groan. "Zeke. Please."
"Zeke and Julianna." Clint smiled lightly from the passenger seat. "Why didn't you guys go back to those names?"
"It's not who we are anymore." I shrugged my shoulders. "Julie was someone far more innocent than me. She had no blood on her hands and a free conscious."
"There goes that drama queen." Levi chuckled.
We pulled into the funeral home and I took in a deep breath. Levi found a parking spot and turned half way in his seat to look back to me.
"So I told mom and dad that I had you with me and I'm sure they told Kate and Vince."
"How will I know what they look like?" My voice was just a whisper when I spoke. I was ten last time I saw them.
"I think you'll know. Come on."
Clint helped me out of the large truck and held an arm around my waist as we neared the funeral home. I wore a long black dress with a slit half way up the thigh. I loved dresses like that. And of course, I wore my usual jewelry. My silver hair was curled and I wore smokey eyeshadow.
Standing at the doorway of the funeral home were two people, one male and one female. The male had a buzz cut dark hair and a scruffy jaw and he wore a suit with a black and white striped tie. The woman had curly brunette hair and a modest short black dress. Tattoos covered the woman's arms and her chest.
"That's them, isn't it?" I asked Levi, never tearing my eyes away from them.
"I do believe so." He sighed gently.
The woman was the first to look in our direction and she smiled when she saw Levi, but then she saw me and her lips parted. I stopped walking, feeling my heart thump loudly in my ears. It suddenly felt like I was suffocating, like I couldn't breath and someone was sitting on my chest.
"I can't do this." I choked out, turning away and gasping for air. I closed my eyes as I felt dizzy, hoping the world would stop spinning.
"Shyla. Hey, Shy." Clint rubbed my shoulders comfortingly. "I'm right here, okay? Everything's okay."
"Is she okay?" Kate asked, her voice quivering like she was going to cry.
"This is just hard for her." Levi explained softly, his hand holding mine on the opposite side as Clint. "Do you need to sit down?"
I opened my eyes to see everything come back into focus slowly.
"Get her inside, guys." A masculine, deep voice spoke. It had to be Vince.
"Come on, baby." Clint pressed a kiss to my cheek, encouraging me to move as he turned me back around to the funeral home. I made it inside and to a chair, where I sat down and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
"Julie." Kate knelt down in front of me, but not too close. I let out a deep breath and finally looked up to meet her gaze. Her blue eyes watered as she watched me. "You're so beautiful. We missed you so much."
My vision blurred with tears but I didn't want to cry yet. I mean, I didn't want to cry in general, but I wanted to hold it off as long as possible.
Vince sat down in the chair beside me and chuckled softly, but it was strained.
"Mom always knew you were out there. They never gave up, you know."
"I'm so sorry." My voice cracked and I put my hands over my face. I didn't want to see them right now. I needed to be alone. I needed to be away from everyone.
"No, no, no, Julie. Don't be sorry." Kate rubbed my arm. "You've been through so much, so much we could never even comprehend."
Hearing her say those words made me panic for some reason and I stood up suddenly.
"I need to go." I slipped between Vince and Clint, but I didn't get very far when someone grabbed my wrist.
"Shyla." Clint said my name quietly, pulling me back to him. "It's okay."
"I need space." I shook my head. Though my heart was about to burst from my ribcage, I was speaking calmly and slowly. "They wouldn't understand. No one would."
"I do. I know what it feels like, Shy. They just missed you a lot."
My fingers gripped Clint's hand tightly and in doing so, I felt something weird on his hand, something like a ring. I looked down and saw that he was wearing the protection ring I gave him.
"You wear it." I murmured.
"Of course. I wear it all the time. You know that." Clint brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it gently. "Is anything wrong right now?"
"Just.... Just my heart." I shook my head gently, my eyes staying locked with his deep blue ones.
"Take deep breaths. Will that help?"
I began to take a few deep breaths and watched as Levi came over to us with Kate and Vince behind him.
"It's closed casket, but there are pictures out." Levi said. "Do you want to go look at the pictures?"
"I do." Clint replied, looking to my brother and sister. "I'm Clint."
"Vince. She's Kate." Vince shook his hand.
I moved with all four of them to the room that had the closed caskets and quite a bunch of other people. Immediately, the people began to see me and think I was the youngest Dalton girl who went missing all those years ago. Of course with it being family too, I couldn't just get by with saying I was just a look alike. I used my powers to change the minds of everyone who even thought of approaching me so that they wouldn't. I didn't need to go through that today. It was wrong of me to use my magic to do that to them, to family, but.... I just couldn't handle much more.
"Is that you, Shy—Julie?" Clint asked me, quickly correcting himself as he pointed to a picture. I moved closer to see he was looking at a picture from my tenth birthday, my last birthday before my life changed forever.
I was the only one in the picture with silver hair with a few black streaks.
"Yeah." I nodded my head softly, a light smile coming to my lips. "Guess who that dork is off to my left?"
"Zeke?" Clint guessed.
"Yep." I looked over to Levi. Our eyes met and he chuckled softly. My smile dwindled and an ache in my chest came forth.
Oh, how times have changed.
•*•*•
"What happened to you, Julie?" Kate asked quietly. We sat together outside of the funeral home, waiting for the last bit of family to leave. "Sixteen years and you show up out of the blue. Zeke said you two have been together for a while."
"We have." I nodded my head. "Everything is so much harder than you could even imagine, but we've been through it every step of the way. Together."
"That's how it always was with you two as kids. The little odd Dalton girl and the O'Connor boy were best friends." Kate smiled. "Do you love him?"
My eyes shifted to meet my big sister's and I nodded my head.
"Yes. But not in the way you're thinking."
"You have your eyes set on someone else." A little grin came to Kate's lips. "That man who came with you two. Clint."
My cheeks flushed and I couldn't help but laugh a little.
"He's my...." I trailed off.
"Boyfriend?" Kate filled in. I nodded my head shyly. I never had to really talk to someone like this and it was new. It was different. "I think he likes you. He kept watching you earlier when you and Vince were talking."
"He's a good man." I smiled gently at the thought of my Clint.
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