Piper's POV:
In the shadows of the Orphanage I could see Rodney. He was talking to someone who's voice I didn't recognize.
"So.. out of the twenty kids who live here, you're telling me you befriended the demon child." The other guy with him spoke, he sounded the same age as Rodney.
"Don't call her that." Rodney scolded him. "Her name is Demi. Or at least, it is until she tells me her real name."
"And where is she exactly?"
"Hello." Both of them jumped at the sound of younger-me's voice.
"Gah! HI THERE." The guy stared at her. I couldn't get a good look at him from the shadows, but I could tell his eyes were wide.
"That's not it." Rodney grinned. "C'mon Demi, light those eyes up."
"Rod what're you-" He was cut off by younger-me letting her eyes glow for a little.
"Holy.." The kid took in a sharp breath before turning back to Rodney. "You weren't kidding with the 'demon child' thing."
"You know, I could-" Rodney was cut off by a loud voice.
"WHERE IS SHE?" It boomed throughout the Orphanage and the two boys gulped. Even my younger self- who seemed unfazed by anything at this stage -widened her eyes a fraction.
"Shoot! Rosalyn.." The kid muttered.
"You gotta get out of here. She catches you and both of us are goners." Rodney started pushing the guy towards the window. He nodded,
"I should get back anyway, I've been gone too long." He looked back at Rodney and me one last time. "Rod, try not to get yourself killed." Rodney chuckled at that remark. The kid then turned to younger me. "And Demi, if you really are a demon, do me a favor and haunt Rodrick, alright? Or at least banshee scream Rosalyn into oblivion, for me?" He waited for a reaction, possibly a laugh.
"Dude, I've been trying to tell ya', she doesn't exactly-" Rodney was cut off by a small breath being let out if younger-me, like a tiny snicker. A very small smile traced her lips and she gave the kid a firm nod. The kid grinned suddenly and stared to open the window. When moonlight filled the hall, I could final see his face. A mop of messy brown hair lay on his head, jade green cat-like eyes sparkling with mischief.
I walked over to the window to see he was on the fourth floor. The kid went down so he was hanging from the window frame before dropping down to grab another window. He did that until he was at the second floor before jumping off. As he landed with a roll, the kid jumped up and grinned, scarf fluttering in the wind.
"Good luck!" He called before running off into the village.
"There you are." We turned around to see a tall, old woman. Her black hair was in a tight bun and her dark purple eyes glared at us. She wore and old fashioned black dress and stormed out way.
I flinched as she walked right through me. It was the woman I loathed more than anything,
Rosalyn.
"You little maggot," She grabbed a fistful of younger-me's hair and began yanking me down the hall.
"Hey, you can't do that!" Rodney objected, running after her and I followed. "She's been here for three days, she hasn't done anything!"
"Tell that to the food missing from the pantry." Rosalyn growled. "It's gone, all of it. Don't lie you wretched creature, I know you took it. You're a thief and a slob." She tugged harsher on younger-me's hair. "There are eye-witness'."
"Rodrick? You can't trust that prick! He and his friends are evil, they're the only 'wretched creatures' in this place." Rodney snapped at her once again.
"Hold your younger boy. If I hear that tone again I won't hesitate to leave you on the streets." The old hag threatened.
"Sign me up! It'd be better than living here, that's for sure-"
SMACK.
I froze as I saw a red handprint on the side of Rodney's face. Rosalyn tightened her grip on younger-me's hair even more- if that was possible -and picked up Rodney by his collar.
"Listen here you runt, when I tell you something, you do it. Snap at me again and you'll be lucky if you're precious friend is breathing come morning." Rodney gave Rosalyn what I think might've been the fiercest glare I had ever seen. He spat at her face and she threw him, causing the boy to slam against a wall.
My younger self stared at the now bleeding Rodney and her eyes started to glow again, although it was covered by her hair. The cloth holding it up at slipped out of its knot. She stamped on Rosalyn's foot and bit her hand.
"Ah!" The witch hissed and scowled at the child. "You little bi-" Younger-me started to run for Rodney, but Rodrick stepped out of nowhere and grabbed her by the back of her sweater. Two of his minions grabbed her thrashing arms and another held down her legs.
But not before getting kicked where the sun don't shine.
Score- Little Piper: 1 Rodrick: 0
"I say you toss her in the closet." Rodrick sneered and younger-me dug her nails into his wrist. "She took all the food-" He cut himself off and grunted, "She.. Deserved be starved 'till morning. And if you don't somehow lose the keys overnight, that'll just be her luck, won't it?" His word's seemed.. tight. Like he was having trouble getting them out.
He's the reason I got locked in the closet?
... Little Piper: 1 Rodrick: 1
Rosalyn grinned maliciously.
"Perfect, give me the girl." Rodrick and his goons dropped younger-me before pushing her forward. She stumbled but caught herself before she could fall. Rosalyn didn't seem to like that as she grabbed the back of my sweater again, yanking her off her feet.
The hag dragged younger-me down the hall to the closet. Rodney watched with a pained expression.
"Demi..." He muttered. Rodrick laughed with his friends while Rodney shakily got to his feet.
"You know," He started, wiping the blood pouring out from his nose. It was probably broken. "One, Rodrick, you're gonna wake up and realize just how horrible a person you are. You'll realize brothers or not, I despise you. And you'll figure out, there ain't nothing that will change that. Get a life, Rodrick." Rodney spat at him.
"Unlike you, I actually have one." Rodrick smirked. Rodney chuckled darkly, surprising all of them.
"Then why are you wasting it?" And with that, Rodney limped down the hall, in the direction younger-me was dragged off. He shoved Rodrick aside and for once, his brother was left speechless.
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When I woke up something had yanked me back. I fell on my back and was dragged away from the lookout, making me realized I had slept sitting up.
Merl groaned and sat up, cracking his neck. I looked up to see Eli glaring down at us.
"Are you two crazy?!" He scolded is and he pulled us into the attic more. I pushed him off me and lanced at the window. The storm had just gotten worse during the night, now the wind was letting the rain come in the attic at full force.
"It's bad enough that there's a goddamn lightening storm going on out there, but you two were just sleeping in the middle of it!" Eli was actually mad, I don't know if I had seen him this mad before.
"Woah, dude, calm down." Merlin gestured him to relax with his hands but it didn't work.
"How can I?!" He glared at him. "What if you two got stuck?"
"Inside? Unlikely." I shook my head.
"It was unlikely that Echo would be standing right next to it and then burn her hand. It was unlikely that you would get hit by actual lightening on a freaking horse! It's unlikely that the two of you will get hit from there, but that hasn't stopped anything happening before!" Eli clenched his jaw as his fists tightened.
"Uh, Eli?"
"The last thing I need is for it to get Donnie-"
"Eli."
"And I am not letting my family be killed by some stupid weather-"
"Eli!"
"WHAT MERLIN?" He turned to Merl, as did I, and the wizard pointed outside.
"The storm stopped."
With those three words my eyes widened. I rushed to lean over the edge and, sure enough, it had stopped. It was too sudden, a full blown storm like that would have slowly lessened, it wouldn't have been this abrupt.
"Wait.." I turned back to Eli. "Eli, focus on the storm, think about it raining again." He narrowed his eyes at me but obliged, glaring at the grass outside. After a minute of two of nothing happening I sighed.
"Damn, it didn't work.."
"No way," Merlin started chuckling. "You wanted to see if this doof could make a storm?" He burst into another fit of laughter and doubled over. Eli grumbled and glared at him.
"Honestly, he-" Before we could blink, Merlin was soaking wet. Raindrops were pouring down on him, and I followed them to see a small dark cloud above his head. Merl stepped to the left, the cloud floated to the left. Merl ducked, it swooped down. Merl tried to swipe at it, it flew above and out of his reach. Eventually he started running circles in the attic.
"OKAY, OKAY, I'm sorry! You're not a doof, you're great! JUST GET RID OF THIS THING!" He cried out as I laughed. Eli stared dumbfounded at the scene.
"Looks like the powers split after all." I chuckled causing Eli to glance at me. "Echo may have gotten to spawn things in, but you get something else."
"Control of the weather." And for the first time since I had woken up, Eli grinned. With a flick of his wrist, the cloud disappeared, leaving behind a soaking wet, shivering Merlin.
"E-Eli." His teeth chattered as he reached for his staff. "I'm g-gonna get you f-for that." Eli darted down the ladder before he had the chance and Merlin followed.
'Do you think they'll be able to come up with a good excuse when the residents asked what happened to him?'
I sighed and shook my head.
'They're the boys, of course they won't. We better go after them.'
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Micha's POV:
Ace banged her fist on the door in front of us and it swinger open.
"What?" Kitty stood there glaring at us.
"We want to plan a Christmas party." Ace announced, causing her eyes to narrow.
"Christmas is months away." She reminded us.
"Pi-" Ace cleared her throat, faking a cough. "Shane has never celebrated Christmas."
"So?" Kitty raised a brow. "Lots of people don't celebrate Christmas. Some of them even have different things. Ever heard of Hanukah?" She tried to close the door but Ace stuck her foot out before she could.
"No, I mean she's never even heard of Christmas. She didn't know the thing exists, or even what happens on it." That got Kitty's attention.
"How? Everyone has at least heard of it."
"Not her," Donnie shook her head.
"We grew up in the middle of a forest with two guys who were best friends. They didn't know much about the villagers and their life, so we never celebrated or heard of any holidays." I explained. "Well, except for Halloween."
After a moment of thought, Kitty glanced up at us, biting her lip.
"And you need someone to plan this party?"
We nodded.
With a sigh, she opened the door.
"Fine, I'll do it." She walked back in leaving the door open and we took that as a sign to follow. There were only two beds, both on the back corners of the room. A girl with dark brown hair that almost looked dark grey sat on one bed. Her ocean blue eyes darted side to side as they took in every word from the book in her hands.
It was a plain blue hard cover, the title and author name stitched in gold onto the leather front,
A Sapphire's Twist
Dobbs Vanderwit
But what stood out most was the front part of her hair.
The front part of her was back, as she had her curly hair in a ponytail, but it was white. Looking closer I realized it wasn't the only thing. Even her eyelashes were like that, they were half black- half white. A perfect split down the center.
Donnie stared at it in fascination band she put down her book sighing.
"It's Poliosis," She explained. "Got it from my dad."
"It's gorgeous!" Donnie beamed with a little jump. "I'm Donnie!" The girl chuckled and nodded at the three of us.
"Pepper," She introduced.
"Shane's never heard of Christmas, so they wanna grow a bash in this joint." Kitty strides over to her shelf a picked up a journal.
"Wait, a party!" A grin grew o. pepper's face and she swung her legs over the cot, getting up. "Oh, Oakland's gotta make the food! And I'll decorate the place, ooh! And Sadei can make flow- uh.." Pepper's eyes widened and she gulped.
"And Sadei can make a what?" Kitty furrowed her brows at her.
"I meant, Sadei better make sure he, Kennedy and Caz don't mess anything up! Heh.." She turned away and breathed in relief.
"I almost told her about the flower crowns.." She muttered under her breath, which I picked up with my enhanced hearing. It was out of earshot for the others though.
"Alright!" Kitty clapped her hands together. "You three, out. I love got planning to do." She began pushing us to the entrance when an animal blocked us. It was a cat as black as the night with glowing yellow eyes.
"Oh, do you wanna see the cat?" Pepper asked. Ace shook her head rapidly.
"I don't think having Micha in the same room as a cat is-" I ignored the rest as my eyes trained in one the cat.
"KITTY CAT!" I squealed and ran for it , grinning. Scooping it into my arms, I started giggling as it licked my face.
"Wait, you like carts?" Ace tilted her head.
"Like them? I love them! They're so cute and fluffy, they're my favorite animal. I always was a cat person." I beamed. Ace clasped a hand around her mouth, stifling laughter.
"Oh this is too ironic."
"Her name is Fido, she's Faye's cat. But she likes to hang around here time to time. Can't imagine why though." Kitty shrugged.
"I think it's just because Kitty has a way with Kittens like herself." Pepper snickered.
"Shut up!" She threw a pillow at her and knocked her onto her bed.
"Oh you're on." Pepper smirked and jumped over the gap onto Kitty's cot, snatching her blanket. "BLIND MANEUVER!" She yelled before jumping on Kitty, draping the blanket across her so she couldn't see.
"Let's go before we get coauthor in this mess." Donnie whispered to me and I nodded, grabbing her hand as we ran out. The last I saw of them as Ace closed the door was Kitty on the floor, tangled up in a blanket, and Pepper on their desk about to elbow drop her.
As we walked down the hall, aimlessly searching for something to do I heard something in the background.
Or rather, a lack of something.
The rain was gone. I froze and sniffed the air, closing my eyes to zone in on the weird smell.
A flash showed up, giving me an image.
In the attic, Piper, Merlin and Eli. There a.. cloud?
It was raining in the attic. My ear twitched as I heard the distant shouts of Eli and Merlin. They were going to the bottom floor. I backed up and dashed down the hall hoping to catch them, ignoring Ace and Donnie's shouts.
What did they do this time?