Hidden Magic

Shock

Rosie anxiously waited by the hall window for Amber to arrive. She constantly watched the big, round clock like an intent hawk. The minutes crawled by agonizingly slowly, and with each one Rosie grew more inpatient and doubtful - until finally, there was a light knock at the front door.


She immediately swung it open. “Come in,” she said and stepped aside.


Amber entered, looking more than a little out of her element. Her eyes flickered around nervously, as if she was watching for something. She probably isn’t supposed to be here. Rosie considered the thought and watched Amber with a strange kind of pity.


When Amber looked back at her, she tried her best to smile.


Amber smiled back; apparently glad she wasn’t ripping her head off by now, and said, “Hey.”


“Hi.” Her voice didn’t portray how she felt at all. Rosie found herself looking over Amber, checking her face and bare arms. She realised she was checking for bruises, one’s caused by Lorraine, and forced herself to look away.


Amber gave her a funny look. “What are you doing?”


“Nothing,” she said quickly, and motioned for Amber to follow her upstairs.


Amber flopped down on Rosie’s bed. She looked exhausted. Her eyes had wide, dark circles around them. Probably caused by stress, she thought and felt a wave of thick guilt course through her.


“How are you doing?” Amber asked, eyes sincere and sympathetic.


Rosie took a deep, centring breath. Just thinking about Amy made her want to burst into angry and frustrating tears. She missed Amy so much and she was worried sick for what might be happening to her. It was killing her...not knowing. And thinking and talking about it only made it much worse. But it had to be done if she ever wanted to get to the bottom of things. “Better than earlier,” she said as she sat down beside Amber. She met Amber’s midnight sky eyes for a second and sighed. “I need to talk to you.”


“Figured.” Amber’s voice held hints of sarcasm. She turned around and crossed her legs, facing Rosie completely. 


“Can you tell me the truth? The real truth?”


Amber’s eyes shot down to her hands, then up at Rosie’s face. She did this a few times before saying two words that made her blood boil with anger. “About what?”


“You know what I’m talking about.” She knew her voice sounded annoyed and snappy, but she didn’t care. She’d been done with the nice approach hours ago. Amber should have known that by now.


“Nope. I really don’t.”


“Please, Amber,” Rosie begged. “Explain to me what all this is about. You can trust me. I promise.” Her eyes watered and she swiped at them and breathed heavily. “What was with your mum and Shane today? Why don’t they want us to be friends anymore? Why when I told you what happened to Amy did you go all strange, threaten me, and then run away like a scared chicken?” She tapped Amber’s arm with her finger, causing her to look up. “Tell me, please.”


“No. There is so much you can’t know, Rosie. Nor would I even want you to.”


“I don’t care!” Rosie practically shouted and for the first time felt suddenly grateful that her mum wasn’t awake. “Amber, I’m sick of this paranoia. You were right earlier. So, so right. I am crazily paranoid, and it’s ruining my life! I feel sick constantly. Just...please...help me.”


Amber shrugged. “Maybe that’s a sign you should stop thinking about it then.”


Rosie just answered with a glare.


Clearly that said a lot because Amber gave her a sympathetic look and said, “Forget.” That word triggered something in Rosie. Something lost and hidden deep inside of her. Something she ached to find. Something she needed. “You’d be surprised how much better you’d feel if...” Amber paused and thought for a second as if she had all the answers in the world - and all the time. “You just have to let yourself,” she finished.


Rosie closed her eyes as her stomach knotted painfully. “I...can’t.”


When she finally opened her eyes again, she saw that Amber was staring at her. Her expression caught between worry, fear and sympathy. “You really should,” she said quietly.


“What if I don’t want to?” Rosie asked.


“You don’t have a choice, Ro.” She smiled and shrugged. “Sucks, but yeah. Not for you, but for me.” Amber was staring at her now, it looked...fond. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “For everything, really. But especially for forgetting all that you were told against me and being my friend. I’ll always remember that.”


Rosie blinked. She hadn’t been expecting that.


“Anyway... You okay?” Amber asked.


“Yeah,” she answered simply. “What is this sickness anyway?”


“Nothing.” Amber shrugged and looked away.


Rosie shook her head. “You know, for someone who wants me to forget, you say and do a lot of suspicious things.”


Amber laughed. It was a genuine and real sound and it made the corners of Rosie’s mouth turn up too.


“I know,” Amber admitted. “I really shouldn’t, but a part of me wants you to remember, I guess. So you can figure the rest out. Then I wouldn’t be so alone anymore.”


“You’re alone?” She frowned. “What about Shane?”


Amber shrugged again. “Shane’s... Shane is so much more in control than I am, and a hell of a lot more responsible.” She smiled, but not to Rosie, it looked more like for herself. “He’s been through way more than I have, believe it or not, and he just...copes. Amazingly so.” She looked across at Rosie and they both had one thought pass between them simultaneously: Relatable. “I wish I knew his strategy.”


She nodded in agreement. “What happened to Shane?”


“Many, many things,” Amber replied sadly.


“Like what?” Rosie prompted curiously.


“There are some I can’t tell you about, but there’s one major one that I can,” she said. “Both of Shane’s parents died in an accidental fire five years ago. Shane was only twelve and it nearly killed him, losing both his parents like that. So tragically...” Amber’s eyes watered with emotion and she took a shaky breath before carrying on. “His parents were the loveliest people you’d ever meet. They were my aunt and uncle. Dad’s side, not my mum’s.” Her blurry blues met Rosie’s as she said that last part. Rosie understood that it made all the difference. Lorraine was bad...bad, bad. “Shane’s mum was my dad’s sister and they were the closet siblings ever. They never fought. Shane was also really close to my dad and after his parents died, the two of them just mourned together for months. They were too lost in their own world of excruciating grief to ever come out and function.” Rosie knew how Amber must have felt about that. Lost and alone, having to fend for herself, because Rosie doubted Lorraine had helped much during that time. She had been through a similar experience, less heart wrenching, of course, but she could still relate. She was actually very afraid she was going through it for real right now, with Amy. A part of her still thought her mum would go into hiding again, and this time she would truly have no-one. “Shane’s okay now though, and I’m happy to have him back.”


Rosie nodded, not really knowing what to say. She felt speechless now she knew what Shane had been through. If that had happened to her at such a young and tender age, she would never have been able to function again. At all. From what she’d seen so far, Shane laughed, honestly too, he stuck up for people and he cared tons about his cousin Amber. He was a hero in Rosie’s mind. And even more breathtakingly tough than she’d ever imagined before. Rosie realised how truly lucky she was to still have her mum, and even her selfish dad. Just knowing that he was alive somewhere was a thousand times better than nothing at all. As much as she’d miss Amy and grieve if she did turn out dead, she knew she still had her mum to get through it with. To keep her strong. Shane would have desperately needed at least one of his parent’s more than anything; sometimes an aunt or uncle just wasn’t enough. There’s really nothing in the world like a parent’s love and comfort.


“Wow,” Rosie finally said. “I’m so sorry, for both of you. I wish there was something I could do.”


“You don’t even know him, Rosie...” She paused and tilted her head to one side. “Or me, if you think about it.”


“Right.” She nodded in agreement. She didn’t actually know either of them. Granted, she knew Amber more. But Shane...there really wasn’t anything. Rosie just felt like she knew him...trusted him even. Shane’s character – the lost, mysterious and scary guy he was, but also the cocky, confident and full of joy and loving guy he acted too. These were the impressions she got from Shane every time she encountered him, and something about them just drew her in, further and further.


Rosie shook her head and stood up, forgetting about Shane and his past and getting to the real reason she had called Amber here in the first place.  “Okay, enough of that for now.” Her voice got stern and serious, even Amber looked a little shocked. “Amber, I need you to trust me. Whatever it is you think you can’t tell me, you can. Okay?” Amber didn’t speak. She just watched Rosie with an unreadable expression on her pretty face. “I want to know... No, I need to know.” Rosie spread her arms out by her sides and gave Amber an exasperated look. “I want to help, I really do. So tell me so I can stop being so scared and confused. I don’t want to forget.” She put her arms back down by her sides. “I don’t and if I can help it I sure won’t.”


Amber smiled and chuckled a little. “I do want to tell you, Ro. Honestly, I do.”


“Then tell me.”


Amber shook her head. “I’m not going to tell you everything. If you are so intent on not forgetting then soon enough you should remember what you’re not remembering right now.” During Rosie’s confusion, Amber sneaked something from the pocket of her tight black jeans. She only noticed it when it sparkled in the air with a heart stopping familiarity. It was a bracelet. Amber smiled gently and held it in her hand towards Rosie. “Here,” she said softly.


Rosie took the bracelet and twirled it in her numb fingers. It was Amy’s. She closed her eyes, remembering the day she’d given it to her. It had been on her thirteenth birthday, and she had been so excited about finally becoming a teenager. Six months ago. Wow. A lot had happened since then.


It was a beautiful and delicate heart-shaped bracelet with the words Best Sister engraved in curvy and curly letters. Rosie smiled as tears stung at her eyes. No matter how much she and Amy had fought over the months before and after she had gifted her the bracelet, Amy had never once taken it off. She wore it wherever she went. It was a silent reminder between the two of them that they really did love each other, no matter what.


Tears dripped from Rosie’s sobbing eyes and she looked at Amber accusingly. She didn’t feel mad. She couldn’t whilst holding such a precious thing in her hands. But she felt betrayed. “Why do you have it?” She asked calmly.


“I found it.” Amber’s voice was careful. “At...” she hesitated for a moment, then after meeting Rosie’s begging eyes, continued, “home.”


Rosie’s breath caught in her throat. A huge, dry lump built there and it was hard to speak through that and the twisting of her punished stomach and mad heart rate.


“Don’t try and speak,” Amber warned with worry. “I’m afraid you’ll pass out or...” Worse, Rosie finished herself. “I’m sorry, Ro. This was the one thing I couldn’t keep from you. Couldn’t live with a second longer. It’s just not...right. I don’t care what my mum says. It’s wrong to keep this from you.”


“Tell me,” she whispered through the lump in her throat.


“I can’t do this anymore.” Amber was starting to cry now too. With a pained look at Rosie she threw her head into her hands and Rosie saw that her body trembled with every breath she took. “I know, Rosie,” she whispered a moment later.


“Know what?”


Amber took a deep, muffled breath behind her hands as if she was reading herself for something big. “I know what really happened to Amy.” She looked up, clearly expecting Rosie to lash out...do something. But all Rosie did was stare at Amber, wide-eyed and waiting. “She was taken, but not by who or what you think.”


Rosie swallowed and felt the fear from Amber’s words hit her. “Who?” She tightened her grip on the bracelet. Even though she wasn’t religious, she sent a silent and pleading prayer up to God.


Amber stared over at Rosie’s desk. “I can’t tell you that part.”


“Yes, Amber. Yes you frickin’ can. Right now!”


Amber looked at her again, panicking and nervously clutching the bracelet as if her entire life depended on it. “I can’t, but I also can’t watch you fall apart like this. Neither can Shane.”


“Tell me. Tell me now!” Her stomach knotted and pulled agonizingly.


“You should sit down,” Amber said, voice soft with understanding. “You might pass out with how bad your stomach must be hurting you right now.”


She gasped. “How do you know it’s doing that right now?”


“I’m the one who helped make it happen,” Amber said quietly, guiltily. She didn’t look away this time when she spoke, “I can’t stop it, only you can. You have to remember but it’ll hurt, Rosie.” She smiled and closed her eyes as she bowed her head. “It won’t if you forget though. I’m sorry. I really, truly am. There is nothing I regret more at this moment.”


“I don’t care how sorry you are, Amber!” Rosie screeched. She took a calming breath and asked, “What am I even supposed to be remembering?”


“What you were so close to figuring out before.” Amber looked up again and her eyes were shining that bright blue again. Rosie tried to ignore it, but it just wasn’t...right. Not human...


“What the hell is that?”


“Sit down,” Amber commanded. Rosie did. She couldn’t argue right now; she was too afraid. Her eyes were still shining as she stood before Rosie. “I’m going to tell you something that might open the door. The rest is yours to figure out though. And I want to say that I’m sorry for the questions that are going to haunt you so much.” Amber looked guilty and Rosie deeply feared what she was about to tell her. “I’ll never be able to tell you the whole truth,” she whispered. Her eyes fell to the carpeted floor and the words that came out of Amber’s mouth sent a wash of strong emotions over Rosie. They shocked, scared and relieved her all at the same time.


“Amy’s not dead.”