Chapter Six - Secrets

I dreamt that I was in a thick forest at night.  The leaves covered so much of the sky that only small beams of moonlight could shine through.  It was so cold out and I was dressed in my hospital outfit.
         I heard leaves crunch under someone’s foot behind me.  I whipped around to see nothing but trees.  My heart began to race as I felt something brush against my leg.  I screamed and turned around again to come face to face with a dark figure.
         It held a large knife in it’s hand…no a dagger.  It was curved and shone in a beam of light.  Then they shoved the blade into my stomach and I woke up.

My hearing came back to me first, but I could not tell who was talking.
         “Is she okay doc?” The voice was male.
         “Yes, she’ll be fine.  She just needs some rest for now,” Kami was talking I thought, “I can’t believe her power has developed so fast…I don’t think I’m the one that should help her.  I have a friend I’m going to call.  He can help.”
         I let out a small groan as I tried to open my eyes.  They felt so heavy.
         “Don’t try to get up Sapphire,” the male voice warned.  He sounded familiar, but I just could not get my mind to remember his face.
         I tried to open my eyes again but only got a splitting pain through my head.  I groaned once more.  I felt someone lift up my head and put something around my neck and the pain was gone in an instant.  I opened my eyes.
         “There she is,” the male voice belonged to Damien as he stood over me.  I realized that I was lying on a bed.
         “Don’t take that necklace off Sapphire,” Kami said, “unless you want a hell of a lot of pain.”
         “Okay,” I agreed.  I tried to sit up but the second I moved Damien was there helping me.  He sat on the edge of the bed with his arm around me.  I could not help but blush.  That was when I saw the room I was in.
         Its walls were just plain white and there were no pictures hanging off of them.  The bed I was in was huge and had a canopy over top of it, so if I wanted, I could enclose myself in a box of curtains.  It sat with the headboard against the wall and next to an open door.  Next to the bed were two night tables with lamps on them.  My eyes scanned the rest of the room and found another open door that seemed to lead to a hallway.  Across from the bed was a desk and chair, both empty.  To the right of the bed were two large glass doors that opened up to a balcony.
         After I took in the room I asked, “Where are we?”
         “We’re at home,” Damien said, “this is your room and mine is on the east wing just down the hall a few thousand doors.”  He laughed and I merely blinked.  My head was feeling a little numb.
         “Sapphire I have something important to ask you,” Kami was all business, “are you feeling well enough now to answer?”  She sat at the foot of the bed—my bed—and looked at me.
         “Sure, I guess,” I replied.
         “Okay.  As I was telling Damien, your powers are developing increasingly fast.  I don’t think I should be the one to help you control them,” she looked down at the bed with a sigh and then back at me, “I have a friend that has…similar abilities as you.  He could teach you very well, I would just need your permission to call him.”
         I thought about someone other than Kami teaching me and that thought made me nervous.
         “Could you…be there though?  When he’s teaching me whatever?” I looked at her and she did not answer for a moment.
         “Of course, if that’s what you want,” she smiled at me and I smiled back.  Knowing she would be there put me more at ease.  I had met so many new people already, knowing Kami would be around made meeting someone else a little easier.
         Suddenly a flash of Damien getting a fork through his shoulder came into my mind.  I remembered everything that happened…last night?  Well it did not matter right now.
         I gasped and pulled out of Damien’s arm.  He had been holding me with his wounded shoulder!
         “What’s wrong?” Damien looked a little scared at what I had done.
         “Your shoulder!  It was…stabbed,” I looked at his shoulder, but it was fine, “Fork…through…what?”
         “I heal fast Sapphire, remember?”
         “Oh…why was everything flying around?”  I began to wonder what had happened to boring boy Roy as well.  The last thing I remember was him getting beaten up by glasses.
         “That was you,” Kami answered, “your power is…interesting.  I think you must have gotten upset and that was what triggered your power.  Seeing Damien get hurt made you want to help him.  So you sent things flying in his direction.”
         “I’m sorry!”  I looked at Damien and felt like I was going to cry.  All I ever seemed to do was hurt him.  First the frying pan, then the wrestling moves and now this!  I did not think things could get any worse.  Then Gin walked in.
         He seemed very upset about something.
         “Hey Sapphire,” he said with a weak smile, “how’re you feeling?”
         “Better,” I answered and then tapped the necklace that Kami had put on me.  He nodded in understanding.  That was when I noticed he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and so was Damien.  I looked down at myself and saw that I was still wearing my new tee-shirt and jeans.
         “Well I have to go make some phone calls,” Kami stated, “call me if you need anything.”
         “Will do,” Damien gave her a smile and she was out of my room in a few long strides.
         “Now what?” I asked to nobody in particular.  It was more to myself really.
         “You have to stay in bed and rest,” Damien put his arm around me again and it felt like my heart was going to explode, “don’t worry though, I’ll stay with you.” And he smiled at me.  It was sad that all I could manage to say was, “grhh-huh.”
         “How about you Gin, do you wanna stay and watch a movie with us?”  Damien and I both looked at Gin.  He looked like he was about to cry.
         “No, I’ve got some things to do with Terry,” and he ran out of the room.
         “Well, that was weird,” Damien looked at me from the corner of his eye, “do you want to watch a movie then?”
         “Sure,” I agreed but the realized that I did not have a television of any kind in my room, “uh…where though?”
         “Right here,” I was about to ask what he was talking about but he was at the end of my bed in a second.  Did I just blink for a really long time?
         Damien tapped twice on the left bedpost and then walked back to my side.  Slowly a thin screen came down and two bars attached themselves to the other bedpost.  I watched in amazement.
         “It’s funny to see your reaction to these things,” Damien laughed.
         “Why don’t we hit you on the head and make you have amnesia.  See how you react to things,” I tried to glare at him, but I think it came out more like a pout.  He rolled his eyes at me and grabbed a remote from the night table closest to him.  I did not remember that being there before.
         “Let’s just watch the movie,” he pushed over so that I was on the left side of the bed and he put his feet up onto the right.  He then placed his arm over my shoulder and hit play.  And that was how we ended up watching movies in my room all day.

         It was just past eight o’clock when Gin walked into my room again.  Luckily it was right when the most horrifying movie I had ever seen was ending.  I just about screamed when he had knocked on the door to announce his presence.
         “Hey, Gin,” Damien said, “what’s up?  How was your day out with Terry?”
         “It was fine” he replied, “but he told me to do something that I’m not sure I should do.”
         “What’s that?” Damien took his arm from around me and focused his full attention on Gin.  It made me a little jealous, which I did not like being.
         Gin stayed near the door and began to fiddle with his hands.
         “Well it’s—“he was cut off by a voice from downstairs.
         “Gin,” someone yelled, “Terry’s here!”
         Gin then let out a sigh of relief and said, “Let’s go see him!  All of us…all three of us.”
         “But Sapphire shouldn’t—“Damien began only to be interrupted by me.
         “I’m fine.  I can walk…I think,” I gave Damien a smile to assure him that I could walk downstairs and he got out of the bed.  I soon followed him and Gin was already out the door and halfway down the hall by the time I just got there.
         The hallway was narrow and white, just like everything else in the mansion.  To the left of my room was just a wall; I had the very last room.  To the right was a never ending corridor.  Every so often there would be a small table with flowers and pictures but nothing spectacular.
         Damien and I were at the top of the staircase when Gin said that he and Terry were in the kitchen.  I looked down the stairs with a nervous glance.  Walking down the hall had been easy, but stairs?  My legs still felt a little stiff from lying in bed all day.
         I took a deep breath and made sure I had a good grip on the railing.  I was able to make it to the bottom without falling and as I lifted my right foot to descend the last step my left knee gave out.
         “Gah!” I gave a small scream as I tumbled to the floor.  Damien quickly helped me up.          
         “You okay?  I can carry you back to your bed if you want,” he was holding onto me as if I would fall again if he let go.
         “I made it this far, what’s a few more steps?”  He grimaced and we walked the two steps to the kitchen’s swinging door.  Damien opened it and we stepped in only to be drenched with buckets of water.  Salt water by the taste of it.
         Both Damien and I stood there soaking wet and all I could do was spit out the amount of water that had gotten into my mouth.  I moved my hair from my eyes to see Gin and Terry standing there holding two now empty buckets.
         “What the hell?” Damien shouted at them.
         “It was the only way,” Terry said quietly as he placed his bucket on the floor, “you guys needed to have the spell removed.”
         “Spell, what are you talking about?” Damien was obviously upset, and I did not blame him.  I guessed I should be angry too, but I did not really feel that mad.
         “Just look at each other,” Terry shouted back at him, “do you feel the same way you did just five minutes ago?”  I looked at Damien and he looked at me.  Something was very different.
         He did not seem as attractive as before.  I looked him in the eye and my heart did no race.  My face did not blush, and I no longer felt nervous.  It felt like I was just looking at Terry or Gin.  Damien noticed it too.
         “What…?  What’s going on?  Gin…you…you spelled me with one of your stupid love spells?”  Damien did not wait to hear what Gin had to say, and he was out of the room in an instant.
         “What’s going on?” I asked them.  Terry sighed and looked at Gin who only shook his head and left the room as well.  I hoped it was to talk to Damien.
         “Sapphire, Gin is a love magic-user.  His specialty is love spells,” Terry sat down on one of the stools, “he wanted Damien to be happy and to help you fit in.  So…he spelled you.  You never really had any feelings towards Damien, and he towards you.  It was all a lie.”  I stood there in disbelief.
         How could Gin do a thing like that?  Make me think I liked someone that I did not really like?  Make me think I loved someone and that someone loved me?  I could not grasp that idea.
         I looked at Terry and he looked back at me with sad eyes.  This is what was going on at the café.  They were talking about it in the washroom.  That spell was the one that boring boy Roy was talking about.
         “He never meant to hurt you…but once I found out, I wanted him to tell you.  We splashed you with salt water to deactivate the spell,” he looked down at his hands.  When he looked back up at me he must have remembered that I was wet.  He snapped his fingers and I was dry again.
         “Thanks,” I said quietly, “I’m just…going to go for a walk…”  I could feel a headache starting and I did not want to be near anyone if something went wrong.  Plus I just really wanted to get some air, hopefully clear my head.
         “You shouldn’t…” Terry stood up and grabbed my wrist as I tried to walk away.
         “Please Terry,” I said, “just let me go.”  I wanted Terry to come with me.  But I could not tell him that.  So instead I just walked out the door at quarter after eight at night with nothing but a tee-shirt and jeans on.