Kendra looked across at the bed in the attic room that used to be her brothers. It was empty now, the sheets hadn't been changed in a while, but they were still fresh without wrinkles. She rolled over onto her side and hugged her pillow. She missed Seth, even though he could be annoying sometimes.
She hardly ever saw him anymore, and when she did, he almost never spoke to her. Whatever had happened when he had gone to see the Singing Sisters had broken something inside of him. They all had tried to reach out to him, but he had pushed everyone away.
He had Hugo fix the tree house so he could live in it. It now had insulation, a little heater, and a bed in it. As soon as his work was done, he moved out of the playroom unexpectedly and began living outside.
Kendra's mother cried when she first saw her son come home shell-shaken and a dead look in his eyes. And he had cried too, which surprised and shocked everyone. Their father had tried to make him laugh, but he ended up getting punched.
They had tried all they could, but whatever had transpired at the river had changed him completely. All Warren and Vanessa had said was that he had talked to the Singing Sisters, escaped as the island sunk, ran to save the ferryman, but found him dead. It didn't make sense to her why he would have shut himself away.
She sighed and rolled off the bed, getting off the floor and waling to the door. She looked both ways down the hallway after going down the stairs, checking for family members. Then she went down into the dungeon, lead by her night-vision through the dark.
She dodged the goblin patrol and the light from the torches and finally came upon what she came for; the quiet box. She sat down on the floor next to the box and whispered, "Hey,"
She felt like Gavin could hear her, even though she knew he couldn't. Talking to the box calmed her, though. It had helped get her through the stress of her brother leaving, and even more recently, death threats through the mail.
"Bracken is coming over tomorrow." She said, hugging her knees to her chest. That wasn't news to her; Bracken had started coming to check up on the family every other week when he had time off from re-establishing connections of different specie within the Fairy Queen's domain.
"I think he might be ignoring me…" She continued, "All he does when he comes over is making sure I'm not dead! On the other hand, he sits outside of Seth's door for hours, talking."
Kendra stood up angrily and began pacing, "You know, I don't know what his deal is. He said he lo-"
She quieted and looked down at the ground in shock, "He, he never once said he loved me… did he?" She sung around to face the coffin and shouted, "Not once!"
She felt hot tears fall, and she turned back to face the corridor, sniffling and rubbing her face with her pajama sleeve.
Then she saw a dumbfounded Bracken standing in front of her, mouth wide open.
"Kendra-" He started, reaching to touch her arm. She backed off quickly,
"How long have you been standing there? How long?!" She cried, feeling betrayed and beyond upset.
He took a cautious step forward and reached a tentative hand out, "Just a few seconds, Kendra. I'm sorry, I had no idea you felt that way."
"No idea?" She laughed bitterly, crossing her arms. "You really didn't know I like you?"
Bracken shook his head, "Kendra, all you had to do was ask, I would have told you that I love you." He got close enough and wrapped his arms around her, "Kendra, I love you."
The last of her tears gone, she looked up at him and pleaded with her eyes, "Then kiss me,"
Bracken seemed at a loss for words, but then he slowly let her go. Kendra felt the tears coming again and shut her eyes tightly; she wouldn't let him see her cry anymore. But then she felt his hand on her cheek, his gentle breath on her face. Her eyes shot open and she disbelievingly watched as his lips came closer to hers. His eyes were closed, but his eyelashes were fluttering, as if he were scared.
Her heart pounded, and she felt so nervous that she might faint. But then he opened his eyes and withdrew. His hands were shaking back at their sides as he looked away,
"I can't."
Kendra opened her eyes and her cheeks reddened slightly, "Why not?" She choked and backed away, cursing herself for being such a fool. "It's because you like Seth more than me, isn't it?"
"I can't explain, it's different with Seth." He said panic edging on his voice.
"Oh, it's different." She said sarcastically, "You can be such great friends with him, why can't you have feelings for me?!" She tried to push past Bracken and go back up the stairs, but he grabbed her arms and forced her to look him in the eye.
"Listen, I don't have special feelings for Seth. You and Seth are both very important to me."
She glared and him and jerked her arms away, "Then why do you only talk to him anymore?"
Bracken remained silent as she walked past him. She heatedly continued going until she heard the strained and sad whisper of, "He hasn't talked to me in four months…"
She paused for a second, then continued walking.
