Two days had passed since Shawn's despair and I'll never forget how extremely difficult it was for me. I was sitting in the living room reading the newspaper, "I'm surprised at how in this city that is so small I haven't been mentioned at all." I said aloud. Karina had walked into the living room and you could tell based off her hair she had just gotten done taking a shower. "Hey bro how are you today?" She asked me with the same smile that she gave me the first time we met.
"I'm doing okay I've been curious as to why Phantoms or me haven't been mentioned in the paper the past four months." I said as I threw the paper on the table. I put my back up against the sofa and rubbed my eyes when I was done I looked to see Karina sitting next to me.
"Bro I'm going to need more mana." She said. I forgot it was that time of the week again and I grabbed her hand and scanned it over my belt.
"Please, please."
Orange sparkly energy left my body and consumed hers. It was at this point and time that I saw the front door swing open, "Oh no not again." I thought. I saw Shawn burst through the door at his wild antics again.
"MASTER TRAVIS! I found an ancient relic that you must see ri-." Shawn had his jaw dropped as he saw where Karina's hand was positioned that was over my waist and all of the orange mana that was emanating from me had vanished. "Um. Uhhh. You know….I think I'm interrupting a very special moment for us young adults so…BYE!" He said and quickly ran out the door slamming it behind him. He was still outside the door as he yelled through it these words, "Make sure to use some protection! Teenage pregnancies are very bad!"
I was completely shocked at how oblivious Shawn was, "Did he seriously think I was going to have sex with you?" I questioned Karina. She was just as shocked as I was, "I can see why he was so hard to deal with. He's been here a lot the past two days looking for you." I got up and looked around the living room for the clock and found the time.
"It's almost noon. Karina I know you've been cooped up in this place a lot, how about we go hang out. I have more power so I can protect you if anything happens." Karina got extremely jumpy at the sound of this and ran back to her telling me to wait as she got ready. It didn't take long for her to get ready and when she came back down she was wearing a black shirt with a green light jacket and blue jeans. She had this pink book bag on and she put her black hair back into a ponytail.
"Okay let's go bro! Come on! I want to go out and see a lot of places and things!" She said excitingly. I had grabbed my black coat and the moment I put it on my arm I was immediately grabbed and Karina was dragging me along to the motorbike.
I hopped onto the bike and so did Karina. She wrapped her arms around my waist, "Okay so where do you like to go today?" I asked her. She started scratching her head and looking up at the sky, "I want to go get something to eat. But I want something small, something to snack on." She requested. I knew exactly where we could go and I made our destination for Grounds for Thought. While driving through the different streets Karina was making a lot of noises, "Pew. Pew. Pew pew." I looked back at her to see her pointing at all of the cars that were parked and was shooting them with her fingers as if it was an actual gun.
"She has a kid side to her huh?" I thought to myself. We were a few blocks away from Grounds for Thought and Karina was kind of amazed at all of the places she was getting to see. We finally pulled up to the back of the donut and coffee shop as we walked inside. I opened the door for Karina and she ran inside and was gone in an instant.
"I think she'll be fine. I don't think any Phantoms will attack us in a space like this." I said to myself. I walked in and Karina was perusing a shelf of books. A lot of them were supernatural or some horror books. One shelf was designated to something called Manga. She was hovering over the books and had found one that she seemed to really enjoy. I walked up to her in order to figure out what she wanted while I let her enjoy reading, "Hey you want a sandwich, donut, or some cake?" I asked. She mentioned she could eat anything and to surprise her. I walked up to the counter and I noticed Rachel wasn't there today. "Hey Travis how are you doing today? Rachel called in sick today so I'm taking over her shift. My name is Matthew, I just started working here last week. Rachel told me all about you, I saw you in here the other day as well." I was kind of surprised of the new worker and ended up ordering a Plain Sugar donut, the Turkey Club Sandwich, and a bottle of water. "Okay your total is 7.95 is that for here today Travis?"
I told him what I ordered was all and he got me everything really quickly. I wished him a good day and walked with the food back to Karina. When I got back Karina was at this table trying to put together a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle. When the puzzle was completed it should show a picture of two grey parrots standing next to each other on a tree branch. She was lost in thought at trying to figure out the puzzle, "Hey if you're going to figure out a puzzle then you should try and eat something while you are doing it." I said as I put the food and water in front of her.
We hung out for a couple hours at the donut shop before heading out. We got outside and Karina saw a kid running up to the store and one of them tripped and fell onto the pavement and was bleeding down the leg. Before I could do anything Karina was already running towards the kid and she was rummaging through her book bag and pulled out a small first aid kit. The kid was crying and the mom was running up to her child. "Timmy are you okay? What did you to do to hurt yourself silly?" She said comforting her child. Karina had wiped away the blood and placed a band aid on the wound.
"Okay he should be all set to go." The kid was still crying a bit and Karina pulled out from her bag a red bouncing ball with some black dots on it, "Here you go. Maybe this will bring a smile to that sad face." She said. She dropped the ball onto the ground and caught it with her hand. She then gave the ball to the kid who had a smile on his face, "Thank you." Timmy said with a happy expression.
The mom looked at Karina and thanked her as well for helping her child. Karina got off the ground and watched as the two entered the shop, "Wow, you really helped that child out. That was really cool Karina." I said praising her. When I looked back at Karina her happy face was gone and the atmosphere around her was weird. "Why are you looking down Karina? I thought you might be happy for helping the kid?" I asked her. She had a bit of frown on her face and then she shook her head and the smile reappeared.
"Oh it's nothing you need to worry about bro. Oh hey let's go to Wal-Mart I want to get some new clothes!" She started skipping to the bike and I was really worried about what I just witnessed with her, "Why was she down about helping that kid out? She kind of looked like she wanted to cry as well." I wanted to figure out what was going on but decided to wait until we got home.
We drove down Church Street until we hit Sandridge. I took a left on Sandridge until we hit Main Street. I then took a right and kept going for about half a mile until we saw Wal-Mart and its huge parking lot. I tried to get a spot as closed to the front but to no avail. I parked in the far back and the both of us got off the bike, "Wow this store is extremely packed today." Karina stated. We walked inside on the right side of the building and from there it was just a straight shot to the women's clothing. Karina was checking out a lot of bright colored clothes, "You seem to really like bright colors don't you Karina?" I asked. She was looking at a bathing suit set, "Yeah I do. I don't want to wear dark clothes forever. I want to wear something that makes me seem more positive and energetic. If you want to make changes to your life then I think you should change your choice of clothes as well to promote your new image." Karina always had a weird way of thinking. I watched over her looking at new pants, shirts, even bathing suits. She seemed to be having the time of her life here and already grabbed a few sets of clothes to go try on. We walked to the middle of the clothing aisles where there was a dressing room. I waited outside as she tried on her new clothes, "Do you want me to tell you if they look good on you when you come out?" I asked her. She didn't say anything but shook her head sideways. She quickly ran into the dressing room and I looked at the lady that was working at the desk, "If she wonders where I'm at I'm still in the store. Can you let her know to call me if she needs anything?" I asked the worker. She said she would pass the message off to Karina and I walked around the store a bit.
I wanted to get her something to commemorate us hanging out for the first time outside of DJ's place. Based off what she was reading at Grounds I stopped at the book section at the front of the store. I couldn't find anything that looked like she might enjoy reading. I saw a book series called Divergent, "This doesn't even sound like it'd be worth reading." I left the book aisle and walked back at the women's aisle seeing if there was anything I could get her and I found this black shirt with gold stars on it and gold writing that said Los Lunas. It was really pretty to look at and it wasn't much. So I took that and was going to purchase it but then I walked past the bathing suit she was looking at a lot, "She was staring at this a lot. How come she didn't take it with her to try on?" I thought. The bathing suit was a two piece and it was a bright shade of red with white stripes. I grabbed the medium size since I saw her taking medium into the dressing room and walked up to the counter. My total was about twenty dollars and the bathing suit was more expensive than the black and gold shirt. I double bagged so it was a little less visible and I could have it as a surprise when she got out of the dressing room. "I guess the reason why she didn't take it was because of the price." I walked back to the dressing room stuffing the receipt in my pocket.
Karina was waiting for me and she had only a couple sets of clothes she wanted to buy. "These fit me a lot more than the others. What's in the bag bro?" She said as she was eyeing the bag in my hand. I handed her the bag and in return she handed me the clothes to hold onto, "Why don't you take a look. It's something I got for you while you were trying on clothes. You might like them." I told her. She was rummaging through the bag and saw the black and gold shirt and she had a wide smile on her face. Then she found the swimsuit and immediately bear hugged me, "I love them so much. Thanks for getting them for me." I looked at her as she pulled the swimsuit out, "I was thinking that the city pool is opening up in a few weeks and I thought maybe we should go swimming sometime." That caused her to become happy even more. We decided to head out and pay for the merchandise and once we headed out the front door I looked at Karina, "So where do you want to go next your highness?" I said jokingly.
Karina laughed, "Hahaha. I'm not a princess or anything Travis." She said laughing. Once she was done laughing she told me she had no idea where she wanted to go but she didn't want to go home. "Is there something nature like we could go here?" She asked. I knew a place and we put her clothes in her bag and drove off to down the street where Wal-Mart was located.
I got up to the trailer parks and took a left until I got to the end of the trailer park. We left my bike behind and had a bit of a walk onto private property. It was just an acre of land that belongs to the trailer park and the residents. We got up to a wired fence and I walked along the fence and hopped on some logs that were stacked on top of each other. I turned around and held my hand out for Karina to grab. She grabbed my hand and we started walking through a small forest, "Where are we going bro?" she asked. I kept my mouth quiet and we kept walking through the small forest until we got up to a rocky path that led to a pond that was maybe twenty to thirty feet wide. There was a stone path that led to the middle of the pond and a big log that was on the edge of the rocks next to the water. I let go of Karina's hand and rolled the log away from the water and sat down on it. "Why don't you come and sit down and listen to the sound of nature." I suggested.
Karina sat next to me and she saw me close my eyes as I listened to the birds chirping, the animals running in the small wooded area, and the wind blowing through the open area. "I use to come here with my parents and we would skip rocks, listen to nature, and one time we tried swimming here. I remembered we camped out here; we camped in the woods where people couldn't see us because it's illegal to be on this property. I haven't been back since my parent's deaths probably because I was scared." Karina sat closer to me and put her head on my shoulder, she was looking at the ground and I was able to catch a tear fall down her face.
"You don't ever talk about your parents. Why?" I asked her. She forced a smile on her face, "It's nothing really." She said. She grabbed a rock and threw it across the water, "Oh yay! I actually got it to skip! Bro did you see that? It skipped three times!" She looked at me with a smile on her face and I was able to know that this smile wasn't her actual happy one. It was more like she was trying to hide something.
I grabbed her hand and she looked at me, "Earlier today you helped that boy who fell. You had a genuine smile on your face while helping him, and then when the mom thanked you, your entire mood died. Why did that happen?" I asked her. She went back to that frown and then forced herself to smile again. "Oh you don't need to worry about that bro I'll be okay." She said. I knew I was breaking through so I wrapped my arms around her, "Look, for the past three and half months you've helped me stand back on my own two feet. You were there for me when I didn't want anyone around, and right after I became Wizard you seemed to be always struggling with something. I went to your underworld I saw a piece of you and ever since then I worry about you. What I'm getting at is you've helped me stand back up, so why won't you let me do the same for you?" Karina was fighting me a bit to break free until I said that last sentence.
She stopped fighting and her shoulders kept moving up and down as she started crying. She was crying so much and was trying to talk to me but her words were hard to understand. "I…I…Miss my fam…Familia…I miss my mom…My dad…Even my Brother…It…It…It hurts so much. I feel like I'm all alone when…Everyone has a family…And….I DON'T!" She began burying her face into my chest as she started to miss her family. When she calmed down she told me about why it was just her and her brother Eduardo, the Minotauros Phantom I defeated. She told me how lazy she was in helping out around the house and how her brother did everything for her. She told me everything they did after their parent's abandoned them, and how much she wish she could just see her parents again one day. "I miss them a lot. I want to see them again one more time and let them know that I'm doing okay. I just want to talk to them one more time." She said sadly. I knew exactly how she felt; I'd give anything if I could see my parents one more time.
We stayed at the pond until it got dark, "You know I had fun today. I never thought I would feel like this after losing my parents. I feel more alive now and if I hadn't met you or if never received this power, I'd probably be just an emotional shut in for the rest of my life. Thanks for always being by my side whenever I needed someone Karina." I said with a smile on my face.
Karina grabbed my hand and put her pinky finger around mine, "I want to make a promise to you Travis. From here on out I will do what I can to keep you safe, just like you do to keep me safe. I will always be there for you when you need someone to talk too, and even if no one wants to be your friend and others give up on you, I want you to know that I will always be right by your side." She said while smiling at me. I tightened my grip with my pinky finger as I said my promise.
"I will always protect you and watch over you. When you have nowhere to go and no one to turn to in your time of need, know that I will be right by your side at all times. As long as I'm near you won't have to suffer alone anymore. Don't ever feel like you can't tell me anything, I can always give you hope whenever you need it. I may not be a registered therapist but I will listen Karina, and I will care." For the first time in years I finally had a friend that I felt like I could trust to stay close to me. I just hoped that history would not repeat itself. It's taken me years to find a friend like Karina and if I lost her, I knew that it would shatter every little piece of me.
We got home a bit late and Karina went straight off to bed and I saw DJ, "Hello sir, how was your day today?" he asked me with a smile on his face. "Oh it was great. I took Karina out for the day to get a break from here. How've you been today? Any business today?" I asked. DJ shook his head and I took it to be a bad day for his business. Me and him sat down and talked about what Karina and I had done for the day and I told him how excited I was to finally feel like I could open myself up again to people. I did tell him that I still feel closed off from a lot of people but that I'm slowly working on it. I told him about my pinky promise with Karina on top of everything else today. I decided to go off to bed early and start Phantom hunting first thing in the morning. DJ told me he was going to stay up late tonight working on some new rings for me because he found a magical stone up in the attic that he had forgotten about.
"He forgot about a magical stone that he's had locked up for the past three years? I wonder what the ring will look like. Dragon has told me that there are four basic forms and I only have three: Flame, Land, and Water. So what other form am I missing?" I was so curious to know what the last form was and a bit excited as well. I finally stopped rolling about in my bed and fell asleep, and that night I realized that it would've been a night where I wished I didn't fall asleep at all.
