Life As Magic Knew It
Copyright WillowSuzzaGleeeee
A/N: A new level of Life As Magic Knew It and it's content has been unveiled to your eyes so you can devour it, and then spiral your thoughts all over it (hopefully in a review). Anyways, here is the future of this fanfiction, the newest chapter, and the confusing hectic wonders of Rikki Chadwick.
Rikki's POV:
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Chiming. A clock? Eerie. Where was I? Grass. Smelly grass, trees; jungle-like, rocks, …a cottage? And then a body; Bella's, lying next to mine as we both awake on Mako's jungle floor. Bella. Emma. A fight, a moon, a party. A wickedly weird night.
I widen my eyes and analyze my surroundings. A clock is in the backyard of a cottage, a cottage located in this jungle. A jungle I'm supposing is Mako Island. I straighten up, blink my eyes a few time, appreciate the sun's rays hitting my body. I gasp as I take a sinking relief? shock? happiness? When I smooth my fingers over my wrists, insides of my legs; clean, smooth, the natural skin of a sane girl. No cuts. No damage. A clean slate of tender healed skin.
Bella is still asleep; chewing upon Mako's jungle's ground. I cautiously pat her head, streaking with dirty blonde tangles. Twigs and dirt are still matted upon it from last night…or the past moment's fight…? How did Bella and I end up sleeping on the grass near this cottage? I wonder if mum and dad are worried…or too busy pondering if their strange daughter might ruin the rich perfect family image…
Was she dead? A sudden sizzling jolt of flashbacks; Bella being hit down to Mako's streams. Emma and Bella. A wrathful fight of violence and attraction. I never found out what happened to Bella's flailing body. It found it's plunge into water, and then…all I remember and darkness. And now waking up here.
Bella starts coughing. Is she choking? She straightens up, hobbles over, and continues her fit of coughing, until I awkwardly slap her back. She's breathing properly again, after she vomited up multiple ounces of clear perfect H2O.
"Rikki?" She mumbles, still coming to terms with the bright sun and the feeling of a different dimension passing between us. "We're…We're on Mako Island…Is it the morning?"
I stare up at the clock that had just chimed. "Twelve; midday." I yawn, thinking I would be much better off sleeping my life away in bed. "Something…is…"
"Different." Bella answers for me. "Last night…Emma and I… All I can remember is having this burning hatred…and desire for her… I fell in the stream…" She is slowly remembering. "Did you see anything?" She asks, a hushed frightened voice.
"After that? All I remember is waking up here… I wonder where the rest of the party is." I mumble, and a few exhilarating seconds later I hear a loud I-got-a-pocket-full-of-sunshine-I've-got-a-love-and-I-know-that-he's-all-mine-Oh-Oh-woah sing song of a phone chirp ruin our silence. A phone? Whose? And where?
It's on the ground, muffled by long strays of weeds along the odd clock, in the outside yard of this strange little cottage. Maybe they'll help us. Maybe the caller on the phone will. Maybe they'll both be serial killers set on killing Bella and I.
I suddenly recognized the phone. "It's Lewis's. Whose calling?" I ask, sudden anxiety placed in me as I analyze my almost-friend, Bella Hartley, who just might have even more secrets than me. As she whispers, "Cleo," and then I decide to pick up, I imagine Lewis's lost burnt face… What happened? We were… Frolicking around, discussing the antics and meanings of life; flirting, even… and then… Boom. Lightning. He was on the ground, unconscious; gone. I decided I had liked Lewis that night. Why was his phone with us? What had happened in the lost moments of last night?
"Lewis? Hello? Hello? Hey?" It's Emma, the uptight girl who seems intent on keeping her image of perfection. She's the girl who pushed Bella into Mako's stream. I wonder where Cleo is.
"It's…Rikki." I say quietly, until almost immediately my mouth perks up in anxiety in need of knowing what has happened.
"Where…where are you? Cleo and I…" I silence her.
"I'm here on Mako near this cottage.." Her voice is a shadow, muffled; the connection is losing itself. "Last night…You hurt Bella! I don't know what happened between you two," I notice Bella's eyes widen in worry. "But…I think it's the reason…the reason we're…" Silence meets my lips as Bella screeches.
A butterscotch-haired man, a delicious one at that, has come outside of his cottage. He is marking the day on his outside calendar. I squint my eyes, but the oddly etched date doesn't go away. April 17th, 2021. And Bella's trying hard to stay calm. "That's Will!" She whispers loudly, and my eyes creep up to his face. She is right. He's older, darker, more delicious, but he's still the Will that is Bella's boyfriend. Boyfriend who I'm sure knows about her secrets, whatever they are. We are not living in the present anymore, of that I'm almost sure of.
The last thing I stutter to Emma is, "I know what you did, to those teens, to Bella. You meshed…You meshed their legs…" I say, trying to not allow their leg's image to come back. "Then you made Bella look like the demon, and threw her off into the water. And, now, we're in 2021; the future. What did you do?"
Before I hear her anxious 'We're-in-a-different-era!' exclamation, I hang up and join Bella, who I know must have heard the entire conversation, in having expertise in the art of watching Will.
We hide along the side edges of the cottage. He has now crept up to the clock to rewind it. He has a funny look on his face. Bitter-sweetness. I wonder what he knows about this future that we don't.
Suddenly, a long stampede of shrieking freak-eyed kids come out. Jeesh, Will's got to have a lot of testosterone if all these bug-eyed animals are his. I wince at a little girl with buckets and buckets of never-ending butterscotch curly hair cry, "Daddy! Daddy! Mummy said you promised you would play with us," She refers to a blonde little boy as well as a set of identical twins, all within a few years age-range. "Please, Daddy! After lunch!"
Bella can't hide her long "Aww. That's so adorable." I hear her whisper. I find this interaction quite repulsive. Kids. Yuck.
"Of course I will, Suzy Q. Mummy has to leave to visit one of Mummy's friends, but, not to worry," He touches her nose, and picks 'Suzy Q' up, "we'll definitely have a great time." All the children nod their bobble-heads in happiness. They love their Daddy. How repulsive.
…Maybe I'm just bothered that I never really loved my parents like that. Maybe, but I'll never admit it.
"Now, go help clear the table and let Mummy and I visit our angel, okay?" Their angel? My eyes waver in confusion. The eldest boy (one of the twins), still only seven or so, nods quickly and leads all the others into the cottage. Bella and I stare at each, both with a confusion on who could be Will's and his wife's (or baby-maker's) 'angel'.
And soon enough, 'Mummy' comes out. My eyes split. A gasp erupts from me. I see Bella's eyes glisten in a certain kind of betrayal. This cannot be the future, can it? No, this definitely can not happen.
'Mummy', Will's wife, and baby-maker is an older version of… me. A girl titled Rikki Chadwick. Same baby blue devious eyes. Same tangles of perfectly blonde curls. But, different expression. She (I?) looks…happy. I look at her (my?) wrist. The scars have healed. By baby-making? Yuck.
I'm too involved in my own shock to realize Bella's eyes treading out vulnerability and her own shock… Will was supposed to be hers.
Future-Me runs out of the cottage (my future home?) and hugs Will. Damn, I look remarkably good for having tons and tons of little evil babies. Anyway, not the point. We…kiss. Hmm… And then, Will takes my hand, and they are leading each other…right where Bella and I are hiding.
We turn and hide on a different edge of the cottage, before getting slammed into cold gray rock; gravestone announcing a soul's death. Bella Iris Hartley. Rose to the heavens on the eve of April 17th. Will always be an angel to those who knew her magic.
Bella has died in this future. I take a glance at present (or past?) Bella, completely in the middle of her mind's chaos breaking down. Insanity. All of it. This can't happen, can it? All I can see is her body falling to Mako's streams. Did she die? Is this her afterlife? Seeing what happens? If so, why am I here? Is she wondering the same thing? I grab her hand and we run. And watch. Stare, really. The weird couple of Will Benjamin and Rikki Chadwick, myself. I'll be damned if I didn't keep my name…
Shit. Today, or the future's day. It's an anniversary. I realize this as Rikki and Will cradle each other, letting stray tears fall from their faces. Why is Bella's gravestone located in my future cottage (on a deserted island)'s yard? Oh well, I'll just go with the flow. At least I'm not dead…yet.
Will is talking. "Hey, Bells." Rikki (me) holds his hand. They both are staring at the hunk of rock or what's underneath it with such love. "We just thought, although I'm sure you know, how all the kids are doing. I know…if you were here today, things, although, they'd be different… We still cherish your memory and love your magical amazing soul." Will is about finish. He kneels down and places a solid red rose upon her gravestone. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice tears escape from Bella's eyes.
"I love you. We love you. And, here's to knowing that Bella Hartley will never be forgotten." For the moments after, Rikki (future) and Will (future) hug. I feel Bella trying to slip from my grasp, but I pull her back. I know for certain; we're not supposed to mess with the past, and definitely not the future. This might be a wrong future, but there's no reason to cause another breakdown…not to mention possibly allow me to lose my future husband to a (sort of) ghost. Did I just think that?
…My mind fails to reject the question… What if this is the future? Would I be so terribly disgusted by it? I know my answer, but I'm very sure Bella's is a whole different one.
. . .
Future-Me is leaving, temporary, anyway. Apparently, I have to visit a friend. I thought I didn't have any…, of course, as of where I left the present, I definitely didn't have a husband either. It's hard to pretend the tears in Bella's eyes aren't there, but what can I say? I didn't plan it this way.
I didn't plan this whole freak show at all.
I watch as myself, future-intoxicated, taken into a total terrible stereotypical world of wifely duties, babies, and strange ways of living on an island, kisses Will goodbye. A lot. As the children watch. Then I (she?) leave on a boat. It spirals in the ocean and whatever storms might come with it.
Bella and I have followed her (me?) upon the beach. I take Bella's hand because there's nothing else I can do.
"We have to follow her, or you… Where are you going?" I stare at Bella like she might be nearing insanity.
"Wouldn't you much rather stay with your long-lost love? And, how would I know? That future-me freaks me out! Yuck, how could I give birth like…four times? That is repulsive." I exclaim, shaking my head, high and proud.
"That is a 'natural process of life'," Bella sarcastically states, and we both laugh. For a moment, I feel I have redeemed our friendship. Even if fate decides Will will fall in love (or pretend to, anyway) with me after Bella dies. This isn't really what I plan as my hopes and dreams…
"If I were to die…, Rikki…. I would be glad that Will would have you and not any other skanky bitch…" Bella says quietly, and I offer her a smile.
"Well, thanks for the you're-not-any-old-skanky-bitch comment…but, hey, you're his angel. You know, if I married a guy and he referred to his ex-girlfriend as his angel, it'd be a major turn-off…" Bella looks at me like she doesn't know if I'm kidding, socially awkward, or nearing insanity. "Anyways, I think I'm into science geeks now." I state, braving the socially awkwardness that follows along with that statement.
Bella giggles! And I realize we might still be okay. Maybe, just maybe, we aren't almost-friends, but destined friends. And I am determined to not allow my only and first friend die. We're still holding hands, watching future-me's boat spiral off in the ocean, a distance away from where Will and the mini Wikkis are standing, still waving.
"Since we're basically in a totally screwed up world, I reckon it's time we fessed our secrets, don't you think, bestie?" I bite my lip. I'm unsure. Telling secrets is not my strong suit. But Bella's wobbling eyes tell me it isn't hers either.
"Fine. Since I'm not even sure this is real, I'll tell you. Guess it doesn't hurt. I already told my science geek…" Blushes. Again. Ugh, please tell me I'm not really into Lewis, am I? Does that qualify as a secret? I start. "I…cut myself. I'm not sure why I do it although I'm sure a professional could come up with a line although they have absolute zero experience. I'm sick of my life being kept in the dark, my parents keeping secrets, thinking I'm not good enough… Most times, I question why I'm here at all. So, with each cut, life eases for a bit… I… Nate, the pervert had a picture, video, oh what does it matter? He had it of me naked, and show all his boogery-wanker friends." Bella nods, but still seems startled by my blunt way of telling all these things that have haunted me for ages.
"There's probably more…but, I'm hoping that'll cover it…?" I add, and Bella's green eyes are still astray at my (future me's) boat in the ocean, heading mainland.
"I don't think it comes close to mine…but, hey…What are friends for?" I nod, and let out another giggle that has been surfacing my entire life.
"Rikki, the supernatural exists. All of it. Vampires, Demons, Witches,… Mermaids. They're all real." Bella expects a look of amused disbelief but all I give is intrigue. "I'm… I'm a mermaid." And with that crazy statement, Bella steps her foot in the waves. She falls to the ground, and I stare at her orange-scaled legacy of a tail. I'm smiling, ear to ear. Magic exists. Maybe, not all is lost after all…
"But…how?" I ask, speechless.
She just smirks. "At the right place, at the right time, magic can happen. I was in Ireland. I detested this secret. I then met Will. We fell in love, but I had to tell him. He offered to marry me, and said that his mum was part of a secret society that helped teenage immortals with no direction, like me. Who wanted rid of the secret.." I interrupt.
"But, why? Why would you hate this amazing secret?" I can't help but ask. It's a gift of pure magic, offering a spell of joy to the world… Why would she want to rid herself of it?
"That's just it, Rikki. I don't think I want to get rid of it anymore…" My future me's boat gets farther and farther away. "I like being a mermaid, but before any more a due, can we just…swim?" Bella is asking, with a smirk to her face like she takes the term to all new levels. With a grin, I nod. We sprint off into the water; her gliding, me holding on to her gliding tail. Best friends; outsiders; freaks. Whatever you call us, we're going to have a wicked good time in 2021. Sharing the same love interest or not.
. . .
We still intended to follow future-me (since this future's Bella was of little interest), and possibly cackle over my weird decisions. I never knew how sad and wicked the happenings of this day would be, for me, for Bella, for Emma, for everyone.
We soon figured out that future-me was on the mainland, click-clacking her (my) heels into a hospital building. We scurried at a careful distance after me, and came to a halt when future me entered the COMA WING. Bella and I stared at each other, both wondering; Who?
I saw a familiar blonde boy. So did future me. The blonde boy was more intelligent looking, much more cuter, but still just as sad. Future me ran into his arms and gave him a long hug. This was Lewis. I smiled. Goofy old scientific geek, Lewis. He was waiting around the Coma Wing as well. Futuristic me separated from his hug, and then we both walked into a patient's room together.
Bella and I followed, slit ourselves into the darkness between the windows; watching the difficult scene that was taking place. Emma. Lifeless, or sleeping. Who could tell which? The Gilbert mum, and Emma's brother, Lewis, and future me sat around the bed. They were all just…talking. Sobbing, maybe even laughing. And, Emma just lie there; a result of however fate ends this terrible game.
"What happened to her?" I whisper to Bella. And all she can to is start hiccuping. She's shaking her head rapidly.
"Rikki, the…the attraction of hatred, of…intrigue, it's still here, Rikki. For Emma and I." Bella looks pained as we stand here, as nonchalantly as possible; I know she wants to burst into the hospital room and start shredding Emma to bits. What if she already did that? Maybe that was why Emma, in this dark futuristic world, is in a coma, while Bella lies in a coffin.
"You have to fight it. You can't let yourself get you and Emma into these situations. This future, when, or if we ever get out of it…. When we get back, we have to make sure that this future never happens. Emma will not be in a coma. I will not marry Will and have tons of disturbing little munchkins, and you are not going to be dead. Okay?" I whimper, willing myself to believe that Bella and I have some hold and direction of fate. When truth argues, we don't. We're just souls amidst, floating recklessly as life creeps up on us. Maybe that's not all the way true. Bella is a freaking mermaid! Still, even magical souls get lost, obviously.
I realize my words did help though. Bella finds strength in them. She slowly nods. Then whispers, "I don't think I can bear being here, thinking about what might or might not have happened to make it this way… Can I…take a minute? I need to eat some chocolate." I giggle with a nod. Bella zaps herself to the closest (or is that farthest?) vending machine she can find.
I just want to watch. Watch grieving in process. Find out more about this futuristic me. Wonder why I've never actually seen myself (her) talk. Did she lose all direction and decide that she wasn't good enough to actually pursue her dreams (Of course, she did!), or did Will and her actually fall in love, coincidentally within the process of the aftermath of Bella's death? Were all these events set in stone? Or could the future be changed, based on decisions we make? Do we even have a choice in our destiny?
Suddenly, foot steps (loud, obnoxious ones at that) crowd the room outside Emma's hospital room. I slightly turn, and realize that this must also be an anniversary for Emma's coma state. A couple, so adorably disgusting, and disgustingly adorable struts in. Cleo. Zane. Cleo and Zane…? I almost start a hysterical fit of shock.
Firstly, they look way too dressed up to be going to an anniversary of a…coma? Cleo wears a yucky pink ruffled dress, while Zane clamps her as his accessory, complete in his leather jacket and annoyingly gorgeous smug face. Maybe I have a multiple boy crush disorder…
He holds some form of candies, the stuck up pleaser, as always; a surefire gift to make Mrs. Gilbert drool all over him some more. Cleo just looks….fucked up. Her face is red, eyes bloodshot. Oh please no… Cleo, do not get caught up in Zane's hedonistic ways! I sigh.
With this sigh, they both turn to me. Cleo looks numb; Zane intrigued, and just a little perverse. For a moment, I view a vision of lovestruck waft over him, and watch him loose his senses in mad desire for me… Until he realizes where he is, what he's doing, and that's he not in High School anymore… The years he met a strange fiery girl who had secrets, shared a rich neighborhood with her, and flirted, just occasionally. Not to mention 'tried' to stop his best mate from posting nude photos of me to all his friend's walls. Hmm, must have been his good old days.
Or not. He ventures near me, eyes in shock. Cleo tumbles after him.
"Hello, gorgeous." He dares a perverted pig whistle. "You look just like this girl I ended up fucking back in High School…." He smirks. I rise an eyebrow, finding amusement in all of this, until I realize…. Wait, what? Zane and I will not, ever, 'fuck'. Didn't he try to rape Cleo last…night? "Course she got married to this fish boy and pretended the twins were his…remember, my Cleopatra?"
I start cackling. Cleopatra! How…misplaced. Then I take in recognition of what he just said. So I wasn't as boring as the futuristic me appeared to be. That was calming. I hoped that futuristic Rikki Chadwick would still have the fire to break the rules… even though fire tends to leave you burned. Not in my case. But in Bella, and Emma's.
Right. The Prince of Darkness and his Cleopatra are expecting an answer. Well, he is. Cleo just looks like she's hoping to score some more drugs, relatively soon, or else she'll fall into a withdrawal induced coma. Who would know out of these four preppy perfect appearing girls, I would be the one less fucked up in the end? If you don't count living on an island, knowing girls who were fucked up, and lying about who is the father of my kids… I'm a saint.
"Well, that sounds alarmingly interesting…, so what'd you end up being after the four best years of your life? A successful business man so focused on his career, he's going to turn out exactly like all the other nameless tasteless rich faces… Blank, and boring? Or maybe you're a drug dealer, cause Cleopatra, here, doesn't look so good…." I cough, with a laugh. I'll apologize to Cleo for the jab later…maybe. If I see present her again. Futuristic her scares me.
"Hah. You're funny." Zane remarks. Cleo glares at me. Apparently, she doesn't think so. "Close. A bit of a combination of the two. I film some of the most successful films of the world…" This cracks a smile within Cleo, not to mention a roll of her eyes.
"Oh, really?" I find it hard to believe Zane is a director.
"Legit. Of porn, of course." He snickers, and Cleo tries remaining a smile. But my disappointed look creates the downfall of it. Is Cleo one of his…actresses?
"Wow. Breathtaking." I wit a sarcastic remark, planning to leave and find Bella. Maybe explore the futuristic shopping blocks.
"Yeah, you should come and audition sometime. Guys absolutely adored a chick like you in High School… Of course, I can't film a minor because that would be breaking the rules. Then again, I bet you like to break rules…" I stiffen, and watch as Zane takes out his wallet, hands me his card for disgustingly graphic productions, and offers me such a smirk; I find an urge to slap him.
"No." I say, then promptly tear the card in half. "And, when a girl says no…she means it." I take one last glance at Cleo; pity at the surface, offer Zane my best middle finger high dance, and strut off into the hospital halls. In search for a siren soon to be dead, if fate gets what it wishes.
. . .
No One's POV:
As Rikki walked in search of her new enchanting friend, Bella walked along searching for Rikki, believing that she could handle whatever life threw at her. Willing to change the future at all costs. As they, not meaning to, walked in opposite directions, Bella's eyes zoomed in on futuristic Rikki.
This Rikki had excused herself to take a call from Will. They had installed phone services in their little home of lies, and a red glow said that this call was urgent. Bella heard this tidbit of information:
"Rikki! Ohmygod, something's happened. Bella's grave…a monster…a monster's, some sort of siren came out. She hurt Suzie Q. She's going to destroy all of us. Rikki…, it's Bella. In some weird demented form. Bella's wheezing for help. I'm going to try and escape; the kids and I. But the Bella shadow could follow. I just want to say, if the shadow gets…gets the best of us… I love you. We all love you. Even though you've lied, we'll always love you even though the end…." Blurred blackness. ",is coming."
A/N: Well….I hope I left you at an appropriate gasp of OHMYEFFING_, how have things gotten this messed up? But, life is a wretched thing. And fate is even worst. So, help your fate a little by believing karma exists, and let out an enormous this-story-is-crazily-_, to let me hit karma back at you. xoxox.