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Chapter 10
House of Butterflies
My breathing was ragged as I shot awake, and I wasn't the only one. Sarah sat hunched over on her bed coughing with each breath. I moved to go help her, but before I could Rufus and Eddie plowed into the room. Sarah barely looked into her boyfriend's eyes as he came and sat with her.
"We all saw it, didn't we?" Rufus confirmed as he mindlessly rubbed Sarah's leg.
I nodded, "It was so…real. I felt like I was actually there."
"But you weren't," Eddie reminded moving in closer. "None of us were. It was just a dream."
Despite the insanity, I laughed, "Oh yeah. Because it's completely normal for four people to share the exact same dream."
"It wasn't the same dream though," Sarah shivered looking between us. "I mean I was in my body, and I'm assuming you guys were too." Our universal nod proved her correct. "So it wasn't a dream at all. It was a vision. That's going to happen, just not this very moment."
Sometimes I forgot that of all of us, Eddie was the newest, "So visions and dreams of the future. That common for you guys?"
Sarah and Rufus shook their head, but I had to speak up, "It's happened to me once before. I saw myself fall into the chasm in the tunnels, but that dream was Senkara induced. It also didn't come true. This is probably just someone or something messing with our minds."
"It's a good enough theory," Rufus admitted with a shrug and piecing glare. "But the question is who is this someone?"
Nobody spoke up because none of us knew. Not yet at least.
"You guys better go back to your rooms," I pointedly suggested of the boys. "If Mr. Rodenmaar finds you in here…"
"He will be quite furious," a familiar yet untested voice growled as the door swung open. "This is the kind of behavior I may have expected of you Mr. Miller with your lacking attitude, but you Mr. Zeno? I expected better from you. Still, if you four wish to be up at such an early hour who am I to stop you? Get dressed, all of you, NOW! Then report to my office for your punishment."
Mr. Rodenmaar quickly exited and Eddie and Rufus followed him out to get changed. I sighed, and turned on the light while Sarah worked to find me another dress. As she shuffled through the closet, a wave of nausea fell over me. "Oh my gods. He's going to hit us, isn't he? That's still legal! I'm going to get beaten in 1932!"
"Shhh," Sarah told me as she tossed over a yellow dress. "It's okay, remember? You're successfully dealing."
"I was!" I cried probably a bit too loud. "Until I was about to be beat, 63 years before I was born!" How could this possibly be happening to me? I wondered my breathing ragged. How did my life come to be so screwed?
"Nina, listen to me," Sarah demanded grabbing my shaking shoulders. "You need to keep it together. They look to you as their leader; you can't break down."
But I needed to break down. I needed to fall on my bed and cry and scream because doesn't a girl deserve that sometimes? I was so out of my depth, yet they all expected me just to stay calm and collected. How did I stay calm and collected in 1932?
"Nina!" Sarah cried shaking me. "Snap out of it before Eddie comes back in here and gets in more trouble."
"Why…why would Eddie come back in here?" I was in no danger, why would he come?
Sarah shook her head, "You know so much about some things and so little about others. How do you think the Osirian knows when we need protecting? When we get just a bit too upset, or happy, or anything really they feel it too. Extreme emotions set them off like oil in a fire. So unless you want Eddie knowing what we both do then get your act together!"
My breathing was still rough, but Sarah's words did the trick. For some reason, I didn't mind Sarah seeing me like this, but Eddie could never know. The rest of Sibuna needed to continue to believe I was completely in control of the situation. Otherwise, they might lose it too. "What do we both know?" I asked more testing my even voice than looking for an answer.
"That you're just a girl, even if you're a Chosen One," she answered with a smile. Offering a hand to help me from the ground, Sarah spoke again, "Come on. If we keep Mr. Rodenmaar waiting it will only be worse."
Right he'd only beat us twice as much.
"And Nina, he's not going to beat us." Wait what? "I mean yeah, he's going to hit Rufus and Eddie and it's going to be horrible, but he hasn't whipped me since I was a little girl no matter the offence."
For some reason, I laughed, "Hello, he's probably afraid of Rufus beating him silly. Forget Osirian, he seems like any other protective boyfriend."
Sarah smiled, "Yeah, he's good to me. He's going to propose you know. I was in his room the other day and saw the ring. I think he planned on doing it yesterday, but then you guys showed up and… Even if he had still asked, I probably would have said no though."
"Really? You seem to love him so much. Why would you not want to marry him?" Every look, every touch, it reminded me of what I had with Fabian. If he was to ask me today I'd probably be foolish enough to say yes. What was so different for Sarah and Rufus?
The girl sighed, "I do want to marry him. I want to marry him very much, but then I look at you five. You don't have to say anything for me to deduce the future; I can see it in your eyes. Patricia's especially. There's this look she gives him, and it terrifies me. Because she knows him, you all do, and you don't like him one bit, but for Patricia it's different. Eddie seems to hate him, but Patricia's terrified of him. How could I marry a man who'll someday strike such fear in anyone's heart?"
Oh gods, what had us coming back done? "Listen to me Sarah, and listen well. Time is fluid; we've already begun changing it. You're right, the Rufus we've met was not a good man, but the one waiting for us in that office is. He loves you and you adore him. The Rufus I knew was one without the guidance of a loving woman and I think that is what made the difference."
"You think I should marry him then?" the shell-shocked girl inquired. "If I get the option."
Maybe it made me a selfish person to council her as such, but I needed to make whatever good changes I can. "I think you need to make sure you have the option. There was no one to stop the Rufus I knew, so now there needs to be you."