My Two Worlds - 14
Sorry for the wait, characters did something unexpected the last few chapters so was fixing plot holes and reshaping some bits. Your next chapter ladies and gentlemen,
"You got all your stories down right?" Yan Lin asked them all.
"Yes." They each replied in turn.
"Good, because I believe I just heard brakes squeel and I didn't know they could make that sound."
"Here we go," Taranee began just as the doors to the restraunt flew open. The Guardians were all sitting at a table in the front and had a clear view of the relief on their parent's faces. Well, most of their parent's faces.
"Will!" Her mother cried and ran forward to hug her before the girl could even stand up. The chair almost fell over from the haste of the purple haired woman wrapping her arms around her.
"Ow." Will replied making her mother jump back.
"What do you mean ow?" Then her hands were flying all over her. "What happened to you? Did those people hurt you?" It didn't take long for her to find the welts on her daughter's back.
The reactions of the other parents were vastly similar. Irma's mom and dad had flocked to her as she had the most noticable scars. They kept asking if she was okay and her father was demanding descriptions of the men that had done this to them. Hay Lin's parents seemed even more crazed.
"Your nails! And what's that on the back of your head?"
"Uhh, blood?" Hay Lin was crushed by her mother and father after answering the question. Her mom was crying hysterically soon after with the husband and Hay Lin trying to calm her down.
"Taranee! Are you okay? Where did they hurt you?" The girls parents had rushed to her with their own questions.
"I'm fine. Really." Taranee assured them. "They didn't hurt me at all."
"What do you mean?" Her mother asked. "You were gone for two full days!" Her father added. "The school called saying you weren't in then no one knew where you were. Plus your friends were missing too-"
Taranee quickly interupted her to stop the flow of words as her mother seemed to be getting worked up. "I'm not hurt, I swear. uh. Cornelia, she protected me from getting hurt." she added quickly to stop her mother from going on. Everyone had been looking at the Cook family since they were the craziest of them all, but now they looked to Cornelia.
She stood in the corner awkwardly having moved toward the entrance slowly around them after grabbing her robe. Her parents were still on vacation afterall so no one hovered around her nit picking at the bruises you could clearly see between her tank top and skirt, plus the one wrapped along her leg.
It seemed to shock the other families that hers wasn't there. Taranee's mother cleared her throat. "You protected my daughter?" she asked, not seeming to completely believe it. Well, she was just another girl and they were missing for two days. So Cornelia didn't exactly feel insulted by the question just panicky because she didn't know how to answer.
Thankfully Taranee jumped up with an explanation. "Yeah. She stayed with me the whole time cause I was terrified what they would do to me. They took us individually and when they came for me she stood up to them. Even practically clawed one guys eye out." A few eyes dropped to her hands, one covered in gauze with a layer of dirt over it and the other with strips of blue cloth tied along the finger tips.
"All of you sit down so I can get the stories straight."
"Dad," Irma began.
"I need it for my report and... I'll start with you Cornelia." He paused glancing at her hands. "Are both of those from the past few days?"
Cornelia blinked at him. "Ummm no. I punched a wall the day before that's why I have the gauze."
His brow raised. "You punched a wall?" He was suddenly a cop rather than a father though he did look concerned at her first answer.
"I... got mad and kinda hit the brick and then my hand needed a bandage but I couldn't find any so I settled for gauze." The next question he asked her was about the bruises, how she got them, why she got them. "When I was standing up for Taranee they grabbed me instead and pulled me into their.. torture room," Damn this next part was going to sound odd, Yan Lin was right about how hers was the hardest to explain. Heck, if you looked close enough at her skin you could see the impression of scales there. "and clamped this metal around my leg to keep me in place. Then placed this thing around my waist and slowly crushed me with it." Even to her ears it didn't sound real.
The cop stared at her for a second, his expression switching from pity to disgust with the people that would do such a thing to his daughter and her friends. "That's all I need from you." Cornelia nodded and slung her robe over her shoulders careful not to draw the hood up. "Wait. You shouldn't go out by yourself. They could come back for you."
Her ears seemed to beat with her heart. She and the others knew that wouldn't happen, but how was she suppose to explain that. Biting her lip for a moment she opened her mouth to answer, only stopping when her phone buzzed. Her gaze darted to it as did everyone elses. A simple bright C highlighted the screen. She grabbed it, pressing the answer button and held it to her ear. "Hey-"
"Where have you been the last two days? You trying to give me a heart attack?"
Her eyes widened for a moment at the sound of Cedric's voice though she had known it was him of course. Then a soft smile crept its way across her expression she could hear Hay Lin make a cute little 'aww' sound. "I'm fine. Just, went for a bit of an adventure the last few days." Which was a complete understatement but she didn't want him to worry about her.
"A little adventure? I called you a hundred times and you never answered me."
"I wasn't in phone range?" she stated it like a question.
"Where are you now?" The concern was evident in his voice and it sent her stomach fluttering even though a dull throb of pain went through her every other second.
"Umm," she trailed off unsure. The Earth Guardian didn't want him to see her like this. All bruised up and mangled as her hands were.
"Cornelia?" He persisted.
"The Silver Dragon. Just, wait outside for me." The last thing she needed was him coming into the building and being questioned by the cop.
Who upon her hanging up the call asked, "Who was that?"
"Well by the blush on her cheeks I would say it's her boyfriend." Hay Lin replied with a soft giggle.
"I need to question him too."
Cornelia paled, not because he had something to do with the torture cause he totally didn't. He was earth bound, literally. It was from the fact that he was nine years older than her. What would Irma's dad think of that? Hell, what would any of the parents think? "He's just coming to pick me up and take me home. I'll be in his car so I'll be safe and those bad people won't get to me." She rambled quickly pausing to slip out the door when she heard brakes squeel even louder than the others had.
She could hear Irma's father asking her friends why she was acting so weird just now but she didn't stay around to listen to Hay Lin explain that Cornelia always acted that way when her boyfriend was near. Or how she went on about how he was really cute and that-no the bad guys wouldn't attack her with him around.
Instead she opened the passenger door and slipped right into the comfy seat closing the door firmly behind her.
"Cornelia." The voice was heavy in her ear and she turned to have her lips caught in his. He was really good at that. A hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her slightly over to the drivers side as he kissed her even deeper before leaving soft pecks all over her face. She smiled at the soft caresses his lips brought to her flesh but then flinched when his hand tighened to much on her lower abdomen.
She moaned softly, in pain.
He released her from his grip and glanced down at her waist. His fingers pulled the robe from her to touch the black and blue marks gingerly, but he didn't ask what had happened to her instead he looked up into her eyes and kissed her cheek again. She giggled. "Buckle up." he said turning from her to the rode and starting the engine. She did as told and sat quietly next to him as he drove through Heatherfield much more smooth than before.
Her lips curled up into a delicate smile. "You got better while I was away."
"Yes." he answered, knuckles white from clentching the steering wheel so hard.
She didn't notice until they were out of town though. Fields sprawling out ahead and she was confused at the sight and turned to him. She gasped softly. "You should loosen your grip on that." He did, after an extended second. "Where are we going?"
"You don't remember?" His hand left the steering wheel for a moment to grab two tickets out from the cup holder. "Carnival."
"Oh. Right." She said and reached out to take them from his grasp so he could go back to manuevering the car along the rode. Her tongue drew along her dry lips. "I... went camping. Sorry I forgot to tell you." She went with Hay Lin's excuse instead of her grandmothers. Wouldn't want to terrify him with a story of being kidnapped by supposedly normal twisted men. Nope, her friends got prince twisted. How royal.
He didn't say anything in response to that though and his hands were white again. Cornelia reached across the space to rest her hand on his when the car halted into a parking space.
"Cedric? Are you okay?"
He glanced at her, then down to the mark on her leg, then away. "I'm fine." he replied but it sounded half hearted as his fingers grabbed one of the tickets.
Cornelia swallowed somewhat as he opened the door and got out. She pushed her own door open quickly and closed it to follow him toward the line. He was acting so strange suddenly. Ever since he saw the bruise marks. Her lower lip trembled and she wondered if she should just tell him the truth. But it would sound ridiculous to him, a once General of some counrties army. How could he ever believe her? That she fought her own war with an evil prince and that's how she got the marks. That must be what was bothering him.
"Hey, you came. Wow what did you do the rest of the week?" She turned to see the waitress from before dolled up in a cow girl outfit with accessories gone wild.
It made her self consious of her own outfit, and the fact that the only thing she had done to clean herself up was run water from a sink through her hair to get all the dirt out. Besides that, she had nothing. Was still wearing the blank tank top that thankfully didn't show much dirt on it because of the dark color, but her skirt... She hitched the robe down and tied the arm part around her waist in a bow. It fell over the rest of her skirt and covered up the bruise on her leg, doing nothing for what was around her waist though. "Yeah. Punched a wall, fell from a tree, the usual." She was contiuing to make stuff up and lie.
The girl just laughed. "Sounds like a few of my earlier days out here. It can get pretty wild." She paused. "You can't tell this is a halloween costume can you?"
Cornelia blinked then smiled. "Nope." she assured the older girl who grinned at her before taking her ticket and stamping her hand.
"You should catch up to your hunk."
Gratefully she nodded and walked quickly into the carnival, glancing around at the dizzying lights as it had grown dark over all the time she had been out of Meridian. It had certainly flown. She glanced around for a few moments before she spotted Cedric and walked over quickly. "Cedric." she called to him, waving her hand.
He glanced up from some sort of money exchange that gave you coins for the rides and games. The fact that his eyes went to her waist first before her face didn't escape her and she bit the inside of her cheek. Guilt was tearing it's way up through her as she came to a stop beside him. "Was just getting come coins since you were busy talking." he told her, calmly but without that usual spark in his eyes.
Her stomach dipped further. It was probably a bad idea but she needed to make this right. "Cedric, about-"
His hand wrapped around her wrist. "Let's go to the ferris wheel first."
She glanced at him from behind her eyelashes as they walked over, him handing out a coin that the carnival goer took then ushered them inside the ride before pulling a new cart up and stopping for another person to get on.
Cornelia sat on the wooden bench with a thin pillow covering and winced slightly at the spark of pain in her right side. She sat quietly as they moved up once more when the other was filled as well. There was still two more it looked like before the ride would actually begin.
"Corn-"
"Cedric," she stopped after realizing he had begun to speak.
His gaze was on her for a moment before he simply said, "Ladies first."
Cornelia would have laughed at his gentlemanly manor if in a different situation. She took a breath and wet her lips with her tongue. She put her hands together, wrestling with her fingers. How was it that she only ever got nervous around him? "About the last few days," She pushed away any rational thought that would stop her from telling him. "I wasn't camping or anything like that." Her fingers twitched against eachother. Gosh, she was going to sound like a mad woman. "I... wasn't on Earth." At these words his head turned away from her and she faltered for a moment. He already thought she was crazy! "Me and my friends, we went to this place called Meridian. I would have come back sooner like usual but there's this rebellion were helping with and we got caught by this evil prince's army and thrown in the dungeons. That's not how I got the bruises though I was... fighting this snake who is now on our side since my best friend Elyon-who is the rightful heir to the throne-told us earlier today. We escaped soon after that and were busy getting some stories straight for the cops since Irma's father is one and Yan Lin came up with the wild idea that we got all beaten up by random kidnappers." She finished having rushed through most of her words but slowing down at the end. Her gaze flickered back to him wondering what his reaction would be.
She heard him sigh after a few seconds and kept her eyes on him as he turned back to her. "Cornelia," His hand reached out to grab her hand and she wrapped her fingers around his hoping it meant he wasn't going to breakup with her. Afterall what would he want with a teenager that seemed to make up stories as excuses when she was gone? "I need to tell you something as well." Her heart plumeted for a moment then she stopped slowly floating back up. His words so far hadn't said anything about not believing her, in fact it seemed like he was kindof avoiding her statement from moments before.
"You think I'm crazy." she spoke up before he could continue, grip on his hand loosening. Cornelia suddenly wanted to run away from him but she was currently trapped in the ride they were on and well above the ground to top it.
"No no." He said quickly while holding her hand more firmly. She blinked at him through her eyes that had begun to blur and burn with the tears welling up inside. "It's not that." Even with his words she was still doubtful of that. How could he not think that of her? She traveled between worlds while he stayed here on Earth. "I never actually quit the army. I'm still a General-"
"You... have to leave?" She asked, interupting him once again. The fact that he had lied to her about getting out of the army didn't even cross her mind she was more worried that he was going somewhere else. A tear escaped her and she brushed it away quickly with the palm of her hand. "Sorry. You were saying?" Her voice was softer now to hide that she was upset. After all the time they had spent together and she hadn't even told him... "I love you Cedric." she said quickly just so she could get it out there and in the open.
He looked semi-shocked at her words but gave a smile. His hand raised to her face, touching her skin tenderly. "I love you too."
Those words sent her heart fluttering only to slam back down. He had been trying to say something before. "What do you mean about still being a General?" Was his duty going to rip him away from her?
Cedric paused looking as if he was trying to come up with the best way to tell her about the situation. "I took some time off the past few weeks but I still have to go back to my position and the location I was at before."
"So your going away?" Cornelia asked as more tears escaped at that news.
"Uh yes, back to... Meridian."
For a moment she was confused. Had he just said Meridian? No, he couldn't possibly have. He just got it mixed up because she had said that and he was still thinking about what she had said in some corner of his mind. Yes, that must be what happened. "Where?" she asked wondering what country it was.
He looked almost pained at her question. "Meridian." She stared at him. "I'll still see you though. We do work together now and I plan to keep the bookshop going while I'm away. Just hire someone to help out or something."
Cornelia blinked slowly. What? "How do you know about Meridian? And what do you mean working together now?" She felt like her two worlds were suddenly collidiing as if her life were suddenly shattering in peices around her. He.. wasn't from Earth then. Wait, General, from Meridian. "You worked for Phobos before Elyon." The puzzle pieces were snapping quickly back together. To think she had actually found someone in her own world that understood her... thinking she had two seperate lives, but it was all one? Her mind was boggled by it but she still couldn't run away and collect herself while the ride continued to go.
"Yes." he said gaze dropping back to her waist and she suddenly understood why he hadn't asked where she had gotten the bruises from. Well, duh, of course he made them himself in that last fight. Huh, that was a disturbing thought.
"I'm bruised because of you." she snapped before she could stop herself.
He gave another sigh. "I didn't want to hurt you Cornelia but Phobos does still think I'm his General and not Elyon's. I have to play the part and you being the last Guardian in the clearing I had to make it believable." His fingers fell from her hand to touch the bruise.
Her heart pumped furiously within her. Though her mind was racing going back to everything that had happened after she had met him. She had suddenly been helped by a stranger in the Mizaki Mountains when trapped within to freeze to death. But it hadn't been a stranger. It had been him. Which meant the robe she had on slung across her waist had been given to her from him. The fact that he had passed her in the castle clearly seeing her but not saying anything. The pouch of fruit had to be from him as well. Then there was that dream she had had with him telling her to look for the way out of the cell. He was the one that told Elyon her cell was faulty. How had she not noticed? He had known she was a Guardian this whole time while she was left in the dark. "How... how could you not tell me?" she asked, lip quivering.
"Hi my name's Cedric but where I come from they call me Lord Cedric and I'm in charge of this army of disturbing looking creatures among other things. I work for the evil prince you fight against over on Meridian. Well, not anymore now I work for your best friend and am trying to dethrone Phobos so I can put him in a dungeon or kill him. Whichever the Queen wants. Between you and me I think he should be gone for good. Let's backtrack to when we first met though and tell you just the first part though. Would you still have gone out with me Cornelia Hale?"
She blinked at him again but this time no tears fell. Damn, that sounded ridiculous. She had really been dating what her friends called lizard boy all the time? Hadn't Irma made some joke after the first time they saw him and Yan Lin explained that he wasn't always in that form that it was good news for his wife? "I... I guess not." She probably would have run off immedietly to tell her friends but then again after telling her that he probably wouldn't have let her go. It did make sense why he wouldn't tell her. She knew she would have freaked at that.
"That's why." His hand along her face moved to tip her chin up and keep her eyes on his after he spoke. She gazed into the violet depths and remembered for a moment that the color was actually more common back on Meridian. Her lips clamped together but she ended up laughing anyways. Cedric looked shocked at the action but then just smiled. "Will you stay with me anyways?"
She broke off her laughter at his question. Her throat constricted. Hadn't she wanted someone from Earth? Isn't that orginally one of the reasons why she had gone out with him? Still she could feel the fluttering of butterflies in her belly as she looked at him. That had to count for something even if he wasn't from her planet. She had used to like Caleb though so really that part was like that. A moment ago she had said she loved him. He technically still was that person just with some mysteries solved. Right? "Yes." she murmured.
His lips descended on her, touching at her cheeks, the bridge of her nose, forehead, before landing on her lips. She drew her arms up around him as it stretched on.
Well? What did you think?