Chapter 20

Phantina

I stumble back as I am tackled by Anya who is bombarding me with questions about my wing. I waved to Shadow but I don't think he saw, he was already walking off with Night and Blaze. Didn't Night want to talk to me? I pushed the thought out of my mind. I mean I know what Shadow said but, I don't know, he wasn't Night… I looked at the stuffed monkey in my hand and realized I hadn't heard a word of what Anya was saying, even though she was in mid-sentence I figured I should stop her before she gets too far. I pushed her away for a little air and kind of looked at her blankly.

"What…?" I say, kind of smirking. Anya gapes.

"You haven't been listening to me!?"

"uumm no?" I giggle a little "I'm sorry, I know this isn't the first time lately, I've just been thinking a lot" Anya nods and grins.

"Well I'd rather have you thinking than dead!" She looks at the stuffed monkey and
her face falls. "Did Shadow give you that?"

Oh no! what is she thinking?! She doesn't think this is some token of love right? I don't even think of Shadow like that! Before I know it I'm tossing the monkey into her arms like it's some sort of bomb.

"n-no! I mean, yes! But not for me! He wanted me to give it to you!" Anya catches it and blushes.

"r-really" I could tell she was happy, though she wasn't smiling, her eyes were glowing. I could feel myself smirking thinking about what Shadow told me, about him liking Anya. No, don't smirk!I was the worst at keeping secrets! Why did Shadow have to tell me! Shoot she's looking at me! Look away! Look away! I quickly turned my head and tried to think of things that made me unhappy so I could stop the stupid grin on my face your wings, you have no family, Night is mad at you, YOUR WINGS. The smile fell and I turned back to Anya who look concerned. No! Anya's expression! Its making you laugh! I knew there was nothing to be concerned about, which is why I busted out laughing. I must have looked insane to them! First smirking, then practically crying, then hysterical laughter. I started to laugh even harder at my behavior. Jaisa ran over to feel my forehead.

"Are you feeling okay?" she looked really worried. Tears of laughter were streaming down my eyes, it wasn't even that funny! But I've never laughed that hard in my life and I was enjoying it. I guess I had to answer her.

"y-y-yeah!" I barely giggled out between breaths. "I just thought of something really funny" I say, calming down finally, though still giggling here and there. Anya raises an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you didn't just breathe in some weird dust or something?" she looks around "I mean look at this place it's like a million years old!" She suddenly looks at me mischievously, "Maybe there are ghosts Phan!" I suddenly sit up. Okay I know this is ridiculous being all that I've, sorry, we've been through and all, but I totally believed in ghosts and their vengeance and stuff. I'm sure Anya was just trying to freak me out but, the thought just made me really uneasy.

"Um, a ghost?" I say. Jaisa starts to chuckle

"Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts!" she says. I kind of look at her wide eyed. Anya decides to answer for me.

"Shes been afraid of 'em for as long as I can remember!" she giggles, "maybe we can tell ghost stories tonight!" Jaisa nods excitedly.

"noooo you guys are so mean to me!" I say half pleading and half joking. Anya chuckles

"We take enough care of you! let us have fun!"

"Yeah!" Jaisa agrees. I sigh heavily.

"But if ghosts come all you guys can fly away and I'm trapped here! Alone! With the ghost!" I shiver.

"Sorry Phan" Anya says "looks like we have our plan for tonight! Besides, maybe Night will carry you away and be your Knight in shining armor!" she snickers at her play on words.

"Oh boy!" Jaisa claps "We'll have to tell the boys they will be so excited!" Anya nods and I sink into the corner. "We should cook dinner for them tonight too! They've done so much for us"

"I agree" Anya says, nodding and glancing at her monkey.

I groan and sink into myself. "noooo! I'm too tired to work in a hot kitchen!" I flop down. Anya and Jaisa get up and start to head to the kitchen.

"Okay Phan, then you can stay here all by yourself while Jaisa and I are in together in the kitchen" At those words I jumped up and sped after them.

"On second thought I think I will help out!" I say, linking arms with the both of them

Night's side chapter

Hiking why in the world would that little twerp suggest hiking I mean no offence to nature but, I'd rather be indoors. I hate walking, flying is much better. I kicked the dirt which flew up on to my boot. Great now my boot was dirty too. I looked up at Shadow, he looked too calm. How could he be enjoying this? Phantina was hurt and we have no idea what our next move is! And there was Blaze buzzing up the trail. He turned around, oh no, he was going to speak, I swear almost everything outta that kids mouth…

"HEY GUYS! WHY YA BEIN SO SLOW!?" Good Lord we weren't that far away! Shadow chuckles

"Why don't you come walk with us and enjoy the hike!?" Blaze stood there and shuffled his feet for a moment then came back to us.

"Gee Sie Jungs sind echte party poopers!" he said, overexagerating his facial expression. I adjusted my sunglasses and Blaze continued to blather on. I didn't know what he was saying, nor did I care. I mean don't get me wrong, I cared about him, he was just a royal pain in the butt. Shadow was chuckling about something, maybe I should tune in…

"I mean, if we're going to have her watched all the time, installing cameras could be helpful! And just think" he elbows both me and shadow. "We can install one in the shower, wer würde das nicht sehen wollen, etwas von diesem Zeug eh?" I shove him away and Shadow laughs. What made him so screwed up, I mean I guess I wouldn't mind…no wait, what was I thinking? I glared at Blaze, though he couldn't see through my sunglasses. Though I'm sure Shadow knew I was glaring.

"You know he's glaring at you right?" Shadow says to Blaze and points to me. Blaze looks surprised.

"He is!?" Suddenly Blaze was in my face trying to look through my glasses.

"Ah get off me!" I tried to push him away but he was being persistent. He was like a strange little dog!

"What do you know he is! Well surprise surprise Night's glaring, that's new why are you in a bad mood this time? In fact, you seem to have been down for a bit now…" Shadow nods agreeing with what Blaze is saying. No, Shadow is egging him on, blaze has that look in his eye and the corners of his mouth are twitching. Thank God Phantina wasn't here, or the other girls.

"No reason" I mumble

"I bet I know what it is!" Blaze pipes up

"Well what could that be Blaze?" Shadow asks smirking.

"I think its cause Phantina hasn't given him any in a few days!" I could feel my face flush and Shadow bust out laughing. "I guess she really blows you away!"

"Sh-shut up dweeb!" I say and push him away.

"Oh so dass er nicht leugnen!" Blaze says "Maybe we won't want those shower cameras after all!" he grins and elbows me.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I growl

"Well, I wouldn't want to accidentally catch you and Phan together, I don't need that much of a show!" He chuckles. Shadow looks at me, eyebrows raised with a huge smirk on his face.

"Alright funs over Madeline" I say.

"Madeline!?" he squeaks "you mean like the little French girl!?" I nod, he looks down and back up again. "I am no French girl!" I chuckle and look at the darkening sky. I pick Blaze up and turn him around.

"Yeah well, you're about as light and have as much muscle as one" I say chuckling "now come on time to go back!" Blaze frowns at me and stomps ahead.

"I can go on my own! In fact…" he spreads his wings "I 'll race you!" I look at Shadow, and Shadow looks at me. I could go for a little competition, I could show Blaze his place anyway

"Alright" me and Shadow both say, spreading our wings. Blaze look at us

"That really freaks me out when you guys say stuff at the same time you know…" he says. I shrug and take off.

"Hey no fair!" Blaze shouts and comes after me. I can hear Shadow swoop up behind and catch up. I sigh, well, Back to the mansion.

Phantina

Well for three people who had never really cooked before, we made a pretty good meal. I'd say it was thanks to the old cookbooks we found in one of the cabinets. We even had enough ingredients for dessert! I looked out the window and could see the boys flying our way, Night was in the lead. They were laughing and tumbling in the sky, my wing that wasn't lame twitched. I wanted to be out there with them so bad, I wanted to fly. I turned to Anya and Jaisa,

"The boys are coming in!" I say, pointing out the window. They both run up to look.

"They had better like this meal after all the hard work we put into it!" Anya says, putting her hands on her hips. Jaisa starts to set things out nodding in agreement with Anya.

"And I cant wait to tell them out plans for tonight!" Jaisa states, looking at me and smirking.

"You guys love to torture me don't you!?" I say, half smiling. Anya pats my back

"Oh yes, we like it a lot!" she says chuckling. I sigh

Suddenly Blaze bursts through the doors of the kitchen "…You cheated!"

"I did not cheat" Night says following with Shadow "you just weren't ready!"

Blaze opens his mouth to say something, but instead sniffs the air "hey, what smells so good?" he looks at the table "FOOOOOOD!" he grins and races into a chair. Jaisa, Anya and I all chuckle. Night and Shadow sit down calmer.

"where did you guys get this, with Phan's wing being like it is?" Shadow asks, rubing his hands together.

"We made it!" Jaisa says, interrupting whatever Anya was going to say.

"Wow" Night says "looks great! What's out here…?"

This time Anya jumps on the chance to answer "we found this old cookbook! And we just made what dishes we could, so there is beans with tomatoes and Swiss Chard, Chili, Dal and Pumkin soup, and a vegetable salad" they all make faces at each other at the sound of the last one.

"vegetables!?" Blaze whines "do I gotta eat 'em?"

Anya folds her arms "If you don't, you don't get the special dessert we made!"

Next thing I knew all of them were jumping for the salad, with things like "I like radishes!" and "carrots aren't so bad" being said amongst them. We rarely did get dessert though, so this was a nice treat.

After dinner, and the really, really good dessert, we all sat in the living room. Night and Shadow started a fire, they of course were psyched to tell ghost stories, while I huddled in the corner. I brought my knees up to my chest and prepared for the worst, it didn't help that the mansion had no electricity, the gas lamps weren't really working either, so the fire was the only light we had. Night came and sat in-between Jaisa and me, this made me feel slightly more comforted. Blaze snickered and sat on the other side of Jaisa, and Anya and Shadow sat on the other side of me. Anya hadn't told Shadow, Blaze, and Night about me being so freaked out, so I stayed quiet as well. I didn't need any of them finding another reason to get under my skin after all. I hoped that we wouldn't even get to me when it came to telling ghost stories, I mean I'm a good story teller (obviously if you're reading this ;D) but not when it comes to ghost stories. Here is a little sample so you know:

Once there was an abandoned barn, a silver haired lady who worked there dies mysteriously one night, if you go to a barn you might hear her spirit ooooo!

As you can see, my skill is un-paralleled.

Blaze speaks up suddenly "I'll start!"

"Okay" Anya says, and everyone agrees.

Blaze starts "I call this one, The Strip Club Murderer!" Night groans and Shadow chuckles.

"Come on, be serious!" Jaisa says

"I am being serious, just listen…"

And so we told stories until really late. I'm not going to waste your time probably re-telling stories you've already heard, but let's just say I was scared silly, and if it wasn't so dark, I'm sure everyone would be concerned about how pale I'd become. We all trekked upstairs and said our goodnights. Jaisa volunteered to stay in my room to watch over me for the night and we all went into our separate rooms.

Hours later I still wasn't asleep, I kept hearing noises, and seeing shadows move, I was so freaked out. Maybe if I just talked to Jaisa for a bit…

"psst Jaisa, are you up?"

No answer

"Jaisa? Jaisa!"

Still nothing. I crept out of bed, and shook her "Jaisa, wake up!" …nope, she was far gone in the land of dreams. Maybe I could go into Anya's room for the night…I mean she's my sister, she shouldn't mind. Suddenly I heard a big crash and my whole world was shook. I rocketed to Anya's room, (or what I thought was Anya's room) and fled under the covers, I snuggled up against the wall and curled up into a ball, shaking. Now I was with Anya, and I'd be safe.

When I woke up the next morning, it was definitely not Anya who I was in bed with, it was Night! I slowly looked up to see Blaze and Anya standing over the bed. Blaze had a huge smirk on his face and Anya's eyebrows were raised.

"Boy if you wanted someone to sleep with, you shudda come to my room!" Blaze says, making me blush

"N-no! I thought this was Anya's room!"

"Night and I switched last minute" she says, sort of chucking now. Suddenly Night started to stir. Oh man, what was I gonna do?! And what was that crash last night…?

Things Blaze is saying

you guys are real party poopers

who wouldn't wanna see some of that stuff eh?

Oh so he does not deny it!