Hey guys, sorry to take so long. I could tell you a story about how I went to Florida for Spring Break, and how… Naw, that's a different story. I've got one to tell now.
Toast is Lana del Rey- Blue Jeans
The sun rises in the east. Like always. Isn't there a song about that? The sun rises in the east, sets in the west… Oh, whatever. I'm sure there is a song about that, but that's no tune. That's just something I made up.
It does, though. I know it isn't healthy, but I've been waking up early every day for the last couple days, watching the sun come up. Its brilliant hues projected against the backdrop of creation itself, against the sky…
It's something to see. Or is it something to look at?
I haven't been paying my attention to the news, like I should be. It's just, getting to drag on, I guess. We can only train so much before we have to find the others, wherever they are in the world. And we have that rock. Two postulates that the Mogs, as we suspected, have Six's chest somewhere. Got it when they had here captured in New York, or basically any time in the eight-month time gap between when Six dropped it and when she found it again. The problem is getting it open.
Magic is supposed to be unconditional, right? Right, sunshine, that's cresting across the grass towards me like a wave? You have the answers, right… Those chests aren't supposed to open, under any circumstances. Unless we die, then they're fair game.
But she did.
I sit up. The light wave pulses towards me, swamping over the Greek landscape. Six did die. She was dead for a second, maybe thirty. What if that was enough time to unlock the chest, but not to give the order to destroy? Or something insane like that?
That makes sense! The process of turning the things to ash was interrupted somehow, because Six died for twenty, thirty seconds. Then she was there again, to, what, cancel the destruction? Do the chests somehow have a faster than light communication with us or something?
No, no, maybe that's it. The delay itself is what stabbed it. Or some kind of magical re-register? Taking an inventory, whoops, no Six, better destroy the chest. Thirty seconds later, taking inventory, whoops, Six is there! Stop destroying the stuff!
Yes! That's why!
"Thank you, Sunshine!" I say in astonishment. See? A little sunshine does stand up to it.
"Sunshine, what'd it do?" Five. I glance back at our hut to see him sauntering out and into the tall grass around. He's in relatively-new jeans and a t-shirt, grey, with a jacket over it. I thought I'd never say it, but he looks baller. Like a skull basher or something. He's more than tan enough for it now, after spending pretty much every waking moment in sun and not worrying about burning because I'm here.
We're all actually tan. I've been pale as a ghost my whole life, being locked away in the convent. The only sun I got was burning, in the forms of reflection on the ample snow or from playing outside too much without sunscreen. But now, I don't even have to worry about that.
It's astonishing, really. This place we're in. The hills roll along and the grass sways in the breeze, orange and green reflecting off it, dew shimmering across the field. A lone tree sprouts up across a hill far away. We went over there, once, a while back. Me and Three together. There's a worn out tire-swing from ages ago, JCPenny printed across it in antiquated lettering.
"Can you believe it, a tire swing! All the way out here, too, in the middle of BF Greece," He had said when we first saw it, in that Afrikaan accent of his.
"Haha, BF? What's that for?"
He shrunk down at that, eyeing me guiltily. "Are you sure? I always thought you were pure."
"Me? Pure? Please. I've killed people-"
He looked down at the grass. "Yeah."
"That's, not where I was going with that." I pointed at him, poking him in the chest. "Don't be such a downer, right? You've been kinda quiet since we revived you, what's up with that?"
That whole day was spent with him and me at the tree, him telling me about how he grew up and never really talked to people. He didn't' move around as much as us, because he didn't think he needed to. He and his Cepan pretty much stayed in place for the majority or his Adolescence, actually. Until one day, when he met a friendly caretaker named Adam and asked him to B-Ball.
His face lowers at that. It's a strange reaction, since he's hanging upside down from a branch, so his mouth inverts, but the frown is clear. "If I had known what he was, who he was, I would have… Actually, if what you say about this boy is correct, I'm not sure what I would do. And One, living in his head? That just seems like a crazy idea to me. But his Mogorat friend, on the other hand…"
I chuckle. "Mogorat? Is that what you and your Cepan called them?"
He looks at me seriously. "Aren't they?"
"Mog seems shorter."
"It is."
"Then why don't you do that?"
He jumps out of the tree, flipping and landing upright. "This seems like the least important thing to inquire about, Marina of the Sea."
"Hey, chill. Just trying to learn about you, right? I've known you longer than I've known John or Nine, and I still know so little about you. Why do you guard yourself?"
He turns away, stalks forward with purpose, and stops at the crest of the hill. "If I told you that, it would not be guarding."
That was that.
"Can't even believe this."
Snapping back to reality, "Huh?"
Five motions to the hills. "This. It's like a scene from the big screen, CGI'd within an inch of its freaking life, but it's real! And we, of all the tortured souls to find it, did!"
I grunt. "Deep."
He turns back around. "You thinkin about something?"
What, tell him how Three is so closed? I think he's noticed. "No," Shaking my head. "Nothing."
He waits a moment longer, before, "Alright, fine. Don't talk. But we need to. I'll go wake the others. We have to get out of here, as great as it is."
He sticks around, like he wants to say more, then decides against it and marches into the hut.
Short and Sweet. I'm not dead. As always, like it up, review, please. Each review means a lot to me, it's validation for the work I put into making these chapters.
See ya later
