CHAPTER 48: Hidden Truth

"Hello? Are you alive?"

Those were the exact words that woke me up as I realized that I had cried myself to sleep.

"H-huh . . . ?" I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes and saw the door slowly, but surely, moving.

"Elyssia, are you in here?" Peater asked as he walked into the room, with Elias behind him.

"Well, where did you think I was? On the island?" I quipped as I stood up, only to mysteriously collapse on the floor.

Thanks a lot, weak aunt.

"And that leads me to my next question: What. The. Hell. IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Peater yelled, punching my face.

"A LOT! Now who's having cognitive decline ― me or you?"

Elias gave me an offended look before helping me up to my roots.

"I know how many flaws you have, Elyssia: You've got a temper fit for Zomboss. You've got a sharp tongue. You're bad mannered (no offense). You're a "my way or the highway" type of girl. You're basically part of the criminal division of plant society. You are a creature of impulse. But think about it ― you're such a strong girl, Elyssia. In point of fact, you're willing to give up your life and your comfort for the sake of the greater good. Not to mention you're the Coponeva Insuperabilis. Those two qualities, along with this prophecy, outshine the bad light of your flaws." Peater whispered, Elias nodding furiously in agreement.

"So what? It's something that's common in what remains of Toronto! It's something called the right thing. It's not something that deserves the Nobel Peace Prize!" I yelled.

I whimpered in pain not long after as I realized that my head had a gash on it, and it was leaching with blood. No wonder I had collapsed. Peater found a needle, some thread, and stitched up the wound. When I didn't react, his eyes welled up with tears of hurt as he stepped away and turned around to walk out the door.

"Elyssia . . . to make a mistake is plantly, but to forgive and forget is divine." Elias whispered as he put a leaf on my shoulder.

As I grasped the true meaning of the words that Elias just uttered, I impulsively grabbed Peater and kissed his cheek. Eyes shining, he returned the favour, and hugged me.

"Please . . . find it in your heart to forgive me and my wretched ways . . . I love you more than you could ever realize, and it would be impossible for me to live without you." he murmured.

"I forgive you, Peater, and I love you. I really do." I replied.

"Just . . . let's try to control our tempers, capisce?"

Peater laughed at my crack and tightened his embrace.

"What's going on here?" I mumbled, three hours later.

"Elyssia, it's about time that I've taught you some . . . stuff. You're a very special girl, Elyssia." Elias began.

Just then, several desperate thumps resounded on the wall.

"FAATHEERR! LET ME IN, PLEASE!" I heard Peater scream.

"You'll see her in a few minutes, Peater! Calm down!" Elias chided through the wall.

"So . . . that wall just erected itself?" I wondered aloud.

"In a way. But that, I won't teach you." Elias replied, before waving his leaf back and forth three times before conjuring a metal pole.

I cringed in fear, thinking that this was all a trick. When Elias saw my fearful expression, and heard my slight whimpers, he put the pole down and walked over to me.

"Elyssia, why are you afraid of metal poles? Do you have any frightening memories that . . . concern metal poles?"

I shuddered and nodded as a few tears rolled down my cheeks, but I didn't bother to wipe them.

"In almost every haunting memory that I've had, I've been hit with a metal pole at least once. Sorry if I seem like a damn coward, Elias. I guess I'm not that special girl that you thought I was." I whispered.

Elias just chuckled and put a leaf on my shoulder, causing me to flinch.

"I know that you're special. It's not your fear of metal poles, and it's not your inability to listen right away. N-no offense . . . !"

I sighed as my eyes found the floor. "None taken. But . . . you're right ― I'm always like that. I'm the broken mirror that you don't wanna look at . . . right?"

Elias bit his lip, and muttered something that I couldn't fathom. Finally, he forced me to look into his green eyes.

"Elyssia, look at me. Your temper is very useful as a weapon, and . . . I can see it in your eyes: You want someone to actually pull out all the stops for you, so that you can do something kind in return. And then . . . here we are ― my way of apologizing and showing you that someone actually cares."

I smiled, and wiped away tears of joy.

"Don't cry, girl! Now, let's get going, shall we?" Elias laughed.

I joined in the laughter, while hearing groans from the other side of the wall. Finally, Elias got serious.

"All right, Elyssia. One thing you must learn is nonverbal communication. Telepathy, if you will."

I clapped my leaves and grinned, the same way I did whenever I was about to learn a new thing.

"Now, to talk via telepathy, you just imagine the plant ― or person ― you want to talk to, and then scream what you want to say in your head. It's difficult at first, but you'll get used to it." Elias explained.

I suppressed a groan ― whenever someone said that I'd get used to something uncomfortable, the opposite always happened. Finally, I decided to give it a shot.

Is this how you do it?

Elias smiled, and pinched my cheek.

"Clever little snowflake . . ." I bit my lip and clasped my leaves together. Nobody ― not even my own damn parents ― had called me "Snowflake" after Adria and Alana died.

"More! More!" I squealed, like an excited sprout.

"All right. Now this'll be hard. Are you ready?" Elias asked.

I nodded. Without a word, he moved the metal pole back and forth across the room.

"That, my friend, is telekinesis." I gasped in awe.

"Wow! I wanna try it!" I exclaimed.

Biting my lip to concentrate, I looked at the pole and I managed to move it halfway across the room when I was beginning to feel drained.

"Getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?" Elias scolded playfully.

"Sorry, I just thought about how useful this'd be." I replied, blushing a little.

"Well, you got it, but you must be a bit more relaxed, all right?" Elias said.

"Well . . . one last thing before we take down this wall. It's very easy, no worries. Now, I need you to imagine anything you want. It can be a rock, a knife, or anything."

I closed my eyes, and imagined a wall of snowflakes. When I opened my eyes, I was shivering, and there was a wall of snowflakes dancing in front of me. The snowflakes did not flurry around the room ― they just danced up and down. Nodding with an air of curiosity, Elias shot a pea at the snowy wall, which deflected and hit him.

"W-wow . . . you are gifted . . ." he mused.

I then proceeded to punch the air victoriously.

"Thanks, Elias! I'm gonna beat up ―"

"Hold your horses, Elyssia! I didn't teach you this so that you could go around beating plants up when they make you mad! Promise me that you won't try anything bad with these things, and only use these abilities to defend yourself from evil, capisce?" Elias yelped.

"Oh . . . okay. I promise!" I chirped, drawing an X in the air.

"Now run along!" Elias coaxed me out of the room.

I smiled to myself as I blissfully moved a pebble up and down as I lay down on a rug to sleep. But even as I tried to use the pebble to make me go to sleep I could hear Peater and Elias talking, which kept me as alert as an owl.

"Such caring parents she had, eh?"

"Well, this is a Maccabaeus problem, isn't it?"

"Oh, father! Please . . . why don't you talk to her?"

"Aw, son! She's gonna be all right. She's a strong girl, you know!"

"Every strong plant becomes weak at some point, you know!"

"Well, I'll be honest; I can't fully trust her . . ."

I gasped. Can't fully trust me?! Why else would Elias teach me these wonderful things? In desperation, I spoke to Peater via telepathy.

Peater, what's going on? Are you noticing that I'm sick or something?

This apparently surprised the boy-plant, for he yelped in surprise.

It's fine, sheesh! You know me, don't you?

Surprisingly enough, I received an answer.

"Well, yeah. My dad doesn't want me to tell you about what we're talking about . . ."

Well, how can he know? We're talking through our heads, and he can't probe . . . can he?

"Not that I know of. But if I tell you, promise that you won't make any noises?"

All right, now go on!

"Well . . . my father knows that you're suspicious of Ash, and to be honest . . . I think that he likes my cousin more than me!"

What?!

"Pea! Are you all right? You look like you're overly interested in the wall!"

"Sorry, father. I was just daydreaming . . . so sorry . . ."

"Hehe . . . my son is madly in love isn't he?"

I blushed as soon as I heard Elias utter those words.

Come on, Peater! Just continue, for the sun's sake!

"Alright! Like I was saying, my father didn't like the suspicions that you were having about the Lethus family . . ."

What the hell? I thought that the proof was up in that room ―

"NO IT'S NOT. All I saw was a bunch of charred remains. Ash just burned it when he thought I wasn't looking. Damn bastard!"

So . . . Elias is gonna be careful around me?

"'Fraid so, Elyssia. But it'll pass!"

Hmph . . . yeah right. But seriously, why does your father worship your cousin's family?

"Some ancestor of his had a close friend that was a Lethus, and then . . . you get it right? Yeah, those were the good times back before I was born. And then this ridiculous feud broke out, and then BOOM! The marriage between my ancestor and that Lethus boy was almost broken. It's been raging on for decades, and I know that those sneaky idiots are gonna pop up soon . . ."

Why did your father like Ash so much? Was he more adorable?

"Grrr! If I was right there with you, I'd be beating you up!"

Sorr-ee!

"It's fine. And I guess the answer to your question would be that Ash was well mannered around my dad, he was smart . . . UGH!"

So then . . . Elias doesn't trust me anymore because of all of this ish?

"Peater! Do you think Elyssia's ready to learn the truth?"

"Dad, wait till later, all right?"

"Fine!"

"Elyssia . . . there's another truth that I know about you, but I don't want to tell you because I don't know how you'll react."