He was Always There

(Sunday Afternoon, June 23rd)

When Mal enters the shop everyone's eyes move to her. Jay whispers, "Ignore them." and her eyes move to the blond girl behind the counter. She's smiling with bright blue eyes. Mal takes a deep breath before moving forward, and Jay follows her to the order station.

Mal observes the girl. She's too happy. "You're new."

Her smile widens, "My name's Kerrin. I'm helping out my Uncle Orland this summer."

Mal's eyebrows furrow as her mouth cracks open, "Yeah. I think he mentioned you."

"Would you like the usual?" she inquires.

She looks at Jay, "The usual?" and he shrugs.

"A toasted turkey and ham sandwich on flatbread with cheddar cheese, a mountain dew, and a chocolate milk," Kerrin answers.

"Um," Jay interrupts. "How do you know what we get?"

She looks at Mal, "My uncle and I saw your interview. Very powerful. I know you will have a good influence on the royal family."

"That still doesn't explain how you know our order," she slowly points out.

"Uncle Orland made a point to tell me about you," she excitedly explains. "It's so good to know there's someone like me in an influential position."

"You hear that?" Jay inserts. "You have influence."

Mal frowns, "I haven't really done anything."

"But you've done so much," Kerrin emphasizes. "Princess Audrey's petition to force hybrids out of hiding could have been a gateway to keeping us from any promising opportunities, people finding us to do evil—"

"But you're not in hiding," Mal points out.

The blond girl frowns, "I attend college in Charmington. No one there really knows about me… Except my boyfriend, and he didn't really react well." She attempts to smile, "But I'm going to a public school, so at least if I'm outed, they can't make me leave… yet."

"So, what?" Mal questions. "You're hiding out here for the summer from your boyfriend?"

She makes a noise, "It's not that simple. It's just…" Kerrin shakes her head, "You know, if he wants to apologize, he knows where to find me. Until then, I'm just waiting for the text."

"The text?" Jay inquires.

Tears start to gleam in her eyes, "For him to say that the three years we were together meant nothing, because he didn't know he was with a…"

"There's no need to explain," Mal quickly comments. "I get it."

A tear falls to her girl's cheek, before she wipes it away and pulls herself together, "So. Your order, then?"

"You can leave out the milk," Mal comments, before she holds up the water bottle. "I brought my own drink."

She sadly grins with a nod, "Got it."

When she starts to prepare the sub Jay turns towards Mal, "Is that what I think it is?" and when she doesn't respond he shakes his head. "We had an agreement."

"I can't let Ben see it," Mal excuses.

"The point was for me to get you to have it less." He irritably states, "When you keep it in that bottle, it's a crutch."

"When I don't keep it in the bottle," Mal points out, "the maid will search my room and tell Ben's family about it."

He breathes, "Maybe you should just tell him, get it over with."

Mal rolls her eyes, "Ben has enough of his own problems."

Jay hesitates, "Ruby told me that a relationship is about going through life together." and Mal intently listens. "Your problems are his now, and his are yours. When you decide to spend your life with someone, you have the same life. Your problems will impact each other."

"God, Jay," Mal cringes. "Are you marrying this princess?"

"I mean," he shrugs, "it is kind of a requirement for royals to get married, isn't it?"

The blond returns to them, "Here you go." and Jay hands the money to her before heading off to a round, private table.

Mal sits across from him, "I'm just saying, these people don't have our experiences. When people get involved in serious shit they die. I don't want that for Ben."

"You think your drinking problem could get him killed?" Jay's eyebrows raise.

She looks off, "You know what I mean."

"Yeah," Jay nods. "You're making excuses, because you don't want to let him in."

"I'll let him in when he lets me in," Mal counters, and Jay gives a look. "You should have heard him the other day about how 'I am a king and that's all I am'." She shakes her head, "Hell. I don't even really know his favorite color, because just about everything he owns is in the country colors. And I don't know what he likes, because he never really does anything. Okay? It's like I don't even know him, and what? I'm supposed to give all my cards away first, before I even really know anything about him?"

The bell on the door rings as heavy footsteps are heard, and when Mal looks over she notices the brown-haired guy with the handgun. He lifts it up, and she eyes over to where it points. The girl with the blond hair glows, and then she is gone; however, the gun still fires and her uncle falls to the floor. Mal stands, pacing over to the shooter, before he turns, his eyebrows furrow, and he aims for her. "Stop," Mal yells, as she pierces into his blue eyes. He charges forward. "Stand still." He does as he's told, and she notes the fear in his eyes before taking the gun from his hand and placing it onto the table.

"Uncle Orland," Mal hears the girl, and she turns around to find Kerrin kneeling over him. A light radiates from her hands, as she holds them over his bleeding chest. Mal slowly steps towards her. Her uncle's expression has frozen to one of shock, and he isn't moving. Mal hesitates, "Kerrin."

"I can save him," she asserts as tears flow from her eyes. "I can heal him."

Mal notices the light get brighter and brighter, but there's no affect. All that energy she's giving up, whatever ability she's putting it into isn't doing anything. It's just flowing back into the air, making the room brighter and brighter still. "Kerrin. You're going to hurt yourself." She continues to do it, and Mal places her hands on her shoulders, "You have to stop. He's dead. Okay? There's nothing you can do."

"He was always there for me," she whispers.

Mal notices the light dim, before another burst radiates from her hands, "Kerrin. Stop." She doesn't listen, and Mall pulls her chin so that her shiny, blue eyes meet hers. She glows her vibrant green ones, "Stop. Right now." Mal lets go of her, but Kerrin just looks back at her uncle and continues to emit the light.

Jay steps forward and quietly says, "Why didn't it work?"

"It doesn't work on Evie either," Mal informs. "Maybe whatever she is, there's a lot of mind power to it."

He notices the light dim and the girl weaken, "Mal?" before she moves her eyes from him to the girl, the girl falls over, and Mal catches her head before it hits the stone floor.

"Is she okay?" Jay worries.

"I don't know," Mal quietly comments, before she checks her pulse. "But she's alive."

"He was always there," Kerrin whispers, as she sits in the chair.

The officer continues, "And it was your boyfriend who shot him?"

"I shouldn't have teleported," she cries. "He was aiming for me. I should be dead right now, not him."

"With all due respect," the officer responds, "if your boyfriend was aiming for you, you moved out of the way, and he managed to kill your uncle, it sounds like he's just a lousy shot."

"I probably wouldn't have even died," she realizes. "I'd probably just been hospitalized for a bullet in my shoulder."

She breaks down, and the offer lets out a breath, "Look. I know this is hard, but if you want justice for what's happened here, we're going to need every detail we can get."

Ben turns back to Mal, "You said she passed out?"

"Magic needs energy to be performed," Mal informs. "She used all of hers."

"So, she's a fairy, then?" he questions.

"No." Mal eyes over to the blond girl, "I don't know what she is."

"Look," Ben places his hands on her shoulders. "You're going to be asked a lot of questions. I want you to be good, and be honest. Even if they get off track."

Mal meets his hazel green eyes, "Are they going to use this against me?"

"Saving a shop full of people?" his eyebrows raise. "You better hope they use this against you. Maybe they'll take a month off your sentence."

She huffs, "I doubt that."

Ben lifts a shoulder, "You never know. I'll put in a good word with Audrey for you." Mal stays quiet, and he places a clump of her curly brown hair behind her ear. "Who knows? Maybe if we have enough time this summer, we can get away and I could show you the world I rule."

- Posted: 03/16/2019

- Megan I'm glad you're enjoying the stories so far. I did try to look up your stories, but your username isn't linked to a profile and I couldn't find the story name you gave. Do you post to a different site? I'd like to at least see what your stories are about.

- So, I've been having a real problem with the image editor on this site, hence why I have yet to upload the image for this story. I could just edit it separately, but then the text won't match. I'd really like to use the text font from the online editor here. Is anyone else having issues? It's been the case where it just doesn't save, like it takes forever to load. I've left it saving while I went to work, and when I came home it was still saving. This last time I tried it didn't even let me type in any text. Does anyone know what's going on with it?