Phoebe gathered her courage and opened the door. She looked up at him with a faint smile. "Hey, can I come in?" he asked, looking very annoyed. He didn't really wait for an answer and walked past her, into the living room. "Of course." She answered, a bit unnecessarily, closing the door and following him.
"What's this?" he asked, showing her a newspaper and pointing at her column. She recognized it as the 'Pouting on Prescott' piece she'd done a few weeks before. "I thought we were clear on that…" she answered, crossing her arms and giving him a confused look. "Clear?" he replied angrily, "Phoebe, we were never clear on anything. If there's one thing our relationship lacked, it was clarity!" He walked past her again, back into the direction of the hallway. "Oh, and you know what I'm not clear on either?" he continued, "Why you had to make whatever we had so obvious in your column. The office wasn't enough, the whole world had to know? Well, you'll be happy to know that your little plan worked then. I still regularly get strange people in my art gallery who seem interested in my work; but then it turns out they're actually reporters who want to talk about you." Phoebe took a few brave steps closer to him. "Dex, I…" she tried. But he didn't give her a chance. "Yea, it's always about you, isn't it? Well I've had it with you!" He opened the door. Holding it open, a little mark shaped like a sun was clearly visible on his left hand. But Phoebe, a bit preoccupied with what he was saying, didn't really notice it. "You know," he said with an angry frown, "I wish I had never met you. God knows my life would've been so much easier." And with that, he slammed the door behind him.
Shaken up by what had just happened, Phoebe walked back into the living room and let herself sink into the couch. Outside, Dex hid at the side of the house. Ragnar shimmered in. "Not bad, Gloria." He said with a dark smile. A purple light shone for a few seconds and Gloria took her original form again. Her brown hair was completely messed up, and she still had that same blank stare in her eyes. "Let's not stay here longer than needed." Ragnar growled. He grabbed her by the arm and they shimmered out.
Seconds later, they arrived at Medea's cave. She had conjured a stone table with a mirror on it. Medea pointed at a corner of the cave, and immediately, Gloria walked over there and sat down. "Ah, shape shifters are such great creatures to play with. After this, I might just keep her as a pet." Medea laughed. Ragnar walked closer. "What's the next step?" he asked, looking into the mirror. "Patience Ragnar. Let poor little Phoebe dwell on her feelings of lost love for a few more hours." She stood beside him and looked into the mirror as well. "We want to exploit those to the fullest."
Behind them, Gloria lifted her hands to her head. Her surroundings became clear to her again when she saw Ragnar and Medea standing in the middle of the cave, looking into the mirror. She looked around, desperate to find a way out. "Oh, look who's awake." Medea said, turning around, "Had a nice sleep, dear? Of course, you weren't really asleep. But you were a great help." Gloria got up. "What did you do to me?" she yelled. Medea laughed. "Think hard. It'll all come to you soon. But once it does, you won't like it." She turned back to the mirror. But then seemed to change her mind. "Before I forget…" Medea said with a dismissive tone in her voice. With one wave of her hand, a cage appeared around Gloria. It was made out of some sort of crystal. Gloria tried to morph, but instead of the purple light, there was only a little spark. "Yea, it's blue crystal. No morphing allowed." Medea sang, shaking a finger at Gloria like a school teacher telling off a student. With another wave of her hand, the cage lifted from the ground and hovered in mid air above the stone table and the mirror.
"I wanted you to see." Medea said, pointing at the mirror. Gloria looked down, into it. She saw Phoebe sitting on the couch, quite upset. Suddenly Gloria remembered ringing the doorbell. Yelling at Phoebe. Flashes of the conversation. Then storming out. "You remember now, don't you?" Medea asked. Gloria didn't answer, she stared at Medea angrily. "Let's see who we'll send to her next." Medea waved her hand over the mirror. The image of Phoebe, sitting on the couch disappeared. Instead, a man appeared in the mirror. He was talking to someone on his cell phone when Phoebe walked in. "Pay attention," Medea said looking up at Gloria, "you want to know as much as you can about this man. And about his relationship with Phoebe. I think he'll be just perfect as your next subject."
Note: Thank you for reading the second chapter. Again, I'd like to try to encourage you to use the review button. I'd really appreciate any thoughts, tips, opinions, ... on this story. Good or bad, I don't mind. Especially since it's my first story.