Verboten
Chapter 2
Friday, May 29, 2009
Disclaimer: I do not own.
He did not speak for a few moments. Roxy watched him open and close his lips in an attempt to form words but they failed him. Anxiety built inside her as she waited for his reaction.
"You're not…actually contemplating using this, are you?"
"NO!" she yelled seeing as he was physically shocked at the page. She supposed that love spells were dangerous in a magical world, remembering all the old legends about love spells backfiring on Greek and Roman gods alike. "N-no, no, no, no! I was just reading them for fun! I haven't actually tried any of them! Honest, I swear!" She tried to take the book away from him but failed.
Roxy supposed that since she was surrounded by fairly attractive extra-dimensional boys working as waiters and as her coworkers in the bar on a daily basis (and who happened to all be taken, at that) that maybe reading a few love spells was not a good idea.
"Why don't you try something a little more basic? Like…" he flipped back to the front of the book and leafed through it. He stopped at a particular page and read through it quickly. "Like this one here," he gave her the book and pointed at the spell: Basic Ignition Spell also known as Fire Spell. "Even I can do this with my lack of magic. Read."
She read the instructions and the basic physics behind the spell. When there is a sufficient amount of flammable fuel, low humidity and oxygen around, users concentrate on a point of said fuel and compress constantly moving magical and kinetic energy and heat located inside the air into the smallest area that can be imagined possible to form a spark to ignite the fuel. This thus creates a space of compressed heat. The temperature of the heat then rises to the point that it can burn something in an instant. The smaller the area imagined, the more powerful and larger the flame.
Roxy understood the basics although at the same time, it went beyond her perception of how reality should work. It just seemed too…surreal. As if she could control kinetic waves of energy to create enough to light a fire!
"Come on. Let's see you try this one now," Helia said as he ripped a piece of paper from his notepad and drew a large dot on it with his pen that he used to take orders.
"What?!" she almost screamed.
"It'll be fine. I highly doubt that you'll burn this building at your level of experience." He squatted and placed the paper on the concrete floor before him. "Come on! Just one try and then I'll go back to work!" he pleaded and whined like a child asking to be shown a secret. "It's not hard. You can do it, Roxy."
"B-but?!"
"Just concentrate on a fire appearing where this dot is, Roxy."
"B-but, I can't! No, I can't. I-I—!" she stuttered, feeling pressured and overwhelm by his sudden childishness. She held the book in her hand tightly and bit her bottom lip. "I-I just can't!" She took deep breathes feeling like she was suffocating and blinked her eyes several times.
Seeing her physical reaction, Helia's voice took on a softer tone and went to stand beside her. Softer, caring, more comforting his was voice. "Hey, hey, hey—don't cry," he in a hushed tone despite the loudness of the bar. At that, tears started to fall down her cheeks. "Take a deep breath. Remember, magic is in you, Roxy. You believed in it once and the girls achieved their believix because of you. You just need to believe that you can make magic happen yourself."
"But I just can't! This can't be real, Helia! I'm not like Bloom or Flora or Stella!" Maybe that was the problem. She believed in magic once and then suddenly, half dozen extra-dimensional girls were able to attain a certain level of magic. Where was the logic in that? They get power-ups and what did she get? Roxy closed her eyes tightly. Her eyes were watery but she did not want him to see her weakness.
"Roxy, open your eyes."
She shook her head vehemently in response. Her hands clutching the book shook nervously. "N-no…" her voice was raspy and her lips felt dry.
"Open your eyes. Tears are normal, Roxy. Everyone cries for the little things because it's those little things that matter most. ROXY!" he plucked the book out of her shaking hands and placed it on the shelf. He produced a handkerchief from his pocket in one hand and opened one of her hands to place it in her palm and close her fingers around it.
"Come on. We're going to take the last orders for night soon. Stay in here and clean up. I'll handle the bar, okay?" he said reassuringly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry, Roxy, okay? Open your eyes and look at me, Roxy."
Resistant, she opened her eyes to see his face right in front of hers. His sapphire black eyes crowned by unruly long bangs looked in hers, pleading forgiveness. Her small hands were cupped by his longer, bigger hands. They held her hands tightly around the handkerchief he had given her in a firm but reassuring manner.
"I-I—!" She wanted to respond but she could not form a coherent sentence in her mind.
"I'm sorry for making you cry. I'm going to go now, okay?" he said, almost as if he were asking permission. "Everything will be alright in the end, Roxy. Just remember that." His eyes were arched in a pained manner and his lips made a frown.
She opened her mouth to try and say something but nothing came out. He seemed so concerned and sincere. Roxy did not know what to do that. She had never expected this from her new extra-dimensional friends, let alone from one of the guys. A retreat or an attack from an unseen angle? She had never thought that such sympathy would come to her on such a strange and surreal subject. It was comforting.
"I'm sorry for pressuring you. I hope we can still be friends after this."
A few moments later, he searched through the storage room for a specific box of bottles that had originally brought him there and brought it out.
Latter Note: Mushy? Maybe...
Again, I apologise for a lot of grammar mistakes. I'm sure there's a dozen per paragraph.