In Miss Faragonda's office, she offered me a chair. I took it gratefully and sighed. I realized she was having trouble keeping herself composed. She kept clasping and unclasping her hands. Tecna was a good student, amazingly behaved and I took it away from her. That made me feel worse. "Bloom," my headmistress started, "I know you feel bad but honestly it wasn't your fault. You weren't to know."
"But Tecna was a friend. A very good friend. I've broken the relationship between the Winx Club." I whispered. I held my hands in my lap and closed my eyes tight.
"Bloom. You just mis-timed your attack. You can't kick yourself for that." She whispered back to me. I made a decision.
"I can. And I have." I stood up. "I'm sorry Miss F. I'm going to Gardenia." I didn't wait for a reply and ran out of the room.
I kept on running, on and on. I didn't stop when all the other students glared at me. I didn't stop when the Winx girls called out to me. No, I kept on running and running. I stopped when I got to the forest. There, where Tecna used to lay, I fell to my knees. I whispered Tecna's name over and over. I let the tears fall, not bothering to wipe them dry. I felt stupid, horrible, like my life had been torn apart from the inside. But that's what I did to Tecna. I took her life and tore it apart from both inside and out.
Eventually, I dried up (again) and wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand. I stood up and turned the other way. I ran. I had to get away from there. I caught the bus to Magix and got to the portal station. As I was about to enter I felt a tap on my shoulder. The person's long nails dug into me. There was one other person (besides witches - though they never used Magix Cafe or Portal Station) who had long nails. I turned to catch a glimpse of long, blonde hair.
"Stella." I said curtly. "What do you want?" I took a step back, not planning on getting to friendly terms with the Princess of Solaria.
"I want to say sorry." She mumbled timidly.
"Well good luck with that, because I'm not interested." I tried to walk away from her. She blocked my way with her arm.
"Bloom, look, I am sorry. Truly. It was so stupid of me to carry myself around with Lysthenstyne." She pleaded.
"You only just realized that?!" I asked sarcastically, a frown forming on my face.
"Bloom, I seriously didn't think it would go that far." She pulled my sleeve, as I went to walk into the portal station.
"Let go of me, Stella. You were the one that said our friendship was over." I yanked my sleeve free and ran into the station, pressing the button.
"I'm sorry, OK?!" She yelled. I ignored her.
"Gardenia, please." I said after the automated voice. I was gone in a flash.
I arrived on a random street. The sky was a purple blue and I knew it was close to sunset. The were little to no cars, a few passing me on my way. There was no one out and the place looked deserted.
It didn't take me long to find my way home. After all, I lived here for sixteen years. I knocked on our door, hoping that my parents were home. I rang the doorbell and stepped back. 'Come on, Mum and Dad. Answer the fucking door!' I muttered.
Eventually, the door opened and I was greeted by a woman who was most certainly not my mother. She was middle-aged and had short, choppy, ginger hair. She was in a lilac lacy pair of trousers and a pink velvet dressing gown. She had cream-coloured slippers on. "Hello? What are you doing here at this hour?" She asked in a soft voice.
"I'm so sorry to bother you but I'm looking for Mike and Vanessa Peters?" I asked.
"Sorry, dear. They moved out last month." She smiled sympathetically.
"Oh." That was new information. "Do you have any idea where they've gone?"
"I think they probably might've moved out south, honey. Here, come inside and I'll find out their new address for you." She held the door open and I gratefully stepped inside, after debating with myself as to whether or not this was a good idea. The place looked terribly different. Everything was moved around. I didn't like that arrangement. But then I grew up in a different... atmosphere. "John! Make this young girl a mug of coffee, will you?!" I heard the woman yell. For a middle-aged woman, she had a very loud voice.
I heard footsteps come from down the stairs. The man was middle-aged, probably a bit older than the woman. He was in a white vest, white cotton pants, black and red slippers and a navy dressing gown. But something was wrong. Something I couldn't quite lay my finger on.
And then I fingured it out. The man was in a disguise spell. I looked past it and froze. The real man had long, blond hair that fell to his shoulders. The real man was in the traditional Red Fountain uniform. The real man was Sky.
He froze at the same time as me. "John?" We heard. He shook his head and went down the rest of the stairs. "Ah, here we are. Come on, dear. Have a seat." The woman came out of the room under the stairs and I followed her from the hallway into the living room.
We just sat down when 'John' came into the room with three steaming mugs of coffee. "Here you are, my love." He said, putting the tray in front of her. I retched at his fake affection. I felt sorry for the woman. If she knew who 'John' really was, then... she would kick us both out, with the snap of her finger.
We drank the coffee and the woman got halfway into explaining where the address was, when she excused herself. "Sky, What are you doing?" I asked him when she was out of earshot.
"Bloom. I'll tell you this. Diaspro was doing my head in." He sighed.
"So, you're cheating on her with some middle-aged woman?" I asked again inredulously.
"I've decided to get accustomed to Earth life. This is where I'm staying from now on." He ran a hand through his hair.
"Hmm." I mused. "Well, in that case, I better leave. Goodbye Sky." I walked out but then I turned back and grabbed the piece of paper that the address was written on.
"Bloom?" I heard. I turned back around and put a frown on my face. "I'm sorry about the poison." I gave him a fake thumbs-up and walked out.
I used the teleport spell to get to my parents' new address. I knocked on the door, hoping I'd got the right address this time. Thankfully, I was greeted by Dad. "Bloom!" He pulled me into a hug.
"Hey, Dad." I whispered. Dad let go of me and ushered me in.
"What brings you back home, Bloom?" He asked. I sighed.
"I... I... killed Tecna." I whispered.
"Oh, Bloom!" Mum ran to hug me. "What happened?"
"I was fighting Lysthenstyne and he was about to hit Tecna with his Ruby Redstone attack. So I tried to counter the attack but instead I killed her." I started crying again.
"Aww, Bloom. Don't cry. It wasn't your fault. You'd never kill a friend on purpose."
"Huh, I wish." I scoffed after I'd wiped my tears for the millionth time.
"Look. Tell us exactly what happened, Bloom." Dad said. Mum and Dad sat on the sofa across from me on the armchair.
"He was going to hit her. I panicked and thought that I could absorb his attack with mine. But I was too late. His attack had hit her hard and it was too late to stop mine. Mine hit her harder. And because she was so weak beforehand, it just about drained her energy completely." I explained. My voice caught in my throat but I was determined not to let the tears fall.
"You shouldn't feel bad. There was nothing you could do."
"That's what everyone else said. It was my fault. If I hadn't fired, then maybe, just maybe, she would have lived." Dad left the sofa and crouched in front of me.
"Bloom, listen. The girl we grew to know and love, while she had a heart, knew how to move on with things."
"That's what Baltor said. I can't shake the feeling that it was me." I whispered the last bit.
"Who? What happened to Sky?" He straightened up
"Ugh, him. Let's just day we weren't meant to work out together." I looked around.
"Ah. I never liked that boy anyway. Too full of himself." Dad mused, while going to sit back on the sofa. I smiled.
"Yeah, me neither." I sat thinking for a few minutes. "Mum, Dad, can I stay here tonight?" They looked at each other with a silent conversation going on between them. I looked from one to the other, waiting to hear an answer. Finally, Mum turned to me.
"I guess it's fine," she said slowly, "if you let the girls know." She explained.
"Oh, Miss Faragonda knows." I reassured them. They smiled.
"OK. Go wash your hands and we'll make you some supper." Mum said. She and Dad stood up and Dad nodded.
"Anything for our little girl." He smiled. I ran up to them and hugged them each one by one.
"Guys, you're the best." I ran upstairs and into the bathroom. After I washed my hands, I realized I needed to look around. I went across the landing.
There was the bathroom, and two bedrooms upstairs and downstairs there was the living room and kitchen. It was very small.
After a delicious supper of spaghetti bolognese, I undressed and climbed into the bed in the spare room. "Goodnight, Bloom." My parents whispered and I felt like a child again. "Goodnight, Mum, Dad." I said. They switched off the light and I turned onto my side. In a few short minutes, I was in dreamland.
A/N: We are nearing the end! A few more chapters to go.
R&R, guys!
Thanks
~crystalhauntress xxx