"Hi, guys." She said to all of us.
"Who are you?" I asked bluntly. Val glared at me again.
"She's Iris." Mick said.
"A Moon Spirit." Pete filled in for Mick.
"Oh. Sorry." I said embarrassed. She must have been special.
"It's quite all right, Nicki." How does everyone know our names?
"What are you doing down here? Aren't you supposed to be with the other moon spirits, if you don't mind me asking," Val asked politely. I rolled my eyes at her.
"I don't. I have come to help you. The next people you are going to meet worship us Moon Spirits. They are all trained in water magic. They are real peaceful, but if we don't have them then the humans can attack from the sea and win. If they heard what I had to say, then they'll listen to me. Let me come with you." She said. Everyone was silent. I considered she was our guide, so yeah, she should come, but she might have been a non-innocent bystander who just happened to see us. But I seemed to trust her.
"Okay, you can come. Do you want anything to eat? Pam's buying." I said.
"I'm always buying." Pam said. It was true.
"No, thanks, but this one is on me." Iris said. When we were done, she paid for our dinner. We hopped into the car and I drove to where she told me to go. I read their sign. Rose Hill Burrial Park. A graveyard. We parked next to the curb. We could leave the car there, so it was okay.
"Okay. We go into the graveyard and try to find a headstone with the name Wisteria Moon." Iris said. Cool name. I imagined the concept spell and used my fear of darkness to power it. I imagined that my eyes were flashlights. I blinked and they were! Just like in Robots.
We searched all around. Thirty minutes passed, Pam yelled from somewhere off to my right. I started to run, but tripped over a headstone.
"Just kidding!" Pam yelled back. My leg was on fire. I made a funny! Okay. I looked at the headstone I tripped over. The name was covered by vines. I ripped some away. Wisteria Moon. These eye lights work well, I thought.
"No, she's here!" I called to everyone. They came over.
"Well, done." Iris said while Pete helped me up. It was my leg wound from that pig! Why did it still hurt?
"What's wrong?" Iris asked me. I told her about the duel and how pig face had thrown ice darts at me.
"Oh. I could fix that up." She said. I let her put her hand over my wound in my thigh. I wanted to pull away, because that was kind of awkward for a girl to put her hand on another girl's thigh, but I could feel the pain ebbing away.
"Thanks." I said standing up myself.
"No problem. Now everyone, rub her last name, then step into the elevator that you will see." She rubbed the name Moon.
We all did it. An elevator appeared next to her headstone. Another elevator. These people are really up with the technology. We stepped into it. We were squished with seven people in here. Instead of going up or down we went sideways. Okay, they were a little past our technology since I've never been in an elevator moving sideways. Then, I thought about how they could have used magic. Oh. We stopped suddenly and we flew towards the right wall. I was on the right wall. Squish! Ow! At least 250 pounds of fleshy people squished me. I got the breath knocked out of me. I also got my face pushed up against the wall and, well, everything else too. They quickly backed up.
"Sorry." Pam said.
"Are you all right?" Pete asked. He pushed everyone out of the way ("Hey!" Mick cried out when he got shoved into Lona) to come to me. Pushy...
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry Mick."
"S'okay." Mick mumbled.
"Watch it." I told Pete.
"I have to protect you." Okay, now he was way out of line.
"I can protect myself, bud. I don't need your help." I said.
"Guys. Can you wait until you get a room?" Val said. She thought this was going to turn out like that Sunday... But it wasn't. I'm sexist. I said it before and I'll say it again.
"I don't need a man's help. I can help myself. I'm stronger than most men. I can handle myself just fine without one." I said getting really defensive.
"I doubt you can, kid. You need me." Yeah, right, I thought. The doors opened and everyone quickly left. They started walking to a hotel. I was too busy being mad that I didn't notice what we were on. We were walking on water. The Creatures around here were all about the sea. There even was a spot for the Creature from the Black Lagoon. But I was too busy arguing with Pete to notice. I did later, though. We reached the house. I went to a room that had two beds. I wasn't sleeping next to him anymore.
"There's your bed and there's mine." I told him angrily.
"What? Can't I choose my bed? Why don't I just sleep somewhere else?"
"Then go! I'll let Lona sleep there and you can go sleep with Mick." I shouted. I'm like always angry. Sheesh.
"Fine maybe I will."
"Fine!"
"Fine."
"Fine!"
"Fine."
"Will you just go?" I punched him in the chest and he staggered back. He slammed the door really hard when he left. I sat down on my bed and sighed. He's such a butt! He doesn't know how I feel about him helping me. I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself. Then, I just realized everything bad happens to me. Lona came in saying she would be happy to bunk with me. I said cool. She asked me why I was acting like I was. I told her I'm under a lot of pressure.
"We'll share it with you if you told us." Lona said trying to make me feel better.
I stayed in my room for the rest of the afternoon. Then I tried to go to sleep at night, but I couldn't. It just didn't seem right. Pete wasn't with me. Even if we slept with a pillow between us. I didn't feel right. So, I went to the spare room to sleep. I don't know why, but he was in there still awake looking at the sealing with a pillow next to him. Next to the pillow was an empty space. For me. No way, I'm not going in. I'm not giving in. Lona shook me awake. I was dreaming. Oh. (Secretly, I didn't want to admit to myself, I was going to give in.)
"You talk in your sleep, you know that?" She said sleepily. She sat at the foot of my bed.
"What was I saying," I asked just as sleepily. It must have been the middle of the night.
"You kept saying 'I need'. Nothing else, just 'I need'."
"Well, I want a lot of things, but I don't need anything." I said.
"I know what you need, but you are too stubborn to admit it."
"I don't need him at all."
"That's not what I was going to say." She tricked me! Stupid reverse psychology thing.
"Thanks." I said. "Now you know how desperate I am."
"I was going to say you need someone that you can love and depend on." Lona is really wise sometimes.
"Oh." I said stupidly.
"Just try not to be so hard on him. He needs you, too." Lona kissed me on the top of my head and said good morning. It was a bit past 12 a.m. or midnight. I fell back asleep thinking about all the time we spent together. Meaning Lona, Pam, Val, and me. We had some sweet times. Always joking about Lona and her boyfriends and teasing Val by asking her dumb questions. We would laugh together and cry together. It was so fun back then. But now we are making new friends. Resa was one cool chick with the Australian accent, Iris is the nicest Moon Spirit, Queen Sally and Dr. K were the best rulers ever, Mick was awesome for Pam, and Pete was... he was... I have to stop thinking about him! Everything around me points to him!
In the late morning, we went to a church or what looked like one. It was where they worshiped the Moon Spirits? I guessed. I was correct. All along the walls were decorated with flowers and offerings. Iris said they did enjoy the offerings. There were even some pictures of them, but none of Iris. I asked her why. She said she never came to Earth before this. Except when she was a kid. We barged in on a ceremony. Oops. Well, we had important business.
"Sorry to intrude on your thingy, but we have a message." Val said. We planned this.
"From a Moon Spirit herself." Pete said. I looked away and blocked him out when he said this. I was farthest from him.
"To tell you..." Lona started.
"A message from Iris herself..." Pam continued.
"In Spirit person." I finished. Those were the only things I was allowed to say during this whole thing. They said I was not emotionally stable. What the heck did that mean? I was fine. They are the ones who had problems. But then, I did have a plan to save their plan from boringness. I was going to tell them. Val was supposed to say the message before Iris appeared, but I planned to say it.
She started, "The message is..-"
Then I cut in, "You guys need to help us out in the great battle or the Creatures will lose since we have a spy somewhere giving away our information. We need you guys to watch the seas." That was pretty much it. Val slapped me in the face really hard. Now I was emotionally unstable. I saw Pete step forward a bit, but then thought better of it. Jerks! Both of them. I went to the back of the group. Iris presented herself. I was stuck in my own thoughts. I didn't notice Pete was there until he poked me in the arm.
"Are you okay?" He was done his part.
"Fine." I said quickly and angrily.
"I understand you like to keep pain to yourself. I know your boundaries, too. Will you take a walk with me?"
"No."
"Then get some coffee with me." It didn't seem like I had a choice.
"Fine." We left quietly through the front doors. They didn't see us leave. We walked in silence until we got to a café. A sign on the door said: me casa es su casa. My house is your house. I'd like to change it a bit and say to Pete: me cama es su cama. My bed is your bed. But I didn't. I was still weird about the argument. Pete bought me a decaf cup of coffee and I put milk and sugar into it. We sat at a round table for two.
"How do you feel?" I asked. He knew what I meant.
"Lonely." Well that sums it up.
"Desperately lonely." I said talking about myself.
"How is Lona? You talk in your sleep."
"Oh, I woke her up in the middle of the night. She told me I did. Why didn't you?"
"I enjoy listening to you. You talk about your day. It's fun to listen to." He said smiling. I grinned.
"Yeah, well. That could be embarrassing. Like last night Lona..." I told him about that night. I sipped some coffee and looked at him.
"Mhm." He mumbled. He seemed distracted. "Do you still like Bon?"
"He's a friend." I said hesitantly. I didn't know what my feelings were about him. I knew I was scared of him and scared for him. I was worried.
"Just a friend?" Pete asked.
"Well, I'm not sure. I thought he was bad, but it turns out it was J- someone else." I almost said James. I couldn't tell anyone yet. "He was so nice to me. He asked for my help. I have to help him."
"So, technically, you are cheating. On me and on him." Pete said. What was his point?
"Not really, because I broke up with him." I was nervous now.
"Are you sure or did he just get mad and leave before you could say 'sorry, it's over'."
"Well, yes I didn't get to because you came in. Your point?"
"I want you to sever all ties with him."
"He needs my help. I can't do that." Selfish jerk! I thought.
"Well, I need your help to get him out of our lives."
"Is that why you wanted me here? To make me do something I don't like."
"No."
"Yes, you did. I'm gone." I stood up and left. I half walked, half ran to the hotel. I threw out my coffee, because now it didn't really taste like coffee. I flopped down on my bed. I was going to make Pete jealous and to make him see I wasn't letting Bon go. I had to fall asleep. I decided to cry myself to sleep. The slap still stung my cheek and I was upset about Pete acting like he was. What if Pete was being taken over by James, too? I couldn't answer myself because I fell asleep. I brought Bon in first.
"Bon!" I ran and hugged him tightly.
"Nicki? How did I get here? It's the middle of the day."
"I figured that you can connect to anyone on a subconscious level." I brought Pete in now. It took half a minute, but he came slowly.
"Smart girl." Bon said not realizing Pete was behind him.
"Thanks." I still had my arms around him. I looked pointedly at Pete then kissed Bon. I looked at Pete and his face was full of rage.
"But I thought?" Bon said unsure of himself.
"No, silly." I was trying to be playful, but it was kind of forced.
"Oh, well why did you want me here?"
"I found out who was controlling you." I wished Pete away and he went away.
"Who?" He asked eagerly.
"James. He is a full blown wizard. His power is fire, which Lona predicted." I told him my facts.
"But he was always by my side. He was as frightened as I was when I left him standing there going to do someone's bidding."
"Exactly. We can't control people if they aren't next to us. We put a spell on you when we are next to you, then you can be as far as China and we will still have control. But first you need to start with the person next to you." I felt a little tug on my conscious side of things. Someone was trying to wake me up.
"It explains that, then." He said trying to think of anything else.
"Look I have to go. I'll catch up with you later. You will be at the great battle?"
"Of course." I kissed him and woke up.
"Get up, sleepy head." Val was rocking me back and forth.
"I'm up!" I said.
"Look, I'm sorry I slapped you. You were going to ruin our presentation. And I really wanted to say what you said." She said.
"It's okay. Just never say I'm emotionally something."
"Unstable?" She suggested.
"Yeah. Emotionally unstable. I wasn't. I was thinking about things. Deep things." She knew what deep meant. Things that couldn't be explained.
"Yeah, well. I'm sorry." She kissed my still stinging cheek.
"It's no problem. So, what time is it? Where is everyone?" I just noticed what she was wearing. A dress?
"We are going to a fancy restaurant tonight. It's about 7." She was wearing a long, deep blue dress. She had black, dangling earrings in and black flats. She hated heels. She left and I got dressed in a red dress that flared out at the bottom, but was tight from the waist up. It had no sleeves or straps, so I had to watch what I did. I wanted to make Pete jealous. I succeeded. He wouldn't even look at me. I wore black flats like Val. We walked to the restaurant. It was called: Alli's Place. Cool name, I thought. We sat down at a rectangular table. I was in the middle of Val and Lona. Pete was across from me, unfortunately. We didn't plan it this way. Pam and Mick wanted to sit together, but towards an end and Iris wanted an end. I kept my feet tucked in under my chair and my eyes cast down at my plate. He acted like everything was fine between us. The only time he spoke to me is when he commented on how he liked my dress. He looked like he wanted to talk to me. We ordered dinner and ate, then ordered dessert and ate that. We walked home. I grabbed my pj's and went to the bathroom. I took off my dress and put my Phillies pajamas on. I started brushing my teeth. Someone grabbed the handle of the door and turned it when I was done rinsing out my mouth. They came in and shut the door. I spun around. The sink was 4 yards in front of the door. The shower was to the right if you just came in and the toilet was to the left. It was Pete.
"Why did you come in here?" I asked. "I could have been taking a shower or using the toilet!"
"Sshh. I had to talk to you in private." He whispered.
"Quickly, then." I said not caring if anyone found us in here.
"Well, we were talking in the café and then everything went blank. I don't know how I got here. I remember being in your dream with Bon. But only the half where I left. I don't know what happened. That might have been a fugue." He said like he was scared.
"Well, then. Stay with someone all the time and always look around you. Stay alert and get out of the bathroom." I was a bit annoyed that he didn't see me kiss Bon. Next time? I asked myself. I felt like there wasn't going to be a next time. Then there was the thought that James was right there with us. Creepy. I finished in the bathroom and went to bed. I told Lona goodnight and slept.