Flashback 11

By Schammielynn

We weren't sure whether it was something to celebrate or something to fear, but I was magical. And that meant training. Lots of it, especially with the Wicked Witch claiming war. But that wasn't important. We needed to get back home, and Oswin needed to get things sorted.

"You both can leave. I'll take care of business here."

"Are you sure dear?" Aly asked, taking his hand. Oswin kissed her forehead and nodded.

"Be safe."

As we exited, Aly looked at me, half with sympathy and half with pride.

"Magic. My Essie. I can't believe it. But I guess I should've known from the way things always were cold whenever you were upset. It was always there. It doesn't change a thing though."

I smiled and said nothing.

Aly didn't try to make me talk. I was glad, because after retelling the scenario of the day, I didn't feel much like talking ever again.

As we approached our towers, a figure was sitting on the step staircase.

"T-Terry?" I stammered, running a little bit ahead of Aly to see if I was right.

"Ess?!" he jumped up to his feet. "ESSIE!"

Before I could do anything he scooped me up in his arms. "I couldn't find your name on either of the lists. I thought you'd been taken or dead or…"

"You can't lose me that easy." I smirked as we split apart. His eyes were red, and I wondered if he had been crying. I didn't want to wound his pride, so I just smiled. "Thanks for caring, Terry. I missed you."

"Missed you too, Ess."

I looked down, only to see my book in his hands, "Is that mine?"

He did his best not to act embarrassed, but you could tell he was. "Yeah..."

I snatched it out of his hands and flipped through the yellowed, familiar pages. "Did you finish it? What did you think?"

"Yeah, I finished it. Twice. I didn't have a whole lot to do since you were gone. I had to pass the time somehow. It was good, actually."

"Twice? Why don't you keep it?"
"Keep it? I couldn't do that." he handed it over to me. "It's your favorite."
"You sure?"
"Yup."

I shrugged and clutched the book in my arms.

Terrance looked around, up at the news in the sky. "So the Wicked Witch, eh? What's she like?"

My heart dropped to my toes at the mention of her name. The miniscule conversation had nearly taken my mind off of it.

Before I knew it I was gasping for air and ice was forming at my fingertips with nothing to latch onto.

"Essie?" Aly asked coming towards me.

"Ess, hey, hey I'm sorry." He spoke gently and took a step closer, but I backed away from both of them.

"No, no… you're fine I just… Just… Don't talk about it. Not today. I'll tell you. Sometime. Just not today." I breathed.

"You don't have to tell me at all."

I looked up at him with gratitude and I could tell Aly was still worried, but Terrance recovered quickly. "So the orphanage kids got a dog."
"Really?" I asked, trying to be interested.

"They did? I didn't hear about that." Aly looked puzzled.

"Yep. A rescue. Big black labrador. I'll have to show him to you sometime."

He launched into a story of how they found him and rescued him from a place along the stream, and as usual, Terry got my thoughts away from the thing that bothered me the most. Aly stayed and listened too. We ended up sitting on the stairs outside of the palace for a while before Aly stood and said, "We should be getting inside. Terrance, would you like to stay for dinner?"

"Oh, I couldn't impose, Miss Aly. After all…"
"No really!" she pressed. "There will be plenty."

He looked at me and I cocked my head, "Pretty please?"
"Alright," he grinned. And as we stepped inside, he reached in his pocked and pulled out a deck of gently used cards. "Wanna play cards?"

I nodded, practically beaming as Aly instructed the cooks to make more food and the three of us sat to play cards in the living room.

It was quite possibly that day that I realized that Terrance was one of the only people I would have ever known that could stop me from freezing up, both literally and figuratively.