𝓟𝐫𝗼𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝓢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐞

Chapter #24 - Alice

Chapter #24 - Alice

"What? Do you know someone named Vespera?" Alice bit her lip as Keefe answered.

"Yes. She's part of the Neverseen and... let's just say she's not great."

She couldn't believe it. The stories Alice and her brothers used to listen to from their parents when they were young. The stories that would scare them— in a fun way. They were all true.

Elves were real.

She knew there was something off about these kids when she met them— especially Keefe— but that was definitely not what she'd expected to learn today.

"What, exactly, happens in the stories?" Keefe asked, closing his eyes like he was bracing for an awful answer. Alice had already resigned to the fact he couldn't be lying. The whole elf thing sounded ridiculous but... she looked between the strange teenage boy to the dead man who was still occasionally blinking out of sight to the distressed tween girl.

What other explanation was there?

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling there was something he wasn't saying. Something about the evil group he talked about. The Neverseen, were they called?

"Well, it's a pretty simple story, really. It starts off with the main character getting captured by this evil elf named Vespera. She would do torturous experiments on him, in a place called Nightfall. One of the main tests was to figure out how to un-pointy-fy your ears."

Keefe raised his eyebrows, amused.

"I take it the story isn't exactly accurate."

"Well," Elijah interrupted, "that makes sense, doesn't it? If these family tales really are true, then you can't really expect them to be perfect. Stories change over time." Elijah looked him up and down, resting his gaze on Keefe's rounded ears. "Wait. Do elves even have pointy ears in real life?"

"We do..." he said, "But only the old ones, called Ancients. But that's not— that's not important right now. What happens at the end of the story?"

"Dad always ended it with a scary warning like, 'Vespera is still out there, hunting for you mortals!'"

Alice couldn't help but smile. She really missed those days.

Meanwhile, Keefe looked like some puzzle pieces seemed to click in his head. Like he was realizing something big.

"This is gonna sound weird but... is your dad still alive?"

Alice exchanged a sad glance with her husband. "He died fifteen years ago. I was nineteen. It was in a—"

"Some sort of car accident?"

"Yeah. How did you know?" Keefe began sweating, and it clearly had nothing to do with the leftover heat from the fire.

What did he realize?

"I think your dad had a similar situation as Ethan Benedict Wright."

"Am I supposed to know what that means?" she asked.

"It means he didn't die in an accident. My..." he gulped, "my mom killed him."

***

"You can't be serious."

"Normally, I'd agree. I'm not a very serious person. But I would never joke or lie about something like this."

No.

That didn't make any sense.

Alice's dad died in a fluke car accident.

Period.

She was angry. Keefe had to be lying. Why had she even believed all the stuff about the elves, anyway? He was just an idiot teenager. There had to be a logical explanation for everything.

She was so angry.

She needed heat.

Fire.

It didn't matter that she was covered in fire extinguishing foam. The heat was stronger.

Suddenly, flames licked the air around Alice.

Keefe, Amy, and Elijah's eyes widened. Elijah used the fire extinguisher again, but it was no use this time. Everyone began to panic, but then Amy shot two beams of ice from her hands, putting out the fire— at least temporarily.

She and Keefe shared a look and she said something in a language Alice didn't know.

The flames erupted again.

But it was weird. They felt good.

"We need quicksnuff," Keefe muttered, scrunching up his face like he was feeling wary about what he was about to do. Quietly— at barely a whisper, really— he said, "It's the only way."

Then Alice saw him grab the crystal in the dead man's pocket, and shout "NUMB!" in a tone with so much built-up anger, it made Alice wonder what this boy has gone through.

Then the light whisked him away, and Alice stood there, stuck in a numbed haze. Though if she wasn't so emotionless, she would certainly be feeling very confused.