Intuition (A Villains & Monsters Novella)

3. Hazel

Two days later

Waking up from her nap because of a timid knocking sound at her door, Hazel sat up from her couch, groaned irritatedly and pulled a hoodie over her figure as she started walking towards the door of her apartment.

She opened it and gasped loudly at the sight of Daija, throwing her arms around her and not even thinking about stopping her tears. Daija cried too, hugging her just as tight. "I'm sorry," she said in between sobs. "I'm so fucking sorry. If I had known, I swear I would've never taken my eyes off of you at the party. Are you okay?"

"It's not your fault." Hazel gently pulls her in, closes the door and leads her to her living room, wiping her face before sitting next to Daija on the couch. "And I'm fine. Are you okay?"

Daija smiled weakly, and that told her that she clearly wasn't. But she nodded and wiped her tears away. "Yeah. I have a ton of work to do, but I'll be okay."

Hazel had so many questions, and she knew without a doubt that Daija was connected to the insane riots that took place the night before in downtown, Kunross. The leader of the heroes was dead and so was the Mayor. Daija's smile fell, and she sighed deeply as she shut her eyes. "I'm going to tell you everything. About me, about Jamie, and everything else."

"You're safe, right?"

"Yes."

"Does..." she hesitated slightly. "Does Violet know?"

Daija nodded again. "So does my aunt. You're the last person I need to break everything down to. After that, I don't want to get anyone else involved."

Hazel listened closely as Daija explained her powers, Simon's powers, how she pretended to be a hero to take them down and how her friendship with Jamie spiraled and became the most horrific part of the entire situation. "The last thing I ever wanted was for you and Vi to get caught up in this," she said once she was finished. "If I had known Jamie was a danger from the start, I would've never introduced you to him."

Her gut twisted at the sound of his name, and the question she'd been dying to ask tumbled from her. "Is he dead?"

"Hazel, I-"

"You can tell me."

"I'm trying to leave out anything extremely gruesome."

"You just told me that Simon's the Firebringer. Connecting the dots, that means that he ripped that storm-powered hero to shreds a few years ago. But..." She remembered the way he looked when she told him that Daija was kidnapped, and the way he stared at her when she wasn't looking. "He seems like he really, really cares about you and wouldn't hurt you even if he were offered the entire world."

Daija fell quiet for a bit, then said, "He's not dead, but he's not walking free either." Something dark filled her eyes, and if Hazel hadn't loved her friendship with Daija to pieces, it would've terrified her. But she knew deep in her soul that Daija would never hurt her.

Her face fell. "I understand if you don't want to-"

Hazel cut her off. "I'm not going anywhere. That night, you closed the door of the bathroom stall before going to face them. Your first thought was to protect me even in the face of danger. All of this is insane, yes, but... I feel okay. I'm safe. You're safe. Violet's safe. Isn't that all that matters?"

"Yes, but... I just hate that you two were hurt. I just wish I knew why he did it," she said, "He keeps telling me his reasons, but I don't believe him." She looked conflicted for a moment, then shook her head. "I don't want to keep talking about him, especially when I'm with my friend."

Her heart warmed at that, and they moved on from the topic of Jamie. Though it seemed like there was a lot that was now different about Daija, she continued talking with Hazel like nothing ever changed.

They spoke for a few hours, then when Daija got a call from her aunt, she said that she needed to go. She hugged Hazel tight, promised that she'd come back within a day so she could stay longer, then disappeared before it got dark. Once alone, Hazel slumped into her couch and exhaled a deep sigh.

Valerie Reid herself reached out to her the morning after the stunt at OpalSpace and offered to fully cover her therapy if she chose to go, and though Hazel politely told her no because she didn't want her to spend her money on her, Valerie just told her that all she would have to do was call when she was ready.

Hazel thought that she would be fine with her day-to-day hobbies, her job, and school approaching in the fall, but she knew deep in her heart that all of it was a distraction, and it wouldn't be helping her. She was rattled from everything that happened with Jamie, and talking to a professional seemed like the best thing to do.

Then what?

As the sun finished setting, Hazel shut her eyes and focused. "What do you think I should do?" Her question to the universe comes out as a faint whisper.

Silently talking to or asking the universe questions was a habit she developed when she was younger. One way or another, she always received what she was looking for, even if she had to wait weeks for an answer. But Hazel was patient, and she knew from experience how rewarding patience could be sometimes.

"I know I haven't listened lately," she admitted, recalling the memories of the last few weeks and how she ignored what she should've taken as warnings. She remembered daydreaming about Jamie at work, then burning her fingers on one of the hot pans while baking treats. She remembered the slight twist in her gut when he told her that he liked chemistry, and the weird nightmare she had a week before the gala. "But I'll listen now, and I'll listen going forward," she concluded, then fell silent.

Probably nothing for now.

Hazel took the silence in, and allowed herself to think. Even if she believed she was fine, she wasn't, and going to therapy would help her. Her parents said so, Valerie said so, and a part of her knew it. She grabbed her phone to call and schedule an appointment.

Her body shifted on the couch, and something clattered to the floor near it, her eyes widening at the sound. She looked towards the ground where the garnet crystal she received from Luca now was. She realized that it fell out of her jacket pocket, then once again held the red stone tightly in her hand.

She was going to need some extra strength for a while.