[completed - under editing]
[last chapter edited - 8 | setting a trap for yourself]
"You're told all your life that you're broken, insane, mentally ill. And then you're told that you are going to repair the world."
᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽
Thirteen...
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Caprice
Leilani's annoying voice continues pestering me. I wince as I try to focus on the low–ceilinged hallway and not her rambling. My feet dig into the uneven floor, I hunch my shoulders and trail my hand across the wall. It dead–ended, but I suspect that's not all.
"And so," she expresses to an unimpressed Taurus, "I said, I told you so. Of course, she didn't listen! I told her that Pisces liked her, but she's a Darktale, isn't she, and she never listens. I didn't get any drama. At all. Just a blank look and a snort. Really. They're quite boring, actually."
I curl my hand into a fist and knock it lightly against the wall, trying to ignore Leilani as best as I can, but there is nothing hollow that I can hear. I wonder if knocking on Leilani's head would give me a different result. She doesn't even have a brain under there.
The stone wall feels fake. As if it's just a prop. But I can't go on my instincts, because I can't feel anything behind it. I slide my hand against the wall, my fingers loosely holding onto a protrusion, and it feels as if the wall is sliding with my hands. The small grating noise that reaches my ears confirms what I suspect. It could be a panel.
"Taurus!" I whisper, reaching out in the dark for his arm and nearly jumping when I hear his voice right next to my ear.
"Yeah?" he asks, his breath tickling my neck. Nervously, I push back strands of green hair that have escaped the tight ponytail I bound my hair into.
"Can you shut Leilani up? Please do me this one favor and we might find something," I hiss at him, widening my eyes innocently.
Maybe I imagine Taurus's nod, but at a few hissed words from him to Leilani, she quiets down with a last, "And they think I'm the immature one — oh. Okay."
I try to grip the stone, finding another small protrusion to tug on. Holding my breath and hoping, I pull it. It slides away. Cursing quietly, I murmur, "I wish we had a fire element." A rectangular section of the wall clatters onto the ground and exposes a dark hole.
"I'm gonna reach in," Leilani says cheerily, and sticks her whole arm inside before either Taurus or I can yell at her not to. I can hear a crackling sound as Leilani withdraws her hand. "Oooh, look. Some old paper. Let's go back to Vienna and read it, alright?" she asks in an overly chirpy voice.
I start towards the entrance, an odd feeling swirling in my gut. Something is wrong, and I know it. I begin to realize that something is tingling in my fingers, as if it's seeping through my blood. My heart drops in my chest as I hope I'm wrong. What if the wall was laced with poison?
"We need Vienna," I say, but my voice wavers, sending me into a fresh wave of panic as I hunch over as best I can and make my way to the end of the passage, stumbling a few times in the dark. There's no huge wall slamming down to block my path, nothing. Just an eerie silence. Vienna is tracing her fingers over her arm, glancing at one of the other passages, where Leo is talking soothingly to Sagittaria as he walks her back. Gemi and Scorpio are a bit taken aback, which I can tell by the surprised looks on their faces as they glare at Leo.
