𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑰𝑺 𝑨 𝑾𝑰𝑺𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑴𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟒𝟒

There was a collective agreement to take a break after the tumultuous tale of what had happened to Anastasia. The group had broken apart to recollect themselves just as Ben, Chad, and Audrey returned, all of their arms full with snacks.

Chad had promptly dropped all of his snacks when Delphina launched a pillow at his head as revenge for his 'hellion' comment.

"So," Ben began with a heavy sigh, throwing himself on the bed next to Delphina. "How are you feeling?" He asked her gently while Audrey and Chad set down the barrage of snacks they had stolen.

Delphina gave him a small smile and pretended to think for a moment, tearing open a bag of chips. "Like I just re-lived God knows how many weeks of nightmares from the pits of hell." She murmured teasingly in response. Ben gave her an unamused look, but her teasing smile only grew in response and he rolled his eyes, reaching over to the nightstand by the bed and pulling a small remote out of the drawer. Before he could point it at the television that hung on the wall, Delphina frowned and snatched it away from him, giving all of her friends a look.

"Ah! No. We need to talk first." She declared, tossing the remote onto the bed. Ben, Audrey, and Chad all turned to look at her, puzzled, as if nothing had gone wrong between them.

"Talk about what?" Chad asked, his voice muffled thanks to the mouthful of pretzels he had inhaled. Delphina rolled her eyes at him before realizing that Ben and Audrey had the same clueless look on their faces.

"I...everything! What happened on the tourney field?" Delphina exclaimed hopelessly, but Ben, Audrey, and Chad all nodded lightly, as if the encounter had completely slipped their minds. "I was rude a-and cruel and I said things I didn't mean and–"

"And you were also being tormented with black magic," Ben interrupted casually.

"And trying to save an entire kingdom by yourself." Chad added, munching on another pretzel.

"And stalling a sociopathic dark fairy from trying to put a sleeping curse on all of us." Audrey finished, cracking open a can of soda.

Delphina paused, speechless at their casual dismissal of everything that had happened. She had expected anger and betrayal and rants about how much she had betrayed their trust. Instead, they all remained in their spots, devouring their snacks as Ben reached over her to grab the remote once more.

"How are you all so casual about this?" Delphina scoffed at all of them. "Black magic or not, I was terrible. I..." She paused, the words getting caught in her throat. No matter how pissed off Delphina had gotten, she had never reached that point. And she had certainly never admitted it out loud.

"I turned into my grandmother." Her voice came out barely above a whisper, but Ben, Audrey, and Chad all still fell silent. "And...it's something none of you deserved to experience. In fact, I always swore to myself that I would never act like that around anyone and I really just should have been more in control of myself, but–" Delphina's apology was sharply cut off when a pretzel hit her directly in the forehead and landed in her lap. She blinked in surprise, and turned to face Chad, who was still sitting on the floor at the side of the bed, holding a handful of pretzels like they were deadly weapons and raising an eyebrow at her.

"Did that knock the sense into you or do I need to hit you again?" He asked sharply. Delphina hesitated, shooting him a brief glare as she picked up the pretzel and threw it back at him childishly.

"No one needs to knock any sense into me." She shot back, but was interrupted by a snort from Audrey.

"If you think you're turning into your grandmother, then yes we do." Audrey commented dryly from the armchair she was lounging in. Delphina huffed at her friends, giving them all a pointed glare.