Midnight Shades

Chapter 15

"You'll be okay, honey. Don't worry." My father tries to soothe me as he takes a bite of his pancakes.

"I hope so, father." I reply, nodding a little. My mother casts my father a glance that I can't quite understand, and my father only swallows hardly at it.

Cronan sleepily and silently eats away his breakfast as the strange and in-apprehensible glances between my mother and my father continues. When I run out of suggestions, I take it upon myself and ask them, "What's going on?"

My father snaps his head to my side before he smiles widely and answers, "nothing, dear."

"Why are you two looking at each other like that?" I ask, stuffing a bite of pancake inside my mouth, followed by a sip of orange juice.

"Nothing's going on, Tallulah." My mother snaps before rising from her seat and washing her dish.

I watch in silence her sudden change in tones, wondering what the hell is going on with the two of them, especially my mother. My father wipes his mouth with the white napkin before he, too, stands up and says, "I'm off to work, have a good day."

He places a kiss on my head and on Cronan's before he pecks my mother's lips and leaves the cottage. Cronan takes the last spoon of his cereal before he drops his head to the table and groans, "I'm tired."

"Get up, Cronan. Let's get you to school," my mother speaks, clapping her hands together as if to wake him up. He groans and gets up, taking his backpack and following my mother to the door. "Lock up behind you, Tallulah, and have a good day."

She closes the door and I let out a deep sigh before taking the rest of the plates off of the table and washing them in the kitchen. I'm quick when I take a shower and put on my training clothes that they gave us almost two days ago.

I'm not sure if I'm ready for my first training day today, but I think I won't be that terrible. I'm anxious and a bit afraid of what will happen there and what will we do there, but with those deep breaths that I keep taking, I think I will manage through this first day.

Louis and I have been texting non-stop ever since our first call a few days ago. We haven't been talking about something major because Louis thought that it would be best if we kept them to our date, though we kept talking about his parlour, the tattoos that he has and sometimes, he would tell me how much he misses seeing me, and that was the best part.

I slide the black tight pants – almost spandex – up my legs, wiggling and jumping a little bit to make it. The black tank top that I put on makes me scoff at their choice for these outfits. I look like I'm going to work out. However, the black jacket with the golden sleeves wins my approval. It looks perfect.

I brush my hair nicely, smiling as I remember what Louis said about liking it down. With a sigh, I take my small blue elastic before wrapping it around my hair in a ponytail. Stepping inside those black – almost like the army's – shoes, I turn off the lights of the cottage, the windows and doors before I head off to Esme's cottage as we decided to meet there.

As I walk to her cottage, I see the other girls and boys who are going to the training, some of them for the first time. Again, nervousness takes over my body as I take a deep breath and let it out. With two knocks on the door, Esme's mother; Siggy, opens the door with her kitchen apron on and a wide smile on her face.

"Ah, Tallulah, how are you?" She asks, giving me a small hug as she guides me inside.

"A bit nervous," I chuckle slightly as I tell her the truth.

"You'll be fine, don't think about it," she brushes me off as she heads to her kitchen. "Go in, they are inside."

I nod and go to Esme's room, finding both of them down on their knees as they pray to a statue of Lyara. I roll my eyes and sit down on Esme's bed as I wait for them to finish. I never believed in Lyara. Yeah sure, sometimes I would pray to her or call her name for help or in some situations, but that's only because I know nothing but her, there isn't any God that I was brought up knowing except for Lyara.