Everland

Part Three: You Have To Believe Me

Think I have anger issues? Think again. Imagine if you met the love of your life, and your best friend, and then your best friend died, and the next day, your love cheated on you. Life is cruel. Anyway, you know how Kaelyn's so nice? She's insecure and hates people judging her. Her parents had a second daughter who they said was perfect, but she died and the parents blamed Kaelyn. They judged her and (no joke), if she did anything wrong, they hit her with a frying pan. The first thing I did when I became leader of the Lost Girls was blow up Kaelyn's parents. Just kidding, Kaelyn wouldn't let me. She's a good person. So, read on.

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Kaelyn and I have been sitting on the floor of my room for the last hour, me crying, her sitting silently. Finally, the flow of tears begins to slow down, dripping down occasionally. I look up. Kaelyn is staring off into space. I place my hand on her arm, and she jumps, knocked down from her dream. She looks at me glumly, which means she's bawling her eyes out inside.

"Tell me about it." I say. I cross my legs and lean back against the wall. She shakes her head, but I'm stubborn. I stick my lip out and glare at her. She smiles weakly.

"Fine." I sit, already captivated. She chooses her next words carefully, and I can feel her lacing them with power. "But not now. Later. For now, you will sleep..." I try to keep my eyes open, but my eyelids are heavy and keep drooping.

"I'll get you for...this..." I yawn. It's hard to stay mad at Kaelyn. The last thing I see before my eyes drop closed is Kaelyn smiling.

My eyelids feel heavy and sticky, but I feel refreshed. I open my eyes and try to blink the gunk out of them. I wave my hand at the light switch, but miss and poke a hole in the wall. I groan and sit up. I'm trying to think, but my mind is groggy.

"Why am I on the—" Then I remember. I growl. "Kaelyn!" I wave my hand again and Kaelyn appears in front of me. I smile sweetly. "Hi, Kaelyn!" She gulps. The smile drops off my face. "Spill." I say. She sighs, and plops down in front of me. She takes a moment to answer.

"Well, when I was eighteen, there was this guy at my school. I liked him. A lot. I told my—my parents about him and...they forced me to hex him. They told me I was a sorceress, whatever I want, I get. I—I put a love hex on him. They told me, make it powerful, so I did. After that...he loved me...but...he went..." Her voice broke. My eyes widen. Oh, I am so screwed. I made the girl who never cries cry. Tears glisten in her eyes.

"He went what, Kaelyn?" I ask cautiously. She looks up at me, her eyes shiny and wet.

"He went crazy, Wendy." A tear streaks down her face, and it glistens blue. Like in animated movies, water is deep blue? That's the color of her tears. A tear dangled from her chin. Then it dropped. As it hits the floor, a deep blue and white snapdragon springs from the wood floor. I stare. More tears drip, and more snapdragons spring up from the floor. Soon, a whole bouquet is growing from the floor of my room. Kaelyn closes her eyes, but more tears escape. I spring into action. I jump up and grab a box of tissues. Kaelyn doesn't even move. I kneel down again and stuff tissue after tissue in her face. Soon I have tissues covered in flowers. Suddenly, Kaelyn opens her eyes and the tears stop, but she looks like she's in pain. "Quick, go to my room! In there, there's a golden pouch made of unicorn tail hairs, the most powerful substance known to wizard kind! Grab that, I can store my tears in it." She says in a strained voice. I stand up and snap my fingers.

I appear in Kaelyn's room, which is weird because I've never been in here before. I turn a full three sixty and spot the pouch on her dresser, which is carved from wood, a deep blue wood. I grab the pouch, but in the process, I knock over a jar that was covered in a piece of black cloth. The cloth slips off and onto the floor. A soft blue light emanates from the jar. I pick it up and peer into it. My heart stops. A boy, about eighteen or nineteen writhes on the floor of the jar. He stops as soon as he sees me. He smiles a crazy, crooked smile. His eyes were like shattered glass; broken beyond repair. He breathes on the side of the glass, and it fogs up the whole jar. Then, with his finger, in incredibly sloppy handwriting, he writes: Aevan sees you. I swallow hard. But before I can set the jar back down, he falls down and writhes on the floor again. Then I see something I didn't see before. Snapdragons. They're sprouting from his back, growing from his flesh. Then I realize why he's writhing. To grow, the snapdragons are feeding off his skin. And it obviously hurts. A lot.

I set the jar down and back away, the pouch in my hand. I take a deep breath, and snap my fingers. I appear back in my room. Kaelyn sits on the floor, a grimace on her face. Her eyes snap open and she looks up at me. She beckons. I throw the pouch to her. She catches it and holds it by her face. Then her face relaxes and dozens of tears spill from her eyes, though the expression on her face suggests that she's bored. She's not crying, tears are just streaking down her face at an alarmingly fast rate. They fall into the pouch, and soon enough, the pouch is glowing with a soft blue light also. The tears stop flowing after a while, and she closes the pouch. She sucks in a huge breath then looks up at me. Her brow creases.

"Where were you? Why did it take so long?" She asks suspiciously. A breath hitches in my throat.

"I, uh...ended up in Elune's Meadow and had to walk back." I stutter. She nods, but her eyes are still narrowed. The breathe in again and say, "What—what was his name?" She looks up.

"What?" She asks, confused. I blink.

"The boy. You liked." I say. She stays frozen for a second, but then draws a shaky breath.

"Aevan." She says quietly. I stare. She stares back. "What? What's wrong?" She asks. I break out of my trance and shake my head.

"N–nothing's wrong. Why?" I ask, trying to be casual. She slowly rises from her sitting position. She's not mad. She's sad. Heartbroken.

"You knocked the jar over didn't you?" She ask softly. Then she laughs. A sad, crazy giggle. "I do that all the time." I shake my head and back away as she steps forward. She nods. "It's fine. I—" Her voice breaks. "I couldn't just leave him there! The authorities would...they would run tests. They wouldn't understand why a perfectly healthy boy went–went mad. But you have to!" Her voice breaks again. "You have to believe me!" She cries. She falls to her knees, and I kneel beside her.

"It's alright, Kaelyn." I whisper. "I believe you." She looks up at me a laughs. It's a mad, crazy giggle.

"No you don't!" She laughs again. Her eyes dance with a crazy light. "But that's ok, Wendy!" She smiles up at me, but it's fractured, and it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "I'll just make you believe!" She shrieks and laughs again. I jump up and back away.

"No! I believe! Kaelyn! I really do!" The feathers from the shredded sofa rise from the floor and swirl around. She giggles again. She stands up and twirls, the feathers spinning around. Suddenly, she stops. She's facing me. I gulp. She smiles again, but this time it's a sad one.

"I'm sorry." She murmurs. Then, she snaps her finger. The blue jar appears in her hand. In it, the boy, Aevan, is standing at attention. He turns to me, and, shocked, I see his eyes. Broken glass. No, shattered glass. Just like Kaelyn's. I shudder. She puts her hand on the lid and smiles at Aevan. She presses her lips to the jar, and Aevan traces the outline of her lips with his hand. She unscrews the lid, but doesn't remove it. She stares at the boy in the jar for a few more moments.

"Please, Kaelyn. I really do believe you! Don't do this—whatever it is you're doing!" I cry. She doesn't blink. But she does lift the lid off the jar. The jar explodes and a young man stands before Kaelyn. He reaches out as if to touch her face but stops. He turns to me. I gasp. I try to step back as he moves to stand in front of me but it's as if I'm frozen. He smiles, but again, like Kaelyn's, it's crazy. I scream. "Help! Somebody, help!" The boy leans forward, and as soon as his lips touch mine, everything around me turns black.