The Hideaway

Chapter 3

"Henry what happened?" He seemed to have trouble speaking which made me question whether I had done something to hurt him, again. He tried to say something but it was so jumbled that I couldn't make out what the noises coming out of his mouth meant. Instead he simply raised his thumb at me in praise of my abilities. I hated that the only thing that he cared about after a near death experience was whether I used my abilities or not. He would never change, even when his life depended on it.

"I will not use them again, so you better not do that to me ever again. Do you hear me Henry? You are all I have left." He just grunted at me and tried to get up. I stopped him but he only persisted. Henry was not a particularly hefty man but I knew that I was never going to be able to lift him. I knew there were Mystics out there with incredible strength and I wished again that I had been born with something so nonthreatening. Of course their bulging muscles and tough demeanor were terrifying, but they surely did not have the difficulties that I did.

With a lot of effort and some strained muscles I finally had Henry laying in bed. He was crankier than ever but I knew that he was grateful that I cared so much. There were few things that I cared about anymore and he and Lucca were it. I needed to hunt Lucca down at some point but I wasn't sure when I would be able to leave Henry again. I would need to send for the doctor in the morning and request that he make his way to this side of town. I had no idea what had caused Henry to go unconscious but I could not afford for it to happen again.

The next morning the doctor came by and diagnosed Henry with the unnamed fatal disease that had taken out a quarter of the town. He was amazed that Henry had woken up after going unconscious; he had yet to see anyone live after the disease had taken over. Because of this he was unable to prescribe anything to help him and wanted to keep a close eye on him. I offered him my room and he accepted in order to monitor Henry more closely. After a few days the doctor was surprised to see Henry's condition had improved. He had given him medication when needed and made it evident that he was treating Henry as an experimental of sorts, just in case someone else were to survive. The doctor was a needy man that constantly had me performing unimportant tasks for him. Very few of the things that he asked for involved Henry and it was honestly starting to drive me mad.

"Fetch me some water girl." He was even more demanding than Henry and would get even more frustrated if I did things incorrectly or took too long. It was cold out and I did not want to leave the comfort of our warm home, but I also needed him to continue healing Henry. He really had made tremendous strides towards becoming healthy and I looked forward to the day that he could boss me around again. The doctor kept him quarantined and only went in to see him when absolutely necessary. I was starting to miss his raspy voice and musky smell.

As I was exciting the room I heard the doctor talking to himself. I imagined it was some way of taking notes, yet he had no recording device or pen to write with. "The decease strikes yet another Undesirable. It makes me wonder why it has yet to affect a Mystic." That gave me hope that I could soon see Henry again, especially if the disease would have no effect on me. However I needed the doctor to go away so that he wouldn't question my Mystic standing.

I made it to the stream before I felt eyes on my back. "If you're planning on trying something you should know that I know how to fight." I continued on with what I was doing and bent down to place the pail into the water.

"You know, that might have scared me a few days ago. However, I think that your fighting ability is the least of my worries now that I know what you are actually capable of." I almost wanted to smile hearing his voice. It had only been a few days but I missed his presence. I turned to face him and was surprised to see him hiding in the shadows.

"Lucca, I am not going to hurt you. Please do not be afraid of me. I am still the same person that you met in the village. Please Lucca." My voice was more desperate than I intended for it to be. We did not know much about each other, nor did we spend a lot of time together, but I could feel myself clinging on to him. He was normal and with what I had ensued already in my life required normal.

He took a singular step closer to me but thought better of it and stopped. " I decided that I was never going to see you again. I tried to get you off my mind but you have always been a constant there. I have never felt the need to know things about you and now that I know something other than your first name I regret it. You are dangerous and I cannot afford to be around danger again. Your kind killed my entire family. To make things worse, you seem to be the most dangerous Mystic out there. Exactly how many abilities do you have? " Instantly I felt my heart drop. The little bit of hope that I had was gone. I should have raced after him when he had run out, but Henry needed me.

"Could you be a little bit quieter with that word? I don't use them, if I did you would have found out about them long ago. Mystics killed my family too Lucca, that is why I live with Henry. I am not related to him at all. Please don't give up on me, I am not any different than I was before." I needed for him to believe me and to trust me again.

"Why can't I let you go Dahlia? I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't care about you. I should be turning you in for crying out loud." He took another step closer to me and I closed the gap between us. I had never stood so close to him before and it surprised me that he was letting me stand so close now, knowing what I was.

"You know, for the longest time I debated how I was going to court you. I beat myself up over taking so long to do it, but there was always something about you that scared me. I couldn't put my finger on it, because I honestly knew nothing about you. However, I think that that added to your appeal. Now I know that I could never be with you Dahlia." He reached out and placed a hair that had fallen into my face behind my ear.

I couldn't cry due to the control that I had over water, but if I were able to cry I would have been bawling at that moment. I wanted nothing more than to be a normal person with a normal life and a normal husband. I wanted a future with Lucca, but he was right, it could never work between us. I took a step away from him and he frowned. "You're right, it was stupid of me to have put you in danger so many times. I am sorry Lucca; I promise I will not bother you again. Thank you for coming in person to explain this to me." I didn't want to lose him but it was very irresponsible of me to have put his life in danger so many times. I was a danger to everyone and anyone around me.

"You have control over these abilities don't you?" I wanted to tell him yes. I wanted to lie to him and tell him that the abilities that he saw had been a figure of his imagination and I was an Undesirable, just like him. We didn't talk much but I had always liked him. I needed contact with someone other than Henry to feel normal.

"I have a pretty good control over them because I choose not to use them. I know that I seem scary and dangerous but I promise you that Henry, who is blind and sick is more dangerous than I am." I wanted him to believe my lie more than anything.

"I can't say that I trust you, because I don't, but you intrigue me. Why are you hiding out as a Undesirable when you are probably the most powerful Mystic out there?" He whispered the word Mystic and I was grateful that he would try to protect me, even if he did not trust me.

"I have my reasons. For one, I don't exactly want to become another weapon in the Overlord's arsenal. Could you imagine if he had a weapon that was able to wield the elements? I have other reasons to hide away too, but that's the only one that I am willing to share."

"You're telling me that you can control all of the elements?" I shushed him and he quickly lowered his voice. You could never be too careful when it came to the Overlord; he had ears and eyes everywhere.

"I can wield the elements yes, but I wouldn't say that I have complete control over them. Henry has been trying to get me to practice with them for years, but I can't risk hurting anyone again. I don't want my abilities and if there were a way to get rid of them I would."

"You keep saying you don't want to hurt anyone 'again,' who exactly did you hurt?" I didn't want to tell him what I had done. I was young and I had no control over the elements at the time. I hurt them and I didn't mean too.

"Let's just say that when I met Henry he wasn't blind..." He took a step away from me. I knew that a romantic relationship with Lucca had always been out of the question, but it could never happen now. There was no way I could be in a relationship with a man that was afraid of me. I needed his friendship nonetheless so it was necessary that I stop him from running away again.

I reached for him but he backed away. "I need to see exactly what you can do and what kind of control you have over them before I decide if I can be around you." It was then that I knew I could no longer trust him.