The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 35

Over the next few weeks, not a lot happened. Lucas left because he didn't want Felicia to come here looking for him and find all of us. As far as she knew, this place was completely empty and had been ever since she took Lucas, Alexa, and their parents away from here.

"What about me?" Jaylon asked on the morning Lucas was leaving. "Why didn't she take me? We were sharing a room, she can't have just overlooked me."

"Dad cast a protection spell over you. He didn't get to me in time, but she has no idea you even exist," Lucas had replied, giving his brother a quick, one-armed hug before walking away. Thalia had stuck around, but after Lucas left she seemed very distant.

Candy, who had come back with us after my little episode in the bathroom at Adam's apartment, was still with us, along with Finn. The two of them seemed to be taking all this surprisingly well and were joining in on all of our meetings and training sessions, though of course, they couldn't really train with us.

Lucas entrusted Jaylon with my medication, the injections that stabilized me and kept me from going crazy. He'd shown Jaylon how to use them before he left, and I'd been having them every four days since then.

We'd all been doing rigorous training, myself having some private sessions with Jaylon and occasionally Thalia because, according to them, there was something different about me and I was much more powerful, which meant I needed more training. It was exhausting, and my illness really didn't help. Sometimes, through the warm numbness the medication brought on, I would still feel the pain and have to curl into a foetal position and just wait it out. Sometimes it took minutes to fade, sometimes hours; once I was curled up on the floor of the bathroom for an entire day. Whenever this happened, Jaylon was by my side, his arms around me.

The stuff that Lucas had used the first time it happened here was strictly for emergencies only. It took the pain away but would knock me out for hours and it could often complicate the use of the cure in the final stage. So, although Jaylon offered it many times when I was in such pain, I never accepted. It drove him insane; he couldn't stand seeing me in pain, but he wouldn't leave either.

Exactly three weeks after Lucas gave me my official diagnosis, he returned. I was in the kitchen preparing some snacks to take up to the others in the library when he came in. Charlie was with me, as Jaylon was set on not letting me be alone at any time throughout the day in case anything happened.

"Hey, Louisa?" Charlie spoke from behind me while I was looking for something in the enormous fridge.

"Hm?"

"I think there's someone here to see you," He said, sounding a little worried. I straightened up, rolling my eyes and speaking as I turned around.

"Jaylon, Charlie is with me and I'm feeling fine so-" I stopped in surprise when I saw that it wasn't Jaylon and stared at him for a moment, mouth wide open in shock. And then, like I couldn't even control what I was doing, I flew across the kitchen and flung my arms around him. He laughed awkwardly and I pulled away, embarrassed. I barely knew Lucas, what in the world was I doing?

"How are you feeling?" He asked as I turned away in order to hide my red face. Why couldn't my blood just stay in my veins where it belonged?

"Not too bad," I said. "Pretty good considering I have a life-threatening virus that could drive me insane."

"Well, you'll be pleased to know you're probably almost at phase five." Lucas moved around in front of me so that he could see me and I was forced to look at him. Thankfully, my cheeks weren't really burning anymore.

"So what now?" I asked.

"You're probably still in phase three if you're anything like the others that got Felicia's version," he said thoughtfully, grabbing a mini hot dog of the tray of food Charlie was preparing. "Phase four is coming up and that will not be fun, but it will only last a few days and as soon as you come out of that fully I can give you the cure."

"So not long now?" I asked nervously. I was not looking forward to phase four. Though the injections had been helping, Lucas had warned me before he left that I would still lose my magic entirely during that phase. He had also told me that although it was slightly different from the natural Witches End where all I would be able to hear were the voices in my head, I would actually still be able to hear everything as well. The problem with this though was that it would be very difficult to tell what was in my head and what was reality, even with the help of the injections.

"No, not long," he said with a shake of his head. "Probably only about a week at the most. Phase four could start any day now."