Book of the Hidden (12 page)

     
"I'M NOT PHSYCHO!"

     
With this Joan came running out stumbling in the grass. She stopped in front of Aunt Karen, her face red with either anger, or from her short run.

     
"Stop it mom, stop it!"

     
"I told you to go inside Joan."

     
"Never mind, I'm leaving." Vivian unclenched her fists. There was no use arguing, she wasn’t backing down. Reinforcements were what she needed.

     
"No, Vivie, don't leave."

     
“I won’t be gone for long,” she got back in her jeep, and pulled out of the driveway refusing to look at her cousin.

     
Don’t worry sweet Joan. I’ll be back
.

     
Dawn was just breaking when Vivian returned back to the Underground. She must not have been gone for very long, but for her, it felt like forever. It has been six years since she seen her aunt, or her cousin, but she guessed they had felt the same. Just being there with them she was getting homesick for the musty smell of her home. Her real home, that is.

     
The circular room was filled with lively happy chatter. It was a quick thought that they might have kicked Seth out temporarily, but he was there too, greetings –

     
“Akia!” Vivian smiled, and put her arms around her psychic friend.

     
A long time ago when Vivian first came to the Underground, Maeve told her that Akia said there would be a new member, a very treasured member as she would inherit the palace of many hidden creatures. Akia had taken accustomed to looking after Vivian when Maeve died. Vivian tried not to be around her too much since Akia loved telling people their future, and did not mind who was around. But then again Akia was not an ordinary psychic, she was part Elvin, and that gave her mystical allure, and the white hair that touched her waist, pale complexion, and the beautiful blue eyes.

     
“Oh Vivian dear, it is so nice to be back here.” Akia held her hands, giving a full smile.

     
“Did you have fun?”

     
“Yes, very! Oh!” Akia turned Vivian’s hand over, looking at her palms, and then back up at her, sort of. She was looking past Vivian’s shoulder. “Oh dear, your aura!”

     
Vivian looked over at Jean curiously, but she only shrugged her shoulders.

     
“Dear, your emotions are running high! You visited your family did you not?”

     
“Yes….”

     
Akia nodded her head knowingly. “Oh, and you are in love!”

     
Vivian’s face lit up red. “Akia, you must be misreading something.”

     
“No dear, I’m not. You are pink, and red. It is very clear. You are in love.”

     
Vivian looked back over at Jean giving her a stare saying ‘help me.”

     
“Hey, don’t look at me! I know the same, and I don’t even have to read your aura for that.”

     
Akia laughed, a very sweet and musical laugh. Vivian thought of the fairies laugh when she heard Akia. “Dear, who are you in love with?”

     
She pulled her hands away. “No one,” she couldn’t help herself, her eyes directed over to Seth. His face was serious as it always was, but there was something else. She couldn't read it though, she had no way of knowing what he was thinking. It was perhaps best that she didn't know, a fear rose in her gut that he hated her for what happened last night.

     
“I have to go.” Vivian ducked her head down, and made her way through the chattering crowd. Unfortunately there was no detour to her room.

     
Once she shut the door though, there was a knock. She gave a quick thought at going through the window, but instead she opened the door.

     
“Hey, we need to talk.”

     
“Jean –“

     
“No, we’re going to talk,” she pushed her way through the barrier that was Vivian’s arm.

     
“I’m not talking about Seth.”

     
“I wasn’t going to talk to you about that.”

     
Vivian was taken-aback. She shrugged, and sat on the bed. “What is it then?”

     
“The book. Seth told me that you went after it. Did you get it?” Jean asked.

     
Disappointment set in. “No. Ugh.” She fell back onto the bed. “Aunt Karen said she never stole the book. I thought I would come back here, get some people to help me.”

     
“Might be a good idea, but not now.”

     
She sat up. “Why?”

     
Jean sighed. “Aunt Karen will be on her guard. We need to wait, let her think it over, come to her senses.” Jean sat next to her putting an arm around her shoulder. “Don’t worry sis, we’ll get the book back.”

     
Vivian laughed. “That’s what we said how long ago?”

     
Jean laughed too. “Hey, it’s still in progress.”

     
When night fell they held a welcoming party for Akia. The circular room was filled with balloons conjured by the witches, and the chiefs set out long tables against the wall packed with food that filled the musty smell of the Underground.

     
Laughter and chatter reached Vivian’s ears. She sat back on her bed, looking up at the moth eaten canopy that she never bothered to fix. Cool breezes from the open window sent chills up her spine as it traveled across her arms, and the small of her stomach where her shirt had ridden up.

     
A knock on the door didn’t surprise her. She expected it to be Jean to talk her into joining the crowd out in the circular room. But instead a mop of blond hair crept through behind the door.

     
“Jake, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you out there with the others?” Vivian propped herself on her elbows.

     
His face was very white. “There are vampires, and werewolves out there.”

     
She laughed and sat up crossing her legs patting the blanket beside her for him to sit down, which he did.

     
“They won’t hurt you. Your brother is a werewolf you know.”

     
Jake lowered his eyes swinging his feet watching the undone laces of his shoes fly around. "How?"

     
It was not a question that she expected him to ask, and Vivian pitied him, and admired him all at the same time. His own brother was a werewolf, and though he didn’t understand any of it, he still accepted him, and wanted to understand. Vivian suddenly pained for her real family. She shoved the feelings aside.

     
“It’s something I can’t explain, you’re –“

     
“Too young, I know,” he cut her off. He stood up, and kicked at nothing. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”

     
Vivian shrugged her shoulders. “You are. Not even adults can understand it.”

     
Jake remained quiet.

     
“Look, you’re brother won’t be werewolf for long.”

     
He looked up, his eyes hopeful. “You’re going to fix him.”

     
Vivian flinched at his words “fix”, like Seth was someone broken. But she overlooked it. He was only a child after all.

     
“Yes.”

     
Next thing she knew, and also didn't expect, Jake threw his arms around her in a hug. After the short lasting shock, she hugged him back.

     
"Thank you," he whispered.

     
Vivian couldn't say anything back. Looking down upon his blond hair she thought of Joan, and the way Vivian had left her there.

     
Letting go, she could see Jake’s face lit up, and he was out the door in a happy rush.

     
It was shortly after Vivian had laid back down that Seth had stormed into the room, his face contorted with rage.

     
Vivian smirked. “Ever heard of knocking?”

     
Seth waved his hand dismissively at her question. “Why did you tell Jake that?”

     
“That I was going to turn you back to human? Because it’s true.”

     
“No it isn’t.”

     
Vivian sat up again placing her hands on her knees. She sighed. “It is. No, don’t give me that look, just listen. You’re meant to be human. You have a little brother that is scared of you! And you’re all he has.”

     
“I can raise him with being who I am if I have to. You despise change, why do you want to do it to me?”

     
“Because….,” she trailed off purposely.

     
He walked over to her sitting down beside her. “Because what?”

     
“Because….. No one
needed
me."

     
Seth turned his face towards hers, his face not full of anger anymore.

     
“But Seth, you do.”

     
“But – “

     
“I don’t need love.” Vivian’s eyes filled with stinging tears again as she said the words. “I don’t want it.”

     
Seth looked away. A part of her was hoping he would argue, but he didn’t. In fact he stood up and walked out softly shutting the door behind him. She had rather he slammed it, maybe somehow it would soften the dead weight that her heart was compressing under.

     
Part of what she said was true. She didn’t want love. But she did need it. Everyone did. And as did the night when Seth left, and she believed he was gone for good, her heart broke. She reached around her neck pulling on the rock still emitting light mysteriously from it. There was something she could not figure out about it, but she was too tired from her mind reeling, and she pushed it down her shirt.

     
The door opened again, and Vivian bolted up in a sitting position hoping that it was Seth standing there, but it was Akia. She was out of breath, her face white.

     
"What's wrong?" She asked.

     
"Oh dear..... Oh....." In three long strides Akia took Vivian in her arms comforting her.

     
"Akia, what's wrong?"

     
"Oh dear," Akia said again.

     
Over her shoulder, she saw Jean leaning tiredly against the door frame, large tears falling down her chin dropping to the wooden floor.

     
"Viv.... It's..... Viv......" Jean sunk to the floor, and Vivian hastily let go of Akia to kneel by her sister.