Chapter 69- Whispers In The Wind

A Knock on her bedroom door woke her. Crystal was too tired to move and turned over pulling the covers closer to her chin and snuggling in. the door flung open and she groaned as the winter sun stung her now open eyes. The last few days had been exhausting and all she wanted to do was sleep. Teke was gone and she didn’t have to fear the demon attacking her while she slept. It was the best night’s sleep she’d had in a long time.
“Get up or you will be late,” Jeanette’s voice startled her. When did she ever wake her?
“What for?”
“School,” she had to be kidding. School? After everything that had happened, her mother wanted her to go to school.
“You have to be kidding,”
“Crystal get up now, we can’t afford the authorities on our backs,” Crystal rolled her eyes. Their home had just burnt down she was sure the authorities would understand. However, there was no use in arguing with Jeanette and she didn’t have the energy.
“Fine,” she snapped tossing the quilt to one side and padding to the en-suite bathroom. Crystal undressed and stepped into the shower her toes flinching from the cold ceramic floor. Her mind was in turmoil, she couldn’t get Josephine out of her head. She had to go back. If only for her own sanity, it wasn’t her nature to turn her back when she knew someone needed help.
She turned the dial and thousands of lukewarm droplets darkened her hair and trickled down her back. Her eyes feel closed, and the scene of Josephine surrounded by the dead soldiers flashed in her mind like photographs.
When she stepped back into the bedroom her mother was gone. On the bed were clean clothes which still held the price tag. She sighed as she pulled the towel closer to her body. Everything she owned was gone. Crystal picked up pair of dark demine jeans and a white long-sleeved t-shirt that hung slightly off one shoulder. Putting the clothes on and checking herself out in the mirror. She had to admit whoever had picked out the clothes had good fashion sense.
She found a hair dryer inside the dresser drawer and blow dried her curls and left them to hang loosely. Pulling on her boots she looked round the room. She had no coat, and it was winter.
She would have to do without. Crystal made her way to the dining room where her mother and the Carmichael’s were already seated.
The same luxurious breakfast as the last time she had been there awaited her. Her stomach growled like a fierce tiger as her eyes scanned the food. Uttering a good morning she took the nearest empty seat and started to dig into the food. Once she was full, she stood and thanked the Carmichael’s for the meal.
“Levi will be taking you to school today. There is a red coat hung up by the door,” Crystal gazed at Mary in aww. The woman was strange, yet she held an unnerving kindness to her.
“Thank you, Mary,” she smiled.
“Wait out front. I will pull the car around,” Levi said opening the door.
“You don’t need to pretend to be a gentleman anymore. I already know you’re a jerk,” she joked pushing her shoulder into his.
“Ssshh, not everyone is as quick as you,” with a cheesy grin on her face she found the coat and headed outside to wait for him. When he pulled up, she dove into the car to get out of the cold.
“I don’t see why I have to go today,” she muttered as they made their way down the driveway.
“Maybe to learn,” Levi said, and she scowled at him.
“I am the key Levi,” she said randomly.
“I know,” he said letting out a deep breath. She watched his knuckles turn white from the extra pressure he was putting on the steering wheel. Crystal put her hand over his.
“We can’t destroy the portal. Not because I must die. Because I need to find Josephine,”
“You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re really going to go into the Danger Woods,”
“Yes,”
“You’re one crazy stupid girl Crystal Hudson. But I won’t allow you to go alone,”
“You’re gonna help me?” he turned her way and she shrunk back from the heat in his eyes.
“Of course,”
“Then you’re just as crazy as me,” she whispered.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he replied giving her one of his killer smiles that sent tingles over her body.
“Do you think they will still make us marry?” she asked looking out of the passenger window. She didn’t want to see his reaction.
“If there is one thing, I have learnt about you, is that no one can make Crystal Hudson do anything she doesn’t want to do,” she laughed and gently slapped his arm. He was right. When had her mother actually made her do something she didn’t want to do? Crystal had always refused and found a way around her mad tactics.
Levi parked in the school parking lot and Crystal climbed out followed by Levi. She turned to say goodbye when she saw a mischievous tinkle in his eyes.
“What ya up too?” she asked him a little nervous.
“Nothing much,” he replied. Hitting him not too gently in the arm and narrowing her eyes she glared at him.
Holding his hands up in surrender he said, “Okay, I am here to learn just like you,”
“What?” she asked him unsure whether he was pulling her leg or not.
“I am here to watch over you,” storming away she paused as she reached the double doors.
“I don’t need a bodyguard. I can handle myself,” Levi pulled the doors open and whispered into her ear as they stepped into the hallway, “That maybe so, but Drake is nowhere to be found,”
“You think he will come for me?” she asked him.
“Without a doubt,”
“Then let him, bring it on,” she wasn’t scarred anymore. She was angry. The normal life she had once dreamed of seemed so far away she would fight for her dream. Life was a rollercoaster of events and Crystal had enough of her share of them. It was time she got off the ride. Sighing she opened her locker and looked in her mirror. Before you can even think of being normal you have to find Josephine.
As she made her way to registration which also happened to be her first class, Crystal paused beside the winter formal poster. She gently brushed her fingers over the airbrushed girl that wore a beautiful white ball gown and sighed.
“School dance aye?” Levi interrupted her moment.
“Nah, not me,” she answered with indifference.
“Why not, I thought it was the highlight of high school life?”
“Yeah, for some,”
“But not you?” she could hear the doubt in his voice.
“If by now you haven’t noticed. I don’t exactly fit in not here or within my coven. Yeah, I wish someone would ask me to go and for one stupid night I got to be normal. But I am not that lucky, and everything just keeps getting increasingly out of control,” she ranted and when she finished, she took a big breath, Levi tugged on her arm and altered her outside the classroom door.
“Crystal Hudson, would you be my date for the mundane stupid ball?” he asked her with a serious look on his face.
Pouting and giving him her puppy dog eye, she nodded her head frantically and then let out a shrill laugh.
“Thank you!” she flung her arms around his neck and hugged him.
“You wanted to go that bad eh. Don’t get any ideas about any of that arms and legs flying in any direction dancing,”
“It’s a dance Levi,”
“Fine one slow dance, you know the normal kind of dancing,”
“Haven’t you learned by now that where anything but normal?” she took her usual seat and Levi sat in the chair that once was where Hugo used to sit.
Her heart flooded with sadness and tears stung her eyes. He would never be there to brighten up the dull school days. All those times he had tried to be her friend and she had pushed him away. She regretted every second of it.
“Hay,” Levi put his hand over hers.
“What’s up,” he asked.
“Hugo used to sit there. Do you think they really found his body right where we buried my father?” she asked, it had been bugging her since she had learned the horrifying tale. Yet she hadn’t been able to voice her question. If it was Hugo, then where was her father?
“I think something is going on. I was there I helped bury him,”
“Yeah, that’s the problem. We always have to dig up the truth.”