When they returned to Jonas’s place, he quickly rushed upstairs to drop off his books. Then he just headed straight out back; he didn’t want to face Peter again, at least not for a while. At the stables, all of his horses were out of their stables, stretching out their wings. They neighed in excitement when they saw him and Nina came back. Windy rushed over first. “Master,” she bowed, “It’s so good to see you two back together again.”
He laughed, “Windy, we didn’t break up. We just went our separate ways for a little while. She went with her family on vacation and I stuck it out around here.”
“It’s just that the way you were talking, it sounded like you broke up. You were so…” Jonas started laughing nervously, “Ok, I think she gets it, Windy.”
“Jonas,” she approached him and looked in his eyes, “you weren’t lost without me, were you?”
He shrugged, looking away. “I kinda felt like I was, yeah… it was… weird. I guess I’m so used to seeing you all the time. I don’t know what happened, but those two weeks were more of a blur. Actually, everything blended together because things have been pretty ordinary. I stopped having those nightmares, so the supernatural aspect of my life was gone. So, I felt like I had to start from scratch again. Today, though, I felt great because I felt really normal. I haven’t exactly had that opportunity before and I liked it a whole lot.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” She hugged him and he embraced her back. She looked in his eyes again. “Just promise me that you won’t become too normal. Your mystery is part of what I fell in love.” She laughed and he just smiled back.
She continued, “I did my share of missing too. I thought about you every single day. I brought a picture frame with a photo of the two of us. I put it next to my bed and blew you a goodnight kiss every night.” He just smiled; he couldn’t think of anything else to say.
The two of them went riding for a while, discussing all kinds of things. Jonas was just glad to be back to that kind of normalcy; being with Nina compensated for the supernatural that used to make his life interesting. They retired to their separate quarters a little before dinnertime. During which, Jonas spent upstairs doing some PreCalculus problems.
He wandered downstairs when he caught the smell of pasta coming from the kitchen. Peter was just setting up the plates. He smiled, “Jonas, I was beginning to think I wouldn’t be seeing you.”
“Yeah, sorry about this morning. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s all right. You’re a teenager; I understand that at this age, teenagers usually don’t like discussing every little thing with their parents.”
Jonas scratched his head, “I kinda forgot why I was uptight this morning. I know I came off as a little rude, so I apologize for that.”
“No need, Jonas. All is forgiven.” They sat down for dinner and discussed various things that occurred that day.
Once he was through with dinner, Jonas went right back upstairs to do some more thinking. He looked through his previous journal entries from the past couple of years, remembering all of the good and bad times he and Nina shared. During those past two weeks of the summer, something felt different. He was used to being alone because him being psychic made him felt isolated from everyone else. His unknown past plus Nina was a good combination that he had gotten used to; without Nina, he felt strange when he didn’t even have the supernatural holding him back.
He wondered on about what being without Nina during the school year would be like. Sure, they’d see each other on weekends and such, but somehow, he felt he wouldn’t be quite the same without her. He didn’t want to change because he was comfortable with who he had become over recent years. After giving everything some thought, he laid flat on his bed. He groaned, “Geez, I used to think I could handle myself and that I didn’t need anyone else. I feel so… weak. I mean, why do I need to have Nina by my side? Even the greatest couples in history have had some time to themselves. I gotta stand up on my own two feet; I’ll have to.”
He turned over onto his right side and drifted off to sleep. When he opened his eyes in his dream, he found himself back in that familiar place. He groaned, “Oh no, not this nightmare again…” A spotlight followed him around in this otherwise dark and desolate place. He saw another spotlight appeared in front of him. He rushed to the light and the darkness dispersed with a flash of bright white light.
After recovering his sight, he saw a painting hanging in front of him aimlessly in space. He walked up to it, expecting to see a somewhat depressing scene from his far off past. This time, it was a different painting. He saw a tall oak tree viewed from above and a small figure in black kneeling next to a small black rose. He reached out to the painting and fell through it. Instead of crashing onto the ground, he was floating behind the figure in black. It removed its hood and he saw that it was a girl with dark hair.
She stroked the rose affectionately and a dark purple energy was circling around it. She smiled. “You are my only friend. I have powers that nobody understands. They’re all afraid of me. All of the girls stray from me while the boys talk about me behind my back. I can’t control my powers, so I’m forced to live alone.” She cried in her hands
Jonas’s heart leapt and he wanted to embrace her. He reached for her, but his hands went through her as if he was a ghost. He gasped, whispering, “What’s going on?”
She wiped her eye quickly, but her tears continued to fall on what appeared to be a black rose. It started to grow taller and she laughed. She continued stroking it, “I tell you all of my secrets and you just listen. You would never stray from me like my best friend, Roxie had. She was adopted and I never heard from her again.”
Suddenly her mood became anger. “You wouldn’t abandon me like my parents have. They left me on the steps of that orphanage without even saying goodbye. I’ve been told so many times that they’re dead, but I thought they’d come back someday. They never did. Not even my parents cared about me.” The rose started to glow with a purple light and it grew even more.
Jonas whispered as he tried to hold her again. “I care about you.” This time, his hands reached her and he hugged her. She didn’t seem to feel him next to her, so he reached for her still. Without any explanation, he drifted away from her at an alarming rate. He reached for her as he drifted back, but soon enough he woke up.
When he slowly opened my eyes, something didn’t feel right. He was lying on his back with his hands folded on his chest. He looked around, first looking up to see how close the ceiling was to his head. He looked down and he almost screamed. His body froze when he saw that he was floating a foot above his bed. He suddenly shouted, “Oh my gosh,” when he came crashed down onto his mattress. Amazingly, he wasn’t hurt at all. Jonas sat up, holding onto his heart as it beat rapidly like never before.
Trying to catch his breath, he said, “That was so weird… it felt like it really happened. I feel like… I know this girl… something seems so familiar. Is she psychic like I am? Is that what isolates her from everyone else? There’s some kind of connection, but I don’t have a clue what it is.”
Before getting dressed for bed, he thought about the last piece to this puzzle: the black rose. He had no doubt that it was feeding on her sorrows, but there was something evil about it. Its energy was very familiar and a little paranormal. That alone made him want to forget about it all together, but something about the girl kept him from doing so.
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