CHAPTER 7
/ ABBY /
I looked at Wolfie as if I had seen a ghost.
"Hello, my love," he greeted me with a bow.
Genebeth beamed with laughter and started teasing me. She looked at him from head to toe.
"So you finally got yourself a hottie boyfriend huh?" She said, smiling widely at me.
"He's not my boyfriend," I told her straight away.
"Oh it's okay to be shy about it. What's your name, by the way?"
"I am Zhask Magesblood Zaffiro. Pleasure to meet you," he said in a very respectable manner and extended a hand.
"Cool name," Genebeth said, shaking his hand before whispering in my ear, "Where did you find this guy?"
I wanted to tell her I found him in the woods but I'm sure she wouldn't even believe me anyway.
"Let's talk," I told Wolfie and dragged him further along the hallway.
"How did you find me?" I asked him, feeling furious.
"I followed your scent."
"I told you to wait there!"
"I can't. I won't."
I felt so stressed out, so I wiped my forehead with my hands even though I knew there was no sweat there. Then I tried to calm myself down.
"Okay, just tell me what do you want. I'm going out tonight so I can't stay with you. You have to go back there."
"I said I won't spend another minute without you."
"Oh please... you're a full grown up man. You can't just stay with me every second, every minute, every hour! I have school! I have a life! I'm not your mother! I can't always look after you!"
"But I can always look after you," he replied. His voice was calm even though he just watched me in a verge of a panic attack. He stood straight, unwavering and not affected by the harsh words I uttered to him, like a royalty as he claimed to be.
"You can't look after me. I don't even know you. I'm scared of you," I told him without even looking at him because I knew my words would definitely hurt him.
But he gently placed both of his hands on my shoulders and tried to look at me in the face. "Then stay with me," he said very softly.
I looked up at him and saw sincerity in his eyes.
How could this man be dangerous when everything about him looked so comfortable and warm.
"Stay with me," he repeated. "And let me prove to you that I won't hurt you. Because I would never hurt you. Live with me in that house. I will protect you and I will keep you safe."
I was about to answer that but I heard Genebeth's footsteps approaching.
"Sorry to interrupt your sweet moment guys, but are you two coming with to the party tonight? 'Cause I can go alone if you guys want," she said.
I shook Wolfie's hands off my shoulders and straightened myself out. I let my emotions overpowered me again. This had always been my weakness. So I calmed myself down and make a decision.
"We're going," I told Genebeth with a smile on my face.
"Really?Both of you?" She didn't seem to believe it.
"Yes, both of us."
Wolfie looked at me as if he was gonna ask another question again but I stopped him.
"You said you wanna look after me. This is your chance."
****
Our friend's party was held in a club near Genebeth's place. It was already bustling with people when we arrived. There were lots of drinks, loud music and drunk people dancing on the dance floor.
We met some of our college friends there and they offered us a drink. Wolfie never stayed out of my sight, he was observing everything I did. I had to introduce him to my friends. They didn't believe I didn't know him so in the end, I ended up telling them he was my boyfriend. And they made us sit down side by side and so close to each other which was kind of awkward for me because after all this time, he was still a stranger to me. But he seemed to like it because he had his hands over my shoulder as if telling everyone that I was his.
They gave him a drink which he also took. I was surprised he didn't seem to be much affected by the alcohol. I could already feel my head getting heavy.
"Your turn, Abyy," one of our friends said and offered me a glass.
But Wolfie took it instead.
"Hey that's mine!" I snapped at him, trying to get my glass back, but he wasn't giving it to me.
"I'll be taking your glass from now on," he said and gulped the alcohol down his throat.
"Awe, so sweet," Genebeth said. "Why don't we dance to the dance floor."
I felt so excited about dancing. "Sure," I said, standing up. My body felt so light and hot.
"Zhask, you can join us," Genebeth tried to convince him but he only shook his head.
"It's fine. I'll just stay here and watch," he said. I could feel his discomfort since we got to this place. He didn't like it. But whatever, I was having fun tonight.
Genebeth and I headed to the dance floor and joined the crowd. Then we started dancing like crazy. I didn't mind who was with us in that space, I just danced and danced and stretched out my body and limbs to sync with the music.
It was supposed to be fun, until one guy started grinding his body behind me. I tried to avoid him but he kept following me.
"What's your name beautiful?" he asked, his mouth was so close to my ears, I could smell his breath.
Then he started touching my waist. I felt so disgusted.
I turned around, but before I could even face him, Wolfie hit him real hard in the face and I watched his body getting thrown accross the dance floor in complete shock.
"NOBODY TOUCHES MY WOMAN. NOBODY!"
Wolfie shouted in rage and everyone went silent.
/ ABBY /The woman who saved Zhask and me took us both to her house a little further away from where she found us.She treated our wounds and gave us water and a proper meal. She even gave me clothes to wear and made Zhask lay down on one of their beds to rest.Her house was small but it was spacious, with big windows which remained open for the rest of the day. It was located in what seemed to be a small village with people whose main source of food was farming. The village was surrounded by fields of crops and small green hills, and little streams. It reminded me of the island where Adam and I used to live, except this village was even more traditional than that place. There was no car, no technology, nothing that the modern human world ever owned. Or maybe we were just too far from the mainland?The portal had sucked us up and brought us out into the open field near a river. That's where the little kid found us. Now, I had to adjust my state of being before I could decide what to d
/ ABBY / It took me a few minutes to recover from the impact. I bit off my shirt and tore some fabric to wrap around my wound.Things were all over the place in the kitchen. All that stuff Elvon owned was scattered on the floor, it felt like an earthquake happened.But there was no earthquake. I looked around and found a glowing and pulsing white light where the counter once was.I saw Genebeth standing up, gushes on her face as well, as she shook off dust and broken shards of wood and glass off her.Mark and Elvon were in the corner, all over each other, struggling to stand up. Mark was still holding a piece of chicken in his hands, his face looked like he had seen a ghost."What the hell was that!" he yelled in panic.Elvon finally gathered his strength and stared at the white glowing light in the corner. It looked exactly like the light I had seen back in the woods when I first met Zhask. "It can't be...." I muttered and stared in wonder."It seems like someone has opened a porta
/ ABBY /Elvon and Mark gathered weird stuff in the kitchen. Stuff we barely recognized, some of them were amulets, pearls, potions, and other witchcraft stuff. The scent of smoke was heavier than usual and the whole room just felt so weird and dark and moist.We sat in the living room for ours, just letting them do whatever thing they were doing and just waiting until something would happen. So far, nothing happened yet and we were bored to death.It was already evening and we were starving. We couldn't cook our meals there because they had transformed the kitchen into some sort of magical room or whatever. So Genebeth decided to just eat outside.We didn't want to disturb the two magicians in there so we left them behind, promising we'd come back with food later. There was a small fast-food restaurant down there near the apartment building and we all went there to eat. They served us some chicken and some soup and ramen. I didn't realize I was hungry when I finally tasted food."S
/ ABBY /"You're taking me to where?" the man asked, clearly confused about what madness we just brought him into."To our apartment. To meet our friend," Shade replied, trying to convince him to come.We were standing just outside his house, making a deal with a man who possibly had no idea what he was about to do. "I guess this is too quick for you, isn't it?" Genebeth muttered beside me. "Why don't we introduce ourselves first? I'm Genebeth, for a start."Genebeth nudged at me, urging me to say something. "I'm Abby," I said, extending my hand to him."And I'm Shade. You are?"The man shook my hand first, "I'm Mark."Then he shook Genebeth's and Shade's after."Done with the introductions. Let's get to the point now," Shade said, pulling out her wallet. "Here take it. It's all yours.""I can't possibly...""Just take it," Shade cut him off. "Take it and get in the car. We won't ask you anything more."Mark took the wallet and his eyes widened upon seeing how much money was inside.
/ ABBY /The car slowed down as we drove back to the blue house by the river. We took it as a chance to listen to what excuse Shade had to say."I stole some money from my parents and ran away from home," she explained to us. I could sense the desperation in her voice. There was also a look of disappointment on her face.Now it made sense where she got all that money. There was no way someone like Shade, a student without even a job, could pay for all our living expenses. There was no way.Genebeth gasped and we both went silent. "Oh my God, Shade," Genebeth muttered, reaching a hand to Shade's shoulder to empathize with her. "No big deal, I've done it a few times before, they always let me come back," she added, trying to be nonchalant about it but I could sense her worry. "Yeah, you're right. Probably this time, they're going to abandon me. I stole a lot. Like a lot. Enough to sustain my independence, including the bail money I got Adam and Zhask out of prison, and yeah, the money
/ ABBY /"Are you seriously going to pay him?" I asked Shade as we got back into her car. "Yeah," she replied nonchalantly, starting the car up and pulling into the driveway."How much?" I asked again, not sure if I would agree with this one."Not for you to worry about, girl. Let's just get back and tell Elvon about him," she told me as drove our car back to our apartment."What if he's not the one we're looking for?" Genebeth asked, leaving over from the back seat to get closer to us."Then we'll keep looking," Shade answered. We got back to the apartment and rushed upstairs to the rooftop.We found Lylion sitting on a bench by the floor, eyes closed and snoring."Lylion!" Genebeth called out to his surprise. He stood up and alerted himself."What's the matter?" He asked, his hands already on his sword, probably thinking we were in danger."Where's Elvon? We found the man in his dreams!" Shade muttered out loud."He's inside," Lylion replied and opened the door for us.Elvon was