"Olive, don't you ever think of yourself as a burden to me, do you understand? You can never be anything but a blessing" Rosabella's words made Olive teary eyed once again. "How long have you been having nightmares?" her concern obvious.
" For about a two months now" was Olive's reply making Rosabella suck in a deep breath. This was impossible. If Olive had been having nightmares, why hadn't she noticed? How had she hidden it from her?
"How and why did you hide this for me?" the question made a chill go down Olive's spine. This was it, her mom was going to murder her for keeping it a secret for so long.
"I... It... I used a silence rune" she finally spit out. "It's carved into my bedposts. Every night after you leave and before I fall asleep I activate it so my bed becomes insulated and noise can't escape from it even though noise can come in."
If it was at any other time and with any other person, they would have been proud that their child had been able to use such a common thing to create something new. Rosabella however was infuriated even though her face was completely calm. "And why did you think it was a good idea to hide something as serious as this from me? Do you not trust me?"
The last question was like a thunderbolt and it mercilessly struck Olive." NO" she exclaimed loudly shocking the both of them at the loudness of her voice. "That's not it. I just didn't want to bother you so much. And you were having a hard time at the company, with the failed deal with the goblins. I didn't want to give you more reasons to worry about because of a stupid nightmare."
Rosabella gave a deep sigh." Oh Olly. You could never bother me" she moved closer and gave Olive a hug. Olive burst into tears again. It was weird for her because she didn't really cry much after her father died, but now it seemed like she was crying for all the years she didn't.
Rosabella was startled when Olive started crying again. However she was pleased because this meant that the potion was doing its job properly by giving her nightmares and at the same time making her more sensitive emotionally. She continued to play the part of a comforting mother, sad to see her daughter hurting but she was dancing with joy on the inside.
After she calmed down, Olive was once again questioned by her mother." Do you want to talk about it now". Olive, this time, to her relief, agreed.
Her next words however, frustrated her to no end. "I'm sorry but I don't remember. I haven't been able to remember since the first time. " Rosabella could have strangled her but she forced herself to smile.
"It's fine. It's better that you don't remember. You'll get less hurt that way, seeing as this one was frightening enough for you to cry so much." Olive snorted at that
"Now I feel embarrassed because I've never cried so much much". Her mother pulled out the hair covering her face and tucked it behind her ear.
"You don't need to ever feel sorry for crying. It's normal to cry." Her mother's comforting words made her feel better. Rosabella, on the other hand was ready to kill herself. She had to cut this farce short and stop spouting bullshit.
"Okay, you need to get some sleep and so do I, I have a client by 10. It's the weekend so you can sleep in. You don't need to come down for breakfast,I will cook and leave yours in the fridge." While saying this she flicked her wrist and an incense burner came zooming through the door. "This is to help you sleep I've put enough sticks to last at least five to six hours."She then gave Olive a kiss on the cheek, ruffled her hair and went out the door.
Her mother's words made Olive look at her clock,it was just 3am. She sighed and took a deep breath,her eyes fluttering shut as the incense took effect.
Ross Residence,
It was 9:15 and the furniture had arrived all that was left was for the interior designer to show up. Eva was busy directing the movers on where she wanted the furniture. Jessie on the other hand was sprawled over a couch playing with her phone, looking bored out of her mind.
"Jess, could you stop playing on your phone and help with this. I don't know if I should place this over here or over there" Eva said to her daughter pointing to two different directions. Jessie, however, was so engrossed in her phone that she didn't hear her mother's words.
"Jessie" she called again but was rewarded with no response. Eva sighed and sent a tiny bolt of electricity at Jessie who immediately jolted up from her resting place.
"Ouch! Mom! What was that for?" Jessie whined rubbing her leg where the bolt had hit her. Eva was not impressed and showed her displeasure by rolling her eyes.
"Will you listen to me now?" She asked, leading Jess to finally look at the furniture her mom was pointing at. At this point the movers had finally finished bringing in all the furnitures and installing the important ones like the cabinets and shelves.
What Eva was pointing to was a small pink ottoman. She was having a hard time choosing between placing it by the TV and placing it by the couch close to the wall. Jessie thought about it and decided to keep the ottoman by the couch so she could easily put her legs on it while watching TV.
Eva was finally satisfied with the arrangements. "Now all that's left is for the interior designer to come by and help with the decor." and as she spoke, the doorbell rang. "It must be the designer, let her in would you?"
Jessie went to the door and opened it. Standing in front of her, was a woman the same age as her mother with blond hair that looked so shiny she became jealous and eyes green like an apple. "Are you Mrs. Ross who spoke with me on the phone?" The beautiful woman questioned, her voice crisp and clear but also elegant and refined. Jessie quickly refuted the statement and welcomed the guest in. "This is the Mrs. Ross you spoke with, she is my mother" she pointed at her mother who walked towards her guest. "Hello, my name is Eva Ross, you can call me Eva or Mrs. Ross,I don't really care." she introduced while stretching her hand out for a handshake. "You can call me Rosabella or Mrs. Lane, then, whatever suits your fancy" Rosabella took the hand and reintroduced herself in return. She then took a look at the house she was to decorate. She was impressed with the furniture arrangements. "I have to admit you did a terrific job with the furniture. I might even say you've lessened my work
And so Olive, Chelsea, and the less talkative Rosie spent the day watching one Disney movie to another. Rosie and Olive were having the time of their lives, Chelsea, however, was still stuck on how her friend had so casually used wordless magic. It wasn't that she was sad or mad her friend could, she was rather worried because witches at her age could not activate their ability to use wordless magic until after their Coming of Age Ceremony. She didn't think Olive even noticed it, meaning that she had been doing so for a long time.She kept ruminating on this all through Frozen 1 and 2. It took Olive asking her friend to refill their chips stock for Olive to recognize that her friend was in deep thought. Dragging her friend to the kitchen, Olive started another round of questioning."Are you okay? What's wrong? " Her worried tone while asking the questions made Chelsea feel bad for worrying her friend so she decided to tell her the truth."Nothing's wrong, I was just surprised at how e
Dinner was a fine meal of Spaghetti and meatballs. In order to cater to Rosie's childish senses, there were also Dino nuggets. Rosabella was interested in how they spent the entire day, which Rosie was very happy to share."We watched Frozen and Captain America and Captain Marvel and Thor and Avengers and The Black Panther... " and so Rosie began to list every movie they had watched, everyone cooed at how cute she was."That's right, mom how was the client? "Olive asked as Rosie decided to focus on her Dino Nuggets. Rosabella was in the process of eating a forkful of spaghetti so she put it in her mouth and drank some water to wash it down."It was great. Luckily for me, this customer knew what she wanted and didn't make any outrageous demands like others tend to do. And to make things even better she already had a great majority of the furniture arranged before I got there. Honestly, it was the easiest job I've had in a while." And Rosabella wasn't lying, she did have fun working wit
Ross Residence,"So how did you spend your day Jess?" Eva inquired as they sat down to watch a movie after dinner.Jessie turned to face her mother. "Well, I walked around our block for a while. The neighbors are really friendly. I went to check out the school, I would have done my enrollment but I didn't have any of my papers. I met a werewolf, he was nice, even though he was there in detention. He showed me around town once his detention was over. We even had ice cream. " Jessie narrated.Eva turned and looked at her daughter, her eyebrows wiggling. "Was he cute?" she asked referring to the boy she spoke about. Jessie had nev|er blushed as hard as she was blushing right now in her entire life."Mom!" she exclaimed lightly whacking her mom with a pillow." That's not the point.""Then what is the point my darling?" Eva batted her lashes at Jessie making her blush even harder.Knowing her mother would not stop until she answered her question, Jessie murmured almost inaudibly. "Yes, he w
Unknown to her, Chelsea was holding the dress she had worn in her most recent nightmare. She didn't understand why the sight of the dress made fear grip her heart and her palms begin sweating, she was having a hard time breathing and she was shaking. Her sight was blurring and in a disconnected way, she realized that she was having a panic attack. She fell to the ground and she could faintly hear Chelsea calling her name but she couldn't speak or comfort her.Chelsea was scared for the first time in a long time. Olive was having a panic attack, she could recognize the signs having seen them enough after Olive's dad died. The way she stiffened and her face turned pale. It was like all the blood in her body had been drawn out. The scent of fear was oozing from her and was so thick that she felt she was choking. She knew she had to move but she was frozen in place.She snapped out of her shock as her friend collapsed like a puppet whose strings were cut. Calling for help, she ran to her
After Rosabella had taken Olive home, Chelsea went looking for Ashton. Since he lost his phone, it was hard to contact him and no one knew where he was. She searched for over three hours before finally finding him at the little enclave they had discovered when they were eleven.Ashton had decorated the place with flowers and candles, he looked despondent and helpless. On hearing footsteps, he looked up a smile forming on his face. The smile, however, had yet to mature when it fell. He looked behind Chelsea, waiting for Olive to walk in and when she didn't after a few seconds, he got up. "What happened? Where's Olive? Why did she bail?" He shot question after question while he moved swiftly towards her. It was when they were inches apart that Ashton finally noticed that Chelsea looked pale, very pale.He grabbed her shoulders, "Chels what's wrong? What happened?" And with that Chelsea finally broke down in tears, all the sorrow she had been holding back flowed through her tears. It wa
Ross Residence,Jessie was a nervous wreck. Her mom had completed her admission yesterday so she had to start school today. Yesterday she had felt calm and ready but today was another case. She had woken up and gotten ready by 5 am. This led to her having an extra two hours to lose the confidence she had gathered over the weekend. She had been pacing nonstop for the past thirty minutes and Eva was getting sick of it."Would you stop pacing, I haven't had my coffee yet so your constant movements are annoying" she snapped making Jessie flinch at the sound of her mother. She was so lost in thought that she hadn't even noticed her sitting there. Calming her racing heart, she looked at her mother's face which looked very tense. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she kept rubbing her forehead. All of Jessie's apprehension disappeared. Her mom only snapped at people when she felt really awful. She moved closer taking a seat."Are you okay?" She asked, her voice must have sounded off because her
"Chelsea White?""Here!""Mikael Bent on?""Here!""Carol Denver?""Here!""Ashton DeMartell?"No response."Ashton DeMartell?""Umm, Miss, Ashton isn't in school" this was from a random student that Olive didn't remember the name of."Okay then. Olive Lane?"Olive raised her hand and was about to answer when someone rushed through the door."Sorry I'm late. I got lost." The voice belonged to a haggard-looking girl with brown hair and hazel eyes. She was out of breath and sweating profusely.The teacher was mildly annoyed at having been disrupted, frowning she gestured to the stranger to come closer to her.On getting closer, the teacher told her to introduce herself."Hello everyone, my name is Jessie Ross. I just moved to Ravenswood. I'm 16 years old and I hate mushrooms. " The room was silent as she introduced herself and while there were some rude snickers in the background, the rest of the class felt warm and welcome."Miss Ross, welcome to Ravenswood. You can call me Miss Glenda