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And with a welcoming expression, Mom fully turned around to greet her proper.

“Welcome back, Adalia.”

The figure remained silent, staring at me. It was almost as if she couldn’t hear her – dripping wet, her pale skin partly covered in grime. It also was like staring at a pair of crystal balls – the way her eyes swirled and fogged – always so murky, so empty, and yet, so slowly, they began to shimmer.

A silvery cascade of hair was spilling onto my clothes, more and more, the frills of her dress, the chill of her breath, with every inch she drew nearer.

That’s when I found my voice again.

“Adalia...” I winced. “You’re kinda crushing my legs here.”

.....

And that’s when she seemingly found hers too as well.

“Crush..ing...” She softly repeated, before continuing on with her advancements regardless. “Here... you’re here...”

“Yeah,” I affirmed, immediately sensing the edge in her voice. “I’m here, Adalia. I’m okay.”

But apparently, words weren’t exactly enough for her to be content, she had to feel to believe, and so slowly extended her hand, I felt the cold, wet tip of her fingers, the sharp, pointed edge of her nails carefully brushing the side of my face.

“You’re... okay...”

Then as lightning briefly filtered into the barn, lighting the dark, I saw it again – on her face, so close to mine – that quiver, that shimmer... welling up in her gaze.

Tears?

She really was one for surprises, alright...

“Well, you don’t see that every day,” I uttered with a smile, lifting a hand off the ground and slowly reaching out toward her. “Amelia’s seriously going to kill me for making her big sister cry.”

“Cry...ing...?” She blinked, and immediately something fell from her vacant stare. “I’m... crying...?”

“What, don’t tell me you’ve never cried before.”

“I... have... I remember I have...” Another hard blink and even more began to fall, “I remember... not like this...”

“Not like what?” I asked.

Suddenly, in a flicker, her face breezing past my reaching fingers, she crashed herself into me, burying her head into my chest, the cold of her arms, her skin, somehow so warm, so soothing... tightly in an embrace.

“This...” She whispered blankly. “This... feeling...”

I forced out a breath, fighting against the added pressure. “Hugging?”

“Crushing...” her muffled voice quietly answered. “Inside me... pain... so much... pain... seeing you... I want to hold you...”

“Well... then you’re already on the right track,” I said, barely even able to wriggle my arms up. “Any tighter, and you’re gonna suffocate me.”

That’s when Adalia pressed herself against me even harder, tighter. Her voice, so much quieter. “I... don’t want... to let go... of you...”

Seeing her, hearing her, I could feel that crushing feeling too.

“Then don’t,” I said, wrapping my arms, and holding onto her too.

Back then, she had a good overhead view of what transpired, perched up there behind the blinds of a bedroom window. Every stumble, she saw it. Every scream of agony, she heard it. Yet unable to do anything about it. What did Sammy say before? Adalia outright refused to let go of me, leave me, and only did so at Mom’s behest.

I still wasn’t sure exactly how far to the brink I pushed myself back then... but if it’s got the emotionally repressed vampire clinging to me this tightly, and trembling at that... I must have really given her quite the fright, then.

To try and assuage her restlessness, I made sure she could hear me breathe, and feel as my hands gently yet firmly held her close. All to assure her that I was fine, that I’ll be alright... that I was still alive, and that I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

So immersed I was in the moment, that for quite a while everything else just sorta escaped me – thus leaning me defenseless as reality slapped me hard in the face with the sound of a faint playful chuckle.

“Oh my, my, my...” Mom plopped herself in the corner of my sight, and she couldn’t look more pleased even if she tried. In her head, the chime of wedding bells was probably ringing all around us. “I suppose I won’t be needing my movies anymore.”

Would love nothing more than to pretend we didn’t have a googly-eyed audience internally squealing at the sight of us. In fact, I’d also love nothing more than to slip into the moment – forget everything else. But given current circumstances now, there was something else I wanted even more.

“Interrupting this almost feels like a crime,” Mom said, sighing, simply admiring the scene of us at a distance, like we were a painting hung on the wall. “Regardless... I’m terribly sorry, Adalia, but could you please let go of my son for just a short while?”

Adalia continued to remain despondent to her words. To my knowledge, this was like the first time Adalia was intentionally ignoring her request.

It’s kinda amusing, almost as if she was cuffed to me and had also thrown away the key. She was acting like a cat, refusing to listen, doing as she wanted... so reluctant to part from my arms.

So I parted from hers instead. Gently lifting her up and putting her hands in mine.

“Okay, taking it back for now,” I said. “You can hold me all you want later, alright?”

Her vacant gaze remained a million miles away from the current situation at hand, but with a rousing blink, I knew she heard every single word loud and clear.

“No... need...” She said, gazing back at me with eyes now steady. “Not what... you need...”

Adalia began to shake her head, outright denying my proposal, instead proposing her own.

“You want to stay... you don’t want to rest... but you need rest... I want you... to rest... so promise me... you will rest...” said once, mentioned twice, over and over on repeat she went on, as if she hadn’t stressed it enough times already. “Please rest...”

Heard her loud and clear.

“I promise...” I said, before nudging over to the dark figure in black looming and cooing at a distance. “Go help her out.”

Finally, for once, Adalia slowly shifted back of her own volition... and Mom’s smarmy smile only grew even smarmier.

“Charming, aren’t you?” She said to me, a look of mischief flashing in her crooked stare. “Since when?”

This casualness she had, this aloofness she was exuding. I sure do hope it wasn’t unfounded... because seeing that haggard, haunting image of Harry’s face mere inches behind her wasn’t doing much to offset my unease.

Walking a few paces forward herself, she met Adalia halfway, facing her with her palm outstretched, and with her usual smile.

“No trouble finding the place, I hope?”

“No...” Adalia replied, slowly dropping something I couldn’t quite see in her hand, before taking a step back once more. “You did not... hide it... very well...”

Mom lightly scoffed at that. “Never said I was the one that hid it, my dear.”

Whatever ‘it’ was, it was definitely small, and furthermore, if it needed to be hidden at all in the first place, then clearly it wasn’t something that belonged either.

My curiosity couldn’t be sated keeping silent, I have to know.

“What is that?”

“A little foresight,” Mom immediately answered, already anticipating that I’d ask. “In case, ever one day, something abnormal would try to disrupt my normal, which in turn, would leave me with no other choice... but to deal with that abnormality myself.”

She says all this maintaining a calm and steady gaze against the harsh coldness of Harry’s, who was still seething in silence.

“You aren’t worth this,” She told him. “Using it for you, it’s really such a waste, but alas...” This time she briefly flicked her eye to me. “A promise is a promise.”

Slowly, she opened her fists once more, and as I craned my neck as much as it could, all I managed to see was something lightly fluttering in the middle of her palm.

I blinked, peering a little closer, straining my sight a little harder, and again – it just fluttered.

I voiced my confusion. “A piece of paper?”

Mom didn’t turn around, but I could hear her faintly chuckling. “A prayer, dear,” then she spoke again, this time directed to the blazing pair of eyes in front of her. “For you, surely you must be rejoicing, seeing this. You’ll actually have a fighting chance now, won’t you?”

“Why do you have that?” He asked, more in shock than in rage. “You’re madder than I thought. That or you’re making fun of me. This isn’t going to help you!”

“Oh, but on the contrary,” She said, squeezing the thin slip of white paper between two fingers. “Just wait and see...”