Mystical

The sunlight peeked through the window waking me up from my sleep. I yawned and looked at the alarm clock beside my bed, 8:30 AM a decent time to wake up. I smiled and looked down at the air mattress lying on the floor down beside my bed, Phoenix was very unconscious. So I tiptoed around him to get to my closet.

When I finished sorting through my clothes I had a navy blue, loose fitted, silk shirt with short sleeves , a black mini skirt with sewn in navy blue tinsel so the skirt sparkles, black leggings and a quarter moon necklace with crystal accent gems. Finally I threw my hair up in a high ponytail and left for the kitchen to get some breakfast. When I finished that I lounged in the living room flicking through the TV channels as I waited for Phoenix to get up.

In 45 minutes the door to my bedroom opened and Phoenix walked out. Then he disappeared into the bath room a few minutes later he walked out wearing dark blue and black swim shorts and a T-shirt that had a black based background and light blue flames. His raven black hair was messily brushed, and yes I do know how ironic that statement is. I mean come on his name IS Phoenix which, in short, represents a magic RED bird. So why is it that his hair is black and he's named after the phoenix?

Well from what I've been told it all started on the night before Phoenix was born, his mom was in her bedroom asleep and the windows were closed. His mom had a dream of a Phoenix flying past the window. When she woke up there was a flaming red "phoenix" feather on her window sill. The window that was closed when she fell asleep was now wide open. Aurora, being the spiritual person that she is, took it as a good omen and decided to name her son Phoenix.

His eyes the colour of dried blood, like rusty brown. I smiled at the thought of his eyes I mean they're amazing they've got that mysterious glow that is both dark and light.

"Morning!" I sang

"Mor--ning" He yawned before he slumped down on the couch beside me.

"So are we still going to visit Saga today?" I tried to sound calm but I was a little to nervous of the outcome of this 'visit'.

"That's the plan." He smiled, "I just want to stop by the house and grab some things." I nodded in reply.

"Isolde?" It was my dad

"Yeah?" I said turning to look at him.

"Are you planning on going somewhere today?"

"Mhmm, we're going to go to stop by at Phoenix' and then we're going to go see Saga. D'you remember her?" I asked.

"The fortune teller?" His eyes flickered as if he were recalling a memory.

"Yeah, we were going to pop in for a visit, neither of us have seen her for a while." Phoenix said

My Dad looked us up and down, smiled and said “You two be careful and have fun.”

“We will” Phoenix and I stated. Dad nodded and headed back to the bedroom. We were turning to leave again when Dad re-entered the room.

“Phoenix?”

“What’s up?”

“Take care of her.” He said eyeing me.

“I will, Mr. Embers.”

“Oh and one more thing,” I looked at my dad quizzically.

“Yes, Mr. Embers’”

My dad threw a key chain at Phoenix, who caught it expertly.

“Take that car.”
Phoenix looked wide eyed at the keys in his hand.

“I can`t do that Mr. Embers.”

“Mhmm if you don’t want to drive, Isolde always
can but...” He trailed off

But, though I am ashamed to say, Phoenix is the more responsible driver.

“Mr. Embers, I really can-”

“That car” he motioned to the keys “NEVER” He looked at me pointedly “gets out, just take it.”

My Dad turned around, not bothering to say any more. Phoenix continued to stare wide eyed at the keys.

“I really can’t” He said.

“Sure you can, besides it is my car.” I laughed.

“He gave me the keys to your car?” He asked, completely bewildered.

“Yup, the red ribbon on the key chain proves that it’s mine, it’s like the distinguishing factor on the chain. I guess he knew you would never take his car so he gave you mine, because well, I never use it or I do but not often.”

He looked at me quizzically for a second before he succumbed to laughter.

“I...can’t...believe...he...told...me...to...take...your...car.”

“HEY! It’s not a bad car.” I stated, suddenly protective over my car.

“No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just the fact that he gave his daughter’s car keys to his daughter’s best friend rather than to his daughter.” He stated, suddenly sobered up.

“Oh,” I grinned, “so are you going to use it or not?”

“Do you want me to?”

“YES!” I grinned.

“Then I guess we are taking your car.”

“YAYZ!” I said, ecstatic that he agreed.

“So enthusiastic” He mumbled, I laughed at his remark.

“It’s in the garage.” I stated.
...

Inside was a black Buick, 2010 LaCrosse

“Nice car.” He grinned.

“Thanks.” I grinned back... My parents won a small lotto earlier in the year and bought 3 new cars one for them and one for me. I don’t like driving my car because it’s so new, and as I previously stated I’m not the best driver.

XxOoOxXxOoOxX

We locked the car and walked into Phoenix’s house.

“Mom?” He called.

“Over here, how was the sleepover?” She called
from the living room.

“We had fun. How was your night?” He replied, while we entered the living room ourselves. The curtains were drawn and scattered candles were lit throughout the room giving the room a soft, homely glow. Aurora was lying on the couch reading a book.

“Nothing too exciting.”

Phoenix nodded, “So we’re going to Saga’s.” He stated.

“I know.” She smiled as she closed her book and got up. “I made the two of you lunch if you’re hungry.”

”Thanks Mom.”

“It was no trouble.” She smiled.

“I’ll be right back.” Phoenix stated and left the room, heading towards his bedroom.

Aurora looked at me, “Come and sit down honey.” She smiled, I nodded and sat down on the couch looked at the fire place opposite me.
“He might be a little while, would you like some tea?”

“Sure, thanks”

“It’s no problem Isolde.” She said while walking out the room.

I sat there. In the moderately lit living room; my gaze was transfixed on the fireplace, the darkness within oddly mesmerizing.

Somewhere in the background I heard Aurora talking to me “You normally take 2 sugars, right?”
I subconsciously nodded and said “Thank you.” It’s an odd sensation when you’re paying so much attention to something that you blank out and leave your subconscious to do the normal work, if that makes any sense what so ever. Basically what I’m saying is that I was so transfixed by the darkness inside that fireplace that I had little recognition of what was occurring in the background consciously, it was as if the world was moving in slow motion.

“It can be very mysterious can’t it? I mean over the years imagine how much that fire place may have been around to witness.”

“I know,” I smiled, my vision still fixed on the fireplace. Something moved in the shadows now.
I felt my eyes widen a fraction. It was then that something as black as night darted out of the shadows, that something was flying directly towards me.

“F*ck” I cussed as I jumped from the couch.
The sound the creature made was nerve wrecking; it was high pitched and made me think I would go deaf.

“Skreek---Skreek---Skreek”

It was then that Aurora jumped in front of me and things got just a little bit weird. Aurora was staring the thing down and mumbling something unintelligible under her breath. The thing made one final and loud “SKREEK” before diving back into the fire place and up into the chimney. Aurora turned to face me while saying something about stupid bats and how the fact that its day time makes this specific bat all the more stupid cause they HATE the light.

“Isolde are you alright?”

By this point I was shaking but I answered anyway. “Yeah, I’m...uh, fine”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” I sighed and flopped back down onto the couch.

She picked up the tea and gently placed it in my hand. “Drink it,” she ordered, “it will calm you down.” I nodded and took a shaky sip of the tea in my hands. Odd it was chamomile, and there was defiantly not 2 scoops of sugar in it. Aurora was right the tea did calm me down, it also cleared my head and something clicked in my in the background, a deep intuition. I don`t know why but my intuition was telling me that that bat was not a bat and I believed it, that creature was not, in any way a bat.

Phoenix ran into the room, panic written on his face. “Are you guys okay?” I didn’t say a word and just looked up at him.

“We’re fine Phoenix,” Aurora stated, “it was only a bat.”

Phoenix looked generally confused. “A bat? In the DAYLIGHT?”

“It would seem so.” Aurora answered her son.

“What is this? Weird week?” He stated cockily.

“Perhaps.” She smiled.

I took another sip of my tea.

It’s not a bat, not a bat, not a bat... SHUT UP!

-SILENCE-

“Izzy, are you alright?” Phoenix asked.

I looked up at him and smiled, I had no reason to
talk out loud, Phoenix was an expert at reading my emotions; he always knew what was going through my head.

He nodded, “Okay” which was his way of saying we’ll talk about it later.

“I’ll be right back.” With that he turned and left the room.

Aurora turned her attention back to me, “How about we go to the kitchen and grab some food?”

I nodded again, and left for the kitchen with Aurora. Phoenix ran down 10 minutes later with a backpack strapped over his shoulder and joined in the meal. Our ‘lunch’ was more like a dinner; homemade lasagne and salad with our choice of a drink. After lunch Aurora had Phoenix shove numerous snacks into his bag before we left to go to Saga’s so we wouldn’t go hungry on the trip, soon after we left, Aurora was wishing us luck and us saying bye to her. If I knew what to expect from this Prophecy, I’m not sure I would have left because it changed my life forever, but then again it was already changing wasn’t it?