The Perfect Storm

Keep running, Ariadne, keep running! I thought to myself. Why do I keep putting myself into these kinds of situations? You’d think that I would’ve learned by now, but I haven’t.

“Hinc, malæ bestiæ frusta de infernus” (Away, you evil beasts from the bits of hell!) I kept running, clutching onto my emerald pendant that my sister, Aphrodite, had given me on the eve of my sixteenth birthday.

I couldn’t let them catch me. “Forem” (Thief!) They yell at me. But they are the true fures (thieves)! They falsely name me for reclaiming what is rightfully mine! They stole Opal pink mea! (my pink opal!) My cousin, Eos, gave it to me!

One of the beasts jumps in front of me, and I scream at the top of my lungs.

“Melody, wake up!” Alison yells, shaking me awake. I start punching at her, still startled from my nightmare. She holds my fists, looking worriedly at me.

“Alison?” I ask, finally waking up fully.

“Yeah. I heard you screaming. That and Tituba whispered that something was wrong with you.”

“Who’s Tituba?”

“The first accused Witch of Salem. She was never executed. She’s my chosen spirit.”

“What?”

“Look, you wouldn’t understand. You’d just think I was crazy.” She sighs, shaking her head. “Just go get ready. Momma’s hosting a summer barbeque. She wants all the family there.” Here came the sarcastic comment that I’ve patiently waited for: “Last time I checked, you’re my sister.”

I roll my eyes, hopping out of bed and getting ready for another day.

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“What are you doing, Witch?” Tristan sneers. I had finally decided to come out of my cottage-like home, watching at yet another attempt for Tristan to kill Alison.

“Summoning the spirits of the undead,” Alison says sarcastically, “What does it look like? I’m cooking. Feel free to watch as I do something without the help of magic!” Alison rolls her eyes, continuing to cook.

“I didn’t know you knew how to cook, Al,” I say, staring at her oddly. Alison always refused to cook anything for anyone.

“Eh, kinda. Momma taught me briefly, but I zoned out most of it. I’m really just trying to poison Bennett.”

“I can hear you!”

“Good!”

“Al, that’s not funny,” I say disapprovingly, stifling a laugh. “It’s hilarious.”

“Thank you, thank you! I’ll be here till June!”

“What’s going on in June?”

“Family reunion. I have to sign a treaty with the King of Vampires so that Jesse and Scarlett may roam freely.”

“Huh?”

“Witches and Vampires don’t get along,” Donovan grumbles.

“Oh, I wonder why that is,” Kevin says sarcastically.

“Just because my family respected my wishes to go through with Jesse and Scarlett, doesn’t mean that the rest of the world will,” Alison says, rolling her eyes. Smirking, she adds, “You should understand how that feels, Bennett.” Tristan grumbles under his breath. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. What was that?”

“I understand completely, Witch. Happy?” Tristan growls.

“Delighted. Here’s your eggs,” Alison says smugly, handing Tristan a plate of eggs. “If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead by now. I’m not the only Witch in Louisville. My cousin is Deangelo Jacob Farmer, the most powerful Warlock.”

“You think I didn’t know that?”

“Did you?”

Tristan grumbles a barely audible, “No.” Which made Alison smirk triumphantly.

“Here you go, Melody.” She puts a giant stack of pancakes in front of me, all of varying flavors, which I wasted no time in digging into.

“I’m sortta glad that I never got in the way of you and some pancakes now,” Josh says, rolling his eyes at me.

“You’re just jealous ’cause I’ve got pancakes,” I try saying through a mouth-full of food. I failed miserably, so it sounded more like, “Mof clopho morphen louse kfy dls dkspakew.”

“What?” Josh asks, staring at me oddly.

I swallowed down my pancakes in one painful gulp. I look down at my plate, shocked to see that it was empty. Huh. I didn’t think I was that hungry. “Okay, I could swear that five seconds ago I had some pancakes.”

“Oh, that’s nothin’! My friend, Tyler, can eat fudge in less than a second!” Alison says, grinning. “Seriously, I hand him some fudge, blink, and it’s gone!”

“Maybe him and Mel should have an eating competition,” Dylan says teasingly, “Just make sure she gets some cookies. My mom stopped making cookies once she realized where they all went.”

“Last time I checked she said, ‘Take as many as you want.’” I glare at him playfully. “And I wanted all of them. She just wasn’t smart enough to figure it out until I puked them all back up.”

“Yes, and then she made more, and you ate all of them. Then you vomitted again.”

“All over Mrs. Chao’s new pink dress,” I say, smiling at the memory.

“That reminds me. Tyler called me the other day asking about college. Would you happen to know something about that?” Alison asks, looking at me accusingly.

“Well, I mean, everyone deserves a college education. Just because he’s a Werewolf —”

“A what?!” Tristan yells.

“— doesn’t make him any different! Your uncle owns a college —”

“A what?!” Tristan yells again.

“— so I thought that maybe you could help him out.”

“Whatever. I’ll have to talk to uncle Joseph about it. He’s already mad that I decided to bring the Vampire around. He only allowed it because I kept him on a leesh.” Alison smirked as Donovan glared at her.

“I’m nothing like those impulsive mutts,” Donovan grumbles.

“You’re right. The Werewolf actually knows how to apologize,” Kevin says, rolling his eyes.

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“Umm … Alison, why do you need to burrow my car?” I ask, as I drive to Meagan’s house.

“Because, I can’t take Martin with me when I go to meet the Vampire King. Plus, Vampires can’t see through the windshield. I asked Donovan about it earlier. He said that he couldn’t see you.”

“Al, why wouldn’t you want to be seen? I thought the point of this treaty was so that Jesse and Scarlett would be accepted. Why wouldn’t you want to be seen?”

“Jesse and Scarlett are coming with me. I don’t want them dead like that.”

“What about Mary, Alec, and Drew?”

“Martin can take care of Drew with Mary. Alec’s become independent. She can take care of herself.”

“Kevin and I can come with you, Al, you know that.”

“If you come along then that’s just two more people to worry about. If Kevin stakes one Vampire for any reason and they take it as a sign of war.”

“Well, you could —”

“No, Melody, it’s too dangerous. If the Vampires smell the blood on you and Kevin …” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “And-and —”

“Al, calm down. I’ll stay back and distract Kevin.”

“Thanks, Mel,” Alison says, hugging me briefly before going over to her family. I smile probably one of the saddest smiles. Even though Alison might seem like she makes everything up, but she really is a sage.

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“Okay, Al, now when will you be back? ’Cause I’m okay with distracting Kevin, but I don’t wanna be risking my virginity. You may have already lost it, but the most I’ve ever shown is in my swimsuit.”

“Don’t worry. At the most, I’ll only been gone for two weeks. You can handle him that long, right?”

“Yeah, but are you sure you’re gonna be okay?”

“Melody, I’ll be fine. Donovan, Jesse, and Scarlett are gonna be with me. That, and I’ll just turn it on full-blast if anything goes wrong.”

“What exactly is ‘it’?”

“It’s a gift. I can make anyone do anything I want, just by a simple glance at me. Of course, there is the down side where they fall in love with me, but I can turn it off just as quickly.”

“Alright, you be safe, kick Donovan’s butt when he needs it, feed Jesse and Scarlett, and sign that treaty.”

“Thanks, Mel.” Alison hugs me briefly before flying off the cloud. I hold out the keys to my Ferrari, waiting for her to come back. “Thanks.” In one swift movement she grabbed the keys, flying back down quickly. I roll my eyes, walking over to the center of the cloud, where the giant dining table would be.

Alec stood on top of the table, practically screaming the lyrics to a song. She had somehow gotten hold of an electric guitar, that made her in look even smaller as she pretended to play it.

“Umm … Alec, what are you doing?” I ask, staring at her oddly.

“I’m a rockstar!” She says, grinning at me.

“She found Alison’s collection of rock CDs,” Martin says, rolling his eyes, “And she convinced Kevin to buy her a guitar.”

“Nah-uh! Uncle Kevin bought it for a birthday present!” Alec says, grinning.

“You spent some thousand dollars on a guitar?” I ask, hands on hips as I glare at him.

“Yep. It was either that or a car.”

“You’d give a six year old a car?!”

“Holy crap, Kevin! Are you seriously that stupid?!” Martin yells angrily, “SHE’S NOT EVEN OLD ENOUGH TO DRIVE!!!”

“So?” Kevin asks, shrugging. I whack him on the back of the head, making him glare at me. “What did I do this time?”

“Let me ask you a question, Kevin. When you were born, did your mother drop you a lot?”

“Actually, she did,” Chris says, laughing.

“Shut up,” Kevin grumbles.

“That explains so much,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“Didn’t your mom drop you?” Dylan asks, “Oh, and what about that time you fell off the roof?”

“I was five, Dylan! And I could’ve sworn that there was a unicorn on my roof!” I say, glaring at him.

“You do know that that doesn’t make you seem any smarter,” Kevin says, rolling his eyes.

“At least I’m smart enough to know not to buy a six year old a car!”

“I don’t see what’s so bad about it. I bought her the guitar, didn’t I?”

Alec suddenly starts blaring her electric guitar, singing the lyrics from some Alternative Rock band. She was pretty good. It was like she was born to be a rockstar.

“Now do you see why I went with the guitar?” Kevin says, smirking.

“Stop being a smart-ass, Kevin,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“MELODY!!! I HAVE THE BEST NEWS THAT’S HAPPENED TO ME IN THIS CENTURY!!!” Nina yells, running toward me. I raise an eyebrow at her curiously, which she replies with a happy shriek. “I’M GETTING MARRIED!!!”

“HOLY CRAP!!!” Alec yells.

“Alexandria,” Martin says disapprovingly.

“Umm … Alexandria isn’t here right now, please leave a message. Beeeeeeeeeep,” Alec says nervously, running away quickly.

“Melody, you have to help me find a wedding dress!” Nina says excitedly. I was frozen. Nina’s getting married? To who?! “Ash.” Figures she knew I was going to ask that.

I roll my eyes, mentally slapping myself as I said, “Okay.”

Nina squeals again, hugging me as she shrieked in my ear, “Oh! Thank you so much, Melody! This is gonna be awesome!” She skipped away happily.

Lets add up the scores on all “Happily Ever After”:

Them, seven. Me, negative one.