Tied

We sat in the car in usual silence, my head whirling. I had seen a glimpse of black on Zhenia’s leg, despite his attempts to hide it. But surely he couldn’t have the dreams and words too? This thing was already weird enough. Nah, I was probably just being paranoid.

As soon as we got home, it was on to homework and studying. Halfway through my origin of life packet, the words started swimming, black type bleeding into the obnoxious yellow paper. This was definitely not going to work. Sighing dejectedly, I picked up my phone. As I did so, my sleeve slipped down once again. The words were just as bold and dark as ever.

My fingers easily typed in the familiar number without thought. Rhea answered on the third ring, yawning into the receiver. “Hey.”

“Hey.” I jumped off the bed and closed the door, barring any eavesdroppers. “How are your words?”

“Oh, they’re doing just fine. Very cheerful, if their increased visibility means anything.” She groaned. “They won’t go away, just keep getting darker. I didn’t know it was possible for something to be this dark.”

“Same.” I muttered. “Do you mind doing a threesome with Raven?”

“W-what?” Rhea stuttered.

“Sorry.” I wasn’t sorry for the word-choice at all. A grin hid behind my apology. “I meant three-way phone call.”

“Oh. Right.” She exhaled quickly, punching in the phone number with unnecessary determination. I could imagine the blush staining her cheeks.

“Yo.” Raven answered within two seconds, too quickly to pretend that she hadn’t been waiting.
“What’s up?”

“I can’t focus on anything.” My skin itched relentlessly underneath the words, almost burning. “And the words… I don’t know… hurt.”

“So it isn’t just me.” Rhea tapped her fingers along the edge of her phone, an oddly rhythmic sound like the beating of war drums. Our own little Joan of Arc.

“I feel it too.” Raven added. “Still thinking the whole reincarnation thing is to blame?”

“I honestly have no other ideas at this point.”

Rhea snorted. “Maybe we’re all just crazy.”

Raven laughed. “I won’t deny that.”

I briefly considered mentioning Zhenia, but I was so unsure about what I had seen. It probably wasn’t worth telling.

“So, let’s say it is reincarnation. What effect does that have on us?” There was a pause, then Raven continued. “And why now? This whole thing is rather random.”

“Today’s the fall equinox.” I thought for a moment. “We had a lunar eclipse last night too. That’s pretty unusual, maybe it… affected us somehow? Brought things to the surface?”

“That’s…” Rhea broke off uncertainly.

“Creepy?” Raven offered.

“Like fate?” I supplied.

“I was going to say interesting, but sure.” She sighed. “Creepy, fate, that all works together.”

“We should talk to someone about this.” I grabbed the phone book I had dissected earlier, flipping to a marked page.

“Who do you have in mind?”

“A psychologist?” Raven mumbled.

“A psychic.” I corrected, smiling. “Lady Tatiana, 221 Halmark Street.”

There was silence on the end of the line. “Come on, guys.” I begged. “What other options do we have? Sure she might be a nut job, but maybe she can help. At the very least, we won’t be the only insane ones.”

Again silence, broken by the clearing of a throat. “I like it.” Rhea admitted. “I mean, I don’t like it, but I don’t see any other options at this point in time. We might as well give it a try.”

“Thank you.”

“Alright.” Raven agreed. “But no crystal balls or hypnosis. I hate that crap.”

“Is this about the goldfish incident in middle school?” Rhea asked cautiously.

“What?” My voice rose an octave. “What incident?”

“We don’t speak about that. All you need to know is that I hate hypnosis stuff.” Raven grumbled, sounding rather defensive.

“I think you made a lovely goldfish. Even the magician guy was impressed with his work.” Rhea was clearly stifling a laugh.

“I hate you.”

“I hate you too, dear.”

“Alright, I’m hanging up now. Get a room.” I rolled my eyes.

Rhea let out a shrill squeak at my words, protesting with unintelligible sounds that resembled dolphin communication.

“Bye.” I pulled the receiver away from my mouth, pretending to end the call, and waited a second for them to speak.

“Goodbye my love.” Raven whispered teasingly to Rhea. Once again, there was a series of squeaks.

I forced down another laugh and as Raven’s line clicked off hung up myself. The rest of the night went by quickly, finished with a hot shower, five chocolate chip cookies, and a hundred brand new Latin root word flashcards. The worry that the dreams would return throbbed constantly in the back of my mind, but I ignored it, allowing sleep to overtake my exhausted body.

If I had known what was to come, sleep would not have found me a willing victim.