Chapter Six

Chapter VI

“Those pictures you saw, that’s my story,” he started. I was getting more and more confused every second. “What I’m going to tell you, it’s not easy to believe it. But since you’re the only one who’ve seen me change my eye color… I don’t know what it really means but I know you’re special, for a reason.”  

“Special?” I was laughing. “What are you talking about?” he smirked. With the weeks, nearly a month, I’ve been with this guy; his smirk always stood out. It was my favorite thing about him, next to his hair.

“I went here because I wanted to get away from my parents,” he started once again. This time, I’m not going to talk; I’m just going to listen. “That’s the only thing I said about being here. I never told you why here. Now, I’m going to answer that. I’m here in the Philippines because… never mind. I’ll answer that later. Goodness! How do I start? Look, I won’t be able to explain to you in words, so I think I’ll just show you.” He stood up so I did, too. He went into his room and got a briefcase from his closet. He opened it and revealed an empty briefcase… it had light brown and blue swirls in it. Moving swirls.

“W-what’s that?”

“The reason why I’m in the Philippines and specifically this place because of this. I wanted to get away from my family so I used one of the most powerful magic known to us,” What? What magic? I’m dreaming, right? “So I could create a portal from my hideout place to anywhere in this world. The portal I made led to this briefcase, which was in the nearest mall from here. So when I came out of it, I bought this briefcase. Where I got the money? I can make anything appear out of thin air,” As he said that, he raised his right hand and a 20-peso money appeared right on his hand, out of nowhere. “So, I’ve been able to afford this apartment because I could make money appear out of nowhere, but I didn’t use that to be rich, I know that’s not good. I worked so it would appear like I have somewhere to get the money,” he stopped for a while, closing the briefcase. I was too awestruck to even speak. This wasn’t real. It didn’t look real. “Now, if you’re thinking why Blaze said he didn’t think I was trustworthy because his mother has a portal, too. Looks like I’m not the only one who’s able to make a portal, but I’m sure she had help from someone. No, his mother’s not one of us, but Blaze is.”

“Wait, you’ve lost me. Are you kidding me?” I asked him, slightly glaring at him. “How do you expect me to believe all this?”

“I thought you’d believe me if I showed you the portal and the money.”

“Are you a magician or something?”

“No. I could do magic, like this,” he said as he pointed at his closet and it turned into a table. I gasped. He pointed at it again and the closet was there again. “Or this,” he said as he opened his hand, palm facing up and fire appeared on top of it, which made me scream, luckily, not too loudly. So all this was true? I’m not dreaming? “But I’m not just a magician. Not like the magician you see here, the magician’s they hire for birthday parties, no, not that. I don’t have tricks or anything. This, this thing I could do, it’s natural.”

“No.” I said because of lack of words.

“Yes! Yes, I am. I know you believe me. Trust me on this. This is true and I know you think so, too. You know it’s true. You’re the only person to make my eyes turn light brown!”

“W-what does that mean? Y-you know, your eyes turning a different c-color.”

“I-I… wait, do you believe me now?” he said, smiling. I hesitantly nodded.

“I do! But why did you have to run away from your reality? Why don’t you just come back to… to wherever you came from? Isn’t life easier there? You can just make anything appear out of nowhere, enjoy! Why stay here?” I asked. It’s slowly sinking in to me, everything he said. But I still couldn’t believe those to be true, even if I saw proof. It all felt surreal.

“Because he was too frightened to accept his responsibilities,” I turned around and there I saw Blaze. “He ran away from his destiny, his fate. He’s a coward and he can’t be trusted, Nerice.”

“Blaze?”

“I’m the coward, Blaze? I’m scared? I’m the one who’s scared, Blaze? Isn’t that the reason why you left Goronia? You and your mother left Goronia, because she… and you were too scared to accept what was destined for you? You’re the cowards, so don’t dare call me that.” Darnell said calmly, still managing to smile, to smirk. I didn’t understand a single thing they were talking about. Did they really run away from their responsibilities? Was Blaze really one of Darnell’s kind? All these questions running in my head made my head ache. I couldn’t take this anymore. I’m just dreaming. I’m going to wake up soon. It took me a few seconds to realize I wasn’t.

“I’m not a coward, Darnell. My mom brought me here to save me. I’m not one of you.” Blaze stopped. That was all that I managed to see because after that, I fainted. 

Author's Note

Shorter than other chapters, but the ~truth~ starts here