§Tanya§

Trevor turned to Chang.

"Hey, Chang. Can you...teleport us back home like, right now?" he asked.

"Well..." Chang looked around at all of us, "you have completed today's training. And you're probably all drained to some extent, so...sure. But we'll all meet soon."

He snapped his fingers.
Instantly, we appeared in Trevor's room.

Trevor collapsed on his bed.
I heard footsteps coming from the corridor.
I turned to Trevor.

"Quick, get out a...chess board! Yes!" I said.
"What?" he asked, sitting up wearily.

I rolled my eyes and ran to his shelf where he keeps all his board games.

My brother played so much games. Electronic, board games, whatnot.

I scanned the shelf until I found it.
I grabbed it and walked over to his bed in a hurry.
I yanked the box open.

All the contents spilled out on Trevor's bed.
The footsteps were getting closer.

I hurriedly spread the board out and started to drop pieces on it when mum walked in.

Then I flipped the board, feigning annoyance.

"Ugh, Trevor why do you win all the time?" I said, signalling him with my eyes: play along.

My brother is pretty dense so it took him a while to understand.
Thankfully, he did on time.

"Yeah, sis. I always win. That's why I'm the king of games!" he said. "Oh, hey mum."
His eyes widened in surprise, like he just saw her.

My mum stared at us wearily.
She furrowed her brows.

"I checked this room a few minutes ago," she said, blinking.

"Did you?" Trevor asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We've been playing for about an hour now."

"But how?" Mum asked. "I even called you–"

I got up from the bed.
"You know what, mom? You're always busy and you're thinking a lot. I think you should rest. We're fine and we're here. That's what matters right?" I said to her.

"I...guess?" poor mum said.
"Anyway, I wanted to tell you that we're going out today to have dinner with a family. You're dad met their father in his new job and he invited us to dinner so, get ready and meet me downstairs by six."

She walked out of the room.
At the sound of the click of the door, we both sighed in relief.
"That was close," I said.
Trevor glared at me.

"Chess?" he asked. "I don't even play that game anymore."

"Come on Trevor. You know that's the only game that mum'll believe we'd agree to play. If it was any other thing, she would get suspicious. Did you have a better idea?"

He slumped on his bed.
"Just go. Get out. Go change. We have dinner with some family."

"You're welcome." I said, getting up.

"You say it like I'm the only one who's going to be caught being a spirit of Reina." Trevor said turning over on his bed.

"Spirit of Reina." I mused, walking out the door.

***

"Steven! Nice to see you," my dad said as he shook hands with the blond, wiry guy standing at his door.

"Nice to see you too, Mr Green. Is this your lovely family?" he said beaming. "Y'all should come on in."

After the pleasantries, which I dread, we all sat in the living room, waiting.

Mr Steve invited his children over.
"Tom?" Trevor said as soon as a tall, lean, blonde guy stepped into the living room.

"Trevor!" the guy replied. "Hey, man."

"You've met?" our dad asked.

"Yeah! In school. First day," Trevor replied.
"But...I haven't seen you in a while."

Tom glanced at his dad.
"Yes. Tom has been away from school for a while. There are a lot of reasons why he's been away. His health, some family issues and all that. But he'll be back to school regularly from now on."

"Yeah," Tom said, stretching his arms. "I'll have to catch up on everything I've missed so far. You can help me, Trevor, right?"

"Sure," Trevor replied.

"Thanks, man. It was nice meeting you all," Tom said.

He shook my dad's hand and nodded at my mom.
She smiled and nodded back.

"Where's Michelle?" Mr Steven asked as Tom was about leaving the living room.
Tom shrugged.

"Where's your mother? Tell her to come over here, that we have visitors."

"Mom should be in the backyard," Tom answered and walked out the living room.

"Hey!" a girl said from behind us, not long after Tom was gone.
She walked over and greeted everyone.

She was tall like her dad and brother.
She had long, golden hair and dark eyes that were sheilded by rectangular sea green glasses which were perched on her nose.

She was pretty and her demeanor was gentle. She spoke quietly and she smiled a lot.
She also gave me nerd vibes.

"Where's your mother, Michelle?" her dad asked.

"She's in the back. Lemme go call her."

Her gait was gentle and light as if she was worried about breaking the floorboards with her feet.

After we met their mom, we had dinner then dispersed.
The moms went over to the back. The dads stayed back in the living room, talking.

The remaining people, Trevor, Michelle, Tom and I went to the study.

Trevor was talking with Michelle, seriously flirting with her. My brother was a flirt.
It was no secret.

Michelle laughed so much at his jokes.
Trevor was funny, yes.

But she was acting a little too eager.
As I watched them, I figured Michelle probably liked Trevor.

They exchanged numbers and Michelle left for her room.

Soon, Tom looked up from his phone.
"So...guys. What do you think we can do?" Tom asked, dropping his phone on a side stool.
I guess he was trying to be a good host.

Trevor shrugged.
I walked down the stairs and asked for a drink. I was a given a bottle of soda from the fridge and I returned to the study.

I sat down back in my seat and made a suggestion. "Chess?"

Trevor glanced at me like, shut up sometimes.

At that time, Michelle was coming down the stairs.
She walked into the study.

"You want to play chess?" she asked as soon as she heard me. "Sure. I'll go get the chess board. Uh...Tom? Where do you keep the board?"

"I told you, I always keep it in the basement or on the living room shelf or..."

Tom said getting up.
"Lemme go check."
He walked away with her.

"Chess?" Trevor asked again.

"I'm just being a good hostee, unlike you."

"Hostee?" Trevor said, chuckling slightly.
Then he sighed.

"Look, I just wanna go home okay? I'm exhausted.

"I am too. But it doesn't mean I'd be a bore." I said, drumming my hands on my lap. "Speaking of that, do you think you can initiate you power yourself now?"

Trevor looked a me with an unreadable expression.

"Tanya...you took this stuff in so fast. I mean, it was while before we all began to accept this spirits of Reina stuff but...you, you're so fine with it. Girl, I wish I had your sanity."

"Yes, Trevor. I know you're insane," I said scratching the bottom of my seat with my fingernails.
I looked up at him.

Trevor pursed his lips in frustration.

"But...you're also strong. I know you can do this, Trevor. We all can. I've understood everything about the whole 'spirits' world. I get what we have to do. The thing is, we're not ready yet. But we can be."

"Are you saying that you're ready to accept full responsibility for saving all the kingdoms. It's not a joke Tanya. At least I don't think it is. I mean the powers are real.

"I can't hallucinate for that long! Tanya, this is serious. We could die because of this. We could destroy the world, the whole Kingdoms. We don't even know what we're doing. But you, you're acting so cool about it."

For once I was tongue tied.
For once, my brother was right.

What we were delving into was dangerous.

I stared at the floor, speechless for a while.
Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw a bright orange light.

I turned to Trevor.
His hands were ablaze, but he wasn't burning...or burnt.

"Woah." I gasped, my face lighting up...

...He did it.

---------------

I'd like a guy who's hands could burst into flames 😂...no seriously.

What's your favourite spirit from them all?

~Ash.