Chapter 9:

A few minutes after Willow settled into bed, a knock came at the door. Willow was a little startled, not quite knowing what to do in this situation; living with two crazy little sisters you weren’t used to people knocking. “Come in?” She replied to the closed door hesitantly.

                A little head peeked from the other side of the door and it took a moment for Willow to realize it was a maid. It made Willow almost feel guilty, she looked so young, maybe sixteen or fifteen.

                "Hello, Ms. Glasspiers. My name is Lucia, I'll be taking care of you." She gave a little curtsy and walked in, looking at her for permission. Seeming to understand Willow was not used to these types of situations where so a young person was so courteous, Lucia smiled, "I know the bedroom is quite lonely looking. They give the Willows the largest, most empty rooms. For some reason they believe that giving you poor girls bedrooms like this might make you feel like royalty."

                Willow frowned, not understanding a single word Lucia had said, but, she didn’t mention anything, just smiled when Lucia looked over at her.

                She looked at Willow for a moment, then perked up in surprise, “Oh! I am sorry to have interrupted your rest, I am just going to start a fire and be right off.”

                Willow shook her head, “You don’t have to do that, I am not cold.”

                “Ma’am, I must insist.” Lucia replied, she wasn’t looking at Willow though, she was already grabbing the massive chunks of wood and throwing it on the spit.

                Lucia had such a small, childlike form, her thin blonde hair was escaping in few loose strands from her bun and she was breathing so heavily from carrying the wood that Willow felt a strong kick of pity inside her chest.

                "Do you need any help?" She asked, not waiting for an answer and just climbing out of the bed.

                Lucia shook her head immediately, not daring to look Willow in the eyes, "Oh no, Ms. Glassp-"

                "Call me Willow,” Willow replied, tired of people calling her by her last name.

                "Willow, you need some rest, ma’am. So many big decisions tomorrow." Lucia said, gesturing to the bed. “And I would get in big trouble if they caught you tiring yourself out for me.”

                “Then it’ll be our secret.” Willow said, smiling slightly as she grabbed the log.

                She grabbed the log off the pile, lifted it about two inches, but dropping it almost right away,     “Ouf! Dear God, this thing is heavy!” She whispered, hoping Lucia had not seen that embarrassing moment of weakness. She ended up half carrying, half dragging the log in the fireplace. By the time she had her one log on top of the other ones, Lucia already six.

                “We’re done!” Lucia said, exhaling loudly.

                "You're welcome…" Although you did all the work, Willow thought silently.

                Lucia easily started the fire as if she had been starting fires her whole life, which she might’ve as Willow thought of it.

                "Alright, I really must let you rest." Lucia got up, wiped her dress off, and started for the door.

                "Lucia?" Willow called, not looking over at her, just staring at the flames that licked the wood and made it turned ashen white.

                Lucia turned to look at her. "Yes?"

                "What would you choose?" Willow asked, looking up at her finally. She knew Lucia would immediately understand what Willow meant by “choose”. 

                Lucia's face softened, her caramel eyes growing an almost sad undertone, “I wouldn’t be able to answer that." She said. “But, I can tell you one thing: some people will look their whole lives for a moment of greatness. Some people will look their whole lives for a moment of peace. Some people, Willow, in this world, wished their names were Willow so they could have the opportunity you have, and some hope that the situation you are in will never be the kind of situation they are in.” Willow furrowed her eyebrows, she didn’t know how this was going to help her choose, and she opened her mouth to say something but Lucia held up a finger, shushing her. “You are lucky that they are giving you a choice—they used to send Willows under their own consent—this is your choice, but I want to remind you that an adventure is not something you often forget.”

* * * * * * * * * *

                "Willow! I'm home!" Mrs. Glasspiers—Anne—yelled from the front door. “The meeting was short and to the point, unlike all the other meetings, but they asked me to come back next week, so you’re going to have to babysit again.”

                "Mommy! Willow’s not here!” Gretel yelled from the living room, seeming completely fine with that fact.

                "What?" Anne said, her energy that had been there two minutes ago gone. "Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.” She had missed it! Shoot! Won’t Rick just be so happy that after all those years of waiting they had missed it! Cursed that God dammed meeting! She thought, stomping into the living room.  

                In the square little living room, Gretel and a woman dressed in a blue floral dress were playing Candy Land on the beige sofa. The women got up and Anne already knew she was a Ganash. She looked to be about sixteen, maybe older. She held out a hand and smiled warmly, "Hello. My name is Hailee Berastill. I'm from a babysitting organization called 'Ganash Babysitting Care 24/7'. Ms. Glasspiers hired me—“

                “Drop the act, Ganash. Who took her?” Anne snapped, all her undying patience gone.

                “I don’t know what you mean? I am just a simple babysitter—.“ Hailee started, but Anne wasn’t buying it.

                “I asked you a question, who took her?”

                “RiverPlain.” Hailee replied sullenly, the babysitter act gone. She was looking at Anne with wide, almost horrified eyes. “How do you know of the UnderWorld—“

                “That’s not important.” Anne replied, waving her hand.

                “What are you talking about?” Gretel asked, standing up and cranking her head back to look at her Mom. “Willow is fine Mommy, don’t worry.”

                Anne laughed, and tugged a hair back from Gretel’s face, “She is far from fine.”

                “Hailee, is a boy named Michael Midnight perhaps with her?” Ara had appeared out of nowhere from behind Anne, making her jump half a foot high.

                “Ara! You scared me!”

                Ara ignored this, she was looking up at Hailee with much more intelligence in her eyes than any other eight year Anne had ever met. Her black hair was a tangle from the trip to Amnesia and back, but other than her face could almost pass her to be an adult.

                “Excuse me?” Hailee squeaked, and Anne felt instantly bad for her, she was probably so confused.

                “Michael Midnight, blonde hair, green eyes. Is he with Willow?” Ara repeated, and Anne immediately understood.

                “Ara, how do you remember this?” She asked, her mouth dropping open in shock. They had given her three doses of memory serum! She shouldn’t have her memory back! Willow hadn’t had it back yet, it was impossible that Ara had it!

                “The little blonde boy who was terribly in love with Willow, whom we saw every year for two years? Of course I remember him, Mom. I don’t understand why Willow doesn’t, though…”

                “Alright, sweetie, that’s enough.” Anne said cautiously, looking at Hailee’s expression and hoping that she hadn’t caught on to which Michael Midnight they were talking about.

                “I do believe he is in her group.” Hailee said, she looked so confused that Anne almost wanted to pat her on the back.

                “RiverPlain, you said?” She asked instead, “I have to make a call.”

* * * * * * * * * *

                Jasper woke to the sound of his phone. He smiled slightly at the ringtone, which was a “Happy Kitty” song. Willow had hacked into his phone again and changed it, not that he minded, of course. He slipped of his bed and crinkled his eyes at the light that was streaming inside from the open window. Quickly walking over to it he drew the blinds closed and then went to rummage his phone out of the mess.

                Finally finding it, he looked at the receiver.

                Willow’s Mom

                Jasper tapped the green button and put the phone at his ear. "Hello. Is that you Willow? Why are you using your mom’s phone?" He walked over to the closet and bend his neck over the phone so he could rummage for his clothes.

                "Oh, yes, no Jasper, this me, Willow’s mom.” Anne said.

                "What’s wrong? Is Willow okay?” Jasper asked, dropping his pants on the floor. “Is everything alright?” Anne rarely ever called him unless it was an emergency and right now he had a terrible feeling about it all.

                     “Okay, just don’t panic, okay?” Anne asked.

                     “Okay…?”

                     “You see, Willow’s gone.”

* * * * * * * * * *

                Dear Mom, Dad, Ara, Gretel, and Jasper:

            I was given a choice today on whether to go on a deadly adventure or not. I don't know what to pick. I can't abandon you, but I want to go so bad…

                Willow woke the next day a notebook plastered to her head. She furrowed her eyebrows as she peeled the notebook of her cheek. It was filled with notes upon note scrawled out. Most of the night spent on trying to figure out what to say to her parents. What could she say? Was there anything she could possibly say to make them feel as if she weren’t abandoning them?

                Getting out of bed, she stretched. Stretched her back and legs and arms, feeling the pull awaken her muscles. She looked over at the window and guessed that is was probably late morning, early afternoon. Considering she had gone to bed at around two AM she knew she had barely slept at all. As if by precise timing, a sharp knock came at her door.

                "Who is it?" Willow asked, a little more confident in answering it. It seemed everyone knocked here anyway, so she may as well get used to it.

                "Oh! Finally, you're awake." Michael's voice sounded from the other side of the door. He opened the door slightly, but didn’t peek in or anything, respecting her privacy. Which relieved Willow because she probably looked like Dracula. She put her fingers under her eyes and felt the puffiness, she knew it was probably a bruise-like shadow there. And bruise-like shadows under her light gray eyes usually made her look very washed out.

                “I have to take you to the library so you can make your decision. And unless you want to go like that, you have to get dressed. If you need anything I’ll be outside.” He was straight to the point. Not bothering to ask whether she slept good or not, but that was probably because he already knew the answer to that.

                Without really looking through she picked out the two most random things in the world, just plain denim jeans and V-neck purple T-shirt. She put her hoodie back on, even though it needed washing. When she had left to come here, she had been foolish not to bring anything but the clothes on her back. Now, all she had left of home was this black, zip-up hoodie.

                Walking into the bathroom, she found everything she needed from a brush, to shampoo, to what she hoped was a clean toothbrush. She brushed her teeth and rinsed her face off, wishing more than anything that she had some makeup to put over her pale skin. She had never really worn makeup before, there was no reason to, really. This was probably the first time she had wanted to cover her skin up, she wondered what made her change. Maybe it was the bigger audience number…

                She grabbed a brush and savagely yanked through her dark hair, not noticing the pain in her scalp as she did so. She pulled it back into a tight ponytail with a hairband she had found on her wrist. Tugging the thin, straggling wisps of thin hair behind her ears.

                She put the brush away along with everything she got out of place and walked outside, finding Michael leaning against the wall by her door.

                “Finally,” He pulled himself off the wall and frowned at her, “I am going to get trouble, not you.”

                “Why didn’t you just wake me up?” Willow asked, jogging up to catch up with his already retreating form.

                “I am not Prince Charming, I do not wake up Sleeping Beauty.” He replied, his voice almost monotone.

                “It’s good you’re not Prince Charming, it would be a lie to your personality.” She muttered, annoyingly. It wasn’t him that was annoying her, it was the fact that she somehow knew him. It was bothering the crap out of her, she would figure out where she saw him.

                “Just like a left you.” Michael replied, obviously having heard her comment. “Sassy and strong.”

                “Left me?” Willow asked. “Do I know you?”

                He smiled, “Nope.” She realized he hadn’t looked at her once during this entire conversation. “Now, whether I knew you would be a different story,” he continued. “I could tell you I know you, but you wouldn’t really know what I mean because of course I would know you if I had to get to know you as part of my job. But, if I had known you before I got to know you for my job in getting to know you, I wouldn’t be able to answer. Knowing someone isn’t just getting to know them and isn’t just a job, that someone has to let you get to know because to truly know them they have to let you in. But every living being changes so I may not know you at all unless you are a solid rock and everybody that knows you still knows you because you do not change which makes my job in knowing you to know you better a lot better because I truly know you about not knowing you. Unless, your term for ‘know you’ is completely different from mine, then no, I do not know you.”

                He looked over at Willow for the first time, his eyes warm like liquid emeralds. She had both her eyebrows raised in confusion, it wasn’t just how fast he said it that confused her, but how many “know” he put into the paragraph and all the other words with it confused her to the extreme.

                “So, you don’t know me?” Willow asked.

                “Nope.” He replied, then turned, “We’re here.” But, to her surprise, he didn’t open the door. He looked over at her, “Let me give you a piece of advice, before you go in.”

                Willow looked over at him again, he was no longer carefree but almost…caring. She knew from just the few conversations with this boy that there was a lot to figure out about him, but this was beyond the limit. He hadn’t seemed to care about her well-being two minutes ago, but now he seemed to care!

                “Okay,” Willow whispered, she didn’t know why she was whispering, maybe it had to do that she was raised with a high definition television and tacky movies.

                “Don’t make this decision because others want you to do it. Make it only if you truly want to go.” Before Willow could even process what he had said, he opened the doors.

                Cirestain, Alicia, Chelsea, Chris and four other Ganashes were sitting on the couches.  The four other Ganashes were Ganashes she had never seen before, all of them just as thickly corded with muscle. Although one seemed very young, maybe thirteen or fourteen. Willow couldn’t begin to imagine how much work it must have taken him to have such biceps.

                "Welcome, Willow." Cirestain said, gesturing for her to take a seat, utterly calm once again.

                "What took you guys so long? It's twelve fifteen!" Alicia accused as they took their seats on the blue couch. Michael was on her right and the young thirteen-year-old-looking Ganash on her left.

                "Ms. Sleeping Beauty wouldn't wake up." Michael replied, lightly nudging her shoulder. Alicia was about to respond, but Cirestain intervened before they could go at each other.

                "Have you made your decision?" So straight to the point and forward, Willow kind of wished that there might’ve been a little conversation between all of them. She wanted to stall time.

                "Uh…" Her fingers tugging at the hem of her hoodie, it somehow gave her reassurance. Her stomach started to do uncomfortable flips of insecurity. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, she had made her decision last night. She had decided she wouldn't do it, she had a family to take care of, and couldn’t just leave them hanging. She wouldn't go, they said they would get her some kind of memory potion, so if Willow didn't go, it's not like she'd miss anything.

                Don’t make this decision because others want you to do it. Make it only if you truly want to go.

                "Yes. I have made my decision." She said, sitting up straighter and tilting her chin up, trying to look more confident than she was. "I'll do this."

                The words popped out of her mouth without meaning to. She resisted the urge to cover her mouth at her stupidity of her own self. And then she thought of Lucia,

                An adventure is not something you often forget.