Chapter 68

I was broken, battered and betrayed. Or some such feeling that made me uncomfortable. It bittered so much that I was so vulnerable towards him. A lot went through my head as I strolled down the street hastily to Lana's. The cold burned through my feet as I kicked my legs against the thick snow to make it to the subway.

I bit my teeth and kicked my feet as hard as I could to keep the thoughts of what had transpired this morning from coming through. The harder I ground my teeth, the harder it was to forget.

"Eric was a werewolf, Eric was a werewolf". I repeated, forcing the thoughts out. The flashes of him reading my reviews were scary. "Has he been reading my thoughts all this while?". I thought as my teeth bot against each other. I cup my hands around the upper part of my belly as tight as possible, trying vainly to fight the cold.

"what is this story of the witch which?". I asked as I forced tears back into my eyes. "Why is he telling me the story of the white witch?". The answers were louder than the questions I asked myself. I had never been so helpless. "Eloise..." I mumbled as tears rolled down my eyes. My world hadn't begun to collapse.

*

" El Gordon gomolie". I watched the door click open, but I stood for a while before entering Lana's apartment. The air was not clean; it felt like some dark magic laced the air in the room. "Lana". I called as I toed into the bedroom. "Babe?" I called again. I paused to hear what seemed like a chant from down the hallway. I toed silently to her room with a large glass lamp in hand, ready to cause a bustle by all means. Before I could get hold of the doorknob, the door clicked open.

"Come in". Lana said from inside. Her room was dark, with candles lit on every elevated platform, 5 inches above the ground. He was on some dark spell casting. She turned towards me from the floor and stared straight into my eyes. Her eyes were completely white for a moment before she switched. "it's not El Gordon Gomolie anymore", she said, making her way from the floor.

"But it opened."

"I opened it from the inside ". She paused for a moment and snapped her fingers, and the candles blew off ass the curtains drew open. "come with me." she said as she walked passed me towards the living room.

"You were at Eric's?". She asked rhetorically. I was surprised, although I knew intruding was Lana's nature. Asking me about Eric brought the whole drama that morning come flooding back. "You know he's James's brother, right?" she added as she took the glass lamp in her hands to place them right on the wooden stool behind the dark tan sofa. "James, you know, the one who..."

"Yh, right. I remember. Thanks for the elaborate description Lan". I said defensively. "It's not a joke, Lana; stop it". I added.

Reliving the horror of being raped was another traumatic experience I didn't need. All I wanted was to find out what Eric was up to. Who he was.

"Why are you here today? What's your excuse this time?" Lana asked. I paused for a moment, starting the lamp standing before me.

"Have you heard of the prophecy of the white witch?". There was silence in the room, then a loud clang and thud on the floor. I quickly turned to see what happened. Lana was on the floor, mumbling. I ran to her on the floor and held her shoulder up. She was mumbling so language I didn't understand, and I was afraid that could be what kept her from waking. I could feel her energy drift away. Her skin was pale and as hard as ice. I ran two fingers beneath her left ear through her ear down to her throat and then to her chest. Just like I felt Eric do to me earlier that morning. Of course, I didn't know what I was doing, and it didn't work. I tried to recount my steps meticulously following Eric's trick but to no avail. It didn't take four extra trials to convince me that I was making a fool of myself. If Lana was awake, she would have drawn a fine sarcasm out of the moment. "Dear Lana," I said as I stood up abruptly to look for her epi-pens. Lana woke suddenly with one loud stamp against her chest. A long gasp and then serious of un even pant. I knelt before her as she tried to get her breath back.

"What was that?" She asked in between breaths.

"Exactly what I came to ask you".

"what do you mean," she asked almost terrifyingly.

"the same thing happened with me this morning. The difference was I wasn't saved with an Epi-pen...it was magic". Lana looked chill for a minute before she got the message.

"wait, what!". She asked with her eyes bulged out. "Eric?".

"He's a werewolf and a witch ". I conclude, "Or a gorgon, I don't know.

"He reads minds?!" Lana asked, more terrified. It was funny the way she kept her eyes wide open. I tried to laugh a little, ease the tension, but I couldn't. The morning chaos still had some sharp scents on her.

Lana tried getting herself up to the couch as I walked towards the dispenser in the corner to get some water. There was a long silence in the room, and the water made a loud noise as it poured innocently into the off-white paper cup.

"We have known Eric for quite a while; how did we not know?" Lana asked rhetorically as she stared into the tin air with her hands couped around the paper cup. "could it be a shapeshifter" She asked. Again, rhetorically. I had thought of that but only for a second. It was Eric. I could swear.

Seeing Lana so vulnerable was striking to me. She was more heartbroken than terrified. I couldn't shake the feeling something was going on here. I wanted to ask her what she was doing when I came in, but that was a lousy subject change. I stared at her as she stared into her drink.

" Listen". She said, cutting the flow of my thoughts. "I don't have answers to your questions, I wish I did, but I know someone who might tell you what Eric is and, maybe, what the prophecy says".

"