I tried to image what life had to have been like for Ethan and Erela before they fused together. I found myself picturing Ethan as a little kid. Would he have been pudgy? Thin as a pencil? I imagined the pain and torture he must have went through at the hands of the bullies who detested his existence. I wondered if his parents had consulted him before they fused Erela and Ethan together, or had they just done what they thought was best?
Grabbing a book from a shelf about magic spells, I slumped down in a chair and sat sideways so that my legs dangled over the arm rest. I opened it to the index and glanced through the topics. Erela had pulled a couple books down from a shelf, as well, and was leafing through a few pages. She stopped on a page for a moment or two before turning it.
Growing up with the powers that I had, I had been bullied as kid, too, so I could understand some of Ethan's pain. Before I became a teenager, I had been unable to control my shifting abilities. Anytime my emotions went out of control, I'd shift into someone. If I got mad, sad, basically any negative emotion was susceptible to making me change. Of course the other kids had deemed me a freak; they told me I was a demon. They liked to throw things at me. And unfortunately, I hadn't touched anyone of worth to shift into to scare the kids away.
As I got older, I started running with the wrong crowds, got into a gang solely for the purpose of getting close to the leader so I'd have someone scary to morph into should I need to defend myself from my peers. That didn't quite end up the way I had hoped as it had gotten me thrown out of own home. My own parents hadn't wanted me.
Travel was my therapy. What was Ethan's. I wondered if he had had his own body long enough to figure that out. Not like he could leave this place, now. And the mental hospital before that couldn't have been a fun environment to branch out, though I suppose being in a mental hospital offered therapy? I wasn't sure how great of an experience they must have had there, but if Broken Tear had to take her out of there, I guessed it couldn't have been very nice.
Sighing, I shut the book. None of the spells in this book related to the matter at hand. I went back to the shelf and skimmed the titles. Unfortunately, more titles didn't sound helpful than not. I glanced at the clock and noticed we had only been in the library for about twenty minutes. I let out a breath. Sitting still had never been a great strength of mine.
Glancing over at Erela, I asked, "Are you having more luck than me?"
She shook her head, her blonde hair falling over her shoulder. "Unfortunately not. This will be a very arduous affair, I should warn you."
A little late for that, I thought, but I smiled knowingly as I grabbed a couple more books off the shelf and returned to my perch on the chair I had previously occupied.
"Can you tell me a fond memory you have from when you and Ethan were in your own bodies," I asked her after I skimmed through a couple books. I didn't like the silence. I needed it broken.
Continue?
I thought I'd make up for me forgetting to post by making the one I put up a bit longer than normal. Hope that's okay!
