Kitty stares back into Annie’s deep eyes for a moment.
“Nope.”
“Yep!”
Kitty gently pushes Annie away. “Nope. We’re not doing this. I’m not magic.”
Annie’s lips pull an abrupt U turn. “But Kitty! You read the thingy we can’t read!”
“Annie...No.” Kitty sighs, her voice shaking a little. “Look, Annie, the cutesy fantasy thing? The ‘oh my god, it turns out I have magic!’ sudden twist? That’s all you, not me. That’s your dream. That’s...not mine.” Kitty shrugs, helplessly, as Annie’s face wrinkles in pain. “I’m sorry, okay? At best I’m the girl you have to rescue. And I’m not even a princess, not really, so you got cheated. Okay? So....” Kitty turned, looking down at the letters. She shuts her, squeezes them tight. All t-that? I’m just going to go on assuming I’m being pranked. That we can all have a good laugh, and I can go back to my quiet life. That a man really didn’t die this morning on my front desk, because of this...this...big, dumb box that’s been in my family for years. I...I don’t want...” She bites her lip, leaning on the edge of the box, as if she were addressing the stone cat lady. “I don’t want to be a story. I don’t want to be some...fantasy.”
Kitty turns and looks around the room. At Mindy, then Tara, then Despina (who waves)...Dante doesn’t bother to look at her, just watching the sarcophagus himself. She doesn’t look at Annie.
“How many of you are wizards?” asks Kitty, quietly. Everyone raises their hand, except Dante, who just pushes his shades further up his nose and coughs.
“My sister is too,” adds Mindy.
“Right,” says Kitty. “Yes.”
“You know, downstairs.”
“I know.” KItty sighs again, staring at her feet. “Look...that’s fine. But I dont want to join the wizard club. I don’t want to be magic. I don’t want to get wrapped up in some magical mystery haunting my family for generations, or whatever!” Her eyes water; her throat clenches. “I don’t want to take the ring to Mordor. I don’t want to be accepted into Hogwarts. I don’t care what bloody season is coming, they’re all coming all the time. I know the odds are more certainly not in mine or anyone’s favor. I most certainly will panic if I want to! I am not going in the wardrobe, I am not taking the witch’s shoes because I’m not a bloody graverobbing maniac, and I most certainly am not going on a quest to kill God!”
“Which one?” asks Tara.
“Who cares?!”
“I don’t know, you could probably take Dionysus.”
“Probably not Loki, though,” adds Mindy.
“Probably not,” nods Despina, in agreement.
“Gah!” Kitty throws up her hands, slaps them back down at her side, and walks to the door, right past Annie.
When she reaches the door, someone whimpers. Kitty’s heart aches in recognition. She hangs onto the door frame and turns to Annie.
Her princess’ lip is quivering, her hands held to her cheeks. She lets out a pathetic, small whine. Pained emotions swell within her face, leaking out on the surface...
“Annie,” says Kitty, her own voice nearly breaking but remaining stern. “I’m sorry, but that’s not-”
“Do you love me?”
Kitty jumps back at the implication. She feels as if a shot has just been fired, but for what? “Annie, you know I do...”
“Then why weren’t you honest with me?”
“What do you mean? I always try to be honest with...”
Annies head snaps upwards, her face in the tightest scowl Kitty’s ever seen. “Then why didn’t you tell me you thought my magic charms were...were...were...bullshit!”
Kitty clutches a hand to her chest, her mouth agape, wounded. “Annie...I didn’t mean-”
“You said, in front of everyone at the dinner party, that magic wasn’t real. Wasn’t. Real. Why? Did you think that just because I was drunk I wouldn’t remember?”
Kitty’s eyes close and she shakes.
“But you know what? It’s okay! I let it slide. I know everyone thinks I’m a spoiled brat of an idiot, even you Kitty. Even you! Especially you, because you have to put up with me all the time! But now...Now...now...It turns out you might be magical too, and you just...Decide to...Ignore it and go right back to pretending it’s not real! I thought we’d be done with that after Lord White explained things to you, but no, you’re just going to shut yourself off and start humoring me again.” She’s in Kitty’s face now. “It’s part of my life, Kitty! It’s part of me! You don’t have to have anything to do with it, but at least acknowledge that it exists! Let me be excited for something, just once. I don’t want to just be your little joke.” She grabs Kitty by the shoulders. “You out of everyone should know that! I read just as much as you do! I wouldn’t prattle at you about magic charms just out of craziness, and if you thought I was, you should have told me! You could have been honest, even if you thought I was dumb. I could have showed you what I can do!”
She pulls Kitty forward, wrapping her in a tight, constricting hug. There’s anger in it, mixed with sadness, disappointment, and anguished love. As well as a grip like a vice.
“You’re all I really have, Kitty...okay? And even you treated me like a fool. I guess that’s all I am.”
“Annie...I...”
Anilin pushes her away, sobs violently into her fingers, and takes off out of the room.
Annie, wait!” cries Kitty, taking off after her.
The room falls into a dead silence. Dante stares down at his feet. Tara stares at the door. Despina stares at the ceiling. Mindy stares at Dante.
After a while Dante sighs quietly.
“She could at least have told us what it says,” he murmurs. Tara pats his back.
***
Annie tears off up the stairs to Kitty’s room, running faster than Kitty can follow. By the time she makes it into the living room, she hears the door slam shut.
“Annie!” she calls out, but there’s no response, and no surprise. Kitty curses herself under her breath. Dammit, Annie had a point...
“What’s wrong?” says a voice suddenly. Kitty turns her head, seeing...One of Dante’s girlfriends, she thinks? She’d only just met them minutes ago...the one with the shorts...Shoot...Right. Oreo. It was Oreo. Whatever that name meant.
“It’s personal,” says Kitty quickly, pausing to catch her breath against the wall.
“She seemed very upset. What did you do?”
Kitty raises an eyebrow at the stranger. “Why would you assume...” she begins, but catches herself. “...Something bad.”
“I figured, by the way she was crying.”
The door leading to the stairs heading down opens abruptly. Eva sticks her head in. “Duchess,” she begins cheerfully, “There’s a phone call for you. The woman on the other end says it’s important.”
“Who...” coughs Kitty, between panicked and stressed breaths. “...is it?”
“She says her name is Meb.”
“Oh,” says Kitty, calling to mind the bartender. “Right,” she adds, remembering the time she spent in the bar. “...Oh god,” she whimpers, remembering that she ‘seduced’ her, if it could reasonably be called that, and ran out of the bar with her invitation.
“What shall I tell her, my Lady?” says Eva, with some concern.
What will Kitty do? And what will she say?
2 comments:
>Kitty: Okay, think. You've read enough books, you should know this by now. If you don't go talk to Anilin, you may lose one of your only friends, someone you actually care about. But, if you don't say /something/ to the bartender, you may upset someone from a dangerous family and you can hardly take ONE, let alone TWO families hating on you. It's also pretty bad upsetting the Princess. So make that THREE families.
Right, you know what? Okay, this is what you will do. You are going to see why Meb is calling. That will likely only take you ten minutes. Tell her there's something you'll need to do, so she better make it quick. Set up a date if you have to. That will leave enough time for Anilin to have calmed down... Then... THEN! You go and talk with her about this. Make it right, Kitten. You can do it. We believe in you. Believe in the us that believe in you.
> Kitty: Tell Eva to tell the bartender to wait a minute, as the librarian is currently very busy with things! You couldn't really handle it right now given you are panicked anyway. Calm down for a moment. Take a deep breath. Maybe scurry off and grab a quick glass of water. Then, when you have slightly more calmed nerves and Annie might be calmed down, go up and try to talk to her.
> Kitty: Alternately, talk to the bartender quickly, THEN take a moment to calm down and so on and such forth!
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