Chasing Circe

Chapter Eleven: END OF Vol1 Part 1

A brother-to-sister intervention

Hours later Aiden found himself hesitating to knock on Posy’s door. He had stopped Avery from bringing her the potion. When she had gotten up to leave, she looked nauseous and shaking. It was clear as day that Avery felt stressed from what Posy had said. Every word had cut his sister so deeply he found himself worrying how much of a toll it was taking on her physically.

His sisters had been avoiding each other out of shame and hurt. He knew that another fight would break out between them with how high-strung she was from potion making. And the last thing they needed was Posy feeling worse right before plunging into another realm of reality. This made him force her to sit down and take a quick nap making more potions.

He would talk to Posy and apologize to both of them. They shouldn't have lashed out and instead communicated their plan to her. The potion felt heavy in his free hand as he sighed. He knew Posy could probably hear him from behind the door. She had ended a phone call as soon as his feet hit the stairs. But still, he was hesitating to talk face to face.

"Posy, can I come in?" His voice sounded too soft. Almost as if he was speaking to a startled animal that was prepared to run away.

He could hear her moving around the room before answering. She must've started preparing to leave when he finally talked. He dreaded what she may have heard in his head from his conversation with Avery. He felt like it might make her refuse to accept their apologies. The homemade welcome sign hanging on the door mocked him as he continued to debate with himself.

"Yeah," His hand pushed the door open, she must've left it cracked a tiny bit. "And just sit down before you try to say anything stupid."

Posy's room was very outspoken compared to the rest of the house. She had spent the summer before high school saving to remodel it completely. This wa@ around the time their parents allowed them their credit card, a kid version of the course. The effort paid off as Aiden was hit with a mist of her defused spraying him with jasmine oil. Everything screamed Posy to him in a way that was impossible to describe to a stranger.

Her wallpaper was a cheetah print in the color dark purple with it being painted in a way to look 3D. The furniture in her room was in a similar print that had a softer tone and shade of lilac. Posy sat in the middle of her bed with her phone in her lap as she stared at him. Her expression was strangely natural as she tapped her nails against the phone's plastic back.

Aiden sat down in front of her on a small chair that was attached to a vanity. It smelled strongly of cherry perfume that made his nose burn. Despite this, the chair was very comfortable. Awkwardly, he sat the potion down next to her various makeup palettes and empty boxes. It looked out of place being in the middle of the hundreds of gem-encrusted, expensive products she owned.

"I know you plan on saying sorry and I want you to forget about it. I don't care about that right now," Posy looked down at her phone the entire time she spoke. "I just want to save our parents or whatever part of their memory we can."

"You're hurt from what we did, you deserve an apology. Not getting one is just going to add more weight to your shoulders." Aiden countered with a growing look of worry.

Posy rolled her eyes, throwing her phone to the side in a fit of stress. "Aiden, please stop. I don't want an apology from you guys. I don't want you feeling guilty and walking on eggshells around me." She moved her hands in the air to convey her emotions.

Aiden would be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling immense guilt from the situation. He felt like an asshole and he knew Avery did too. But it wasn’t just that he was dealing with. No, this was something that was physically affecting him currently. It was something that he once hated to voice outside of his head.

"I don't feel guilty, I feel scared." Flashes went through his mind as he looked at her. The anger on Cassandra’s face the night she left. The pain his mother had on her face when his father yelled at her due to the confrontation he helped happen.

Those memories haunted him in a way that felt eternal. They were wounds that would never leave his body for as long as he lived. He didn't want his sisters to disappear. The thought of something happening to them made him sick. He wanted Posy to be okay and not bear this pain alone anymore. He tried to take some of it from her, to snatch it out of her mind. It wasn't just the guilt he was feeling but fear.

If she continued like this, holding everyone else's pain in, she'd break. She was just a teenager who never had to deal with a powerful entity like the Seelie Court. Known of them had. He didn’t want to judge his mother but God why Posy? Why did she force her to carry something so crucial all by herself for so long? It pained him how much frustration he felt toward the woman. He missed her dearly but the anger remained as he watched the teenager shield herself emotionally from him.

"First Cassandra disappeared then our parents and now you're hurt. I'm scared about what will happen to you two after this." His chest heaved as he realized his voice had raised unconsciously. The bass in each word was like a knife, hitting her in the chest with a sharpened blade.

"I get it," She said anxiously rubbing her hands together as she stared at him finally. Only then did he realize her eyes were red. She had to have been crying for hours. “But you need to understand hovering over me isn’t going to lessen any of my feelings towards either of you. I need space before we leave.”

Slowly, he nodded. He was still digesting everything that had been said and he didn't want to risk upsetting her by pushing some more. “I’ll give you your space but you need to at least face Avery before we go and say something to her, okay?” The two girls weren’t always the closest but both looked like they were heartbroken from the fight that broke out.

“I plan to, don’t stress about it,” She gave him a small smile before dropping it and flopping onto her side. Quickly, she moved to wrap her arms around one of the many stuffed animals she had sprawled across her bed. “I can’t exactly use her potion without thanking her afterward.”

"Full disclosure, it tastes awful," Aiden said with a laugh at the expression she made from across the room. She wasn't crying anymore but the redness in her eyes remained as she opened her mouth to retort.

Posy narrowed her eyes, giving him a look that told him she hoped he was joking. "Please don't let me drink some toad carcass or something. I'm still traumatized from that traditional 'Garden Fairy' tea she made last spring." They both recoiled at the mention of a drink that had made them contract a fearsome case of food poisoning along with an aversion to tea for the next year and a half.

“It’s not that bad. It just tastes like some thick cough syrup.” Aiden reassured her by gesturing for her to go ahead and take her sip before it went cold. It smelled not as strong as before, mellowing out into a simple herb-heavy scent that overtook his senses.

Hesitantly, she motioned for him to hand it over. The mixture sloshed around in the bowl uncomfortably with some dripping onto her bed. It landed in a jelly-like consistency in small, oval-shaped blobs. She gave a look of disgust at the sight but still held the bowl to her mouth and drank.

Almost immediately he watched her face contort and turn sour with her body shivering as she swallowed. Her tongue stuck out as she recoiled from the bowl and practically threw it back at him. Thankfully, he caught it and put it back on her dresser as she finished gagging.

Posy's eyes were wide as she looked at him. "Seriously? It tasted like I swallowed a dead rat. I feel like I'm gonna puke." At the mention of vomit, she quickly covered her mouth turning green.

"If you puke you'll have to take another one as we have to let it digest," She hurled one of her stuffed animals at his head nearly connecting. "Hey!"