Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked down at the sword--now puddle--that had long since seeped into the rug. I had been distracted long enough thinking about magic that my ice weapon had completely melted. The rug would probably be fine; it was only water after all.
After a hurried glance around the room, I saw the bag of bras and decided I should take care of my fitting before Sarah came back. Picking up the bag, I headed down the hallway and wondered how much of the conversation Chris had heard. Chris was not in the kitchen or any of the other nearby rooms I discreetly checked as I walked by. I hoped he was in his room working on homework, listening to music, or doing something else that did not involve listening in. I eventually found a bathroom to change in, closed the door behind me, and locked it.
Before taking off any of my clothes, I took a long look at myself in the mirror. The person I saw was so different from Lucas and yet at the same time even closer than what I would have expected his sister to look like, if he had one. The subtle changes in my eyes, forehead, chin, cheeks, and more just piled up to make my brain emit the result: this both is and is not Lucas. He had not seen his face after the transformation. All he had seen was his shrunken palms, his thinner fingers, and his friends' incredulous reactions. That was enough for him to know instantly that this body was not something he wanted. His immediate response was extreme discomfort, and he lashed out at Aurora because of what she did. I, on the other hand, was happy with the results of the transformation, elated even. It was perfect.
"I guess this is me. This is Laura." I grinned at my reflection.
After a lot of trial and error I managed to determine which of the twelve bras that Sarah bought fit me best. At the end of my extensive testing process, I memorized the size, removed the tags with scissors I had borrowed earlier from the kitchen, and threw the undergarment on.
As I looked at myself in the mirror with just a bra and jeans, I wondered how Lucas would have handled this situation. If he were here instead of me, I knew he would be angry and deeply upset. I pushed deeper into the memories from right after his transformation and let them flow over me. I could feel his pain and his frustration. As soon as I released myself from that memory those emotions vanished, and I was left with happy contentment while looking at the sight of myself in the mirror.
Lucas's memories felt like they were part of me, but some of them really did not seem to mesh with my current perspective. Considering this discontinuity made my head buzz. If nothing else, it reinforced that I was not just a broken copy of Lucas; I was different in at least this one way.
I perused the pile of memories of my two past lives and considered that while Aurora's past was more extensive, I could not pick as many distinct events from it as I could with Lucas's. Looking for general information in Aurora's memory was possible, but there was just so much, and it blurred together like a smeared painting. Isolating a specific memory from Aurora's past was like digging for a book buried under five feet of sand. There was also a growing sense of uneasiness the longer I prodded around in my head. These two people should be right here, alive and happy, but instead they were replaced with me.
Sarah's words echoed in my mind, "None of this is your fault." It was true, but a part of me could not accept it.
Pulling myself out of my own head, I looked over the collection of bras in the bag and realized Sarah had cast a wide net, but the sizes were all precisely centered on the bra I ended up selecting. I had a strong suspicion that she had somehow measured me perfectly with just a glance.
"How did she do that? That sweatshirt I was wearing was like a tent," I mused quietly to myself as I packed the strewn bras back into the bag.
Walking back down the hall to the living room, I heard plates clattering in the kitchen. I left the bag on a coffee table and went to investigate, announcing my arrival by knocking gently on the wall.
"Hi," I said brightly as I rounded the corner and saw Chris putting together lunch on three plates.
"I heard you woke up, so I figured I would make a late lunch for the three of us." Chris gave me a smile before turning back to his rows of plates, toast, peanut butter, and jelly.
"Oh, I will go let Sarah know," I said and headed for the front door.
"I wondered where she was," Chris said.
I sighed in relief. That meant he must not have overheard my conversation with Sarah and that she had also not talked to him yet. After opening the front door, I looked around the yard and found Sarah leaning against a tree at the edge of the lot.
"Sarah, do you want lunch?" I called and waved my arm. "Chris is making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Sarah shrugged and she started shuffling toward the house. Motion caught my eye at the end of the driveway and my eyes flicked over to see Dan smoothly glide across the concrete blocks on his bike. I turned and called back into the house: "Make a fourth! Dan is back."
After a few minutes we were all in the living room, each with a sandwich and potato chips. I had moved the bag of bras to one of the couches so there would be room for all our plates and a giant family-size bag of additional potato chips on the coffee table. As the others began to eat, I nervously looked at each of them. Was now the right time to tell Dan and Chris what I had already explained to Sarah? I looked down at my plate and nervously poked my finger into the pile of chips, but did not pick one up.
"I'm guessing you just came back from your house?" Chris asked Dan as they both sat down.
"Yeah. I didn't even need to check in with my family. I had a weird feeling this morning and I wanted to make sure they were okay. I know there's no way that the shades would have figured out where I lived. I just couldn't shake the feeling that something was up," Dan said with a sigh.
"I know what you mean. I also stopped by my place on the way back from town," Sarah said. "They were fine."
"My parents should be back from their trip on Monday," Chris added before taking a bite of his sandwich. The rest of the group finally started to eat, but I was considering the weird feeling that Dan mentioned. Was I feeling it too?
"So, what's the plan, Chromos and Dan?" Sarah asked with a smirk as she broke the relative quiet of the room.
"Why are you asking me? I'm just as clueless as the rest of you," Dan grumbled between bites of his sandwich.
"Back at the river Chromos seemed to have an idea of what was happening," Chris offered as he plowed through his pile of chips.
"Well, what about Corona? She got any ideas?" Dan asked.
"How about we just list the things we know and see if that gets us anywhere?" I quietly interjected before finally picking up my sandwich.
I considered briefly that the first thing I would ever eat was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Does it even count if I have memories of eating other things? Or do those memories not count since they came from someone else? Should I find something else to eat as my first food? Did Aurora even eat food? Okay, now I was just being silly. I took a bite and it was wonderful. The sweet, savory, and nutty flavors were perfectly mixed. The sandwich was just as good as Lucas's memories promised.
"Go ahead Chromos," Dan huffed. His tone of voice completely changed and his guardian continued, "We significantly reduced their forces last night. The enemy was storing a vast quantity of magic from all their rituals, but left it unprotected. Thankfully, I fully depleted at least one of their stores which should set them back significantly." Chromos's smug tone was not lost on the group.
"So, are you going to use all that power and transform me too?" Dan wondered aloud after Chromos finished. My face immediately burned bright red, and my eyes dropped from Dan to the plate in front of me. "Uhhh, shit," Dan said, "That was meant for just Chromos. Laura, I'm sorry."
"I-Well, it-should," I stammered incoherently before stopping to take a breath and continuing, "It seems important to know if that could happen to you or Sarah. I sure would have liked to know before it happened to me." My eyes were still directed downward, and I was staring through my plate of food, the table, and the floor. At nothing.
"I did actually ask Corona about that," Sarah stated calmly. "She said that my bond was completed and nothing else would happen. What about you Chromos?"
"My link with Dan is complete and strong. That Aurora was forced to reinforce her bond with you in such a drastic fashion confounds me. Regardless, the link was plainly more robust afterward." While Chromos paused, Dan's facial expression remained unchanged and frozen. Seeing a friend puppeteered by a guardian was always so eerie; especially when the guardian suddenly stopped actively making movements. "Today though, your aura and bond do appear somewhat clouded. I eagerly await Aurora's insight on this when she wakes up," After a moment Dan's face scrunched up in thought and then his eyes grew wide. He was looking straight at me.
"Aurora is not going to be doing anything else to me," I spluttered. "Can we not get sidetracked?"
"It was your question," Chris pointed out.
"Oh." My reply simply fell from my mouth. I glanced at Sarah and saw her looking at me with a smile. I was worried she would be upset because I mentioned Aurora without explaining further, but she seemed unbothered. I would need to tell everyone what happened eventually, but for now I could just continue with inertia and hold onto my friends with no effort required.
"Since we cleared all the monsters out of the creek, maybe we should go back there and see if there are any clues?" Sarah suggested.
"That is a good idea. Chromos, when we were at the river how exactly did you find their stored energy and steal from it? Could we look for more?" I asked.
"Their stores overlapped my haven, my place of idleness, where I rest when I am not needed," Chromos answered.
"Why would they do that? It seems a bit silly to put all your magic where a guardian lives," Chris said, sounding just as confused as I felt.
"Perhaps they did not know I was there," Chromos stated. Dan's shoulders jerkily shrugged, and Dan returned to his meal.
"What kind of ritual were they doing anyway?" Chris asked after the short pause in the conversation.
"The ritual extracted life force, stored it, and also produced shades," Sarah intoned; it must have been Corona speaking. "Such rituals must be stopped, and we must apprehend any we find performing them."
"They can just accumulate magic energy through killing people?" Chris mumbled. "That is so fucked up."
"For what we should do next, I agree with Sarah that our best leads are going to come from investigating the creek again. If there are a bunch more shades, we should know sooner rather than later. We did manage to take on a ton of them without it being that dangerous," Dan or Chromos summarized, but I could not tell which was speaking. He or perhaps they continued, "Guardians can protect their hosts from some physical harm, but do not rely on it. You can still become seriously wounded if our protection is exhausted." That bit must have been from Chromos, I deduced.
"Well, that might be a problem," I sighed. "I do not have any protection like that." I looked over at Sarah and the concern must have been evident on my face because her expression went blank.
"Aurora is likely still recovering from her significant expenditure of energy last night," Chromos counseled. "We should wait until next week before venturing there again."
"That also lines up better with school if we do it on Friday night." Sarah laughed. "Wouldn't want you to fall asleep in class again, Laura." She glanced over at me with a smile. Lucas had a history of mid-lecture naps. I wondered if that trait would apply to me too.
"What if Aurora is not awake by Friday?" I muttered and I watched the smile drain from Sarah's face again.
"That should be plenty of time for a guardian of her stature to recuperate. You need not worry," Chromos stated. Dan turned towards me. His eyes narrowed slightly, and I became incredibly nervous. I glanced back at Sarah and my face was clearly betraying my fear.
"Laura, you don't need to do this," Sarah said while forcibly steadying her voice.
I shook my head. She was wrong. I could not continue to lie to my friends and have them think that I was Lucas with a new name. Dan deserved to know what was at stake, the level of risk that was involved in continuing to fight while wielding this power. Chris also deserved to know before he decided to pursue bonding with a new guardian or to use magic in some other way. I could do this. It would not be easy, but I had to keep it together.
"Lucas and Aurora are gone."