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Chapter 56
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Fire and Water Chapter 57
As a warm, fatherly smile had spread across his face, he had said, “I never knew this side of you existed. I’m really proud of you, Eliza. You did a great thing… you saved a lot of lives today.” At this, Eliza had turned as red as a tomato and bit her lip shyly. From that point onward, the small feelings of guilt that had crept up on her due to killing an actual person—if that’s what you could consciously call someone like Kali—began to recede. They were slowly replaced with a sense of pride and accomplishment. And he didn’t even remind her of how she had run off after Kali on her own, doing the exact same thing she had chided him for so many times. He had just smiled supportively and held her close as the two of them withdrew to her room and crashed for almost the rest of the day.Even though James had wanted to declare Sunday a lounge day, Eliza wouldn’t have it. She had dragged him away from the TV that morning and into the library and proceeded to drill him in preparation for the
Fire and Water Chapter 58
James dropped Eliza off at her room, then made his way across the school to his own dormitory. He walked his way down the hall, his room the destination, but as soon as he had passed the bathrooms, Ricky came bounding toward him.“Dude!” He shouted. “Where you been? I need you. Some freshmen challenged us to Call of Duty… four on four, custom match.” For the first time, Ricky seemed to spot his bags. “Throw your bags in the room and get Tres asap!” You know what? I could use the distraction, James figured. He knew before any big test, the best thing to do was to allow his mind to relax. Cramming never worked. If you didn’t know it by then, you never would, was his motto. “Alright. I’ll grab him.” “Hurry up, hurry up,” called Ricky as he jogged back down to the lounge. Still shaking his head, he stopped before his door and allowed Alexandra to scan his biometrics. The doorknob flashed green and the door popped open with a click of the lock being thrown back. “Whatever you’re doing
Fire and Water Chapter 59
The rest of the exams passed without much fanfare. After having done so well on his math midterm, at least he thought so anyway--- results would be handed back on Friday afternoon---, his others seemed incredibly easy. Even English Lit. required much less effort than he had thought at first. Their last examination ended on Thursday morning and even though they were basically out for the holidays, all of the students had to stay until they received their test scores back. So as the teachers wiled away at their papers, they took the time to spend the remaining hours with their friends before heading home for a couple weeks. Mostly, they all just hung around the different lounges playing video games, watching movies, and flirting in the way typical high schoolers do. Outside not much of an option because a cold front had moved in and the temperature plunged into freezing territory. James smiled like a child in a candy store as the weather channel projected a massive snowstorm coming int
Fire and Water Chapter 60
By the time everyone was packed and had managed to load everything in the trunk of Eliza’s Fiat, the sun had already sunk beneath the horizon and the darkness of night was fast approaching. He climbed into the passenger seat as Eliza started the engine and they pulled out of the parking lot. “Will you stop whining,” she snapped at Tres. Tres didn’t respond directly to her, just mumbled various complaints under his breath. He sighed, exasperated now. It had taken Eliza coming to their room and issuing copious amounts of threats to finally pull Tres away from his video game. “I’m right in the middle of a quest,” Tres had exclaimed. Eliza released a scream of frustration, then, “Just take your laptop and play it at my house. We need to leave…” She glared at him with eyes narrowed to slits. “Before midnight, preferably.” Still, Tres ignored her. “Just a second,” had been his mumbled response. The clicks of the game controller continued on fervently. “Fine… you leave me no choic
Fire and Water Chapter 61
White Christmas trees that were chest-height and lit up brightly could be found on either side of the road every ten yards or so. They were like a beacon that followed them the entire drive. Even the security gate and stone fence were decorated: each gate had a wreath hanging on it and the walls seemed to have luminescent icicles hanging on them. “A little over-the-top?” James asked to no one in particular. “Yeah,” Eliza whispered. “Are you kidding me,” Matt burst out excitedly as the house came into view and they could see the Santa Clause display on the lawn, the elves, and all the colorful lights around the house itself. “It’s freakin’ awesome!” She tucked the car under the archway which led into the gravel courtyard and parked. Matt and Tres exploded from the back in order to take in the decorations a little better. James chuckled as he saw Eliza eyeing all of the lights warily. “I take it they never do this?” Eliza shook her head adamantly. “No. Never. Usually the in-side
Fire and Water Chapter 62
First, he took the lighter of the two boxes, slit the tape open, and extracted a metal tin from the large amount of packing paper. The tin box was maybe two feet wide, two feet long, and two feet deep; it was covered in paintings of Raggedy Ann memorabilia. The tin box had been very hard to find, but he’d eventually found this one on eBay and made a move to buy it flat out so that there would be no chance of his not being able to get it.But that wasn’t what had taken so long, nor was anything else he had wrapped so far been what Karen had referenced to as being beautiful.Because Eliza’s real present was what he now extracted from the final box. He lifted the wooden box out as carefully as if he was handling nuclear materials and slowly set it on the bed to study. It was maybe a foot in length on all sides and eight or nine inches deep, the New Mexico desert landscape had been carved into the stained red oak on all four walls, and a large iron key had been crafted to fit into the lo
Fire and Water Chapter 63
The announcement of the imminent arrival of Tres’s family was greeted with a flurry of activity. It seemed no sooner had Brian—the Secret Service agent—told Eliza’s mother that they had just driven onto the property that Liz began to bustle around checking and rechecking the placement and positioning of several decorations. James was helping Cathy finish up with the groceries as Eliza went upstairs to corral Tres and Matt from their rooms. A few minutes later, the beam of a pair of headlights invaded the foyer and Liz called for James to come greet them. He handed Cathy the last of the bags, then swept through the revolving door into the sitting room and over to where Liz was waiting at the foot of the staircases. Eliza’s mother always seemed to want to inspire a good impression, no doubt due to her upbringing, and because Esmeralda and Charlie had never been to the manor before, she looked especially nervous. James sat on the bottom step to wait. A moment later, Allan opened the fron
Fire and Water Chapter 64
“Whoa…” James whispered. “Pretty cool room, huh?” Tres commented from the bedside. It would seem that Eliza’s mother had decorated each bedroom in a completely different style. This one, for example, was all opposites in modernity. The walls were a stark, bright white, the jet-black furniture and fireplace was at odds with the snowy-white, lush carpet, and various pieces of abstract art in solid black and white hues decorated the place. It was… interesting to say the least.With a shake of the head, he placed the bag inside the room, then made his way back down the hall and to the bottom floor. Now that he thought about it, it made sense that every bedroom would have its own fireplace. As the house was built around the turn-of-the-century, heating and air conditioning had not yet been very efficient, which would go a long way in explanation of the copious amounts of fireplaces. James swung around the base of the stairs, searching for the group, and found them in the formal living r
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