The Seasons

Chapter 41

The green-eyed man down the hallway led Summer. They took almost five minutes to arrive at their destination, and Summer realised how far he had gone. The door they stopped at also seemed to blend into the hallway; it was black with a blood-red doorknob.

The man opened the door, and Vanessa was waiting inside with another woman. The man nudged him inside, stepping in and closing the door behind him.

Summer looked around the room; this one was much smaller than the other. With concrete walls and flooring, and the only light source was a lightbulb which appeared to be hanging on by a thread, he turned to stare at the green-eyed man whose eyes glowed. In this room was a metal bed; it looked beaten down and used, pushed to one wall, and a comfortable-looking stool with the unknown woman sitting on it.

“Summer, where did you go?” Vanessa asked as she leaned against the far wall, her eyes narrowed.

“I found him in the bathroom,” the man replied blankly. Summer turned to stare at him, and he frowned. Now, why was this man covering for him, lying for him?

Vanessa sighed as she stared at the man.

“Emil, do you have to be here?”

“Yes.”

She sighed and turned to smile at Summer, whose eyes had just gotten used to the dim lighting, and he could see her blood-red lips once more, and this time he saw a fang peeking out of the corner. The woman motioned to the bed, and Summer eyed it warily, but when Vanessa glared at him, he sat on the edge.

He stared warily at all three of them, and the woman on the stool smiled. Her long blonde hair was gelled back, giving her hair an almost wet look. Her green eyes narrowed on him, and she wore a green bralette and black shorts with sandals. She was beautiful, with a button nose and almond-shaped eyes further enhanced by the eyeliner she wore, and her eyelids shined with glitter, and now that he looked at her, so did the rest of her. If Summer had one word to describe her, it would be celestial.

“Hello, Summer. My name is Xana.” Summer was surprised to hear her voice was alluring, soft yet profound, and surprisingly calm.

“Hi,” he replied as he continued to stare at her, and he couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity.

“Could you stare into my eyes?” she asked, holding her palms up.

Summer stared at the patterns on her arm, and then he noticed some scales on her wrist. “Are you a mermaid?”

She smiled softly, and he definitely liked her smile more than Vanessa’s. “Something like that,” she replied, as Summer placed his hands on her palms, slightly confused, but he refused to look into her eyes until he knew more about what would happen.

“Summer,” Vanessa said, and he looked over at her. “You said you would help us, and in return, I would be helping you, don’t you remember? You do this, and we make you live longer than a human would, and you can spend the rest of your days with Autumn. Is that not what you asked for?”

Summer turned to look at Emil, who stood face blank in front of the door. He looked back at Xana, and Autumn’s face flashed in his head; he was smiling.

He remembered this memory; Winter, Neo and Autumn had decided to skip class and sneak onto the roof of their high school. It was almost summer break, and they wanted to enjoy the sun instead of being cramped in a classroom with people who didn’t know what hygiene was.

They had been on the rooftop, and Summer had been lying on the floor, using his blazer as his pillow as he sunbathed. A shadow appeared over his face and he opened his eyes to see Autumn standing to the side and leaning over him, a smile on his face as his hair fell around, and Summer couldn’t have helped but smile back, and now that he thought about it, he must have realised his feelings for Autumn then.

So when he opened his eyes, he stared into Xana’s eyes. “Listen to the sound of my voice,” she said gently. “Let me guide you, Summer. I want you to take some deep breaths, not break eye contact with me. Can you do that?”

Summer stared as he took some slow breaths, and the longer he stared into her eyes, the more he was sure that the colour of her eyes seemed to be changing, or was it the multiple shades of green in her eyes that seemed to be swirling around with one another?

“Just like that, you’re doing so well. Continue looking into my eyes.” His palms felt like they were slowly heating up, but he felt too relaxed to care.

“Now, lie down while maintaining eye contact.” And so he did; he moved his eyes as Xana moved, so she was now standing at the head of the bed and leaning to keep eye contact.

She placed her fingers on his temple and continued to mumble things under her breath.

“Okay, what do you want me to say to him?”

“The speech, have him forget it, and give yourself control, have him drink the liquid Crys gave.”

“Summer, when you wake up, I want you to have forgotten the speech you heard Emil give, okay?” he frowned a little at how distant her voice appeared, but he nodded. “Emil, pour this down his throat. Summer, Emil is going to pour something down your throat; I want you to swallow it.”

Summer nodded, and he heard the distant footsteps, the taste of something bitter pouring down his throat, and he swallowed. “Well done; now you don’t have to do anything else. You just rest and leave the rest to me.”

~*~