"Ugh, h-how did I?" I was looking towards the ceiling, but it wasn't the second floor's ceiling. I tried to sit up but a hand grabbed my forehead and forced it back down.
I wiped my eyes to see Ms. Valeria looking down at me as I laid on her lap on the couch.
She smiled at me. "So you've done it."
"Done what?" I said, trying to get up again.
Ms. Valeria forced my head down once more. "You need more time to rest." She got up, replacing her thighs with a pillow. "You're technically the first to do it Simon, unlocking your vusk that is."
"How'd you know I unlocked my vusk?" I said confused as I sat up again—immediately becoming light headed as I quickly went to cover my mouth.
"You better not." Ms. Valeria said as I forced myself to swallow my throw up.
She shook her head. "I said you needed time to rest. What you did was extremely dangerous."
"I see you grasped the idea of pouring your creativity into an item, but the problem is you don't have much creativity. When you have a lower gate and run out of creativity to use, it starts to siphon off your life energy."
"You poured so much creativity into your paintbrush you ran out, fortunately it looks like your frail body gave out before it could start taking years off your life. If you had the physique of someone like Cleo… you'd be in big trouble."
"I didn't know your creativity was limited, you should've mentioned something about it." I said, holding my stomach.
Ms. Valeria knocked on her head. "Well maybe I forgot to go over that. Your creativity is limited based on your gate, but of course, it recharges as you gain energy from resting or eating. The higher the gate you reach the more creativity you can tap into."
I feel terrible, it's like my brain isn't properly sending signals to my body—I probably couldn't even run right now, and to think it was so much worse when I first collapsed.
"Well then, let me get you to the bathroom." Ms. Valeria said as she helped me up.
"I got it from here." I insisted upon reaching the bathroom doors. I stumbled into the bathroom as I plopped onto the toilet. "Looks like I'm weaker than I thought." I mumbled to myself.
Struggling to get up I looked into the mirror staring into my own deep brown eyes, they seemed so lifeless. I smiled at myself in the reflection but I still looked so empty—I felt so empty… like a part of me was missing.
There's so much I don't know about myself and it eats away at me everyday. No matter how far I dig down I never see a thing.
When I look in the mirror I get this feeling a lot, it's a similar feeling to when I wake up from those nightmares. I want to—need to learn more about myself, but how?
I brushed my teeth as I got into the shower. It felt so good scratching my head under the warm water.
I stood there for a while just thinking, maybe I'm selfish for wanting to know more, maybe I should just be grateful for what I have, but something just felt… off.
I took a long breath before turning off the shower to not waste anymore water. "I'm overthinking things."
Getting out I wrapped a towel around my lower waist as I began to make my way to the bedroom.
Entering the hallway I saw Runi and we locked eyes. It felt as if time stopped as we stared at each other, until I noticed what I was wearing that is, Nothing.
My face turned red as I shimmied into the bedroom. My heart was beating so fast but I didn't know why. Runi has seen me in just a towel a million times, why now was it a problem, why did I get so nervous.
I changed into a new set of clothes as I questioned myself. No way, I don't even want to think about it.
I walked into the kitchen, quickly noticing Runi on the couch but I didn't say anything. I opened the fridge as I realized there was nothing to eat.
"Ms. Valeria! We're low on food!" I shouted through the cabin as I took out the leftover breakfast.
Every few months Ms. Valeria would leave the cabin and come back with a lot of groceries. She would go past the oak tree and around 5 hours later she would return with multiple bags.
Ms. Valeria moped into the kitchen. "Really we're already out? It should have lasted at least another couple days."
Ms. Valeria glanced at her watch as she sighed. "I'll be back tonight then, while I'm gone Alex is in charge."
We watched as Ms. Valeria left the cabin and disappeared into the forest.
Marcel walked in as Ms. Valeria left. He had a cunning smile on his face, Luther soon came in behind him.
Marcel gathered everyone in the living room.
"Now that Ms. Valeria won't be back for a while we should do something special for her." He said.
I tilted my head in confusion. "Did I miss something? What are we doing for Ms. Valeria?"
An endearing smile grew across Luther's face. "Well me and Marcel were thinking, since Ms. Valeria has done so much for us we should do something for her in return, almost like a thank you for taking care of us."
Everyone sat in the living room brainstorming ideas. My eyes kept quickly glancing at Runi. I don't know if she noticed me or not but I couldn't help it.
Marcel spoke up. "We stole some ingredients from the fridge to make a cake so that's one."
Runi giggled. "So that's why the food was low."
Unexpectedly Alex walked in from the hallway. He normally sleeps during the day so not many people see him, sometimes it's easy to forget he's here until you hear footsteps at 3:00 AM.
"I overheard." Alex said as he stood infront of the hall. "We should all write about how much we appreciate Valeria in a book, she's always loved books." Alex said.
That caught Dahlia's attention. "Yes!" she exclaimed with excitement.
"Is everyone okay with the book idea?" Marcel asked the group. There were no objections.
"Alright." he said, clapping his hands similar to Ms. Valeria. "Let's start this cake."
"Wait." Alex said while looking around. "We should break up in groups, it'll make things easier."
Marcel nodded his head in agreement. "Good idea, Dahlia and I will make the cake, Cleo and Luther can decorate the cabin as we work. Alex since you suggested the idea you can find an empty book and start us off?"
Marcel looked at me then glanced at Runi, I already knew where this was going.
Marcel pointed to me. "Simon and Runi, can you two gather enough flowers to fill a vase."
Damnit.
Marcel continued. "Bring Jackson with you also, he has some pretty decent taste and it gives him something to do."
Yes.
Sweet, sweet Marcel saved me from the worst possible situation I could've been in. Alone with Runi.
Runi hopped off the couch as she went to grab Jackson. We still haven't talked since that night.
Jackson came into the living room a little confused. "What's going on? You guys look busy for once."
"We're gonna head out for the flower fields to gather some flowers, hopefully they look good cause I've never gone before."
"Alright." Jackson said rubbing his stomach as he slipped his shoes on.
We started walking to the nearby flower fields. The walk was mostly quite other than Jackson breaking the silence with a question or two about the surrounding area.
Once we got there it was beautiful. I've never been to the flower fields before but I always knew of them, seeing it now makes me wish I would've come sooner.
There was a long array of multiple different columns of flowers stretching out pretty far. I noticed one type of flower, a yellow canna lily, which a bouquet of sits in a vase in the living room.
Jackson stared in awe at the flowers as he ran into one of the fields. I watched him pick a couple of roses until it clicked, he really left me and Runi alone.
I don't know what to say but I feel like I have to say something. I turned to Runi as she also turned to me.
"You first." Runi said, looking up at me. Her eyes locked on mine could've put me in a trance.
I put my hands in my pockets, trying my best to avoid eye contact. "Why do I have to go first?"
Runi broke into a laugh. "You will never change huh."
My face became red. "What does that even mean!" I said as I went to cover my face.
Runi walked into the flower field and picked up an assortment of flowers, holding them in the air while smiling at me.
Right then and there, someone, somehow, became more beautiful than the flower fields themselves.
"Will these flowers work?" Runi yelled out. Her words broke my haze. "Yeah, they're beautiful." I said with a faint smile.
**
As we walked back to the cabin with the flowers Runi skipped in front of me. Jackson tapped my arm as we walked, terribly attempting to whisper.
"The way you look at Runi I would've thought you were a married couple." He joked.
I flicked Jacksons forehead, similar to how Ms. Valeria would flick mine. Runi suddenly stopped as she slowly turned around and leaned forward a bit.
"Technically we are but he just hasn't proposed yet." Runi then let out that devilish smile of hers as we continued to the cabin.
The whole walk there I was speechless. Runi tends to do that to me a lot, it's like she steals my words before I can get them out.
Upon getting closer to the cabin I picked up on a smell, but it wasn't the smell of sweet cake, it was an almost burnt smell.
"They didn't." I said walking up the porch stairs.
As I opened the door a heat wave smacked my face, I covered my nose looking in the direction of the kitchen.
There stood Marcel with flower all over his apron, and Dahlia even managed to get batter on her face.
We all stood in silence until Runi walked in. "How do you burn a cake!"
"Open the windows." Marcel said between coughs.
"What the hell happened here." I said waving the smoke out of my face, "We've only been gone for about 30 minutes."
Dahlia looked stressed. "The cake didn't burn, we didn't even get to put it in the oven. While preheating it Marcelforgot to make sure the oven was actually empty, I don't even think he put it on preheat in the first place."
Marcel quickly jumped in. "How was I supposed to know a whole meatloaf was in the oven, a whole freaking meatloaf!"
I shook my head. "That was gonna be our dinner for tonight idiots."
Runi chimed in. "So how did you both get batter over yourselves?"
Marcel looked to the ground slightly pouting. "Well, maybe I overreacted seeing something in the oven and… accidentally knocked the cake off the counter."
"No way." I said walking to the other side of the island. There it was, the pan face first on the floor.
Jackson couldn't hold in his laugh anymore as he almost fell to his knees crying.
"We still have around 4 hours before Ms. Valeria gets back, we have to fix this." I said grabbing an apron.
Runi placed the freshly picked flowers in a new vase and also joined us in the kitchen.
I asked confidently but at the same time a little hesitant. "Surely all four of us can't mess up, right?"