Welcome to Strangely

He lifts his elbow from the balustrade and traces the side of her face with the back of his fingers. “I knew your eyes were blue, a person cannot miss the sheer blueness of them, but at night they have a beautiful grey tint, which makes the way you look at things seem haunting. It is as if you can see right through me.”

Jenny glances down, unsure of what she should do next. She senses he is going to kiss her, but she is not sure whether she wants to be kissed by him or not.

After taking a breath, Jenny slowly lifts her eyes again, losing herself in his beautiful starry stare. He leans closer, pauses, then crashes his lips against hers.

As his firm lips touch hers, she feels his sharp intake of breath and then he kisses her. Really kisses her. She closes her eyes as she kisses him back. It’s as if the world around her melts away, and all Jenny can focus on is this kiss. Jason’s expert lips coax a passionate embrace from her as he slides his hand behind her neck and into her hair and gently pulls her to him.

She circles her arms around him, placing her palms on his broad shoulders, her knees going weak as the kiss undoes her from the inside out.

“Wow,” he breathes, as he pulls back a little.

This feels right, doesn't it? It feels natural. Almost like normal. Almost. She thinks.

“I wonder what the two of them are up to down there,” Jason says, looking over Jenny’s shoulder.

Jenny looks in the same direction. Squinting her eyes, trying to see if the broad-shouldered man with the blonde hair standing in the shadows below is indeed him.

She asks, “Is that Chris?”

“Yes, with Agatha,” he says.

“So, where’s Abby, then?”

In a panic, Jenny pulls away from Jason and pushes through the throng of people standing between her and the staircase. When she reaches the bottom of the staircase, she cannot remember how she came down one-hundred steps without falling, or tripping, or even knowing how she did it.

She runs across the green grass separating her from Agatha and Chris.

When she reaches them, Agatha twirls around to face her. “What are you doing here, Jenny?”

“Where’s Abby?”

“Go back to the party,” Chris demands.

“No. Not until you tell me where Abby is.”

When Jason finally reaches Jenny, he puts his hands on her shoulders. “Come, Jenny, let it be,” he says, out of breath from taking the stairs at least two at a time.

“We've got it under control,” Agatha says to Jason.

“No, you don't!” Jenny says loudly. “So how long have you known? About us, the prophecy.”

“We didn't, but we knew there was a possibility,” Chris says, unable to look Jenny in the eyes.

“That’s why Chris sent Abby the Book of Eudemon. We had to know if the four girls were you,” Agatha explains.

Jenny takes a step away from Agatha and Chris, her back meeting Jason’s warm, heaving chest as he stands behind her, shaking her head a little.

“Where’s Abby?” Jenny asks again, her words stronger and more determined than ever.

“Excuse us for a second,” Chris says as he pulls on Agatha’s arm to make her follow him.

Jenny looks on in disbelief as they calmly walk away and begin a hushed conversation, occasionally stealing glances her way.

“We could just kill them, you know, then the prophecy will reset itself,” Agatha whispers when they are a safe distance away.

“We need them, Agatha. We need them to defeat Gorgon, once and for all, and we need to do it before Gorgon finds them and convinces them to be on her side.”

“How do we do that? They have no control over their powers, and it is not as if we can wait for them to have control. Gorgon probably knows already.”

“At their full strength, battling them would be unpleasant and to our advantage.”

“And when Gorgon gets her hands on them first, she gets all their powers.”

Agitated, Jenny storms across the space separating her from Chris and Agatha, with Jason tagging along behind her.

“Tell me where Abby is, immediately,” she demands.

“Jenny, wait,” Jason pleads. He turns to face Chris. “Tell her the truth, she deserves to know.”

“You're right. We needed you to read the Book of Eudemon, to realise your powers but not for the reasons you think,” Agatha declares.

“We're not evil, Jenny. We are here to protect you,” Chris adds.

“To protect us from what?”

“From yourselves,” Agatha replies.

Chris says, “You have no idea... No idea of the evil out there.”

“Oh, I think we've got a good idea. A demon’s already been at our door, looking to take our powers.”

Agatha releases an exasperated sigh. “Listen to me, Jenny. Your powers are a magnet for evil. So long as you have it, so long as you use it, you're in danger.”

“We are here to protect you,” Jason says softly from behind her.

Jenny turns on her heel to face him. “You knew?!”

“I didn’t say anything to protect you, you have to believe me,” Jason explains.

Jenny did not know what to say or what to think. She was right. He was trying to gather information for Agatha. Then, a most unwelcome thought popped into her mind; did he just pretend to be interested in her so she would confide in him, tell him what is happening in the crooked house?

“All I want is what's best for you. Jenny, you believe me, don't you?” Jason begs.

“Jenny, you can't fight this,” Agatha says.

“We couldn’t before, but now we can,” Jenny says as she turns away from Jason to face Agatha.

“Are you sure?” Agatha mocks.

“We'll protect each other,” Jenny insists.

Agatha sneers. “Then you'll die together.”

Giving Jason a pointed look across her shoulder, Jenny says, “No one can hurt us as badly as you just hurt me.”

Up, in the gazebo, on the roof of the tower, Emily moves to stand by the balustrade. After being practically forced by Zara to come, she only wanted to stay at the party for a while. She would rather be back at home, brooding about this situation they now find themselves in. She is not feeling well, and she does not know if the queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach is fear or an awful bug she had picked up. Maybe it is just the flu?

However, every now and again, it feels as if the world is spinning around her. Surely, it is only her imagination but, whenever she is feeling bored and it feels as if time is moving too slow, it feels as if she can speed it up, or even, the opposite.

This morning when she was going to be late again for Meet and Greet, she stopped time.

She was the only one capable of moving through time at the right speed. Everyone around her was frozen in place. Zara stood in her room, making her bed. Her duvet was billowing in the air, but not moving. It was eerie, seeing Zara like that. Jenny was in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal. The spoon was mid-way up to her mouth, and a drop of milk hung suspended in the air between the spoon in her hand and the crooked table.

This is the reason she is so worried about the demons from The OtherWorld finding them. They all agreed not to use their powers so that they would not be like aerial towers sending out signals of their exact location, but Emily feels as if she has no control over any of it.

“What’s going on?” Zara asks, interrupting her thoughts. She looks down at the ground below and adds in a worried tone, “What’s Jenny doing down there with the Changeless?”

Emily looks down and sees Jenny immediately. “It looks as if they are arguing about something.”

Grabbing hold of Zara’s hand, Emily pulls her toward the staircase.

“Hey, Emily, leaving already? I thought we were going to... You know,” Kevin asks as they push past.

Ignoring him, Emily mumbles, “Not interested.”

When they have descended the first twenty steps, Emily says over her shoulder, “I know what my power is.”

“Really?” Zara’s asks unbelievingly. “I haven’t found out what mine is yet.” Another twenty steps later, Zara asks, “So are you going to tell me?”

“I’m afraid to say it out loud because once I say it, and I hear it, I might never be able to stop or change it.”

“It’s already too late, Emily. What’s done is done. We’re Eudemon. The only thing we can do now is to live with it. Live up to the prophecy. We are awesome and different, and special, and don’t let the thoughts in your head convince you of anything else.”

Another twenty steps later, Zara asks, “So? What is it?”

“I can control time.”