Hestia opened her eyes and looked around. "Hi everyone… did Kaine get his dad? Is it all over?" She said very weakly.
Skrina smiled. "Yes, Kaine got him. Yeah, it's all over."
"Good." Hestia yawned. "Jordan… why do you think it's your fault? It isn't. Okay? I'm the one that followed you." She closed her eyes falling asleep again. Then she opened them back up trying to fight the drowsiness of the painkillers. "I was worried about you, so I followed you. I knew I shouldn't have. But I did anyway. It's not your fault." She closed her eyes loosing the battle and fell back asleep.
She followed me? Why did she do that? I guess I have been worrying everyone by not telling them things.
Kaine and his mother were walking down the hall. He saw Gregg, Georgia , and Livia sitting outside the room, quietly talking among themselves. He wondered why they were there, and why they were outside.
"Hey Gregg, Georgia , Livia, what are you guys doing here?" Kaine said.
"Hey dude," Gregg said. "We gave Jordan a ride here, and Jordan's friends are here and she said she needed to talk to them about something. So we go kicked out." He smiled.
"Oh, okay. So how's Hestia?"
"Hestia's doing good." Georgia said. "She's been knocked out ever since she's been here from the painkillers they gave her."
"Good. I'm glad I got there when I did." Kaine said. "Mom, you can stay out here if you want. I'm gonna go in."
"Okay." Angela sat down next to Gregg wiping sweat from her forehead.
Kaine walked in and everyone stopped talking at looked at him. He looked at everyone weirdly. "What?"
"Well, you have to tell us what happened!" Demeter said jumping to the point.
Kaine sat on the bottom corner of Hestia's bed. "Okay, I'm sure Jordan told you about our fight, so let's skip that. I was going home because I thought Jordan's story well, Tallulah's story was totally bogus, and when I walked in the house I heard someone screaming downstairs. Well, Tallulah was right and my dad was in a crazy cult, he had Hestia tied to some sort of marble table with wire. " Kaine clenched his fists. "Of all the things, wire, it was slicing her wrists and ankles apart! So I went over and got her untied and then I my father confronted me. He knocked over a candle, and that's what toasted my house."
"That's everything?" Demeter asked.
"Yeah, that's everything I know. What's with the third degree Demeter?" Kaine looked at her and narrowed his eyes.
"Well, duh, my sister almost died." She said angrily back.
Two days had gone by since then; Hestia was scheduled to be out of the hospital in two more days. She would have been out already, but her wrist cuts got infected badly. She had Cynthia cut her hair, unfortunately she had to cut most of it off, leaving her with a pixie looking haircut, but it looked good on her. Gregg, Jim, Georgia, and Livia had begun to hang out with Jordan and Kaine a lot. Gregg, Georgia , and Livia would often go in and visit Hestia. Hestia liked them a lot. She could sense lots of good things from them. Jim would only go along if he knew Jordan would be there.
"You know, we're gonna have to share our secret with them Jordan." Hestia said turning her nose up to the hospital food.
Jordan looked to the four in the room and sheepishly smiled. "Livia already knows."
Livia looked to Gregg, Jim, and Georgia and shyly looked away from their fake angry looks.
"Okay, what's your big secret? Let me guess, you're a witch." Gregg said.
Jordan looked to Hestia, and those two looked to Livia. "You told him didn't you!" Jordan said.
"No, I didn't, anyway, he knows for sure now."
Gregg just laughed. He lifted his hat so you could just see from his chin to his nose, more than Hestia and Jordan have ever seen of him. "No, no, no. Livie didn't say a word. I mean come on. I'm not as dumb as I look."
"Coulda fooled me…" Jim said under his breath, but of course he said it loud enough for Gregg to hear.
Georgia looked over at Jordan and Hestia oddly. "Why did you tell Livia anyway?" Then she looked over to Livia, who wasn't looking at anyone at the moment.
"Livia… Um, maybe you should explain this one…" Jordan said.
"Um, I'm sure Gregg already knows since he's the 'All Knowing Gregg', but I'm a witch…
" Livia said in a quiet voice, hoping she was too quiet for them to hear, but they did.
"I already knew it." Gregg said. "I am the 'All Knowing Gregg'." He smiled and laughed a little to himself.
Georgia and Jim just shook their heads. "Oh, great, now we've given him an ego again…" Jim said rolling his eyes.
They all laughed, even Gregg. Jordan then sat down in the chair next to Hestia's bed. She sighed.
"Okay, I'm gonna tell you guys a long story, and it'll explain what really happened at Kaine's old house, and why things are the way they are around here, and this way you guys'll be less confused." Jordan sighed. "But you can't tell any body. Too many people are involved now anyway."
"I don't think we'd tell anyone, after what happened to us." Gregg said.
Jordan had everyone in the room's attention. Even Hestia, even if she had heard the story about a million times, the more it was told, the better it got, even if it was the same. Jordan explained to them about her history, the oracle and everything that happened to her when she discovered her family had been the head of the coven that she so admired. Livia just soaked it up, she was so happy to have some friends that were witches around her. That pure magickal essence that seems to float about them. Georgia and Jim couldn't believe their ears, it was exciting to them, but was this such a good thing right now? They knew Jordan and her coven were good but will it draw in people around them that are bad like Stanley? Will they go through the hell they did in Florida again? Gregg was just like "cool". The way he was acting she knew that Gregg was up to something, or wasn't letting on to everyone that he was magickal too. Then it got her to thinking… why does he wear those hats all the time? He wears the same kinda hat, though a different kind of style everyday, and he never ever shows his face…
"Hestia dear, I can't see you suffer like this anymore." Gregg said looking at her pick at the hospital food. "I'll be back."
Hestia looked over at Gregg "I'm suffering?" She raised an eyebrow and looked at him.
"Yeah, you're eating that damn hospital food. You're suffering!" He smiled. "I'll be back with some real food for all of us." He said as he left.
"But how is he gonna know what we want?" Jordan said looking at Georgia , Jim, and Livia.
"Oh, he just knows. He's weird like that. It's almost magickal…" Jim said laughing a little to what he had just said because he had always said that about Gregg, but it was different in the presence of a witch.
"Is he a witch or something, and he's just not saying anything?" Hestia asked.
They just shrugged. "We're convinced he is psychic and psycho, but that's about it for Gregg. I couldn't see him doing spells and the things you said Jordan." Georgia said laughing.
Less than twenty minutes later Gregg came in with about two big bags of fast food. As Jim said he got everything that everyone liked. It wasn't surprising for Jim, Georgia , and Livia because they were best friends but Jordan and Hestia just stared at him.
"What? You look like you've seen a ghost." Gregg said letting his smile appear from underneath his hat.
"You know, I wish I had a dollar for every time someone's said that to me…" Hestia giggled. "But you knew our favourites… how did you know?"
Gregg looked over and Jim and kind of let out a little impish laugh. Then he looked over at the girls. "I don't know, I just can see into people you know, and I know little things about them. I've been doing it ever since I was a little kid, and I know, I know, you're thinking it's some sort of magick, but I've never thought of it as magick. Just something that's always been there."
Jordan smiled and gave Gregg a sly look. "So, why do you hide your face from the world?"
The four laughed. "I don't… I just feel naked without my hat. I mean if you were to strip me down of all my clothes and I still had my hat on, I'd be fine."
Hestia giggled. "Has anyone seen your face? Or were you born with that hat on?"
Gregg shook his head. "Well, before I moved to Florida the aliens dropped me down…" Gregg laughed. "I lived in Arizona and well, it was a whole different life back then, and I guess I just wanted to hide and change when I moved to Florida, and that's the way I've been ever since."
Skrina was tending to the garden out back planting Hestia's favourite flowers, Tiger lilies even though they won't blossom until the summer she thought she would have a nice surprise for Hestia this summer.
Aimery came out and quietly walked behind Skrina. When she put down her gardening tools and began watering the little bulbs, plants, and other flowers. Aimery had a sly look on his face, he went closer to her, not making a sound.
"Boo!" He yelled out.
She dropped the watering can and jumped. With anger on her face she turned around and looked at Aimery. "That wasn't funny Aimery. Not funny at all." She crossed her arms and tried to look even angrier, even though she wanted to laugh about it.
"Sorry Skrina, I just couldn't help it. You know how I am… now what can I do to help you, or you can get me back with something." He smiled and looked at the hose then to her.
She laughed. "I don't think so. You're not getting out that easy. I'll get you back, but when you least expect it!" Her angry face turned into a shifty smile as she picked up the watering can and filled it again with water, then continued watering her plants.
Aimery pouted, he wanted to get squirted with the hose, and it's no fun when you have to do it yourself. So he went off in search of Demeter, maybe he could get her to do it. Skrina shook her head. He was so weird; Demeter and Aimery were a perfect couple. They're both really weird. Thinking of what she just thought she gave a little quiet giggle to the world.
After she was done planting and watering those plants she went on the other side of the garden and started planting dianthes and impatiens, along with a small rose bush she had gotten a while back. She heard a little rustling behind her, then they morphed into what sounded like footsteps. It has to be Aimery again she shook her head. Well, if he wants to be squirted with the hose that badly… She turned around quick with the hose on and aimed for where the person was behind her. She gave the area behind her a weird look. No one was there. She swore she heard footsteps. She just shrugged it off that she was just hearing things and that there was nothing really there. Then the sound came back again. Before anyone behind her could make a dash for a hiding place she turned around quick. No one was there again.
"Okay Aimery, Faeries you can knock it off now, it's not all that funny. You know I have work to do, I don't have time to play."
Then she heard the noise again behind her. She felt hot breath on the back of her neck. Whoever it was now couldn't escape her vision. She quickly turned around and no one was there. She didn't like this essence, it had a bad feeling about it.
"Go away!" She said looking all around her as if it was hiding behind the bushes. Then she felt the same hot breath on her face. The thing was right in front of her, but she couldn't see it. What the hell was going on here?
"Skrina…" A male voice spoke harshly.
"Who are you? Why are you hiding from me?" She said angrily
"I'm coming for you…" the voice was obviously male and she didn't recognize it at all.
"Who are you? Why are you coming for me?!" She said with more anger than fear. But she was feeling a mixture of the two.
"I'm coming for you when the moon is full, and you can't stop me." The voice laughed. "I'm gonna kill you all. There will be no more coven. And with no more coven…" It paused.
She looked angrily at the air, all around her trying to scan the area for the invisible person as if doing this would bring him into sight. "Yes? Are you gonna finish trying to scare me? You must really be scared of me cos you won't come into sight!"
The voice laughed. "If I could come into sight I'd kill you right now. But I can't thanks to you stupid witches. As I was saying, if there is no coven, the Great Good will never know it's cause and the Equal Evil can take everything it wishes!"
As the voice faded in to scare Skrina it faded away. Skrina felt that it was gone, she knew she had to warn her sisters and Jordan. She dropped everything she was doing and ran to the house.
Cynthia who was there looked at her queerly. "What's the matter with you?"
Skrina sat down on the floor catching her breath, and in between she spoke out cluttered information that the voice had given to her. She calmed down and then let out everything clearly. But she didn't know who the voice was.
"Could it be Stanley?" Aimery suggested coming into the room with Demeter. He must have heard everything she had said.
"That's what I was thinking." The two girls both said in synchronicity. They kind of smiled and looked at each other. But the smile faded and looked back to Aimery.
"So the full moon eh? And he said he was gonna kill us all? You know that sorta sounds like Jordan's dreams. Ya know?" Aimery said stroking his chin trying to figure this all out.
"Yeah, it does. Man Jordan's not gonna wanna hear this."
"But this is sorta a good thing." Aimery said.
"A good thing?!" Demeter said stunned and a little angry.
"Yeah. This means we are getting closer to finding that Great Good. And whoever this voice may be, is scared that we are gonna get to it and kick that Evil's ass."
"Aimery you're right." Cynthia said. "We thought we had already gotten rid of the Equal Evil, but I guess not..."
"But I think that's what it wants. For us to be afraid of it." Aimery suggested. "I know I'm not gonna be afraid of some stupid voice that couldn't even show it self to you."
"Come on, let's go get the others and call Jordan. We've gotta tell them what's going on." Cynthia said getting her coat.
Demeter went over to the phone and called the hospital. Once she got the extension for the room Hestia was in she got to talk to Hestia first. She told Hestia what her twin had gone through.
Hestia's eyes widened. "You're kidding right?!"
Jordan looked over quick as she could. Georgia, Jim, Gregg and Livia did, even if they didn't know what was going on.
"Um, here, talk to Jordan Demeter…" Hestia looked at Jordan. "Demeter's got something to tell you. Some news."