Versus

“Girl, I couldn’t wait for you to ask.” She had such excitement in her voice. She explained that they were Galens. “Half Galens, to be exact.” But they called themselves Galens just the same. It was counterintuitive to actually state the obvious. Those with “their gifts” were from a Galen and human. All of them could stop evil once their gifts came to them. She kept it vague so that Emma could absorb the information as she needed to. Slowly or quickly, that was up to her.

“Are there a lot of us?”

“Not enough,” Aala said as she looked slightly upset with her own response.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if we can stop evil, Emma, someone’s causing it.”

“Oh, I guess so.” Emma suddenly felt like a cruel reality was making sense far too quickly.

“What are they? Are they called something different?”

She was nodding as she answered, “DM’s. Oh, sorry, Diablanoms are what they are called but we just call them DMs.”

“Oh.” She had a puzzled look on her face.

“So, the DM’s cause or do evil things?”

“Yes.”

“And we try to stop it.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s why there aren’t enough of us.” She made the statement lower, more to herself than for affirmation.

“Yes,” Aala confirmed.

Emma had so many more questions, but her fear outweighed them all.

“Aala.” She looked frightened.

“It’s ok.”

“I’m not sure it is.”

“It’s about your father?”

“Yes.” A tear fell down her cheek.

“You think he’s a DM?”

She gasped. Her eyes locked on Aala’s. Her worst fear, from all of this, since the second the whispers began when she awoke from the accident, was being spoken out loud for the first time. She was terrified of what that could mean.

“He was cruel, Aala.”

She slid towards her friend and held her. Emma began crying years of pain onto the shoulder of her newly formed sister. Aala whispered, “We’ll figure this out together. You aren’t alone anymore!” Her hug grew more tightly.

The entire weekend, Emma remained in her room. Mostly in her bed as instructed. Her friends brought her food and news from the outside world, “aka” the rest of the castle.

Other students saw the commotion over the weekend and news traveled fast. Of course, the girls were the most exciting news because they were the only ones that clearly knew anything, and their tight-lipped behavior made everyone more curious by the day.

Emma was sitting against a pile of pillows on her bed when Aala walked into the open door.

“Food!” Emma cheered. “Was it any better?”

“It will pass.” Aala rolled her eyes to indicate that the intrusive invasion continued when she entered the dining hall tonight to pick up Emma’s food. Question after question from countless people. She didn’t mind some, but most didn’t even know Emma and it just felt inconsiderate and nosey.

“I sure hope so,” Emma replied.

Aala sat the food tray on Emma’s desk as Emma slid off the top bunk.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Emma sat and began eating. When she picked up a napkin from the pile, a post-it note fell to the floor.

“Oh. Here.”

Aala grabbed it from Emma’s outstretched hand and turned it over as she told her, “It’s not mine.”

Aala paused while reading it. A puzzled expression across her face.

“Hum?” Her eyes looked off to the left then back to Emma. A sly smile now formed on her matted lips.

“What?”

Aala handed it back to Emma.

“Emma, can we talk? I’ll be in the common hall. Axel.”

“So, who’s Axel?”

“A guy I met for like a second.”

“That must’ve been a great second.” Aala giggled.

“He’s a bit strange. I have no idea why he’d want to talk. He’s probably nosey like everyone else.

“Is he cute?”

“Uh, yeah but…” Emma rolled her eyes, “did you hear the ‘bit strange’ part? I had a run-in with him in Eir then at the game a while back. He’s kind of wishy-washy on politeness. I didn’t get a great first impression so I’m intentionally steering clear of him.”

“He can’t be all that bad. I mean, he IS here.” She shrugged her shoulders to Emma.

Emma gave the evil eye to her friend.

“Can I go see what he wants and get a look at him?”

“No!”

“Why not?” She teased while running into the hall.

“Aala!” She screamed after her.

She poked her head back around the corner into the room after hiding behind the wall, only pretending to leave. “He just doesn’t seem authentic. I don’t want to bother with people like that. I am putting all my energy into people whose names begin with Aala, Abby, and Kelly. You three aren’t trouble and that’s what I need. Just too much going on right now.”

Aala knew that Emma had a lot to digest. So many unknowns and she really agreed but the more her curiosity toyed with her reasoning she concluded the same plan.

“Well, if he’s nosey, that won’t go away. Just let me take that look at him and I’ll tell him that you’re busy and take a message. If he’s weird about it, then….I’ll tell him off properly and problem solved.”

“I don’t want you mean to him. He wasn’t a jerk, just came across odd.”

“I won’t be mean, just very specific that you have a closed group of friends.”

“Now that sounds snobby.”

“I’ll be nice…I promise.” She held her hands together, clutched at her chin like a three-year-old begging for a toy.

“Fine…hurry back. I mean it.”

“Yay!” She squealed while running out of the door room.