"Sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired."

~ Twitter / / @LifeInWords

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Lewis P.O.V

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    "Asa, get Cassie off the monkey bars!"
    "Calm down, Lewis," Jo chides, placing her hand on my arm. "He's not going to hurt himself."
    "Yes, he is," I insist. "Alice will decapitate me if he gets hurt or anything and- oH MY FREAKING GOD, CASSIE STOP HANGING UPSIDE DOWN!"

    Jo pulls me back down onto the bench. "Stop it, Lewis!" she whisper-shouts, attempting scold me with a straight face. "People are starting to stare."
    "Jo, I swear to God, Alice will cut my limbs off if Cassie falls and hurts himself, and I don't know about you but I like my muscular arms and legs to remain attached to me."

    "Sure. So strong," she scoffs, poking me in the biceps. "Much muscles."
    "You seriously need to stop spending so much time on the watching Dan and Phil, it's destorying your soul," I say.
    "I can't help it, their videos are too addictive," she replies.
    I roll my eyes. "I still don't understand how you managed to get an A for English."

    "That was one time and to be honest, I don't even know how that happened."
    I chuckle. "Yeah, the teacher must've been rushing to mark it that's why the overall results are so high."
    "Hey!" she exclaims, poking me in the side. "My grammar isn't that bad."
    "Says the girl who just said, "much muscles"."

    "I was making a point."
    "And what poing would that be?" I ask.
    "Well, I- oh shut up," she scolds. "And stop smirking at me!"
    "I'm not smirking," I reply, covering my mouth with my hands.
    "You are too!"
    "Now people are definitely staring at us," I say.
    "Let them," she replies, not caring anymore. "We're a weird-ass couple in a playground, what do you expect?"

    I raise my eyebrows. "We're a weird-ass couple?"
    "Okay, fine. You're the weird ass one in this relationship," she amends.
    I pout at her. "Rude."
    "Get over it," she replies, sticking her tongue out at me.
    "Oh, real mature."
    "Neither one of us are mature," she laughs. "That's why we can never have kids."

    "But we can still babysit them, right?"
    "Probably not-" She stops halfway, looking over my shoulder. "Um, Lewis, is Cassie supposed to be going down the slide that way?"
    I turn around. "What do you mea- SWEET JESUS, CASSIE WHAT'S WITH YOU AND DOING THINGS BACKWARDS?!"
    I quickly get to my feet to stop him but Isaac manages to get him to come down safely before I reach them.

    Jo laughs at the terrified expression on my face. "We would make awful parents."
    "Yeah, forget babysitting. The two of us are practically children."
    She scoffs. "Speak for yourself."
    I shake my head. "I can't believe you're the older one."
    "Just by a few months."
    "I guess those extra months in the womb weren't used to help develop your brain."

    She gives me a deadpanned look, causing me to nervously scratch the back of my neck.
    "I'm kidding. Obviously."
    Jo narrows her eyes at me. "You'd better be."
    "Yes. I'm totally kidding."
    "I swear, I don't know why I agreed to be your girlfriend," she says. "Neither one of us are good with kids or people."

    "Yeah, but why be with someone else when you can be with someone as amazing at me?" I ask, gesturing towards myself.
    Jo laughs, shaking her head at me. "My level of high self esteem is definitely rubbing off you."
    "And my quirkiness and lack of social interaction is rubbing off you," I add, grinning at her.

    She sticks her tongue out at me and I can only stare at her with adoration thinking to myself that I'm so lucky to have found someone like her to have in my life. The sight of her trying (and failing miserably) to hide her smile from me fills me with an emotion I can't describe with any word other than love and I know that I can never be happy with anyone other than my wonderful, and beautiful Joyce.

    "Nice to know that we both adopted each other's worst traits," she finally manages to say in-between laughs.
    "Well, I wouldn't really consider being anti-social a bad trait," I reply. "I mean, that's the reason Will brought me to the gym that day we first met. He wanted me to have some human interaction every now and then and it just so happened that was had to go to work on that day."

    "Well, in that case, I'm glad you're an anti-social loser because I probably wouldn't have approached you that day if you weren't hiding in that corner using your phone while Will was teaching the kids how to aim properly," she says, bumping my shoulder with her shoulder.
    "So you're saying that if I was an outgoing, manly guy you wouldn't have wanted to talk to me?"

    "Basically."
    "Well then, we should both be thankful that I'm a lazy, emo-looking kid with a wide range of music tastes," I say.
    "Yes, but you're my version of a prince charming so I wouldn't worry."
    I glance down at my phone, feeling it vibrate. I fish it out from my pocket, turning it on to read the notification.
    A message from Ray.

    "Alice will be joining us for the Harvest Festival tonight," I read aloud. "That's good. She's been cooped up in that house for far too long, she could use some fresh air."
    "Speaking of which, I'm kind of worried about her," Jo tells me.
    "I know what you mean," I say. "Will and I had to persuade her to eat something yesterday because she kept skipping her meals."

    "She had me buy her sleeping pills this morning because she's been having trouble sleeping."
    "Yeah." I bite my lip. "I've noticed. She pretends to go to sleep but then leaves the room once she thinks that Will and I have fallen asleep."
    "Do you think it's because of everything that's happened?"

    I shake my head. "No. It's not because of that. It's just that she's been acting really jumpy around Will and I recently."
    "It could be because you two remind her of what her life was like before her memories were stolen from her," Jo suggests.
   
    "That's what I thought, but Will thinks it might be because of all the traumatic memories she had to relive again. It was so harrowing, what she went through before our memories were erased. Will and I think that she must've remembered something about what happened in Camelot but the problem is that we can't for the life of us figure out what that might be."

    I sigh, clenching and unclenching my fists. "I just wish she wouldn't feel the need to hide things for us. Things would be so much easier if we knew what was going on inside her head right now. I'm not to sure if I still want to question her about to tonight 'cause she's just in too much shock and I'm afraid that she'll just stop talking all together."

    "Maybe she's just scared of what she saw? Or maybe she's protecting someone?" Jo suggests.
    "Who could she possibly want to protect?"
    Jo gives me look. "I don't know, who could she care about so much that she would risk her sanity to protect?"
    Her family.
    My eyes widen. "No. Not him."

    "I don't know," she replies honestly. "But what I do know is that no-one was with Ares and Will when they fought so anything could've happened during that time."
    "You don't really think that our Will could've hurt someone, do you?" I ask. "Our Will who would never hurt a fly and who sometimes apologises to inanimate objects when he bumps into them?"

    "No one was with him when Cassie was taken," she states, matter-of-factly. "Yes, I'm finding this theory hard to accept but the fact of the matter is that he was alone when all those incidents occurred and I can't help but think of that thing Alice always says. You know, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times-"
    "-Is a pattern," I finish.

    "Yeah." I nod. "I'm well aware of that saying. But I can't accept that possibility."
    "We should probably call Tia to check up on her," Jo suggests.
    "Yeah. I'll call her now," I say, quickly type in the passcode before clicking on Tia's number.
    I knew it was a good idea to have her number on speed dail.

    She answers on the third ring. "Hey, Tia, is Alice-"
    "-I. WANT. DEATH!"
    I flinch at the sharpness of her pitch, causing Jo to shoot me a concerned look.
    I nod. I'm fine.
    I place the phone back to my ear. "Um, is this a bad time?"
    "-huh?"
    "Is this a bad time?" I ask, mentally preparing myself for another scream.

    "What?" She sounds puzzled. "Oh. You meant the screaming. That's not-"
    "-you had one thing to remember!"
    I frown. "Who is that? Who's with you?"
    "No one," she replies. The yelling suddenly stops, almost as if someone had thrown a blacket over the person to muffle their screaming.
    My grip on my phone tightens when she doesn't say anything for awhile. "Tia are the two of you alright?"

    "Don't mind that," she finally says. The sound of a door closing follows after her response. "It's just Alice listening to Dan and Phil while reading the books on memory loss she found in Belle's library."
    "What was all that yelling about?"
"Dan and Phil lost the game," she replies as if that statement was supposed to explain everything. "Just background noise that "mirrors her inner torment", or at least that's what she told me earlier."

    I mentally facepalm. This is what I get for being friends with someone that's part of the Phandom.
    "That's her background noise? How does she even get anything done?"
    "I don't know, you tell me," she says. "I've only just gotten acquainted with Alice whereas the rest of you have known her for ages."
    "How is she?"

    "She hasn't eaten yet, and she won't leave her room. Ray and I tried to get her to eat something but she keeps insisting that she isn't hungry-" Tia sighs and I can almost feel how exhausted she is through that action. "-I'm sorry, Lewis. I really am."
    I shake my head, then remember that she can't see me before saying, "It's not your fault. We're coming over soon so you guys had better get ready to leave for the festival."

    "Mmm. I'll tell the others."
    I nod, forgetting that she still can't see me. "Okay, see you later."
    "See you later," she chimes. "We'll be waiting for you at the driveway."
    "What happen?" Jo asks as I hang up the phone. "Are they alright?"
    "Yeah-" I sigh, raking my hand through my hair in frustration. "No. No, it's not alright. Nothing's alright."

    "What happened?"
    "Alice is back to not eating again and she hasn't left her room since she retired last night." I clench my fists, looking down at the ground. "This is all my fault. If only I hadn't suggested that we take Alice here none of this would have happened."
    "It's not your fault." Jo places her hands over mine. "You were just trying to help. And no one could've predicted that this would happen."

    "I know. I know, it's just-" I pause as the gears in my mind begin to turn. "-Wait. What did you just say?"
    "It's not your fault?" Jo repeats, looking confused.
    "No. No, after that," I say gesturing with my hands. "You said that no one-"
    "-could've predicted that all of this would happen? Well, yeah, of course no one could've predicted it. It's not like anyone could've seen the future or anything-"

    "But there is someone who could've predicted it," I say. "And it's someone we know."
    "Who?"
    "Who always has nightmares about things before they happen?" I ask. "Who is never surprised by events even when they aren't aware of it being planned beforehand? Who always knows when a storm, and I mean this metaphorically, is coming?"

    "Alice?" Jo furrows her eyebrows. "But I've always thought that it was just a lucky guess or that someone told her about it."
    "So did I, but you haven't heard the entire story. There's just one thing I've left out when I told you about our past lives," I say. "Something that for some reason not even Alice can remember."
    "What?" Jo shoots me a worried look. "What is it?"

    "Alice dreamt about her being taken by a mysterious shadowy figure before Peter Pan took her to Neverland. She told me about it before but I'd never really given it much thought now that I think about it."
    Jo shakes her head, looking more confused by the second.  "What does that have to do with anything?"
    "It means Alice must've had another dream again," I say.

    "How can you be sure?" she asks. "Alice could just be traumatized by everything that's happened in your previous lives, and I highly doubt that these past few weeks -which I know what you're thinking, but it is not your fault- have helped her heal given everything that's happened."

    "It has to be. I mean, sure, this trip just worsed her condition but she's not broken right now, she's on edge," I state. "What else could've gotten her so spooked?"
    "Maybe she remembered something?" Jo suggests. "That's always possible, right?"
    "No." I shake my head. "I don't think so. If it was the rest of us should've started regaining our memories too."

    "But Alice isn't like the rest of us, right? You said something about her being part..." She trails off. "What was it that you said she was again? Banshee?"
    "Seer," I correct. "That must be it. After all, there's no other explanation for why she knows the things she knows."
    "Are you still going to talk Alice about this?"

    "Yes." I nod. "And I'm betting I know what she saw in her vision."

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This chapter has to be the most boring/shittest/uneventful one I've ever written and this time I don't have the excuse of it being a filter chapter 😅  *sigh*  I really want you guys to know how much I appreciate you all, especially since I've been having such a lack of motivation for this book recently and I feel bad bc I always end my chapters with a cliffhanger and I literally take forever to update them so thank you 💚

I hope you all are doing well and that school and 2017 has been good to you so far 💕 I'm here if you guys ever need anything and my DM is still open for any reading requests so feel free to send me a request. That's all for this A/N, bye guys :)

~ Alice xx

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