Alice POV

I woke up, feeling uneasy. I had yet to open my eyes, yet to look around and to fully get the sleepiness out of my system, but I knew there was something I craved; something that had to do with the previous night. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but I was sure it was the root stock of my anxiety.

I willed my eyes open, pushing my somnolence away. My gaze fell on the sleeping form of the boy beside me and memories of last night gushed into my head. I remembered him waking me up when he came over uninvited; I remembered his stiff posture and later the fire in his two bluish-grey orbs; I remembered being confused, being scared… And then I remembered that against all rationality, I forgave him.

The questions from yesterday whirled in my head.

How come Morgan told Caden about Keegan and me?

Why had Cade acted the way he had?

And why, oh, why, was I ready to simply put everything behind us as long as he had an explanation for it?

The boy stirred next to me, slowly opening his sleep-filled eyes.

"Time to get some answers… I hope!"

“So…” I started as soon as Cade looked completely woken up. “What was that all about?”

“What do you mean?”

What did I mean?! Oh, he knew damn well what I meant!

“Let see… What did I mean?” I pretended to think about it. “Oh! I know: you coming through my window in the middle of the night demanding to know if I’ve been screwing around lately.”

“So what about that?” He asked evenly and my mouth fell open.

Was he serious?!

“You mean to tell me you see nothing weird in that?” I questioned incredulous.

He didn’t respond.

“Caden… I’m starting to get irritated here. Tell me what’s been going on!”

He still kept silent.

“Damn it, Caden, answer my question!” I snarled and pinched his arm.

“Ouch!” He rubbed the spot. “What was that for you crazy chick?”

Oh. My. God! Did he seriously just say that? He acted like a loony and then had the bloody nerve to call me crazy?

I jumped off the bed looking around for something to hit Caden with. I grabbed the nearest thing (which turned out to be a sock) and began to beat him with it.

“Stop. Playing. Dumb. And. Just. Answer.” I hit the boy at every word I said. “My. Fucking. Questions!”

I was furious. He came in the middle of the night, he acted like a madman and now he thought he could get away with it? He thought he could just pretend it hadn’t happen?

I didn’t think so!

He was about to experience my wrath first hand. But to my utter surprise, instead of apologizing, Caden burst out laughing at my actions thus fuelling my rage even further.

“What the hell is so funny?” I shouted, giving him a few more hits with my improvised weapon. “Are you masochistic or something? You are supposed to be in pain! Fear me, you idiot!”

He just kept on laughing, curled into a ball on my bed, with his hands wrapped around his own stomach.

“I’ve… I…” He was obviously out of breath but managed to eventually choke out, “I’ve never been beaten up with a sock before.”

I stopped hitting him and just froze, analyzing the situation I had put myself into. There I stood, in my nightwear, hitting a guy with one of my socks. And I expected him to take me seriously. Hmm… Perhaps not the wisest of my decisions.

“Okay… maybe the sock wasn’t my best choice…” I admitted, climbing into the bed next to him still holding on to my anklet. “In my defense: you pissed me off and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“I hope at least it was a clean sock!”

“Of course it was a clean sock!” I quickly defended myself, offended by his remark. “Do I look like the type of person who’ll keep dirty socks lying about in their room?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged with a hint of a teasing smirk playing on the corner of his lips. “Maybe.”

“Maybe? Caden, you better mean that as a joke!” I narrowed my eyes at him and lifted the sock up in a threatening manner.

“Or what? You’re gonna sock me again?” The boy snickered and I tried to hide my own smile and look angry with him.

I opened my mouth to respond and started telling him I could always put something heavy in the sock and then smack him with it, but I was rudely interrupted by the sound of a cloth being torn. We both moved to the edge of the bed and looked at the floor in search of the source.

“Cheshire Blueberry Green! Don’t you use your claws on Caden’s shirt!” I shot out of bed and went to the kitten that was now sitting over the ruined top, looking up innocently at me as if to say “But it wasn’t me; it just tore on it’s own.”

“Blueberry?” Cade got up as well.

“What? They are…”

“… your favorite berries. I remember.” He subtly nodded while I wondered when exactly had I told him that.

I reached down, picking up the kitten with one hand and the shirt with the other. It turned out to be one of Chess’s finest claw-works as it looked beyond repair.

“Sorry about this!” I smiled sheepishly at Caden. “I’ll buy you a new one.”

“Never mind!” He took the remains of his clothing from my hand and threw them on the bed. “As for you…” He locked his stern gaze on the cat and I snuggled the kitten closer to me. This boy sure could look intimidating even when he was just fooling around. “You’re not going to do that again! Understand?”

I gaped at Chess as he meowed and looked down as if he was admitting his guilt.

So now he was apologizing? That little cheek! When I was the one to reprimand him, he barely paid any attention to me, but now that Caden caught him red-handed (or red-pawed) he actually repented?

"Wow, there, Alice! What are you saying? Chess is smart but he is an animal; stop acing like he’s human!"

“Good!” Caden nodded satisfied with the reaction he got and reached out to pet the kitten that I was still holding.

The moment he touched the pet, the little fur ball perked up and started purring. Cade kept on stroking Chess, lightly brushing my arm as well with the gentle movement of his fingers.

I gulped. What was this boy doing to me? The feeling I got by that barely-there touch was making my breathing break its natural rhythm.

Suddenly, the scene from a week ago at the pub flashed through my mind and my cheeks felt as if they’d caught fire when I remembered the two of us making out. Caden didn’t notice though because he was staring at nothing in particular with a thoughtful expression on his face. Which, of course, only got me curious as to what was on the boy’s mind. I was about to offer him a penny for his thoughts, when he opened his mouth to speak:

“Do you have any plans for Monday?” He asked still not looking at me.

“Well, no, not really. Why?”

He turned to me and hesitated before answering:

“I… I was wondering if you’d like to come with me somewhere.”

“Where to?” I questioned, trying to hide just how eager I was to know.

He licked his lips nervously and took a deep breath.

“To my mom’s.”

I stared at him in shock. Had I heard him right? Had he actually suggested that we go to visit Rachel?

“Are you sure you want me to come?”

He nodded in response.

“But I’ll understand if you think it will make you feel uncomfortable and answer me with a no.”

“No!” I exclaimed hastily.

“Oh…” He looked deflated and gazed away from me. “Well, that’s… It’s okay…”

“Wait!” I tried to explain; he had obviously misunderstood me. “I meant “no” as in “I don’t mind”, not as in “I don’t want to”.”

“So you’re coming?”

“Yeah… I am!”

*****

I sat on the chair in front of my desk, gazing through the window, annoyed with my own stupidity.

He had done it again. And what bugged me even more, in my absentmindedness I had let him do it again.

Caden had left shortly after asking me to accompany him to his mother’s. We made some small talk, laughed at Chess as he tried to jump from the floor to the top of my desk and failed miserably at that task, resulting in falling on his ass, and after that the boy left.

Without giving explanations about last night.

Had he done it on purpose or was it simply a turn of events?

God! How could I get so distracted?

Yes, the realization that Caden actually wanted me to meet Rachel was a bit overwhelming, but I still couldn’t believe it was enough to preoccupy my mind to such an extend as to forget my self-appointed mission.

I sighed in aggravation and gave myself a mental slap for missing what was probably the only opportunity I had to get my answers. I was sure that even if I brought up the subject again, he’d only give me vague, unsatisfying half-explanations.

A soft knock came from behind me joined by Aunt Flora’s voice.

“Alice? May I come in, dear?”

After I gave a positive replay, the door opened to reveal the youngest of my aunts. She was wearing a green dress that reached below her knees and a light brown vest, which I knew she had knitted herself. Her auburn hair was up in a bun and I had to admit that she looked beautiful. Come to think of it, she had been paying more attention to her looks lately…

“Remember when you wanted to know more about Linnea Green?” She queried and I nodded. “Well… Now you will. Follow me!”

I got off the chair and trailed behind her with curiosity overtaking me. We went to the attic and she pulled a wooden trunk from under an old bed we kept there. It looked to be decades old, with the hinges starting to corrode and the dust embedded deeply in the wood.

“Here…” She said, unlocking the trunk, “… is where we keep Linnea’s diary as well as a few other family heirlooms.”

“Linnea had a diary?” I asked surprised. “I never knew that.”

“Of course she had. Although the book is something between a diary and a medicine journal. You could read the original if you want…” She handed me an old tattered leather-bound book “… but I doubt you’ll understand it all. It was written a long time ago.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed a bit disappointed because I really wanted to know more about Linnea Green. And what better way to learn that than to read her own words?

“Don’t be sad! You could always read this.”

The book she handed me now was considerably newer but it was still obvious it had been read many times over. The pages had gotten yellow and some of them were slightly folded. The binding looked homemade and I remembered that when I was little Aunt Rose used to bind the books she wrote. That was before she became a renown author and a leading authority in the field of Botanics, more specifically herbs. The money she’d earned from her published books, as well as interviews and talk-shows, was the main source of income for the household. A smaller portion of the family funds came from Aunt Flora, who was a seamstress, but being so shy, it was Aunt Azalea that met with clients and took orders, which she later passed to her youngest sister.

“What is this?” I questioned, flipping through the pages of the book I’d taken from her.

“Every now and then someone would rewrite the diary in a more comprehensible for the current time period language. This one is courtesy of your grandma.”

Oh, so that’s who taught Aunt Rose how to bind books!

“But it still has all the things from the original diary?” I questioned, my initial enthusiasm quickly returning. I wanted to be sure about that. I had the unexplainable need to know as much as possible about my ancestor.

“Yes!” My aunt assured me. “Every little detail,” she added, getting up. “I’ll leave you to read it in peace, while I go run some errands.”

That made me snap my head up and look at her with surprise.

“You are running errands? How come?”

She looked away and scratched her neck nervously.

“Well, there are a few things to be done… You know… Buy some groceries and maybe I’ll swing by the pet store to get some food for Chess…”

I grinned deviously at her, finally realizing why she had dressed up today.

“Say hi to William for me,” I tried to sound nonchalant and to withhold the few giggles that were bubbling in my chest by the sight of my aunt acting like a school girl with a love crush.

“Will do!” She replied and exited the attic, still avoiding my gaze.

*****

I had a strange dream that night.

I was picking up herbs in the forest, dressed in an old fashioned way. A priest came out of nowhere and claimed I was Linnea Green. He said I was a witch and sentenced me to death because of my dealings with the Devil.

Suddenly, the forest was swamped with people who wanted me dead.

I started running. I ran as fast as I could but couldn’t manage to loose my pursuers. I didn't stop until I reached a clearing in the forest and froze at the view before me: the place was full of balefires. There was a man or a woman at the center of each of them. Each but one. I instinctively knew that one was meant for me.

I looked around searching frantically for a way out of the terrifying situation I was put into. On one side I saw my pursuers; on the other were the balefires, means of my death. I closed my eyes and begged in my mind for help. From someone. Anyone. From whoever could aid me.

I heard a meow and opened my eyes, directing my gaze at the source of the sound. There, on a tree in the distance, was none other than Chess. I ran to my pet.

“Chess!” I exclaimed breathless. “How do I get out of here? Which way should I take?” I added as a few paths formed bellow the tree.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to!” He answered wisely.

“I don't really care at the moment! Just as long as I get out of here!”

“Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.” He grinned at me and started to disappear.

“Wait!” I shouted at his dissolving form. “I need to get away … somewhere… anywhere!”

“Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.” He disappeared completely.

“Chess!” I shouted again. “Chess! Please, don’t leave me!”

“Just kidding!” I heard a giggle and my pet reappeared on the tree branch. “Why don’t you just fly off to Caden’s?”

“Fly? I can’t fly!”

“Sure you can; you’re a witch!”

“No, I’m not!” I protested and stomped once with my foot.

“I guess someone better explain that to them!” He used his furry paw to point behind me.

The balefires were gone but my pursuers were still there holding torches and pitchforks and screaming “Burn the witch!”

“Oh, God, oh, God…” I was close to tears. “What do I do? I don’t know how to fly! I don’t know how to fly…”

“Alice…”

“I don’t…”

“Alice!”

“… I’m not a witch. I don’t know how to fly…”

“Alissa! Alissa, wake up! Wake up, dear, you’re having a nightmare!”

I opened my eyes and saw my three aunts looming over me with concern in there eyes. Even Aunt Azalea looked worried. I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and took a deep breath.

“Oh, thank, God! No pitchforks or balefires!”

“Honey, what are you talking about?” Aunt Rose queried.

“I think she’s read a little bit too much of Linnea’s diary,” Aunt Flora commented.

“A bit too much!” Azalea exclaimed. “She’s done nothing but read the whole day yesterday. No wonder the girl had nightmares! If it wasn’t for the cat she probably would still be having them.”

“The cat?” I sat in my bed. “You mean Chess?” I asked just as the kitten jumped on my lap. “What did he do?”

“He was meowing frantically and then led us to your room,” Azalea clarified.

“I guess he was worried about you, dear,” Flora added.

“And people say that cats ain't loyal!” Rose exclaimed.

I looked down to the purring creature and started petting him.

“You know what, Chess? I like you so much better when you don’t dissolve in thin air!”

I laughed seeing the confusion on my aunts’ faces.