Chapter Telepathic Trouble

Annabell troubled with trying to fathom the recent events. The sudden appearance of Miriam’s voice had frightened her. In general, there weren’t that many things that scared. However, she would rather face ten hours of hell than to relive the memory of the look on Joshua’s face when he had noticed her talking to Miriam.

She recalled how his eyebrows scrunched together, along with her dismay when he didn’t believe her – he honestly thought she was losing her marbles. It wasn’t until later that he started to believe her.

“But I don’t understand, you said we had to travel to Yildun, why are we now heading for Kokab?” Annabell asked. She received an annoyed look in response, which didn’t help her growing frustration.

“Not only does she has the same birthday as you, she also knows of the prophecy. Even if it somehow turns out that she is not your sister - something I highly doubt - we still need to decipher that prophecy. I couldn’t get a hold of it anywhere, and it might lead us to where we will find the Rising Star,” he explained in a tired voice, only accompanied by an audible sigh.

“She got all quiet after I told her she might be my sister,” she mumbled. Joshua didn’t respond. For every day that passed, this mission seemed to appear harder and more complicated than the last. Granted, Annabell had developed considerably in terms of social skills. However, the more comfortable she felt, the darker everything around her seemed.

She was still plagued by severe mood swings, and he was first in line to be victimized by it. The guilt that ran through her was something different, and it didn’t help matters one bit. She looked up at Joshua.

Annabell was ashamed. The knowledge that she was making him feel more uncomfortable was killing her inside. She wanted to apologize, yet nothing came out whenever she tried.

Not to mention the confusion she suffered about their almost tender moment before. Shooting a glance to him, she almost blushed by the memory. She shook her head to clear the thoughts from her mind, before focusing on Joshua.

The map he had folded out in front of him was easy to follow now when they had a sense of direction. They had decided to travel along the edge of the forest in an attempt to avoid getting lost. Even though, they initially feared that this would delay them – Now Joshua smiled as he ran a finger over the paper. They were on the right track, and the discovery of Miriam had only excited him more – they were closer than he dared to anticipate.

An irrational stab of jealousy shot through her by the thought of her sister, “What do I even have to talk to her about?”

“I don’t know, you can communicate with her through your head, maybe try doing that some more before you have to stand face to face to her,” he suggested with a shrug.

Annabell was exhausted – she hadn’t wanted to complain. However, when she mentioned how fast he was walking, he forced her to sit down. Seated on the trunk of a fallen tree, she looked down at her hands.

“What would I even say?” she asked and made a face, “The only thing I can think of is: ’

”

Joshua shot her look, and she pouted in response.

“She’s your sister; ask her what she likes to do, ask her about her life. Just ask her something, anything at all actually.” He sent her a faint, comforting smile.

“We don’t know for sure that she’s my sister,” she pointed out. Joshua frowned at that, his eyes showing a depression, which baffled Annabell. He did look pretty confident in his case, but she didn’t think it would be something he would take that personally if she didn’t believe him.

To be honest, she admitted that the same birthday and the telepathic link pointed towards that outcome – she just didn’t dare to hope it.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, but Annabell just looked away. Joshua sighed beside her, and the sound made her heart drop.

Tears welled in her eyes and threatened to spill over.

“I need some air,” she muttered.

Annabell stood up and walked away. She didn’t walk far, she just needed to put some distance between herself and Joshua. Her mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts, that wasn’t even her own. If she concentrated hard, she could have her thoughts in peace, but it took a tremendous amount of energy to do so. This was further complicated by the fact that she couldn’t block Miriam from her head.

She clenched her hand hard, the nails tearing into the palm. Closing her eyes shut, she whipped around and slammed her fist into the trunk of a tree. Her body buzzed, and it was making her uncomfortable. Annabell wanted it to disappear.

’ Annabell sneered in her mind. Frustration filled her; the self-harm hadn’t helped with the buzzing. In fact, it had only made it worse. Her whole body was vibrant, and she craved to release it.

‘I hurt my hand.’

Annabell stopped gritting her teeth and looked surprised at her right hand. The skin was scraped away from her knuckles. Blood started flowing, but miraculously disappeared every other second.

she asked in thought. Turning the hand around, she tried to test if she could feel the pounding of the blood that rushed through her hand. As she took in the size of the swollen knuckle, she concluded that it should have hurt more.

the voice sounded tired. Annabell could hear the amount of strength it took not to cry out in pain. For a moment, she almost felt as if she could feel the tears slipping down her cheeks.

She snapped out of it and wiped her hand over her face. Annabell didn’t want to know the answer, yet she had to ask. Anxiety spread through her as she awaited Miriam’s response.

‘You ask so many questions. A little compassion wouldn’t be too much to ask for, would it? – I mean… You’re already snooping around inside my head without permission.’

Annabell was taken aback by the scolding. Her mouth dropped open, and she struggled to form any coherent sentence within her mind. A thousand thoughts wanted out, but she couldn’t find the most appropriate to give.

The question came out as a plea. She was exhausted and her head hurt from thinking. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment from being called out on her rudeness – something that she had never experienced before. Nobody had ever spoken with so much maturity and yet still managing to stay nice at the same time, she didn’t know how to react.

‘I didn’t do anything… It just appeared, like always.’

‘What do you mean?’

Miriam’s voice resounded in her head. Her heart dropped. Annabell looked up, and her eyes found Joshua who was once more intense focused on his map. An idea occurred to her, and she turned around to face the tree once more.

she thought. She shook her hand thrice, before closing her eyes. She drew her left arm back and slammed her first into the three, with as much force as she could handle. The force of the impact sent waves of pain up her arm. Yet it wasn’t her cursing and crying out in pain. Miriam’s voice rang through her mind, causing Annabell to cringe and try to defend her ears from the sound. This didn’t help anything; the profanities echoed loud and clear inside her mind.

Fascinated she listened to the train of thoughts coming from Miriam.

‘Holy Solem… that hurt.’

‘Why did it have to happen now?’

‘Solem, I can’t hide this from Ma.’

‘How can a wound bleed so much?’

‘My whole arm hurts now, I should get the doctor.’

Annabell looked down at her hand. The pain had already disappeared, and the bleeding wasn’t much. Exhausted she pulled away from her shield and made her own presence known to Miriam.

she thought. Sadness mixed with exhaustion filled her entire body, she felt terrible – every incident in the past where Annabell had healed miraculously, was because Miriam took the brunt for it. Her sister had been forced to endure the pain, which was her fault.

Memories of the past came to mind, and she flinched as she recalled every single time she had gotten in a fight. Rage fired through her body, and she wanted to punch something from sheer frustration but the knowledge that it would hurt Miriam made her pause. Somehow she wished that she didn’t know it because the guilt that washed through her as she looked at her scarred body was too much to bear.

she repeated. A single tear fell from her right eye, travelling down over her cheeks.

‘For what?’

‘For everything. For being like I am.’

‘For forcing you to endure every pain that was rightfully mine throughout the years.’

‘I don’t understand?’

Annabell inhaled deeply before answering.

‘I’m the reason your hand just got hurt. I punched a tree to get some release for this buzzing feeling – It didn’t hurt me, you took the blow from it.’

Bile rose in her throat as she waited – she felt sick. Cursing her own stubbornness, she tried to put the blame on the people who had forced her to fight. Yet, she knew it wasn’t fair. Many – if not all – of the incidents could have been easily avoided.

“Are you ready to go?” Joshua’s voice shook her out of her misery for a brief moment. He sounded cheery. Annabell turned around slowly to face him.

“Yeah,” she croaked. Clearing her throat once, she gathered the courage to meet his eyes. He frowned, and his smile vanished. Within seconds, he was on high alert.

“What happened?” he asked as he surveyed the area.

“She is my sister,” Annabell simply said and motioned for him to get going.

“Wow, wait. What happened to your hand?” he asked and caught it midair, his hands were cold on her skin. With careful fingers, he looked over the knuckles.

“I punched a tree,” she said with a wince. His fingers touched the injured skin, and she flinched at the thought of Miriam.

“That was incredibly stupid of you … luckily it doesn’t look like you’ve broken anything,” he said and let go of her hand.

“Shall we?” He turned to leave.

Annabell watched as he picked up his bag, and shortly after she followed him. He was walking in a slow pace, which she was silently thankful for – she didn’t think that she could handle much more fatigue.

They walked in silence; only the occasional bird call could be heard.

“How come you think she’s your sister now?” he asked, breaking the silence. Annabell sighed.

“I would rather that we didn’t talk about it,” she said. He didn’t press on, and she thanked him inside her mind. Walking proved to be tiresome, and the tension between them built – she could see that he struggled to contain his curiosity.

He kept opening and closing his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but then thought better of it.

It bothered her to no end that there was nothing to say – probably more than it should have.

“What’s the plan?” she finally asked when the lack of talking became unbearable.

“We have to reunite the two of you.”

“Stop with the bull, you are hiding something.” Annabell pointed ahead, “Once we get to Kokab, what’s the plan from there?”

Joshua looked down at the ground before turning around.

“I was told to get you to Yildun. Miriam is in Kokab, which means we have to reconnect the two of you,” he answered in a low voice. He pointed behind her, “Over there, in the outskirts of Yildun lies Astron’s biggest Star Temple. I was to help you and Miriam get to Elder Garnet.”

“And is he there? Are you sure that meeting the Elders is a good thing?” Annabell didn’t like the idea of seeking out the Elders. The memory of her encounter with Errai had left her with little respect for all the Elders.

“I need to see the prophecy first, to be absolutely sure. We should be able to get the both of you to guide me towards the Rising Star, with help from the prophecy – the rest is just a hunch.” Joshua shrugged slightly.

“A hunch? You have a hunch? Is that what all this is based on?” Annabell sneered. Anger flared up inside her, and she felt the buzzing inside her rise.

“Relax. You know that isn’t true,” Joshua said. His voice was calm, and she found herself relaxing along with it. The burst of anger scared her, although, as soon as she could breathe again, it all seemed silly.

“I apologize for that,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it, I can understand why all this is getting to you,” he said with a small smile.

A comfortable silence spread – this time it didn’t bother Annabell. She contemplated whether she should confide in Joshua. At first, she didn’t want to; the mere thought gave her shivers. Yet, as they continued along, step after step; she started to think that maybe she should start trusting him.

she thought.

Glancing at him, she admired the way he walked; the sense of urgency he carried himself with was amazing. Her eyes found his behind, and she was mesmerized by how the material clung to his buttocks.

She blushed at her gutter mind.

“She feels my pain,” Annabell finally said. She took the leap of faith.

“That’s good. Then you two might understand each other better,” Joshua replied.

“No, I mean, she literally feels my pain. I think…” She halted as she struggled to find the right words, “I think she’s the one that makes me heal so fast.”

“What do you mean exactly?” He stopped and turned his head to face her. Confusions spread all of his features.

Annabell held up her fists, showing the knuckles, “Back there, when I punched the tree, it didn’t hurt me. It hurt her.”

She could see him trying to decipher it all, and she felt a bit disheartened when it seemed as if he failed. Blaming him wasn’t an option – Solem, she didn’t understand it fully either. Between almost getting tortured to death, drowning, and finding out she has a sister, she found it hard to grasp the concept of magic and prophecies too.

The thought of magic, made her remember something, “She wanted to tell someone about the prophecy. I advised her not to.”

Joshua nodded absentmindedly. She didn’t know whether he was listening to her or not. Looking away, she fumbled with her fingers.

“I think she’s mad at me now,” Annabell mumbled to herself.

“I think we need to make a plan with her, so you’ll have to patch things up with her,” Joshua said. His words sounded unsympathetic to her, but she couldn’t truly fault him for it.

Instead, she asked, “How should I do that?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure that you’ll figure it out,” he said and walked away. Annabell watched him in silence but finally sighed and closed her eyes and tagged in on the telepathic connection.

she tried carefully.

‘What do you want? Haven’t you done enough already?’

Annabell flinched by the harsh tone that sounded ten times worse in her head than what probably was intended. Ignoring her own pity party, she said her plea, ’ Miriam asked.

‘The prophecy, it’s about us, we have to meet. Joshua says we will have to lead him to the Rising Star. He also needs to see the prophecy…’

Miriam’s thought interrupted her own. It felt weird, and Annabell found it difficult to get back on track again.

Annabell answered, she chose her words carefully; it wouldn’t help if her sister got the wrong idea.

Miriam sounded curious, and less angry. Annabell sneaked a peek at Joshua.

She asked, and looked at her hands.

‘You thought he was hot yesterday. You also thought he was stupid,’

That’s universal language for designated boyfriend.’

Annabell’s cheeks turned crimson at that, she lowered her head and tried to cover her face behind her dark curls. As she peeked out through the strands of hair, she found Joshua’s back. His blonde hair was tousled, and dust from their travel made it seem almost brown. Nonetheless, she couldn’t deny that he was handsome.

‘No… he’s not anything like a boyfriend…’

’He kind of rescued me from the guards that tortured me – well, us Miriam got quiet after that.

‘So, we need a plan here.’

Do you think we can meet?’

‘My mom probably wouldn’t give permission. We live well secluded, and she’s always been careful about whom she lets onto our ground.’

She looked over at Joshua, who was looking at her with an odd expression. Had she thought out loud again?

“When do you think we’ll be able to reach Kokab?” she asked him.

“If we continue to travel today, and all day tomorrow, we could be there by the day after tomorrow,” he answered.

‘The day after tomorrow, we’ll need to come up with a way to snap you out.’

Can I tell Blake?’

“Who’s Blake?” she said with a frown. Joshua was still staring, this time with a cocked eyebrow – she had spoken out loud.

‘He’s my friend, kind of my only one, and he is extremely smart. He could help,’

Annabell was hesitant towards the idea, more guys – more trouble. A cough from Joshua shook her back to reality. Looking up, she met his eyes.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“She wants to tell someone named Blake about it all.”

“No, don’t tell anyone!” Joshua objected, “Trust no one with this.”

Annabell contemplated how to bring the news to her sister, when Miriam interjected, Annabell felt her stomach clench by the words. Her own blood was refusing to meet with her over a boy. Granted, she didn’t expect Miriam to have any compassion for her as a person. It saddened her though, and the idea of not meeting her, made her struggle to breathe. With an apologetic look, she stared into Joshua’s eyes.

she thought and sealed off her thoughts.

Joshua just stared at her, “Please tell me, you didn’t just say yes.”

Annabell looked away and fumbled with her hands, giving away the answer to the question.

Joshua cursed under his breath.

“Why did you do that? You should know that no one and nowhere is safe for the two of you.” She knew that he was referring to the black holes ability to take on human form.

“She said she wouldn’t meet up with us if we didn’t,” Annabell explained. The disapproval from Joshua was clear, and it stung her to defy it. But she could still feel the tightening in her stomach at the thought of Miriam’s words. Her feelings were a mix up between stubbornness and shame.

Joshua sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

“I hope you know what you are doing, Annabell,” he simply said, and turned away to pack the bag.

The third silence fell between them – Now back to being tense-filled and uncomfortable.

Joshua stood up and threw the bag on, “We have to get going to reach there in time. Can you communicate with her while you walk?”

“I can try,” Annabell said and stood up to dust of her pants. She felt terribly awkward. The silent treatment she got from Joshua tore at her insides, and she couldn’t quite explain it. Shame spread through her, she felt as if she had betrayed Joshua now, yet she just couldn’t stand the idea of being so close – but still so far from having a real family.

The walking was held in a slower pace, and she was grateful for that. They were still a long way from reaching the city of Kokab, so they needed to store their energy to get there as fast as possible.