CHAPTER 24:

  After a while, Sylvia opened the door to the now dark room

  “You ok? We haven't seen you in hours”

  She leaned against the door while speaking

  “I'm fine. I just had a little episode with my parents. That's all”

  “You stubborn ass. You haven't done anything in hours. You expect me to believe that it's just a “little episode”?”

  Haru's eyes shifted momentarily. A sigh escaped his throat

  “You're overreacting. It's not that big of a deal”

  “Then why aren't you willing to talk about it?”

  The light switch was flipped

  Now Sylvia could see the lit room. Holy shit was it a mess

  “Well, I need to clean up. Which should I do first?”

  “Yeah…just a “little episode”. You can clean this up later. We should talk first”

  “Alright, you can come in. After all, this is still your house”

  Sylvia let out a smile. She stepped inside the room softly, closing the door

  “What exactly happened with your parents?”

  She crossed her arms and stood in front of him

  “We had an argument…first it was just personal issues. It quickly evolved past that into a twist, more like a reveal”

  “A reveal you say? What could have possibly rattled you that much?”

  (I have a bad feeling about this…)

  “They have known about the supernatural. For a while now actually…the problem was that they never told me”

  Sylvia moved beside him on the bed

  “They knew? Well, I don't have anything to say about that. After all, I don't know them personally. Do you wanna talk about your emotions instead?”

  At that, Haru slowly moved his body around. Now leaning to the side of the bed frame

  “That'd be great, actually. It's been a minute since I have talked to anybody like that”

  Sylvia softly chuckled in response

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  The elf rested her hands on the bed while looking up

  “Do you feel angry?”

  “Yeah…I feel like I was left out on purpose”

  Sylvia kicked her feet while talking

  “To be honest. They did let you out”

  “Although I don't know if they did it for your good. I can not confirm anything about your parents”

  Haru lightly rested his head against the metal frame while staring into nothingness

  “Despite this betrayal, I still feel like things could have gone differently”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They could have warned me beforehand or something. It was all too abrupt”

  “Well that depends entirely on what kind of person they are”

  The elf adjusted her glasses while talking

  Haru took in a moment to look at the light reflecting off her glasses

  Afterward, he let out a sigh

  “I just feel like the whole situation was poorly mismanaged. I feel like shit”

  “Sometimes we all feel like that. It's all a matter of whether you can shrug it off”

  “Huh?”

  Even though Sylvia was staring at the ceiling, the elf couldn't help but smile

  It was a smile that could not be deciphered

  For whatever reason, she smiled

  “What I mean is that I, too, have felt like that. Multiple times actually”

  “You? Feeling like shit? I find that hard to believe”

  “Why? Because I can't hide my feelings so well? Please, we all have emotions”

  In response, Haru laughed out loudly

  Hearing that, Sylvia lightly shoved his shoulder

  “Hey, shut up! I'm being serious”

  “I know you are…call it nervous laughter if you can. It's that feeling you get when you don't know how to react”

  “Really? You have a nervous laugh? I wouldn't expect it from a person like you”

  “You just said the same thing about me, you know”

  Sylvia sighed and rolled over on the bed

  “Touché…so we're even now?”

  “Pretty much…hey, thanks for letting me open up”

  “Don't mention it. It's been a while, actually, since I've opened up to someone too”

  Haru took a moment to let those words soak in

  “So you were isolated too?”

  “Something like that”

  Sylvia now stopped kicking her feet

  Her right shoe now barely scraped the floor

  The curtains were half in the room, and only the door was slightly open

  This created a weird yet not scary atmosphere for a talk

  “You know…trusting you at the start was both the best and worst decision I've ever made in my life”

  That made Sylvia raise her head to look directly at Haru

  Her lips pressed into a thin line with mild surprise

  “Oh? And how's that?”

  “You see. Since I've trusted you. It created a window where suffering and success intertwined”

  “Kind of like being rich with terrible luck. You've basically won enough, but that doesn't mean that life is going to be easy because of that”

  “Huh…I hadn't thought about it like that before”

  “...”

  Silence fell over the room as they didn't have anything else to say

  “Wanna do something fun?”

  Sylvia asked while looking at the ceiling. Now smiling again

  With a stretch off his hands and back, Haru stood up

  “Are you sure? And like what?”

  “Oh you're gonna see”

  The elf adjusted her glasses that were gleaming…

  In the hallway. Just outside of Haru's room, where Matthew and Garcia

  They weren't eavesdropping, neither walking by

  They just happened to be by that area

  What's interesting is what they heard

  “Should we really be listening to this?”

  “I think it's safe to hear…they haven't said anything super personal”

  “Yeah, but what if they catch us eavesdropping anyway? How are we gonna explain ourselves then?”

  Matthew rubbed the back of his head at the series of questions

  “Good point…well i’m blaming it on you anyways”

  “What?! Why me?! You traitor”

  “Pht, it's not betrayal if there wasn't an alliance in the first place”

  A vein was visible on Garcia's head as he clenched his fist tightly in front of Matthew

  Matthew failed his arm around slightly while backing up against the wall

  “Hey, calm down, it was just a joke”

  “It better be. Or else I'm gonna beat your ass. Most importantly, I'm not trying to face Sylvia's wrath again this weak”

  Garcia now grabbed Matthew by his collar aggressively

  Matthew could only sigh and look up in response

  (What is this punk thinking?)...

  Back at Haru's room

  Sylvia had brought out a red powder that was now on Haru's desk

  She moved the light of the desk above it while adjusting her glasses

  “Yeah…this should be enough”

  “Enough for what exactly?”

  “Something special. You'll see”

  Haru curiously tried to obscure the red powder in the black bowl from all angles

  However, he didn't have a single clue as to what this was for

  “Is it gonna be helpful, at least?”

  “Ugh, that's also going to spoil the surprise,"

  “Oh so now this is a surprise? I think you're just stalling”

  Sylvia rolled her eyes through her glasses

  “Stalling for what? Because if you keep up the questioning, I might as well put you to sleep while embedding it”

  Haru clicked his fingers together in an instant

  “Embedding yeah? Alright, that's my first clue”

  Sylvia had to physically restrain herself from not giving him a good hit on the head

  So she just deeply sighed

  “Oh for pete's sake. Stop acting like a kid”

  Her eyes looked comically tired

  “I think you're just mad because I got a clue”

  She didn't expect much, so she went back to the red powder now sitting in a chair

  At that. Haru crossed his arms under his chest

  Huffing and muttering to himself

  “So now you are ignoring me? Great”

  As far as one could tell, Sylvia continued to ignore him

  “Oh come on!”...