Chapter 1 || Quoth the Raven “Nevermind” (4)

Lexi Lilly put the pen down. Her small, neat signature dried on the bottom right corner of the contract under Cap’s gigantic, obnoxious penmanship.

“Great,” said Cap. “Like I said, we may still need your help. We will discuss how we want to do this and get back to you tomorrow.”

Lexi Lilly nodded, then hesitated. “Actually, there’s something you need to know, but you can never tell anyone,” she said.

“Don’t you worry about that,” said Cap. “We just swore ourselves to secrecy.” He twirled his pen in his hand and gestured towards the contract.

“My manager, Caden… we used to date. We only broke up a few months ago. We never told anyone, especially not the media. The package you brought back from my house is all the stuff left from that relationship.”

“Wait,” said Alyssa, “could that be what he was looking for?”

“No, I told him I destroyed everything. He has no reason not to believe me, as I have much more to lose if anyone finds out. But I just couldn’t bring myself to.” She chuckled bitterly. “You can open it once I leave.” Pushing the contract over towards Cap, she got up from her seat.

The raised voice of the anchor drew the attention of the room back to the TV as a breaking news banner scrolled across the screen.

“…a fan of Lexi Lilly has confessed to stabbing her. He is being held as investigations continue.”

“Well, they caught your stabber,” said Cap. “How do you feel?”

“I don’t know,” said Lexi Lilly. “I don’t feel much of anything.”

The door closed with a heavy thump that was muffled by the falling rain. 

Elowen immediately turned on Cap. “Dammit Cap why did you knock him out?” she said.

“What was I supposed to do?” retorted Cap.

“Anything but that!”

“Relax, I know the dose. It’s been diluted. Why did you bring him here anyway?”

“I didn’t know we would be on the news, ok.”

“You couldn’t have picked someone else?” asked Alyssa.

“I wasn’t in a state to think, I had to take what I got. Besides, Cap said we should keep an eye on him.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” said Cap.

“He’s sure gonna be on our side, now that we’ve knocked him out and all,” said Alyssa.

Elowen sighed. “I’m going to see if Rowan needs any help,” she said, and ascended the stairs to the second floor.

Rowan was already out in the hallway. “The dude’s fine,” he said, before Elowen could ask. “Seriously though, El, what’s he about?”

“I’m sorry, I made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“Yes, but this one was… to put it bluntly, a pretty dumb one. It isn’t like you.”

“I teleported too far and got disoriented. That’s all there is to it, really.”

He squinted at her. “You’ve done further without any trouble before.”

She looked back at him worriedly. “Do you reckon I’m getting weaker?”

“Maybe your age has finally caught up to you.”

She slapped his arm.

Laughing, Rowan rubbed where she had slapped him. “I’m joking. Hey, maybe you were just tired. After this job we should take a long break.”

“I can’t, I have exams.”

“Right. Speaking of which, why on earth do you have a test on the first week of the semester?”

“I wish I knew.”

They heard Alyssa shout from below. “Ha! I found the remote!”

“We’re going to have a meeting now, so if the guy’s not in need of immediate medical attention, could you please come down,” Cap called up the stairs.

The twins glanced at each other and grinned ruefully before descending to face the music.

.

.

.

“…Where the heck am I?”

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