To my surprise, as we gathered in the entry hallway ready to leave, Matt's mother intercepted me and insisted that I stay. I glanced at her with confusion, attempting to explain that I was comfortable sleeping in the cabin and that the drive home would take less that half an hour. This garnered me some uneasy looks from the boys, who tried to hush me.

Was that because of my involuntarily boasting about speeding or about calling that place 'home'? In addition my response seemed to upset her. In the cramped hallway, there were several awkward moments where everyone seemed well-intentioned, but everything I said appeared to be met with disapproval from someone.

While the boys hushed me, she seemed at the same time aghast about me staying, but even more so at me leaving. I found myself desperately trying to read the room but my obvious incapacity to do so properly became apparent. I've never been a social person, and human interactions have always puzzled me with their complexity. I suppose I'm a bit slow to catch on in such situations, which sometimes makes me doubt my IQ.

After a while, I began to suspect that there had been some discussion among the boys' mothers, and they had decided not to let me sleep alone in the woods again. So, I bid goodbye to the boys and returned to Matt's room. His mother triumphantly informed me that she was going to prepare Frank's room for me. I assume Frank is Matt's divorced father.

As I reentered Matt's room, he greeted me with a smile, having overheard the conversation.

"Welcome back! It's a shame you can't come and visit me later from your room," Matt whispered. "I'd love to chat some more with you..."

I wondered, was he expecting a romantic encounter, or were there important things he wanted to talk about? He seemed quite serious about it, though.

His mother soon arrived with supper, insisting on spoon-feeding him despite his protests. She seated me at his desk by the window, positioning herself between us, with her back partly turned to me, but despite this arrangement, the atmosphere remained friendly, and we were able to chat freely.

Of course, the main topic of conversation was our upcoming visit to Dreamland, although we couldn't delve too deeply into the more interesting aspects due to his mother's presence.

He would have gladly joined us tomorrow, and had a lot of questions he wanted to have answered and at a certain time I wondered if I should not take notes, because, for sure, I was going to forget some.

Once he finished eating, his mother promptly ushered me up to my room, claiming he needed rest, which wasn't entirely untrue.

Once in my room, I undressed, slipped into my pajamas, and made a quick trip to the bathroom to wash up and brush my teeth. Returning to my room, I turned off the light and settled into bed. However, a nagging curiosity kept me restless, and when the house finally grew quiet, I shed my pajamas, stashed them away in my inventory, and melded into the shadows.

My room was situated on the opposite side of the house, and with his mother sleeping in the main room with the door ajar, I wandered as a shadow down the corridor, her snores echoing softly in the silence.

To enter Matt's room, I slipped through the narrow gaps between the door and the doorframe. He wasn't yet asleep, just lying on his back in bed.

Gathering my shadows, I materialized at the side of his bed, the parquet creaking softly under my weight. He turned his head to look, and I motioned for him to stay quiet.

"Shhh! Don't turn," I whispered while slipping into my pajamas.

He blinked in surprise but complied with my request.

"Lores?" he whispered.

I chuckled softly. "Who else did you expect?"

I shifted uncomfortably in the chair.

"You wanted to talk, so here I am," I whispered.

"Cool, we haven't really talked in ages! I still don't understand what exactly happened that day before I had the accident, among many other things. But I can barely hear you from there. Would you be okay to come here near me?"

"You mean I should lie in bed by your side?" I wondered.

"What's so wrong with it? Why are you giving me the cold shoulder? I can barely hear you from there, and," he added with a chuckle, "I can assure you that I'll stay very brave here."

I chuckled as I slipped into the bed near him. "Don't imagine silly things, I just came to chat with you!"

"Sure!" he laughed. "Why would I imagine silly things? How did you do this? I haven't heard a sound, and I'm sure my mother is guarding the corridor."

"She is snoring very peacefully," I explained. "I do have my little tricks. Now, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

Surprisingly, it was comforting to feel him near me. He chuckled. "As I said, I was simply missing you and just wanted to have a chat with you," he said and shrugged. "Maybe sometime you will explain to me what happened, and what did I do wrong that you decided to break with me?"

"Does it look like I broke with you?" I teased him.

He sighed. "Didn't you say last time that we are just friends?"

I continued my teasing. "We are friends, do you complain?"

"Of course not. Did I do something wrong?"

I turned and placed my hand over his shoulder. "Do you know that I know you in every little detail?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" he wondered.

"I know each and every centimeter of your skin. I know all your birthmarks. Yes, that one too! I guess I know even every root of your hair. I know that you once broke your middle finger on the left hand and it still has a small deviation in the middle. I don't know when and what did that happen, but I do know that it has that deviation. I know that you have a little scar on your right knee, and also one that covers your butt cheeks."

"How can you know that?" he wondered.

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I shrugged. "Magic. Speaking of that, how did that happen? I always wondered actually. Did you fall over something sharp?"

He chuckled. "No." he shrugged "It was a neighbor. It happened some time after Christmas when I was a kid. We made swords from discarded Christmas trees to play knights. Two kids started to duel, and one idiot accidentally stuck his sword in the other kid's eye. That kid had always been a troublemaker. Even in kindergarten, he had violent outbursts. Anyway, after the injured boy ran home crying, the neighbor came out enraged. And who does he find playing with his sword? Me. So, he struck me as hard as he could with a rod over my butt. I was about ten years old then. It hurt badly, but I didn't dare to tell my parents. Ma only saw it a couple of days later. I still have the scar where the skin came off."

I listened with horror to his story. "Damn idiot! He could have seriously hurt you! If you tell me who he is, I'll give him a taste of his own medicine so he remembers!"

He shrugged and laughed softly. "Please, no. That was a decade ago. You don't want to hurt an old man."

"He can't be that old. Did he go to jail for that?" I pressed.

He chuckled.

“No, my ma told me not to play with his son anymore. But the boy was okay; only his father had been an idiot. Why should I stop playing with him?” He sighed and redirected the conversation back to me. “So, what do you mean? Are you suggesting that because we're so different, there might be a problem between us?”

I shrugged and shook my head. “No, not exactly. What I mean is that I know you like a friend. It's as if we grew up together as brothers. Let me explain. It's a memory that's been left in my mind by the person who... who loved you. I fear that she's dead, and I only have her memories. She doesn't speak to me anymore since... since something bad happened. You see, that's why I can't fall in love with you. It would be like taking my sister's boyfriend. Do you understand? It wasn't me loving you; it was her.”

He glanced at me, trying to gauge how serious I was. How could I explain the whole messed up situation I was in?

“I... I simply don't understand you,” he said after some time, sounding defeated. “You disappeared for a while, and then you came back... changed. You behaved strangely, ignored me, went with Joe, and then...”

I took a deep breath. “Matt, after... after I escaped from... there... there was a time when I thought that all my memories about magic were just my mind going crazy. I was scared and doubted my sanity. I didn't know what was real and what wasn't from what I remembered. I was with Joe because I did like Joe, but that turned out to be a washout.”

He chuckled. “So, that's why you went with Joe to the concert, but at the same time, you flirted with me, and then you played handball with him?”

I protested, “Well, you're mixing up the timeline a bit, and it's not exactly true. I was only with Joe... that is until I realized that he's an idiot. She was always for you and flirted with you! To be frank, I did ask her to help me with Joe, and in return, I accepted her to be with you.”

I know he rolled his eyes. “How generous of you! Couldn't you find a compromise with her?”

I snorted. “I tried, but she didn't like Joe, so we agreed to disagree.”

"But, to be clear, she was still you, isn't it?” he asked.

“You're trying to make fun of me!” I protested.

He shrugged. “This is the funniest excuse I've ever heard for somebody being with two boys at the same time! You can have as many friends as personalities!”

I sighed. “Actually, I had three personalities and only two friends; one was still undecided...”

“Three? And now it's only you?” he asked.

“Yep.”

I was relieved that he didn't inquire if I had seen a doctor.

"Could you please heal me? I'll play the role of the sick man as long as needed, but it's slowly becoming boring to just sit in bed. I know you can do that!"

I shook my head.

"Sorry, no. That's the rub. That wasn't me. That was her. She could heal any wound instantly, without much strain, not like me."

"But you did heal me?" he wondered. "The wonder at the hospital? That was you!"

I sighed in despair. "Do you look like a healthy man? No. All I can do is steal some life from other people and give it to you at diminishing returns. I'm useless as a healer."

He froze.

"So that's what you did? Where did you steal life from...? Oh... oh... oh!?"

I closed my eyes and bit my lip.

"Huh... I wasn't supposed to say that. Look, all I have now is black magic. That's my problem. Not a trace of white magic. This was as far as you can get with black magic!"

"What happened to her? Did she have a name? Will you tell me the whole story?"

"I will, but not now. I am very tired," I said, turning on my side and resting my head on my hand, yawning. "Her name was White Flower. I called her Flo. There was a small black magic explosion that we caused. I was trying to clean me up from... That's another story I'll tell you next time. Since then, I am full of black magic and she is gone."

“How small was that explosion?”

“Have you ever heard about the Tsar-Bomba?”

“Oh! That's what you call small?"

“Well, when I said small I was joking. From down there, it certainly looked like that... It went many miles up in the air...”

“She is not gone!” he suddenly said.

I raised a brow and gently caressed his hand with mine.

“Sorry, but she is gone. She is no more. Somebody confirmed it to me. Somebody who could feel a soul.”

He shook his head. “She is not dead. I would know if she were dead. Believe me. She is still there. I know it and I can feel it.”

I huffed. Did he think I was speaking in allegories? Why would Lynx tell me he couldn't feel a connection to Cala's soul if she wasn't dead? Well, he didn't explicitly say Cala was dead; he only mentioned not feeling a connection to me. But wasn't that essentially the same thing?

Then I remembered I had a hairpin from Flo. It was the only object I still had from her, forgotten in my room. I retrieved it from my inventory.

“You know what this is?” I asked.

“Looks like a hairpin?” he replied.

“I got it from her. It was her hairpin, and it's probably the only one on Earth that originated in another world.”

“From her? You mean White Flower?” he inquired.

“Yep. It's pretty mundane, and it doesn't have any magical qualities. I wasn't able to detect any trace of magic in it, yet it's hers.”

“Why are you showing it to me?” he asked.

“Because it was hers, and I want you to have it. It's the only thing I have left from her.”

“May I have it? Just like this?”

“Sure. I'm sorry I don't have something more precious from her to give you.”

Satisfied that I could still give him something from her, I closed my eyes while he was looking at the hairpin.

*

His hand gently shook my shoulder, rousing me from sleep.

“Good morning, love. My mom is coming. Do you want to meet her here, or do you want to leave before?”

Opening my eyes, I realized I had been sleeping in Matt's bed. It was morning. Our gazes locked for a moment before I heard his mom's voice at the door. With a quick decision, I dissipated into the air right before his eyes.

“Good morning, Matt!” his mother greeted as she entered the room.

Her gaze fell upon the bed, where the impression of a body was still visible, particularly on my abandoned pajamas. Her eyes then met the smug smile on her son's face, while his gaze appeared innocent.