SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER 6
Grandma Jean placed her head upon her pillow on Wednesday night the 10th of December, unaware that Dominic was already on his way home to them. She thought she would do a dream walk to check up on him, to see how he was doing since he hadn’t contacted any of his family.
As she wandered through the realm of dreams though, she couldn’t seem to locate Nic’s presence. Jean continued to walk through the realm until she felt an aura trying to get her attention. She made her way to the essence and her eyes fell upon a pixie, or so she thought at first. When she drew just a bit closer to the dream spirit, she realized it was a young girl with pixie-like features. “Hello my dear. Whom might you be?”
The young girl pushed her wild, vibrant red hair from off her face before offering Jean a wide smile, “I am Raegan Knight. I have been searching for you Crone of Silver-Heart Coven, for several hours. I think I might know a fellow Silver-Heart member of yours and I wish to chat with you about somethings if you will allow me.”
Jean shared a gentle smile of her own before asking, “and who is this person you are referring to dear?”
“Are you familiar with a Dominic Salvino?” Raegan gazes at Jean’s face as she asks the question. When she saw Jean nod yes, she continued to speak; “he had found himself in New Orleans and our fates crossed paths. He shared with me and my Coven about his great loss and once he left our gathering, we began to do some research for ways to help him out. If you would be willing to assist me in this task, I will come to your community on Saturday, and we can begin working on the details.”
“Of course, dear girl! I will do whatever I can to help Dominic ease his pain and suffering. If you decide to come here, I will have a guest room up and ready for you to stay in.”
Raegan smiled excitedly and clapped her hands together before saying, “fantastic, I will see you on Saturday then.”
*
As I drove around a bend in the pavement, I spotted the roof of my house before the rest of the house came into view. I didn’t realize I was so homesick until my eyes beheld the wonderful site of home. I pulled onto the driveway before the sun rose on Friday morning. Letting myself in, quietly I made my way up the stairs and back to my bedroom where I barely managed to crawl into my bed before the darkness of slumber pulled me under and I fell asleep.
Waking briefly to use the restroom, I came back into my room and sat on my bed for a moment as a wave of sadness hit me as I realized the last time I was in this bed; Alina had been in here with me. I can still smell her lavender and rose perfume lingering on my sheets. My heart clenches and my soul yearns to be with her. Before I could stop myself, tear drops began to slide down my cheeks. Sighing heavily as I tried to reign in the tears that spilled forth, I closed my eyes and fell back onto my bed and before I knew it, I fell into a very deep sleep.
It felt like only minutes that I had been sleeping when my door was thrown wide open. “Hey loser! It’s about damn time you came back home!”
I groan, “aw man, Devon, go away,” I muttered as I tried to bunch the pillow around my head. I can hear the door shut with Dev laughing the whole way back down the hallway and I’m highly tempted to throw the blankets back over my head. I know he was just checking to make sure I really was home but now I’m wide awake. Sighing, I get up. It will only be a matter of minutes before my parents come rushing through the door once they get wind that I have returned. Quickly changing into clean clothes, I decided to head down to the kitchen and face the music.
Thankfully mom’s freshly poured cup of coffee is sitting on the counter and not in her hand when she saw me stroll in. I’m more than positive that if it would have been in her hand, it would have fallen on the tiled flooring, shattering the mug and coffee would have splattered across the floor in her rush to come and hug me. She shrills an ‘eeekkkk’ before words are able to form, “Oh, my baby! You’re back! How are you doing?” She gushes as she steps back to look me over. My face turns red with embarrassment of her referring to me as being ‘her baby’ but before I can complain about it, she is placing her hands on either side of my face, she looks me deep in the eyes to try and read my emotions. At least with mom being 5’9, I don’t really have to bend down for her to do this, being 6’1 myself. On the other hand, if Grandma Jean were to attempt this, I would have to stoop over quite a bit.
“Hi mom, I’m okay-ish, but I’m dealing with it all in my own way and I would rather not talk about it right now. That is one reason why I left in the first place. I don’t want the sympathetic words, the empathetic looks, alright?”
“Of course, baby. Just know that we are all here if you ever decide you want to talk to someone.” I nodded appreciatively at her, content to know that no one would push the topic and that I’d be able to work through this in my own time.
I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, and allow a smile on my face before I asked; “is there any coffee left?” Mom laughed but grabs a mug, filling it up for me. As I begin to sip on it, I hear footsteps behind me. I sat my cup on the counter just in time because not a second later, Dev was slugging me in my bicep. “You ass!” I turned and shoved him in the stomach.
Devon just laughs in response and jumps back, just in case I should take another swing at him. I’m sure you can feel the brotherly love between us. I ended up with a lopsided grin on my face and then I saw my dad come into the kitchen. “Dom?” He stared at me for a moment, shock evident in his eyes and on his face as his mouth has fallen open, while he tries to sort out whether or not I’m really here.
“Yeah, I’m home,” I say as I walk up to him and give him a hug. You know the hug, one arm clutched in his, shoulders bump, and a firm pat or two on the back. He looks at me curiously as he steps back, trying to assess how truthful I’m being with him. As he nods his head, excepting me at face value, the front door bangs open, and I can hear two obnoxiously loud voices shouting out for me.
“Yo jerk, where you at?” I could visualize Chris instantly, tall, thin, shaggy brown-haired dork and goofy grin!
“Yeah butt-nut! Where you at?” Riley, the stocky, bleach blonde, blue eyed butt-head shouts right after Chris.
I grinned as I see mom shake her head, “you boys and your language.” And then Devon shouts out, “kitchen!” And then they can be seen sauntering in, a moment later. The same hug I shared with my dad is shared with Chris and then Riley before they grab cups of coffee and make themselves at home.
“So, man, how ya doing?” Riley asked after a brief hesitation. He looks me in the eyes for a second and then his gaze strays to my mother who is probably giving him the mom look that says, stop talking. I shrug my shoulder and take another swig of my coffee. Continuing as if the question had never been asked, Riley says, “you, me and the boys are going out tonight.” I tried to protest but he won’t hear it. “Devon will be making sure you are ready to leave here at 9 p.m. so you best get your rest on until then. There will be no whining or complaining once we leave!”
Groaning I muttered an ‘uh huh’ and then told everyone I was going back to sleep for a while hearing them all laugh after me. Knowing Riley and Chris all too well, I won’t be going to sleep until after two in the morning once we leave for the evening.
*
Devon comes barging through my door at 8:30 that night shouting for me to ‘get my ass out of bed’. His words, not mine. “I don’t want to,” I muttered from under my covers. Seconds later, the blanket is yanked from my grasp with Dev standing over me, laughing.
“Too bad dude! Get that stank ass out of bed, shower and be ready to go in thirty minutes!” He then turned with a grin on his face and exited my room, leaving me staring up at my ceiling, contemplating what I wanted to do. With a heavy sigh, I got up and went to take a quick shower. Once done I threw on a black t-shirt, black jeans and my combat boots. Since the weather has finally brought winter upon us, I rummage through my closet for a jacket. Someone brought my leather jacket back home, the one that I had cradled under Alina’s head while she was lying on the ground.
I hold the sleeve in my hand for a moment but end up pushing it aside, I can’t bear to wear it even though I know it would keep me way warmer on this chilly December night. Instead, I opt for my grey wool pea coat that’s next to it. Slipping it on, I head down the steps making my way to the entry hall where I can hear the hyped-up voices of Devon and the guys. “Yo man, let’s go,” Chris shouts out as he watches me walk towards them all. I shake my head at them as I can foresee a night of debauchery ahead of us.
The first stop we make is to the local nightclub. In the city of Ambrosial, the legal drinking age is 18 so, even Devon is able to drink. We make our way to the bar for some beer.
Slowly the guys begin to leave me one by one as they all go out on the dance floor. A couple of different girls attempted to get me out onto the floor as well, but I wanted no part of it. I chugged another beer and then thoughts of Alina started to trickle across my mind as I realized I never had a chance to bring her here.
Riley walks up to me just as I start to slip into a depression and suggests we head over to the pool hall. I readily agreed to this and walked outside, crossing the street so we could play a few rounds. Of course, we had a few more drinks as well but that is neither here nor there. We weren’t driving and everywhere we wanted to hang out was within walking distance of everything else. I won three rounds at the pool table while the others all just won one. Our night pretty much ended with us all hanging out in Chris’s house eating pizza and drinking more beer, paying half attention to whatever was on the television.
Not once did the guys try to talk about Alina, which I was very thankful for, and the alcohol did its job numbing my brain. Glancing at my watch I was it was about 1:45 in the morning and decided I was going to call it a night and head home. I tell the guys I’m heading out, that I’ll catch up with them later and begin my short journey home. I heard the front door open and close behind me, shortly after changing out of my clothes and pulling on a pair of burgundy-colored sweatpants.
Crawling into bed I rest my head on my pillow as the alcohol takes hold of me and has my room spinning a bit and I smile to myself at the pleasant feeling. Closing my eyes, I fall asleep instantly.
At some point during the night, I hear someone whispering my name in my ear. “Nic, Nic, Nicky…” I open my eyes and have the most beautiful green ones staring back at me. They seem to sparkle as Alina smiles at me.
“If this isn’t the best way to be woken up, then I don’t know what is.” I say quietly as I return her smile with one of my own. Hers falter’s before slipping from her lips. And then it sinks in, another horrid dream! I stare and watch as Alina’s image begins to flicker as it starts to fade away. I can’t help shouting even though I know I’m dreaming; “NO! Don’t go. Please! Alina, stay with me!” She is gone in the blink of an eye once more. I jerk awake as I hear myself whimper, “WHYYY!” I’m in agony. Why does my mind have to torture me so?
Devon comes strolling in with a, “hey dude, you okay?”
I glance at him before saying, “yeah, just a bad dream, I guess.” Running my hand through my hair a couple of times, I randomly think how I need a haircut as my hair is obnoxious, continually falling into my eyes. I grab a shirt from my closet and pull it over my head. Dev slaps me on the back and suggests we head downstairs to raid the kitchen for food.
As we walk out of the bedroom, we hear the doorbell ding and then mom shouts up to me. “Dom honey, there’s someone at the door for you.” Devon and I look at each other curiously and then rush down the stairs to see who could have come by to see me.
Hitting the bottom step, I stop short, I stand in the open doorway with my mouth open wide in shock! “Raegan? What are you doing here?”