Down End Road

Alexander Griffin

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Myra had a full on break down in the woods, the day she told me everything. She told me how something was happening and that's why all the creatures from the portals were becoming so rambunctious. Why the Jefferson portal had grown a dangerous virus. Why the Washington portal was such a dark place, when it used to be a bright oasis.

She told me about how Abigail Adams somehow brought balance to all of it. How all the monsters would bow down to her. How the portals listened to her. She told me how John Adams had thought that she was their queen and that when the order of Adams was closed he hoped their bloodline would rise again one day and save everyone.

She thought that if we could find the order of Adam's legacy, the Queen, then everything would go back to normal. I had sat on the log, silent through it all. She had been attending summer school for two months now and she hadn't been told the whole truth by anyone.

The sound of sobs filled my ears again as she cried at the end of her confession and suspicions. "I know it's basically treason to even think this but, I can't help but wonder why no one knows about the order of Adams and why everyone is so hell bent on keeping everything as vague as possible!" Myra wailed.

I moved from my spot on the log and tentatively slid my arms around her shoulders, hugging her to me and drawing soothing patterns along her arms. She snuggled deeper into my chest and sniffled back her cries.

I pulled her away and turned her tear stained face up to meet my gaze. Her wide ocean blue eyes glistened with tears in the warm afternoon rays. Her frayed denim shorts and simple white v-neck so different from her usual style.

She had been on the verge of breaking for two weeks and it wrecked me every time I watched her eyes grow vacant and eerily distant.

"I don't want to loose the Society or the portals Alex. There are animals and creatures and... monsters in the portals that could possibly die and the thought breaks me in two. I feel like I have the power to do something about it but, I don't know what." She ranted.

I tucked a loose curl behind her ear and she raised her gaze back to mine again. "I think I have to tell you something." I say, my voice hoarse. "Your parents..." I trailed off not knowing how to phrase my life changing news.

"If this is another prejudice comment about my ancestry I think I am going to scream." Myra informed exasperatedly. I shook my head and blew out a sigh.

"Your parents were kicked out of the society because of two alleged crimes. One is consulting with people they weren't supposed to, i.e. the supposed descendants of the order of Adams." I sucked in a sharp breath. " And the other was trespassing on private grounds. Private grounds belonging to the order of Adams, or what used to belong to them anyways, now it belongs to The Society itself."

I felt my shoulders tense as I prepared myself for what I was about to say next. "There was a third charge, but they could never get grounds for it. They accused your parents, well mostly your father, of the murder of me and Maverick's dads." I informed her.

Myra sat unbearably still. Her brows furrowed, eyes downcast and darkened in thought. She slowly lifted her confused gaze to mine and I saw a look of hurt flash across her features.

"You knew." She murmured quietly, almost to herself. "You knew and you didn't tell me." Myra stated, her face scrunched like the words had left a bitter taste in her mouth. "You knew and you didn't tell me!" She finally yelled, jumping up.

I hopped up also, my tall frame towering over her. Her angry resolve almost slipped when she glared into my brown orbs. "I- ugh!" She groaned, before stepping up onto the tree log so she was a few centimetres taller than me.

"Why didn't you tell me! Or at least hint it to me." Myra exclaimed. Her shoulders shook with rage while she tried to fight the smile that clawed its way to her lips. "I'm smiling. I'm smiling." Myra said, almost as if she were assuring herself. "I'm officially off my rocker. Goodbye" Myra stated with a wave, then proceeded to hop off the log and walk in the opposite direction of the manor.

I stared after her curiously, studied how her steps were wide and her gait tense. I looked at her until I realised she wasn't joking. Using my gifts, I sped over to Myra and was in front of her in the blink of an eye.

"Where are you going," I asked. She ignored me and ploughed on. A determined line set her lips.

Walking backwards, I stared at her face, inspecting the way her eyes were glassy and the way her lashes fluttered far too often and irregularly. I saw her eyes were still puffy and red from crying. How her cheeks still had the dried trail of her salty tears glued to them.

Then I looked closer, at the little things I had noticed before. I stared at the grey-purplish bags under her eyes, the frizziness of her hair, how her shoulders weren't pulled back, but sagged with an imaginary weight. Her skin wasn't so tan anymore either, more pale and sickly.

She looked like a mess. A beautiful mess. However, the tenacious gleam in her blue depths had come back. It made her more... her. As I kept walking backwards, Myra kept shooting me dry looks.

"What on earth are you following me for!" Myra finally yelled. I smiled, flashing my pearly white teeth. I saw her lips curve slightly too, I knew she liked it when I smiled like this. I knew it cheered her up.

"Wherever you go I go," I blurted before my brains filter could kick in. She tumbled into me and looked up at me with bugged out eyes.

"You don't mean that." Myra whispered. It was the truth, the pure, unfiltered, raw truth that had possibly just scared away Myra. Unsure of whether to deny it or not I stood rigidly and stared at her blankly.

She gazed up at me with a vulnerability and shook her head as if to add vindication to what she said next. "You don't mean that." She breathed.

"I'm going home. I'm officially quitting for the first time in my life and leaving all this craziness behind." Myra affirmed loudly. She winced when the crows in the trees squawked and fled the scene. Not even they wanted to bear witness to her giving up.

I stared at her, beyond boggled on so many levels, then calmed down and said level-headedly "if your going I'm going." Both of us stood in silence. Something changed in her eyes as she stared up at me a look of... something indecipherable on her face.

"You can't come with me." She said quietly. "You have ties to this place, ones that can't be broken without breaking you."

I shook my head. For the first time I realised that as long as she was alive and okay, I was going to be okay. That as long as she was with me, I would always be happy albeit sometimes annoyed.

Friends, friends, friends, friends, friends, friends. My brain chanted.

But you could be more.

Something deep inside of me reminded. I was extremely close to telling Myra something I wouldn't be able to take back, when she finally broke the heavy silence.

"I don't want to leave this place. I don't want to leave with the knowledge of... well everything I know, knowing I could of helped." The air grew thick with emotion as tears yet again shone in Myra's gorgeous blue depths. "I want to do something about it. I want to help save the portals. And to do that, I think I need to find the order of Adam's descendant." She murmured. "Gosh I'm crying. Why am I crying." She muttered to herself

I ignored the last part. "Then we can find them together." I assured, emphasising the we part and taking her hand in mine.