Down End Road

We all stood hunched over the study table, our eyes squinted in concentration as we stared at the almost illegible family tree.

It had been a week since I had told Maverick and Ally about everything we had learned so far. As expected they were shocked into silence when they learned of my suspicions of the portals dying and how the Order of Adams was shut down because of the jealousy of the other orders.

Maverick, as always, was understanding and forgave me for lying to him and keeping so many secrets. I mean I know we had only been friends for two months, but still, they had become like family.

I looked over to Ally, whose body was angled toward the door, as if she were ready to bolt the minute we were done. She had taken the news a little differently. Ally was bitter about the whole ordeal but I think it was more of the fact that she was still trying to process what I had told her about the Society.

The Society was her life, was her future, and if it was gone, then she thought she had nothing left. I looked over to Maverick, his platinum blonde hair had fallen like a curtain in front of his forehead.

“What are we looking for again?” Alex asked, I moved round to his side and tilted my head to get a better view of the parchment.

“You are looking for any descendants of John and Abigail Adams.” Miss Wilson answered from the spiral staircase. She wore a long crushed velvet magenta blazer with wide leg magenta trousers, and underneath a simple white t-shirt.

I don’t know how she would manage the heat if she were to step outside. It was 40 degrees celsius that day and ninety nine percent of the student body was in shorts, well all except for the freshman kid Ian black, who was wearing some kind of weird workout tracksuit.

“It looks like it stops after their kids’ kids.” Ally called out, her eyes still trained on the yellowed parchment.

“Well look harder then, the most important parts of history are often the ones that are buried beneath lies.” Miss Wilson retorted.

I swallowed dryly remembering the diary. “I can’t take this anymore, its too hot, even with the AC on I feel like a melting popsicle,” Maverick whined. “Speaking of which I am going to go get one.” Maverick said.

“Fine, lets just take a break.” I suggested. Everyone nodded and made their way to the door, Ally was almost out the door when I called out to her.

“All- wait up!” She halted her escape and slowly turned to face me.

I gulped and looked at her awkwardly, at a loss for words. “Uh, wanna’ go for some coffee in town?” I asked. She looked at me blankly before she slowly nodded.

I felt my muscles tense before they slowly eased. I grabbed my coat before leading the way to my car. We drove over to Lucinda’s Coffee house, a place me and my friends would go to all the time.

The big clock on the wall and eclectic boho vibe brought me a small sense of homey comfort. After we ordered we went over to a table and couch in the back, illuminated by warm golden lamps.

An awkward silence stretched between us as I struggled to come up with something to say. I opened my mouth, then shut it. Ally fiddled with her hands as the silence grew.

Suddenly, the tension imploded, “I’m sorry!” We both said in sync.

I looked over to her with a small smile as a laugh escaped me. I bit my lip and winced. “I’m sorry didn’t tell you what was going on.” I apologised.

“No, I’m sorry for being totally lame this past week. I just... was being stupid.” Ally sighed. I shook my head.

“No you have every right to be mad at me.” I justified. “I was keeping everything from you and being distant and weird. You didn’t deserve that, none of you did.” I explained. “I just felt like if I told someone, suddenly it would be real, and I guess scared of it becoming reality.” I confessed.

“I get that, and you really don’t have to tell me everything. It’s just I was overthinking everything and then my gifts kicked in and came up with every reason as to why you could be so quiet, and it just made me feel awful. You have been dealing with a lot recently and I just added to that. Like I said I was being stupid.” She unriddled.

I nodded in understanding. “Ugh, we should have done this sooner.” I joked light-heartedly. Ally nodded in agreement just as our overflowing coffee ice cream floats came.

“This is what I have been wanting all year.” I mumbled taking a sip of the creamy cold goodness. “They only do these things during summer break and I look forward to it every year.” I said.

Ally nodded and took a sip. She scrunched her eyebrows together in thought as something dawned on her. “Hey Myra, how d’ya know about the whole portals dying thing.“Ally quizzed, I looked up at her before looking around the cafe to check for any prying ears.

“A while back, Miss Wilson gave me John Adam’s journal, I read it and connected the dots. Why?” I asked.

“It’s just, if there was a Queen now, then everything should be fine, whether we acknowledged her or not as long as the portals acknowledged her bloodline everything should be fine,” Ally theorised.

I looked at her strangely while the gears in her head turned. “Ally, what are you getting at?” I asked.

“what if it’s not that it needs the physical queen but that it needs the queen to do something?” She finished.

“But what on earth would the queen have to do?” I asked, feeling awfully stupid.

“In science everything needs balance. To keep the equilibrium, but when you take away one of the opposing forces the equilibrium is thrown off. What if its the same for the portals. Something was taken away and the equilibrium was thrown off.” I stared at her with in awe of her smarts

Ally sat with a thoughtful look on her face. Her eyebrows furrowed and eyes downcast and unfocused as the gears turned.

The bell suddenly rang as two kids from the order walked through. One threw me a nervous glance before tapping his friend and jerking his head toward me. I scowled in there direction as the discreetly tried to study me.

I. Was. Peeved.

Ally noticed my shift in mood and drew her brows together. She looked in the direction of of my scowl and sighed.

“Let’s get out of here.” Ally tugged me out of my seat, my scowl still transfixed on them as I gathered my things.

We passed by the two gawkers and as I walked by two words stopped me dead in my tracks just in earshot of their table.

“Monster Queen.”

I froze in place my muscles coiled tightly.

Queen.

I didn’t dare let myself think of that word for two more seconds before I rushed out of the café, past Ally and bursted out the glass door.

Outside I put a hand on my hip and did a slow paced circle in the little cobbled side-street next to the café. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

I had suppressed any afterthought to care about what everyone at the society thought of me for most of my time there, but it was all slowly starting surface. All the pain and betrayal of people I thought, at the least, were good people to hang out with in class, now acted as if I was a leper.

Queen.

I felt tears sting the back of my eyes as my vision blurred, and morphed all the houses into splotches of colour.

I bit my fist to stop the whimper that threatened to escape. That word circulated my mind, leaving a trail of endless destructive questions, theories and thoughts.

A pair of footsteps sounded down the street as Ally came in sight, her face morphed into a look of sympathy she took me in her arms and said kind encouragements, not questioning my state or if I was okay, just dealing with the issue at hand.

She guided us back to my jeep and drove us back to the manor. Where a dark tumultuous cloud, roiled and poured down warm, fat rain droplets.