Bending Light

23~Cats and Invisibility

(Y/N) woke up to a gray sky, the rain battling its way through the island's foggy cloak. She checked the clock to see that luckily, it was pretty early. Early enough that she had a chance to sneak out again and meet with Millard.

    She caught herself in the mirror without meaning to, realizing it was a good thing she had. Nope, no scarring where any of the various contusions had been. She had wondered how jumping through time would affect the healing process from the whole wight incident. Apparently it hadn't done much.

At dinner last night, her parents hadn't seemed to have noticed that she had left, but maybe they were just letting her get away with it. Either way, she decided, I'm going back for the book, but not without breakfast.

    She turned the doorknob slowly, hoping it wouldn't rattle as she cautiously inched the door open. Looking left and right and seeing nothing, she walked to the staircase, stopping by her parent's door to see if they were awake.

    No noise. Which meant they were still asleep. Ugh, or they're downstairs already, which means they'll see me if I go down, she realized. The only way to find out is to check for movement under the door, I guess.

(Y/N) knelt down on the creaky wooden floor to put her eye level with the crack underneath the door. She saw light—from a lamp, perhaps—and a shadow moving along the floor.

Just then, the door at the end of the hall opened, and Jacob came out. Quickly, (Y/N) fumbled around with her hands, acting as if she was looking for something that she had dropped. Fortunately for her, however, Jacob decided to focus on something else, and as she stood up, she saw him slipping his father a note.

"Sneaking out?" she asked him in a whisper, trying not to grin.

Her cousin shrugged. "Yeah," he grinned back.

"Guess we'll do it together," (Y/N) replied, tiptoeing quickly back into her room to grab them a bag of pretzels.

Seeing her arrive, Jacob smiled, most likely reminiscing about the old days when they would sit at their grandfather's house, snacking on salted pretzels while pouring over maps. Then, they would wake up early in the mornings and try to explore the woods behind the house. They had even created their own map at one point, with a key and everything.

Handing Jacob a handful of pretzels, (Y/N) started gently descending the stairs. When they reached the bottom, they found only a few people sitting at the bar while Kev quietly wiped down a table. When nobody looked up, (Y/N) grabbed her cousin's arm and they tried their best to exit as quickly and quietly as possible.

When they opened the door, they were greeted with the sound of rain pattering on the rooftops and the stone streets of Cairnholm. (Y/N) shook some pretzel dust off of her gray ruched rain jacket, then stared approvingly at her red rubber boots. For once, I'm dressed for the weather! she thought proudly.

They made their way quietly towards the house, splashing their way through puddles as they climbed the hill. At one point, they reached a particularly slippery point and both nearly slid back down the hill. Grabbing each other, they steadied themselves and (Y/N) laughed in relief, trying to see past the rain stuck on her eyelashes.

The silence having finally been broken, Jacob decided to speak. "Hey, (Y/N), have you noticed things from the loop like, dying?"

When (Y/N) gave him a questioning glance, he took a breath and tried to explain himself better.

"Like, I brought an apple back to my room, but it basically crumbled into dust."

"Oh," (Y/N) thought of The Book, and tried not to look too nervous. "I haven't brought anything back yet, but maybe we should ask somebody when we get there."