Charmed [✔]

25.1 ▌Origin of the Birthmark

June 16, 2014
XXX Country

IT WAS a dream. That was Elise wanted to make herself believe. Aricson's bloodied body kept on frequenting on her mind like a broken record. Her fingers clutched the black feather dangling in her neck. Everything was too real to be considered a dream.

Her eyes scanned the room as she lay on the velvet sheets that she was used to. Her bedroom was filled with a mixture of fragrances of herbs and dried plants. Her laptop was in place and even the stacks of books beside it were not moved.

It was hard to believe she had been missing for almost three months when everything remained the same.

Her door was pushed open and her mom appeared carrying a tray of breakfast.

"You're awake. Are you alright now? Should we go back to the hospital?" her mom fussed over as she put the tray on the bedside table.

"It's okay, Mom. I've been staying there for three days already and nothing's wrong. I know my body," she replied but the memory of her return sprang in an instant. 

After witnessing Aricson's tragedy, she appeared right in their house's backyard. She remembered the loud sirens of the ambulance and the incoherent words of her parents before she lost consciousness. It was only this morning when she woke up and learned that she had been out cold for two straight days.

"Elise..." her mom called.

She turned her head toward her. "Yes?"

"I made an appointment with the psychiatrist this afternoon. Do you want to go?" her mom treaded the words very carefully.

A long exhale left her mouth. She didn't need therapy. What she needed was to know what happened to Aricson.

She tugged the blanket and faced the other direction, trying to hide the complex expression making way on her face.

"I'm okay, Mom. I'm just tired. Just give me some time to rest. Please."

"I understand. Make sure to drink your medicine after eating, okay?"

She bobbed her head and waited for the door to click. She sat up and rolled her sleeves. She hopped out of her bed, trying to verify it in the mirror. She noticed it when she changed earlier but she wanted to deny it.

However, no matter how many times she looked, there was really nothing. Her birthmark was completely gone.

June 19, 2014
XXX Country

THE DAYS were meant to pass ordinarily but everyone was walking on eggshells with her. Edward and Ethan, those pesky brothers of hers seemed to have flipped in a full 180.

Their smirks of mischief were nowhere to be found and they stared at her with strange looks. Then there was Evelyn who she almost did not recognize. Her little sister only knew the color black but in just a span of months of not seeing each other, her wardrobe choice had transformed into a rainbow.

If not for her mom, she would have thought she was sent into an alternate universe instead. That theory would not probably be far off. If another world existed, maybe an alternate could too.

Elise continued to crush the herbs. Aside from the names, most herbs were the same in Elith. Only that they had more variation and those with magical effects.