A Late Happy New Year?

Well, hello there!

It's kind of pointless telling you all HAPPY NEW YEAR when I'm 23 days late, but I'm going to say it anyway.
HAPPY.
NEW.
YEAR.

 

There's one thing that happens to me every new year, and I'm told that most people feel the same way. Writing the date. This happens to me with months, but years? I cannot tell you how many times I've written 2012 when I was supposed to write 2013. I do it even now.
I haven't updated in forever but that's mainly because there's nothing really to update about. But, I decided that I'd let out a snippet of what I've done. You've heard one of the sentences.

“Get lost, Felix,” I sneered before the Council could address him. “Just . . . go.”

He closed his eyes for a longer period of time and smiled, “Well, then, I’m afraid Evaline, that it would be quite pointless coming here in the first place.”

The plump woman; the woman I really didn’t like, suddenly stepped forward. Even though she was about half my size, she trotted towards Felix, in her little red high heels, and raised her chin. “Excuse me, Mr. Felix Grayback. But, according the Law, you have absolute no right or reason to enter the threshold—”

Felix’s hand outstretched and grabbed the woman’s neck, she started choking, and everyone took one step forward, but didn’t dare get any closer. We were all frozen. The woman was gasping for air even though she couldn’t find any. She was on her tip toes, her plump legs too short to reach the ground. Her hands and fingers were wrapped around Felix’s wrist, and she was trying with all her might to get his hand off her throat. Finally, after waiting excruciatingly long seconds, he dropped the woman, and she crumpled to the floor. Two of the Council place.

Felix smiled again. “I was hoping that would be reason enough to let me in.” He was staring right at me, as if questioning me, no daring me to say otherwise.

I gulped. This was not going to be good. Felix took that as his cue and entered the room, his feet clomping against the hard tile floor. Instead of us leading him, he led us into a room, and I felt that he was all too familiar with this place.

I sat down across from him and looked around for Natalia. Was she here? Did she know? She wasn’t there among the faces although I could have sworn she was in the building. I’ve seen her before this. “What do you want?” I said, cutting back on the small-talk. “Just tell us . . . and leave. We have enough tension here anyway; we don’t need you to make it worse. How did you get here anyway?”

He shrugged. “Same technique,” he said, probably thinking back to the Council member. I shuddered. Just the thought of seeing him do that again felt like his hand was wrapped around my own throat.

“What do you want?” I repeated.

He raised both eyebrows. “I am impressed, Evaline, you seem to be the leader of everything now. Even the Council members are not stopping you. Must be because of . . .”

“My coat,” I sneered. “We all know. Just go on.”

He chuckled, and at that moment I realized that, that noise was number one on the list, “Most Annoying Sounds I Have Ever Heard”. Right next to him actually talking. “Well, Evaline,” he started. “What fun would that be?”’

When he looked at all our serious faces he chuckled again. “Okay, okay,” he said grinning. “I was hoping . . . well, I think it would be a better idea just to show you.”

I looked at him, thinking he would pull something out of his pocket, but instead he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, “Aurelie! Come out, now!” Suddenly, out of thin air, appears a silhouetted figure at first, but then the color comes and a girl who could be no more than thirteen, Taylors age. She was beautiful in that slightly childish way. I knew that she was beautiful just by her flowing and silky hair that looked like dark brown with a few light brown strands here and there, her slightly tanned skin, her heart-shaped lips, angular cheekbones, and eyes that hinted she was from an Asian descent.

“What is she doing here?”

The voice came from the far side of the room, and I was surprised to hear because it sounded awfully like . . .Taylor. My eyes focused on Taylor, who looked like she was going to explode. Then I realized she actually knew this girl. And if she knew this girl . . . that means she knows Felix. I stared at her until she looked at me, but she only looked for a seconds, like a glance. I knew that look meant she would explain later, so I kept my lips zipped tight.

Felix looked actually pretty surprised to see Taylor standing there, but the look of recognition was on his face. “Ah, Taylor.  I heard what happened to your mother.”

I didn’t think it was possible at first, but I knew I was wrong, when I literally saw the steam come out of her ears. “What happened?” Felix continued, as if he didn’t know. He looked straight at me. “I heard it was a . . . fire.”

I had a sudden urge to tell Felix off by saying, ‘Might want to check your sources, Felix, because it wasn’t my fault’. I realized I couldn’t say that, because what Felix said was true. I tried to stay away from it, but I looked down in embarrassment and regret. Thankfully, no one noticed.

Suddenly Taylor was in front of Felix, her hands wrapped around the hilt of short pocket knife. One stab, and it would hurt Felix, but not kill him. He looked at her, amused, as if he dared her to pull that off. She stood in front of him, one foot rested on the loveseat, and the other on the ground. Her hands were next to her chest, and it was a great position to do what I thought she would do. Stab him. I wanted her to do it. But something told me she wouldn’t.

“I’ve had enough of you.” I was apparently wrong, because Taylor raised the knife above her head when we all heard a shout.