Just One Word?

Chapter 24

~~~Time Skip to after reset~~~

"Children, I will be up in 2 minutes and 32 seconds. Go ahead and head to bed." She says and the children nod before making their way upstairs. I lingered behind.

"That goes for you too, y/n." She says, but what I hoped was a joke wasn't. She was being serious. "The guest bedroom is already set up." She says, leaving a pang of disappointment in my chest. I nod before turning towards the staircase, but stopping when my foot hit the first step.

"If you need me, I will be there. I'm sorry." I say and let out a small sigh. "I love you, Alma." When the silence lingered, I turned and made my way upstairs, the only sound being my shoes against the steps.

~~~~~~

"You are only another problem in the way! Move aside and let her just live her life."

My eyes shot open as I look around the room. Just a dream. I sit up knowing I won't be able to fall asleep again and gaze out the window. The moon was still high in the sky which means it's probably somewhere around midnight. I stretch before standing and quietly stepping out of the guest room. Making my way down the stairs, I was careful to not wake anyone else as it was very late. When I made it to the bottom, I made my way to the living room, stopping at the door way. Was there a candle in there before?

"Dear, what are you doing up?"

I jumped as I turned around quickly to suddenly see a flash off yellow and orange fall to the floor and going out leaving the hallway pitch black. Panic seizes me as I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and suddenly the light reappeared, illuminating Almas blue eyes. She held a candle with her one hand as she gave me a look with a raised eyebrow that came off as 'seriously?'.

"You sure enjoy scaring the daylights out of people." I say but she doesn't smile. "How long were you standing there?" I ask suddenly which eventually makes her grin.

"Long enough." She says simply as she walks past me, dropping her hand from my wrist and making her way to the chair in the living room. "You're lucky you didn't catch the house on fire." She says and I realized it was the candle I originally knocked out of her hand.

"Probably not now, but just wait till I ever cook." I joke and she chuckles. I follow her into the living room and sit across from her on the couch.

"What are you even doing up still?" I ask out of curiosity and she smiles.

"I should be asking you the same thing." She replies. "A ymbryne doesn't need much sleep. I can stay up all night and not even feel tired much."

"I once stayed up for two days straight and didn't feel even a little tired." I say which draws in her curiosity.

"Is there a possibility you could be a ymbryne?" She asks and I shake my head.

"I highly doubt that."

"You also doubted about the home of peculiars also and look where you are now." She says and I give her a look making her laugh. "I am curious though as to what your peculiarity could be. You haven't shown many signs of a specific talent."

"There's always that possibility I don't have one." I counter and she shakes her head.

"No, you have to or else you wouldn't have been able to make it through the loop." She says as she tries to think of a possibility. When she fails to come to a conclusion she sighs and looks back over to me. "You should go back to bed."

"No, I'm not very tired. In fact, I feel more awake." I say.

"Really? You only slept for about 3 hours." She says as she raises an eyebrow at me. I shrug and her lips thin into a line as she thinks. "Y/n, I want to see you tomorrow outside near the garden."

"I'm not in trouble, am I?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"No, of course not. What makes you think that?" I think back to the dream, but decide it would be stupid to bring up.

"Nothing." Silence spread for a moment until she stood up from the chair and walked over to me, lifting me from the couch her hands in mine. She brings me with her upstairs and she pauses by the guest bedroom. As selfish as it sounds, I don't want to be in there alone. I wanted to stay with Alma.

"Will you be alright by yourself tonight?" She asks and I pause a moment.

"If you wouldn't mind-"

"I would not mind anything." She says and pauses a moment as she rethinks her answer. "Unless its about you staying up."

"No." I say with a little laugh. "I was just wondering, could I stay with you tonight?" I say, my face heating up from what I said and I could've sworn her cheeks turned a bit pink as she gave me a lopsided grin.

"Of course." She says and I feel my chest swell at her voice. My eyes went back down to her lips as I think back to the one night. She kissed me, but in the moment it probably didn't mean much. This time though, I wanted to relive the moment again and react differently. That's when I realized,

I fell in love with the bird.
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