Chapter One
In the halls of the Sullivan residence, sleep had taken its toll. The youngest had shifted in her bed, still blissfully under slumber’s spell, and her dreams were full of color, which was as it should be. Remember those days where all you could dream about was color. Bright ones that made you smile and dark somber ones that confused you. That was what dreams should be. The other residents of the Sullivan estate were knocked out as well, taking a break from mingling with the rest of the world’s creatures. The sun had yet to cast her gaze on the house, and it remained as so, even though it was well past morning and moving to noon.
It was of an unnatural case for some people, but for those who resided in the Sullivan estate, it was no trouble finding out who did it. She rarely made her presence known, but when she did, it was big. Just like the rest of the family, they liked it fancy and ostentatious… not that when she did appear, you’d realize it for you’d be frozen
The time keeper necklace rested against her neck, her black hair was let down. Catherine De Blois' brown eyes scanned the room before they landed on the sole being that was not frozen or sleeping. And when she said frozen, she meant it in quite the literal sense of not being capable of moving.
Clarissa Sullivan looked up from the book on her lap, her black hair up in her usual ponytail. She felt the way all time and presence froze around her, and she found it amusing that she was the only one immune to her dear cousin’s abnormal control. This visit didn’t mean good news though, and she knew by the way her face held a bored look, the way her dark eyes cast over the other person in the room, hands clenched into an automated fist.
“You… can’t be serious.”
“I’m afraid I'm trying to be.”
“But you can’t do this.”
“It’s not really my decision.” Catherine sighed and withdrew into the confines of the hanging chair, head lolling against the shell. She fingered the necklace and let out a soft sigh. “It seems like the transfer's gonna be permanent. Don’t look at me like that Clarissa, you know as well as I that she has nowhere else to go. She’s our kin, family, and we don’t let them down or let them go on by themselves. She's welcome here.”
Clarissa ignored Catherine’s little speech and stared at the window with a withering glare. “She’ll be dead in ten seconds. She has not been trained, she has not lived here long enough to know the rules, and she has not shown any signs of being supernatural in her seventeen years of existence. I find it troublesome that your father decides that she should just, oh, come back to the estate, skipping on sunshine and spewing rainbows for the hell of it.”
“Please.” Catherine relaxed, seeing that Clarissa was no longer looking like a wild panther ready to strike. “Give her a little credit; she won’t die in ten seconds, I’d give it a minute, she’s a Porter after all. Besides Clarissa, that’s underestimating your own cousin, twice removed. I think you should just let things go as they should. Don’t bother yourself with getting into these things head first. The council’s been up to no good ever since you and I turned eighteen, and you heard about the prophecy. So just relax, time will take over and before you know it you’ll have Michael in another death grip.”
“You don’t seem to take your job seriously.” Clarissa went back to her book and turned the page from where she’d finished reading. “Sometimes I wonder why you’re the leader.”
Catherine chuckled quietly from the hanging chair and unfroze all. Life came back to the residence and the sun began to shine yet again. “I wonder that too cousin, I wonder that too.”
