Just Between You and Me

“GET OUT OF OUR WAY YOU PUNKS!” Anika yells at the top of her lungs, knocking the last of the corrupted back with her mace.

“OWOWOOW!” cheers Musa. “Nice job, Anika! UP TOP!”  They go to high-five five each other but miss, hitting each other in the face. The two real back in pain. “OuouiooOoOuuIuU!”

“Are you two okay!? I’ll heal you,”  Fhrana rushes over to them.

Roy rolls his eyes, “They are fine, they are just idiots.”

Hazel laughs, “They both are just having fun.”

He turns to her, “Please don’t encourage them.”

“I haven’t the slightest idea what you are talking about.” Her smile can be seen under her mass of hair.

“Paula, please talk some senses into these crazies!” Roy shouts exasperatedly

“Come on Roy you have to admit that they are fun to be around.” Paula rests her hand on his shoulder.

He pulls his hair, “Aug! I am surrounded by single-celled organisms!”

“What?” Musa asks scratching his head.

“I am saying none of you are the sharpest tools in the shed!”

Anika fires back, “At least we are in the shed and not rusting in the rain like you!”

“Nice one Anika,” Hazel giggles.

Roy gives up. “Can we just fix the cracks and get the heck out of here!”

“Right, let’s do it,” Fhrana nods.

“So where is the source?” Paula asks him.

He looks around and smells the air.

“He’s doing it again,” Roy states blankly.

“It’s his process, let him work,” Anika nudges Roy. “Just get used to it.”

“So how does that work?” Musa asks, “You know, how does Fhrana find the cracks?”

Hazel clears her throat, “Well, he is a part of this world, he is meant to stop the Shattering. The cracks are the first signs of it after all.” She fixes her cloudy glasses. “It is a magic thing I guess, he is a being made of magic meant to stop magic. It makes sense that he would be able to find it. After all, how can you stop something if you cannot find it?”

“Wow, Haz you’re pretty smart.” Musa stairs in shock.

Paula smiles, “That’s Hazel for you, smart but don’t show.”

“This way everyone,” Fhrana points then sprints in that direction.

“Fhrana, wait up don’t get too far ahead of us we can’t run that fast!” Roy shouts after him.

“Speak for yourself, slow pock,” Musa mokes, running ahead of him.

“Yeah this is nothing,” Anika adds, getting in front of Musa.

“It’s a race then!” Paula suggests.

“Heck yes!” Hazel agrees. “Come on Roy I thought you were always up for change.”

“Or was that all talk,” Anika finishes for her.

“I’ll show you all!” Roy races ahead. “The last one there has to buy lunch tomorrow!”

“Deal!” shouts Musa, Anika, and Paula at once.

Hazel runs ahead of them all, “And the first one there gets to pick the place.” After several minutes of running, they caught up to Fhrana.

“I won!” Muza shouts. “WOOOWOWOOWOWO, YAY”

“No, you fool, I won,” Roy interjects. “I clearly got here first.”

“Oh come on you two, it was obviously me,” Anika picks the two up by their shirts.”

“Actually, Paula got here before all of you,” Fhrana points over to her, and she waves to them.

“How!” The three shout.

Hazel joins them puffing, “Looks like I lost.” She gives a big smile.

“Haz what are you smiling about?” Musa asks her.

“Nothing it’s just-” she brushes herself off, “-good to have friends.”

“Heck yeah.” Anika throws her arm around her shoulder. “And as long as we stick together there is nothing we won’t do.”

“You mean nothing we can’t do,” Fhrana corrects.

Anika laughs, “Nope, we are going to do it all, everything that can be done in this world and ten times that!”

“You are actually completely and utterly insane,” Roy states blankly.

“Heck yeah, Big A is right! We got this! WWOOWOOWOOWOO!” cheers Musa.

Roy whips around to him, “Not you two!”

“Their energy is contagious!” Paula laughs.

“Paula, please!”

Hazel clears her throat, “Guys, we have cracks to fix.”

“Right,” Fhrana nods. “Everyone impositions!”

All six of them line up alongside the glowing magic cracks. Giving everything they can using all their magic power the cracks heal, leaving the normal landscape behind.

Roy sighs, “That is exhausting.” Falling to his knees.

“It was worse with only three of us doing it,” Anika replies.

“How the heck did you guys do it?” Musa asks flopping down onto the ground.

Hazel shakes her head, “I still don’t know.”

“We should probably start heading back to the doorway,” Paula says standing up.

“Right,” Fhrana agrees. While walking back down the path the group talks about the situation.

“So this the second group of cracks forming. But who or what is causing it?” Roy asks rubbing his sore arm.

“We have no clue,” Hazel sighs. “ But whoever it is, why they are doing it, that really doesn’t matter, because their actions are pointing the world in danger.”

“When I get my hands on them I’m going to r-” Anika rages.

Paule cuts her off, “Let’s focus on finding this guy then we can figure out what we will do.”

“When we get out of here we should head to the library,” Hazel suggests.

Fhrana turns to her, “Library? What’s that?”

“It’s a giant building full of books,” Roy explains.

“Building full of books, are you sure that’s not Heaven?” Fhrana says starry-eyed.

“More like Hell to me,” Anika makes a look of disgust.

Musa nods, “Yeah, Haz, why do you want to go there?”

“On the off chance that there could be information for us to use,” she explains.

“It’s a long shout but she is right it won’t hurt to look,” Paula agrees.

“It might just kill me,” Anika gags.

“Me too,” Muse adds, “I have a medical condition.”

“For the last time, learningitest is not a disease,” Roy scolds them.

“Well, here we are,” Fhrana stops, “I’ll see you guys if more cracks form, have fun at the library.”

Paula hugs him, “Thank you for everything.”

“Yeah thanks, dude,” Musa joins the hug, “I would say see you soon but that would be in bad taste.”

“We need to get going, come on,”  Roy mutters.

“Come on Roy you have to admit that this was at least a bit fun,” Anika nugs him.

“It was tolerable.”

“That a start,” Hazel laughs.

The five wave bye to Fhrana, head through the doorway, and straight their town library. After looking for hours they find nothing that would help them.

As all of them walk out Hazel apologies, “Sorry everyone thought that we could at least find something.”

“Hey don’t bet yourself up Haz,” Musa assures her. “None of us had any other ideas so it was better than nothing.”

“Let’s keep looking tomorrow,” Roy starts. “We didn’t look at everything so-”

“We are not spending all day tomorrow in the dumb library!” Anika protests.

“Oh come on just we can’t just go in blind with this!” Roy yells.

“There’s no need for yelling!” Paula gets between.

“We know what we are doing!” Anika fires back.

“Dudes chills,” Muse tries to help.  

Hazel hangs back from the rest of the group. Walking back into the library, she removes her glass and pushes back the hair that obstructs most of her face. “I know you see me.” She walks into the study. “You’ve been watching us since this thing began.” Hazel removes a small knife from her bag, slashing the wallpaper with it leaving behind magic cracks that start to slow spread. “Why am I doing this? HEHEHHEHEHEHEHHEHE” She laughs madly. “Simple. If there are no cracks everything would go back to normal. We can’t have that now, can we?”As Hazel walks around the room she runs the knife across the wall spreading more cracks, still laughing. “The others enjoy our adventures together repairing this world.” The lights of the room flicker. “I enjoy it too. What can I say it is good to have friends.” She removes the blade from the wall. “Let us make this our little secret, alright, the others don’t need to know it’s for the best.” She places the knife back into the bag and exits the room.

“Yo! Haz, there you are! Why did you run off like that?” Anika shouts from behind running up to her.

Hazel puts her glasses back on and fixes her hair, “Sorry, I forgot my bag in the study.”

Anika shakes her head, “It’s alright, just say something next time, you kinda freaked everyone else out a bit.”

“I’m sorry for scaring you all,” Hazel says sweetly

“Hey, I wasn’t scared!” Anika protests.

“Sure you weren’t,” Hazel mocks.

“ARRR! Why are you like this?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea of what you are talking about.”

Anika sighs, “Do you want to go to your house and play video games.”

“Heck yes,” Hazel cheers. “Let me call my Mom to tell her you’re coming over.”

“Alright, I go ahead and tell the others you are alright.” Anika runs ahead.

Hazel beings her glasses down below her blood moon-colored eyes, “This is just between you and me.”