After a few minutes of following Hailey down the snow-covered streets, Kait tried to start a conversation. “I don’t think I need it too much now, but do you want to see the spell I mentioned?”

Hailey snapped out of her aloof stupor. “Oh, sure.”

Kait picked a stick up from the sidewalk, then closed her eyes and held it close to her face. She began to run in place alongside Hailey, holding the stick like a baton. “As long as I keep running like this, I won’t get cold.”

Hailey glanced at her. There was a strange aura around Kait that made the light seem to move and bend strangely. “Woah, that’s weird.”

“What is?”

“Oh, its just light refraction.” Hailey realized.

Kait raised an eyebrow skeptically. “A-anyway, it’s a little too hot with this sweater on...” She dropped the stick and stumbled into a regular walk. After a moment of walking, Kait gave Hailey a skeptical stare. “Could I touch your forehead for a second? I need to check something.”

“What? I mean...sure? Feel free to...touch my forehead?”

Kait put two of her fingers to Hailey’s forehead for a second, then removed them. “Yep...that’s what I thought…”

Hailey kept looking at Kait, waiting for an explanation that never came. A few minutes later, the phone’s path ended. “It’s just down this street…?” Her confusion quickly melted away when they took a turn onto the street in question, where she then looked between Kait and the house with wide-eyed surprise, “Is this the place?”

“Yep, huge, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t a house but a mansion Hailey easily recognized. “Wait, how did you get a job with Lulikan Snowley?”

“Well, he’s the person who paid for me to stay at your house. Do you know him?”

“Of course I do! He’s the most famous person in town! Well, he’s also our father’s friend, so it isn’t all too surprising I do. But whatever, If that’s it, I’m going back home.”

“I think I’ll be fine. Bye!” Kait waved to Hailey, and they parted ways.

A bus passed Hailey on her way home, and without thinking, she hid behind a lamppost. No one would recognize her beneath the sunglasses and winter coat, but she still felt scared someone she knew would see her from the bus...She didn’t know why, but that thought scared her...Pathetic.

When she returned home, Hailey lounged on the couch and watched a show on her phone, but tiredness took hold of her, and she could hardly pay attention to it. She kept thinking about her friends. Since Abbie died, she had only seen her two next best friends, Linne and Tara, once; during the funeral. She couldn’t even remember if she had spoken to them...After putting her phone down, assuming she would quickly resume the show, she lost the will to stay awake. Hailey’s consciousness fell into limbo for a few hours, half asleep...

When she finally decided to get back on her feet, the room was illuminated by the sunset. Just how long was she asleep? She walked into the kitchen, where Taylor was frying eggs and cooking something in the oven.

Taylor turned his head and greeted her in a cheery tone, “Have a nice nap?”

Hailey scratched her head lazily. “Sure.” A pinch of guilt laced her voice.

Hailey was relieved to see Taylor didn’t notice. “That’s good to hear.”

Hailey sat down. “So...what are you making?”

“I’m making Kait an omelet. I don’t know if she’s still rehabilitating, so she may need the protein. Is she still rehabilitating?”

“Yeah, she’s super strong. No need to coddle her anymore.“

“If you say so.” he didn’t stop cooking, though.

“So what’s in the oven?” Hailey said, noticing how hungry she was.

“That’s just some potatoes. They’re done in two minutes, so you should stick around to eat some,” Taylor said passive-aggressively, trapping Hailey in the kitchen if she wanted food.

“I guess I will,” Hailey grumbled. She watched the oven timer drop closer to zero seconds. 1:53

“What do you think about Kait?” 1:46

“She’s fine.” 1:42

“Have you done much with her?”1:35

“I walked with her today to her work. That’s it.” 1:26

“That’s good to know...I’m surprised you walked out with her.” 1:10

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 1:05

“I mean, I haven’t seen you out of the house at all.” 58

Hailey didn’t respond. She was surprised, too, now that Taylor brought it up. 50

... 40

... 30

Taylor flipped the egg. 20

He frowned, thinking about something. 10 seconds

Before he could process what Hailey did, she was already up the stairs with a potato on a plate. “Hey Hailey, your fr…” but stopped when he realized she was already gone. The timer on the oven clocked down to 0 seconds and beeped loudly. Taylor sighed despondently, then turned the timer off and pulled out his phone, looking at a text. “Maybe it’ll be easier if I don’t say...”

Hailey closed the door behind her, then placed the plate on her dresser to watch her hands shake pathetically. The potato was still hot enough for faint wisps of steam to expunge from it, brushing by her face uncomfortably.

She had forgotten to take a fork, but she still grasped the potato and sat atop her bed, then pulled the potato to her mouth and bit into it. Suddenly, a short memory entered her mind.

Kait was in front of a hearth. Beside her was a glamourously dressed lady, her best friend. The girl laughed as Kait pit into a potato. “Woah, Ja Nuhna noti haia could pica Potatoe tata kay!”

Kait reciprocated a hearty laugh. “Don’t ka jamjam! All wu vielage-lurka pica akin theis.”

As the memory faded, Hailey freaked out because the potato was burning her mouth and suddenly spat it out onto a shirt laid on the ground, with choking breaths afterward. She placed it all back onto the plate and set the potato’s spat-out remains far from the clean stuff. Throwing it away could come another day. She waited for sleep to come, but even as her mind drifted off in some void, the drowsiness she had wouldn’t return.

Pathetic...

When Kait had returned, Taylor and his mother were at the kitchen counter. She saw his mother was eating a mashed-up potato while Taylor reclined on the countertop speaking to her.

Taylor turned his head to face Kait. “Hey, Kait!” He said excitedly. “How was your work?”

Kait waved to Taylor’s mother before she responded to him, “Hey, Mrs.Joul. It was fine, but I’m not used to cleaning these weird houses you all have these days, so I just worked on the gardening.” Kait said with a note of exhaustion, happy to be back.

“Hmm...did you garden very often?”

“Sometimes. I worked on a farm, though.”

Mrs.Joul finished a bite of potato, then spoke up, “By the way, you should just call me Clera, Kait.”

“Oh, sorry then, Clera.” Kait walked to the counter and leaned on it beside Taylor.

“Anyhow,” Clera continued, “What was your schedule like, back then? Obviously, things have changed quite a bit for you.”

Kait frowned as she remembered, “Well, I usually spent the early hours of the day practicing my emotional control, then-”

“Emotional control? What’s that supposed to be?”

Kait frowned, “If you really need to know, witches need superb control over their emotions to be as effective as possible. If our emotions aren’t under control, our magic can be volatile. As I said, I practiced emotional control back in the day. That’s just how we get better at our art.”

“You don’t do it now?”

Kait swept her hair back nervously. “No…”

“Hmm…” Clera sent Kait a piercing gaze. “If you think that’s fine, I’ll leave it to your trained hands.”

“Aside from that, I’d make my living creating spells. I wrote a book once, but all the copies were probably burned...

“I guess you’re pretty prestigious then? I hear only the best magic-users can make new spells or runes or whatever.”

“At the time, I was one of the-,” She suddenly paused, “the better witches...”

Taylor opened his mouth but refrained from commenting on Kait’s strange pause. After a moment of silence, he said, “So what are you going to do now?”

Kait chewed her cheek despondently, “Now...?”

He quickly revised his question, “I mean, what are you going to do for the rest of the day?”

“Oh, can’t be sure. I might just go stargazing.” The sadness on her face quickly disappeared.

“Stargazing? In the city?”

“Yeah, I found a nice spot to stargaze while I worked, so I was going to go there and spend some time on my emotional control. ”

Taylor seemed immediately interested. “Could I come with you?”

Kait looked to Taylor with a somewhat conflicted expression, then shrugged, “Sure, that’s fine if you want to. It’ll be cold, though.”

Taylor’s mom finished her potato and placed her plate in the sink. “Well, just make sure you don’t come back way too late. In the meantime, I need to finish up something for my work.” she walked up the stairs, leaving the two alone.

“...I made an omelet for you if you want it,” Taylor stated noncommittally.

“I don’t know what an omelet is, but if its food, I do.”