Le Author’s Note: Welcome to ARC 3!! Honestly, it’s not that grand, but it does build up characters… plus I’m going to try out a certain type of genre in some chapter (i.e. Horror/Gore). It’s a later chapter so don’t bee too excited (no one’s excited I know T-T). Anyway~ I’m going to miss Henry and Genesis… they were fun to play around with but I can’t hold on to them forever (*puts Genesis in a totally different save file*). I actually just noticed Henry looks really good without his glasses. No wonder Ezra’s a cutie. Enough babble, on to the next episode!
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Welcome home, as my father would have undoubtedly said when we were beamed here.
‘It’s a little brown house, perfect for you and Jasmine… big yard space for the dogs…’ ‘So how did you afford it?’
He never told me. Always say the way he acquire things isn’t important since it happened in the “past”. Not fully furnished, we have to do that ourselves, but furnished enough to live in.
The first floor is an open kitchen/dining/living room type deal. Laundry room, garage with a car.
‘That car is yours Ezra, I assume you would need it. Can’t walk around all your life. Don’t wreck it, Genesis worked hard getting you that.’
Second floor had two bedrooms, a master and a smaller one.
‘Grandkids from you two I imagine; one day, for now the dogs can sleep in there.’
One bathroom. Maybe with the extra space I could set something up…
“This house is amazing! Tell Henry and Genesis I said thank you!!” Jasmine says going through the house. I pull out the orb that my father gave to me. ‘Shiro shouldn’t come back for this… but if he does, I need to explain it to you, how to protect you and Jasmine. But mostly, what’s really important is that you never let it out of your site…’
“Amazing thing… like a cell phone but not really. Just a two way device that lets me talk to Henry.” And Genesis if I wanted to be honest, he constantly talks to me about how I’m liking it here so far and there’s honestly not much to say. We just got here. Phoenix and Kona love the yard so I guess that’s a plus.
“By the way, upstairs has absolutely no wallpaper in the rooms. And, there’s no decorations… We’re going to have to go shopping!” Jasmine laughs. I could tell she was overly excited for some reason that even she couldn’t tell me about. I guess, a new town would be good for a memory jog… Speaking of new town, we’re in Twinbrook. A slightly swampy place but good for living. Apparently nothing out of the ordinary happens here.
I place the orb on a pedestal my dad also installed in the house. ‘Carrying it around all the time gets tiring, when you’re home you can leave it on the little table upstairs.’ He practically thought of everything and I was extremely grateful for that. It stayed small at first but then morphed into a bigger shape to fill the holder. I activated the orb and waited for a few minutes before Genesis’ face began to form in it.
“Well hey Ezra, how ya doing?”
“Uh, good I guess… is my dad around?” I ask him and he narrows his eyes at me. “It’s nothing bad Uncle Genesis, I just need to ask him something.” He leans back away from the orb and yells for Henry. Soon my father appeared.
“Ezra.” “Hey dad, can I ask you something?” “Shoot.” My father looked extremely tired and rundown but I suppose that is a side effect when working with Genesis. “So I noticed that technically, I only have about, 800 bucks to my name… can I borrow some money….? Please?” I ask and Henry’s eyes actually light up and he smiles.
“Oh Ezra, Ezra, Ezra… You should know the answer to that.” He says and I stare blankly. He sighs and shakes his head and when he looks back at me his eyes hold a mischievous glint of amusement. “You went to college Ezra, you hold a degree in Fine Arts and Communications.” “So…?” He laughs. Literally, but when he composed himself he stared at me hard before yelling; “GET A JOB.” then deactivating his orb. Well…. damn.
I walk out of the room to find Jasmine smiling at me. “Well, I heard that. A job it is then. But what type of job?” She wonders and I shrug. I did have two degrees but I don’t want to do anything with them in their fields… music? Yeah I play the guitar, out of hobby, not a money maker. And Jasmine… well…
“I could… maybe, sing? Or… be self-employed?” She thinks and her being self-employed stuck out to me. She’s a witch. She could brew potions or something and I told her this. She beamed at me a immediately wanted to do it so we made a trip to Twinbrook City Hall to register her. Me? Well, I just got a job at a car dealership… It’ll last until something else comes along.
***
Jasmine’s POV:
I was excited. I don’t know why, I just have a really good feeling. Like, something amazing is going to happen. Self employed alchemist, me? Oh yes, score. I’m not entirely sure on how this town views supernaturals but I wasn’t about to flash my powers around anyway. I asked Ezra to go on home because I wanted to start my career right away. I already had a few potions on me (just in case) so I immediately went to the consignment shop in town to sell them.
When I walked through the door a deep, booming voice greeted me and when I looked up I was met by a really buff guy behind the counter.
“Uh…” “I asked, could I help you, ma’am?” The clerk asks one more time and I shake to clear my head. “I’m sorry, yes. I would like to sell my elixirs please.” I say and he stares at me for a moment.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t accept magical artifacts. Too much controversy.” he says completely stonefaced. “But… I thought that… I mean, why? Aren’t you an elf? How could you not?” “Twinbrook is a quiet town. A plain town, I’m assuming you just got here since you so blatantly point out the magic in others. I’d appreciate it if you never said shit about my elfism again. People have gotten used to me which in turn has allowed me to own this shop and sell things I deem safe. How would I even know if your potions are safe to sell to the public?”
“I would never do anything to hurt anyone so carelessly.” I say looking at my shoes. I felt ashamed that I didn’t think that through. What would I do if I could find no one to sell my wares to… or for me?
“But you have done it?” he asks and I didn’t speak. I would say no but how can I when I can’t remember a lick of who I was before? I could have been a completely different person than I am now. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” I say honestly and the man looks surprise at my answer.
“My name is Sora. I am an elf as you are a witch. I have lied to you. I do sell magical artifacts but not to commoners. Only other supernaturals, I have a facade to keep up. I needed to test your genuine, Miss…?” “Jasmine… how did you know I was a witch?” “You give off a powerful aura. I sensed it before you even came through my door… Jasmine.”
“Yes?” “I will sell your elixirs, but if I were you I would be way more careful.” Sora says as he takes my small bag of elixirs from me. “What do you mean more careful?” I ask him and he looks at me as though I was completely incompetent.
“You have an extremely powerful aura. If I felt that 10 feet from my shop who knows who else could’ve felt it. Keep that in check. Out my shop now, you’re tainting it.” He says coming around the counter and shooing me out of his shop before I had a chance to protest. When I was out the door he immediately put up a ‘Closed’ sign and simply stared at me until I walked away and couldn’t see him or his shop anymore.
A voice comes from the backroom of Sora’s shop…
“Was that… really Jasmine?” it asks. “Yes. She seemed to have no recollection of me. I suppose that’s good.” “But also no recollection of her past in general. That’s strange, no?” “Perhaps… amnesia… she did disappear for a while. Again.” Sora says rummaging through the vials, organizing them, and pricing them.
“Sorakota, she’s going to have to come back… either by her will or against it. We have to make sure of that.” The voice sighs. “I didn’t want to have to do that again, she seems to like it here.” “Business is business cotton candy.” Sora says and the voice huffs. “That’s not my name!”
***
Ezra’s POV:
When Jasmine got back it was starting to get dark. She walked through the door but didn’t say a word to me nor the dogs even though they greeted her with their normal enthusiasm. She just went straight to the fridge, which was now fully stocked thanks to me, and started preparing something. Looked like my favorite. She kept sighing while she was cooking too which concerned me even more.
“Jasmine?” I venture while she gobbled down the spaghetti she just prepared.
“Yes?” She asks between bites of food. “Are you alright? Did something happen while you were out?” “No. Well, yes? Maybe? I don’t know. I was going to sell my elixirs at the consignment shop and the guy there, his name is Sora, he called me out on pointing out his supernatural-ness because he said basically everyone knew about supernaturals here they just don’t like them and he said I have a powerful aura which gave myself away as a supernatural but I didn’t even know I was suppose to be hiding it so–” “Ok, calm down. Slow down, this guy basically offended you right?” “Well, no, complimented really. Right before I left he said I had a powerful aura but I should be careful with it. It might alert some anti-supernaturalists I guess. I offended him actually.”
“So, did what he say bother you? Do you remember anything from your past? You’re quiet…” I ask her and she shakes her head. “Still a blank but for some reason what he said did strike something within me. I just don’t know what. I wish I could remember something…” She mopes and I put my hand over hers. “For now, let’s just finish dinner and rest. It’s been a slightly long day and I start work early tomorrow morning.” “Right… congratulations by the way. I’m happy for you.” Jasmine says and picks at her food. I mumble a thanks and dig in to my plate. She’ll feel better in the morning.
***
Before she drifted off to sleep I sat besides her on the bed, trying to make her feel better and after a while it worked. It doesn’t take much to cheer her up with she’s normally an optimistic person. It just seems like her past is haunting her in ways she doesn’t understand. I’ll try my best to help her with that.
“Ezra, do you… really like me? Like, even if I turn out to be someone different, will you still like me?” she asks me before I moved to my side of the bed. I smile down at her worry. “Of course I will. Nothing can change the way I feel about you.” “Not even that slight crush you have for Melanie?” “That’s… honestly, that’s just a crush that’s being crushed further down every moment I spend with you.” I say and that put a smile of her face. “If you say so… sometimes it feels as though we’re just… friends I guess.” “I’m sorry for making you feel that way.” I say leaning down to kiss her. Then I kissed her again, and again. We got lost in each other and I hoped I showed her my feelings were true to her, and only her.
From that night, every night we slept together we cuddled. It’s almost as if she was afraid of me to let her go throughout the night. Not that I minded it, it simply felt as though there was a deeper meaning to it. For me at least.
A few months later we found out that Kona was pregnant, Jasmine was over the moon to have puppies. She kept gushing about how cute the were going to be. I suppose I expected it after all the late night adventures Phoenix and Kona got up to. After a while she gave birth to two puppies; Spark…
…and Sadie. I could tell already Phoenix’s favorite was his daughter. She took after her mother on the energy level. It seems as though her sleeping is the rarest thing to see. Spark takes after his mother on the curiosity level. There’s not one thing he has licked, sniffed, knocked over, or just simply got into. Well, Sadie too, so I guess all there is to say is that these puppies are handfuls, but they’re a welcome distraction from life.
***
Jasmine has been going to the consignment shop every time some of her elixirs sell to pick up her check, and to sell more. One day she told me that there was a different person there that wasn’t Sora. He was friendly, nice, sort of like a child. She told me his name, as weird as it may sound, was Panda-Bear. For some reason, that sounded familiar to me. He was also an elf, like Sora. I suppose they became friends after a while.
***
We’ve been in Twinbrook for a few months now and Jasmine was, once again, acting strange. She got up in the middle of the night on multiple occasions to run to the bathroom and throw up. When I found out I asked her to go to the doctor but she refused, saying it was something she ate. I know Jasmine’s cooking, she doesn’t get sick from her own stuff.
My suspicions were confirmed when I came home from work one day and found her quietly crying in the bathroom.
“I’m sorry Ezra…” “Why? What’s wrong?” “I’m pregnant. I’m so sorry.” I didn’t understand why she would be sorry so I just held her and told her it would be ok, she should be happy, I wanted kids… at least, with her. She came to accept the fact after a while. We were going to be parents. I was going to be a dad… I was… I don’t know a thing about raising kids.
The months flew by with maximum help from my dad and Genesis considering he already had a kid. At least some things from the future were happening already. Jasmine was due any day now and I was a nervous wreck. Hovering over her, hovering over the puppies, reading book after book of parenting guides and how-to’s. I’m pretty sure I was getting on everyone’s nerves because even Phoenix didn’t hang around inside the house too much anymore. Outside was ultimately more peaceful for him. I couldn’t help myself, what if something went wrong? What if I’m not a good dad… what if… I’m just not good enough for anything?
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Le Author’s Note 2: Yeah… rushed this chapter because I really want to get into the Arc already and it only really starts after Jasmine has a child. Get ready to see more of Panda-Bear and Sorakota though, they play a semi-important role in this. I’m so freaking happy with how the puppies turned out, they’re like perfect mixes of Phoenix and Kona. I love them so much <3<3<3<3 Ezra doesn’t really know how to convey his feelings towards Jasmine, poor baby, he’ll learn soon enough.