Where You Belong - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Author's note: Although finished form first page to last, this story is still in the editing phase, so please bear with me. Many things are still liable to change. Which makes your input that much more important :) Enjoy!

If you're wondering where the Fantasy is, don't worry... it's coming :)

They had to endure many sly looks heading in their direction as well as a couple of wolf-whistles while walking hand in hand towards the girls’ section of Block D, but neither seemed to mind. Xan, completely ignoring the pain, directed his smiles at Julia the whole way, making sure she felt comfortable, if that was even possible for someone who had hardly ever been smiled at before.

Julia, on the other hand, returned to her gloomy state, her mind telling her this moment wouldn’t last. Finally, she felt she ‘belonged’, and the beauty of it only made her think how terrible it will be when this feeling disappears. She had no doubt that it would. She was probably reading too much into it, mistaking general kindness for something more.

At first, Xan was surprised to see the messiness of Julia’s cell but, soon after, he realized that keeping her cell tidy definitely wasn’t one of her priorities at the moment. Although he did notice a box in the corner of the room with many scented candles and herbs neatly arranged and labeled. For a while he wandered what they were for but realized that no matter what it was, if it helped Julia, it was good. A new streak of pain through his leg interrupted his musings and directed his attention elsewhere.

Blood was already soaking through his makeshift handkerchief bandage and, judging from the length of time it had bled, he knew it would be pretty deep…

He suddenly remembered where he was and that Julia was with him, still holding his hand. Her solemn look was now gone, replaced by a much more worried one. Xan thought she probably wasn’t used to violence like he was, first when living on the street and later in prison. Seeing it every day and dealing with the consequences came naturally to him, but Julia? How could someone like her even stand being around so much blood?

Actually he was very wrong. The sight of Xan’s wounds only made Julia remember all the beatings from her father and brother she had to endure. She knew she still had bruises and scars from her family’s notion of ‘love’. But seeing them on someone else, especially on Xan, was just as bad if not worse. Julia knew all about pain, but couldn’t understand what he did to deserve it. Her family always made it clear that she deserved to be punished for her ‘gift’ and, as with her state of desolation, after a while she actually began to believe they were right.

‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered noticing her pained look, ‘it isn’t as bad as it looks,’ but the look on his face betrayed him, his head was throbbing and he could feel every heartbeat. ‘I’ll be fine… I’m used to it.’ he tried again, not wanting to add his troubles to the great load he knew Julia already bore.

‘W-what a-am I s-supposed to d-do?’ Julia mumbled. Her eyes turned puffy as she balanced on the verge of tears, this hurting Xan maybe even more.

‘It’s ok, I can do it myself but,’ he drew a table knife he had snitched in the dining hall, ‘I’m gonna need a candle…’
Julia gasped, realizing what he was going to do and clearly shocked by the statement.
Xan knew that Julia probably never saw such treatment before and he intended to keep it that way. She was a gentle soul and such images couldn’t be good for her.

‘It’s gonna hurt and isn’t gonna look nice either,’ he paused, thinking it over, but then added in a falsely hopeful voice, ‘you don’t have to stay.” he half expected her to leave or ask him not to do it, but somehow he knew she’d see his heart wasn’t really in it. Whatever he told himself, he knew that what he really wanted was for her to stay.

Julia felt her eyes water, but gathered all her strength, brought the candle, sat down and held his hand tightly. She wasn’t about to leave the first person ever to care about her feelings.
Xan wondered why anyone would bear to see what was going to happen in a moment, if they didn’t have to, but the hand he held in his made him very really grateful she had stayed. Yet he still had to make sure that was what she wanted.

‘Julia, you’ve been through a lot lately. I heard what happened to you and even before I met you, I knew you couldn’t have done what they sent you here for. I don’t want you to stay if that would give you another painful memory to go to sleep with at night. I couldn’t live with myself if I knew I caused pain to such a beautiful girl.’

‘He cares about me, he thinks I’m innocent and… and… he thinks I’m beautiful’ Tears started pouring out of her eyes in steady streams. She looked down again and sobbed.

Xan switched to panic mode. The last thing he wanted was to see Julia cry.

‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to say anything to hurt you,’ he said in rapid succession, then slowed himself down and said in a voice so tender and caring he didn’t even recognize it as his, ‘Please don’t cry.’

‘I-I’m not b-b-beautiful.’ Julia sobbed.
Xan felt a sudden surge of anger, anger towards anyone who had caused this gentle being such trauma that a compliment made her cry. But he was going to make this right. He would show her how beautiful she was.

‘Julia, trust me when I tell you that you are the most beautiful girl I ever saw,’ he took both her hands and looked deep into her blue eyes. The look itself meant more than a thousand words, sincerity shone right out of it. ‘even when your eyes are all red and puffy.’ he added jokingly.

Julia gave a shy smile, one that Xan saw only once before, and like before he thought that it was the cutest thing he ever saw. The smile itself lasted but a couple of seconds, but for
Xan it emanated a lifetime of happiness. He would do anything to see it on those lips again.

‘No-no one h-has ever told me I’m b-beautiful…’ She mumbled.

Again, Xan felt like killing everyone Julia ever met until then, everyone who made her feel like she wasn’t beautiful, and everyone who didn’t give her the care she deserved.

He tucked a few stray hairs behind her ear and gently stroked her cheek. She moved back a bit, but then relaxed into his touch.

‘You’re not beautiful,’ he saw her whole face shift with confusion and she looked on the verge of tears again, ‘you’re adorable.’ This time she almost smiled and Xan felt like he had her emotions on a string, so he tried again: ‘especially when you smile.’

The reaction was instantaneous. Julia smiled ever so slightly and suddenly turned a dark shade of crimson. Xan was both surprised and moved by the effect he had on the girl.

‘Did I tell her how adorable she is when she does that?’ he thought, ‘Um, yeah, I did,’ he smiled to himself, ‘but wait… lovable, sweet cute, I haven’t used those yet.’ He reasoned with himself. There was no set of words to describe what he was feeling. The though of ‘feeling’ suddenly brought him back to reality as another wave of pain swept through his leg.

Julia, on the other hand, sat there silently reprimanding herself.

‘I’m so pathetic. I can’t even keep a straight face. Now he’s gonna think I’m heartless, smiling while he’s sitting here in pain.’ But there was something about the way he was looking that told her this wasn’t true. She made a mental note to smile more often, and knew she would if he gave her so much attention every time she did it.

‘You can’t do this,’ Xan told himself. ‘You want to, but now isn’t the time. Don’t say it! You’ll just spoil everything.’ He knew he was about to do something very rash and stupid, but a quick downward glance stopped him and pushed every other thought aside.

‘Julia,’ he started.

‘Oh my, oh my, what is he going to say? C’mon Jules, breathe, it can’t be that bad. He was so nice a while ago.’

Xan saw her brow furrow and stopped, brushed pain aside and said something entirely different.

‘What’s wrong? Just tell me. Please, I don’t think I could handle seeing you sad again…’

‘He’s all worried, c’mon… say something! Now! Now is the time. Just do it!’ She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. ‘He doesn’t want me to be sad, then, then…’

‘Then don’t do that,’ she pointed at the burning candle and knife that lay across it. She didn’t even know how the words came out, but they did. She didn’t even stutter.

‘I won’t if you don’t want me to,’ Xan said honestly, finally realizing what this was about, ‘but then you’ll have to carry me around,’ he joked.

Not that she’d mind, but Julia knew that her frail body would never be able to do that anyways. Resigning, she looked into his green eyes.

‘Ok, b-but take my h-hand alright?’ She muttered uncertainly.

‘I can’t,’ Xan smiled, ‘because I already am.’ He had somehow managed to pull her hand into his before she had even finished the sentence.

The scream must have echoed throughout most of the prison. Xan clutched Julia’s hand, his face transformed into a grimace as the pain from his leg shot straight to his brain. He looked up and saw a look of absolute terror on Julia’s face.
There he found all the strength he needed. He burnt the opened wound until it turned a darker shade of red. When he turned to Julia again, he saw tears in her eyes.

‘It’s ok Julia, It’s ok, I’m fine.’ He hugged her and tried to stop the sobs. ‘I’m sorry… are you ok? Please, please be ok.’

Julia wiped her tears and tried to smile. ‘I-I am, b-but,’ she paused, frustrated at her lack of words, ‘y-your leg?’ she pointed.

Xan gave her a reassuring smile and said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s over.’ He didn’t have to lie. The pain was already going away and he knew he did it correctly.

‘It’s so, so unfair, you are the n-nicest guy here, but they a-always h-hurt you… it’s so unfair.”

‘She thinks I’m nice… those words are worth a thousand cuts. What is this I’m feeling?’

‘Y-you are the only one here,’ she thought for a while, ‘um, and everywhere else,’ she added, ‘who is n-nice to me.’

‘She deserves a better life. God knows what she went through in the past. I’d stay here forever but…’ He realized he was too deep in his thoughts again.

‘Julia, you can’t have met many decent people and I’m so sorry for that. I know what it’s like when you don’t have anyone who cares for you.’

‘Now for the hard part,’ he thought.

‘I don’t want to leave you alone,’ he noticed her disappointed look and tried to make up for it, ‘hell, I don’t want to leave you at all.’

At this she blushed slightly, ‘but I have to go now and get this cleaned up, but…’ He paused again.

‘Maybe we can meet tomorrow?’ he added hopefully.

Julia smiled another one of those special shy smiles and nodded. Xan stood up and hesitantly caressed her hand, which was still firmly clutched to his.

‘Oh,’ she muttered and released him, turning an even deeper shade of crimson.

The next week was like something from a completely different world. They completely forgot that they were in one of the worst places possible for a teenager to be, in prison. It didn’t feel like prison anymore, not now that they had each other. Xan began to think that being in prison with Julia was better than when he was free but all alone.

They spent all day together and even though
Julia still didn’t speak much, she did tell Xan a little about her past, a past without care, without love, without a real family. She told him about her hateful surroundings but never explained why they had hated her and what they did to her. He guessed they were just the wrong sort of people and the more she told him of all the things she had to bear through, the more he liked her for what she was.

He also told her about his wrongful imprisonment, life without parents and the brutalities of street and prison life. They told each other whatever troubled them, giving support when sad or painful memories surfaced, but by the end of the week they were both overcome with the happiness of having someone.

Julia slowly began expressing herself more and gained a little confidence when around Xan, but in the crowd she was still unhealthily shy.

It was Sunday and a movie was being played. Xan and Julia watched hand in hand appreciating the fact that all of the troublemakers were too busy with the acrobatics of Jackie Chan to pay any notice to their beautiful moment. Everything felt so right and perfect, but as always when
Xan let his guard down a bit, he got attacked…

They held hands as Xan stroked Julia’s hair, which was now beautiful and straight, as she wanted to look her best for him.

‘I wonder if he cares for me like I do, I… I love him. But I just can’t say it. What if he just wants to be a good friend? Maybe he will freak out and we will lose all this.’ She looked at him and saw him smile back. ‘No, I can’t tell him. I should be happy with just ‘good friends’, it’s stupid to hope for more.’

‘I know I love her… but she’s so fragile. I don’t want to hurt her. What if she’s not ready?’
Their thoughts were cut short when a large group of shadowy figures surrounded them.

‘Oooh, so if it isn’t ‘Junior’ and miss ‘Cry-in-her-bed-all-night’. Gettin’ pretty physical aren’t ya?’ Brian snorted.

‘Shut up! Why don’t you face me alone, or don’t you remember running off the last time your buddies weren’t around to protect you?’ Xan taunted him in hope that he might leave Julia alone and concentrate on him.

He stood up and tried to lead a terrified Julia away.

‘We know that you can take the pain, that you’re a tough nut to crack, but your little gal here…’ One of the gang members caught Julia from behind and then forced her against the wall.

‘You bastard!’ Xan shouted as she was puled out of his hands and charged towards him. He was greatly outnumbered but his love for Julia gave him Herculean strength. For the first time Julia would see him fight. Something she had only heard of before. His life on the street turned him into a very able fighter, but even years spent fighting street gangs wouldn’t be enough this time. All of the tough-built guys displayed their smuggled combat knives and looked at him.

‘Back off and we’ll leave you alone, for now we’ll just have our fun with her…’

Xan looked at Julia, her face was panic-stricken.

‘I’d never allow them to hurt you.’ he mouthed, but she already knew that. He leapt forward and with a single blow took out the guy holding Julia.

‘Run, lock yourself in your cell until I come…’ he shouted urgently.

Julia ran, but couldn’t help look back to see what was happening to the guy that was the source of all her happiness. She saw him take down another two fully armed gang members but stopped dead when she saw a third one plunge his knife deep below his left ribs…

Xan gasped and dropped to his knees. The gang realized that this time they may have gone too far and ran off in case any guard appeared.

Julia screamed and ran towards him, tears welling up in her eyes. ‘No, this cannot be happening… I need him… I love him!’

She hugged him tightly and seeing the pain in his eyes tried to do anything to ease the pain. She did the only thing that seemed natural at that moment.

She looked into his eyes and, still sobbing, kissed him gently. She had never kissed anyone before and didn’t even know if she was doing it right, but it didn’t matter.

Xan needed the support and, more than ever, was glad that Julia was with him. She sobbed, closed her eyes and hugged him harder. The blood was now pouring in all directions and Xan was on the verge of fainting. She saw the image of his wound in her mind… what happened next was inexplicable. A great flash of golden light surrounded the two, Julia’s prayer had been answered.

Suddenly Xan realized he could feel no more pain. The stabbing wound on his left was gone! He stared at Julia…

‘W-What have you done?’ It came out far worse than Xan had wanted.

Julia stood up, her face half shocked at what she had just done, half hurt at what he had said, and ran off.

Xan stared down at the place where his wound had once been.

‘What’s going on?’ Nothing made sense.
Julia cried quietly, locked back inside her cell.

‘He hates me, he thinks I’m a freak, thinks I’m not normal… he’ll be like them. He will resent me for my gift.’ She sobbed. ‘My curse…’

Her whole world was falling apart. She had lost the only thing that made her life worth living, but she had to, she just had to help him, didn’t she?

‘I couldn’t see him in so much pain. I had to’ her thoughts were rushing in all at once, ‘but, but now I’ve lost him.’

He found out the only thing that made her feel most unwanted and abnormal of all: she could do things. Inexplicable things. She remembered how her family tried to get rid of her when they found out and how they tormented her to try and force the magic out of her and finally, framed the school accident on her. And now Xan, he would hate her just as much.

She tried to suppress that side of her ever since she found out. All she ever wanted to be was normal and all she wanted now was to take it back, to turn back time and live the day again.
Xan was shocked. This had to be a dream, this wasn’t possible. Things like magic didn’t exist. He traced a finger over his ribs… what was going on?

But then reality dawned on him. ‘Who cares what it was, but’ he stopped, ‘what did I do? Julia… I’m sorry…’

He ran as fast as he could and when he reached her cell he had already made some sense out of what happened. He now understood the hatred from Julia’s parents. Xan’s mother used to tell him all about magic when he was young, but looking back, he thought it was all just make-belief. His mother told him that when he matured he would be able to do things nobody else could. Could it be true? Could it be that Julia was, but he had rounded the corner to her cell.

‘Julia!’ he screamed, seeing her frail body crouching in the corner of the cell, and immediately tears filled his eyes.

‘Julia, I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to,’ nothing sounded right, ‘please forgive me…’

Julia turned her head slightly and saw the sincerity in Xan’s eyes.

‘Y-You h-hate me,’ she stuttered.

‘No! Julia, you’re special, you, you healed me and’ he paused determinedly ‘and I love you.’

Julia turned and walked to the cell door, trying to comprehend the words she had just heard. ‘He loves me… he, he loves me for what I am. Even the magic.’

‘Xan, I…’ she tried harder than ever to force the words out of her mouth, ‘I love you too…’ A different type of tear left her slowly drifted down her cheek as she beamed, still unable to comprehend what had just happened.

‘Then open this door and let me in!’ Xan begged, but this time with hope emanating from his voice. As soon as the door clicked and opened, Xan flung his arms around Julia.

For a while they just basked in the embrace as Julia cried happy tears into Xan’s shoulder. She was holding him tightly, making sure he wouldn’t disappear, while he gently stroked her hair. When they finally broke apart, not only Julia’s, but Xan’s eyes too were red from emotion.

‘I never even dreamed that you could feel the same about me,’ he shook his head slightly to collect himself, then added, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ He could tell that Julia was thinking pretty much the same and smiled broadly.

‘M-me t-too, b-but you know, t-the s-spell,’ she started.

‘Jule,’ he interrupted her, ‘I love you and everything about you. This gift you have? It saved my life!’

Julia closed her eyes, trying to control the whole tidal wave of emotions engulfing her, but they opened when she felt a soft presence on her lips.

Their kiss was gentle and loving. It was slow and sensual and after a moment, they both forgot where they were and sank into it. Whatever problems or worries they may have had were gone because they were with the one they loved. And the spell? They’d worry about that later. Right now, all they wanted to do was be together, all smiles with no need for words, worries, or the inevitable explanation that was sure to come.
It would have taken Julia weeks to explain her past as a mage, but Xan realized he had heard very much the same stories from his mother in his early childhood. It was then much easier for

Julia to release all of that inner anxiety she held when she thought anybody who would hear such sentences ever coming out of her mouth would either laugh or beat her to a pulp. She told him how she could do inexplicable things whenever her emotions surged and why she tried so hard to keep them in check, the fear of her parents, and their attempt to beat the gift out of her. She hated it, yet something within her told her that one day it would play an important part of her life.

Julia explained that she had researched middle-age witchcraft, Wiccan practices and many other forms of spell casting, but none explained what she could do. Every type of casting that was ever referenced worked on the balance of the primal forces or elements, none of which played any role in Julia’s weird occurrences.

Although she had learned to channel her power for simple healing spells like treating a paper cut, most of her magic was wild and emotional.

She had never done anything as large as healing a stabbing wound.

While Julia channeled her thoughts to him, Xan thought about telling her of his mother’s preaching.

Julia stopped when she saw the miserable look on his face, trying to remember what her last revelation was and how it could have caused such a reaction.

‘Julia, I have to tell you something.’

And so he started. He told Julia about his mother and her mysterious death, he told her about her cryptic dreams of him as a great tyrant and most importantly, about her relationship to magic. From what they both understood Xan was to become a sorcerer when he matured, or something along those lines. An epitome of evil, causing pain and destruction and even though he had never believed in magic, it suddenly became more real and frightening than ever.

Julia watched him pour his heart out to her. She saw his sorrowful face at every mention of his mother, and saw it grow paler and more grieving sentence by sentence…

‘This is killing him. I have to stop him, tell him something, comfort him.’ But Julia had no idea what to do. She had never been in such a position before, to be able to comfort someone else. In the end her instincts took over.

Xan opened his mouth again to start off another painful dwelling into his past but was cut short. Julia hugged him, instantly eradicating any sign of sorrow and whispered into his ear.

‘I u-understand, I understand everything, y-you don’t have to say any more.’ And she buried her face in his chest.

Xan smiled and playfully rolled them over so that they were now lying on the bed. They lay there, cuddled together in a loving embrace, stealing away short kisses and comforting words.
Suddenly Julia jerked instinctively as an ugly cockroach scurried across the wall next to Xan’s head.

He was surprised at the reaction and thought that maybe he was taking it too fast for her, but then he realized what the problem was. He looked up at the cockroach now far away in the corner of the room hiding.

‘There are so many of these roaming around these days.’ He thought, ‘Where are all the lizards when you need ‘em?’

Suddenly Julia jumped. She felt something small scramble from underneath Xan’s hand, which was now placed on her left shoulder. She waved her hands around madly to get the ‘thing’, which she thought was another cockroach, off her.

‘Oh, another great moment spoiled. Why can’t it just get off and be a nice thing?’

To his amazement a tiny lizard jumped down from one of Julia’s sleeves and obediently stopped in front of Xan. He looked up at her in shock.

Just as he was about to tell Julia what had happened, he felt something hot on his back. It grew hotter and hotter until he could feel it burning into his skin.

Julia noticed immediately, she forgot the lizard and turned him around and pulled his shirt off.

Xan screamed with pain as a green light filled the room. When the light faded Julia looked at something that had appeared on Xan’s bare back.

A hand engulfed in flames was burnt into his skin. She recognized the mark immediately…

It was the mark of the Summoner.