Lost and Found

By Lady Violu

Chapter 7

I sniffled, wiping a tear from my face. “Wait. So you two are dating now? What happened? We were apart for like four hours!”

Sol started explaining. “I thought we were just friends, but apparently Charlie had been crushing on me for a while.”

“You didn’t know? I thought it was obvious.” I looked at Ben.

“He was constantly flirting with you!” Ben agreed. “How did you not realize?”

Sol blushed. “I am apparently very dense.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Extremely dense.” He patted their head, causing their blush to shift to an even brighter pink.

Sol perked up. “I think that settles it then.”

“Settles what?” Rose asked.

They looked up at Charlie. “We will be roommates, then. I’m going to Seaside.”

Charlie’s eyes lit up. “You are!? Fuck yes!” He scooped Sol up into a hug, lifting their feet off the ground and spinning them around in the air.

I was so relieved that everyone was okay. It was so good to see them again after thinking they had all been brutally murdered by some forest cryptid.

I wiped the last of my tears away and stood up. “I’m going to go talk to Wyatt for a bit. Be back in a bit.”

Everyone else seemed convinced that Wyatt was super nice. Even Logan, who was equally sure that we were going to die as I was. I wasn’t convinced; the guy was an arrogant ass. He’d made me think that my only friends were dead.

The sun was setting outside, the light of the day slowly draining across the horizon. I scanned the area, looking for Wyatt. He was tending to a small garden a few dozen feet away.

“Wyatt!” I shouted as I stomped towards him.

“Hey!” He stood up from the plants and turned to face me; he was smiling. “Are you finally done with the re--” His smile dissipated the instant I met his gaze.

“Why the fuck did you do all this!?” I yelled. “Sure, I’m grateful for the transformation, but did you have to make it seem like my friends were all being picked off and killed one-by-one!?”

“I--” He started. I cut him off. I didn’t want to hear it.

“You could have just been up front about it, ‘hey, I want to help you, come with me’. Is that so hard?”

“You didn’t trust--”

“No!” I interrupted him once more, “I didn’t fucking trust you because I thought my friends were dead, I had accepted death! Do you know what it’s like to have to accept death? It’s not fucking fun!” I screamed at him. Anger was boiling inside me. I felt dizzy. “And what are we supposed to do now!? Besides Charlie and Toby, we all look totally different, and as far as I know nobody fucking knows that magic is real. I sure as hell didn’t know that it was real before today. So how are we supposed to explain literally any of this without sounding completely insane?”

Wyatt looked at his feet. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I thought -- I didn’t mean for--” He took a breath. “I didn’t realize how -- I got carried away. I’m sorry.

“I can change you back if you really want, but it’ll take a while to do. Reversing magic is a much more demanding process.”

I shuddered at the thought. No, my body was perfect now. It felt so much better than my last one. Reversing it would undo the only positive thing he had done.

“No, It’s already done. I don’t want to go back to my old body.” I tried to let my anger simmer down, but I could still feel it burning in my chest.

Wyatt nodded, looking slightly less guilty. “Okay.” He lowered his voice. “I had good intentions.”

“You put me through a shitty horror movie plot! I thought my friends were dead and that I was next! I thought you were the fucking grim reaper.”

He hung his head. “Yeah -- I --” His voice faltered. “That really was fucked up huh?”

“No shit.” I crossed my arms. I was still angry, but he seemed to realize that now.

“Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

That was an interesting proposition.

“Magic is fun, right?” I asked.

“It’s wonderful.”

“Okay. You’re going to teach me,” I demanded.

His face scrunched up in thought for a second. “Fine. But it's a lot to learn. It'll take a long time. At least a year for you to be even vaguely competent.”

“I see no problem with that.”

“Alright then. We can start whenever you’re ready. But you should probably finish your camping trip with your friends.” He shot me an apologetic smile.

I turned my back on him and began walking back to the cabin. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I thought. He’d realized what he did wrong and he was going to more than make up for it in the coming year.

I stopped walking for a moment and turned back to look at Wyatt; he was already hunched over his garden again, albeit moving much more slowly than he had before. He seemed genuinely upset that he had hurt me. I almost considered apologizing for screaming at him, but decided otherwise.

But there was one more thing I had to say. “Wyatt?”

He flinched before turning around to face me again.

“Thanks.”

He looked confused. “For what? You had a point. I fucked up.”

I sighed. “Yeah, but I can already tell that everyone is happier now. They seem more happy already.” In the short time that I had been talking with my friends, I’d noticed some changes. Naturally, the most obvious change was the new relationship, Logan actually sang while he played his guitar, and Ben certainly seemed more at home in his body. The toned guy look suited him better than the fit girl look he’d had before.

I burst back through the door to Wyatt’s cabin a few moments later. “Guys! I found out what I’m doing this summer!”