“Ugh.”
Gloria groaned as she slowly began to regain consciousness. As her eyes began to refocus she gazed around the room. “Where am I?”
“Your in a hospital,” Lynne said sadly. “I asked mom and dad if I could stay with you by myself. Everyone else is outside.”
Gloria tried to focus as she gazed at the sullen looking teen. Lynne was alone, sitting close by Gloria’s bed. “What happened,” Gloria croaked. “How did I get here?”
“You had a seizure,” Lynne said quietly. “Unfortunately Gloria the doctors say you have epilepsy, specifically Juvenile Myoclonic epilepsy. It appears it’s caused by stress and sleep deprivation so...looks like I messed up again.”
Gloria blinked as she looked at her sister, Lynne was blaming herself for Gloria’s diagnosis. Looking at the girl Gloria could see she looked even worse than she had the last few days. “Hey,” she said quietly. “This...this isn’t your fault okay? You didn’t give me epilepsy. You didn’t cause this so don’t blame yourself.” Lynne remained quiet as she continued to stare down at the floor. “Just out of curiosity, did you know I had epilepsy?”
“If you did no one ever told me,” Lynne said sadly.
Gloria sat quietly as she took in Lynne’s words. She was unsure if somehow things had changed once more or if her future self and her family had kept this from Lynne. “Lynne,” she whispered. “I...I probably wouldn’t want you to worry, that’s probably why this is new. To be honest...I don’t know what my future self is up too but I don’t think she’s intentionally trying to hurt you.”
Lynne could only nod as she quietly continued to look at the floor. “Gloria,” she said sadly. “There’s something I want to tell you. It’s a secret that only three people in the whole world know. If I tell you you can’t let anyone know.”
“I promise Lynne,” Gloria said earnestly. “I won’t say a word to anyone.”
“I’m serious about this Gloria,” Lynne said sternly. “No one in the family knows about this. If you break your promise. If you let this slip to anyone, whether it’s Katie, mom, dad, your friends. I will bind your powers. I’ll take your magic, you wouldn’t be able to perform a card trick when I was done.”
Gloria crossed her heart as she swore herself to secrecy. After witnessing her sisters power she knew better than to try and break her word to the girl. “I promise Lynne this will stay between you and me.”
Lynne sighed heavily as she now sadly looked over at her sister. “Okay,” she said softly. “Tell me, what do you know about Katie’s mom and the other timeline?”
“Not much to be honest,” Gloria shrugged. “Katie has visited it a few times. The first time was when Ann visited a few months ago. Katie learned her mother existed in a different timeline. Since then I think she’s visited a few more times, I even think mom has visited. I can’t be positive but she had a look on her face after my first date with Nate. It was like she had a secret adventure or something.”
Lynne nodded as she listened to Gloria. “Yeah mom visited before. The thing is though, she never knew who Kellie was until a little later. You see Katie’s mom, Kellie...we’re pretty close in my timeline. She always looked out for me. The reunion she had...or is going to have with mom and Aunt Ann made her realize just how big a mistake she made.”
“What mistake,” Gloria asked.
“Well,” Lynne sighed. “Mom and Aunt Kellies reunion is going to be...interesting. It goes well enough but it kind of throws everyone for a loop. Kellie...she had the ring at one time and made an awful mistake. As a result she got herself kicked out of this timeline. She can only visit now for short periods. She confessed to me years later just how much she regrets doing that.”
“Oh god is she....is she okay?”
“Well now she is,” Lynne said. “I mean she loves her life plus she’s the daughter of Merlin now so she’s like super powerful.”
“Wait Katie’s mom is Merlin’s daughter?!?!?” Gloria exclaimed as she tried to sit up from her bed.
“Yeah she is now can you sit down please,” Lynne implored. “Really don’t want you having another seizure.”
Gloria blushed as she apologized and settled back into her bed. As she did Lynne continued. “Yeah she’s the daughter of Merlin,” she said. “The thing is though she told me the story of how she altered reality with the Ring of Age. She erased someone from existence and got herself kicked out of this reality. The story was a warning about being careful.....it also scared the hell out of me.”
Gloria watched as her sister now slowly began to pace the room. Lynne appeared shaken just talking of her aunts tale. “I don’t know if she meant this to happen but the story scared me more than anything,” she said. “It made me realize just how dangerous the ring was. Basically two things happened after that. One, I asked you not pass the ring down to me when I was old enough, that’s why Tricia now has the Ring of Age.”
“Okay What was the second thing?”
“Secondly,” Lynne whispered. “I asked my aunt to protect me from the ring. You see...I fear that someone will erase me with the Ring, just like Kellie did. The fear consumed me, I pleaded with Kellie to cast a charm to protect me. She obliged by placing a charm on me when I was born that would allow me to negate the powers of the ring with my own free will.”
“Wait how could Kellie do that,” Gloria asked. “I mean, it’s not like she would of known how scared you were when you were born.”
“Your right, that’s why she traveled back in time to tell herself of my request,” Lynne said. “Who do you think I got the time travel spell from that brought me here.”
Gloria now tried wrapping her mind around this information as she watched her sister continue to pace. “The only people that know about this besides Kellie are Tricia and Tommy,” Lynne said quietly. “I confided in them my deepest fears about the ring. It’s also why I freaked out yesterday and was so angry with you and mom. You see...you basically did the magical equivalent of throwing someone in the deep end of the pool who is afraid of water.”
Gloria could only groan in sadness as she listened to Lynne’s secret. It made sense now why Lynne had become so angry with them and why the ring had been passed down outside of the family. Gloria and Lisa had inadvertently caused the young girl to experience her greatest fears. A fear she had no intention of facing because of the hard lesson her aunt had.
“Lynne,” Gloria whimpered. “God...I had no idea. If...if I had known you feared the ring that much I never would of used it on you. I’m....Im so so sorry, it will never happen again.”
Lynne could only shrug as she now tried to avoid eye contact with her sister. The girl hated feeling vulnerable and frightened. “It’s fine,” she lied. “But like I said this stays between you and me. If you tell I’ll strip your magic from you. Believe me I can do that.”
“I believe you Lynne,” Gloria answered. “And I promise, I will never breath a word of this to anyone. Still...maybe you should tell mom about this too, it might help her understand.”
“No,” she said fiercely. “No you, Tricia, Tommy, and Aunt Kellie is enough people. I don’t want anyone else knowing my greatest fear. I’m trusting you with this Gloria, please....don’t betray my trust again.”
Gloria nodded as she looked at the girl. She would respect the girls wishes, even if she thought that her mother should know. Crossing her heart and nodding her head she could see Lynne let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks,” she sighed. “By the way, I’m sorry about the whole powder incident on Christmas. I didn’t mean to turn you into a 6 year old. I let my prank go to far.”
“It’s nothing,” Gloria smirked. “It actually was a lot of fun after I got over the shock. And thanks for telling me this, I’m...I’m happy that you think you can trust me with this secret.”
“Don’t mention it,” Lynne smirked.
As the two teens now awkwardly began avoiding eye contact they had a revelation. While the relationship was certainly still frosty there were signs it was beginning to thaw. Hopefully over the next few months the two could connect in a meaningful way.