~ 40: A Camping of Sweets and Sours - Part 5 ~

There was a dead silence that was deafening to one's ears. Mel had taken charge of trying to soothe my pain as I breathed quietly, feeling the hollowness in my lungs. Aidan had gone back to the car to fetch a bottle of cool water. Then we sat in silence as Mel and I felt apprehensive of being too close to Aidan.

It was inconceivable that he was testing something out on us without our consent. Mel and I felt slightly heartbroken at his method of experimenting and mistrusting us. We would have been alright with him testing out his theory as long as he had asked us, whether we rejected it or not.

"Aidan, there's a limit to everything," I said dauntingly. "If you trust us, you'll know that as best friends, we could have confided you with anything we had. Unless, of course, it traces back way into the past we hadn't foreseen we'll be meeting with you and such. Those events are of the past and picking out on any of those makes us sick to the stomach, so it's best left unmentioned."

"I'm really sorry," he said with a bowed head. "I was afraid you would reject it as nobody in their right mind would experiment it out in the open like that."

"And what result did you get by doing so?" said a furious Mel. "You got Celest coughing like she was suffering from a disease! And I have never seen anybody spill out so much blood because of this one instance. I hope that whatever you sent into our system, it would come out without any of us having to worry for each other."

"If you drink that water, you should be able to cough it out."

"How do we know you haven't mixed anything in it as well?" I asked dangerously, with Mel keeping a hand on my arm to prevent me from punching his face.

"It needs to be out of your body within ten minutes of consuming it. Do you have any other alternative than this which will let you live?"

"Do you think that I would believe that this one may not affect us the same way as your 'magical sauce' did? You think I believe anything you say after what you have done?"

"Calm down, Celest," said Mel, rubbing both of my arms to get the anger away. "We'll do it now since he has told us. But I would like to know what effects it will have on us. We would like to be prepared for anything that is to come."

"Well, both of you have come across magic," he declared in a matter-of-fact tone. "I say this based on how your bodies responded roughly to the ingredient. Though I'm afraid how none of you has any in your bodies despite the bodies knowing that magic affected them in some way."

"That sounds biased and rubbish, but fine, we'll have to believe that for now," I answered dryly. "It's ridiculous how unmagical beings can have any source of power in them when they have no reservoir."

"The body probably still has the remains of the magic. As in, say the magic destroyed a body part. The body has perhaps captured some of that energy, a very negligible account, that cannot be of use. This is sort of like a price to pay for using it on a non-magical creature. But the effect of the magic subsides and disappears after a month, plausibly returning to the owner."

"What of the little 'potion' that you were about to give us?" asked Mel with great bravado, emphasizing on 'potion' with her fingers.

"You can call this an antidote," he said. "It is a diluted solution of water and a drop of the anti-ingredient. This should remove any of that sauce's presence along with the side effects. You should hurry before it's too late."

The two of us drank half of the nasty smelling potion in the bottle with closed noses as we each kept a packet ready in our hands. We got Aidan to sit in the car and not bother about us until we were done. In a few minutes, we were puking up everything we had that evening, although it felt like we were throwing up the whole of our insides.

We tied the packets with great effort as we felt our heads spin. We held each other as we stumbled into the forest and dumped the trash in a suitable area that looked like a garbage dump. We encouraged each other to walk a little more just so that we wouldn't sink into our knees before we arrived at our spot.

We fell on the mats and weren't able to get up again. We knew Aidan was coming to help us as we heard the car door shut with a bang. Our bodies ached and shivered while our stomachs grumbled from the lack of food.

He sat the two of us up after dropping a new food packet on our laps. We leaned on each of his shoulders and arms as we slowly chewed and painfully swallowed the food. Aidan cleared up the place when we were done as the two of us sighed and lied down on our backs, sleeping like logs.

I felt someone shake me awake gently. Aidan was trying to get me to open my eyes while Mel slept peacefully on my other side. I hummed my annoyance and turned to face Mel's back. He pulled me towards him, getting an arm under my heavy head and another around my waist.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled as he buried his head in the crook of my neck. "I thought it was a joke as nothing happened when I consumed it. I thought it was fake and decided to try it on you both without giving away any information. I didn't think such a serious reaction would take place."

"It's okay," I whispered. "At least you and I know that magic exists in weird forms, although I don't have much or any memory of encountering it. Do you have any recollection, Mel?"

"I don't remember much," she said.

I knew the woman had woken up when she had frozen up completely and her breathing had become shallower. I was glad that she decided to keep the power of my necklace a secret, a little promise we had made before we entered Wildon together while riding the bus. I hoped that this one would remain between the two of us forever. And I was glad that she had no recollection of Lucas's magic because of the spell he had used on her.

"Speaking of memory power, I remembered something important," Aidan announced. "There's going to be a big marathon tomorrow. I wish that both of you will be there to support us. There's nothing more hopeful than a crowd supporting your back."

"Of course we will," Mel responded. "We couldn't think of missing an event like that."

I was probably on the border between boredom and death. I was continuously begging the two of them to come away into the car and get home. We had a big day ahead of us and I was already exhausted with today's events.

"Now can we just please go home?" I pleaded like a child asking for sweets.

"Why? What's the rush?" he asked with a smirk playing on his lips.

This time, unlike all the other times, I was the one explaining the facts of Aidan needing enough rest for his day, for us to have enough energy to cheer him and his team on and to be able to get up early to get ready on time.

Mel had a half-surprised look on her half-smiling face as she saw me stating these instead of her. The two of them relented, but only to irritate me as they stood up halfway through and then sat down right when I had completely gotten up.

They ultimately gave in, only for Aidan to stop it again and make me groan with impatience.

"There's still one thing remaining before we leave," said Aidan.

"Which is?" asked Mel and I at the same instant.

"I love you, Celestine," he whispered as he held my hand. "I will cherish you for a long, long time. And since Mel is a witness to this, I won't be breaking it any time too soon. I assure you of that. So I would like to see the both of you tomorrow at the university."

"I love you too," I returned. "Regardless of what you did today for I can't be angry at you for long."

He startled me with a peck to my lips. Mel clapped her hands like an excited child, and the two of us laughed at her behaviour. We spent a few more minutes, celebrating the moment and congratulating the captor of my heart.

And before long, we were talking in the car and teasing each other, or mostly Mel doing so, as we journeyed back home.