Brownies

Great. I’m getting a migraine. The bus is full of “Oh wait, I’m going to get something from my bag. Oh no! It’s gone!” Except ten times worse. It’s worse, because I can see what’s taking the stuff. You know when you lose something and then find it somewhere you already looked? Little gnome-like things open yellow portals and “borrow” it. After a few minutes (which could lead up to an hour), they’ll open a green portal and put it back somewhere close to where it actually was supposed to be. “This is getting annoying,″ a boy next to me grumbled. Jessie had white hair paired with peach skin. He’s my twin brother. We can both see the brownies. A pale girl with flaming red hair laying in waves against her back peeked over from the seat behind us. “Is it getting worse?” Rosalynn is our best friend who actually believes us about the brownies. She can’t see them, but figures that it’s probably true. Rosa doesn’t really believe in “science explains everything.” She believes that the Earth is alive and animals understand us. “If you think about it,” she once told me, “animals are smarter than we are. I mean, sure. We have cars and airplanes, but the animals have a continuous cycle that doesn’t break no matter what they do.” Rosa is very... different? I don’t know the right word. “Ya. They keep disappearing then reappearing at different times.” Everyone screamed at the same time, causing us to flinch. “Hey,” Rosalynn said. “The brownies took my pencil.” I looked into the mirror of the bus driver. We came to a corner in the road and I hurriedly switched to her seat. A little yellow portal was still open. I reached in and felt something stab at my hand. “Ouch.” I pulled out a pencil with a brownie stuck to it. I shook it once and it fell off. “Stop doing that! I hate you Sighters.” That was what they called us. Sighters. As, we could see them, but no-one else really can. “Thank you! Oh my goodness I can feel something on my hands!”

“That’s the brownie.”

“Oh.” Rosa put her hand up to me. “Here.” I pointed to the portal and guided her hand to it. The brownie jumped from her hand to the portal. “Can you please not steal anything from her? She lost her friends, and...” The brownie’s eyes widened. “Oh my goodness, really? I’m sorry. I will not bother her. Any suggestions?”

“How about Brooklyn? She sits in the third seat behind the driver.” The borrower nodded and the portal disappeared. I swear I saw a mischievous glint in their eye. “Okay. What the frick did you say to them?” I almost forgot. They speak a different language and we know how to communicate with them. They speak a language called Whisper. “She won’t bother you anymore. She’s bothering Brooklyn.” Right on cue, an ear splitting shriek filled the bus. “WHERE’S MY DIAMOND ENCRUSTED MIRROR?!?!” Jessie looked back at us. I nodded before he could ask. All three of us smiled wickedly. The bus screeched to a stop and Jessie was thrown into the front of his seat. “Ow.” I almost lost it. A black haired girl ran to our seat. “JEC! DID YOU OR MY BROTHER STEAL MY MIRROR?!” I shook my head innocently. Her dark skin had a tinge of red. “I KNOW YOU DID!! YOU ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO STEAL STUFF!”

“Fine. I’ll get it.” I stood up and walked to her seat. Sure enough, a yellow portal was open above her bag. “Hey,” I whispered. The language automatically silenced me to other ears. “Are you almost done?”

“Almost.” She whispered back. I peeked into the portal and saw her pink skin. Her hair was a deep purple crowned with a ring of flowers. “You look so pretty.” She blushed. “You think so?” I nodded and her big ears perked up. “I just realized, what is your name? I would love to tell my friends how nice you are.”

“My name is JeC. What’s yours? Surely you have a beautiful name.” The pink across her freckled cheeks grew deeper. “Oh. I’m sure it’s not that pretty. Just Hyacintha.” I thought about that. “You mean like the flower hyacinth? I love those flowers! They’re by far my favorite.” Hyacintha smiled and pushed the mirror through, turning the portal green. “Thank you.”

“No problem!” The portal disappeared and I gave Brooklyn her mirror. She gasped. “Where?” I shrugged. “Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” She nodded and sat down again. I walked back to my seat and the bus jerked forward. Jessie, who just recovered from the last jolt, flung forward, crashing into his seat. Me and Rosa were unfazed. “How do you girls do that?” Rosa shrugged. “Maybe because we’re girls.” Jessie glared at us and turned around again. The rest of the bus ride was full of me or Jessie returning Brooklyn’s things. Sometimes losing them to the brownies completely. The only things we lost, however, were make-up products. Jessie mostly gave them the products and didn’t bother trying to take them back. Rosalynn started whispering. “Hey.” I jumped. “You learned?” She nodded excitedly. “Yeah! I learned to activate something in the back of my throat to silence me!” Oh my goodness! She actually learned how to speak Whisper! Suddenly, in the dark corner of my mind, a voice spoke that wasn’t my own. H-hey... A-anyone th-there? I dug deeper and found a little girl, white hair, and peach skin. Oh no. I tried, but couldn’t stop it. I plunged into darkness and a memory rose. “H-hello?”

“I-is anyone th-there?” The little girl walked forward slowly. She bumped into someone blurry. “H-hi? I-is anyone there? Am I-I alone in the w-world after all?” The blurry figure hugged her. “I’m here. We’re not alone.” The figure split into two different people and cleared. One looked like the girl, except for shorter hair and a taller figure. The other had red hair, almost as red as fire, and pale skin. She was about the same size as the girl. They all grew in age and I recognized myself, Jessie, and Rosalynn. Rosa suddenly wore all black and the other two were hugging her tightly while they all cried. I know this time. This time was when Rosalynn had seen her two friends die from the neighborhood murderer. They had dropped dead while they were playing hop-scotch. “We’re here for you,” JeC and Jessie said in unison. “Don’t worry. You’re not alone.” Then something happened that I didn’t remember. Jessie whispered something in a light blue portal. I listened as hard as I could so I didn’t miss anything. “Take their life before it drains forever. Take them, and let them live elsewhere.”

“You’ll visit them?” A voice came from the portal. “Yes. Rosalynn, JeC, and I will visit them.” Then the memory/vision/dream ended. “JeC! Are you awake? We’re here!” I shot up in my seat, hitting Rosalynn’s head against my own. I sucked in a pained breath and carefully opened my eyes. Rosa was rubbing mud on her head. “That’s disgusting.” She looked at me and just smiled. “You’re not faring any better.” I scowled at her. Something flashed in the corner of my eye. I turned, but it was gone. “Um... You okay, JeC? You’ve never missed anything. Any detail, at least.”

“S-sorry. I thought I saw something.” Rosa shook her head, splashing me a bit with mud. “Come on,” she said. “We’re going now. Jessie is freaking out!” I stood up and ran out of the bus. I quickly found Jessie and ran to him. “JeC! What the heck! You can’t just pass out on the bus like that!” I caught my breath before I spoke. “I... I saw something on the bus... I... couldn’t see it. It disappeared before I could look at it.” Jessie’s piercing ice blue eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” I nodded and looked around. We were standing in a big field, trees surrounding it except for the road and dock to the lake. Rosalynn’s purple wide eyes found mine and I realized she had heard the entire thing. “Oh ya. Jessie. Rosa can Whisper.” Jessie frowned. “Ya. Everyone can whisper.”

“No, you stupid head! Whisper. The freaking language.” His eyes widened again and he stared at Rosa. “You can Whisper?” She nodded, her cheeks flushed. Suddenly a light blue ball of light with a hole in the center appeared a few yards away from where we were standing. As soon as the portal was there, it suddenly wasn’t.