The Crystal by Jones M (the chimp paradox .txt) 📕

room was not helping. I thought about forgetting the damned device, but then I spotted it on top of my suitcase.

I groaned in annoyance as I reached for it. Just as I was doing so, my door was opened.

Crap!

"Emery?" a voice said as I heard their footsteps approaching. 

Double crap! 

I had no idea why. Maybe it was instincts or a reflex action, but I turned to face whoever had entered my room.

It was a huge mistake.

Zane was staring at me with his eyes threatening to pop out of his sockets.

I shrieked before quickly ducking to the floor. The bed was between Zane and me, and I hoped it would provide a sort of shield for my exposed form.

"Sorry! I am so sorry!" Zane apologized. "I just wanted to tell you that dinner will be brought in thirty minutes." 

I heard his quickened steps as he exited the room, closing the door behind him.

In fear of someone else entering the room, I teleported to the door.

That was when I recalled I could have just teleported the phone to me when I was in the bathtub.

I wanted to smack myself for forgetting I had powers. If I were to blame something, I would blame the jet trip to England.

I had indeed not locked myself in the room.

I wanted to groan with a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance.

Zane had seen me naked. How the hell would I be able to be around him, knowing he saw what he saw?

Zane's P.O.V

I still felt blood in my cheeks as I quickly exited Emery's hotel room. I didn't know she was in the process of going to take a shower, and that made things awkward between us.

More awkward than they already were.

I thought I could have forgotten about what had happened minutes later, but my mind couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't stop thinking about her. 

I never paid much attention to her body, but after seeing her without any clothes on, I realized she was hot. Like, water-boiling hot. Her beautiful face, her slightly-tanned skin, and unexpectedly, her breasts. 

The image stuck in my mind, and I felt a desire to touch them. I itched to grasp them and torture the erected pink nipples, sucking and biting them in delight as I pounded into Emery, listening to her moan as she came. Her eyes would be darker, filled with desire. And I would not hesitate to give it to her. I could even picture it, picture her moaning my name out loud as I gave her a toe-curling orgasm after a toe-curling orgasm.

Blood rushed to my groin, and I felt shocked about it.

What are you doing, dude? You can't think about her like that!

My conscience was right. Emery was hands-off. I couldn't just go over and start touching her in naughty ways that would—

Yep. I was doing it again.

Emery was strictly hands-off because it would be awkward. I didn't need that and the fact that I was her ex-bully to complicate things between us. I wasn't even sure she had gotten over what I did to her. The only thing we could be was just friends. 

Besides, my girlfriend would not be pleased about it.

Selena's P.O.V

I had showered before I went to have dinner with my cousin and the boys. It was great. We had a nice time talking mostly about the sites in England. We even talked about going there. 

At some points between conversations, I felt as if there was some kind of tension between Emery and Zane. I decided to blame it on my exhaustion. I mean, how could there be tension between the two of them when we had just landed in England on the same night?

An indecipherable amount of time later, we had all fallen asleep in our beds. The night seemed peaceful; that was until a blood-curdling scream echoed through the suite. 

I was up like a fully-charged phone and ran towards the door. Opening it, I went to the suite's hallway. It was dark, and I found it hard to spot where the scream came from.

Maybe it was an erboon. Maybe it was an erwich. Maybe it was even a thief or murderer! Whoever it was, they needed to be dealt with.

The scream came again. I realized it was in one of the hotel rooms. With quickened steps, I ran and barged in, a fireball flaming on one of my hands. I quickly diminished it, seeing that there was no one but a screaming Ethan thrashing around the bed.

I ran towards him. I began struggling to get him up.

"Wake up, Ethan!" I insisted, but he did not do so. He was just screaming, and because I was close to him, it felt louder and harsher to my ears. 

I soon heard footsteps come towards me.

"What's going on?" Emery asked with a yawn as she walked to the other side of the bed.

"I don't know," I replied. It took a short while for my cousin to be alert. In a quick manner, her hands were over Ethan's head. Her eyes were closed, and I picked up that she was reading his mind. Her eyes suddenly flashed open.

"Guys, it's best if you back away from him," Harry said as he entered the room. He was quickly followed by the rest of the boys.

"I don't get it," Emery said. "He's seeing the dead bodies of Selena's parents and... my mom."

Emery turned to look down at the ground. I felt bad that the subject of her mother was brought up. 

"How long has this been going on?" she asked after she shook her head.

"The last two months," Liam said as he looked at the floor.

The hell?

"AND YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING?" Emery and I shouted at them. They flinched, feeling bad for themselves. However, arguing was not going to help. Ethan needed to be cured of the repeated nightmare.

"I don't know a spell for this," Emery said as she looked around frantically.

"What if we use the memory erasing spell?" I suggested. Emery thought about it.

"Yeah! I believe that would work."

Then Emery and I had conversed for a short while about the spell before closing our eyes and chanting it. The spell was hard to perform since it required us to form a mental picture of a control room for the memories. It was a good thing that Emery and I had talked and decided to picture some kind of futuristic computer in a dark environment.

It had taken us a while to find the memories that plagued Ethan's mind. Soon, we used the 'computer' to delete the memories.

Emery and I gasped as we found ourselves in Ethan's room once again. Ethan's form had stopped thrashing on the bed, and he was peacefully sleeping.

"The spell has worked," I told the guys as Emery and I turned to face them. "Ethan will no longer be screaming in his sleep. Now, can we get to bed and catch up on our sleep?"

CHAPTER 24

Emery's P.O.V

I had woken up from a long and comfortable nap. For a moment, I did not realize where I was. It was after a while that the memories of the previous day came back to me. With excitement, I walked towards the suite windows which were partially covered by the curtains. I drew them back to take a look at the city that surrounded me.

My mouth opened in amazement. I must have been on higher ground because I could barely see the roads. I also spotted a wide river with a large road bridge on top.

My hands reached for the glass, and I found myself itching to just fly over the city to get a better view just like I did in Crystalia.

"Good morning, Emery!" Harry greeted me as he barged into the room with nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. His torso was bare, revealing a marvelous hairless chest and faint six-pack abs.

I think I just found another reason why his fans love him.

"Harry! What if I was undressing?" I screeched, telling myself to look at his face and only his face.

"I heard your footsteps from the kitchen," he replied with a confused look. A blush began to form on my cheeks.

Wait. We had a kitchen?

"Anyway, I hope you are hungry. I'm making breakfast," he said before leaving the room. My eyes shot up in disbelief.

Harry could cook? This I got to see.

I found myself walking behind him and towards the kitchen.

On our way there, my eyes widened as I looked around the suite. On the previous night, I was too to pay a lot of attention to my surroundings. If I did, I was sure I would have been gobsmacked then.

I looked down, noticing the marble floors. The walls around were painted cream white. On my left was a large dining and entertainment room with a glass door leading to the balcony where one could feast their eyes on the view of London. Moreover, lights placed on the ceiling illuminated the room, even though there was enough light coming from the balcony door. Further in front of me was the exit door and to my left, the kitchen where a shirtless Harry was making me breakfast.

The smell that came from the food had me salivating instantly.

"You can cook?" I found myself asking, still not believing that he was an expert in the kitchen.

"Yeah," he replied. "My mother taught me. I used to step in when she would get tired. I also took cooking classes in high school."

He did?

"I did," he replied with a smile, answering my mental question. Okay, that was good to know. I was ready to taste whatever he would make and be the judge of it.

"Morning," a groggy Selena greeted us as she made her way towards us. I wanted to laugh at her current physical state. Her hair was all over the place, and her eyes were barely opened.

"Hey, Selena!" Harry greeted loudly, making Selena flinch.

"Harry, can you keep it down? It's so early in the morning," she grumbled.

"It's 9:30," Harry deadpanned.

I stifled a laugh at the shrug that my cousin gave him.

"I don't get it. What were you doing last night?" I inquired.

She remained quiet, not bothering to answer my question.

I gasped. Her eyes widened, thinking that I knew what had occupied her.

"You were with Justin, weren't you?" she blushed in reply. My question was a guess, but seeing her blush, I knew that was true.

"But how? I thought you were asleep!"

"What I do with my boyfriend is none of your business," Selena chose to state.

I rolled my eyes at her.

Minutes later, the three of us sat around the dining room table. It had been months since I had eaten a decent breakfast, and I was very happy with what Harry had cooked. The three of us were eating eggs and bacon with glasses of orange juice.

The minute I took the first bite, I knew Harry was a genius cook. Selena and I actually groaned with pleasure at the taste. It was that good. All the while, Harry was watching us with expectant looks.

"Marry me," I said, earning a look of shock from him. "If you can cook this well, I would want you all to myself." He proceeded to laugh.

"Hey guys," Zane made his presence known, making me tense. I looked up to glance at him. Our eyes met, and I immediately looked down at the table. Selena saw the exchange, and she gave me a questioning look. I just shrugged, feigning it was nothing before continuing to devour my food.

"You cooked?" Zane questioned. Harry nodded.

"I'm not busy this week, and we had guests," Harry replied. I looked up from my plate to stare at the two members of the Ordinary Brothers.

Zane gave him a smile. "Could you--"

"No," Harry replied in an instant.

"But--"

"No," Harry spoke again.

"Hmph," Zane sighed in defeat before moving to sit beside me.

Oh crap. Was it only me or did he not feel weird about what happened hours ago? He saw me naked for goodness' sake!

What happened next shocked me. Zane took a bite out of my eggs.

"Zane!" I shouted his name in disbelief, turning to face him. He gave me a sheepish smile before digging for another bite.

"Harry!" a whine left my lips as I turned to face the curly-haired boy. Zane took part of my breakfast, and I wanted the curly-haired boy to replace it, and if possible, make more for me. Harry rolled his eyes with a smile, and with a wave of a hand, the egg was replaced, and Zane had his own meal.

"Thank you," he replied before he began to dig into his own meal. Minutes later, Ethan decided