Nothing is what it seems

(Jake POV)
I was in the middle of texting Ella when an unknown number texted me. I looked at it in confusion, then opened the text.
‘Hello Jake, It’s Ira, we met at the Rose Thorns an hour ago. I have and hour and a half to kill before my plane boards. So I figured we could talk until then. I know it may sound weird, but I had noticed that my crystal had changed it’s color after I had met you. If Jinxx had told you as much as I think he has, then you may know what this means…anyway if you want to talk either reply back or call. If not, then I understand. ’
I froze at the crystal part and stared. Her crystal changed?…but wouldn’t that make me? … may be it was someone else sh--no it can’t be someone else she had seen or talked to…because our bare skin touched…and what I had seen afterwards…may be I should ask Jinxx about it.
I opened up the second text. ‘Though I also understand that you’re a musician in Jinxx’s band, so it may be that you’ll be preforming when you get this…or on your way to a venue to preform. Anyway, it was nice meeting you. I know I’ve probably put a complication into your relationship with someone else. So I understand if you don’t want to hook up right away…okay I better stop typing and send this to you. From Peace.’
I want to reply to her, but I don’t know what to say. What should I say to something like this? Just then I hear footsteps coming towards the bunk room with a knock to follow.
“SHIT!” I said. “I’m so screwed!”
“Jake, is everything all right?” Ashley’s voice came.
“Y-yeah…um…could you get Jinxx for me please?” I asked as I went back to reply to whatever it was Ella had texted me earlier.
“Sure…Though what for?”
“There’s something I need to ask him.”
“Okay.”
“Thanks.” I say as I hear him walking away.
(Jinxx POV)
Ashley came walking back to the little kitchen area. “Hey, Jinxx…um…Jake wants you. He wants to ask you something.” He told me.
“It probably has something to do with the Mystic that he just met at the bar.” I said as I got up from my seat.
“Well, he definitely said he was screwed.” Ashley said.
“All right, I’ll see what I could help him with.” I replied as I made my way to the bunk room.
Once I got there, I knocked on the door.
“Come in.” I heard Jake say.
I opened the door and entered. “Hey, Ash said you needed to ask me something.”
Jake sighed irritably. “Yeah, here…not sure what to do about this.” he said as he handed me his phone.
It was opened up to a text message. “There’s two little pages of the text…their from Ira…the rare mystic…”he said.
I then looked and read the messages. I reread the messages then handed his phone back to him. I looked at him shocked. “Dude…a rare mystic is your true love. It’s up to you if you want to pursue her or not…either tell Ella things aren’t working out between you two or not. It sounds like Ira knows what she had gotten herself into. Though since her necklace turned pink, everyone that’s like me will know she’s taken by someone else and won’t pursue her.”
“Meaning what?”
“ Meaning that she’s going to have to wait until you’re ready to be with her…as in after Ella is out of the picture.” I answered him. “It’s your decision Jake though. Either walk the single life again until you’re ready to be with Ira or marry someone you may not be happy with for the rest of your life.”
Jake sighed. “Well, since you put it that way…” He trailed off.
“Jake the final decision is yours. I can’t make that decision for you.”
“I know…thank you Jinxx.”
I smiled slightly. “Your welcome…Peace, huh?…that’s a nice name.”
“Yeah, it’s sure is pretty.”
“Yeah.”
There was a moment of silence. “Was there anything else you needed to ask me or was that it?”
“That was it for now…I’m not sure if there was anything else.” He said.
“Okay, well just holler at me when you need me then.” I said as I made my way out.
“Will do.” He said.
“Oh, hey…” I said as I remembered something that I had read from the texts he showed me, with my hand on the door handle.
“Yeah?”
“Where’s she flying to?” I asked.
“Back home to Greece.”
I laughed lightly. “Well, at least you’ve got experience in long distance relationships then…huh?”
He laughed as well. “Yeah, that’s true.” He said as I walked out and back out to the kitchen area.
(Ashley POV)
I saw Jinxx walking back towards us. The talk that was going on when he had entered died.
“Well,…is everything all right with him?” I asked.
“That depends on how you view the situation he’s in. Two good-looking girls…one’s a British model mortal, the other is a Greek Rare Mystic.” Jinxx said. “…he just so happens to be the mystic’s true love.” he added as an after thought.
“No way…He’s that mystic’s true love!?” Reign asked shocked.
“Yeah, she had sent him a text that he allowed me to read. From what I read, she calls herself Ira…but her name is Peace.” Jinxx answered him. “She also had mentioned that the crystal on her necklace had changed color…plus, I had noticed the two of them reacted the same way you and CC had reacted, Ash. She barely had brushed his skin with her arm and they both saw something similar to what you told me.”
“And you had gotten all that just by noticing their reaction with each other?” I asked.
“Yeah…though the details of what the three of you have seen with each of your Mystics are for you only and your true love.”
(Jake POV)
Sometime after Jinxx left the room, I sat on my bed. Ella had stopped texting me a moment before he had walked in. She hasn’t texted me since. I then decide to reply back to Ira. It was a little bit later after I had struck up a conversation with Ira that Ella decided to text me back. I opened up the text message from her and was in the middle of replying when Ira had sent me one. I sent the message I was in the middle of writing to Ella, without rereading what I wrote. Then went to read Ira’s.
(Meadow POV)
“Did you figure out who he was going to go with?” CC asked.
“No, but I have a feeling he was going to with this Ira Mystic…but I had told him that it was up to him.” Jinxx answered him. “He probably wants to get to know Ira more before he decides.” He added.
“When I was tending to Ira, she took note that CC was eyeing me the entire time as well as Ash eyeing Night.” I said as I noticed both CC and Ashley blushing a little. CC is so adorable when he does that. “She then asked about Jake, since she had noticed that Jinxx and him were in the back room.” I then laughed. “I think she thought that the two of you were going out.” I told Jinxx as I laughed again. “So I told her who you were with and she was interested to find out that she was wrong.” I added. “When I asked why she was so interested in Jake, she said that he was hot. But when I told her he was taken, she asked about Andy and she said the same thing.” I continued. “ I had told her that both Jake and Andy had a mortal they were with. She had asked why all the hot ones were always taken…at first I thought she was looking for someone to sterilize her, but then I had thought that she was looking to hook up with someone. Had I known she was trying to find the person that we’ve been looking for, I probably would’ve left out the part of them being with a mortal.” I finished.
“Why would that even matter?” Andy asked. “If someone wants to be with someone else, then they have a right to know that that person is taken or not.” he stated.
I looked at him. “It matters because if a human is our true love….or as you would call it your significant other…the one you’re madly in love with…that person has the option of becoming like us or remaining human for the rest of their short lives. Since we Mystics live seven millenniums, we out live our mortal partner and sometimes find another. Though if the human decide to be like us, then they’ll live as long as us…but they only get one significant other…and will live longer than we do.”
“How much longer?” Ashley and CC asked in unison.
“Depends on how long it takes you to decide about becoming a mystic.” Jinxx answered. “My dad is a turned mystic…that’s a term we use to describe a human becoming a Mystic…it took him a couple months after my brother was born to decide that he wanted to be like us. He had met my mom two years before they had gotten married. They had met in 1179 and had gotten married a year later.”
“So…wait…” Ashley said a little confused. “What would that make your brother then? Human or mystic?”
“He’s still considered a mystic, because he gets the born power that everyone one of us gets…whether you get turned or naturally born as a mystic. But he doesn’t have any other powers like I do. There is a term for it, but to say to their face is like swearing in front of someone who doesn’t.” Jinxx answered.
“So then what you’re saying is that, if…” Ashley stated. “well, let’s say Night and I marry…and I don’t decide until three years after, how much long would I live if she dies before me?” He asked.
“We actually don’t really know the answer to that…but from what I’ve heard it’s somewhere between three to four years after their true love dies, the turned mystic dies.” Midnight answered.
“ I see.” Ashley said. “If a turned mystic is used after a human is turned, then what would you call us now?” he asked.
“A sleeping Mystic.” Angel answered. “A human with familial powers of a mystic, which cannot awaken until they met their true love and become a mystic themselves. They only have one true love.” She defined.
“ In other words, somewhere along your ancestry you have or had mystics in your family.” Jinxxed said. “What you had seen in when you saw your future…the powers that you had seen is what your family had passed down to you. Though since you’re human only hints of your power is used…like Ashley and his knack for knowing who’s lying to him or not.” He added.
“That’s a power?” Ashley asked confused.
“It’s one of yours, yes.” Jinxx said. “We each have two familiar power.” he explained. “One from your mom’s side of the family and the other is from your dad’s side of the family…though majority of the families nowadays only have one...yet as a sleeping mystic one familiar power is hinted.”
The room was silent.
(Andy POV)
All of this sounds made up, it’s hard to understand just what the hell is going on. There’s no way all of this is true. Though if this is true of what Jinxx and the others are, then is this why he didn’t want to tell us his secret? It’s a lot to take in for sure…specially if those people in the bar plus Jinxx and the girl he has now are “Mystic” then why haven’t we heard of this before now?
“If what you’re saying is all true, then why are we just learning about you so called mystics now?” I asked, seeing if any of them had an answer for this.
“You have heard about us before now.” Josephine answered. “most of our history is recorded in your mythology, but not all of it is true.” she added.
“I find that hard to believe.” I told her.
“That’s because you’re not willing to have an open mind on the matter, Andy.” Jinxx said.
“Tell me something then…” I trailed off. “Back when we got from Mexico, we just crossed the border and Jake had gone back to the bunk beds to let you know that were almost to our destination.” I said. “When he came back out, he told us that you thought you were in the great depression and that he was your brother Travis.” I continued. “What was it that you were talking about with him?”
Jinxx laughed a little. “That had actually happened…I was there when it happened. My family was on our way from the midwest to come out here. I had my violin in my hand as we walked across the country. My family was poor, as were most families during the depression, so we couldn’t afford a horse or a wagon to carry the four of us. We had a little wheel barrel of a wagon that carried our things that we couldn’t carry. Travis and I never really had gotten a long, because he’s jealous that I had gotten our familiar powers and he didn’t…he had mentioned to father that we should sell my violin for money since that was just about the only thing that was worth of anything at the time. I had butted in and told him not in a million years.” he said, then laughed. “Ironically I had sold that particular violin just a few years ago…anyway, we had ended up arguing over the subject and mother had said no. Since I had enjoyed playing the instrument and that I should keep it because it may be worth something more later…and she was right.” he smiled.
Mine, CC, and Ashley’s face fell with shock that he had actually told us something from his past. “How do you hide the fact that you’re older than you are?” I asked…I admit it, I’m starting to believe him…somewhat.
“When you live even as long as a millennium, you have to make all the mortals believe that you were born within the century.” Den answered.
Josephine nodded. “We trick the mortals into thinking that we died, by going to sleep for a long time.”She said. “We either slowly age our body to match the age we are, if we’re past a certain age in the mortal years or we pretend to die from a disease that you mortals tend to get or we pretend to die from old age.” she continued. “Though those last two I mentioned are rare, because we normally move from place to place in a century. In a half-century or so we’ll be here in the USA, while the next half-century or so we’ll be in Russia or Greece.”
“Interesting.” CC said.
“Yes, it is.” Ashley agreed.
(Jake POV)
An hour and a half later, Ira had stopped texting me. Since she had a plane to catch and had told me that she’ll text me when she landed in the airport where she was going to hop onto a different plane towards home. Ella and I still texted…well were until a moment ago. I haven’t heard back yet. I sighed as I set my phone down and went to join the others. It had been silent for a while, I wonder what it was they were talking about.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” I asked as I sat down at the table.
“Not much, you missed some interesting things.” Ashley answered.
“Yeah, like what?”
“Jinxx shared with us the moment he had dreamt of when you went to tell him that we just crossed the border to Cali two weeks ago.” CC answered.
“Plus, we got some more info about --”
“It’s all poppycock if you ask me.” Andy interrupted Ashley.
“--Being mystics.” Ashley finished.
“Anyway, what’s up with you?” Jinxx asked.
“Nothing really, Ira is on her plane and Ella hasn’t texted back yet.” I answered.
“Have you decided on who you’re going with yet?” Ashley asked.
I shook my head. “No. Not yet.” I answered. Though Peace sure had a lot of interesting things to tell me.
“Well, it’s getting late. We should get on home and get some sleep.” Andy said.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. A lot has happened today.” I responded.
The rest of them agreed. Meadow and Midnight had given CC and Ashley their numbers and vise versa then headed out.
Angel and Reign had done the same with Jinxx then those two left behind the others. Once they were off and in their cars, we were headed off and dropped each of us back home.

Notes