Everything You Ever- Ch. 6

Chapter six.

Cackletta was glad that Fawful didn't ask her where she was going. She didn't want to worry him by letting him know that they were being watched. After all, that little bean shop of his was supposed to be a secret, and he really prided himself on that. She didn't want to break his little heart by letting him know that some psychic had figured out his clever hiding place.
Cackletta hadn't recovered enough of her magic yet to cast any sort of invisibility spells, but she did have just enough to pull together a basic perception filter. It would render her impossible to notice to anyone who didn't expect to see her--and surely, no one would expect to catch her walking right into Bowser's castle. Indeed, she walked right past the door guards, trying to hold back a laugh as they exchanged 'did you see anything?' 'no, why?' remarks. She made her way, quite leisurely, down the halls, until she found the door she was looking for. She opened and walked through a door labeled "HEAD MAGIKOOPA – KAMEK".
She found Kamek sitting in the dark, hunched over his crystal ball. As she quietly closed the door behind her, he said, "Get the light, will you?"

She hit the light switch, and he turned his chair around to face her. "I assume you were expecting me, then?" she said.

"Yeah," he shrugged, "I realized too late that you'd recovered enough to notice me. How careless of me."

"Is there a particular reason why you were spying on us?" she asked.

Kamek scoffed. "You kidding? Watching that kid is pretty much required of me by now. Every time I take my eyes off him, he goes off and does something horrible."

Cackletta grinned. "Sounds like he's been giving you a hard time."

"You don't know the half of it," Kamek said. "That kid's been a thorn in my side since the day you kicked the bucket."

"It won't get any better now that I'm back, either, I promise you," she said.

"Hm. I'm sure," somehow, he really didn't seem so sure. "So how did the afterlife treat you?"

"It wasn't an experience I'd like to go through again," she said. "Although I guess I'll have to eventually. Why, are you getting ready for when you finally croak?"

"My dear," he said, his voice oozing condescension, "I have gone face-to-face with the Darkness at the Center of the World and come out of it with little more than a fractured leg and broken glasses. I don't think I'll be dying for a long while."

"Excuse me if I don't believe you," Cackletta said.

"Ask your little toady, then. He was there. I've still got a laser burn from when the thing possessed him," Kamek said.

Cackletta took a moment to think on that. "The Darkness at the Center of the World--the immortal thing that could consume the entire universe--it awakened, and you and Fawful were there at the time?"

"You've missed a lot," Kamek said. "Two years is a long time around here. That's only a fraction of the madness that's gone on."

"I've got a lot of catching up to do, then," Cackletta paused. She wasn't sure if she should ask this from someone so very opposed to her, but she didn't want to ask Fawful and it occurred to her that he might know. "Look, Kamek... about Fawful."

"Yeah, what about him?" Kamek asked, an edge to his voice.

She paused. No, she really didn't like having to ask him this.
"When did Fawful start having night terrors?"

Kamek gave her a bemused look, as though asking for her to go on.
"He cries in his sleep," she said hesitantly, "Or screams. He even keeps a nightlight in his room now. He never had that before."

Kamek laughed. He laughed the sort of laugh that made Cackletta want to shoot lightning at him and storm out of the room, but she knew she wouldn't get an answer if she did that. So she stood there patiently, waiting for him to finish his laughing and answer the question.
"Heh," he wiped at his eye, the laughing having made him tear up a bit, "Oblivious, are you? Let me clue you in. You died. You're his mother figure and he'd never figured out how to take care of himself, and here you just up and died. So I'm sure he's got nightmares about that. Then he's got a bit of a guilt complex because he blames himself for your death. So I'm sure there's that, too. And then he got his head messed with by the Darkness and it showed him something really terrible. There's that. Oh, and there's being absorbed and controlled by the Dark Star, which he probably tried to use in order to quell all his nightmares about the Darkness. There's that." He waved a hand dismissively. "I'm surprised nightmares're the only thing he's got. It's a shock the kid isn't crazier than he is."

Cackletta looked downward, taking all of that in. "I didn't realize."

Kamek pushed up his glasses. "He was just whimpering in his sleep during his stay with the Koopa Troop--oh, but you wouldn't know about that, would you--and while we were hiding out from the Darkness he'd already graduated to screaming. I don't even want to know how bad it is now."

"Things aren't the same now, are they," she said. "I keep trying to tell myself that things can go back to normal now, but then I notice things like Fawful speaking in the third person--with real self-esteem--or I'll hear about some amazing thing he did that he never could have done before, or I hear him crying in his  sleep... my little apprentice has changed, hasn't he?"

"You have no idea," Kamek said.

Cackletta turned away. "I'm grateful that you answered my questions, so I won't harm you for having spied on us."

"Like you even could in your state," Kamek said.

"Feh. Anyway, I'll be on my way."

"Just a moment," Kamek said, "That thing you said. About things going back to normal--you know that can't happen, and not just because Fawful's grown up a bit."

Cackletta's hand was hovering over the doorknob. She didn't move.
"Your game is over," Kamek said. "You ran out of extra lives, so to speak. You were a shayde, property of Queen Jaydes. Do you really think she'll just allow you out of her clutches?"

"I escaped," Cackletta said.

"By dumb luck. But death's a bit more tenacious, I'm afraid. Don't act like you haven't noticed. The more your magic comes back the more obvious it is."

"My energies flow a bit differently now," she said.

"You reek of death!" Kamek said, frustrated that she was skirting the issue. "You're an abomination to nature and the universe wants to be rid of you. You think it was an accident that you fell off the roof last night? The world is going to go to great lengths to end your endgame."

"I just have to be more careful," Cackletta said, "That's all."

"It won't make a bit of difference," Kamek said. "Say your goodbyes to the kid. You won't be around much longer."

"Well," she said in a tone of voice that indicated that she was quite done with this conversation. "I'll be on my way. Again, I thank you for the information, but stop spying on Fawful."

"I make no promises," Kamek said.

"Then I can't promise I won't come back and set your study on fire," she opened the door. "Goodbye."

Cackletta stormed out of the room and down the hall, her fury unnoticed by the oblivious members of the Koopa Troop. What did Kamek know, anyway? Sure, it had occurred to her that maybe her return to the world of the living might be a temporary arrangement, but she was sure she could find a way to avoid the inevitable. After all, she had to, right?
She couldn't give Fawful another thing to have nightmares about.