Castle Heights: Crown of Thorns

by Sasha McDaniels

  My stomach dropped. “So that means that Ben and I are cousins?”

  “Yes,” Jennifer said, moving over to Ben. She draped her long elegant arm over his shoulder. “But not by blood, dear. Ben is adopted.”

  Relief flooded my stomach. We hadn’t kissed or anything, but sheesh. I felt something for Ben, whether it was more than a completely general liking coupled with a simple acknowledgment of his good looks and charm, I had no idea.

  “Ben will show you around the school tomorrow. He’ll also show you around town. It’s time, sister, for the two of you to come out of hiding. I thought we had already agreed upon it when you agreed to come home, and then you come up with this silly sick nonsense. You know that girl couldn’t be sick if she tried.”

  My mother frowned. “I agreed that I would come home. That was all. I never agreed to send my daughter amongst the wolves.”

  “There is only one wolf to be concerned about,” Jennifer said. “And we haven’t seen him in town for a very long time.”

  “He’s not the only one and you know it,” my mother said.

  “Oh, that’s only rumor, my dear sister. That hasn’t been confirmed.”

  I had no idea what they were talking about. I searched Ben’s eyes for answers. To my relief, he opened his mouth to speak. “Whether there are wolves is the least of our worries,” he said.

  4

  All the talk about wolves made my mind race. Not to mention the revelation that Mrs. Thompson was my mother’s sister. What other secrets was my mother keeping from me?

  “Now that the family is back together, I say we ought to have a grand celebration,” Jennifer said.

  My mother waved her hands. “No, no, no, I hate parties.”

  “You may hate parties, but just because you hate them doesn’t mean that everyone else has to hate them too.”

  “A party sounds awesome,” Ben said. “I plan to introduce Reagan to everyone I know at school, and a party would be a great way for her to get to know everyone.”

  My heart fluttered. A party. School. A family. It was all too much.

  “What do you say?” my aunt Jennifer asked me.

  “Well, I’ve never been to a party before,” I answered.

  My Aunt Jennifer shot my mother a dirty look. “Elise, that’s terrible. You have overreacted as usual when it comes to my niece. The poor girl has never been to a party? What a shame.”

  “I did what I had to do, Jennifer. I shouldn’t have to explain things to you,” my mother said.

  “Whatever,” Jennifer said. She brushed her blond hair out of her face. “Ben, show Reagan to her new room, please. I need to have a conversation with my sister, alone.”

  I looked at my mother.

  “Really, Jennifer, I don’t see why Reagan needs to sleep in the house.”

  “You know exactly why she needs to sleep in the house.”

  “You know, if I want to leave here I can.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Jennifer said. She stepped to my mother. My mother and Jennifer stood nose to nose. Jennifer towered over my mother’s petite frame.

  “Come on, Reagan. We better go before things get ugly,” Ben said.

  I decided to follow Ben’s advice. If my mother didn’t want me to go sleep in the Thompson’s mansion, she was going to have to stop me, physically.

  I grabbed my coat and threw on my beanie and gloves. Ben grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the apartment and down the steps.

  We stomped through the snow. My snow boots didn’t seem like they’d be able to hold up to the intensity of a Castle Heights winter. The snow went up to my shins, soaking through my tights.

  Once we were inside of the mansion, I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn’t believe everything that was happening, but I was glad to be away from my mother. The prospect of getting to explore life outside our apartment was exciting and overwhelming.

  “Ben?”

  “Reagan?” Ben said as he shrugged out of his own coat and took mine into his hands. He draped both coats over his arm.

  “How much do you know about me?” I asked him.

  “A lot more than you know about yourself,” he said. “I mean as far as your powers are concerned.”

  “Tell me about me.”

  “I can’t. Jennifer will kill me.”

  “Right, but how will she know if you tell me something?”

  “She has her ways. I don’t test them.”

  “Do you have powers too?”

  “I guess you can say that,” Ben said.

  “What sort?”

  “I’ll show you sometime. First, we need to get you dry. Then after that, you need to get a good night’s rest. Should school open up tomorrow, you should be well rested.”

  “Ben, did you know all along that I wasn’t sick?”

  “Yep,” Ben said.

  I lunged for Ben but he moved back before I could get to him. He laughed. “I can’t believe you.”

  Ben shrugged. “Follow me,” he ordered me.

  I followed Ben up the winding stairs. He led me to a room at the end of the hall.

  “This place is ginormous,” I said. “How do you not get lost here?”

  “This place isn’t big enough if you ask me,” he said.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You’ll see,” Ben said.

  He opened the door to the room. I followed him inside.

  “Wow,” I said. The room was gigantic just like every other room in the Thompson mansion. There was an enormous canopy bed, lots of dressers, a couple of chairs, a chaise lounge, and I didn’t even want to see the bathroom. I imagined it was big too.

  “Here you are, my lady. Welcome to your humble abode,” Ben said.

  “Ben, can I ask you another question?” I asked.

  “Shoot. Although, I can’t promise that I will be able to answer it.”

  I figured as much, but I decided to ask my question anyway. “Do you know who my mother is afraid of?”

  “Jennifer for starters,” Ben said with a snicker.

  “That much is somewhat apparent. But no, I mean, my mother has been running with me in tow since the day I was born. Who has she been running from? Who is after us, Ben?”

  Ben sighed. “I can’t tell you that, Reagan. See, that question, my friend, falls into the category of questions I’m not allowed to answer.”

  “Will I find out who it is while we’re here in Castle Heights?”

  “Hopefully not. And maybe one day your mother will tell you who you’ve been running from.”

  “I’m surprised we’re even here. I wonder if this means we’ll stop running now. I can’t believe my mother even has a sister. She told me everyone in her family was dead.”

  “Jennifer seems to think that you staying here is a good idea. I for one agree.”

  “It’s not fair that you know so much about my life and I don’t.”

  “All’s fair in love and war,” Ben said. “Now, get some sleep. I’ll be by your room bright and early in the morning.”

  “Love and war?”

  Ben fanned the air. “Never mind,” he said.

  “Wait, Ben,” I said as he neared the bedroom door. “What did you want to show me earlier?” I asked. “When you wanted me to follow you upstairs.”

  “I’ll show you tomorrow,” Ben said. “For now, get some sleep. If the roads are clear in the morning, you have a big day ahead of you, my friend.”

  Ben disappeared. I stood in the enormous bedroom alone. I searched for the bathroom which wasn’t very hard to find at all.

  I was right. The bathroom was gigantic. There were a separate tub and shower, and the tub was one of those large oval shaped ones. I moved towards the tub and noticed that it had jets too. I had seen tubs just like it on tv

  “How luxurious,” I said aloud.

  I decided that it would be a great disservice to both the enormous tub and me not to take a soak in it.

  After my bath I laid in bed, staring up at the
tray ceiling. If the snow cleared enough for me to go to school, that would mean I was going to leave the house and venture out into the world.

  Fear seized me upon that realization. What if the other kids thought that I was weird? What if they didn’t like me? Suddenly, in my mind, my dream quickly became a nightmare.

  The next day, as I expected, my blood work came back fine. My poor mother was horrified as she watched my Aunt Jennifer dress me in a pair of her jeans and a red cashmere sweater.

  We stood, the three of us, in my Aunt Jennifer’s closet. The closet was bigger than my old bedroom in the trailer. As a matter of fact, the closet might have been about three times the size of my old bedroom. Besides its width, its height was impressive.

  “What do you know? You fit my clothes pretty good. Except that the jeans are a bit long.” My Aunt Jennifer dropped down to her knees and cuffed the jeans.

  “What size shoe do you wear?” she asked me.

  “A seven,” I said.

  “Well, what do you know, me too. What size shoe do you wear, Elise?” she asked my mother with a smirk.

  “I don’t see how my shoe size matters one bit in this situation.”

  “For starters, it means that Reagan can borrow a good pair of snow boats until we can get her to the mall this evening to buy her an entirely new wardrobe.”

  “I can’t afford to buy her a new wardrobe,” my mother said.

  “That’s immaterial because you’re not the one who has to buy it,” my Aunt Jennifer told my mother. “My treat. We’ll spruce you up a bit too. Get that hair dyed. It’s turning white faster than I can say hag.”

  “I don’t feel the need to hide my age,” my mother answered.

  “Here, take these.” My Aunt Jennifer reached for a pair of snow boots which sat perched next to an entire row of snow boots of different styles and colors.

  I took the boots and sat them down on the plush carpet beneath my expensively socked feet. My Aunt Jennifer felt the need to loan me what she called boot socks. I slipped my feet into the boots.

  “How do they feel?”

  I beamed. “Great!” My smile dropped away quickly when my eyes met my mother’s.

  “Go on, take a look at yourself in the mirror,” my Aunt Jennifer instructed.

  My mother jumped in front of me, to stop me. “No, don’t go near the mirrors. You know that, Reagan.”

  “Pish posh, don’t be silly. All the mirrors in this house are safe. So is the one in the garage apartment. They’ve been fortified.”

  Fortified. What did she mean by fortified? Fortified by what?

  “How are they fortified, Aunt Jennifer?” I asked, taking the opportunity to try and glean some sort of information about what exactly I didn’t know.

  “That will be enough of that for today. Just remember not to use your powers at school. It is forbidden.”

  “Like at home,” I said.

  “At home, it’s not such a big deal.”

  “Jennifer!” my mother shouted.

  “She’s going to need to practice, Elise. You Know Who isn’t going to stay away forever.”

  “Who is 'You Know Who'?” I asked unable to resist.

  “Ignorance is bliss, my dear,” my Aunt Jennifer said curtly.

  I huffed. “I’m tired of living my life in the dark,” I said.

  “If the bad ones get you, your life will be darker than it has ever been,” my mother warned.

  “Pish posh. Too much negativity,” my Aunt Jennifer said. “Look at yourself, darling. You’re stunning. I’ll fit you for a coat, scarf, and hat, and you’ll be on your way. We’ll deal with that hair later.”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” my mother said. “You will not touch her hair. That’s where I will absolutely have to put my foot down.”

  My Aunt Jennifer rolled her eyes. “We won’t cut it off of course,” she muttered in my ear, “but a little better product will go a long way, and maybe we’ll learn a few new styles.”

  “I can hear you, Jennifer,” my mother said.

  “I can hear you too, Elise. You’re talking loud enough.”

  Ben poked his head into his mother’s closet. “Time to go. Vernon has the wagon fired up for us.”

  “Who’s Vernon?” I asked.

  “Our driver,” Jennifer said. “And one of your mother’s ex-boyfriends.”

  Ben and I exchanged looks. It was hard for me to imagine my mother having a boyfriend. Then again, she was with my father once upon a time ago. I had missed out on the chance of seeing the two of them together.

  I stood in the mirror looking at myself. The clothes my Aunt Jennifer gave me were the nicest clothes I had ever worn in my life. If the kids didn’t like me, it wouldn’t likely be because of my outfit.

  “Makeup first,” Aunt Jennifer said. “Just a little. Not too much. You’re still young and fresh, unlike your mother.”

  “Speak for yourself,” my mother murmured.

  “Dye that hair of yours and maybe start applying some cream to those crows feet of yours, and then maybe you might give me a run for my money. But even that won’t solve the rest of your look.”

  “Catfight,” Ben pronounced.

  “Hush up. Make sure you and Reagan grab a muffin on your way out the door.”

  “Already on it,” Ben said.

  Ben pulled two muffins out of the pockets of his trench coat.

  Ben whispered something in my mother’s ear. She nodded her head curtly. I wanted to know what was said. My Aunt Jennifer sat me down on a tall stool and went to work on my face. She held up a hand mirror in front of me when she was done, and my mother growled.

  “You’re absolutely divine,” my Aunt Jennifer said.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. I did look pretty good. I grinned.

  Jennifer turned to Ben.“What do you think, Benjamin?”

  My cheeks turned hot.

  “She looks fine,” he said.

  “Fine? Just fine?” Jennifer asked.

  “We’re going to be late, Mother.”

  “Well, at least you called me mother today, instead of Jennifer.”

  “Whatever, Jennifer. Catch you on the flip.” Ben gave Jennifer a high five.

  I couldn’t imagine giving my own mother a high five. I waved to her instead.

  She rushed me, grabbing me by my arms. “You don’t have to go school. There’s no reason for you to go. You’re such a smart girl already,” she said.

  I lowered my head. “Thank you, mother,” I said.

  “That will be all, Elise,” My Aunt Jennifer said, shoving her aside.

  I moved towards my mother and threw my arms around her neck when I reached her. “Thank you, Mother, for allowing me to go to school,” I told her.

  My mother froze like a deer in headlights. I couldn’t remember the last time I had hugged her. As usual, though, she did not hug me back.

  “All I can say is be safe, Reagan. Do not use your powers. And contrary to what your Aunt Jennifer says, stay out of the mirrors.”

  “Oh, come on, Elise. You attended Castle Heights High. You know the mirrors are fortified there too. Stop scaring the girl.”

  Ben grabbed my hand. “Wait, your coat,” my mother said. “You’ll catch your death out in that weather without one.”

  “Here you go,” Kiddo, my Aunt Jennifer said. She handed me a brown puffy coat trimmed with fur. I shoved into it. Man, it sure was soft and warm.

  “Look out for her, Benji.”

  “Of course, Jennifer.”

  “Back to Jennifer again,” I heard my aunt say as Benjamin and I left the room.

  Down in the toasty car, Benjamin introduced me to Vernon, the driver.

  Vernon must have been about seven feet tall. His head brushed against the roof of the enormous Mercedes wagon.

  “Good to me you, Miss Reagan,” he said.

  Vernon had a bald head and eyes that were black as night.

  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Vernon.”

  “Just call m
e, Vernon. Calling me Mr. just sounds too formal, and frankly, it makes me feel old.”

  “Okay, then, Vernon,” I said.

  “Now, shall we head to Lula’s on the way to school.”

  “You know it,” Ben said.

  Ben looked refreshed, but his blue eyes were grayer than I remembered.

  “So, what did you say to my mother?” I asked Ben as the car was pulling off of the property.

  “That’s for me to know, and for you not to find out,” he said with a grin.

  “I will find out. Somehow, some way.” I had an idea of how I might do it, but I would need to wait until later.

  I looked out the window, never taking my eyes off of everything we passed. When we came in a few nights before, I saw nothing of Castle Heights other than rocky terrain and trees. It was like my mother had taken some desolate route to the Thompson mansion.

  We passed a bunch of mansions along the way. “Is everyone in this town rich?” I asked.

  “Nope,” Ben said.

  “Where do the regular people live then?”

  “Are you saying that rich people aren’t regular?” Ben asked.

  “You know what I mean, Ben.”

  “Look, over there, there’s downtown. You’ll like it there.”

  I followed where Ben’s finger was pointing. “Oh my gosh, it’s so cute!”

  “I know right,” Ben said in a high pitched voice.

  I punched him playfully on the arm. “Are your friends as sarcastic as you are?”

  “They wish,” Ben said.

  Vernon pulled up alongside the curb. “I’ll wait here for the two of you,” he said.

  “We’ll be out in a jiff. At least there’s a delay today, so we’ve got about twenty more minutes before the first bell.”

  Vernon got out of the car and opened the door for me. Ben waited for me on the sidewalk.

  “This place is so cool. What is it?”

  “Lula’s Coffee Shop,” Ben said. “See?” He spread his hands out in front of the sign in the window.

  “Ha, ha,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  He was starting to act like an annoying little brother instead of a love interest which was sort of fine with me. I hadn’t had either so I wasn’t apt to be picky.