by Tara Brown
She nodded, “They have all been feisty since yesterday. You guys did a bad thing, Sam. They said it’s a bad spell to do. You could die from it.”
He frowned, “What?”
She nodded, “Lydia said she did it once before. The woman hung herself. The sadness of not feeling anything, it gets to you.”
He ruffled her hair, “Don’t worry about it, Sarah.” He didn’t feel anything. Even the sentence she spoke didn’t worry him.
“It’s not possible to feel sadness if you can’t feel anything.”
Sarah’s little face didn’t look convinced. She ate a piece of bacon and shook her head, “It was a bad thing, Sam.”
He pointed, "You shouldn’t be eating that bacon. Your mom would be very angry."
She smiled, "I'm not a vegan here. I'm a flexitarian. I eat what I'm served."
He piled food on his plate and shook his head.
The other kids started to pile into the kitchen where the table expanded as always. The small kitchen always accommodated everyone.
Danny raised an eyebrow, “No more you and Hanna?”
"Not so much."
Danny shrugged, "I like Hanna. She makes me feel happy when I look at her."
Sam coughed and changed the subject, "You guys all been in contact with your families lately?”
They nodded. Sarah smiled a toothy smile at him. Her teeth had grown in too big for her small face, “Aunty Beth said to tell you she expects a visit sooner than later. She said she wants to talk to you about something.”
He shrugged, “Okay. Maybe I’ll see if we can both go.”
Sarah shook her head, “I don’t wanna go. I started a fire yesterday when I was mad at Danny.”
Danny’s chubby face turned red, “She burned my World of Warcraft poster for the Mists of Pandaria.”
Sarah looked down at her plate, “It was an accident. I said sorry, Danny.”
Danny glared at her, “And yet, your apology didn’t bring it back.”
Sam frowned, “Be nice, both of you. It was an accident. Sometimes we can’t help what our powers make us do.”
“Is that what you told Hanna, when you apologized?”
He turned to see Lydia, standing in the kitchen with her arms folded across her chest, and a truly-pissy expression plastered across her face.
“No. I never apologized. I’m not sorry.”
Lydia shook her head, “You will be, Sam. Even I can’t save you from what you’ve done. There was a reason I told you no witch would ever do that spell for you.” Her eyes burned, “We all know the cost of it.”
She turned and walked away.
He looked at the frightened looks of the kids at the table. Even Dawn looked upset. He picked up his fork and started to eat.
After breakfast he walked into the sitting room where Lorri and Lydia had their heads pressed together.
“Can I help?”
Lorri glared at him, “You’ve done enough, kid.”
He sat beside Lydia, “Look, I don’t regret it. It was the right choice. I’ve freed her.”
Lydia sputtered something in hysteria and left the room.
He looked at Lorri who cracked her bitter grin, “You fucking idiot.”
“What? It was my choice.”
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, “Sam, you have no choices. None. You are a slave to this fate just as we all are. When I fell, I was terrified. I am not exactly a people person.”
Sam snickered, “No kidding.”
She glared, “No. None. Anyway, when God asked me to fall, I had to trust he was making the right choice. I had to assume he knew best. If I had defied him, where would humanity be right now?”
Sam went to speak but she slapped him, “It was rhetorical, dipshit. Humanity would be fucked. They would be up hellfire shit creek with no paddle and a vampire dry humping them in the boat. The point I’m making is, Lydia told you ‘no’ because she knew what was best. You should have trusted her. Instead, you defied her and have left us a giant goddamned pile of bullshit to clean up.”
He shook his head, “How? I don’t want to love a girl. Big deal. It’s my business. It’s my choice. I still have freewill.”
Lorri growled, “You don’t deserve freewill. You destroyed Hanna’s. You took away her choice to love you. You moron. Her mother matched once a long time ago. She hated her match. She made a mistake and asked Lydia to do the spell. Lydia did it, not knowing what would come of it. Hanna’s mom committed suicide. She was tired of feeling nothing. It was a dark magic spell. Darkness is what killed Lydia's baby. You brought dark magic into Ophelia. Our fucking savior.”
Sam shook his head as Lorri slapped his cheek again. The sting of his cheek was the only warmth he felt.
Lorri continued, sounding savage, “Don’t tell me that Hanna's mom committed suicide because of Marcus. It was never because of Marcus, you tool. She had matched with Dr. Jekyll. The problem was, that when he shifted into Hyde she lost her match. It was transferred. No one knew that could happen. Suddenly she loved Marcus and he loved her. Terrified of having an affair, she went to Lydia. She struggled with the emptiness for years. Then they had Hanna. Imagine being a mother and feeling nothing for your child.”
Sam started to worry.
Lorri nodded, “Now you get it. Marcus assumed she had chosen the doctor and threatened to kill him. She felt nothing for either of them though. She took her life before either of them was ruined from her mistake. The spell has a cost, Sam. Every spell has a cost. Look at the guards that keep the darkness out. They cost Annabelle her life. So now you see how stupid you are.”
“I don’t feel anything. I don’t feel regret.”
“Do you love anyone, Sam? When you think of your mother being held captive by Jonathan as his fun-time girl, do you feel anger?”
He shook his head, “I feel nothing.”
“Then you are as useful as a tit on a bull. You feel no anger? You feel no love? What will drive you to help us in the fight for your mother’s freedom?”
He shrugged, “I don’t really feel like fighting.”
She laughed bitterly, “All this on day one. Great news, Sam. Now the best part, this spell grows. The nothingness you feel today will intensify. In a month, you will feel even less. Soon you will not even feel pain.”
He looked at Lorri, panic building inside of him, “This is bad.”
She laughed harder, “No shit. Now go find Ophelia and get her scrying for a solution to this little problem before you hang yourself and can’t die, so you just hang there like the idiot you are.”
He should have felt frightened. He knew that.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ophelia
“You want to go for a walk?”
The redhead nodded blankly.
She got up from the armchair and followed Ophelia from the room.
“My name is Ophelia.”
“Hanna.”
“Nice to meet you.”
They walked from the castle in an awkwardness neither of them tried to fix. They walked along the bushes in the back garden.
“I’m sorry. I never would have done it, if I knew what he was asking.”
Hanna shook her head, “I deserve everything I’m getting. I let my powers get the best of me. I swore I would never, but I did.”
Ophelia sighed, “I just wish it could be last week again and all of this was gone. I want my friends and my parents and my sister. I want normal.”
Hanna burst into laughter, “Oh God, you have no idea. You know Aimee was a nerdy science geek, who was going to university and had finally landed the boy of her dreams, before she became a death dealer. Ari had a nice little café with her uncle in the desert before her abilities kicked in. I had a best friend named Rebecca. My aunt and uncle murdered her and triggered my dormant freak genes from my dad’s science experiments on himself. We all just used to be people.”
Ophelia felt sad. Tears formed in her eyes, “What are we doing? Why are w
e waiting?”
Hanna smirked at her, “Dorian told me your brother is as strong as you are, so we can’t use you to our advantage. Plus your dad lives in Alaska, in this place we checked out the other day. It’s like a fortress. Impossible to get into. We don’t have the numbers we used to. They have the advantage. It would be a slaughter fest. The only advantages we have are me, Aimee, and Ari. They don’t have anything like us.”
“My sister is there.”
She nodded, “Yeah, my boyfriend Sam, his mom is there. He doesn’t think I know, but Dorian told me.”
Ophelia cleared her throat, “That sucks. Who is this Dorian?”
Hanna paused in the grass, “I meant my ex-boyfriend. Sorry. It just hasn’t really hit me yet.”
She didn’t say anything. She just gave Hanna the quiet moment she needed.
“He won’t ever be my boyfriend again.” She sat on the rock outlining the garden beside them. She bent her face into her hands.
Ophelia put her hands on Hanna’s back and rubbed it like she had done to her sister millions of times. She had dated a lot of boys who always ended up being dirtbags.
Ophelia was about to speak, when she saw movement in the forest behind them. She squinted to see a man walking amongst the massive trees.
“I’ll be right back. I think I see someone spying on us.”
She walked away leaving Hanna to sob on the rock. The girl was a mess.
Ophelia pointed at the man, “Who are you?”
He stopped walking and spoke with an English accent, “Oliver. The resemblance to your mother is remarkable.”
He didn’t look like he belonged in the woods. He wore jeans, loafers, and a light-blue dress shirt with short sleeves that hugged his biceps. He had a tattoo just poking out of the collar of the dress shirt on the right side of his neck and short, dark-blond hair.
She glared at him, “You know my mother?”
He smirked, making her knees wobble, “Everyone knows who your mother is, Ophelia. That’s why I’m here. To help you.”
She held her finger up, pointing at his face. He never even flinched, “You must not know much about me.” She wanted to laugh at herself for being such a noob but he could be her father, for all she knew. None of the others seemed to age beyond thirtyish. He looked twenty-five, but she knew that meant nothing.
“I know all there is to know about you. Born July 7th, 1994 at seven minutes after seven. Your brother was born a minute after you, making you the older twin. You’re part of a prophecy to end the world or heal it, depending on how you choose. I know I'm drawn to you. From the minute it was discovered you were alive I have felt you at every moment.”
“That's creepy. You are not welcome here. This is the Vampire Queen’s property. She eats strangers.”
He laughed, “You are much cuter than I thought. I had feared you would look like your father. He’s not the handsomest of men.”
“You know my father, how?”
“I fell with him.”
She gulped, realizing he would then of course be as strong as Lorri. She held her finger pointed at him, “You’re an angel?”
He gave a short nod.
“Why are you here?”
“For you.”
She took a step back and shouted over her shoulder, “Hanna, come meet my friend.”
He looked nervous seeing Hanna, “Is she a siren?”
Ophelia beamed, “Don’t like sirens? Pretty sure that makes you racist.”
His laugh grew nervous, “Oh, I like them just fine. In fact, I have a rather hard time not liking them. Tell her to stay over there.”
Ophelia smiled as she heard the crunching of Hanna’s footsteps on the gravel and branches coming closer, “Who is he?” she asked.
“He is like Lorri, only he must be one of the bad ones. Lorri never mentioned an Oliver to me.”
Hanna wiped her face, “Dorian mentioned one to me. He’s Jonathan’s pet. He let the darkness take him, the way your father did.”
He smirked, “Of course Dorian would know you. He’s always liked sirens. I recall he had one a while ago. Never got over her, I’m afraid. She was lovely.”
Hanna sneered, “Why are you here?” She pulled her phone out and sent a message.
Dorian appeared instantly, just behind them, “Oliver. What on earth could possibly possess you to come here?”
Oliver smiled, “Brother. It’s good to see you again.” He crossed his arms, making the shirt seem constricting.
“Why are they all so hot?” Ophelia leaned in and whispered to Hanna who giggled.
“I think I could have gone a little longer before I saw you again. You’re a traitor to your own kind and to our father.”
Oliver’s eyes flashed at Ophelia again, “I cannot say you misjudge me brother, but I can say I was wrong. Wrong in my betrayal and wrong in the side I chose. The dark is a tempting seductress.”
“You’re boring me. Out with why you’re here?”
He shrugged, “I came to help. Jonathan has taken it too far. He’s mad.”
Dorian laughed, “He’s always been mad and you’ve always been a wanker, so please stop wasting my time. Go back and tell Jonathan your pathetic little attempt failed. We won’t be tricked by you two.”
Ophelia felt like she was out of the loop. She glanced at Hanna who seemed to be following along well enough and sighed, “Well, I’m going inside. Nice meeting you Oliver. Please tell my father I said hello and thanks for raping my mother for a thousand years, so I could be born to this wonder and excitement.”
His words floated into her mind, ‘I need you Ophelia. We need to be together’. She turned back to him and frowned. He smiled again, “I can get you guys inside.”
‘Your sister Abbey is still alive, for now. We need to hurry’, his words licked at her mind. She watched him. His blue eyes seemed honest. His beautiful face was sexy. She couldn’t be sure if she wanted to say yes because he was gorgeous, or because he was a good guy.
Hanna glanced at her and nodded, “We do need help getting in there.”
Dorian also crossed his arms, “It’s a trap. We follow him in and then Jonathan gets you.”
Oliver cocked his head, “Brother, he has the upper hand. Why would he need her to come to him?”
Dorian shrugged, “Look, I’m not playing at this Oliver. I’ve sent a message to Lorri who will no doubt be here any minute, with Aimee.”
Oliver grinned, “Ah yes, the dealer you made. Quite the intelligent move. You’ve made something bigger than us all there. Can she take us out?”
Dorian nodded, “She can.”
Oliver shook his head and chuckled, “You made something that can kill you? You’ve always been the reckless one.”
“At least he has honor and integrity. At least he is willing to fight for what is right, even if it means creating something that can kill him.”
Ophelia looked to where Lorri walked across the rocks with Aimee behind her. She still looked a mess.
“Why hello, love. Long time no see. I suppose not as long as it has been since you’ve seen me.”
Lorri squinted.
Oliver cracked a boyish grin, “You think you were that stealthy? You brought the siren with you. Jonathan has a taste for them. He smelled her from ten miles.”
Lorri shrugged, “Maybe we brought her for him to smell.” Her eyebrows arched.
Hanna took a step toward Oliver, “You want me to show him inside, Lorri?”
Lorri shook her head, “No I don’t want you breaking him until I get some answers.”
Oliver looked at Aimee, “So you’re the dealer?”
Aimee looked confused, “I guess. What does that make you, the player?”
He chuckled again. His smiles and carefree attitude only made the attraction to him worse for Ophelia.
“Oliver there must be a reason for this now.” Lorri looked annoyed.
Seeing he was getting nowhere, his face lost its joy. His blue eyes hardened like ste
el. He pursed his lips and flexed his jaw. After a moment he spoke, “He’s murdered my son.”
Lorri looked back at Dorian whose jaw dropped, “Phillip?”
Oliver nodded.
Lorri crossed her arms. Dorian looked at Hanna and Ophelia, “Leave us. You too, Aimee.”
Ophelia watched a single tear fall from the face of the man. Where it landed on the ground a small white flower instantly grew.
‘Help me, Ophelia. I need you. Help me get my vengeance Ophelia’ His eyes met hers for a second. She turned and walked back to the house in silence with Aimee and Hanna.
Aimee glanced at Ophelia and Hanna and walked ahead of them.
“She hates me.” Hanna whispered.
“She doesn’t hate you. She just loves Sam like family, I think. They all seem really close. Have they been together long?”
Hanna shook her head, “A couple years, not long. Long enough that they formed a bond. You and I won’t ever be welcome members, like they are.”
“Where is your father?”
Hanna blushed, “Aimee killed him.”
Ophelia felt her face scrunch into a ball of disgust, as Hanna opened up to her and spun a story Ophelia wasn’t certain she would ever believe, not fully. She was grateful that her parents weren't the only fictional characters in the story of their lives.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sam
He sat staring out the window. The sun was shining and the birds were singing, but he felt closed off from it. It was as if he had taken drugs that inhibited how he felt. Everything felt thick and sluggish. His mind moved as if it too was impaired.
“Sam, I need your help.”
He looked at Lorri and shrugged. He didn’t feel like helping. He made himself get up. He imagined the years when Hanna was a little girl and how hard her mother must have faked loving her and enjoying being with her. It must have been exhausting to pretend.
“I need you to hang out with this guy for the night. You can’t come with us, obviously, but you can hang out with him. If he tries to get away from you, flash him to this picture, okay?”
He looked at the water fountain, he had seen it before. He knew the area well. He nodded, “I guess.”
