”Arrest me!” She half yelled, thrusting her hands his way again.
¨You know I can't do that,¨ he admitted defeated.
¨Then now you know why I can't report my mother.¨
¨What does she want?¨
¨I contacted her when I was pregnant. I asked her to come here by any means possible, because if I had a son, I wanted her to take him away and keep him safe.¨
Jan spun around upon hearing this, his face dark with anger, and his eyes nightmarishly black.
¨You would give my son away to a terrorist!¨ His exclamation was quiet, a gentle rumble that couldn't hide the force of anger in those words.
¨No!¨ Maseke screamed back, struggling to keep calm but losing. ¨I'd give our son to my mother for protection!¨
¨And what makes you think I won't protect him?¨
¨Because you never could protect me!¨
He took a step towards her angrily, then forced himself to stop.
¨I've done everything to protect you. I've bent the law a thousand times over for you. I've compromised my integrity, and even demanded that my comrades do the same- all for you! What- more- do- you- want?¨
¨What more do I want! What more do I want? How about to take a walk in the gardens with my child without fearing some Witches setting us on fire? How about a future where people won’t always be discussing a way to imprison me or curb my powers, even though it could result in my death? How about a life out of here? Let me go Jan! If you love me, help me escape, so that I can return to my mother. She'll protect me. Let me go. You can stay with our daughter if you want. She'll feel more at home among her people. Let me go please,¨ Maseke begged.
¨You want to leave me? I thought you loved me,¨ Jan said, heartbroken and confused.
¨Love can't give me a full life. Love can't let me go out into sunshine. Your love won't even set me free!¨
¨But love can conquer all..¨
¨Says the man that can buy his own underwear. I haven't been allowed in society for years! I don't even remember how it feels to swim, to have the water run against my skin on a hot summer day. Love can't give me anything!¨
¨You never loved me,¨ Jan was saying to himself, as he approached the window. ¨Everyone warned me but I never believed it..¨
¨Oh get over it! I do love you. It just isn't enough..¨
¨Tell me the truth!¨ He demanded, taking large strides towards her.
¨It is the truth..¨
¨No it isn't! You were playing with my feelings, manipulating me. Tell me..¨ he said while shaking Maseke so furiously, Sophie feared he might snap her neck accidentally.
¨Leave me alone! You blood-sucking monster!” Maseke yelled, losing any calm she might have still commanded. ”What do you want to hear, of how I fell in love with you at first sight? Is that what you want to hear? How when we first kissed it was the happiest moment of my life?” Maseke was beyond saving now. Angry words were spilling out of her mouth unrestrained.
”Do you want to know what the happiest moments of my life really are? When we'd go swimming with my mother as a child in the great River Mara among the crocodiles. She'd spell their mouths shut, so they’d chase us for hours as we swam downstream, but never could attack at us. Those are the best moments of my life. While you are boring me to sleep for hours about your hopes and dreams for our future, do you know what my thoughts are? Running away. Running away from you, from all of this, and finding my mama, and shutting the rest of you out forever until the day I die. When my mama comes today, I’ll leave with her. In fact I've changed my mind, I’ll take my child with me too.¨
¨Masi- Maseke is that really how you feel? Have you really been pretending all this time? The virus.. Did you create the virus?¨
¨Don't ask questions whose answers you do not wish to know!¨
The Avalon lifted the Witch into the air, every part of him now was black. Black eyes, black veins pressed against his skin.
Sophie now knew this was the day Maseke would die.
¨You.. You killed my parents you Witch!¨ She laughed at his face in answer. ”Your parents were condemned to die in Maiga hands from the moment they stole me away from my mother-”
He slapped her hard across her face, tearing her skin accidentally, then some of her blood started seeping out. This was not going to end well!
He seemed- well, he seemed confused, and Sophie found herself once again pitying him. His nature was battling with his conscience, but then again, it wasn't much of a battle to begin with, for his nature seemed to be winning. He reached out with his free hand, and touched the thin line of fresh blood with a single fingertip.
Maseke was laughing even harder now.
¨Go ahead- be the monster you truly are,” she baited him. ”You go around parading in suits and expensive clothes, but deep inside you are just a blood craving beast!¨
Jan hesitated only for a moment, before helplessly sucking onto the blood on his fingers.
The transformation was immediate. Sophie caught the glimpse of a monster before he lunged at her neck.
Chapter 35
Sophie had no idea how long she'd been screaming. It was a rich blood curdling sound, a sound that echoed in all rooms of this museum of a home, which also played prison. It was the only sound that could drown out the lapping coming from one end of the room.
When she stopped, not purposely ending her scream, but really an involuntary action by her body to inhale, the silence around her was unnerving. It was as though the whole universe had colluded to silence- and now stood watching quietly as Maseke Maiga died. This realisation forced her to yet another scream, only this time she moved to action.
Still screaming, for what else could she do to drown that life sucking slurping, she rushed to the month old Boke who'd now started whimpering, as though aware that something wrong was going on. Some of her mother's blood flowed across the floor, and was now soaking Boke's diaper.
It was perverse, to see the thick red flow soil the baby's onesie and diaper, as though death was threatening to claim her too, and so Sophie attempted to grab her off the floor and take her away. But Sophie's hand slipped easily through her image.
Then the slurping sounds stopped. Even through her screams and the baby's whimpers, Sophie heard that demanding silence, a creeping stillness, and so she stopped trying to grab at the child's holographic image and turned, expecting the worst.
Her assumptions were accurate. A now regretful Jan was slumped to the floor, cradling his dying woman's body, sobbing bitterly.
¨What did I do!¨ He cried out again and again, rubbing his now bloody hands over his face and hair in heart-wrenching anguish, before pressing her to his chest again.
”Masi wake up! Please wake up and spell away this injury. Please-”
Sophie was torn in two, between pitying him and hating him at the same time.
Something crashed into the room through the window. Nyangwi! A look that only an anguished mother watching her child die helplessly can muster crossed her features. She had the Avalon flying across the room with a single sweep of her hand. He crashed against the opposite wall, causing a crack, while Nyangwi bent over her child, cradling her in her arms.
¨It's too late, mama-” Maseke's voice was barely discernible. ”You found me too late.”
¨I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Oh gods, what did I do? I love her..¨ Jan was crying over and over again. No one paid him any attention.
”No it's not,” Nyangwi argued. ”We can curse this injury away..”
”No- please. I don't want anyone to die in my stead. It isn't the Maiga way.”
”I can't just watch you die.”
”You cannot save me now, mama. But I'm glad to have seen you one last time.. Finally.. I’m in your arms!¨ Sophie's heart broke at Maseke's intermittent last words. It had taken them nearly seven years, and her death, to finally reunite.
¨Take the dagger, mama,¨ Maseke said, lifting her skirts for her mother to pull out her bone knife, which was
also soaked in her blood.
¨And take my child, Boke- the first, the strong one.. but promise me, mama.. Don't kill him. Don't let him die in your hands. I- I love him.¨ This only made Jan cry out with more agony.
¨He’s killed my only child. He's a murderer! Don't ask me of this-”
¨No, mama!¨ She cried weakly, her voice barely audible. ¨If things were different, you'd have called him son. Don't kill him, but mama-” as though finding new energy suddenly, she said firmly, ”take out every single trace of him from her. Don't let my daughter become a monster too-”
And just as suddenly, midway through her sentence, Maseke was dead.
Nyangwi now let out a scream, an anguished scream that tore at the walls, a scream that seemed a spell in itself, or a curse as well. And as the scene began to fade away, the last scene between Boke and her mother, Sophie grabbed at Boke, who was now solid again, just as her grandmother reached for her. The one child became two, one going the opposite direction with her grandmother.
Sophie held on tight to her version of Boke, even as the room finally dissolved into white nothingness. It was time to get back. She struggled to hold on fast to the small body still slick wet from her mother's blood, then she follow her trail out of this maze, half-blinded by the tears still streaming down her face.
Sophie was still heaving and shaking when she stumbled with the child through the last door, just before the enchanted whirlwind swept her into its madness. She held on as tight as she could to the still wailing baby, but then the angry wind about them yanked the child from her arms forcefully.
¨No.. No!¨ Sophie was still crying, even as she came to on the floor of her dorm apartment, with present day Boke's worry etched face looking back at her.
Sophie grabbed Boke almost instantly, enclosing her in a tight embrace. Boke was bewildered, but she clang on and returned the embrace. Sophie knew she was scaring her friend, but she was traumatised herself. The memory of Maseke's unfortunate death was still too vivid. k'12
Sophie clawed at her skin, attempting to get the clammy feel of blood off it. But there was no blood on her anymore, only the memory of it, and it was enough to make her sick.
In the middle of her hysteria, Sophie thought she heard some humming. Boke was singing something soothing in a low voice, and it brought with it a heavy darkness, and an in-ignorable exhaustion claimed her mind, begging her to shut her eyes.
Sophie gave in to the beckoning, just as a new kind of pain began from somewhere between her shoulder blades.
Chapter 36
What was that pain? Sophie was disoriented as she came to. The pain went again, and she relaxed, but immediately missed it because of memories of what she'd witnessed yesterday.
Then another sharp pain tore across the base of her shoulder blades, and her eyes flew open at the sheer shock of its intensity.
¨Aaargh!¨ She cried when she finally couldn't hold back the pain, arching backwards against her bed, where Boke must have placed her last night. She must have used magic to get her onto the bed, for Boke was too small to bear her weight.
¨Sophie!¨ Boke's very worried face appeared before hers, blessedly blocking out the bright rays of sunshine blinding her.
¨Sophie? What's wrong?¨
¨I don't know- Aaargh!¨ Sophie developed into another cry when yet another bolt of pain rocked her. ¨Aaargh!¨ She screamed again, this time very long and loud.
Boke looked around frightened now. With the noise Sophie was making, a matron would be in here in seconds, and the two would be in great trouble, for only Faeries were allowed in Rhiannon House.
”Go-” Sophie whispered. ”Go, before a matron finds you-”
And it was just in time that Boke flickered away, as a very worried Werecat matron burst through the door almost a second later, and then a Faery and Witch materialised in the dorm apartment.
¨What is it..?¨ Sophie started, but was again cut off by her own screams of pain.
”Turn her around,” the Faery ordered, and the Werecat matron did as instructed.
”What's wrong with her?” The Werecat asked, failing to hide his worry.
Yeah, what's wrong with me? Sophie could have yelled right then, if her teeth weren't so tightly gritted against the pain.
”She's fledging,” the Faery in the nurse uniform declared.
”She's sprouting wings?” The Werecat asked slowly.
”She's sprouting wings,” the Faery declared.
I'm sprouting wings! Sophie thought to herself in shock, but barely had time to romanticise about it when a new wave of pain tore through her again.
For three days Sophie wallowed in near unimaginable pain, night and day blurred together into a senseless jumble, especially because the curtains remained drawn.
She was barely conscious when the rest of the school returned from midterm, and Keira and Aimi were moved into the next dorm apartment.
Sophie muttered in her sleep, and the words she spoke and names she called out both puzzled and shocked her team of care givers.
”The Count is a murderer!” she seemed to scream at one point.
”Don't kill her!”
”Maseke, run!”
Her parents arrived just as lucidity began to claim her again, but she was still heavily drugged, and she was almost always sleeping.
Six days later, her mind was clear enough to catch on a conversation, at least snippets of it.
¨.. Get better now.¨
¨Yes.. The worst is over.¨
¨Mom?¨ A low croak, rather than the excited cry she was going for, escaped her lips.
¨Baby!¨ The familiar voice cried, accompanied by the sweet scent of lavender.
¨Hey Fi-Fi!¨ Her father then said, the bed dipping where he'd moved to sit beside her.
¨Dad! Mom! When did you get here?¨
¨Four days back..¨
¨What? How long have I been out?¨
¨Out? Honey you’ve been screaming almost every five minutes since we arrived. You handled the sprouting much worse than your mother did, and that is saying something!¨
¨Hold up, Lucky!¨ her mother interjected, slapping playfully at her father. ¨But honey you did scream a lot. We've barely slept a wink. We arrived two days after it began. I'm sorry we couldn't have gotten here sooner.¨
¨It's alright,¨ Sophie reassured them. ”I'm just glad you're here now.”
¨Do you feel like taking a bath honey? You kinda stink..¨
¨Mom!¨ Sophie protested initially, but then thought it might be a good idea.
At first, every muscle of her body fought against having to get off the bed, however the warm water felt good against her skin. Especially right under her shoulder blades, where an insistent itch had replaced the mind-numbing pain.
¨Don't scratch it,¨ her parents kept saying. She felt like the five year old kid with chicken pox again. It was a mental strain not to reach over and scratch it, but luckily that strain kept her from straying into much darker thoughts.
For a week or so thereafter, all Sophie could do was sleep, wake up, take a shower, eat, and then fall asleep again.
The pain began again on her third week of bed rest. It shook her awake from her sleep. It was less intense than previously, and centered to the base of her shoulder blades.
She moaned lightly as the pain increased, and soon her parents were by her side.
”It's almost over, Fi-Fi,” her mother said, taking her hand into hers. Then as though by cue, Sophie let out a shrill cry, as she literally heard her skin tear apart.
¨Aaargh!¨ Sophie cried, loud and long, even as her father began burning another sage blade to mask her screams.
¨Mom! Mom it hurts!¨ Sophie cried, as the tearing proceeded. She arched her back inwards in an attempt to reduce the pain or stop the tearing, it didn't help though.
She felt the trickle of a warm sticky liquid down her back, as something pushed hard and painfully against her skin.
”Oh God!” The pain was almost to
o much to bear. She bit down hard into her pillow, clawing at the mattress with her nails.
She kept screaming as the wings pushed against her skin some more, causing more tearing, and more bleeding.
Her parents lifted her into the bathroom at some point, and someone turned on a cold shower, which somewhat helped with the pain. She hugged the stone-tile floor as the mother of all pains rocked her. With one last tearing, accompanied by the most earth shattering scream Sophie could manage, her wings tore out of her skin.
Chapter 37
Boke found herself unable to relax. What could have triggered Sophie's sprouting? What terrible secret had she uncovered? All sorts of horrors ran through her mind.
She now found herself too frightened to hear whatever answers Sophie might have for her. How had her mother died? Had the Count really killed her? Was she responsible for the virus? And even more important, who was her father?
She found that she could anticipate the other answers but for the latter question. Her mother was dead, that was a fact. That the Count killed her was almost certain. But that she'd created the virus? Would her mother be capable of mass murder? But say that she was, that couldn't come as a surprise, could it? The realm had tied her hands, what else could she have done but fight back for a cause of her own? But who was her father?
Boke was miserable. All this unanswered questions sat terribly with her.
She looked at her watch, then forced herself up. Every Friday morning was the mandatory inspection conducted by the matron and house captain. Boke quickly muttered a spell as she headed into the bathroom, and when she got back out, her dorm apartment was spick and span.
The dorm captain stepped in right then, and Sophie reproached herself for not having better timing, for he could sense her still lingering magic.
”How many times must I inform you that unchaperoned use of magic is illegal in the school?” The hard angled captain said with a frown, and an equally displeased Witch matron followed in after him.
A Different Kind of Witch Page 19
