The Witch's Brew

Chapter 17: Iris

I found myself standing in front of Mon Manman’s house again. That stupid purple door stared back at me. I raised my fist to knock, but I let it fall back down to my side. I know I’m not wanted, but I had to know why my mom was hiding things… why did she hate me? I turned my head to the side and sighed. I let all the negativity out of my body and knocked on the door, a firm, hard knock. I was going to get answers even if it was like pulling f*****g teeth.

The door opened, and Mon Papa stood in the threshold. He smiled at me. “Iris… I wasn’t expecting you… After what happened last time you showed up.”

“I just need answers, Mon Papa… about my heritage and why Mon Manman hates me…”

“You’re talking about the nullifier magic, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “Yeah, why was I never told… what does it mean for me as a witch? Is it really that feared?”

“Well, that comes from my side. Your mom didn’t know it when we got married… didn’t know until after we had Bryony.” He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling of the covered porch. “Yes, it is feared because of how rare most people think that it is, an urban myth to scare people to make them stand in line.”

I nodded and watched as he started to pace. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Manman Ou wanted me to keep it hush-hush… she was so upset I didn’t tell her she almost divorced me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me after I moved out… is that why she hates me?”

“Yeah, that’s why she fears you. You’re technically more powerful than her… just not in the same way. You’re right, though I should’ve told you… But I didn’t want you to hate me too…”

I shook my head. “You had so much time to come see me and come clean… to tell me all of this, and I don’t understand why you didn’t! I would have never hated you… You were the only family member growing up that f*****g showed me kindness. You let her hurt me… let her abuse me!”

He flinched, and for the first time in what felt like forever, he actually looked sorrowful. I closed my lips into a tight line as I calmed myself down.

“I know, and I regret everything I let her do… I regret not taking you and leaving her. I f**k Iris, I loved her… I thought she’d come to her senses eventually, but I guess that was wishful thinking!”

I took a step back and shook my head. “But I was hurting… and you never told me, never protected me. You just treated my wounds and told me how much you loved me. Mon Papa, that’s not love… that was never love…”

I held up my hand when he was about to speak again. I shook my head one last time before I turned on my heels and ran down the stone pathway back to my car. Tears stung at the back of my tear ducts as I drove back home, back to the only people who ever truly loved me, Kai and Silas. They were my family now, and I would never need my blood relatives again, because they never cared… Never truly loved me for me…

When I got back inside my apartment, I allowed the tears to fall. I was ugly crying, and my boyfriends came to comfort me. They embraced me as I babbled out what I had just found out. As I told them why Manman hated me. Why Papa never saved me… why I was the outcast.

“Shhh, baby were here for you know,” Silas cooed.

“Yeah, dry those tears don waste any energy on them. We love you, Iris… now and forever.”

I looked up at them, “Thank you both of you, and I love you both as well.”

I felt at peace f**k i finally felt happy. I finally knew what love felt like, and I wasn’t ever going to let this feeling go.