Uprising

Fire. It was hot and dangerous above me. I scrambled further away from the fire that was raging on and into the corner of the basement as I hid behind some crates. I put my hands over my ears as I could hear shouting and screaming above me. She was up there; she was fighting them. I clenched my eyes tightly shut as I could feel my body shaking. Why? Why were they here? They were supposed to be on our side; they were supposed to be protecting us; they were part of our one big family. I moved my hands away from my ears to hear a thud on the floor above me. I hoped and prayed silently that it wasn't her. If she died, then I wouldn't have anyone else. Who would take care of me? My breath hitched in my throat as a sob was about to escape when I quickly put my hand across my mouth. I wasn't sure if they were still up there. I'd not heard any footsteps across the floor, but surely by now they'd have gone. I mean, they could have simply walked out of the fire like we could have, unless they were looking around for someone or something, but what? "Izzy... Izzy, you need to wake up." I felt myself being shaken as my eyes shot open and I looked up at the pitch-black ceiling with Danny's face next to mine. I turned my head to look at him, seeing his eyes full of worry. "Babe, are you alright? You were crying, tossing, and turning in your sleep again." He moved from the side of me and I sat up as I ran my hand across my forehead as I could feel the sweat across the top of my head. "It was just a nightmare." I muttered as I threw my legs over the side of the bed and reached across with a shaking hand to pick up my glass of water on the nightstand and take a small sip to try and calm my racing heart. As much as I wanted to believe it was just a nightmare, I knew it was far from being just a nightmare. It had been the very nightmare that had plagued me for the last few nights that had been real. "Babe, that wasn't just a nightmare. You were terrified, scrambling about with your arms and legs and sobbing in your sleep." Of course, I was. It had been a nightmare about that night. That night, my life was ruined and I lost my world, or at least part of my world. "I don't remember." I lied as I put the cup back down and then stood up. I didn't know how to tell him. I didn't know how to tell him that everything he thought he knew about me was a lie. How was I supposed to make someone normal understand what isn't normal? "Babe, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?" "I know." I muttered. "I'm going to get a shower and then heading down for a coffee. I'll start my day early." "Izzy..." I heard a sigh escape his lips. "If you can't talk to me about it, then talk to Charlotte about it. She'll understand I'm sure of that much, afterall she's your bestfriend." My bestfriend. The one who I was suppose to trust with my secrets, how would she react to the fact that I'm not what she thinks. I'm not normal. I'm different from them both in every way and if they knew the truth, they'd both probably run away from me quick as anything. "I'll be fine." I looked over my shoulder to see him looking at me worriedly. "It was just a nightmare." I shrugged. "It's probably just stress with exam's coming up." "Yeah, maybe." Danny muttered with another sigh as I turned back and heard a thump on the bed and knew he'd thrown himself backwards and pulled the covers back over him. That was just Danny and that had been one reason I'd loved him so much, simply for being himself and being normal. I walked into the bathroom and shut door and locked it and then went and sat on the lid of the toilet seat as I put my head in my hands. Why was this all coming back to me now? Why was this haunting me now? After all these years. I let out a slow controlled breath and pulled my hands away from my face. "Because it's your birthday in a few days. Everything Cordelia did for you is starting to break. She told you this Iz." I muttered to myself. I looked down at my hands for a moment and then took another slow deep breath as I focused, slowly in my hand a ball of water began to form. I closed my fingers around the water and felt it break in my grip. "Because I'm getting stronger and becoming a full witch." I muttered again to myself. "You knew this was going to happen." I repeated to myself again and took another deep slow breath. I was going to get up and go for a shower but my head was still turning over the nightmare. Footsteps was heard above me in the fire and a shout of my name. I knew the voice and I knew who it was, I knew it was her. I knew I was safe. Cordelia would take care of it, Cordelia would find out who did this and would punish them. "We need to find her now. She's in here somewhere. ISABELLE!" I wanted to move, I wanted to go to the sound of her voice. I knew everything was ok now, but I couldn't move. My tiny eight year old body was stuck in the corner behind the crates. "High Priestess, there's a door here. Do you think she's down here?" I knew the male voice. It was Dominic, he never let Cordelia go anywhere alone, they were always together, he was always protecting her. "Get it open." I heard her voice snap at him as I lowered my hands from my ears. A door above me opened and then Dominic came down with ball of light in his hand as he wondered around and then spotted me. He put his free hand out to me. "Down here." He shouted. I didn't take his hand straight away, I'd been terrified. When I saw her though, the fear subsided and the tears began to swell up in my eyes. "Isabelle." Cordelia raced towards me and swept me up in her arms and held me tightly to her chest. "Are you ok sweetie?" I couldn't answer her. Was I ok? I had no clue, I hadn't been hurt if that had been what she'd been talking about, at least not physically like she'd more than likely meant. I shook my head pulling myself from spirialling into the memory anymore. I knew I couldn't do anything about the past. I had to live in the here and now, the past didn't change the fact that she'd been gone for ten years and that Cordelia and Dominic had done their best to bring me up. I got up from the lid of the toilet and headed out of the bathroom and wondered down the stairs feeling numb and cold inside from the way the memory stirred in me. I didn't like it one bit, but part of me had known this had been coming. Cordelia had told me that as it got closer to my birthday I'd feel a shift in my power and also in the moon and it would effect more than I was to. I walked down into the kitchen flipping on the kitchen light and then the kettle. I walked to the end of the counter and picked up my phone to see a missed call from Cordelia. Of course she'd have called me, she knew everything. She knew I'd needed her more than anything right now. My phone began to ring in my hand with Cordelia's name flashing up on the screen. I couldn't help but smile and laugh a little. She never ceased to amaze me. I answered it and put the phone to my ear. "I would ask how you are my child, but I know your not in a good way tonight are you?" Her calming voice seemed to soothe everything in my body and made me forget for a moment about the nightmare. "I'm not." I answered honestly pleased that I had her in my life to be honest with, well honest to some degree. I mean how can you lie to someone who has the ability to see the future? It had always been hard to get away with things with her because she'd known what I was going to do before I'd even done it. I guess that had been why she'd been the high priestess of the coven, before we left. "Tell me about it Isabelle. What is bothering you?" "Do I really need to tell you, when you probably already know." I told her quietly as I walked into the livingroom and threw myself on to the sofa and laid looking at the ceiling while on the phone to her. "I know sweets. Dolono. I just want to help." I could hear the worry in her voice which made me smile even more as I felt more at ease. Dolono. That had been the word I'd heard a lot ten years ago, that and mariquil. Those two simple words had helped me through the dark times ten years ago, that and her being understanding. "You know rather than trying to keep me calm maybe you should use your other favourite word considering you sound so anxious." I couldn't help but laugh a little at myself for coming up with that comment. "I've just had a bad night tonight. I dreamt of that night and it's just thrown me big time tonight." "Maybe it's..." "I thought it might be because of my birthday." I finished, hoping she'd confirm it for me. "Maybe, or maybe it is the shift in power that is coming Isabelle. Can you not feel it?" Her words threw me a little. A shift in power? I'd not felt anything different at all around me, but as I thought about it, my hand went up to my necklace that Cordelia had given me when we'd left Mirror's Edge under the cover of night. Maybe that had been why I hadn't felt it? "No." I told her honestly. "Maybe it was your gift that is keeping it away from me?" I asked. "Maybe child. I do not know." I heard her sigh which made me sit up. "Something is fast coming and that is all I know, you need to keep yourself safe though, like Dominic and I taught you." "I will..." "And the hunters, as much as you need to be careful, you need to trust them too. Not all are bad like you know." "I know. I know." I muttered and pinched the bridge of my nose. I really hadn't liked hunters since the night that the fire had happened, Cordelia had told me it wasn't their fault about the fire. I didn't blame them for the fire, I blamed them for what happened afterwards and not helping us. That had been why I'd been so angry and hated them. There had been on hunter that I'd let into my life, but in honesty, I hadn't known he was a hunter until I'd got to know him and until we'd both been honest with each other. "I should let you go sweetie to get some rest. Try and get some sleep for me darling and I am hoping I will see you on your birthday. Are you planning on bringing the human?" "You mean Danny?" I couldn't help but laugh a little. I knew Cordelia didn't particularly like Danny, but that had been because she'd loved my ex boyfriend so much because he knew the truth about me. "If Danny wants to come with me then sure, if he doesn't then I'll make the trip alone." I shrugged pleased to have normal conversation. "I get the feeling he will be coming but trouble will probably fast follow." Cordelia sighed lightly. "Please don't..." "Not from I child. From another." She laughed quietly. "Sleep well my darling. Adhuerte." "What are you wishing me luck for?" I asked simply. "Your just going to need it." Cordelia laughed softly and then hung up on me. I let out a slow sigh and put my phone on the table and then threw myself backwards. I loved Cordelia, she wasn't only my Aunty, she was also my mother after mine was killed in the fire. Cordelia had taught me so much as she'd also been a high priestess once but she left all of that behind to start a new life with me and Dominic away from the coven. I really did appriciate and love her to pieces even if she did say and do strange things at times that left me baffled by her actions. "What is going on Cordelia, why won't you every just tell me outright?" I let out another slow sigh and then heard a quiet knock on the door. "Whose knocking at time of night?" I muttered to myself as I peeled myself up from the sofa and walked to the door. It better not be a drunk person who thinks they live here or I might just loose my cool with them. I picked up my keys off the sideboard and went and unlocked the door. "Oh." I muttered thrown completely. "I wasn't expecting to see you."