Just Like Magic

Chapter 10 Overheard

Cassius' POV

I pushed myself away from my bedroom door as I walked straight to the kitchen, sounding as if I might be stomping in a fit. But that's not the case. I'm just frustrated and obviously, it's hard for my nerves to calm down when something is taking over my mind like this. But I have to try, so I let out a deep breath trying to calm my body and it doesn't seem to work even remotely.

I flop down in frustration on the chair I have pulled out from the dinner table. This gets Winnie's attention, but neither one of us know how to start this already hard conversation. I huff out not knowing what to do, but maybe I can mull some ideas over with my sister. We have always done that together for any hard situations, so why should this be any different?

I look up to see my sister stirring the food in the skillet as she keeps sending curious looks my way.. she probably doesn't know what to say to me to start this.. but of course, neither do I.. our minds seem to somehow think alike, which is great for the most part, until times like this, where I don't know what to do and need a completely different outlook on things.

My limbs won't seem to stop fidgeting, so sitting in one spot doesn't feel helpful or prove as productive in this moment. I groan out as I quickly get up and start to pace around the small room, almost hitting the magical metal ball of a maid that putts around the room with its long extended arms cleaning anything it can in reaching distance. This drastic movement and almost collision from me, gets not just my attention but Winnie's as well. She sends me a look that says I need to calm down, but that's easier said than done. Sadly enough though, this small inconvenience doesn't seem to distract me like I was hoping it would.

All that consumes my mind at the moment is the overtaking thoughts of what to do to make sure Randalyn is safe while we help her out. That's if she wants to allow us around her. I won't push anything with her, but I will need to make sure she is safe before I stop bothering her for the moment. I would like to think this is being a good Samaritan over being enthralled by this secretive woman, but from the questionable look on my sister's face I would assume I'm just enthralled. I don't think anything could take my mind away from her right now, at least until I figure out where to go from here. But that's also easier said than actually done.

It's hard to try to figure out the next steps when I have no idea why she is here... I don't even know where she is headed or where she is from. Which might be the answers we need just to be able to figure out what to do with her. For most in this situation, those questions might have the same resulting answer on where to go... but because of what I have observed so far, I have concluded that her answers to those two questions might be different ones... along with everything being sensitive to her in this already difficult time. So I don't think it will be easy to talk about this with her, but I know that I need to try.

What I have noticed is that, by the way she is acting, it looks as if she might be on the run because of how jumpy she is and not wanting help, while being on the natural defensive when meeting me. This makes me ache to know what her story is, but how could I in all good consciousness, even ask about something sensitive and intrusive like that to a complete stranger? How would that even go? 'Hey ma'am, that I don't know. what's your trauma about and where's it from? because I want to know if it's safe to take you back home or not.' That doesn't even feel right saying to myself in my own head, let alone saying that out loud to her.

I shake my head in disapproval thinking about that awful conversation.. not because of the contents, but because of how bad it could make her feel. Especially since every time I have figured out anything about her life in the little glimpses shown to me, it seems bad and somehow keeps getting worse. I don't know if I want to jump into that rabbit hole because I have a feeling it's deeper than I'll ever know.

I keep thinking about this far too intently because I'm getting too antsy and needing to calm my body, so I huff out as I flop back into the chair again, not knowing what to do to calm myself down. I have an anticipation in my body that's taking over and I have no idea how to control it, let alone soothe it. My sister notices this while trying to act as casually as possible in the kitchen. "So what do we do?" I ask her as she tries to play dumb. "About what?" I send her a glare letting her know I don't have the patience for this game right now.

"Alright... jeez... um... I don't know... She seems so sweet and innocent and even openly admitted to not being a part of our world, which was probably hard for her and even scary with everything crazy we have around here." I nod with her as I lean over the table, running my hands through my hair, not knowing what else we can do right now without hurting or scaring her. Which is the last thing I want.

"Yeah that's true, but I can protect her from anything scary, plus help her around here with anything she needs," I say as if it's a fact, but this gets her turning around. She spins her finger getting the spatula to keep stirring with magic so she can give me her full attention. She thinks about this before crossing her arms across her chest and staring at me.

"I know that you can protect her and help her, because you're so sweet and would probably do that for anyone, but you do know that she is not your problem or responsibility. You understand that, right?" She asks me as I look away crossing my arms across my chest before she adds on. "It's not like you two are even dating or a thing... right? Even though you obviously feel something for her.. but who knows if the feelings are even mutual.. and even if they are, you can't act on them... you know we're supposed to hand her over to the Ministry if we know she is a muggle and we do know that now that she has confirmed it for us." My sister declares as she turns back to stir the food in the skillet.

"Yeah I know all that.. And yes, I have thought about her, but she probably doesn't think about me like that anyways.. so fine.. What I'm mostly worried about is what if the Ministry takes her back to where she was?!" I ask with more panic in my voice than I anticipated. "Isn't that a good thing since she is probably here by mistake.. she probably wants just that. To be able to go home to her world." she declares as I get mad. I stand straight up, almost knocking the chair down as I pace in the kitchen, shaking my head at her comment. This startles my sister, but I am just frustrated at the situation, not her and she knows this.

"Maybe she has a family or a partner to get back to Cass.. you can't keep her trapped in here with us forever like the injured creatures you used to bring home and heal when you were little... You know that won't help her.. she is different." She says to me as I shake my head because I think I could make her happy and protect her here.. is that too much to even consider?

"But Winnie... You heard what she said in her sleep last night and this morning... She has been harassed in one way by the beatings and maybe more than that.. and by her father... we can't ignore that and let them send her right back to him. Maybe she was trying to run from that life when she came here.. we don't know." I declare as she gets madder, looking frustrated with my thoughts, maybe because she knows I could be right, whether she likes it or not.

"Stop defending this stranger. Yes, she is sweet, but not from our world.. So please just give her up for your safety. I don't want you to get hurt because of her... Plus, it's not like we have much of a choice, do we Cass?! We HAVE to give her to the Ministry so they don't punish us for having her around! You know how much trouble we could be in if they figure out we are hiding a muggle!" She snaps at me, but right as she does her eyes widen and her mouth drops open in shock.

"I didn't mean.. I... I'm sorry... I." She stutters this response out, but I don't know why she is saying that. So I turn around look where she is, to see that it's a heartbroken Randy in her sight. Her eyes are filled with pain and worry as tears drip from them, just like the dripping of the water from her long and still-wet hair. Even sad, she looks stunning as her hair seems to hang over her fuzzy sweater and all the way down to her black jeans.

I sit in shock not knowing what to say, mostly because I don't know how much she heard and I don't know what she thinks about all of this or even us right now.. but I know I'll have to explain things to her sooner over later. I was just hoping I could have a game plan before I had to do that.. but apparently fate has a different plan for me.

With a heartbroken look on her face, she shakes her head and quickly turns to run across the house and back to my room before I even have a chance to explain all of this with the help of my sister. But maybe it is best that I do it myself, since I feel like I have started to connect with her in a different way than any of us planned. I don't know what to do right now, but I'm afraid she is grabbing her things to leave when I barely just got her to stay here.

I look back at my sister for anything that might help, but she currently looks like a deer caught in the headlights.. no matter how good she is with helping physically hurt people, she doesn't know how to help the mentally hurting ones. I can see the guilt on her face not knowing what to do, but someone has to do something.

I groan hoping we haven't messed this up already, but let's prepare for the worst and just hope for the best. I run to my room just to see Randy with her jacket and backpack all ready to go on her back. She turns and automatically jumps when seeing me. She looks taken back when she turned around to see me right there in the doorway.

You can tell she is scared, but I don't want her to be scared of me. I won't hurt her but she doesn't know that. So I put my hands up to try to show her that I mean her no harm. "Randy please." I try to say as she shakes her head and tries to get past me. But I block her as she backs up and says. "Please Cass, don't take me back to the authorities... I spent all day there yesterday and I finally got out... It was torture... I swear I won't say anything about seeing your magic and I will be out of your hair.. You won't have to see me ever again. I won't bother you anymore." She declares in a begging tone that squeezes my heart. But I shake my head, wanting to talk about this to come up with a better solution than just letting her leave on her own with no destination in mind in this hostile environment for a muggle. I think we both deserve an explanation.. but I'm still in shock as the confusion completely takes over since I didn't expect that response from her.

"You were with who all day? The authorities?" I ask her as she scoffs and wipes away some tears that are streaming down her cheeks endlessly. "Don't act like you don't know about me... Please just be real with me and stop playing stupid... everyone knows about me and my trauma. Every corner I turned yesterday there was someone looking for me to harass, or looking at me with pity, knowing how sh*tty my life was, wanting to talk about it and know all the dirty details... the news has been reporting and playing my story on every station so it doesn't matter where I go, I can never leave my past behind me... So I'm sure you're only being nice to me because you feel bad for me. So please don't lie to me.. I don't need your pity I just want honesty." She declares as she tries to shove past me, but with how much bigger I am than her, she can't easily do that.

I just keep my hands up, not wanting to fight her or hurt her in this process, but eagerly wanting to figure out what is going on. "What? I wanted to help you because you looked like you needed help and I'm not pitying you... I just want to know what's going on with you." I say to her, flailing my hands up in the air. Trying to show her my confusion.

"Oh sure Cassius! Man...You're so good at the innocent card... acting like you haven't heard my news everywhere... Of course, you want to know what's going on too! Everyone seems to want to poke and prod at me to know all the details.. is that what you want?" She yells and I'm still confused. But I nod slowly not knowing if she understands that I have no idea what she is talking about. But that I do want to know the details so I can understand this whole situation better in hopes to be able to help her out.

"Ok fine let's just go into detail about my f*#ked up life... shall we Cass? So a couple of nights ago, as you already know... I came home after a long night of tending bar with my beyond drunk stepfather, who for many many years has molested, raped, and beat me every day, but for some reason this night was different... when we got home, instead of having his way with me, he decided he wanted to throw me around the house a little to help redecorate the place.. like throwing me over the coffee table to break it so we have to get another.. you know the normal ways one might redecorate." she states this sarcastically so I'm confused if this is true or not but that doesn't seem to stall her story at all.

"After we made our way around the entirety of the room, breaking everything that could be broken by the momentum of my body being thrown. Every inch of me started to feel numb from enduring all that pain, so I couldn't fight back from his advances. Which was probably what he wanted, since I always fought back. But he got on top of me and did what he would like to think is his best, but I'm sure it was nothing special, since he could barely breathe by the end of it.. But for some reason, he wasn't done like usual. He, for whatever unknown reason, thought he could go another round.. but I didn't want to, so as I used the little bit of strength I had left, to fight back. So he hit me with not just his fists but the lamp besides us, which ended up breaking it into a million pieces over my head." She yells as she points to the wound on her head and the bruises on her torso. I swallow the lump in my throat having no idea what to say because I wasn't expecting this. but before I have a chance to respond she starts back up where she left off.

"The loud lamp breaking finally got my mother's attention even though she never cared to help me throughout all the years of torment that she knew my father put me through. But apparently, he was making too much noise that night so she couldn't watch her show... so she finally came out.. which got them yelling at one another.. until he finally got off of me and they got into an argument in the other room... leaving me there alone, so I was able to drag myself over to my room to try to revover, while I try to hide from his further advances when he was done with my mother." she says now shaking as she rubs over her arms as if she is trying to comfort herself.

When she turns away from me, I notice that my sister is standing in the hallway hidden, but has heard everything. "Randy." I say softly to try to comfort her, but she quickly stops me with her hand up so she can continue. "No Cass. you wanted to know the details so here you are... So, while recovering on my floor... That's when I heard a couple of loud bangs from a gun in the other room. I get myself up and sneak through the house and to their room to see my father bleeding out on the floor as he stares up at me with his pleading gaze. I stared deep into his eyes, not moving a muscle, letting him know full well I was not going to help him. This is the repercussions of his actions from abusing me for so many years. So I stood there staring at him until the lights faded away from those demented orbs. Come to find out my mother killed my father because she hated how he became obsessed with me. Not because of how wrong it was on so many levels or how much it was hurting me, but because, in her words not mine, since the moment they brought me home, he has been loving me more than her and she hated me for that.. Oh and here's a fun fact for ya that they never put on the news that I know of... the police took my blood and ran it against my mothers when they arrested her for murdering her husband, just to figure out that I wasn't her child ever... that she stole me from the hospital the night I was born.. but don't worry all my actual family was killed in a fire years ago.. so I don't have anyone to bother with my problems... I spent all day with police and therapist dealing with their pity while trying to avoid the reporters who couldn't get enough of this story.. just to get beat up at my work because of what they heard on the news, so I fight back of course, just to get punished for reacting, and finding out I don't have a job anymore... and right when I was planning on killing myself to finally rid my heart of any more pain, a random hat rolled into my foot but when I picked it up it brought me here.. and you know the rest. You feel better now? You know more than anyone does about me. Do you feel better for knowing this? because I know I don't. So please don't take me back there please." She yells this at me as she breaks down crying. She collapses to her knees on the floor, crying into her hands.

My mouth is agape, not knowing any of that or how to respond... I knew there was trauma from her obvious sleeping issues and bruises but I never expected anything like this. I quickly kneel in front of her as I wrap my arms around her and pull her body into mine. She keeps crying as she tries to push away but I don't let her go. I can tell she needs this support. She just needs someone to care for her because she has no one who does. "I don't want your pity, Cass... I just don't want to go back to the authorities... please... I just want to move on and go somewhere else where no one knows me and start over. I'm tired of everyone getting a look into my pathetic life and belittling me for it or pitying me thinking that will help... I just want the torment to stop... I want to be invisible again like I always was... I just want all of this to stop. I'm so tired of hurting." Her voice cracks as she lays it all out shaking in my arms.

I know that didn't fix any of her problems to get that out.. but I know sometimes I just need to get everything off my chest to a neutral source to feel like a weight has been lifted.. So maybe I helped lift this for her... but this also answers some of the questions Winnie and I had about her and if she had a family or home to get back to.. So since that answer is no... where do we go from here?