Nearly Witches

Chapter Thirteen

Alysanne just stared at the rock, a small child was sitting on it as he looked at the field of cows and then she just looked at her twin with a raised eyebrow. Apollon looked at her annoyed, even with the lyre in his hands.

“A child, brother, you got outsmarted by a child?” Alysanne asked him.

“Prince of thieves,” Apollon told her.

“A child, a toddler.” Said child didn’t look impressed, his brown eyes were looking at her brother before going to her. Alysanne smiled as she looked at her new baby brother, Hermes, Apollon told her.

Persephone would be amused at this, but she didn’t see Demeter allowing her older sister out of her meadow to visit him any time soon.   

“Yes, dear sister, a child,” Apollon told her.

“You killed him at six, but you get tricked by a three-year-old?” she amusedly asked him, patting Apollon’s shoulder as he pouted at her. “And then you trade your herd of cows for an instrument, of all things.”

“I’m not made to be a shepherd.” 

“He’s right about that,” Hermes told her.

“I’m impressed baby brother,” Alysanne told him.

“It was easy.”

“How am I related to you two again?” Apollon asked.

“Zeus can’t keep it in his toga,” Alysanne told him.

“Pretty woman are his weakness,” Hermes said.

“You’re both the worst.”

Alysanne just smiled at him before poking him in the ribs, Apollon huffed before crossing his arms and pouting.

“Hermes,” he told her holding out his hand for Alysanne to take into her own, which she while wondering if she brought anything with her that he could take. If he could still a herd of cows, she was sure a bracelet would be easy.

Not that she had time when Apollon stormed into her room in a fit of rage, not even Mum could calm him down when she went to her.

“Artemis,” she told him.

“And him?”

“Apollon, Mama taught you better manners.”

“Shut it.”

“Hermes?” a woman asked, Alysanne looked up to spot a nymph walking towards them with a worried look on her face, a basket hanging off her arm as she looked at her and Apollon.

“Over here Mama,” Hermes called.

“Lord Apollon and Lady Artemis, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“It’s just Artemis,” she told her before hitting her brother in the arm. Persephone and Apollon were the only ones she got along with among her siblings, Demeter and Hades among the older generation.

Aphrodite got her nerves with her talk about boys and beauty, Ares was a blood thirsty i***t and Athena had better things to do with her time; so, they didn’t talk as much. It would be nice to have someone else to talk to.

“And he’s just Apollon,” she continued pointing at her brother. “You can’t call Hermes a lord; I would hope.”

“You’re evil Arty,” Apollon told her. “Kore would agree.”

“You’re the one that got tricked by a toddler.”

“I’m Maia,” she told them.

“It’s very lovely to meet you Maia,” Alysanne told her, holding out her hand for her to take before glaring at her brother. “And I’m sorry about Apollon.”

“It’s fine, Hermes did steal from him.”

“You don’t mind if I drop in every now and then? Hermes’ is our baby brother and thus you’re both family.”

“We wouldn’t mind that, would we Hermes?”

“Not at all,” Hermes told her.

Alysanne grinned at him, the tricks she could teach him.

“I’m going to regret this,” Apollon said.

“Don’t be silly,” Alysanne told him. “Why would you regret this?”

“He’s going to be trickster; I can see it.”

“Don’t be such a cow,” Hermes told him.

“Didn’t even need your influence,” Apollon said.

“Would you like to join us for lunch?” Maia asked them.

“We would love to,” Alysanne replied. “Wouldn’t we? Apollon.”

--

“Nymeria? Ghost?” Alysanne asked as she patted her hands around her. Something felt off, the mattress felt softer than she remembered. Opening her eyes, she spotted small glowing stars on the roof and when she turned her head, there was a wall that was painted a deep plum purple. The bed sheets were a soft pink, along with the pillows and blanket was a violet with small blue flowers on it.

She didn’t know what time it was, since she couldn’t see a clock and she didn’t feel like guessing from how much light was coming through the window. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep but pushing herself up she looked around.

‘Nymeria? Ghost?’ she called out, waiting for a reply. ‘Ghost? Nymeria? Where are you, please reply, please.’

“Alysanne? Alysanne!?” someone asked her before she was pulled into a hug. “It’s okay, it’s okay to cry.”

“Nymeria? Ghost?”

“I’m so sorry; I should have arrived sooner.”

“You didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Captain Justice told her, while she cried into her shoulder. “Let it out, Alysanne, just let it out.”

“Rosalie?” Alysanne asked once she stopped crying.  “What happened to Nymeria and Ghost?”

“Tribe and I buried them in your backyard, your aunt and uncle helped,” Rosalie told her pulling her hand through her hair, gently undoing any knots her fingers ran into. “Tribe will come by later and introduce himself.”

They must have arrived after Ghost and Nymeria arrived in the afterlife, she was sure that Persephone had gotten her phone number while she was in the middle of her dance class, she could only hope that Mors hadn’t seen it.

“Guess whatever Tribe had given you is lasting longer than he first thought,” Rosalie said as she pulled her onto her lap, like Persephone had done. Both were taller than she was, but at least with Rosalie her head as just under her chin like this. “You don’t take a lot of medication, do you?”

“Not unless I need it, doesn’t react well with my abilities,” Alysanne told her.

“I see.”

“Where am I?”

“My room.”

“You’re parents?”

“Tribe told them you called him,” Rosalie told her, before leaning against the wall her bed was put up against.

“That early in the morning?” Alysanne asked her, something was off about the whole thing and she couldn’t tell if it was her paranoia talking. But at least here, she knew there was a chance that Mors wasn’t watching her.

“I’m the youngest of five daughters, they’re used to it.”

“And they allowed a stranger into their home?”

“I told them about what happened to Nymeria and Ghost.”

“What did you tell them?”

“Are you sure?”

“Safer to stick to the same story.”

“We told them that someone broke in and that you didn’t feel safe anymore,” Rosalie told her, tightening her hug. Was Alysanne that touched starve, that she’d accept hugs from anyone she sort of trusted?

She had been hugged more in the past week than she had in the last four years.

“The blood?” she asked her not wanting to think about her father, not wanting to think at all since death had been the only thing to follow her since Friday.

“Sakura and I washed it from your skin, I had changed your clothing before that,” Rosalie told her, but Alysanne was glad that she still had her sports bra on, meaning that hadn’t been taken off even if her other clothes had been. “Only your shirt and pants were changed.”

“And socks and shoes.”

“Can’t sleep in shoes.”

Alysanne nodded before tears went down her cheeks, she thought she was done with crying and she had wanted to hide it, didn’t want to be a pain and cry by herself. Her mind might have agreed with her, but her heart was another thing and it wasn’t having a thing of her tough girl act. Nymeria and Ghost had been everything to her, they had been her world since she had found them and now they were gone.

“And it was all her fault.

“I should get you breakfast,” Rosalie told her after five minutes of silence. “And some water as well, you’ve cried quite a bit.”

“I’m not really hungry,” Alysanne told her.

“I understand, but you’ll feel better after eating.”

Alysanne blinked as she helped her sit up against the wall, pillows behind her back. It short of made her wish that Persephone as with her and could talk her through what happened. But she wasn’t willing to see who Mors would kill for talking to them.

She didn’t need that sort of weight on her chest.

“Your aunt texted you last night,” Rosalie told her, handing her phone to her before she left the room.

‘I’m sorry about Nymeria and Ghost, they were beautiful souls,’ Persephone texted her.

‘They were,’ Alysanne texted back.

‘Arsinoe said she’ll look after them.’

‘Thank her for me.’

‘You remember her?’

‘I do.’

‘We’ll get them, remember, Ally Cat. We’ll turn them into deer and let them lose into the pit.’

That text from Persephone made her feel slightly better about the whole thing, since they would get revenge over their deaths. Along with being looked after by someone Persephone trusted, someone that Artemis would have trusted. 

“There’s a smile,” Rosalie said as she walked back into the room with a tray in her hands, a small bowl and a glass of water on it. Putting it across her lap, while Alysanne turned her phone’s screen of before she could read the text. “I’ve already rang the school and told them that you wouldn’t be coming in today; can you eat this? You can go back to sleep; you’re going to need it to get Tribe’s medication out of your system.”

“What’s the time?”

“Seven in the morning.”

“Thank you for this,” Alysanne told her as she looked at the porridge, along with the large glass at water before looking at Rosalie. “What about you?”

“Had breakfast with the family,” Rosalie told her.

Alysanne just blinked before shrugging and slowly eating her breakfast; she didn’t have her usual midnight snack and it showed, her body needed food more than she had thought did when she had first opened her eyes.

“Better?” Rosalie asked her.

“Much,” she told her putting her hands on her lap, blinking as she looked at her. She must have gotten changed when she wasn’t looking. “Thank you.”

“The bathroom is just over there,” Rosalie told her before pointing to a door, Alysanne had thought it was a closet, but then she could see another door on the other side of the room. She must have spaced out.

“Mum’s going to come up in a bit with Sakura, they’ll check on you throughout the day,” Rosalie told her, picking up the cup and handing it to her. “You’ve developed a small fever and we’d like to keep on top of it.”

“One step ahead of you dear,” a woman said, her hair was the same shade of blonde that Rosalie’s was, and she had a light accent, the same accident that Rosalie spoke with, now that she thought about it. “I’m Violet White, I’m happy to see that you’re awake. We were worried when Rosalie brought you in with her friend, it’s nice to see you’ve regained some colour.”

Alysanne just blinked at her words, before looking at her arm. It looked normal to her, even her Spanish and Irish heritage, she was paler than most people. It had been a joke between her and her mum, that people couldn’t tell if they were pale because of their heritage or because they were sick and needed medical attention.

“No, I’ve gained most of it back,” Alysanne reassured her. ”The perks of having an Irish heritage, my great-grandparents were the ones that came over during the potato famine.”

“I’ll tell Sakura that, she wants to make sure you’re okay. She’ll also check up on you during the day to keep your fever at bay,” Violet told her. “She’s studying to be a doctor, today’s her day off from doing her placement at the local hospital.”

“She knows far enough in her studies to help you,” Rosalie reassured her.

“I have to get used to working at random times,” Sakura, or who Alysanne guessed was Sakura, said as she walked into the room with another glass in her hand. “I merely swapped with someone who had a night shift, I had a day shift yesterday, I’ll just have to nap in the afternoon before going in.”

“Thank you, you didn’t have to,” Alysanne told her.

“Nonsense, this will be my job and it’s never a bother to help someone,” Sakura told her.

“Sakura,” Violet said.

“She’s eaten?”

“She has,” Rosalie told her.

“Rosalie got me something,” Alysanne told her.  

“Now that’s out go the way, Rosy, Lily said she can drop you off and pick you up from Cheerleader practice,” Sakura told Rosalie. “Away with you, little sister, Mum and I will look after her. Your friend said he was coming an hour after your return from practice.”

“Susan won’t be happy if I miss practice,” Rosalie said before grabbing a sports bag and bolting out the door, Violet raising an eyebrow before grabbing another bag and walking out the room after her daughter.

“She’s a bit of an airhead,” Sakura told her.

“My aunt is as well,” Alysanne told her.

“You’ve eaten, but can you drink this? You’ve cried quite a bit.” Sakura held the glass out to her, Alysanne taking it and drinking it without thinking much of her words. “If your temperature gets higher, I might have to take you the hospital, but that’s a worry we need not worry about until it happens.”

Alysanne didn’t know what to say to that, she didn’t remember the last time she had been to the hospital for anything. They couldn’t afford it, and she still couldn’t afford it without being put behind by months.

“Can’t afford it,” Alysanne told her.

“Do not worry about it, Rosy’s miniature Stark friend has placed you on his bills,” Sakura told her before grinning. “He has done the same for everyone in our family, we don’t have to worry about costs when it comes to our health.”

Alysanne just looked at her, Sakura put her hand on her forehead before sighing, putting something into her ear. Being helped into a lying position didn’t clear anything up, but the number of blankets that Sakura returned in the room with did.

“You’re still a bit warm,” Sakura told her as she placed blankets on her. “This should help, along with liquids and rest. When you’re well, I can start looking into therapy to help you deal with your grief and before you say anything, it’s okay to need to talk to someone after something like happens to you, it helps. I had to see someone after my friend took her own life when I was in high school.”

“I’m sorry,” Alysanne told her.

“It was years ago, but it still hurts at times.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Closing her eyes, she scrunched up her nose when something cold went onto her forehead, drifting off as the sound of a door shutting reached her eats.

--

Persephone and Alysanne were giggling as Persephone made flowers grow in pots. Roses, lilies and violets bloomed in pots around them. She couldn’t grow things, but she and her brother were good with bows and arrows.

“Demeter?” Mama’s voice asked, Persephone and Alysanne looking at each other before bolting towards the voice.

“Mama,” Alysanne screamed as she wrapped her arms around her legs, grabbing her brothers arm and pulling him closer. “Polly.”

“Arty,” Apollon said smiling brighter than the sun as he pulled her into a hug. Alysanne put her arms around him, putting her head on his shoulder since he was already taller than she was. “Who’s that?”

“Kore.”

“You found him?” Demeter asked as she took her daughter’s hand into her own.

“He killed Tityus and Python,” Mama told her.

“I’m sorry Leto.”

“Hera’s revenge knows no limits.”

“Are you okay, Mama?” Alysanne asked her.

“I’m fine, Arty. Nothing for you to worry about,” Mama told her.

“You’ll have to tell them one day,” Demeter told her.

“Would you tell Kore at this age?”

Demeter only looked at her like she had been slapped, Alysanne didn’t know why she had looked like that or what she wanted Mama to tell them.

“I’m sorry Demeter, but I’ll tell them when I’m ready,” Mama told her. “And not before that, Hera tried to break me, and it almost worked.”

“I know dear, I should have pushed,” Demeter told her.

“Did you keep anything?” Alysanne asked Apollon after a few minutes of silence, Persephone looking at her mother before taking her hand out of hers, walking over to them as they continued to hug each other.

“Their skins,” Apollon told her. “We can have one each.”

“New clothes!”

“I can help sew,” Persephone told them with a small smile. “I can show you as well.”

“During hunts it’ll be good to know how to fix tears,” Alysanne told her, Apollon nodding his head while looking at Persephone with wide eyes. “And he’s going to extra help.”

“Am not,” Apollon told her.

“You’ll stab yourself in the finger with the needle.”

“It would seem our little hunters are going to be a handful when they’re older,” Demeter commented before sighing and looking at them fondly, Alysanne giving her a smile before going to bickering with her twin. “All of them are going to be handfuls; I can already tell.”

“They’ll be strong willed, Demeter,” Mama told her laughing before Persephone started pulling them towards the sewing room. “With Hera around, they’ll have to be strong willed to survive around her, like their mothers.”

“At least something good came from Zeus,” Demeter commented.

--

Wasn’t Leto raped by Python? Alysanne thought to herself as she woke up. Then again, Demeter was raped by both Poseidon and Zeus, what a lovely family they were in and she wondered if anyone tried that with Hermes, Apollon or Artemis.

“Come on, sweetie, you need to eat,” Violet told as she walked into the room, Sakura walking in behind her with a tray in her hands. “You’re far too skinny, we need to get some meat onto your bones.”

“It’s mostly muscle,” Alysanne muttered as she rubbed her eyes, pushing herself up and sitting as she crossed her legs. “Irish dancing and archery help with that.”  

“She does look like a dancer,” Sakura said as she put the tray down, Alysanne looked at three plates and she was glad that she wouldn’t be eating by herself. “But that means you need to eat more than most to keep a steady weight, Rosy’s the same.”

“She did say Alysanne was active,” Violet muttered putting down a glass of water down as well before looking at Alysanne’s hair, she didn’t want to know what mess her hair was in and how awful she looked overall. “You’ll need a shower and brush your hair at some point.”

“Unless you don’t mind one of us brushing your hair,” Sakura suggested.

“I don’t know,” Alysanne told them, she was quite young when someone else brushed her hair for her and middle school, if she was remembering correctly. She didn’t want to think about her mum, didn’t want to think about her parents or her grandparents.

Her last remaining grandmother had told her outright, that she was never welcomed to live in her house, but she was welcome to visit for a few hours. Sometimes Alysanne swore the woman was a witch and just didn’t want her knowing what she was doing in her free time.

“After we eat, I’ll get a hairbrush. I always have a few to spare,” Violet told her. “But for now, we should eat.”

“Eat, you’ll feel better,” Sakura told her.

“I hope you like tomato soup.”

“Thank you,” Alysanne told them. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“No one should be alone in their grief,” Violet told her. “You’re so young, you can stay with us as long as you need to.”

“I’ll need to go to sleep soon,” Sakura told her. “Then go to work, when Rosy comes back, you should shower.”

“I can brush your hair after you eat. I’ve done the girls hair when they were little. I can put your hair up in a plate to stop most of the knots,” Violet told her. Alysanne nodded her head, she hadn’t eaten lunch in years, since she had never saw the point. “You have such lovely hair, thicker than my daughters.”

“That would be the Spanish,” Alysanne said without thinking.

“Spanish?” Sakura asked.

“There was a Spanish ship that crashed on the Irish shore, they stayed and the children between the Irish and Spanish were called Black Irish, happened in the 1600’s,” she told them. “The Spanish do have darker skin; might have been the darkest skin colour they had seen at that point. Don’t know and don’t quote me.”

“I can get you some juice,” Violet told her.

“That would be wonderful, thank you,” Alysanne told her. In her grief wanted to scream and rage, but they weren’t the people she wanted to take her rage out on and for those who took her family away from her, she would store her rage away and come to terms with their deaths.

Besides, Violet and Sakura were helping her, and she didn’t want to seem ungrateful. She also didn’t want to take it out on Rosalie, even if she was annoyed that she knew who she was and that she wasn’t telling her who Tribe was.