The Possession of Anna Drake

9 - A Single Act of Forgiveness

The following day, I dressed and raced down the stairs to join my mother for breakfast.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” she teased me.

“I’m excited,” I replied as I took a seat across from her at the table and began to fill my plate with food.

“I figured you would get cold feet and back out.” My mother took a drink of her orange juice and looked at her phone.

“Anna wants to go out tonight. I figured it’s time to let go of my silly fears,” I mentioned.

“Anna, huh?” My mother grumbled as she flipped through screens. I had no idea what she was doing, but it appeared to be taking her full attention away from me. Probably for the best, she could make my good moods gray just by looking at me.

“That’s ok right?” I asked.

“You’re eighteen. You can do whatever you want. So long as you do not violate any Coven law.” She spoke as flatly as she possibly could, which meant she was hardly paying any attention to me.

“So when are we leaving? Where are we going?” I asked excitedly.

“In about an hour, I figure it’s time we get you set up to live in the real world. Sooner or later, you will be out of the house more, and I would be grateful if you could get in contact with me whenever necessary. Think of it as a way not to listen to Anna when she tells you not to tell me something.” My mother looked at me for a moment and then turned her attention back to her phone. “Sales are up, which is good.”

I should have known our conversations concerning Anna would be short-lived. I ate as quickly as I could and ran back up the stairs to brush my teeth. I had just put the toothpaste on the toothbrush when I got a chill. I had done well not mentioning anything about the shadow beings I had seen. Honestly, I feared what she would say if she knew something was following me.

Before I knew it, the hour had passed, and I was back in the kitchen dancing around my mother as she finished up her orange juice.

“Goodness, Lizbeth, you would think you have never been to town before.” She proceeded to make a few more swipes on her phone before paying attention to me.

I was glaring at her by the time her eyes finally met mine.

“Seriously, mom?”

“What?” You have been to town before.” she insisted.

“When I was ten,” I whined.

“Trust me. Nothing has changed. let’s go.” She motioned for me to head to the front of the house.

I grumbled the whole way to the car.

Downtown isn’t far from our house. You could walk it in about twenty minutes, but my mother insists on using her driver every chance she could get. It didn’t matter how far we were from our destination she would drive. It was one of the many things that drove my father crazy.

“Where to, Madam?” Desmond asked as he put the keys in the ignition.

“The academy, please, Desmond,” she replied as she daintily fastened her seatbelt.

I think the funniest thing about my mother is how fragile she pretends to be. We all know she is the most powerful witch in the region. Why did she have to act as if the slightest breeze could render her unconscious? All I knew was once the coven was in my hands, if it ever happened, I would make sure to show my strength and not hide it.

“What’s at the academy?” I asked.

I had been hoping to see more of the town and less of the coven locations.

“If you plan to take over one day, you best learn the routine.” She opened her purse and began to fix her makeup.

“Well, I will take anything I can get,” I replied with a laugh.

The best part about that day was the fact I felt as if I was in control. All those times of near-death experiences opening the door suddenly seemed minimal.

The Academy appears as a church on the outside, but once you enter the front doors, the glamor drops, and the school takes on its appearance. There are not thousands of witches in attendance like movies would suggest. It’s relatively small, with a handful of classrooms for each grade level. Because my mother is the High Priestess, she is also the Head Mistress of the school.

We arrive out front, and Desmond comes around to my mother’s door to open it. Offering his hand, she turns to look at me.

“Hurry along, Lizbeth, we have lots to see,” she says as she puts on a pair of sunglasses to shield her eyes from the sun.

Once my mother steps out of the car, Desmond instantly opens an umbrella and carries it over her head as she sashays to the front of the church. I struggle to keep up with her. My body was not like our location, but I had no choice. If the memories were too much, at least I was in a safe place.

I hurried behind my mother and followed her through the double doors. The hallways appeared as they had eight years earlier. The same wooden floors, white walls, and the smell of teakwood incense. I could almost feel ten-year-old me gag from memory.

At the end of the main hall is the administration office. This is where my mother and her secretary sat. The doors are heavy, and the mood changes once on the other side. Each High Priestess had her signature atmosphere. I never was under my grandmother’s reign, but I heard it was much more comfortable than what my mother gave off. She opens the doors without touching them and hangs her bag and sweater by the door. Desmond assists with some minor costume changes, and she dismisses him by touching his face and winking. It’s almost too uncomfortable to watch.

“What was that all about?” I ask as Desmond disappears through the doors and down the hallway.

“What was what?” she asks innocently.

She takes a seat at her oversized desk and begins to punch numbers and letters into the keyboard. I had thought learning about life outside the house would be far more exciting than a workday with my mother.

We were sitting there for about twenty minutes before Mrs. Mead came into the office with a concerned expression. She looked at my mother and nodded.

“I have a word about the Shadow Man,” she said, not noticing I was sitting in the corner of the room with my head propped against the wall bored out of my mind.

My mother looked up and squinted.

“Is he back?” she asks.

“Yes, we think the girls woke him.” Mrs. Mead answers.

I’m still sitting there looking at the wall, fighting the urge to stick my finger in the light socket.

“Impossible.” my mother barks. “There is no way he would know she was here.”

Mrs. Mead begins to fidget, and her hands start to shake.

“Madam, my boys have seen him in the field. We believe he’s looking for her.”

My attention has turned to the conversation. I had no idea who the Shadow Man was, but to think someone had come to Evergreen Falls looking for someone was fascinating. Had someone arrived to take the heat off Anna and me?

My mother has an epiphany and realizes I’m still in the room. She wiggles her fingers, quenches her nose, and suddenly I’m deaf. Whatever the conversation was out, it got heated quickly. Something told me it had to do with Anna and me, but I couldn’t prove it. Not only had she made me deaf, but my mother had also taken any ability to read their lips.

I growled and went back to pouting in the corner. Maybe Anna knew something about this Shadow Man.

I must have dozed off at some point during my mother’s manic conversation with Mr.s Mead. Either that or she rendered me unconscious. Either way, the dream I had was odd. Anna and I were running through a forest being chased by some strange creature. Instead of screaming like I was, Anna was laughing. I had no idea what I was running from, but she was well aware of what was lurking in the darkness behind us.

“Have a nice nap?” my mother asked the moment my eyes popped open.

“Depends. Did I fall asleep on my own, or was it assisted?” I narrowed my eyes at her while I yawned.

“A little of both,” she said with a smile. “Not everything I deal with is public.”

“I’m pretty sure you are safe with me. Who do I talk to?” I groaned as I stretched.

“Anna Drake.” Her reply was a bit harsh, but I understood.

I nodded my head and stood up from my chair to pop my back.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“All right, I guess. Why?” I reached down and touched my toes, feeling the muscles in my back stretch.

“I have one more stop, but you’ll have to wait in the square for me.” She glanced up at me from her computer screen.

My expression must have given it away. I wanted to race to the bathroom and throw up. She wanted me to stand in the vicinity of the accident.

“You sure that’s wise?” I squeaked.

“Don’t worry. I will leave you with some anti-static repellant.” She teased.

“That is kind of you,” I replied flatly. “Can I check out the school?”

I had to get away from her before she permanently blinded me for the fun of it. I liked the no magic rule we had in the house. At least that way, she had to talk to me.

“Yeah, don’t interrupt lessons. Just because you’ve completed school doesn’t mean they have.” She shooed me out of the room.

I stood at the end of the hallway, my heart racing. I remembered walking through the doors for the last time. Nobody thought I could hurt a fly, and then I was arrested and charged with murder.

Knock, knock!

The familiar voice echoed through my subconscious, causing my body to quiver in fear.

“No!” I scolded myself.

I was not going to travel down that road again. Anna had lived in my head for years. She wouldn’t intrude without reason, and she sure as hell wouldn’t say those two words.

Little witch, little witch, let me in.

My stomach began to twirl, and my knees became weak.

“Not by the hairs, of my chinny chin chin,” I whispered.

I whispered the incantation for silence, blocking out all sound, including those inside my head. I wrapped myself in the warmth of silence as I began to walk the halls of my old school.

The walls were always void of color. Because the classes were based on magical dependency than education independence, they never decorated the hallway with the student work. The only time there was any color was around Halloween. Even then, it was a historical walk of the Evergreen Falls Chapter and the rest of the surrounding covens.

We didn’t rick or treat as children. We spent our Halloween night conjuring spirits and putting out monster fires. It’s the only night a year where being a witch isn’t a secret. Unless you were Anna or me during our sentence. Even the coven didn’t want to think of us as one of them.

I was walking along, minding my own business, when I tripped and fell face-first onto the hardwood floor. I instantly removed the silence spell and rolled to the wall so I could assess my injuries. Now my mind has created a worst-case scenario. I have fallen. Therefore I must be hurt, and if I’m hurt, there must be blood.

Lifting the cuff of my pant leg, I found a small cut on my shin.

“Lizbeth?”

I heard his voice, and my back tensed, the electrical current began to churn, and my heart just about popped out of my chest. At first, I thought if I didn’t look up, I wouldn’t see him. Then I felt his hand on my shoulder as he dropped to my side.

“Are you ok?” Justin asked, and I caught a glimpse of him in my peripheral.

“I’m fine.” I recoiled from his touch, and he leaned back to get out of the way.

“You sure? That was a pretty nasty spill.” He still wants to help me, I can see it, but I don’t need his help. He had hurt me, and I couldn’t hurt him back.

“Trust me, that was nothing like what I’ve felt in the past.” I groaned as I pulled myself to a standing position.

I brushed off my knees and noticed a small tear in my jeans. My mother was going to flip out if she saw my clothes were not in pristine condition.

“Let me help with that.” Justin drops to his knees and begins a mending spell on my tattered pants. The whole process takes about ten seconds, and he’s back to standing directly in front of me with an innocent look on his face.

Did he know what his brother had said to me?

“It’s unfortunate we couldn’t continue to see one another.” He mentioned casually as if it was me who had made the threats.

“Well, your brother made it clear he didn’t want you with a convicted murderer.” I looked down both ends of the hallway, hoping my mother would come of her office and see me standing there talking with Justin.

“What? No, your mother came to my house and told my parents she had someone else in mind as your partner.” He narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips together. “That asshole met you that day, didn’t he?”

I kept my mouth closed as the wheels turned inside Justine’s head.

“It was never about you not being a match. It was about your family being narrow-minded,” I replied with a shrug.

“Jeez, Lizbeth, that’s why you never returned any of my calls.” Justin ran his fingers through his short hair and smirked. “Please, let me make it up to you. Tomorrow night. You and me, dinner?”

“Do you think it’s smart?” I mentioned casually as if I was rolling the idea around in my mind.

“We don’t have to do dinner here? We can cross the river into any other town. I feel you, and I deserve a moment to speak about all of this.” He reached out and grabbed my hands which took me by surprise.

I was doing ok with the day’s outing. I thought I would be just fine if I were to go to another. Anna would love me to go on a date, though she may insist on coming along. IF Anna came along, I was pretty sure she would steal him from me. She was experienced in areas I was not.

“Let me check my schedule. Now that Anna’s monitor is off, we have plans.” I wasn’t lying.

“Oh, ok,” Justin muttered as he dropped my hands.

“I will call you, I promise.” I looked back down the hall and found my mother walking along, looking at her phone.

I had never been so grateful for an interruption. She looked at me and then at Justin before grabbing me the arm and pulling me away. I turned to look at him as she departed. I smiled at him, but it didn’t seem to give him the confidence he needed.

“You should stay away from that boy.” My mother scolded me as we exited the school.

“What if I don’t want to?” I asked, more in curiosity than as if I was going to do something stupid.

“Mark my world Lizbeth Dupree. It would be part to listen to your mother.” She gave me her best mother glare, and we walked toward the square.

In the center of the square was a park. In that part was a bench. I took a seat on that bench, and I pretended I did not exist. There are invisibility spells, but it’s best to use those when you are not in a public place. Just because they can’t see you doesn’t mean they can’t sit on you. It can lead to a very uncomfortable first meeting.

I had no idea where my mother had gone, and with each passing person, I knew I was closer to running face to face with Nadine’s family. Thankfully I was already invisible enough I didn’t draw attention. That is until a girl who I knew to be at Anna’s assertion party called out my name from across the park. The moment Lizbeth left her lips, every eye within a hundred-foot radius was honing in on my location.

What did I expect to happen when people learned the Dupree girl was free from her prison. People weren’t exactly on board with the whole home school/house arrest bit.

I looked at a group of girls not far from me. They all looked back with interest but were pulled away by their mothers seconds before I think they would have spoken to me. Then there was a young boy by the wishing well playing with a ball. The ball bounced and nearly fell in. I went to stand to help him, and his mother scooped him up and walked away.

I had gone from being fine in public to public enemy number one in less than twenty minutes. Nobody wanted to be near me. As for the girl who called my name, she disappeared once she realized what she had done. Probably out of embarrassment. Not many knew what I looked like anymore. So much for being inconspicuous. I wouldn’t be able to show my face in the town square ever again.

“Lizbeth? Dupree?” A middle-aged woman asked as I began to pick at the hem of my shirt.

I looked up and into the big eyes of a woman I recognized.

“Yes,” I answer with a quiver in my voice.

“I forgive you,” she says in a low volume.

I didn’t know what to say to her.

“For?” I asked slowly.

“Killing my daughter.”

Her voice was calm and warm, and my blood was frozen with fear. I had no clue what to do when the woman bent down and wrapped her arms around my neck. I hugged her back with shaking hands.