The Possession of Anna Drake

8 - Anna's Release Party

The caterers arrived at eight in the morning and began prepping for the afternoon feast. The coven members began rolling in around ten. They had to prep the room with positive energy. They feared what Anna’s gift was more than mine. I could have killed everyone, but something had kept my currents from hitting anyone square in the face. My mother tested the camera monitor for me at eleven, and I heard the limo arrive right at noon. I watched from my window as Anna entered the house in her white dress, her parents behind her with huge smiles on their faces.

They shared several hugs, took a few pictures, and then came into the house. I could hear them downstairs thanking everyone for coming. There were thumps on the stairs, and Anna burst through the door of my bedroom and jumped right onto my bed.

“Your mother says you aren’t coming?” Anna looked at me and narrowed her eyes.

“We thought it would be best if I sat this one out. The Coven still isn’t sure about me. Lance did a lot of damage when he threatened to take me down if I continued to see his brother.” I shrugged.

Sure, it bothered me I wasn’t going to be there for my best friend as she learned her gifts. I wasn’t going to be the first person to hug her and then giggle as we came up the stairs to replenish our bodies with the foods my mother was providing. However, I knew in my heart it was safer for her, and it was safer for me if I watched from my room.

“Is she afraid your gift may overpower mine and someone gets hurt?” she asked mysteriously.

Her question annoyed me. It had been something we discussed, but I knew if I let my guard down for one second, I could cause more of an issue than what it was worth. This was Anna’s day, and I was not going to tarnish it.

“No.” I was only half lying.

“Well, I wish you would come down and watch the fireworks.” She gave me a huge smile.

“I will be watching,” I pointed at the TV.

“No, s**t!” she squealed. “You have to record this for me. They say you have no idea what happens when you ascend. I want to see it.”

I threw my hands over my chest and pointed toward the door.

“You need to get down there. You are the guest of honor, and I’m sure you don’t want people up here looking for you.” I tried to look bigger than I was. Anna had me by several inches, so it took a lot for me to look larger than her.

“You are still no fun, Lizbeth Dupree. I hope you know you and I are doing something tonight. I don’t care if I have to steal you out this damned window. We are going to do something other than sit in our rooms and pretend the world doesn’t exist around us.” She got up off the bed and left my room. I had no idea what she had in mind for me, but I had a feeling I was not going to like it. I was always too meek to disagree with her ideas.

Sadness swept over me, and I knew she was right in a way. Still, as much as I wanted to be present for my best friend’s ascension ceremony the most, I felt I had made the right choice. What if I went off like a nuclear bomb and killed everyone in the room below? Then again, when they removed my monitor, nobody was hurt. Maybe my mother could have found a way to shield the others and let me be there for Anna.

I clicked the remote and turned on the TV. It was a recent purchase by my mother only for the event. I had been raised under the idea that TV rots your brain. Growing up, I didn’t have the luxury of late-night movie binges. I also never had a computer or cell phone. At least not until I found the laptop under my dads’ old bed. I had seen them and used them for school purposes, but I had never owned one to use recreationally as Anna had.

The room was full of coven members with their black robes and painted faces. They were drinking the punch and eating the snacks my mother had put down there. They were clustered into groups, my mother with the higher-standing ladies on one side of the room and Mrs. Drake on the other shaking hands. It was customary to thank the mother since the child grew nine months in the womb. It was believed the mother is who you received your gifts from. I’m not so sure my mother’s gift of natural elemental magic branched into my electrokinetic world.

Anna was with the elder women to the right. This was one piece of the party I did not get. Nobody wanted to touch me, let alone provide me the blessings of the Gods. I was a bit jealous of that, but I quickly got over it. I was the one who had sinned, not Anna. They put her in crimson robes and massaged the oils into her arms and legs. They brushed her hair and put it up into a beautiful braid around her head. She looked like a princess when my mother motioned it was time.

The circle began to form, and my mother stepped forward with her dagger and sliced through the leather strapping around Anna’s ankle. She stepped back into the circle, and the lights went out. The candles began to glow, and I had to move closer to the screen to see what was happening. I was just as curious as everyone else when it came to Anna’s gifts. Telepathy was only one of the many she would possess. I was sure of it.

Anna stood in the middle of the circle, her head twisting from left to right. The camera crackled, and then she rose into the air. She appeared to spin there with her arms out in a T shape. She began to spin little bits of what looked like black glitter fell from her fingers. Her head lurched backward, and her eyes turned white. I was scared something bad was happening to my friend. My mother wouldn’t hurt her, I knew that much, but was someone else down there interfering with Anna’s ascension?

I pressed my face closer, and my breath caught in my throat. I could see the shadows moving through the crowd and pooling under Anna’s feet. It looked like an ocean of black waves under her, ready to devour her at the first chance. I was frightened. Then Anna’s eyes shot open, and staring straight into the camera were those red eyes of the shadow creature I had seen inside the house. I screamed, the camera shifted, and I feared what was happening to Anna.

Hello again, old friend.

I heard the voice as clear as day inside my head. I raced out of my room, down the stairs to the basement, and stopped just outside the door of the room. I had to stop myself at that point. I knew if I entered before Anna’s powers were entirely in place, I could hurt her or someone else. I also feared my emotional state causing me to lose control of my power and causing chaos.

I leaned against the wall and placed my head in my hands. I was losing my mind. I had reminded myself of my last few months with Anna before our sentence, and I remember how much ten-year-old her had scared me. I felt the tears begin to pool in my eyes when the doors opened, and my mother stepped into the hall.

“Lizbeth, are you ok?” she asked the moment she saw me.

I looked at her with tears streaming down my face. I should have known she would sense I was nearby. She was my mother, and she did have the ability to know where I was. I always assumed she used tracking spells on me before the incident with Nidia.

I shook my head and brushed the wetness from my cheeks.

“You should head upstairs. We are wrapping up here.” She pointed down the hallway.

“Yeah,” I responded as naturally as I could. I wasn’t going to hate on her for trying to keep me at my word.

It would frighten me if not offend others if they saw me waiting outside the door. I pulled myself together, shook my head, and began the hike back to my room. This time I didn’t run in haste. I walked at a normal speed until I was finally safe behind my door. The TV was still on, and the ascension had ended. Anna was receiving hugs and congratulations for her sentence ending.

I knew they were telling her how much they hated that she was held back for two years. She had done nothing wrong. The horrible Lizbeth Dupree had killed that young girl and forced her best friend to help her hide the body. I put my face into my pillow and screamed. I had hoped once the monitors were off, we would live the same life. How wrong I had been in my assumption. Things were changing already, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to face the possibility the monitor was what kept Anna normal.

The party lasted a few hours once everyone was upstairs. By the time the last guest had left, it was only Anna and my mother putting away the leftover food. It was odd seeing the two of them working together, knowing how they felt about one another. I cleared my throat as I entered the dining room, and my mother turned to look at me.

“You could have dressed more for the occasion, Lizbeth.” She gave me a disapproving nod at my attire.

It was the same outfit I was wearing when she told me to get back upstairs after the party below. I would never understand how her brain worked. It was as if it was split in two, and one side was meant to do one thing while the other was there to ridicule me.

“Sorry, mother, I wasn’t aware there was a dress code,” I growled.

My mother rolled her eyes at me and continued to put aluminum coverings over the leftovers.

“I will need you to help Anna get these loaded into the car. I will have Desmond drive the two of you to the Drakes to unload, and then you come straight home.” She gave me a stern expression.

My heart leaped into my throat. I still had yet to leave the house. We had talked about doing a test run into the square the next day, but now she was throwing me out of the house. I took a deep breath to calm the anxiety. The last thing I wanted was a repeat of what had happened eight years earlier.

“Do what?” I squeaked.

Anna let out a laugh and took my hands.

“You and I are going to take the leftover food and gifts to my house. My parents had to run an errand, so your mother was kind enough to allow me the use of her driver.” Anna’s eyes sparkled.

She looked the same, she sounded the same, she smiled the same, but her hands were ice cold.

“I volunteered you to assist Anna in getting everything back to her house.” My mother added to Anna’s story.

“Of course, I would be delighted to assist.” I forced a smile.

Neither of them needed to know I was a ball of anxiety and fear. Anna left her house every day to come to mine for school. The furthest I ever went was the creek on the back of the property, and we all know how that turned out.

“I figured you would,” my mother responded dully.

I grabbed an arm full of items and started to carry them to the car parked outside. I was happy with myself when I made it to the trunk of the black Lexus. Handing the items over to Desmond, he gave me a warm smile.

“It’s been a long while since I’ve seen you, Miss Lizbeth,” he said as he began to stack the aluminum containers.

“It’s been a long while since I’ve left the house,” I replied.

Desmond was a lovely man; he had caring green eyes and short blonde hair that he kept under a driver’s hat. He had been with my mother for as long as I could remember. My father had chosen to continue to drive on his own, but it was my mother who refused to let go of the custom as High Priestess and turned her driver’s license into a personal driver. Desmond lived in the house next door, also owned by the Dupree family. It had been servants’ quarters at one point and now served as a secondary home for those employed by the Dupree family. He was not part of the Coven, though he did know about magic and witches. He was aware of my mother’s ranking, and he knew I would one day take her place.

“It’s good to see you out and about again.” He winked.

“Thank you,” I responded with a smile.

So far, Desmond was the first person to speak to me as if I was a person and not a young woman who had committed a horrible crime.

It took about twenty minutes to pack everything up in the trunk. My mother blessed Anna, and we got into the back seat of the car. Desmond, while polite, still worked for my mother, so I knew I had to watch what was being said between Anna and me.

“How was it?” I asked, trying to hide the nervousness in my voice.

“It was different,” she replied softly and looked at her hands.

“Different is not quite the words I would use. For me, it was scary. I had no idea what was happening when they cut off that monitor.” I was watching her face. Part of me wondering if she was going to tell me about what I had seen or not.

“Well, you have electricity that shoots out of every pour in your body. I wouldn’t expect it to be pleasant,” she teased me.

“Did they figure out what your gift is?” I questioned, not wanting to mention the pool of shadows and the red eyes. Maybe I had imagined them. All I wanted was some confirmation I wasn’t going crazy.

“Telepathic and Telekinetic.” Anna looked at me and smiled. However, the smile seemed forced, and her eyes were glazed over.

Something told me this was not all my mother had been able to dissect from the day’s events. She seemed like she was hiding something from me, or maybe she didn’t know she was hiding something. Then again, maybe she was right, and I was just going crazy and hallucinating everything I saw on the camera.

“That’s cool,” I replied calmly.

My intuition was going crazy. I wanted to ask her about the voice in my head. I knew I had heard what it said. I wanted to know what it was.

“We need to celebrate. Tomorrow night, you and I are going to have a girl’s night.” Anna’s eyes cleared up, and she looked normal again.

“I can hardly step out of my own house. What makes you think I’m going to be able to do anything?” I laughed. Her change in appearance was disturbing, but I had a feeling it was part of her mental state. She would be the same as long as I never asked about her gifts.

“I think you will be fine as long as you are with me. I know what keeps you calm.” Anna narrowed her eyes playfully and reached over to grab my hand.

I was still shocked to find her hands cold, but I had a feeling there was an explanation for everything.

We made it to Anna’s rather quickly and began to unload the items from the car’s trunk. Desmond assisted, and within twenty minutes, we had everything inside the Drakes home.

“I think that is it,” I mentioned as Desmond got back into the car.

“Yup, would appear so.” Anna laughed. “Tomorrow night, you and I are going out to celebrate.”

I rolled my eyes. I knew there was nothing I could say that would change her mind. No matter what I said, she was going to repeat the same thing over and over again. I had better hope the test the next day was successful, and I could exist in a world of humans and witches again.

I hugged Anna and got back into the car. Desmond turned the ignition, and we began to trek home in silence. I leaned my head against the window and watched the countryside pass me by. Everything looked the same, yet different. The trees were taller, the fences were newer, and the road seemed straighter and smoother. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The next day would be a massive test for me, one I wasn’t sure I was ready for.

“That was quick,” my mother stated as soon as I walked through the door.

She was already sitting on the couch with her wine glass in her hand. I wondered how many she had downed since I left. I was certain going the whole day sober was hard on her.

“Anna doesn’t live that far away,” I replied softly.

“That’s comforting,” she muttered as she leaned her head back on the couch.

“You want to talk about what happened in the room today?” I asked as I began to approach her seat on the couch.

My mother peeked at me and shook her head.

“Nothing happened. You should have seen that on the TV screen today. I removed the monitor, and she stood there in the candlelight. Then she made a few things move, and that was that.” My mother shrugged.

I raised my eyebrows and pressed my lips together. I had seen what happened with Anna. How could she sit there and tell me nothing happened?

“You better get some rest for tomorrow. I need you to be in tip-top shape before we go out in public.” My mother was dismissing me.

There was no way we were going to talk about what had happened in the room that day. She had seen something completely different, or had I? Did it matter what I had seen was ten times scarier than what she described? She sounded like Anna was nothing more than a regular run-of-the-mill witch when I knew better. Something wasn’t right with her, but I wasn’t going to come out and say it.

I looked at the clock. It was just past five. What time did she think it was? I glanced at the wine bottle and realized it wasn’t the first one she had that day. I rolled my eyes and began to walk up the stairs to my room. I wanted to put some of my thoughts on paper to understand better what I was walking into. Someone was hiding something, and I wasn’t sure if it was my mother or Anna. The two of them seemed to be getting along well when I went down the stairs earlier that day. Then again, my mother was good at pretending things were great with everyone. I knew she had her favorites.