Anchor

Part 12 - Take comfort

    The world around me reclaimed the power I stole as I crumbled to the ground. Tremors in the earth expired and all movement settled into a calming stillness. This was by far the craziest of things to have happened since my father had passed. No words could explain.

    There I was, a ball of a broken matter on the floor, in the hallway of a house, of a man that had both helped and hurt me. I leaned forward trying to grasp at anything that would remind me it was over, that I was safe.    

    Across the ground moved Stellan who gently wrapped his arms around me like I would disappear if he didn't catch me. I held onto his torn and bloody jacket as I breathed frantically and he put everything that had happened aside and gave me the comfort and affection that was lacking with Ben. 

    Through muffled speech he told me how sorry he was and how he wanted to tell me everything from the moment he knew for sure who I was. I understood that to him, the timing was never right and I also understood that he was doing what he thought was best to protect me. 

    "Take her upstairs, she needs to rest." Ben said now standing with his weight leaning on his left leg. He winced as he tried to take a step towards us. Saphrine stood at his side, her arms trying to steady him so he wouldn't fall on his face. 

    "Don't act like you want what's best for her." He shot Ben a hateful glare.

    "And you do? Let me guess, you still haven't told her about what she is..." Stellan sighed. "She has a right to know, Stellan. I can show her what she could be with the right guidance. You're no better than him if you keep this from her." 

    "Wha...what is he talking about?" I locked eyes with Stellan as he stalled stroking my hair. 

    Fear spread across his face. It wasn't fear of me. It was what he had to say next that scared him. I had ran from him once before and I don't think he was ready for it again. He didn't seem like someone who liked the chase.

    "Your father wanted to protect you at all costs. I really believed his methods were the right way to go about it. I'm... I'm sorry." His grip on me tightened, not enough to cause any discomfort but enough to silently ask me not to leave.

    "What are you on about?" 

    "Maybe this isn't the best place to be doing this," Jodie said. 

    I guess I was right when I confronted her, she did know more than she led me to believe. 

    "You aren't like anyone else, Kitty. We've all seen what you can do to an extent but that's only the start of it. s**t, you're probably more powerful than we thought possible," Stellan gave a side glance to Ben who gave him a look of impatience.

    "f**k sake, Stellan. You're taking too long," Ben walked over and squatted beside us gaining my full attention. "Your mother was the last surviving witch."

    Stellan interjected, "she was killed for being who she was. That's why your father kept you hidden, so you wouldn't meet the same fate. He loved you, Kitty." 

    I looked around the room at the faces of the people I had come to meet, all looked back at me, expressions serious with no hint of amusement or trickery. The uncontrollable dry mouth had me almost gasping for liquid. As the arms around me tightened in a protective way and not to inflict pain, I held back a laugh. Was it that all these years I knew something was off about me? My guess was that a so called witch wouldn't have given birth to a plain Jane but at least would have passed something down the bloodline.    

     When I was seven years old, Mrs Falmer, who lived next door yelled at me for accidentally breaking the wing mirror of her car. I was in the garden swinging around one of those tennis balls attached to a paddle by a piece of string... what a flimsy piece of string it was. When the ball broke away from me, I knew all hell would break loose. My dad forbade me to go outside so I would sneak into the garden as much as I could when he was out on business. 

    I pitied Mrs Falmer at first, her husband worked at a off license down town and one night a crack head attempted to rob the place but Mr Falmer stood his ground and because of that, was beaten to death with the drawer of the cash register. Like I said, I pitied her - at first. But when she grew bitter towards everyone around her, the pity turned to a silent rage. 

    I apologised profusely and pleaded with her not to tell my dad. I even offered to pay for the damages - not that I knew where I would get the money. Later that evening when my father returned home, she was already waiting at the door for him. I listened from the safety of the house as she called me every name under the sun and spoke of how I shouldn't be left alone all day and that social services would be informed. That was the last time I would step foot outside the house for over two years. Two years of watching the seasons change, the snow fall, the hot summer sun, all from inside my cage. I was too consumed with rage but also scared of the leverage she held over us, I didn't want to be taken away from my dad, he was all I had. 

    When she had the 'accident', I secretly thought it was a blessing. They had to cut the car to get her body out, what they could find at least... I never spoke of my wishes for it to happen, not to anyone. I knew it was wrong to think something like that but I also had a need deep down that craved revenge. Back then I assumed it was karma meting out justice. Now, not so much. Over the course of my adolescence that would be one of a few 'accidents' to occur around me. From freak storms to lightening strikes to unsolved disappearances. 

    I doubted I caused them, at least not on purpose and at least not all of them.