Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 5 (11 page)

Liza gasped and covered her
mouth with her hand while her husband exploded. "What?! You will do
no such thing! You are not dropping out of school!"

"Oh yes I am!" Aradia
shouted.

"If you drop out of school
then you can forget about living here! You can just get the hell
out of this house!"

Aradia threw her head back
and laughed. "Oh Daddy, I thought you would never say
that!"

Her father and her mother
both grew pale.

"What?" Ross asked. His
voice sounding like a breathless scream. "What do you
mean?"

Aradia inhaled a deep breath
through her nose, straightened her shoulders, and looked him
straight in the eye. "It mean I am leaving Dad. I am leaving this
house and I am not coming back!"

She then spun on her heel
and began to walk towards the door. Ross recovered from his shock
in time for him to rush forward. "Aradia, wait!"

As soon as his hand landed
on her shoulder, Aradia turned and punched her father in the face!
He flew across the room and crashed into a bookshelf. His hand went
straight to his nose, which was already dripping with blood. Liza
rushed to the side of her husband just as he slid down on to the
floor. The moment she got there, Ross groaned to reveal a piece of
wood sticking out of his shoulder. They both stared at each other
and then cast their wounded eyes at their daughter. If they were
hoping that it would convince Aradia to stay they were sorely
disappointed because she was already out the door.

True to his word, Saul gave
Aradia a place to stay. He told her that she could stay as long as
she wanted. He didn't even insist that she get a job or
anything.

"Hey you are cute that's
reward enough for me," was his only explanation.

Aradia laughed and then
stared down at her coffee. She looked into the black liquid whose
color unintentionally reminded her of the bookcase.

The one I punched my father
into
, Aradia thought wincing. She still
couldn't believe that she had actually done that; she had actually
hit her father! She knew she had been angry, but she hadn't meant
to do that. Her entire life, the only form of discipline she had
received was her father yelling at her. It didn't seem like much
but it did bother Aradia. She hated being criticized because it
happened to her so often. Therefore, it was pretty obvious that
Aradia did not relish being yelled at.

However, being able to
strike back at her father did indeed give Aradia a horrible feeling
of guilt but it also gave her a sick rush of excitement. As if she
was a victim of abuse who finally struck back at her abuser. She
couldn't really call her father that though because in spite of all
his scoldings she knew he loved her.

After tonight
though
, Aradia thought bitterly,
I bet that has changed.

But he asked for it,
Aradia inwardly argued,
if
he hadn't called me a failure I wouldn't have been so angry. He
shouldn't have yelled at me like that. He shouldn't try to boss me
around like the way he always does. If he only he understood how
much crap I had been going through. If only he tried to understand
but he never does. He never tries! My entire life, I have always
been the one trying to do everything with nothing to show for my
efforts but criticism. Well! I have had enough of it.

She clenched her
fists.
I am sick and tired of letting
people boss me around. I am sick of them hurting me. For once, I
want to make them hurt. I want to make them feel every ounce of
pain I have ever felt,

"What's wrong?" Saul
asked.

Aradia rose her head up
slowly and tensely. "What's wrong? What's wrong?! I will tell you
what is wrong!" She shot up to her feet and began to pace in front
of the kitchen. After a couple of paces, she stopped and turned to
face Saul.

"I am sick," she said, "and
I am tired! I am sick and I am tired of trying to play the good
girl, the peacekeeper, and the good student when no one is every
impressed with my efforts. No matter what I do it is never enough.
No matter how many parties I throw, nothing will ever change in the
hidden world. No matter how hard I try to be a good person, people
will still hurt me. I am sick and I am tired of it all! I am tired
of getting hurt! I am tired of it all!"

"So what do you want to do
about it?" Saul asked casually. As if none of Aradia's words
frightened him in the least.

Aradia didn't notice so she
just on went to say, "I want people to respect me. I want people to
understand that they can't hurt me and get away with
it!"

She clenched her fists. "I
want to wipe the looks of pity off all of their faces. I want them
to fear me like they have never feared anything ever before. I
want..." she trailed off.

"You want what?" Saul
inquired.

Aradia was still silent but
this silence only lasted a few seconds before she said in an even
louder voice, "I want everything!"

The following month Ross had
every single cop on the force and everyone in the D.A. office out
looking for Aradia. Her picture was shown on the TV three times a
day on several news channels and yet still there was no sign of
her. Liza cried herself to sleep every night while Ross would
sometimes go on for days without eating or sleeping. He would stay
up on the computer, go through newspapers, trying to follow every
lead that there was. Melina and Marietta were also worried in
addition to Aradia's other friends. Several of them checked out
homeless shelters, and patrolled the streets. Roy and his brothers
would go into the forests at night in their wolf forms and try to
track down Aradia's scent. All of these efforts bore no fruit at
least not until the end of the month.

On this particular day, all
of Aradia's friends and family members had gathered together at the
SilverMoon diner. Their tables had been shoved together to
accommodate everyone. Melina sat with her arms around Roy. Ross sat
with his own arm around a thinner and paler looking Liza. Rhonda
and D sat close together, holding hands under the table. Xan and
Brenna leaned against one another, looking as miserable as the
others. The only one who was noticeably missing was Dax. He had not
spoken to any of the others since the break-up not even to Xan who
now lived in his own apartment with Brenna. No one knew why the
diner was remarkably deserted but none of them seemed to be
questioning it. None of them seemed to be craving conversation or
excitement anyway. This probably explained why none of them were
talking. It was like a spark had gone out. All of them looked
miserable even Tristan didn't seem like his usual smug
self.

None of them spoke, they all
just sat together in miserable heavy silence. There really wasn't
any sound in the diner, besides the usual rustling of pots and pans
and spanish phrases that could be heard from the kitchen. So when
the bell to the diner door jangled, it seemed more like a church
bell's cathedral, and everyone turned towards its direction. The
shocked facial expression and gasps were similar to the audience
during the first showing of Star Wars when they heard Darth Varder
confess his true identity.

In walked a much darker and
meaner looking Aradia. Her long red hair had been completely hacked
off into a short little bob, she wore black lipstick, and heavy
black eye makeup. In addition to fishnet stockings, she wore big
black combat boots, and a black leather mini skirt. She wore a low
cut, cropped, gray shirt with a leather jacket. The cropped shirt
revealed a belly button piercing and huge black sun tattoo. Several
new earrings circled both of Aradia's ears and she wore a long
beaded necklace with a black pentacle medallion dangling in the
middle. In replace of her usual perky smile, a scowl was now seen.
Her eyes were narrowed and disdain was etched across her face. She
didn't even pause when she saw her family and friends sitting at
the table. She walked by them without any hesitation and went
straight to the counter.

The cashier, Al, gasped when
he recognized who it was. Aradia just ignored him and asked for
donuts and coffee. Al quickly glanced over to the others at the
table who looked back at him eagerly. He nodded and tried to get
out questions over where Aradia had gone and everything. At first
she ignored him but soon it became obvious that he wouldn't serve
her until she answered. She then spun on her heel and walked out of
the diner.

She didn't even stop when
her mother cried out, "Aradia, wait!"

The moment the door slammed
everyone from the table jumped up and rushed to the window. Ross
and Liza, however, boldly walked out to get a better glimpse. What
the couple saw did not make them happy. Quite frankly, it didn't
make the others too pleased either.

Saul was waiting for Aradia
who, after giving him a huge french kiss, whispered in his ear.
"Let's go baby. The service here sucks."

He lowered his sunglasses a
bit and glanced at the people staring at him from the diner. He
then smirked and motioned for Aradia to get on the bike. Aradia
glanced back but only for a second before she climbed on and
wrapped her arms around his waist. The two of them then sped off
into the busy road.

For a long moment no one
said anything, their mouths just kept hanging open in surprise.
Amazingly, it was Tristan who spoke first. "Okay, now I might be a
bit concerned."

Aradia had been many things
in her life. She had been an outcast, a bully victim, a leader, a
politician, and a girlfriend. One thing that she had once tried but
never succeeded at was being a bad girl. She had tried once in
Arizona but Jona Lee had quickly put a stop to it. It wasn't just
the fact that Aradia had almost killed her. It was also the fact
that Jona had bossed her around and treated her like a rash that
discouraged her from choosing that life. However, after moving to
Salem and becoming the Witch Queen Aradia had seemed to graduate
from the role of follower to leader. She knew how to command
respect through action and attitude. This was good because ever
since she had moved in with Saul he had started taking her to
places where commanding respect was definitely a must.

These places were mostly
holes in the wall night clubs full of vampires located in very
shady parts of town. There would be live rock-bands and people who
dressed up in black. Most of all, there would be drugs and booze.
Every night they would go out and party, but once the sun started
to come up they would go back to Saul's loft and sleep the whole
day away. When the sun went down was when the partying would begin
again. Aradia felt more free then she had ever felt in her life.
She would drink hard liquor, smoke a joint, and dance the night
away with Saul. Her studies about her people had taken a back seat
and now all Aradia seemed to care about was having a good
time.

"Jesus," Eventide cried out
as Aradia swigged back another beer. "When Saul introduced you to
us, I never thought you would be much of a party girl!"

"Yeah well," Aradia said
after wiping the froth from her mouth with the back of her hand.
"You think too much!"

The rest of the crowd
laughed while Saul threw his arm around Aradia and said, "Too
right!"

Aradia also laughed as she
gazed around at her new circle of friends. They weren't Rhonda,
Everett, Calvin, and Felix but they were still people she could
party with. Vampires yes, but people nevertheless. Saul had
introduced them to her a few months ago at one of the other clubs
and ever since then they had partied together. The group consisted
of two women and two men. One of them was a dark skinned curvaceous
Bengali woman with a rounded chin and nose. Her hair was long and
black and her face was very well defined. She had apple cheeks and
long thin arching eye brows. In spite of her exquisite looks, she
had a shy smile that seemed to be disguising her insecurities. Her
insecurities didn't stop her from being the one who called all the
shots though. Whatever club they went, whatever party they crashed,
it was Shayde who made the decision.

Whisper was also a
voluptuous and dramatic looking woman who followed Shayde
everywhere. Apparently she had good reason for that because she
was, according to Saul, Shayde's vampire bride. She had pale moon
skin and long chocolate brown hair that was always pulled back in a
ponytail. In spite of being a vampire, she still had bad eyesight
hence why she wore square black glasses everywhere she went. She
was much taller than Shayde except her smile was more like a clever
smirk.

Thorne was a tall,
clean-shaven, African American male who wore his hair in cornrows.
His skin was light brown and seemed to glow whenever he stood in
the light. His chin was pointed, along with his nose, and his eyes
were almond shaped. His cheekbones were high and made his face seem
narrow. His heads were as meaty as his arms and he never seemed to
go anywhere without a smile on his face. Which Aradia thought was
very ironic. Finally, there was Eventide who was a Korean vampire
with long black hair with dark skin and a sardonic
smile.