The 13th Witch Complete Trilogy (6 page)

She pulled away and I thought that she might have even had a small hint of a tear in her eye.

“Come and sit down. We have a lot to talk about.” She pulled me over to the fancy couch and sat down with me. “I'm your mother as you probably know. My name is Marie to other people, but you can call me mom... if you want to.” Her eyes trailed down to the pendent as Eric’s had. She smiled and looked back up at me. “I thought they would get rid of it once they took you.”

I looked at her and gave a little smile. I had a million questions to ask, but was not sure where to start.

“You must have a million things to ask us.” Marie said as though she had just heard me speaking in my head. “Maybe we should start from the beginning.” She settled down in the seat and looked me as if trying to see if there was any kind of reaction coming from me.

“Okay, I'm all ears.” I said looking at her intently.

“You were born in this house.” She said looking up towards the balcony that hung from the second floor. “We still have the room made up for you. Of course it's not a baby room anymore. We always hoped that we would be able to find you and raise you ourselves, but Animara took that from us.” She started to sound a little bitter as she spoke.

“How did that happen? Me being taken from you?” I really wanted to know this and figured that there was no point dancing around the question.

“She was jealous of us, I think. She wanted to create her own coven of powerful witches. She wanted to have a coven of 13 witches that were more powerful than any others. This way they could shift magic to them and control a lot of things in the world.” She seemed to twitch a little bit as she spoke. I wondered if it scared her or if she was lying to me. It was one of the other, but I couldn't tell which one.

“So, what do you want with me?” I asked bluntly and to the point. I had learned in the last few weeks to not hold back too much. People had a habit of trying to protect me from things that I needed to know.

They looked at each other and then Eric spoke for the both of them. “We want to know our daughter. You were the only child that we ever had and we missed so much already. We want to teach you how to become the powerful witch that you are.” His dark eyes seemed blacker than before as he spoke. I felt a little uneasy, but dismissed it for nerves. “You won’t need the pendent if you choose to embrace your gift.”

“I'll take you to your room. We can finish this talk in the morning.” She got up from the couch that she was sitting on and reached for my hand. I took it with a little hesitation and she led me up the stairs to the second floor.

There was a lot of light in the hallway and the same hardwood that was on the lower floor as well. We stopped a couple of doors down the hallway at a big wood door. Marie looked at me and kind of smiled, then opened the door for me. I stepped in the room and looked around.

There was a large bed in the middle of the room and the walls were a bright gold color. The room itself was very big in size and I had to strain to see the other end of the room. There was an adjoining bathroom to the left of the room.

“I think you'll be comfortable here and we can talk more tomorrow and maybe even teach you some spells. Just out of curiosity, do you know what your gift is?”

I looked back at her and shook my head. I hadn't really thought about what it could be or how I could use it. Now I was a little bit curious myself.

She reached for the door and smiled as she closed it behind her.

I was alone in this big flashy room and really didn't know what to think about it. I went to the huge bed and laid down on it. I felt the soft mattress give a little under me and instantly felt comfortable. I was tired, but at the same time, I still wondered about these people who had come into my life. I turned over on the bed and was instantly a sleep.

-

I opened my eyes to find myself in that same room, with the gold colored walls and the bed to match it. The sun was shining into the windows brightly. Just the sun made the room seem to be from another world.

I sat up in the bed and rubbed my eyes. I wondered if I had really met my biological family or if it was just a dream. There was a knock at my door that startled me and I crawled out of the bed. When I got to the door, Marie was standing there holding some fresh towels for the bathroom.

“Good morning.” She said brightly to me. I smiled back at her. “We have some business this morning, but after it's taken care of, we can sit and get to know each other better.”

“What kind of business?” I regretted asking the minute the words left my mouth.

“Oh, nothing to worry about. Boring stuff really.” She handed me the towels and started away. I watched the back of her frizzy hair ounce along as she walked.

When Marie was out of sight, I closed the door and looked at the towels that she had given to me. They were like the brand new towels that you find at great hotels that charge hundreds of dollars a night to stay in.

I wondered what the house looked like. If it was my house too, then I could explore it and see what all was here, right? I thought about it for a minute and decided that I wanted to look around and see what there was to see.

I put the towels down on my bed and started out the door. The hallway was bare.
Everyone must be gone.

I stopped at the balcony at the end of the hallway and looked down at the second floor. It too was very bare. The view from there was very good. You could see all of the furniture in the living room area and half of the kitchen. I wondered what was just below the second floor rooms.

I turned and started to make my way down the stairs towards the living room area. The furniture there was always kept clean and nice so I tried to be careful not to mess them up as I walked through the room towards the door to the other part of the house.

When I placed my hand on the door, it felt cold and unwelcoming. Like a silent warning to me. I ignored it and turned the knob. A gush of cold came over me as I pulled the door all the way open.

Through the dark I could make out a hallway and a flickering of what seemed like a far off fire burning. I gathered myself and took a step into the dark. The cold was overwhelming. I wanted to turn and close the door, but something was pulling me down the hallway.

I walked carefully down the hallway towards the light that I say. I started to hear the faint sound of voices. I was still too far to hear what they were saying, but it kind of peaked my interest. I slid my hand on the wall to know where I was going and listened to the voices. I could understand them now. They were talking about someone that they had caught. Someone that seemed important. I lost my footing and tripped falling hard onto the ground. The two that had been talking stopped and started scurrying my way. I pulled myself up and ran as fast as I could to the door at the end of the hallway. The voices were getting louder and running as well, but I got to the door before they could see who it was and shut it as fast as I could. I then ran to the couch and sat with my back to the door.

I heard them open the door and start looking around. I could see them now in the light. One was built very big and had light brown curly hair that clung tight to his head. The other was small and had black hair that ran down his back. He looked at me for a minute and then slapped the other man on the arm. They both walked towards me and stopped in front of me.

“Who are you?” The small man said looking down at me.

 

“I'm with Eric and Marie, why?”

 

“You weren't just in the hallway there, where you?” His voice got dark and brooding as he spoke.

“No, I've been sitting here waiting for Marie for at least 20 minutes.” I said to him in the most matter of fact tone that I could muster. He looked at me through his squinty eyes and smiled.

“Then I guess I'll be seeing you around the house?”

 

“Yes, you will be a lot now.”

He smiled a toothless grin and laughed in a way that made my skin crawl. He turned on his heels and started out of the room with the other man fallowing him. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned my head to look around the room. I hadn't noticed before, but there was a bookcase full of books on everything you could imagine. I stood up smiling at the discovery and started to thumb through the selection. There were classics as well as how to books and some educational and alternative living titles. I couldn’t think about the books as I had hoped. Something was not right and I could feel it in my bones. I pushed the feeling out of my head and continued to look.

“Do you like to read?” A voice chimed behind me. I turned to see Marie and Eric standing there looking at me.

“I do like to read. I read a lot when I was in school.” I said turning and looking back at the books. “You can read any of those books that you like.” Eric said in that cold voice of his.

 

“Thank you.” I didn't know what else to say to that.

“Have you thought of any other questions that you might want to ask us about our lives or regarding anything that you might have heard about us?” Eric was not a warm person to talk to. He got straight to the point with most people I was finding.

“I do have one question.” I was going to get right to the point as well. “If you are so powerful, how did Amimara get me from you?”

Marie and Eric looked at each other for a moment and then back at me.

“Animara was your nanny.” Marie said sitting down on the couch. I followed her lead. Eric continued to stand, which was a bit unsettling, as we spoke. “She was a great friend of ours for many years and we trusted her with our child. She took you when you were barely six months old; she said that she was going to take you for a short walk. Instead, she left with you and never came back. We were devastated and shocked that she had done this.” Marie stopped talking and looked at Eric again, as if asking for approval.

“I heard that you practiced dark magic.” I started. “Is that true?” I hated asking it, but wanted to know what they would say and how.

“Many people say that because they don't understand what we are doing. We want to have a better world where people all want the same things.” Eric said taking over the conversation. “That doesn't make us evil.” He was looking right at me with his cold dark eyes. “You have spent time with Anamara's son, Conner?”

“Yes, some.” I didn't know if I should tell them about what he had said to me and what he had taught me.

“You can't trust him. He has the gift of persuasion. Anything that he wants you to do, he can just look at you and make you do it.” I thought about the times that we had flirted and wondered if it was real or if it was all him.
Why was that crossing my mind now?

I just looked at him and wondered why he was telling me this, really. Another man with cold features and dark hair walked into the room. He stopped at Eric and whispered into his ear. Eric nodded and started to walk out with him.

“We will talk again soon.” He said as he walked away and into the kitchen.

“Is there anything else that you can think of that you want to ask me?” Marie said still wanting to keep my attention. I shook my head and looked back at the books. At least I could read while I was here.

“I guess I should be going too.” Marie said as she started to get up from where she was sitting.

When I turned back to look at her, she was gone. I wondered around the house for the rest of the day. It really was a pretty place and had all kinds of new things to look at. The living room and the dining room where just part of the house really. There was an addition that led off into an office and another few rooms. There was also a garden in the back of the house that was so pretty, I couldn't believe it was even a part of the place. I almost didn't realize it when it started to get dark. I was too consumed with the beauty of the flowers and the greenery that surrounded me.

I decided that once the stars started to come out, it was time to go up to my room. I walked through the house and up the stairs in record time and found myself along in my strange bedroom. The gold walls were dark and the room was quite. I changed into some sleeping clothes that Marie had given me and jumped into bed. The soft mattress made the world fall away once again and I found myself sleeping in no time.

Eight

I woke up in the big room very early the next morning. The room was dark and I almost didn't know where I was and what I was doing. I heard a noise downstairs that made me get very quiet.
Should I get out of the bed or stay here and pretend I didn't hear anything?

I slid my feet out of the bed and felt the cold of the wood floor. The door to my room was still closed, but I could hear the commotion down the stairs and needed to know what it was.

I opened the door to my room as quietly as I could. The hallway was dark compared to the brightness that been there the night before.

The noise was louder now and seemed to be that of a person whining and groaning in the distance. I followed it.

When I got to the edge of the balcony, I looked down at the first floor and saw a clearing where the living room used to be and the edge of a forest where the door to the house was. I felt the floor change from wood to grass and looked down. I realized that I was standing to the far side of the clearing. There was a big bonfire going in the very middle of the clearing and many people around it. Eric and Marie were at the head of the bonfire as the others formed a circle around it. I could still hear the groaning of people, but could not make out where it was coming from. The moon was full and big in the lower end of the sky and I knew that is was rising.

One person caught my eye and I was absorbed into finding out who it was. It was a girl and she was dressed in all black standing by Eric and Marie. Then she turned and I could see who it really was.

Me.

I stepped back and closed my eyes. I was scared and confused. When I opened my eyes I was looking at the gold ceiling above me. I had made a mistake in coming here and I hurried to my things to gather them up. Something caught my eye and I looked closer.

I had to get out of here. My jacket had been thrown on the top of my shoes so I felt around looking for the bottle that I'd put in my pocket the day before.