Why would they leave her in the dark? Katy was so confused. So extremely confused. Why would they not say anything? Even if she begged them to tell her. She had begged them to tell her, and then they try and blame her for going trying to find answer for herself. Silence does not scream the answers. Silence just screams the questions. The adults think they are protecting Katy by keeping secrets, by keeping their silence. But all she wants is for them to talk to her, to tell her what is going on in HER life. She did not get why they were keeping her in the dark about her life. She knew she was messed up in the head, she knew she had her problems, the creaks in her mind, even if she was only going to be thirteen. She had started talking to a therapist. It was a requirement after killing Raven. She honestly should have been seeing one since she found out about the society she should have grown up in; and not after she had killed two people in defense of self and Deen.
Katy and Deen shut themselves into Deen’s room and went through every single piece of paper, every scrap, of what was in Edgar’s file on Katy. “I don’t get it. It says my aunt killed my mother. There is no picture of her. It barely states her name. It just says her name is Aaliyah Stephaney Poe. It says she was engaged, but the person’s name is blacked out. It also mentions that they have a sister and a half-brother but again the names are blacked out. I don’t get it. There is no real proof that she killed my mother. Just that she was in New York at the same time as the accident. And this says my mother’s body was never found. I thought they buried her. That is what the social worker stated anyways. And I know that Lua and Headmaster O’Cuinn are my family.” Katy shook her head. Nothing added up. Plus, they also had received a warning from the Banshee Queen that nothing was as it seemed. Did that mean that her aunt was innocent?
“Well, maybe we can go and talk to her. They are allowed visitors. Or at least Guardians can visit them. They bind their powers, but the spooky things are the bone changers. They have done worse crimes; they are lifers, who change to these creatures, who become the guards of the prison. They lose their free will, they are becoming like rotting bats, but they create an illusion of being normal. You never know who a bone changer is and who isn’t, they will drain the power of the witch or warlock that they are seeking if they manage to break out. Which they can’t.” Deen stated, as he flipped through some more documents.
“Why?” Katy asked as she went over the laptop Deen had borrowed from his mother. She turned it on and waited for it to boot up. It was rare that a witch or warlock would have a computer, but the magical community did keep up with technology. She knew what none of the magical information would be online, but she did know that the normal mortals would have had to report something about an explosion.
“Because they brand them with a powerful binding spell. The ones there forever get BF branded into their chest. If they try to remove the brand… They die. Others get B and a number meaning how many months how long they are in prison for. As they serve their time the number goes down, once they served their time the brand disappears on its own. Once that happens, they are teleported in front of the elders for their release. It is extremely strange. But it works; the last jail break was over five hundred years ago according to dad, and that person died within minutes of breaking out. They cut off their brand and bled out. It was horrifically bad. So sad…” Deen stated and walked over to where Katy sat as she searched for news about the day, she lost her mother.
“How did they convict my aunt if they only had this for proof?” Katy was confused. “The normal news reported it was a gas explosion, that five people died, and my mother’s name is not listed as a victim. There is not even a Jane Doe listed.” Katy stated; as she read the news reports of the explosion.
“I don’t know. What did dad say?”
“Nothing that is the problem, he just gave me this folder and then he took off. He said something was off though. He said it felt wrong. I mean I know now it was magical, and since the lights I saw were green I know one came from my mother, and the other from another Earth witch or warlock. Which my aunt is an Earth.”
“Then something is wrong. At least they said you could stay here during break. Sandra and Antonio are here like every day. I don’t know what will happen Katy, but I know this, they are going to try to pull us apart. They are going to try to gain your power again. After all Solomon tried, Ebony tried, who is going to be next. Who is going to try to take you away from us this year? Maybe Sandra and mom are correct, maybe we should consider home schooling this year.”
“No Deen; that would mean they won, even a small victory such as that cannot be allowed. We cannot give them even a chance, a hope, that they can scare us, that they can win. We won’t allow it Deen. We can’t let it happen.”
“Katy…”
“No, Deen you give them an inch they will take a mile. We can’t let them win anything. And if we let them drive us from school then they win. They would isolate us. We can’t win this by ourselves. We need our peers. I need you stand by me; I need you Deen, more than the others, but we need them. I thought for sure you were going to turn your back on me when I killed Raven.” Katy said with finality to her words and went back to trying to decode the papers in front of her.
“Never, I know you did only what you needed too. Well, I understand that now about you. Why go for the kill? I never asked.”
“She had you. She threatened your life. Do you think Edgar could be keeping some more papers in his study?” Katy asked as she put an end to the conversation and brought them back to the problem at hand.
That night Katy sat on her bed and her thoughts were spinning round and round. Had her blood made her this fallen angel? She remembered in the ordinary world some of the group homes, foster homes, orphanages, would talk about a Christian God, angels, and those that had fallen. Those that were fallen were sinners. They were evil. Dark. Wrong. And sometimes, even though she was learning about the beliefs of her adoptive family, they were Celtic Pagans. And though she felt those beliefs aligned with her own, she still grew up around the idea of fallen angels. They started out as pure, good, and the heroes of their story. But they made one choice, a choice that would haunt them for the rest of their existence, and they fell from grace. They become beings called dark, evil, and fallen. When she made the choice to fight, did she fall? The voice in her head would not stay silent. The voice said she was just following her destiny to gain power. The voice of the White Being. Katy shook her head. She would not let the White Being win. She would not let darkness win. She knew the world was not black and white, she had seen too much to not understand that life is all shades of colors, and not black and white. She took a breath. She would not let her thoughts control her. She would fight like she always had in her life. She would win.
Kris Charles - Author 