A Trip to See the Family || Solo (POTW)
Spending so much time in a state like Maine can really throw a girl off her game. She had been so used to forests, mountains and wild life that when Cecilia stepped out of her car and smell of salt and sounds of waves crashing against the sand overwhelmed her. She took it all in, inhaling deeply to take in every last scent. The scents that had been her childhood. She took a breath and began stretching, raising her arms high above her, as far as they would reach. It had been a long car ride, one that she had no interest in repeating anytime soon. Maybe she would take a nice little vacation here in California for a couple weeks. Soak up the scene, get a natural tan instead of the tanning beds she had been reduced to back in Maine. Cecilia wondered if that old burger joint was still open that was only a few blocks from where she had grown up. Lilly and Tanner could undoubtedly handle the business for a few weeks could they not? She might have a few choice customers that might be unhappy to not have Cecilia around to help them should the need arise, but they would get by if one of the other witches had to help them in Cecilia’s place. After all, they would have to at least respect that Cecilia had some business of her own to take care of right here.
The place looked exactly as it did ten years ago. The only noticeable difference was the tree that once stood tall next to the end of their driveway had now been cut down. The tree that Cecilia had backed right into the very first day after getting her license. The damage to the tree was minor, some stripped bark that refused to grow back. The bumper of their car had seen better days however. Unsurprising that the two would try to erase any memory of their former daughter from their lives. Undoubtedly because they didn’t want to relive the fact that once upon a time they had actually treated her like a human being instead of kicking her out to live on her own. Who could live with themselves unknowing what had become of the girl whom they had raised for eighteen years before just throwing her out on the streets?
A quick knock on the door was followed by a man, tall in stature though thin, answering it. Jimmy was the kid’s name, when he first joined Arabella’s coven he was just fourteen years old, maybe the youngest kid to ever join. Back then he had little to no training and an affinity for picking up high winds when he got pissed off. Arabella had never really given the kid a chance before she kicked the can, but Cecilia found some valuable use in him. Fast forward six years later, Cecilia considered him one of the most trustworthy members of the coven. He wasn’t as high up as Lilly or Tanner were, but she was busy putting Jimmy through school anyways, so he would rarely have time to help run an entire business. Still, Jimmy had become pretty talented with his elemental magic and his age made him sort of an unexpected ace in the hole. She often used him for smaller, more personal jobs that Tanner and Lilly would be too busy to do for her. His job this time was simply to keep the Bishops occupied until Cecilia made her appearance. “Go study or do something productive. I’ll be quick.” Cecilia dismissed Jimmy and took a moment to glance around the house she had spent so many years in. The front hallway had remained unchanged minus a few family photos taken off the walls. An opening in the wall lead into the kitchen where Cecilia used to beg her mom to help her cook. Just down the end of this hallway would lead into the living room. She ran her hand across the wall as she made her way down it, pausing only very briefly to hear the sound of the heavy breathing and sobbing coming from the couch before a wicked grin split across her face and she made her way in.
“Mom and Dad? How crazy to run into you here of all places? It’s been too long, it’s felt like ages.” Her parents both had tears streaking down their face as they sat unmoving on the couch, yelling out pleas to be free or for others to help them. The look of pure shock and terror on their faces as they watched Cecilia walk into the room was enough satisfaction to last two life times. “Cece oh my god Cece it’s you!” her mom cried, though through the tears it wasn’t obvious whether or not they were tears of joy or sadness. Typically, this part made Cecilia chuckle. The begging for their lives portion of the evening. A nice appetizer to set up the rest of the evening, sure, but it was hardly filling. This time however, Cecilia was overcome with annoyance and a dash of rage. “Don’t you ever call me that” she spat at her mother, stopping a few feet from the couch and looking down at her parents. Just as things should be.
“Love what you guys have done with the place. You wouldn’t even be able to tell that you used to have a daughter. What did you do with my bedroom? Turn it into a work out room?” They didn’t answer her, instead the two began crying even harder and her mother- no Mary Bishop threw her arms around Harry. “Please, Cecilia whatever you’re doing- just it’s okay. We’re sorry okay? We didn’t know what to do!” Harry called out against her.
“Well kicking your daughter out of the house wouldn’t have been my gut instinct, but to each their own.” Cecilia tried shrugging it off as if the situation at hand wasn’t bothering her in the slightest. Usually, things like this didn’t bother her. But this was different, more personal than anything else. “But don’t worry. I survived! Here I am in the flesh. I’m sure the two of you stayed up countless nights worrying about my safety.”
The two continued to beg. To plead. Harry had even once tried to jump from the couch and tackle Cecilia. That hadn’t worked in his favor. Yet Cecilia still wasn’t pleased. She needed more. “Please can we just talk? I don’t get why you’re doing this.”
“You want to talk things through? Okay, let’s have stroll down memory lane!” Cece yelled out, listening as her voice echoed across the walls and up the ceiling. “Remember when you used to let me help you cook? We were preparing for a friends night, you both had some friends from work coming over and I just had to help you. You gave me two jobs. Peel the potatoes and put them in the boiler. Only I hadn’t realized how hot the water had already gotten. I reached down to put the potato in, just a teeny tiny bit too far. I had never known any pain like that. I almost spilled the whole pan on the floor because the burn hurt so badly. You took me to the fridge, grabbed out some ice and put it in a baggy. Then you held it against my hand and you told me that everything would be okay. Funny how things change right?” So much anger, disgust and contempt was saturated in Cecilia’s voice, changing the very way she spoke. Typically she stayed calm and collected the entire time, but she couldn’t help herself. Not here, and not with them. “Tell me. Have you ever been burned like that before Mary? Have you ever felt your blood boil?” In an instant, Mary was screaming at the top of her lungs, Harry grabbing onto her in panic in confusion as he tried to figure out what was going on. “Scream all you want Mary! We soundproofed the place. Just one of the many things the magic you kicked me out for can do.” Cecilia waved her hands frantically and paced across the room.
“What- What the hell are you? What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Harry yelled from the couch, still gripping onto Mary as she screamed away in agony. Cece came closer this time, ducking down to match their height from the couch and holding her head only inches away from the two of them. Her voice was barely more than a whisper at this point. “I’m exactly what you made me Dad. This is what the two of you did to me when you kicked me out. This is what I had to do to survive.” She grabbed onto Mary’s face forcefully and then gave a caress across the cheek, “But don’t worry mom. Just like you had the ice for my burn. I can take the sting away too.” She began sucking all of the heat into her own fingertips, watching as her mother’s skin went from flushed to a ghostly pale. Cece’s mouth split into a malicious grin and she turned her attention towards Harry.
“Don’t think I forgot about you. You were there for me just as much as she was. You taught me how to move on from pain, how to suck it up. Remember when I broke my ankle during cheerleading? They rushed me off the field, and the next thing I knew I was being carried off in an ambulance. But you and mom were right there for me. You told me, ‘crying’s not going to fix the pain. Don’t be such a whimp.’ Remember that?” It wasn’t hard to snap her father’s leg. The crunch was almost satisfying to hear, more satisfying than it had ever been with anybody back in Ashford River. He was the one screaming now, Mary was still too choked up from the cold to move. She really needed to conserve any heat that she could right now.
“Well don’t cry dad! That’s not going to fix the pain!” Another flick of the wrist and there went his arm. It was really too easy. To think, not every witch had telekinesis, what a shame. “Don’t be such a whimp now.” She grabbed him by his throat and pushed him back against couch, holding him there for a long moment while she gripped as tightly as she possibly could onto his neck. Then, just as suddenly, she let go.
She took a few steps back away from the couch and glanced at the watch on her wrist. “You know, this has been real fun guys, but you know how quick these wintry nights come on right? I’ve only got about an hour of sunlight left, and I really want to check out the beach before then.” She smiled at them, this time the smile was the same as the one she used to give them before she would hop out of the car to leave for cheerleading camp for a week. Or the year that she went to Disney World with her high school for a long weekend. The kind that told them it was going to be a while before she saw them again.
“By the way, I didn’t eat for almost two weeks after you kicked me out. The only money I had ran out quickly. I resorted to eating leftovers out of dumpsters behind restaurants. I lost almost ten pounds. I was starving, like my insides had been completely hollowed out. Do you two know what that feels like? To feel like you’re withering away?” Cece gave a cold, sarcastic laugh, “Of course you two don’t. But you will.” She pulled a bottle from her purse and tore the lid off, rubbing the mixture onto their flesh before muttering a quick incantation. Then she was recapping the bottle and slipping it back into her purse. Before she even left the room, she could see the skin getting tighter on their faces and a sickly green color washing over them.
Cecilia barely glanced up at Jimmy, who was sitting on the steps in the hallway that lead up to the second floor. “Help me clean that mess up will you? I’m really cutting it close to get some real sun today.”
