The first thing my mother did after crying a river and almost squeezing the life out of me was to yell at me.
"I can't believe you snuck out in the middle of the night again, and you would have thought you would have learned your lesson from the first time!"
"Yeah, you would think," I agreed with her silently in my head.
My mom sighed in defeat and pressed her fingers against her temples. "I guess all that matters is that you're safe and back home."
"I wouldn't presume she's safe," we all turned to look at Neeva, "All of the people who are standing here aren't safe! You can't have it in your beliefs that the magic council will let her go that easily, do you? Daughter needs to come with me, and only then will she be safe."
"Hold on just a second. Why should we go with you? How do we know we can trust you? Like you can't even form a correct sentence. Who talks like that!?"
"Violet-" my mom began, but Neeva held out his hand and stopped her.
"Let her finish," he said to my mother before he turned to me, "But to start my conversation, my speech is formed like this from spending too long in purgatory, which I entered not long after the day you arrived in this world, most likely. In purgatory, you cannot speak, and I have forgotten how to do so correctly. I spend most of my time there, in the land of trapped souls. You have passed through it with your servant, I believe. Your servant is the one who retrieved me. Now, speak about whatever you are about to say. " He nodded for me to continue.
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Let's start with where were you my entire life? You knew these freaky powers ran in the family, so why the hell would you leave me to deal with them on my own? I mean, newsflash, I can wipe out an entire army just like that!" I snapped my fingers.
Neeva flinched at my words, but he didn't lower his eyes from mine. He took a deep breath. "I didn't want to cause interference with the life you were living. I just wanted you to be happy and normal within your life. If I were around, you would receive a different type of existence," he explained.
I felt a wave of anger hit me. I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. "Are you kidding me? If anything, your plan did the opposite! Maybe if you had stuck around, you could have explained what was happening to me, helped me control my magic, hid me from the council, etc. You can do stuff like that, can't you!!? I can sense it."
"I didn't know whether or not you had them yet. The fifth element doesn't get passed along to every generation. Neeva's voice grew a little bit louder. "I didn't even know I had conceived a child until a couple of years ago. I discovered this truth when I journeyed back to the living world to check on your mom one day," his voice softened. "I just couldn't help myself, I had to know if she had chosen life," he glanced at my mom shyly. "When I did eventually find her, I saw you. I knew little lost you were my offspring. It wasn't from feelings. It was obvious after all." He gestured to his eye and then mine, and smiled. His smile dropped when I didn't return it.
I still didn't buy his reasons for abandoning my mom and me completely. "Yeah, kind of obvious," I replied dryly.
He did his best to ignore my comment and went on. "I waited till you spent sixteen years on this earth to see if you had the... Ah, gift. But I was too slow; the council had already found you, so I sent my shadows to protect you, but something drove them off."
Wait," I held up my finger, "did those shadows happen to be all black with white glowing eyes?"
He nodded and added. "Sorry, did they cause fright within you?"
"Kind of, but that's not the point. If you were in control of those monsters, does that mean you're responsible for all those disappearances that were happening in these woods?"
Neeva hastily shook his head no. "I don't have anything related to those missing children.
"Okay, fair enough," I gave him a thumbs up and turned my attention to Emily. "Now explain why you had to get Emily involved in this mess." I gestured at her.
Danny was the one to answer. "She's the closest person to you after your mom, so the council would probably go after her, too. It's not safe for her or her entire family."
I looked at Emily, mortified. So her association with me had put her in danger!? "I'm so sorry, Em!"
Emily looked at me like I was crazy. "Sorry for what, being my best friend!?" Emily exclaimed. "The only thing you should be apologizing for is forgetting me, your BEST FRIEND, silly!" she giggled. "It's not your fault the council plays dirty."
Man, I loved this girl to pieces.
"So what now?" I asked the tiny group
"Pack," Neeva and my mom replied at the same time. They both looked at each other, and I could have sworn my mother blushed. My mother never blushed.
Oh boy, I thought. Things would surely get interesting.
A half-hour later, I was standing in the middle of my room, trying to memorize every little detail about it; after all, it would probably be the last time I got to see it for a long time. In my hands, I held a duffel bag filled with some clothes, a couple of pictures, and other things. This was all that I was allowed to bring with me wherever we were going.
My mom appeared in the doorway holding a duffel bag of her own. Hers looked like it was ready to burst at the seams. She caught me looking at her bag and held it out to me proudly. "You wouldn't believe how many shoes I managed to fit in here!"
Judging by its size, I would guess at least fifteen. I raised an eyebrow at her. "Mom, I don't think shoes are the only thing you want to bring with you. We might have to travel for more than a day before we reach wherever we're going."
It was her turn to raise her eyebrow at me. "You really think that's all that I got in here. Your mother isn't as stupid as you think." She smirked at me and stepped inside. Her eyes danced over my little room, and a dreamy look replaced her smile. "I remember when we first got this house; you were only two or three, maybe. I let you pick out the colors for your walls, and you were so excited."
I felt the first signs of tears pricking at my eyes. "Aw, mom, you're going to make me get sentimental."
My mom laughed and wrapped me in a hug. "Well, don't, we'll come back here someday. "Plus," she cupped my face in her hands and kissed my forehead, "as long as we don't get separated again, who needs a house!?" She laughed and pulled away from our hug. Together we walked out of the room.
We found Neeva waiting for us at the end of the hallway. He stood there awkwardly, looking at both of us shyly with his dark purple eyes. He looked like a little-lost boy, instead of a man who was hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and who could literally defeat an entire army by himself.
I wondered if I would live as long as he. The thought of outliving everyone I cared about didn't sit well with me.
When the three of us emerged from the house, the Howl family was already waiting for us on our front lawn. I felt another stab of guilt when I saw Carson, Emily's youngest brother, struggling under the weight of his backpack. Because of me, six other people had to abandon their house and most of their personal belongings or face the possibility of being used as leverage against me. I didn't care how many times they insisted it was fine; to me, it never would be okay.
Emily ran over to me as soon as she saw me, and began talking my ear off. She blabbed on excitedly about all the hot guys we were going to meet. I did my best to listen to her, but I found my mind wandering to more pressing matters.
I excused myself when I saw Danny enter the clearing. He was carrying a bag too. I jogged over to him.
He smiled when he saw me. "Hi," he said and waved.
"Hi," I said back." I looked over his shoulder. "Where's your family?"
"Oh, about that, I didn't exactly have a warm welcome at home. I had to knock out my brother because he caught me packing my things in my room, and began freaking out. He told me criminals weren't welcome here, and then I heard my mom on the phone with the enforcers, so they're not coming."
I put my hand over my mouth. Great, just one more life that had been ruined because of me.
"I wouldn't even have a life to ruin if it wasn't for you," Danny said, like he had read my mind, patted me on the shoulder gently, and joined the others. Leaving me standing there, a little stunned. Did he just read my mind!? I had to remember to ask Neeva about that.
My train of thought broke when someone screamed. "Watch out!" Something whizzed past my head and exploded behind me. I fell to my knees. Before I could comprehend what had just happened, there was another explosion. I heard a cry of pain.
Without thinking, I pressed my hands to the ground and began concentrating all my energy on them. I could taste blood in my mouth. My only thought was to stop the attack and save the people I cared about. I felt something stir from somewhere within the earth. I stood quickly. I had a feeling I had done something I really shouldn't have done.
"Freeze!" A man barked at us. He stepped out from behind a tree. His hands were glowing red. He was wearing a blue uniform of the enforcers with a golden bat pinned above his heart. "You are officially under arrest by orders of the magic council! We are ordered to take you dead or alive, and I have no problem taking you dead!" The man whistled, and more men emerged from their hiding places wearing identical uniforms. "We have you surrounded, so just give-"
Out of nowhere, a skeletal arm reached up and grabbed the enforcer's leg and began dragging him under the soil. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The man screamed and began to fight the arm, but he was losing the battle.
Other enforcers rushed to his aid, but they soon had problems of their own as more undead rose from their graves. I watched in horror while the dead began to overwhelm them.
"Everyone, come here quickly," I heard Neeva command, but I couldn't move. My feet were glued to the place. That's when hands wrapped around my waist and dragged me backward. I screamed, thinking it was one of the corpses, but I calmed down when I heard Danny's words of reassurance in my ear.
What happened next was unclear to me. All I knew was that there was a blinding flash of light, and then we were suddenly no longer standing in my front yard. Instead, we were standing on the shore of a massive lake. In the distance, I could see a little wooden cabin.
Slowly, I looked around and saw Emily, Emily's family, Danny, my mom, and Neeva. Everyone was here, but not everyone was alright.