A/N: A note to my reviewers: I love you all very, very dearly, but unfortunately, I'm shutting down the Replies section of this fanfiction. It just takes up a space in my story that I want to use for this story. If you really, truly want me to reply to your review, PM me, or e-mail me at ZeusLightning7 at gmail. You'll see why I've made this change in the next chapter.
Part 2: Fruits of Research
Chapter 1: Redemption
Roaches scurry across the bile-colored floor, searching for any sweet drop of anything to make their next meal. There was nothing, though, as it would be a miracle to find anything even remotely sweet in this place. The tiled floors, walls, and ceilings made it seem like a hospital, but the flickering florescent lights above drove it more to look like an insane asylum.
One girl's arm hangs limply off one of the surgery tables. She breathes just fine, but her eyes are milky white and lifeless from the countless many experiments. Another girl, Jess, sits in the bed next to her, watching. She dreads becoming like the girl on the bed next to her, who never eats, never sleeps, and never moves. It keeps her up at night, and it is the reason she's shivering, her knees pressed up to her chest so tightly by her arms it feels like she might be able to fold in on herself at some point.
It's just her and Jess in that little room, the one with four beds and a television that didn't work. She had counted the days since she was brought here; eleven weeks, two days. Almost a full three months. Since then, a total of eighteen 'experiments' were done on her fragile, 11- year old body. By now, she had given up any prospect of going home. This was her home now.
The door creaks open, and a middle- aged man walks in like it's his bedroom, humming a tune and smiling softly. A knot forms in Jess's stomach, and she buries her deep blue eyes in here knees, shaded by her long, scraggly blonde hair. The footsteps get closer... closer... closer... until they reach her bed. She doesn't dare look up.
Jess can feel his piercing eyes on her scalp, hear that song way too happy for a place like this. He stops his humming briefly to mumble to himself. "No, no. Not yet. Have to pace myself."
She peeks through her legs to see him turning on his heels to the other girl. The sheets of her bed shuffle as he picks her up and slings her over his right shoulder. He continues humming as he walks away with her. Jess looks up just in time to see the girl's lifeless eyes look over to Jess. She lifts her hand up shakily, waves it, and gives a weak smile, as if the two were old friends or something. It was the first time she had ever done this, and the last.
Because it's last Jess ever sees of her.
Jess doesn't wave back. She just holds tighter to her legs, hoping for some form of comfort.
"How can you not remember me?" I stare at Chris, shocked and astonished.
"I really have no clue who you are." He stares back, giving a polite, yet nervous look. I shift my gaze to his mom, who just shrugs.
"He may have lost something on his journey back." The way she says it makes it sound more like a question than an answer.
I rub my temples, sorting out my current problems in my mind. "How could he remember you, Thomas, and ELLEN, and just happen to not remember me?" Again, she shrugs, making me want to scream. "How does he even KNOW Ellen without knowing me?" I look to Chris, hoping to find an answer, but he just looks away in embarrassment.
"Uuuuhhhh... I kinda... forgot how we met..." He scratches the back of his head.
"That's because when you met, she was killing you!" I realize how insensitive that sounds only after I say it, and look to Ellen. Her cheeks are bright red, and I can see her eyes misting over. She pulls her knees up to her chin in the kitchen chair she sits in and buries her eyes in her legs. "No! Ellen! I didn't mean... Ahrg!" I throw my hands up into the air in frustration. I slam my head on the dining room table, using my hands to crazily whip my hair around.
Seriously, why can't I just catch a break?!
"Viola! Now we should definitely switch bodies! If Chris only remembers me in your body, if we switch, then..." She trails off, leaving her thought up in the air. I got the general idea, though.
"That wouldn't work as well as you'd think." I answer her. "First, I'd have to go home eventually, and that means I wont be around Chris as much. Then there's the matter of you staying with the Warrens(1). It would be kind of weird having another girl in..." I trail off as well, because the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Chris is the only one who's actually at the house all day, and he doesn't even know who either of us are. Isabel and Thomas are usually off tending to a patient, and wouldn't really mind if Ellen stayed here, being the way they are.
"Forget what I said. Let's do it." Ellen looks up at me.
"Really? You sure? Isn't it not gonna work?"
"I said to forget it." I say, waving a hand dismissively at her. "Now draw your circles, or whatever." She looks to Isabel behind her.
"Is it okay if I draw a magic circle on your table?" She asks the former witch. The way she does and says it, too, with her legs folded criss-cross, hands tucked into her lap, and looking with those big, emerald eyes made me realize just how much I miss that body.
Yeah, I've definitely got pure consent now.
Last time we did this, I had to draw it because Ellen couldn't get up from her bed. But now she can help. I draw in the circle with a pencil, and Ellen writes 'per inania mentem nostram dirigere transitus in alterius corde' around the rim. Then I draw two triangles, one pointing at me, and the other at Ellen. In the center, she draws a large infinity that almost touches the walls of the circle. The whole time, Chris watches us with interest.
"You ready?" Ellen asks, touching her triangle with a single finger. For some reason, just like last time, I'm reluctant. Have I... grown used to this body? "Remember, if your not absolutely sure, this wont work. And if you try to preform the spell while unsure, you'll be stuck in that body forever." I wince. Forgot about that little factoid. Way to bring on the pressure.
I breath deeply, remembering how horrible the first few days were with this body. How badly I wanted that one back. MY body back.
"Ready." I slap my hand on the wood table. The triangle glows a faint blue light at first, but the light bursts up and spreads into the surrounding circle. It engulfs the entire room in a thick blue veil of blinding light. Then, everything suddenly goes black a moment after it goes completely white.
"-ola? Viola?" I take a sharp intake of breath as I wake up, expecting to be in a large amount of pain. Chris sits over me cautiously.
"Who am I?" I ask him. He just raises a brow at me, so I see for myself by checking my arm. Slender and pale. Just to make absolutely sure, I take a hand and run it through my hair. It ends short, in two braids.
It's done. Everything's finally all back to normal. I'm unusually calm as I lay my had back down on the floor. Am I finally going to live a somewhat normal life? My old life. How I've missed it...
Dad!
I leap to my feet and burst out the door, shouting, "I'll be back tomorrow! Sorry! I'm going home!" behind me as I race off to my old... my house. They'll understand.
My feet and my devotion keep me running the relatively long distance. I was so happy thinking about the happy reunion on the way home, I started crying from joy. My home finally comes into view from the trees. My home...
I don't slow down running up the porch and into the door, which Dad never locks.
"Dad! Dad!" I shout, searching the house. I sprint to his room and find him there, flipping through channels.
"Hm? Viola? Didn't you say you were going to- oof!" I don't let him finish, because I'm already jumping into him. "Jeez! Why're you so worked up?" He asks me, referring to my sobbing. I hug onto him as tightly as I possibly can and cry into his shirt.
"I missed you so much! I'm home! I'm home, dad!" I shout between sobs. Being the understanding father he is, he doesn't ask what I mean, he doesn't ask why.
He just strokes my head, and whispers softly, "Yeah, I missed you too."
"C'mo~n."
"I thought you said you hated that."
"When did I say that?"
"I think it was two days ago."
"I've changed since then. Ple~ase?!"
Dad sighs, with good purpose, too. I think the joke was getting a little old, and it definitely wasted time while hunting. Plus, it scared most of the game away. But I really needed to see it right now, just to get things back into the norm. I look up at him with my renewed begging look.
"That look is gonna be the death of me y'know." He says, wandering off to find someplace to hide. He was going to do it! He hides himself in a large bush and is concealed quite well. Before long, animals like squirrels and birds don't notice him in there, so it's no surprise that a doe just happens to get up close. The entire time I'm snickering, anticipating what's about to happen.
The moment the doe gets closer to the bush, dad jumps up. "SNEAK ATTACK!" He yells, flailing his arms like a madman. I drop to the dirt, laughing hysterically. It's really the context that's funny about it, but that's a story for another time. Of course, with Daddy's skill as a hunter he easily readies his gun and hits the doe, killing it before it gets too far.
I jog up to him as he reloads. "Okay, now I'm satisfied." I tell him. He grunts at me.
"That means you're skinnin' this one, though." My eyebrows shoot up.
"Oh, come on! You know I hate to skin them!" I peer at the motionless doe laying a fair distance away. "It's gross to see all the guts."
Daddy inserts a new shell into the shotgun and hands it to me. "If you can kill an animal, you can skin it." I close the chamber and cock it, shuttering the tiniest bit when I do.
Chris finds it intriguing, how Ellen sometimes stares out the window with her golden eyes, not giving a thought to the world around her. He'd walk up and ask her what she was thinking about, but as... What was her- Viola! As Viola said, she's already tried to kill him once. Best to keep a respectable distance.
Chris was really unsettled by Ellen's constant presence, solely from the fact that if she wasn't looking out the window into the dark night, she was staring at him from across the room as he did his chores. Every once in a while, Chris would glance back over his shoulder to find her eyes on his back. She would then turn away quickly, as if nothing happened.
Ellen has her reasons, though.
Actually, she didn't want to give Viola's body back. But she also wanted to help her friend. That was the only real reason the spell worked.
Ellen truly hated the Warrens. Their story just seemed so... false to her. How could a witch, somebody who obviously murdered people, have it so good? And at the source of it was him.
Chris.
It seemed like Viola was sooooooo happy with him. Why was that? What kind of powers did he have over her that she didn't? Was it because he was a homunculus? But now, even though his powers are drained, Viola still searches for a way to get him to remember him, so that can't be it...
Ellen startles and flips back in her chair hitting her head hard on the floor when she realizes.
How could I have been so stupid!? I didn't transfer my magic!
I sit on my bed, spinning a couple of marbles in the air with the magic Ellen ever so kindly left me in my body. It's best she doesn't have it anyways...
Dad walks in at that moment, so I let the them go. They fall to the sheets. "Hey." He regards me. "Come to the roof and see this." He recedes from the doorway, leaving my door open. I get up from my bed, following him to the backyard and up the ladder to get to the roof. I lay on my back and look up to the night sky.
After nothing but black clouds, I look to Dad. "What is it?"
"Just watch." He replies. I look back up, and see what he means. It never makes contact with the ground, but it lights up the clouds above beautifully. Lightning. Flash after flash goes off, making my eyes race to keep up with them. It's a frightening, yet exhilarating sight to see it right above our heads.
The light show ends when I hear Ellen, of all people, calling for me. "Viola!"
I look over the top of the roof to see the faint outline of Ellen's purple streaks. "Ellen?"
Dad looks at me in surprise. "Does she want to stay the night?"
My brows furrow in confusion and worry, because I can hear the protesting voice of Chris close behind her. I carefully lift myself up and hop off the roof, to which Dad yells at me for. He hates when I do that. I dust off my jeans like it was nothing, and walk casually over to my friend. "Is there something wrong?"
"I think you know." Ellen folds her arms over her chest.
"Ellen..." I put a warning tone in my voice. "There's no way I can trust you with magic."
The 'tough' act Ellen put up moments ago drops just like that. "Oh, come on, Voila! Not having it Su~cks!" She whines.
"No." I stand firm. "And you're not sacrificing anybody to get more, either." She grumbles, but complies.
"Can I at least stay with you tonight? It's a Saturday."
"Dad? Can Ellen stay the night?" I ask, shouting over my shoulder.
"Sure! As long as you promise not to jump off the roof again!"
"Yeah, Yeah... Um, Chris? Why are you here?"
"Oh, well... I, uh, told her coming here would accomplish nothing, but I guess I was wrong on that one, huh..." He's so cute, blushing a tiny bit, and looking off to the side like he thinks I wont notice. "Plus, I... She said she was going to see you, so I... wanted to... too... I don't know why, though." His words are coming out choppy and he's stammering bad. The more he goes into the explanation, the more red he gets, and the bigger my smile gets. "And, plus, I... well-"
"Stop." I hold a hand up and walk up to him. I swear he's about to explode when I kiss him on the cheek. "It'll make sense when you get your memory back. See you tomorrow." I give him one more for good measure, then turn around and walk away, beckoning Ellen to come along. That's when I notice Dad had seen the whole thing, because he had jumped off the roof, and had been watching us for quite awhile.
He smiles as I pass. "Boy from school?"
"Something like that."
"Friend of yours?" He pries, and I note how he deliberately puts 'boy' first, and 'friend' second.
"Yes, in fact he is." I answer bluntly.
"Very interesting." He nods, looking as Chris as he walks home. He smiles, but his eyes told me everything I needed to know.
They were the same eyes he gets right before he shoots an animal. They're full of killing intent.
(1) Did anyone get that reference? Mary Warren? Salem? Okay...