Born again

Once upon a time, a girl killed herself. She died silently, and was reborn silently, barley a sound left her for the first few months of her new life, to confused by everything that went on around her. In her first life, Katherine had lived in a very religious family, they went to church weekly, preyed before each meal, and Katherine's house was littered with religious propaganda. Katherine's family had very set beliefs, those who believed in god and gave themselves over to Jesus would be eternally rewarded in Heaven, while all others would burn in Hell. When Katherine slit her wrists, she was prepared to accept the never ending fiery pits of Hell.

Instead, she was greeted with the smiling faces of a new family. The first person Katherine ever met in her second life was elder sister, Vega. Vega was brilliant, she was warm and welcoming, and was almost always moving, a constant ball of energy that bounced from person to object back to a person again. She smiled when it rained, and sang when it stormed. Vega, Katherine thought, was the very idea of a fairy tale character bought to life.

Katherine's new mother, much like her new sister, was brilliant. Where her old mother was cold and slightly distant, her new mother was full of smiles and seemed to be brimming with love. She smiled and the world smiled with her. Her new mother took away the name of Katherine, and instead gave her the name Regulus. Her mother had a thing for stars.

Regulus's mother had two sisters, and they seemed to counter each other. While Kara was silent and reserved, shy smiles and soft spoken, Mia was loud and boisterous, her laugh easily heard from one side of the house. Along with her two sisters, Regulus's mother lived with her own mother. Regulus's new grandmother was the classic idea of a grandmother. She baked daily, knitted scarves and socks and little booties for Regulus, and was covered in smile wrinkles.

Where warmth had been lacking in her first life, it was abundant in her new one.

Katherine had died silently, tears streaming down her face as blood pooled around her. Her family had been out at a social event, and Katherine had barley really thought about it. She'd seen the blade, sharp and shiny, and her hand had moved on its own. She hadn't even registered what she'd done till it was done, and by then it was too late. Katherine was already gone.

But Regulus was new. And she wasn't sure what she'd be. Her old parents and their old beliefs were gone from her life. Regulus's new family was brilliant, and after she'd laid her eyes on them, and the confusing had ebbed away, Regulus had felt that like this was where she was always meant to be. As if her old had been a mistake, and she had corrected it.

Time was hard to preserve as a new born baby. The only reason she knew a year hadn't passed was because while the family had celebrated of her sisters 14 birthday, they hadn't celebrated her first.

Life with her family was slow, almost snail like in pacing. Regulus had been 19 before death, and it was quite odd to go from the full functional body of an adult to that of a new born. Motor-function was lost, and while Katherine had been a dancer, a skill forced on her by her mother, Regulus couldn't even eat solids without punching herself in her face, much to her sister's amusement.

Regulus had this brilliant advantage in her new life of being able to understand everything that went on around her. It was almost cheating, how she was able to understand the world around herself, while even her aunts sometimes were left clueless.

Regulus realized both she and Vega were bastard's, that her mother had no man in her life at all, and seemed to care very little about the looks she got when she took her daughters out. Regulus heard the mutters of her mother and Aunt's worrying over finances and their own mothers decaying health. She knew the glances her Aunt Mia sent to one of the women in her book club, that picked her up weekly and almost held her hand, but seemed to keep it just out of reach. Regulus understood life far better than a new born baby should, and only her Grandmother seemed to pick up on it, but she always just smiled at Regulus.

Laughing joyously, Regulus grabbed at her sisters bracelet as she held it just out of reach. For some reason, things like this entertained Regulus. She blamed her baby brain.

"Awww, baby. Is it just out of reach?" Vega cooed, lowering the bracelet just a tiny bit closer to Regulus, who grabbed at it again, only to punch herself in the face. "You okay baby?"

Laughing Regulus did the best to clap her hands, only to miss completely.

Laughing lightly, Vega kissed Regulus on the cheek, making loud kissy sounds, making Regulus laugh harder.

"Okay Baby, I gotta go to school. I'll miss you so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so much," Vega gushed, kissing all of Regulus's face before kissing their mothers cheek and racing out of the house.

Regulus's mother would give her breakfast, which was an odd experience that Regulus would be happy to leave behind, before handing her off to her own mother and rushing off to work. Regulus's mother hadn't spent a lot of time on maternity leave.

From there Regulus's Grandmother would read to her. She would read everything, from fairy tales to university level textbooks. And she seemed to understand everything she read. From books in written in Russian that she translated as she read, to books talking about physics and chemistry that Regulus didn't even understand. And she knew. Regulus's grandmother knew when she understood something and she knew when she didn't understand something, and when she needed, she explained.

Regulus was certain that her grandmother, like the rest of her family, was magical.

Her days went by like this. The only real variations were the weekends, where Regulus's mother didn't have work, and her sister didn't have school. It was on the weekends when they did things together. Sometimes they'd go walking in the park, with her mother pointing out different plants and animals, or they'd take day trips together. Going to London, or the beach. Just general sightseeing. It was clear that before Regulus was born Vega and her mother had done things similar, as Vega had a small collection of photos from varies locations with her mother and her before she had been pregnant with Regulus.

Her new life was nice. It was this sort of bliss that one only read about in fairy tales, and like fairy tales, something always goes wrong.