The Victorious Beauty and the Unthinkable Beast

Chapter 1 Discovery

Victorian sat on her bed with her baby sister Totiana, reading to her one of her favorite books about magic and love. Totiana is five years old, and can understand what people say a lot more easily than any other five year old, her parents call her a bright child for her brilliance. Totiana smiled as her sister Victorian, who is ten and a half, made voices to the story book characters. "All done! Did you like the story again?" Victorian asked with a smile and a small sigh because she knew what was gonna happen next.

Totiana nodded happily and said "again!"

"Again, I've read this story twice already!" Victorian said with mock annoyance as she rolled her eyes at her baby sister.

Tonia was going to say 'again' when the voice of their mother broke through her unspoken protest, "Tonia, Victoria! Dinner!" their mother called them from the bottom of the staircase.

The girls looked at one another before they shot to their feet and shouted out together as they ran out the door, and down the stairs "food!"

Victorian was shocked at how fast her sister got there before her, she was surprised that her sister didn't fall down the stairs, ' Totiana always surprises me at how fast she is developing, she really is way farther along than any other normal five year old'. Victoria came down the stairs and at the last step she jumped off of it landing on the balls of her feet and bouncing into the kitchen. She grabbed her chair and pulled it out and sat at the right of her father, Tonia was lifted into the high chair by her mother, The high chair was at the left hand of her father.

Their mother Clair Twilight sat at the other end of the table, they began eating dinner with light conversation from their parents about how her fathers day had gone at his job.

Mrs. Twilight decided to make a small meal that night of only corn, mash potatoes Spinach, and chicken. Victorian piled her plate with everything; she didn't care if her mother made a small meal or a big meal, She loved whatever her mother made. she then heard her father talk about a topic inside of his job that he wasn't all that happy with, her ears perked up. John Twilight was talking about quitting his job at the S.C., the only down side to doing so was give up his summoning cards and Victorian could see why her father wouldn't want too almost all of the creatures inside of the cards where ones that he had captured himself and befriended them, they where like members of the family and giving them up would mean never seeing them again. Victorian would never admit it to her father that she knew the other reason why he wasn't to fond of giving them up, it was only all to clear that if he did they wouldn't be handed down to another person, no they would be destroyed and the monsters spirits trapped inside would ceased to exist.

"Quite?" Mrs. Twilight said shocked, "but…john I thought you liked your job?" she was at a complete lose as to why her husband would even consider that option. Mr. Twilight loved his job and the creatures that he worked with, he talked about wanting some of those…little monsters around the house running free, but Mrs. Twilight was all against that and mostly because of her daughters, it was bad enough that her eldest was in possession of such magical items.

"I do Clair, but things seem to be getting a little out of hand at the company" John Twilight said with a sigh, he wanted to talk more about it but he knew his eldest daughter all to well, and knew that she was listening. Anything related to his job she had become very interested, she would boldly ask questions and would ask if she could see his cards all the time and she was always playing with the little things when he would bring them out and bring them to life. That wasn't the only thing she was interested in, she had developed a deep disliking for his boss, john didn't blame her especially with how much he complained about him in front of her. So it was only natural by bias family love and standards that she would dislike him, especially when he came home tired and unhappy.

'Quite? Leaves more like it' Victorian scoffed in her head, she knew that her father wanted to leave that place for a while now but she knew that his heart being to big could not leave the poor creatures behind. she knew that he was doing his best to try and save as many endangered ones that he could, she couldn't really tell him that she knew all this though. If she told him that she knew all this and where she got the information from she wouldn't be able to play with his monster cards ever again and she would more than likely have hers taken away as well, Victorian couldn't help that she befriended the creatures so easily and that they trusted her so much but that's how she knew what was going on at her father's job. Plus with him always coming home in a dazed fowl mood that could only be calmed with his brooding time in his office it wasn't hard to put two and two together.

The other problem where the cards, they where no secret or at least not anymore, S.C. is a big corporation that specializing in mythical creatures. They capture them and seal them into cards, known as summoning cards. 'Creatures from Heaven or Hell' thought Victorian repeating what her mother said in side her head, it was only but three nights ago. Victorian knew better than her mother though, Summoning cards are special to summon creatures from an ancient magical world of the time when magic was first born and people could see demons and monsters roam the earth freely. They live either in the cards or around us; by summoning them you can use them for however short or long a time. They can also be used as pets, some people tend to us them for this, besides what her father's job does with them. The only down side to the cards was that when witches and wizards used them outside of a competition they got no bigger than an adult males hand, in a competition they grew bigger than buildings. Some even got bigger than mountains, it all depended on the users magic and how strong their family blood was laid with magic but it also depended on how strong their bond with their monsters spirits where.

Victorian could remember when she got a pack for her birthday from her father, he didn't really think that she knew what their where or even how to use them, so he didn't really think twice when he handed them to his eight year old daughter. The smile she had given him was so big that it made him forget about any consequences that could have come along later down the road when she did figure out how to use them. He still assumed that she thought they where nothing more than collection cards like though that came out of chocolate frog packs, nothing dangerous just pretty holographic cards. Mr. Twilight though was wrong with his assumptions and he would soon learn that his eldest daughter knew how to use them, summon them, and befriend them all with in the one day they where given to her.

Victorian listened to the conversation but paid little mind as it was the same thing he seemed to be going back to now, all the things that where new she guessed would be talked about later when she was in bed. she began to zone out and stare at the salt shaker, she took her index finger of her left hand, and started moving it up and down making the salt shaker follow her movements. Keeping herself occupied as her parents chattered away about adult things, but with her focuses on her current activity she hadn't noticed her parents had fallen silent. John and Clair had indeed been going on about the same topics as usual when they had noticed that their eldest had become less alert about her surroundings, and they noticed that she had become very interested in the salt shaker of all things.

John would have choked on his food if he hadn't spit it out when he witnessed his oldest make the salt shaker move and then rises and fall, this was all done with her not even uttering a single word, she wasn't even using a wand. He looked at his wife and could see happy tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, he could understand her feeling…after all this was the first act of magic they had seen her do. They for sure thought that she would grow up to be a squib but…he was so relieved that she was just a late bloomer, their youngest had shown magic potential right after Clair had given birth to her. Victoria hadn't shown any magic potential at all not even at birth and it made them fear that she wouldn't be accepted by their society, as many of their kind where not and were labeled as defective among the magic folk. A scenes of pride began to swell inside both the parents, and a bit of more relief as they were not failures as parents or as magic folk and that their bloodline still ran strong in their family.

Victorian finally came to she could scene someone was watching her and what she was doing, it became clear when she saw and notice both of her parents' faces. "What...What's wrong?" she asked confused and a little worried, she hadn't done anything that was out of place…had she? Then she noticed that her mother was pointing at the still floating salt shaker, with a slight trembling hand. Victorian looked and when she to realized what she had been doing with out realizing it, she pulled her hand back to her and watched as the salt shaker dropped to the table with a clatter. Victorian hadn't realized she had been holding a breath, she was worried that the salt shaker would shatter and was thankful that it had not when she had stopped, she sat back in her chair and looked at her parents and couldn't help but feel a little ashamed for some reason and even a little scared at their silence and behavior. 'They didn't know I could do that?' she thought to herself she could feel panic begin to rise inside of her, 'of course they didn't know I could do that i…I have never used my powers in front of them before, I knew they would act like this…that's why I never said anything!' she thought panicked.

Tonia clapped her hands and shouted "again!" with a cute little laugh, she was completely oblivious to the atmosphere mixed between tension and relief.

A gasp was all that could leave Clair as she looked at her husband, she didn't want to take her eyes off of her amazing daughter, after taking a small breath she was able to speak. "John…she has our gift…she has magic!"

"Gift?" Victoria said confused, she wouldn't exactly call her powers a gift, well…other than being able to use her powers to summon her monsters spirits from their cards.

"I-I didn't think she would, she…she showed no signs" John said getting excited himself he couldn't help it, he now could show her so much more than he was able to before. It had been decided that they used little to no magic around her, and they would keep from her that she was a witch if she showed no signs of potential magic. If, by chance, that she did show magic then they would wait till her 10 birthday to tell her everything, and it seemed that the time had finally come for them to tell them about her powers and fully magic family.

"None" said Claire.

"okay, can someone please explain to me what is going on here?" Victorian asked scared, she knew what was going on, at least she hoped so, but it would put her at ease if her parents explained. Then again…what they said made no sense in a way, she knew that she hadn't told them about her powers so she knew that it was a shock for them to see her do something like move a salt shaker with her finger, damn it all!

Why did she have to do that?

why had she forgotten about them not knowing?

Her mother put her hands to her mouth to silence herself, she could tell her daughter was in distress and that she could plainly read on her face that she had been afraid to tell them, she had been afraid to tell them anything. It bad her want to cry, she thought that she had a better relationship with her eldest daughter than that, she knew john was a little shaky on it because of possibly having no magic…but still.

John could see that his wife wasn't going to be able to explain anything at the moment, with what seemed to be his wife was having a moment. Although he couldn't exactly pinpoint what her mood was at the moment with this mood and he had a feeling that he may get a talking to about it later, he pushed that out of his mind for now and returned his attention to his eldest. "Victorian…what you did…just a second ago, was…was magic" John said with amazement still in his voice, he couldn't help it it was mixed with about of pride too.

Victoria didn't quite understand why he was calling her powers 'magic' but if that is what it was called then she would take their words for it. "Magic? You mean what you do to the fire every morning to get it started?" she asked her father, she watched him stiffen a little at her words. Her father nodded reluctantly, she watched a silent exchange happen between her parents before her mother finally spoke and her voice had a slight edge to it but it was not directed at her, she could tell, her father must have done something again.

"Yes…a fire charm" Claire spoke as she stare at her husband who was looking anywhere but at her, of course she should have known that her daughter was to observant. she always had been as a young tot, always watching them with a bit of wonder on her face when they did anything, she might have witnessed magic being used more than once. Clair couldn't be to mad at her husband, she too used magic but at least she never did it around Victorian, she had warned him that he needed to be careful with doing that but john had always been stubborn, as where all redheads. Emotions under control, Clair's mind wandered to a witch she hadn't thought about in a while, it was to painful to remember but at that moment looking at Victorian…she could see her. She didn't see just John…she saw her best friend too, maybe it was the semi-green eyes and flaming red hair but…Clair could see her clear as a day. Clair pushed her pain in the back of her heart and watched as a puzzled look came across her face and then she saw him, she saw her brother…Clair wanted to let out a small sob but she held it in. To think about the both of them in one go was a bit hard on the heart strings…she always saw bits of him in her too, she didn't just get her stubborn streak from her father, her uncle played a good part there too.

Victoria was quite puzzled; she began to think, 'it takes magic to summon the cards creature to make them the way that i do...which means…I have magic'. She though the last part shocked then excitement bubbled up in to her chest as she looked at her parents, "I'm a witch!" she shouted the last part by accident because she couldn't keep it held in any longer. It was an amazing feel to finally be told what she was an she just wasn't an abnormal child, it was also even more amazing to have both parents smiling at her like they never have before, she finally felt complete.