The weeks passed, turned into months and eventually it was Christmas.
Annora, like every five year old little girl, loved Christmas.
It was the lights and the colors and how everything seemed to sparkle just so. They walked around the store's in glee, even Joshua seemed to be having a good time. Rosanne was rushed off her feet with the twin's who had only turned three a few months ago, Reese and Joey ran off into the video store almost instantly, Josette and Eloise got stuck with Gretchen. While Kai stared skeptically at the shoppers and the half lit Elf over near the grotto.
When Joshua had tried to take Annora's hand she didn't panic and nearly burn the place down like she had in the beginning, in fact she had come to smile with the man as they sat and studied for hours over the path that came with coven life and spells she would one day learn. He'd been impressed with her seeming to grasp the reigns on her emotions, she hadn't had an episode in weeks and he rewarded her efforts with extra snack breaks during their studies, just before Thanksgiving he'd placed a peanut jelly sandwich, he knew his other children enjoyed, before her, he even cut the crusts off. However the moment before it could touch her lips a strong hand snatched it from her grasp, coursing Joshua to glare angrily at his son "Kai, give that back to your sister."
"Yeah, dad, because that's going to happen." he laughed with a bite of the sandwich, strolling over to the take a half eaten bag of cheese balls from the cupboard.
Joshua stood to stare down his son who just laughed off the older man while handing the cheese balls to well sat little girl who simply watched the scene play out "Malachi!"
"Dad relax, Jesus your the one trying to poison the kid."
Joshua looked at his son in confusion before Kai tilts his head and says in an condescending tone "what, the kid-y killers didn't tell you our little Annie-Bee's allergic to peanut's?" they both look to the redhead now with cheeks puffed out and filled with her new snack as the orange dust smeared across her face "But she does love those cheese balls. Thanks for the sandwich, Pop."
The wink Kai sent Annora and the smile they shared sent a shiver down the coven leaders spine. He knew that Annora and her power would be important to the family and that he didn't trust Kai, his son wasn't right, he was an abomination. A witch born without magic? It's not just wrong, its an atrocity.
So when she had seemed to become more comfortable around him and the other siblings he almost relaxed, almost. She would play tag and hide and seek with Jo and Eloise, watch cartoons with the twins, bake cookies with Rosanne, laugh and throw chips at Reese and Joey, studies with Joshua but most of her time was spent with Kai, if they didn't disappear into the woods they'd watch movie's with Kai pointing out the plot flaws and Annora shushing him, they even watched Ricki Lake together sharing a bowl of popcorn with Annora falling asleep half way through the show.
Kai would wipe away the drool with disgust but for some reason he wouldn't nudge her awake in annoyance like he would his other siblings.
Your probably wondering why Gretchen wasn't in the mix of people that the little redhead muddled with. Well you see they found Pickle's... Yeah, it was more than a week so he'd firmly began to rot and was half devoured by maggot's. So not really a pretty sight. Gretchen had screamed and roared the house down, even waking the twins from their naps as she naturally blamed Kai for the cats gruesome demise. Annora bit her lip fearfully as the older girl sobbed and Kai admitted nothing as his mother glared daggers at him and Joshua just screamed at the boy.
Kai hadn't understood what was exactly going on, not until he saw Annora biting her lip with the chain of her necklace pulled side to side with fidgety fingers as she stared into a old crack of the kitchen floor and almost whispered "it was just a mean, stupid cat anyway."
Gretchen went kind of nuts and the five year old kicked her and ran crying from the room. "Great now look what you did. Annora!" Jo shook her cheerless little head at her twin before racing after the child.
Jo found Annora cowering under her bed, it was her 'safe place' she called it. Clinging onto her tattered rabbit "Annora, sweetie, come out. Look Gretchen didn't mean it, she was just upset about Pickles... Please come out."
The bed shook slightly and toys flew from shelves, a large crack splintering into her bedroom window as the child screamed "I hate her, I hate her and I hated her stupid cat! I'm glad its dead, I hated it!"
"Annora..."
"GO AWAY! JUST GO AWAY!"
She spend almost five hours under that bed, everyone had gathered around her door and tried to get her out, except Kai... He was flipping through catalog's of what he wanted for Christmas. It was Eloise who convinced him to go and talk to the girl "Please Kai, you and her have gotten real close and you have this whole I don't care about anything thing but I know its just some stupid act... Annora needs you."
It was the last three words of his sisters plea that swayed him, he was needed, the child needed him, which meant she depended on him, which meant he owned her.
Owned her magic.
So naturally he went to her room, pushing passed the small crowd that had gathered at the girls door and kicked the bedpost "alright kiddo, hide and seeks over. Come on out."
There was no response so with a groan Kai laid down do he could see the little red head curled into the shadows of the carpet "Hey, feel like coming out of there any time soon."
Her sweet puffy red eyes looked up at him as she sobbed "Why did they blame you?"
"Because Annie-Bee I'm the broken child. The bad seed." its sarcastic laced poison and drips from his lips so easily.
The tear tracks on her cheeks are all but dry as her small hand reached out from him "me too."
Her tiny little fingers reach from under the bed to touch him "I wish they weren't so mean to you. I hate when their mean to you."
It was like all the air had been punched from his chest, a strange and unfamiliar sensation, she was looking at him in a way he just didn't understand, understanding? Acceptance? No way, she just felt guilty or whatever for butchering that cat and him taking the fall.
He swallowed hard, clicking his tongue at the strange unnerving feeling pooling in his chest as he looks at the little red head "yeah well. Come out, because I'm pretty much done lying on the floor. Hell i'll even watch Beauty and the Beast with you again..." Annora uses his reaching hand to yank herself out of her hiding spot and races off to find her favorite video.
Kai watched her go with a twitch of a smile, but was still left under the bitter glares of his blood family.
That was long before Christmas, before the Parker house was surrounded with bright lights, large Santa slay and reindeer and fake snow stapled to the roof. Since then it had almost been peaceful among the family, yes it was loud and messy and never ending but there had been little to no bad words spoken. Mostly because Joshua had warned the family about upsetting Annora, after the last little episode she had spoken to no one but Kai for a week, the odd word give to Reese and Jo, plus there was also the business of Gretchen's hair being tied to the bed-frame in hundreds of little braids. However Kai had seemed a little to pleased with it for Annora to have been the culprit.
All the same it was Christmas and all the children seemed to light up, letters to Santa written and 'posted', lights sparkling and a brightly decorated tree touching the ceiling, with mountains of presents littered underneath. Rosanne worked hard for all the kids to have their very own Christmas sweaters.
Both sets of twins matching of course.
Joshua watched Annora closely as she ran around the brightly lit tree, and it was driving Kai insane. You see during the family outing at the mall while the children waited in line to sit on some old man's knee and beg for gifts, Kai had been clicking his tongue ad tapping his foot impatiently; It was more than just the infuriating, tedious hanging around for a photo with some old pervert in a red suit. No, what with his father's insistence of the rest of the family being nice to Annora he'd hardly had a moment with the girl, hadn't had a drop of her magic in weeks. He'd managed to snake some from the idiotic toddlers that didn't understand, it was like a glass of water after a long run... But it hadn't been enough, siphoning from Annora was like a rain storm in the desert.
He twitched in the memory of it as he shoved his way through the line of expecting children to stand beside his adoptive sister, she flinched for a moment at the unexpected drain on her power, just a moment before smiling up at him and nuzzling into his hand. The feel of her magic rushing through his veins was better than any drug man could phat-am to make.
Soothing yet thrilling, freeing while shackling... An almost addiction.
He'd been stupid. Not something Kai was used to but it was the truth. Joshua had seen... Something... Annora flinch? The breath of joy from his son? The mild glow of the boys hand? Kai didn't know but he'd seen something, had given them no room the breathe the same air since.
It was more than a tad irritating.
"Hey Annora." Joey smiled as he rushed behind her to lift the girl from her feet, making her giggle.
Rage bubbled in Kai's veins at the sight, how dare she enjoy his brothers company... Then he saw it, her fear; his opportunity. Joey wasn't putting her down, just kept swinging the almost screaming child and the more upset she became the more Joey swung while the others laughed.
That is until Kai rushed to place a hand on his brother's neck, snaking an arm around the crimson haired child as Joey fell to his knees from the unfamiliar sensation of having his magic sucked away. The laughter died, the room falling deadly silent as Annora was balanced on Kai's hip while he cupped her face in an almost caring manner "you OK, Annie-Bee?"
With a sniffling nod of her head she quickly wrapped her arms around her savior to nuzzle into his neck "Malachi, put... Her... Down."
Rosanne stood stern with a bitterness in her words; while his father came to rip the child from Kai's grasp.
"Seriously, you guys are seriously mad at me here? Joey was the one scaring her!" it started as a chuckle but ended with a stern brow frowned gaze as Joshua held the girl close.
Roseann took a step forward with a look of utter disgust "how dare you! Yes Joey took it to far but you... You siphoned him."
"Yeah, to help Annora."
This only seemed to fuel his mothers rage "THAT'S NO EXCUSE! HE'S A REAL WITCH; YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO HIS POWER... ITS DISGUSTING!"
"Your an abomination..." Joshua snarls towards his son and in that moment the room begins to shake; everyone turns to Kai believing him to be abusing his stolen power.
"Kai sto..." the Coven leader doesn't get the chance to finish his scolding before being flung into the far wall with his feet dangling a touch to far from the ground below him; as for the girl that was in his arms she remains where she was, without anyone holding her small baby while she floats in mid air.
The room falls in fear filled silence, because that sweet innocent child with big doe eyes and shy smile had been ripped away and in her place was a creature filled with rage and power. The blue of her eyes had vanished, all color gone in fact to leave nothing but a bright white glow from the little girl's eyes.
All the younger children scurried behind Jo in terror at the sight, while Kai stood awe-stuck at the scene. Roseann inched toward her adopted daughter with a trembling hand "Annora, stop this, please..."
A vase flew across the room and smashed into Roseann's arm, pieces of glass buried into her skin as the earth began to shake "No, you stop! Your always being so horrible to him. The way you talk to him, treat him... It's not fair. Your just like them, just like my parents... We matter to. We're not monsters."
"We know that... Annora we care..." Joshua was slammed across the room as the girls feet reached the floor and the windows shattered around them. Kai rushed to grab the outraged child and cradled her close. She fought only for a moment until their eyes met, the baby blue color coming back to her.
All eyes watched the pair in horrified fascination, Kai's gaze darting from each of them to the child clinging onto and staining his shirt with her snotty tears. He didn't understand, yes the display of power was pretty awesome but why... Why would she do that... For him?
That's just insane.
"i wont let them hurt you anymore."
There it was, that strange pang of 'something' in his chest. Kai felt like he was choking on it, on her barely heard whisper that made him want to rip her into confetti and never let her go all at the same time...
It was unusual, but he couldn't dwell on it. So Kai did the only thing he could think of, he scooped the little redhead into his arms and strolled away from the family drama.
He wouldn't know it then; that he almost cared.
Not sure how i feel about this chapter, please review xx JJ xx
