The Scars We Bear
Chapter 5: Caught In The Dark
"Leah!" Eva screamed as she pressed her hands against the invisible wall that separated her from her sister and their grandmother. She tried and failed to break the spell. With every burst of magic she let out, she grew more exhausted. Eva didn't let her own beatings break her, it was watching Leah suffer that truly broke her.
Grandmother threw Leah to the cold, hard, marble floor with a flick of her wrist. Leah scrambled to get away, but her efforts were in vain. The Queen of Hearts was furious and their would be no mercy today. There seldom was anyway.
"You stupid girls don't deserve friends!" She hissed. "Your dear Alice will pay for your foolishness!"
Eva could only watch as grandmother kicked her sweet sister as Leah curled into a ball in an effort to protect herself. A magical barrier would do little against physical blows. She sunk to her knees as grandmother threw a white hot fire ball at Leah, who screamed in agony as it scorched her arm. She yanked at the black leather cuff that bound her magic as Leah was dragged from the floor, grandmother's razor sharp fingernails digging into her arms and drawing blood.
"Why would she want to be friends with dirt like you anyway?" She hissed in her ear and then backhanded Leah hard across the face, her ring leaving a deep gash in her already scarred cheek. Leah stumbled from the force and landed back on the ground, where she curled up in terror, her whole body trembling.
There were forbidden tears streaming down Eva's cheeks. She never cried when she was the one being beaten, not anymore. She refused to give grandmother the satisfaction, but she couldn't handle when it was Leah. She just couldn't.
"I'm sorry Leah! I can't stop her, but I'll never leave you!" She cried.
"Foolish girl! You couldn't leave if you wanted to! You are mine, do you hear me? MINE! I will always find you, you will never be free! NEVER!
o0o
In another part of the castle, someone else was also suffering at the hands of their demons, reliving the horrors of their past.
"You call this an essay?" Mistress Broomhead snarled as she slammed a stapled bunch of papers down on her desk. The class had been dismissed, all except for Constance Hardbroom. The slender girl stood trembling in front of her tutor, her stomach twisting into knots as she tried and failed to suppress her fear. She knew what was coming.
"I - I -" Constance stammered. She didn't know what to say.
Mistress Broomhead delivered a stinging backhand that left a bloody gash in the terrified girl's pale cheek. "What have I told you about that stutter?" She snapped.
"I'm sorry, Mistress Broomhead."
"Sorry won't make it better!" The older witch growled. She flicked her wrist and a tarnished dagger appeared in her hand.
Constance barely suppressed an agonized scream as the red hot blade slashed her ivory skin. Another scar for another imperfection. Mistress Broomhead shoved her away and she stumbled to the cold floor with a hard thud. As her tutor walked towards the door, her heeled boot deliberately landed with a sickening crunch on her pale hand, cracking the bones painfully. She let out a strangled sob as hot tears broke from their barrier streamed down her face.
"I expect a revised and edited version of your appalling work on my desk tomorrow morning. Is that clear?" She said lowly. "And dry your tears! Witches don't cry!"
"Yes Mistress Broomhead." Constance wiped at her tears as the older witch left the room, slamming the door behind her and plunging her into darkness.
o0o
Eva woke with a start and her screams died on her lips. She barely had time to sit up before Leah engulfed her in a hug.
"I'm here Eva. She won't find us here."
Eva wiped at her tears. She wasn't supposed to cry. Crying was a sign of weakness. "She'll always find us, L-Leah. She'll never stop looking until she d-does."
A black furry shape slunk along her bed and into her lap to investigate the situation. Eva pulled her newly acquired cat, Twilight, close, but fear twisted her stomach into a knot. "Grandmother said we didn't deserve friends. W-what if she does to Hannah and Tansy what she did to Alice, when she finds us?"
Leah hugged her own cat, Raven, close. She didn't answer. There was a knock at their door and they suddenly became aware of footsteps, whispered voices and doors swinging on squeaky hinges. Hannah poked her head around the door. "Are you okay? We heard screaming." She said, a look of concern written across her features.
Eva shrunk back a bit. "I'm fine, Hannah. We're fine."
Tansy appeared beside the redhead. "Are you sure? I think you've woken half the school."
Eva flushed with embarrassment. Great. Just great. The last thing she wanted was for the entire school to know about their nightmares.
"It was just a nightmare." Leah spoke softly. "Go back to bed, please?"
The two girls didn't look convinced. They were about to argue the point when they were interrupted by someone else.
"Back to bed, girls!" Miss Hardbroom called, and then, "at the double, Hannah Hawkweed! You to Tansy Toadsworth!"
Hannah and Tansy turned to go just as their form mistress appeared in the doorway.
"Oh Miss, I'm so sorry." Eva said. "I didn't mean to wake you, or anybody for that matter."
"I know you didn't Eva. It's not your fault." Miss Hardbroom stepped in and closed the door behind her, as not to disturb the other girls further.
Eva and Leah stiffened, suddenly feeling like mice being cornered by a cat. Instinctively, they braced themselves, expecting a sharp reprimand. None came.
"You're safe, you know you're safe here." Miss Hardbroom said, seeing the way the twins seemed to cower slightly when she closed the door. The two girls continued to watch her every move with fearful expectancy, obvious distrust written on their faces. She sighed, knowing exactly where they were coming from.
Out of all the things she was expecting, understanding wasn't one of them. But there, written in the woman's dark eyes, it was.
Don't fall for it Eva. That inner voice warned. That's what she wants, to trick you. The minute you show her trust, she'll turn on you.
Eva chewed her lip as she felt Leah press against her side. She wanted to trust this woman so badly, this woman who had showed them kindness, who seemed to understand.
"Are you alright now, girls?" Miss Hardbroom asked, breaking her out of her thoughts. She had taken a seat on the end of Eva's bed.
"We're fine, Miss. I'm fine." Eva assured. That was her go-to whether it was true or not. No one cared anyway. No one but Leah, and she always got the truth.
"We ran out of dreamless sleep potion." said Leah, somewhat tentatively. "She let me have the last dose."
Constance rarely ever slept without a sleep aid to ward off her own nightmares and when she did it was usually by accident and didn't end well. Not that she ever fell asleep by accident. That was a ridiculous thought. She did however, know how unpleasant it was for a nightmare prone mind to sleep unaided and thus torment its owner. That was why she decided she could help the poor girls.
"Come to the potions lab during lunch tomorrow. I think we could sort that dilemma." She said, and then added, "I won't bite."
Needless to say, Eva remained wide awake for the remainder of the night. She refused to succumb to her nightmares again. Sleep is a traitorous thing, she reminded herself. By morning she was digging through their potion stash for a bottle of wide awake potion. The last thing she needed was to fall asleep in class.
Eva really had no idea how Leah acquired the potions she kept in a box under her bed. They just seemed to accumulate after a while, but she was glad they were there now. That was one thing about Leah. She seemed to have talent for procuring things.
o0o
Eva was afraid of the consequences of their grandmother discovering their new friends, should she track them down. She would, surly. This was Cora Mills they were talking about. She'd meant what she'd said when she said she'd always find them.
She wouldn't let Hannah and Tansy suffer as Alice had. She would protect them, even if it meant distancing herself and her sister from them.
At breakfast, the twins sat at the far corner of the hall instead of with the other first years. It didn't take long for the rumor mill to start up, and soon the whole school seemed to know about the midnight screaming. Eva kept her composure, refused to let her mask slip, but she really just wished a swirling vortex would open and swallow her up.
When they sat at their desks in class, Hannah and Tansy asked what was wrong, why they hadn't joined them at breakfast. Eva and Leah assured them nothing was wrong, that they'd just wanted some space.
"We're fine." They'd said. "Don't worry about us."
During their free period, Hannah and Tansy found them in the Library.
"We can tell something is bothering you two." Said Tansy. "You've been avoiding us all morning."
"We are fine." Eva replied shortly. "Just busy, that's all."
Hannah sighed. "You can talk to us you know. We won't go blabbing to the others. Why don't you trust us?"
Eva shook her head. "No, we really can't, Hannah. You would never understand. It's safer for you to just forget about us."
Leah nodded. "We should never have tried to be friends. It was just a dangerous dream."
With that said, the twins got up and swiftly left, leaving Hannah and Tansy thoroughly confused as they followed their friends to the spells classroom. Miriam and Penelope were already there, sitting in their usual seats.
"Oh, look who it is. The witch who woke the whole school with her screaming." Penelope sneered.
Mariam laughed cruelly. "What on earth even happened? We thought someone was being murdered."
"Yes." Said Penelope. "We thought you'd killed your sister."
Eva was furious. She stormed up to the two bullies and slammed her hands down on their desktop. "I would never hurt Leah. Never! If I ever hear anything so disgusting come out of your mouths again -"
Leah placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "They're just trying to get to you. Ignore them." She said in that quietly sensible voice of hers, before turning to the instigators. "If you really must know, it was a nightmare."
"Oh really? What was it about? Did you fail your spells test?" Mariam cackled.
"Shut up." Eva snapped. If you'd been through even a fraction of what we've been through, you'd be nothing but a gibbering heap on the floor right now. "If you can't be civil, be quiet." She hissed.
Eva wasn't one to take bullshit from anyone, especially not her snobby classmates. It made her sick to think that they thought her hurting her sister was something to joke about. It was hardly funny! She was glad when Miss Cackle swept into the room, as Mariam and Penelope fell quiet immediately.
o0o
After they had finished their lunch, which was an unidentifiable green concoction that could have been pea soup, the twins headed to the potions lab. Miss Hardbroom was already there, busily marking a stack of essays.
The girls took up places at a cauldron in the front row and got to work on their dreamless sleep potion. The recipe was ingrained in Leah's mind so they didn't even need to look in a book. A few minutes later, the cauldron was bubbling nicely and Leah watched as it slowly turned a pale green, courtesy of the chamomile leaves they'd just added.
"Alright, Eva. It's time for the poppy seeds." She said.
Eva dropped in a half teaspoon of poppy seeds and the liquid fizzed into a vibrant red.
Constance glanced up from her marking to watch her pupils for a moment as they added the last ingredient: lavender flowers. The potion turned a soft violet color and she smiled. She couldn't help but feel proud of them. She might not have been the one to teach them that particular potion, but she had a feeling they'd taught themselves. They'd obviously done so well, because they'd just brewed the fourth year level potion flawlessly. Dreamless sleep was a potion the fourth years themselves often had trouble with, so to see the two eleven year olds brew it with such practiced ease was something else.
"Well done, girls."
"Thank you, Miss." They replied quietly.
They ladled the liquid into the bottles they'd set out in a line on their desk before cleaning up their station. As they gathered their things and headed out, the teacher called after them.
"Leah Mills, is this your work?"
The two girls both turned around to look at the paper she held up. "Yes Miss." Leah confirmed.
"Well." Said Miss Hardbroom. "You may be adept at brewing potions, Leah, but the same cannot be said for your penmanship. I can hardly read a word of it."
"I'm sorry Miss Hardbroom. I did my best." Leah's voice was quiet, ashamed.
"Please Miss, she did." Said Eva. "Her hands. . .her bones have been broken so many times."
Leah looked down at her hands. "Before we learnt to heal ourselves. . ."
Constance sighed. "Come here, Leah. Let me see."
Leah and Eva walked back across the room and Leah held out her hands obediently. Constance took them in her own and ran her fingers along them. She could tell that the girl's wrists and her fingers had been broken and set improperly.
"There is no spell for resetting an improperly healed bone." Said Eva. "Is there?"
Miss Hardbroom shook her head. "No. There's not."
The only way to fix an improperly healed bone was to rebreak it and then heal it from there. Constance refused to cause the poor girl anymore pain, and from what Leah said next, she knew this and didn't like the idea either.
"Please miss, don't hurt me. I'll manage like this. I always have before."
Constance let go of her hands. "I'm not going to hurt you. But you are going to have to rewrite this. I really can't read a word." She held up the essay in question.
Leah took it from her and inspected it. The first bit was legible enough but it just went downhill from there. "Miss? I know a writing spell. May I use it?"
Constance would normally say no, but she decided to make an exception. "I suppose. But not in class. If your classmates see you using it, they'll all want to as well."
"Thank you, Miss."
With that said the twins left the room and Constance prepared for her next class: potions with the fourth years.
o0o
Later that day, Constance was sitting in the staffroom marking fifth year potions tests. It was not, however, going very well. Her mind was preoccupied and after reading the same line several times, she threw her pen down in frustration and took a sip of her tea. She couldn't stop thinking about Eva and Leah Mills and the suffering they had so obviously endured, at the hands of their own grandmother no less. The three of them were more alike than she cared to admit.
Constance sighed. She vowed to protect those girls from that cursed woman. She wouldn't let her hurt them again. She'd keep them safe.
"Constance? Is something troubling you, dear?" Amelia Cackle questioned. The headmistress was seated at the table, about to tuck into a slice of cheesecake. She could sense her deputy's agitation.
"That woman." Constance spat.
Amelia frowned. "What woman?"
"Eva and Leah Mills' grandmother. What she did to them. Amelia, Eva woke up screaming last night, from a nightmare. And Leah, she can't even write properly because of old injuries to her hands."
Amelia shook her head. "Those poor girls. But what can we do aside from protecting them from her?"
Constance continued. "I gave them dreamless sleep potion. And I'm letting Leah use a writing spell to fix her essay."
It wasn't good enough though. They could tell the two girls were haunted and, even if Eva kept it well hidden behind her mask, afraid. Constance saw it in their eyes every time someone got just a little too close or whenever someone moved their hands to cast a spell, or if someone raised their voice.
But what could she do?
Be there for them. You know what it's like, how it feels. Let them learn to trust you. Let them in. Her inner voice spoke. They need someone who understands. Hannah and Tansy are good friends, but they don't know. They're not scarred by a past that they'll never be free of. Not like them.
Not like you.
Thank you all for reading. I hope you enjoyed and please leave a review. Suggestions and ideas are always welcome!