Queen of Ipswich

The Sequel of Daughter of Ipswich

The Glass Slipper

Co-Writer: cthrnwrites

Previously:

Celeste Parry's P.O.V.

"Celeste, answer me!" Pogue was yelling as if I had beaten him to the bathroom and was going to make him wait an hour before he could use it again.

"Is he dead?" Kate inquired again in a slightly frighten tone.

"Yeah, I think so…" Reid responded in the same tone Tyler held before.

"Celeste, answer me!"

"Baby, I'm not leaving you." Yet Caleb's voice broke out the closest to me, as I felt arms and hands gathering me up from the ground," You aren't going to get rid of me that easily."

Drowning

Caleb Danvers's P.O.V.

Reluctantly, I let go of her. I left Kelly Parry to fawn over her only daughter, Celeste…the only woman besides my mother who hadn't lost my respect.

But with a forced set of actions, I made myself look away from Celeste's dirty and unconscious form and made myself walk out of her home, past Pogue who had brought Kate to his home for the weekend, until Reid and Tyler could fix the mess made at her home.

Yet I knew better than to tell Pogue that I needed some time alone, some time to…think over everything that had happened this past week. He was being forced to finally explain to Kate who we all truly were.

It was nearly midnight as well, and well…I just needed to be on my own…away from everyone else, at least until Celeste woke back up.

Dear god…I could hardly focus driving back home. No matter how loud the music got on the radio or how stupid the commercial was, I just couldn't get that image of Celeste out of my mind. Of her struggling.

It killed me, seeing her like I had. She had been willing to sacrifice herself for the all of our families.

I had told myself long ago; back when I thought we had defeated Chase the first time that I wouldn't ever let anything as dangerous as that paranoia spell affect Celeste again. And look at me; I let something worse get to her. I let her get herself into a duel to the death with that…that…monster.

Suddenly the idea of Dustin Parry, Joshua Garwin, and Riley Simms risking being caught by the police and disposing of Chase's body seemed so puny compared to what Celeste was willing to do for all of us.

When I finally came to my home, I…I just felt so god damn useless and frustrated with myself. I…was worthless, I had concluded. I left Celeste defenseless and been tricked and let my high-strung emotions be used as a weapon against her.

But those words…those words she said about leaving Ipswich. I couldn't believe I had driven her that far away. She no longer cared how many years we knew each other or the fact that everyone seemed to love her and wish the best for her. Yet she sounded so serious…like the time she told me she tried to tell me.

I'M SO STUPID!!!!!

Intentionally, I picked up the heel I knew now belonged to Celeste and violently tossed it across the living room, watching it smash into a picture my mother had sitting upon the ledge. And with a satisfying feeling, I watched as the two items fell to the ground and crash.

Then suddenly, it rushed to my mind how stupid that small action was now. I didn't need to go throwing around Celeste's things in order to feel better destroying more things besides my relationship with Celeste.

I threw my body down onto the couch, rubbing my temples as I felt a violent migraine coming on.

No wonder why Celeste had grown tired of me. I was insane. She needed someone more stable. She needed someone who could be there for her and believed everything she said. She didn't need a fool like me, who was stupid enough to think Sarah Wenham was a girl of dating material. Pogue was right…I took advantage of her and paid a blind eye to Celeste when she really needed me. Maybe in my deep subconscious, the only reason why I stayed with her as long as I had is because…I liked the sex.

Oh Jesus Christ…I'm gonna burn in hell right alongside my father, Chase, and Aaron.

"Caleb, Hun, is something the matter?" I felt my mother's hand gently rub against my tensed shoulder.

"I've fucked everything up, ma," I admitted ashamed through and through. "Big time."

"What?" My mother was confused, and I felt her sit down beside me, still rubbing my shoulder," I thought you boys said Chase was dead and everyone was safe now."

"It's not that," I heaved, pulling my face away from my hands and looking over at my mother in the darkness of the living room. She was in her nightgown, a celebratory bottle of champagne along with two glasses was in her hands, yet I could also see Celeste's shoe resting upon her lap.

"What is all of that for?" I gave a motion to the alcohol in her grasp. She had been trying to cut back on her drinking, but I guess…she was slipping up right now. But I couldn't blame her. Things were stressful right now, and I should probably take up drinking the vodka in the back of the fridge.

"I figured, I would have a toast, but when I heard you come in I figured your old enough to join me in the toast." She then boldly added, sounding like my mother," Plus with the way you're looking right now, I think you could use the drink."

I gave a nod of thanks and acceptance to the offer of alcohol, no matter how fanciful and feminine it may be.

So I watched in silence as my mother set up the glasses and Celeste's shoe upon the table top, before she began pouring the contents of the half-empty bottle.

"So do you want to tell me what is bothering you, or are you just going to suffer in silence and destroy more family pictures," she finished with a head nod towards the picture I had it. It was back up on the shelf, but the glass had a crack right across it.

"It's complicated," I admitted to my mother taking the glass into my hand as soon as she finished pouring it. "So complicated it's stupid."

"Really?" She took her glass in hand, and leaned into the arm rest of the couch still watching me," Sounds like an interesting story."

I looked over at my mother, not really sure if I wanted to tell her anything. But in the end…she needed to know why Celeste was going to leave Ipswich and I was ready to take the blame.

I held up the champagne glass in a toast," To the end of Chase's life and to the end of Celeste and me." I gave my mother a forced and bitter smile, before I threw back the whole glass in one self hating swallow.

When I looked back at my mother, I just saw her gawking at me, holding up her glass in mid-air. "What!?"

I rubbed the back of my hand to my moist lip, before announcing to my mother in sarcastic happiness," Celeste, besides being mad at me for not believing her before, wants to leave Ipswich all thanks to my inability to spot that she was having a internal melt down."

"She what?" My mother set her glass down upon the table, as I began pouring myself another one. "She's leaving?"

"Apparently she's had enough with the people in Ipswich, magic, and most of all me." I explained further, hopping that it wouldn't take long for me to black out from consumption of champagne and god knows what else my mother has hidden in this house. "She made it quite clear to me, while she was fighting for her life, that she has had enough of me and Ipswich."

"Didn't you try to reconcile with her?" My mother began pushing her face over towards mine, as I took another desperate gulp of the champagne this time right out of the bottle, having given upon with my patience upon pouring the golden liquid into a glass.

"She's unconscious," I answered to my mother, glancing over at Celeste's heel. "She blacked out from taking such a beating and using so much power…power that wasn't hers. So no, I haven't really had a chance to talk to her."

My mother's eyes narrowed," What do you mean power that isn't hers?"

I groaned, before shouting impatiently at my mother," Chase found this damn spell that allowed him to make emotions into raw power. And somehow Celeste found out to access it too. So she was using other people's emotions as her power."

My mother winced slightly at my raised voice. It suddenly reminded me of how I had chased away Celeste.

I threw my head down, and rubbed my temple with my free hand," I'm sorry, mom. I'm just really…really…really-"

"Confused? Scared? Upset?" I glanced up at my mother and found her reassuringly smiling to me," Everything is fair in love and war."

"What?" For some reason my mother's words made absolutely no sense. It was like she was drunk and smoking cigarettes again, back before my dad died.

My mother sighed, before standing up off the couch. She then looked down at me with a firm expression," Stay right here. I'm going to get something to show you."

I groaned, throwing my body back into the couch, while my mother quickly scampered up the stairs into the direction of her bedroom.

I was left in silence again. Left to ponder my own morbid thoughts. Thoughts of maybe just ending my life all together by willing it to Pogue or maybe Tyler. Thoughts of stalking Celeste for the rest of my worthless life.

Or maybe…with some great restrain I could find a way by making Celeste happy, even if that meant I never saw her again. Never ever.

My mother came rushing down the stairs, holding an aging cardboard box. Neatly written across it in my mother's handwriting was the word," William and Evelyn's Wedding".

I arched an eyebrow in inquiry, while my mother came about and sat back down upon the couch with the box resting upon her lap. "You want to show me old wedding pictures of you and dad?"

My mother didn't respond though as she skillfully opened the box's folded top, releasing a wave of dust into the air. It caused her to cough and fan her hand into the air, before she reached down into it. "Do you know how long I had known your father before he proposed to me?"

I shrugged my shoulders, knowing common family lore," A year."

"It was our one year anniversary, and we were out in Boston for a date upon the weekend since he had classes during the week at Harvard, while I took my classes in Boston." My mother pulled out a dusty plastic photo album, where she flipped through the pictures before pulling out a picture and holding it up to me in the faint light. It was a picture of my mother and father back in the late seventies at some restaurant. My father was kissing my mother's cheek, while my mother was laughing hysterically. In the background I could see Kelly Parry and Dustin Parry holding onto one another as they looked on at my mother and father. Riley Simms could be seen in the reflection of the glass window taking the picture. Upon my mother's hand was her engagement ring, and an empty ring box upon her lap.

"That was the night your father purposed. Originally it was just suppose to be a private date, when…suddenly after he proposed to me Kelly and Dustin appeared with Riley all having taken time out of their college lives to support us." She paused before taking the picture out of my hand," Two years later Dustin proposed to Kelly at a Christmas party, where we all met Amy and Joanne for the first time."

My mother slid the picture back into its spot, before murmuring," Sometime after your father…died I took off the engagement because it reminded me of so many memories." She paused to fondly stroke a picture of a moment, before she set it back into the box and began to pull out something else.

"I didn't ever want to give it to you to curse a woman the same way I had been." My mother exhaled, before pulling out a small velvet ring box. She then held it out for me to take," But I think…if you give this to Celeste as maybe a gift…or something like that it may make her change her mind or help you two to start reconciling."

I blinked at my mother for a moment, before shaking my head for a moment, as the words flew out of my mouth," Did you just tell me to propose to Celeste?"

My mother just firmly starred back at me. I took this as a yes.

"Oh god," I felt my stomach flip. Celeste would kill me if I came to her suddenly begging for her to marry me so I didn't lose her. "I can't do this!"

"Of course you can-""You don't understand, mom! She won't accept this! I know her!"

My mother sent me a pout, and sarcastically shot back," Oh you know her alright. Or were you making all of that up, and how you can't tell between her lying and her truths?"

I froze in shock at my own mother. She was using my own weakness and fears to push me back into place and make me do something I know won't work. I gulped," Mom, even if she does accept, we're sure as hell not going to be able to move in together, get our own place, or even have a regular life. We just got out of high school!"

My mother shook her head at me, before setting the box down behind the heel. She then picked up her full glass and stood up from the couch," We've got till Tyler's Ascension to make up your mind." She then walked upstairs, contently sipping her glass.

Like it was a tarantula summed up by Chase, I tossed the velvet ring box towards the heel, not wanting to touch it any longer. My mother was a hopeless dreamer thinking Celeste would even marry me. Celeste and I were over. And I would just have to accept this.

I grabbed the bottle of champagne and pressed against my lips once again.

I just wanted to drown. Drown and forget all of this. Forget everything…but Celeste's smiling face.