Chapter II: Revelations and Reactions
"Tears shed for another person are not signs of weakness; they are a sign of a pure heart."
Aella returned the stone back in its place and put her hair in a waterfall braid, letting the still-damp wavy strands of silver hair flow down her neck to her shoulders, then exited the bathroom.
Going over to her bedside table, she snatched her mobile phone and air pods then proceeded to walked out her room in the quiet house. It was nine o'clock, so her uncle, Jack, and his wife, Emma, were at work and their son, Zac, at his friend's house since they had a sleepover the previous night.
When Aella entered the kitchen, she saw pancakes' mix in a bowl, ready to be cooked. A small smile formed on her face and she started heating the pan and taking out toppings she wanted. Soon enough, Nutella pancakes with fresh strawberries , blueberries and sprinkles sat in front of her and she dug in, closing her eyes as the delicious flavor dissolved in her mouth.
After washing her plate and making a mug of coffee, the young adult went back to her room to get her black ankle boots then left the house, locking the door behind her. She plugged in one air pod and played some music quietly, making sure to keep an eye and an ear on her surroundings as she walked (she wasn't an idiot, she learned from her mistake).
It took thirty minutes before Aella arrived at the private cemetery, seeing as she stopped on the way to get some flowers and a pail of water. She joined her hands in a silent prayer before pouring some water on the tombstones. She laid the flowers -a collection of lilies, dahlias, orchids and lotuses- then sat down in front of her family's graves, ignoring the damned knot in her chest.
"It's been two years, and I miss you guys. It's too different without you, a bad kind of different. I'm trying to move on, but I haven't made much progress; it's so damn hard." A bitter, humorless chuckle forced its way out as she continued, "I got a couple of tattoos, hope you don't mind. Not that you could do much..."
A knock on the door made Aella groan and raise the volume of her laptop. Another knock sounded but she ignored it still. Another knock.
"Go away," she verbalized, annoyed.
"But, Aella, it's your birthday! You can't hate this day forever," Zac's voice said from the other side.
"Oh, yeah? Watch me,"
"At least let me give you your present,"
"No. I don't want anything. Please, leave me alone Zac, I'm not in the mood." The door opened and a brown haired sixteen year old with grey eyes stood there, arms crossed. He entered the room and closed the door behind him. "I don't remember saying you could come in,"
"For once, I don't care." He sat next to Aella on the window seat, sighing. "How are you, really?"
"I'm okay," the older girl replied monotonously, just like every other time she was asked that meaningless question, not sparing Zac a glance.
He turned his body so that he was completely facing her and moved her head so he could sternly look into her eyes, "I know you're not. You are allowed to cry, you know. You have been bottling up your tears and emotions for two years now, it's unhealthy."
"Crying won't bring them back, so what good would it do me other than make me feel weak and pathetic?"
Zac's expression softened as he gazed into his cousin's eyes, "Crying doesn't mean you're weak, Aella, it means that you've been strong for too long. So let it out, for once. Don't be afraid to seek help and don't hold it in. I'm here for you, alright, and I love you. You're like the sister I never had, and I don't like to see you hurting. You haven't been letting yourself move on, and it's like you don't want to; you're always just trying to distract and busy yourself to get your mind off it, but you and I both know you haven't come to terms with what happened.
"At first, you resorted to drinking, then studying too hard, then training too hard -which you still do, mind you- and you don't even socialize-!" He ignored Aella's interruption of, "Socializing is useless and energy draining," "-You need to move on, because the world doesn't stop, no matter how much you want it to. So, for God's sake, let it out, mourn them, cherish their memory, but move on! Don't you wanna live your life to the fullest? You can't do it this way!"
And that was all it took for Aella's built-up tears to slowly start spilling. The tears that she hadn't shed in two years. The tears and emotions that had all built up inside of her like rainwater in a dam until she finally cracked. The boy pulled her smaller frame towards him, hugging her as she finally cried. Finally let it out. Her grief. Her sadness. Her pain. Everything.
No more words were exchanged, and Zac didn't care that the collar of his shirt was soaked. It relieved him that he finally expressed his worries towards Aella without her attempting to beat him up; every other time he brought up the topic, she would chase him around with a sheathed sword.
He ran his fingers through her hair soothingly, a small, soft smile on his face.
"Thank you," Aella murmured after an hour or so, looking down as her face reddened in embarrassment. "That actually felt good... though mention this to anyone and you're dead."
Zac couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, yeah. You have 'the tough and emotionless girl' reputation to uphold. I get it."
"Asshole," She snorted, wiping her cheeks. The corner of her lips quirked up as she caught the $100 bill thrown at her as the younger boy left the room.
One month had passed since Aella's little breakdown.
Zac entered his father's office to fetch some important files for him. When he pulled said files out, a notebook fell open on the floor. The teen looked at it curiously as his orbs scanned over some of the words, eyes widening.
"Zac, come on, I'll be late for work!" Jack called.
Zac shook his head and closed the notebook, putting it in his pocket and exiting the room. He locked the door behind him and took the key before heading downstairs. He handed his father the files and the key, nodding to him. "See you later, dad."
"See you," Jack smiled, kissing his son's forehead and quickly left the house to go to work. Zac closed the door and went up to his room, taking out the notebook.
He spent the next two and a half hours reading it, and when he was done, he scoffed in disbelief, rage bubbling in his stomach. He slammed his door open and stalked to his cousin's room, knocking on it firmly. Not receiving a response, he strained his ears to check whether or not the girl was in her room. He didn't hear a sound from behind the door, so he turned around and headed back down the stairs to where he knew Aella would be. The basement.
When he opened the basement's door, he wasn't surprised to see the silver haired young woman with knives in her hands, throwing one after another at the target in front of her with perfect precision and hitting the intended target each and every time.
Noticing Zac's presence, Aella stopped her training and relaxed her body, turning to look at him. She frowned upon seeing his tight expression. "Why do you look like you're about to murder someone?"
"That'd be because I do feel like murdering someone," he replied with gritted teeth. The silverette raised an eyebrow; this wasn't like him. She had never seen him that mad before. He threw her the notebook- journal -and she caught it easily with a confused expression. He swallowed thickly, afraid of what she's say or do when she found out what was in it. "Read it,"
"Okay..." She hesitantly opened the book and started reading it. Her eyes widening more and more as she read further into the book; most of the first half of the journal was about the Mystical Gem and it's capabilities. She knew most of the stuff in there, but there were some facts that she hadn't heard of before. "Where did you get this book?"
"I found it in my father's study. Continue reading, but I can't say you'll like what it says."
"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
Aella's face was schooled into blank expression, betraying none of the rage that was storming inside of her at the moment. She didn't want to stay in this house any longer. She couldn't. Not after the information she just took in.
Zac didn't like the empty mask on his cousin's face. Faux calmness was never a good sign. He was internally begging her to lash out, punch something. Hell, he almost wanted her to take it out on him.
"He fucking killed them. And yet, he could still look me in the eye and smile at me everyday. These last two years were all nothing but a lie. He was just trying to get me to tell his where it was and then he could kill me like the rest of my family."
The female's whole body was now shaking in undisputable anger as she tried her hardest to calm down, but that was nearly impossible at the moment. She just learned that it was her loving, supportive uncle that killed her parents and her older sister two years ago, and that he was planning to kill her once he got his grubby hands on the stone.
As if that wasn't enough, he was the one to hire those kidnappers last year to try and force the location out of her. When she was taken to the hospital to be treated, he was there. He dared look at her with worry etched on his face and ask how she was feeling in such a way that sounded so sincere. She couldn't believe she actually bought it. She was supposed to be smart and quick witted, able to see through people's lies
How had she not noticed? He was lying to her face for two years straight, slowly gaining her utmost trust. Was she that naïve? Or was it because she'd always had a soft spot for family? The signs were there, they must've been, but she simply overlooked them, because family. Jack was her family. But he betrayed her in a way she never could've imagined he would.
She took a deep breath from her nose and counted to ten before letting it out, reeling in her thoughts and emotions, forcing her mind to calm the fuck down and think rationally. She tried to come up with good reasons for what he'd done, but came up with a blank. There was no justifiable reason for her uncle to have killed her family. What was he trying to achieve? What did he want the stone f-?
"I can't believe that my father actually did that! And all for a stupid stone that probably doesn't even exist," Zac growled, fists clenched tightly as he tried to stop himself from punching the wall.
"I does exist. Haven't you learned our secret family history?"
"Huh? What history are you talking about? I just know that our grandparents came from here from somewhere far away in order to survive a war and carry on our bloodline or something."
Aella sighed exasperatedly, rubbing her temples. "The true history of the Cassidy clan, Zac. Female Cassidy's magic in their veins, like sorcerers or witches, but the only way we can harness that power is using the Mystical Gem. Did you seriously not know about that?" Zac shook his head. "Over the centuries that our family has kept and protected the crystal, myths and legends mixed up with the truths, so no one really knows what exactly we can do with our magic, but it does work. We just don't rely on it.
"Also, we can't use it anytime we want. We can't randomly cast spells and all that shit like in Harry Potter. Our powers can only be used during celestial events in rituals. Male Cassidy's, on the other hand, have zero access to their magic. Legend has it that your gender was cursed by a pissed off Cassidy woman, so as far as I'm concerned, if a male tries to use magic, they die.
"My family died to protect the gem, so there is no way I'm giving it up to anyone. I already decided. I'm leaving this world."
"Huh? You're not killing yourself!" The boy exclaimed
Aella's eye twitched as she smacked her cousin upside the head. "That's not what I meant, moron. I mean, I'm using the stone to leave this world. I'm gonna start a new life from scratch, somewhere else. When's the next full moon?"
"Oh. That's four days from today."
"Four days, huh? That's longer than I would've liked. But until then, act normal. We don't know anything,"
The male stood up abruptly, "Act normal?! Are you freaking serious, Aella? How the hell are you so calm?"
"Who the hell said I'm calm?! I'm more than ready to kill Uncle Jack right now, but I can't do that to you, alright? Having your father taken away from you by someone you trusted, that isn't something that I can just let you go through! This is why I'm leaving, Zac, I don't want to lose control and lash out on him. I don't wanna do something I'd regret!" Aella yelled, her voice strong and unwavering, but the anger was clear as day. She lowered her voice, "I don't want to be anywhere near him, but I need to wait. Four days, and I'm gone. I have to endure four days, then I'll be free. So don't say a word about this to anyone, you hear me?"
He looked down, biting his lip. "Yeah, alright. It's your choice."
As soon as Zac was out of the room, Aella turned to the punching bag hanging from the middle of the ceiling and punched, trying to vent her anger and hurt out on the poor bag.
What had it ever done to her?
Those four days felt like hell to Aella. Everyday, she was forced to look at her bastard of an uncle like he hadn't done anything wrong, holding back the urge to impale him with one of her katana.
On the evening of the full moon, Aella waited until Jack went out on a date with Emma until she went up to the roof of their house to prepare for the departing ritual. She used salt to draw a five-pointed pentagram inside a circle, with torches at each point.
She carried the stuff she wanted to take with her, which weren't much. Her two katana, a backpack that had some money and a couple of extra outfits along with her set of throwing knives. Anything else, she could get from the other world. She wasn't even sure if yen were used wherever she would end up. But Aella didn't care, she was smart and could figure something out when the time came- and she could always pickpocket, but only if it came down to it. Scratch that, she's definitely going to pickpocket. What? Pickpocketing stuck-up rich people was fun and harmless!
Looking up, the young woman noticed that the moon would soon reach its peak. She walked to the center of the pentagram and took the gem out of her pocket, placing it on the ground. The last person to use the stone to world-travel were her grandparents. They had come from a different world to get away from a deadly war, and restarted their lives here on Earth as the sole survivors of the Cassidy clan (that she knows of, at least) giving birth to Aella's mother and her uncle, Jack. Her grandmother had died of an illness, her grandfather also kicked the bucket not too long after, courtesy of a strained and overworked body organs.
Aella treasured her katana a lot; for they had once belonged to her late grandma. There was no way she'd leave them behind.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when the door to the roof opened and a certain sixteen-year-old ran out. "Are you for real? You were leaving without saying goodbye?"
A nervous chuckle left her mouth as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Maybe..." It's not like I'm gonna let you remember me after this. No need for you to lose a loved one.
Zac let out a shaky breath, his bangs shading his eyes. "I'll miss you, Aella. Be careful, alright?"
Smiling softly, Aella replied, "I will, don't worry. And for the record, I'll miss you two, idiot. You can handle your dad however you want, now, but I have to get going now. Goodbye,"
He raised his hand for a small wave, looking sad. Aella fished out a small throwing knife from her backpack and sat cross-legged in front of the colorful gem. She brought the tip to her palm and dragged it down, hissing slightly at the sharp pain, then watched as blood pooled in her hand. Taking a deep breath, she let some of it fall onto the smooth surface of the crystal.
"Accipe me ab hoc mundo ad alium de libertate. Huius mundi obliviscatur mihi.
Accipe me ab hoc mundo ad alium de libertate. Huius mundi obliviscatur mihi.
Accipe me ab hoc mundo ad alium de libertate. Huius mundi obliviscatur mihi."
A purple glow came from the stone, gradually engulfing everything in the middle of the pentagram as Zac watched in shock and awe; he honestly didn't expect it to work. Blood started trickling from Aella's nose as her body and her belongings started fading. Just then, the metal door leading out to the roof slammed open again and none other than Uncle Jack walked out, a livid expression on his face.
He didn't notice his son and stalked towards the pentagram; towards Aella. "You ungrateful brat! I took you in and cared for you, yet you lied to my face, and here you are, running away with the gem. Do you know what potential could be achieved through this crystal? I could bring my parents back!"
"Like you're the one to talk," Aella's fading voice scoffed. "You killed my parents and sister for nothing; you would've died if you tried to use magic anyway. And you if you didn't, you would've had to sacrifice someone from the same bloodline as the person you're trying to bring back from the dead for the spell you're talking about to work; meaning me and Zac. So screw you! You're never seeing me or the crystal again! See you never,"
And with that, the silver-haired girl disappeared, leaving behind a fuming uncle and his equally enraged son. Both of their eyes glazed over for a second before they looked around them in confusion, one thought running in both of their minds: 'What am I doing on the roof?'
Author's note:
Heya! I'm writing this instead of studying for my physics exam 'cause physics sucks. I seriously hate this subject! And the teacher doesn't make it any better; he is as good at explaining as I am at staying focused, which is not at all.
My loathing for my school and teachers aside, tell me what you think of this chapter. This is the probably the last time we'll be seeing any of these OC's, they were just there for backstory purposes, but now, they're no longer needed.
In any other circumstance, Aella probably would've loved to kill Jack herself, but she couldn't do that to her beloved cousin, and she isn't sure she could bring herself to do it, so she opted to get herself a new life faraway.
How do you like Aella so far? Sorry if it feels rushed, but do tell me if it is. I seriously want to improve my writing.
Until next time.