I laughed nervously, all too aware that Phoebe wasn't. I fell silent for a couple of minutes before asking Phoebe to repeat everything she had just said. Witches and demons and magic. She must have thought I was crazy, which okay was a possibility after all that's happened to me but I always thought I was relatively sane. Besides how could I talk? My life was weird too and sure Phoebe's explanation made it weider but it cleared up a few things.
I could deal with this.I mean I already knew Shax wasn't human, that he was something else so I had no reason to be freaked but I was. Not pulling my hair out in blind panic, panic. I don't panic like that.I find denial worksbetter.
"So you and your sisters vanquish warlocks?" I asked.
"Vanquished," corrected Phoebe, her use of the past tense painfully obvious.
"Is she…dead?" See that didn't sound good. I didn't particularly like my life but it was far preferable to death.
Phoebe smiled sadly. "Yeah, it was Shax."
I winced. "Oh, that sucks."
"To put it in a nutshell," agreed Phoebe.
"He killed my parents," I offered. Phoebe double-took. I bet she didn't see that one coming.
"When you said you saw him before I didn't realize…" Phoebe trailed off. No one ever showed me how to handle these awkward conversations. What was I supposed to say? What was she supposed to say? I didn't even know what I was doing here.
So I lied, but it wasn't a full lie, 'cause it was on its way to becoming the truth. "I'm over it."
Now it was Phoebe's turn to do something and hopefully improve this situation and if that didn't work I could see the door. I could make it out. Run, like I always did.
Phoebe nodded sympathetically. "How long did it to take to get over them?"
I narrated my life as emotionlessly as I could. Not becauseI'm cold-hearted. It'sjust that if I let myself care and feel I wouldn't be able to stop. I wasn't that cold-hearted yet, but give me time. If more people keeping dying because me I probably will become that callous. But I wasn't going to run. Not yet at least, but I still kept the door in my mind.
"Why would Shax be after you?"
"I think he always has been or at least it's been a side project he comes back to every so often. When I was talking to Sister Mary, she said that my mom said I was in great danger."
I shut up then. Phoebe was a stranger why was I being such a blabbermouth? A voice spoke up in my head, 'because she's the first person you know who you can tell with her thinking your insane but that's no reason to give her your life story. Remember don't get attached? Whenwill you learn? It only hurts more that way.
"You're adopted?" Asked Phoebe looking surprised and curious.
I nodded waiting for the usual, 'I'm sorry. I didn't know. It must've been difficult,' the false, insincere words of people who think they know what you feel. It doesn't mean anything. The words are empty especially when you know they don't care and they'll never think about you again.
Phoebe hadn't gotten her script or didn't learn her lines because she made this familiar conversation take a new twist. "Do you know who your parents are?" No, not that. That's a normal enough thing to say even if it usually comes later. Wait for it.
"No, why?"
"Because it's possible that maybe you'rePrue'sdaughter."
There it was.
