What Would You Give?
Chapter One: Family Ties and Scissors, To Cut Them With
"When King on the Mountain was no mere game but a moral imperative, The meek shall inherit the earth would quickly devolve into The meek shall bite the dust."
"I told you. She's dead."
"You didn't restore her? She wasn't backed up?"
Freddie let Donovan's shrillness hand in the air for a moment, let him get a grip. "Of course I did. She was showing no life signs at all, so I restored her. She opened her eyes, said 'Leave me alone,' and promptly died again."
-End of Days by Dennis Danvers
The house rang with the sound of the doorbell. A girl around seven years old stood in her room as she heard the door. She knew who it was. She didn't know how but she knew. Her curly blonde hair, that was so short that she couldn't even put it in a ponytail, was dripping wet. She had just gotten out of the bath. She heard her mother walk over to the front door and open it.
"Pansy... I am so glad you're home!" Said a male voice that she knew all-too-well.
"Kevin what are you doing here?!" Pansy, the girl's mom demanded.
"Oh I think you know why I am here." He said in a gruff voice. The door closed. He muttered some words in a language the girl didn't understand and he spoke again, "Where is the girl?"
"Please no. It's over! You took everything from me once... I am not going to ever willingly-"
"Crucio!" Kevin yelled. Ashley went and sat in her corner and pulled her knees up to her chest and began to cry as her mothers screams vibrated in her head again and again even after they had really stopped. The small girl closed her eyes as she soon heard the door to her room open with a loud banging noise as it collided with the wall.
"Get up!" Kevin told the young girl in a cold tone. She didn't respond she just sat there as more silent tears streamed down her face. "I said get up bitch!" He yelled this time walking past the girl's small ratty bed and grabbing her roughly by the arm and dragging her out of the room. She started to comply by walking but he still held her arm so tight she felt as if her bones might shatter. He soon was in her mom's bedroom. He shoved her down on the ground. "Stay." He said as if she were a dog. Her mother lay on the bed crying.
"Please don't do this!" Pansy yelled. Her dark brown hair matted with blood. Kevin snorted.
"Well maybe if you would have gotten an abortion-"
"I didn't have the money!" Pansy yelled as she struggled against the magical restraints holding her to the bed. "Besides she isn't yours, she's Jason's!"
"Oh... Well he did get to fuck you first. All the better I can teach the girl a thing or two." Kevin said in a silky cold tone. He turned to the young girl. "Your mother is what we call a whore you see. She was my girlfriend and cheated on me with my best friend. He told me so we decided to teach her a lesson." He paused and appeared annoyed as Ashley emitted a particularly loud sob. "Shut up bitch or I'll do to you what I am about to do to your mom! Anyway so he asked her for sex she refused so he raped her, then I did. That is why you do whatever you are asked to. Now look at your mom!" He muttered a quiet charm with his wand pointed at the woman on the bed. Her clothes disappeared. Ashley covered her face crying louder. "I said look, fine then. Imperio."
Ashley found herself staring at her mom. She couldn't stop looking as Kevin removed his clothes and raped the poor woman on the bed. She begged him to stop several times, which was only awarded by a blow from Kevin. After the ordeal was over he got up and walked over to the sobbing child. He removed the Imperious curse from her and she fell sobbing too the floor.
"Get up and get me a glass of water, girl." He said in a cold tone. She struggled to get up and left the room to go to the kitchen and get a glass of water. She returned and handed him the glass. He took it and drank the whole thing. "Good girl. Bye now." And with a loud crack he was gone.
"Mummy?" Ashley asked uncertain if her mom was still even alive. Blood was coming from her nose and mouth and a crumpled sheet lay over her still body. She turned to the girl.
"Go to your room." Pansy responded in a cold tone. Ashley complied.
Her room was dark and only had one very small lamp in it. Her 'bed' was a very dirty old used mattress and a thin quilt that her mom had pulled from a dumpster. She jumped onto the bed and inhaled the familiar moldy smell. It was her fault that her mom was unhappy. She was not supposed to exist. Her mom couldn't give her away to an orphanage because she had shown magical abilities.
She was not supposed to have been born. Her mom did not have the money for the abortion.
"So I was stuck with you!"
"Don't call me 'Mummy'!"
"Your father forced me to have sex with him!"
Her mom didn't buy her toys or hug and kiss her. Her mom hated her. She was dirty. She was a child created from pain and hate. She was magical. She was different.
Ashley knew about witches and wizards, and what a Muggle was. Her mom and Jason were Muggles. Kevin was a wizard. Her mom had thought for a long time Kevin was her father, because she could break things without touching them when mad and similar things. But then Jason came and told her he wanted to know for sure 'the kid' was Kevin's because Kevin was really angry when he found out that Pansy had become pregnant. They had blood tests and it turned out that Jason was the real father. But before he could even tell Kevin the results he had died in a car accident.
"Ashley." Her mom entered the room. The girl looked up. She knew what was coming.
An hour later the girl lay there on her bed as her mom left the room. Her tears welled from her eyes falling from her face mixing with the blood that was also on her face. He mom often would beat her, and cut her, while she yelled at the girl for existing and shouted how the girl came to be with the older woman.
In her own room Pansy ripped the torn and bloody sheets from her own bed. She cursed the fact she had a daughter. She cursed the fact that there was so much illegal magic in Chicago. Soon enough she finally fell asleep.
The next morning was Monday. Ashley stirred. Once her eyes opened she just wanted to go back to sleep because of how much her body was hurting. But she had to go to school. She loved school, even though all the kids hated her, she loved getting away from her mom.
The kids at school always teased her because of the same pink tattered dress she wore, and the bad smell often wafting from her. Ashley liked it better than her mom's harsh treatments though. Pansy told the teachers at school that her daughter would never get in the bathtub and refused to wear anything but that silly dress.
This went on for several more years. Though Ashley did wind up getting more clothes, they were often tattered and her smell stayed. When she was eleven she decided she had enough and wanted to run away from home.
Ashley lay in her room and looked out the window. No one was on the street below, probably because it was too hot to be anywhere but inside or in a pool. She sighed as she went over to her closet and pulled out her best jeans, even though they had a tear, and her best T-shirt. She changed quickly. Her mom was out for maybe an hour or so because she had gone out to lunch. Once changed Ashley grabbed her notebook and pencils and put them in her bag.
She really liked her bag a lot even though it was held together by duct tape. After packing she left her room and closed the door behind her. Then she went into the kitchen and grabbed all the snacks she could, mostly ones her mom never let her have. Finally she left the house and ran towards the airport. It was the nearest large establishment, and she didn't think her mom would think to look for her there, not that her mom would look for her.
Maybe she could bum a ride to somewhere. When Ashley got there she was amazed at all the airplanes and the hundreds of people moving and standing. She sighed. There was no way she could ask someone for a ride. But she needed to.
No, what she needed was to get a ticket... Somehow... Ashley jumped when she suddenly felt something in her hand. She looked down at it, it was a plane ticket to... England! She grinned. She was going to go to London. She walked over to where people were lined up for the flight that was to leave in about a half-hour's time. Ashley silently prayed that they would accept it.
When she finally did get through she again silently thanked whatever must have begun watching over her. Her bag was cleared and she got on the plane. She was glad that she had a window seat. The young girl pushed back her oily blonde hair from her face as she looked out the window. Several different planes were taking off or landing at the same time that she was looking out.
Soon an old lady with gray hair came to sit by her.
"Oh dear, are you all alone?" The woman asked Ashley in a British accent. Ashley concluded that she must be going back to her home.
"Yes, ma'am." Was how Ashley relied shyly as she turned from the window.
"Oh dear, call me Violet. What is your name?" Violet inquired from the younger female.
"Ashley Parker." She said hesitantly. Then she concluded in her mind that her mom wouldn't be out looking for her anyway.
"What are you going to London for, Ashley?" Violet asked seemingly wanting to start a conversation. Ashley paused. She couldn't tell the truth and say "I ran away from home and suddenly this ticket for London appeared so I decided to go there." But she didn't have anywhere to go once she arrived in London anyway. She decided to go for the risk.
"I, needed to get away from my home..." She trailed off. She gently lifted her shirt up a little showing the cuts and bruises left by her mom a few days ago when she accidentally caused a frog to explode and shower her mom with guts. "Please don't tell anyone... I dunno where I'll go but anywhere is better than-"
"No need to finish dear, oh dear, you poor thing. You can stay with me at my home until we find something to do with you. That was very brave of you to finally get out." Violet said in a quiet voice.
"Miss, you by the window, children are not supposed to sit without their guardians. Where are your parents?" A worker from the plane asked. Her hair was pulled back and she wore a funny little hat.
"Oh I am her Grandmother, did she do something wrong?" Violet intervened.
"No... It is just that earlier we had some problems with some children vandals. I was not intending to be rude. Please enjoy your flight." The hostess finished before walking off.
"Thank you..." Ashley said in a very low voice.
"Sweetie think nothing of it." Violet replied. "When I was younger I grew up in an abusive home. One day when I was thirteen I ran away, finally, from it. That single action probably saved my life. I felt I had no place to go until a teacher from my school was able to get the permission to allow me to stay there."
Ashley was amazed. She thought it was scary at first but flying so high gave her a wonderful feeling. She liked seeing the inside of the clouds and how the towns looked like toy towns.
Violet was quite amused with watching the young girl's expressions at everything she was seeing. The only thing that bothered her was how to explain the magic that would be found upon entering her own house.
"Why were you in the US?" Ashley asked as they were over the ocean. Violet smiled.
"I was going to a niece's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony." The older woman replied before going back to staring at the seat in front of her. She seemed lost in thought. Ashley turned and looked back out the window.
The water below seemed to amaze her and scare her at the same time. So much water. Water is essential for life, but too much can kill. Right now Ashley was over more water than she could have ever imagined existed. She loved water. The silky feeling it made when it flowed over your skin, the crisp taste of fresh cold water, the animals that lived in it, finally the fact it makes up most of human bodies.
"Do... you..." Violet began to say before she trailed off. How would she ask subtly if the girl knew what magic was?!
"Do I what?" Ashley asked looking at Violet. She smiled.
"Believe in magic?" Violet asked. Ashley smiled.
"Magic? Of coarse I do. Especially in a certain kind of magic. If you are asking about that one. Don't worry." Ashley said. She smiled. Violet must be a witch.
"I was hoping you wouldn't be a Muggle. That makes things so much easier. Have you ever traveled by Floo?" Ashley shook her head.
"I know how, I just never have before." The young girl said quietly with a blush.
"That is quite all right, I plan that is how we will get to my house. Have you attended any school for your abilities yet?" Violet asked looking intently on the girl before her.
"My mother never approved of it, so I haven't. I would love too, but I don't have any thing yet." Ashley mumbled as she looked down at her feet.
"That is quite all right. All will be taken care of."