A/N – No editing, no betaing, just letting it flow (as I'm sure you can tell from the misspells... where this story is going is anyone's guess).
Thanks for the reviews.
Five Witches
By Yaya
Act I, Scene IV
Her life began to unravel the year he turned eight.
"Mama," Amon found Annabelle at the kitchen table, her arms folded and her head nestled on them. He glanced around the kitchen, at his corner faithful old Vancouver lay in front of the kitchen door, guarding them…. but Amon had begun to fear that the danger was actually in their tiny apartment.
Vancouver always stayed in the kitchen, some sort of agreement with his mate Tokyo. The female usually stalked around the living room, her three pups in various ages – Annabelle always kept one from each litter.
He smoothed her hair, the most glorious color he had ever seen, and tucked it behind her ear. Gray eyes – the one trait they shared – stared back at him unseeing.
"Amon, be careful. Stay away from the window… I don't want anyone to see you," she whispered, her hand coming to gather him into her embrace.
That had been her newest thing, staying away from the window. It had come after she had made him come straight home from school, and then a few months later she had pulled him out of school altogether. A month ago, she had stopped letting him go over to play with the few friends that he had, they had quickly stopped coming around on their own.
Then last week she had prohibited from spending any time outside… The dogs were still allowed to go and do their business outside, but Amon was trapped in the house. With a mad woman.
"Anna?" A voice called from the living room.
Sanity returned to her eyes for an instant and she was up, pushing Amon out of the way.
"Ryka?" she smoothed her skirt and made her way out of the kitchen.
Amon took the seat she had vacated, mimicking her earlier posture, but pursing his lips in a way that was all his own. He knew if he waited….
"Hey, buddy," an eleven year old Syunji Nagira bounced in, a toothpick between his lips and his hair spiked with a heavy amount of his mother's gel. He could have been talking to the dog for all the answer he got.
Taking the seat directly across from Amon, Nagira slid a bento box over to his younger half-brother, "You look hungry."
Amon wasn't, but he took the food nonetheless. He didn't remember the last time he had eaten, that would require Anna go to the grocery store. But he had gone past hunger – Anna didn't work and often required the kindness of other people. It usually fell to Ryka Nagira, Keisuke's wife, to dole out the kindness.
His father's wife, Amon thought to himself. He had never met Keisuke, pictures were everywhere and there was no denying he was Kei's son. He had his mother's eyes, but that was the extent of it, he may have well been Kei's clone.
Nagira had similar features, but had enough of his mother that his dark hair was thick and almost curly. He had a broader face than his younger brother, and no one knew where he had inherited his wicked grin. Except he wasn't grinning today. He looked at Amon, witch worry in his eleven year old eyes, "My mom said your mom's been sick for a while."
Amon shrugged. What was he supposed to say? He only had his mother. No one knew what that was like… not even Nagira. Sure Keisuke had abandoned them too – first, abandoned them first, Amon corrected, but Ryka Nagira was the wronged party. She had justice on her side.
Anna Vaughn was a foreigner, had had an affair with a married man, born his bastard child – and those were her good parts. Her only friend was the woman she had wronged and her treatment of her probably bordered on maltreatment… if she didn't scare anyone who inquired about his health.
"She says there's a man watching her."
"He doesn't look like you, does he? Older, more Japanese," he suggested. Nagira rarely mentioned their father.
"No. An old man. An American," he replied pushing at the fish with his chopsticks.
Amon shook his head, "She says he haunted her once before – in New York. He walked in her dreams and made her do things."
"Really? That sounds weird, Amon."
He shrugged as if to say, what's not weird about my mom?
Vancouver from his corner lifted his head. The Rottweiler glanced around carefully and then got back on all fours, moving towards Amon. Both boys jumped. Vancouver didn't move unless their was food involved – dog food.
"Hey, he's alive!" Nagira teased. The dog nuzzled his nose against Amon's hand and then began to pull at the boy towards the living room.
"What is it, boy?" Amon asked reaching for the big dog's collar. Rottweilers by nature were big, but Vancouver was huge. On his hind legs he was much taller than the eight year old, and much more menacing.
"Hey, who is that!" Nagira asked and pointed towards the kitchen door. The shade had been lifted from the glass pane and Amon watched as the old man – who had been looking through the pane – disappeared. "What the hell!"
Amon shook his head and did what all little boys did in times of doubt – he ran for his mother.
"-don't know what's happening, Ryka," Anna was saying when the Amon and Nagira ran into the room.
"Boys? Boys, what's wrong?" Ryka asked, standing from the couch.
She was what a mother should be, Amon had decided early on. She always smelled sweet, as if sugar were her perfume.
A lot smaller than Anna, Ryka Nagira looked like the typical Japanese housewife – except that her husband had left her eight years ago and given her instruction to care for his lover. No one else would understand the relationship between her and Keisuke, but she had loved him unconditionally, and she had always accepted that there were parts of his life that she had never been privy to…
Besides, upon meeting Anna Vaughn, Ryka realized the other woman needed her more than either of them needed Keisuke. She had taken her under her wing, been her eyes and ears the first few months when Anna had left the Walled City and Keisuke disappeared. Anna's Japanese had been atrocious those first few months, but slowly she had learned. Anna Vaughn was a survivor, and though neither woman had heard Juliano Colegui say it: like was drawn to like. Keisuke's women were cut from the same cloth.
Keisuke, where are you when we most need you?
He was keeping Solomon busy, and in that had traded his own freedom for Anna's. They attempted to hunt him – he was by far more dangerous, privy to the secrets of the STN-J. Anna was a witch who had been out of control for a short period in her life, she seemed to have gotten over what ailment had afflicted her, and her father had somehow found new favor… a bargain, she stayed out of the Americas and kept under the radar and they would not hunt her.
But Ryka had begun to sense the woman's descent into madness. The lucidity was slowly leaving her friend… but Ryka had the missing piece. Anna had given her the piece. A man stalks me… in the day time and in my dreams. A very ancient man, who did this once before, because I would not submit to him… and Solomon was afraid of him.
She knew that there was someone doing this to Anna. That eight years ago, when she had unleashed her Craft by directing those animals against her client, someone had pulled her strings. Someone had turned off the sane button in Anna's head.
"Mom, there was a man in the window," Nagira said, too old to need her embrace, but not so for Amon. "A scary old man."
The younger boy made a beeline towards his mother, throwing his arms around her waist, "Mama, he disappeared! He just disappeared!"
Over his head, the two women's eyes met in silent understanding. It was the boys who were most important. Nothing else.
Anna kneeled down and put her arms on his shoulders. There was something of the old Anna in her gaze as she told him, "Honey… you're going to stay with Ryka and Nagira for a while. You and the pups. OK?"
It was the last time Amon would cry.
