Chapter 2: The Twins
Just as before, Charles could see his surroundings disappear and slowly form around him. They were on a gravel road in the middle of no where. There was a large farmhouse to the right of them. The house was white with a large porch. It was a beautiful building. Across from the house was its gravel driveway and a big, red barn. Next to the barn was a small, white shed and next to that was a large machine shed. Some animal pens with animals, such as pigs, sheep, and some cows, and sheds for them were scattered about. A few other run down buildings occupied the rest of the yard. Sabrina quickly let go of Charles' hand and fell to her knees. The gravel pierced into her knees as she sobbed uncontrollably for her mother and aunts.
"Sabrina," Charles said, trying to hold in his own pain and sorrow. "What just happened?"
It seemed as though his mother was killed many hours earlier, yet it only happened fifteen minutes ago. The image of what had happened was still fresh in his mind. He knew bottling up his emotions was mentally harmful, but he didn't want to let anyone see him cry. He was embarrassed easily and wanted to try to keep strong. Sabrina wiped her eyes and stood up. Her knees were bloody from the gravel.
"All will be explained soon, Charles," Sabrina said. "Follow me." She started walking to the farmhouse.
"Wait, who lives here?"
"All will be revealed soon, I said," Sabrina said with an edge to her voice. "It's not my place to tell." Charles decided it best to keep his mouth shut and follow her to the front door. She knocked three times and waited for a reply. A woman's face appeared in the door's window looking at them.
"State the reason of your business?" she asked.
"Four Corners," Sabrina said. Charles wondered what this meant, but he kept his mouth shut. The woman gasped and quickly opened the door.
"Come in, quickly," she said. The woman was slightly plump and had a pleasant look to her. Her hair was a faded blonde color.
Sabrina walked in and Charles followed behind. The house was even larger inside than it had seemed outside. They stepped into a small area for shoes and coats, which led to a living room on one side and a dining room on the other. Charles could see a white door in the dining room which he assumed led to a kitchen. A stair case was in the living room. Also in the living room were a boy and girl were sitting on the couch. They appeared to be around the age of Charles. The woman led them to the living room and gestured for them to sit.
"Jordan, fetch us some tea," the woman said to the girl on the couch. She was beautiful, with long, brown hair. Her eyes were brown with a hint of an aggressive attitude to them. She got up and obeyed the woman. "Oh, I must have forgotten my manners," the woman said, reaching out her hand to shake Sabrina's. "My name is Millie. This is my son, David."
"Hey," the boy on the couch said. He had dark, brown hair and blue eyes.
"And the girl you saw earlier is Jordan, his twin sister," Millie said. As she said that, Jordan walked in with the tea on a tray with five cups. She set it down on a coffee table in the center of the room, then sat back down on the couch next to her brother. Millie poured to cups of tea and gave each to Charles and Sabrina.
"I'm Sabrina, and this is Charles," she said, motioning to him. David looked at Sabrina. He found her quite attractive with her long brown hair with natural blonde highlights and her hazel eyes.
"Yeah," Charles said. "Can someone tell me what I'm doing here now?" Millie seemed surprised.
"He's the one, right?" she asked Sabrina. She nodded. "And he doesn't know anything about it?"
"His mother thought it best not to tell him," Sabrina said. Charles winced at the talk of his mother. Her face haunted her. Their last conversation was still stuck in his mind. The last words he had heard his mother say were, 'Over my dead body'.
"What good could come from not telling him?" Millie said. She averted her gaze on him.
"We'll need to fill you in then." She got up and walked over to a bookshelf and looked through it. After finding a particular book, she took it out and walked back over to her chair. She opened it to find a certain page. "Ah, here we go." She handed it to Charles. "Read this. It has a small passage speaking about you."
He took the book and started reading. It talked of four witches, foretold in prophecies, that would carry on the battle against evil. Bonded together by their friendship and power, they would grow in strength. It was unclear if they'd win this war or not though.
"What has all of this got to do with me?" Charles asked, getting bored in it all and finding it quite ridiculous.
"Keep reading," Millie urged. Charles did so as it told that the four would possess greater power than known to all other witches.
"Are you saying I'm a witch?" Charles asked. As Millie nodded, Charles burst out laughing. "Oh come on, a witch?"
"It's true," she said.
"Hmmm, unless I've missed something, I'm not an old woman with a warts and a crooked nose, nor do I wear a black pointed hat." A flash of anger seemed to build up in Millie's eyes.
"Are you mocking your own kind!" she yelled. "Your mother was a witch, your aunts were witches. Your cousin is a witch!" As she yelled, the sky outside darkened and there was a crash of lightning with a sound of thunder following. Charles gasped in fear. "And not all witches are females. That is a common misconception."
"I'm sorry," he said. Sabrina laughed silently next to him. He elbowed her gently.
"Now, if you would have read all of that," Millie said, in her normal, pleasant voice, "you would have seen an explanation. If I'm not mistaken, your mother was a quite, powerful witch, though I've only met her once. You're father on the other hand, was not quite as good of a character."
"I've never met my father," Charles said.
"Oh, but my dear, you have," Millie said. "Quite recently in fact." The answer instantly appeared in Charles' head.
"Axict?" he asked. Millie nodded. "How can that monster be my father? He slaughtered my family." He stopped for a moment and then asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time. "What is he?"
"He, like many others, is a demon," Millie said. "But we have more pressing things to talk about right now. Come with me, and you'll learn all that is on your mind."