Chapter 2: Growing up
Lucy was really grateful for her new life.
She never knew that living as a child is this stress free. She didn't have to worry about her next meal , her clothing or any of her basic needs. Her parents spoiled her and she made sure to bring a little bit of happiness in their lives.
She would soon reach eleven years old. She grew up to look a lot like her mother, soft features that the grown ups couldn't help but pinch and if there were any complaints it would be her eyes which took after father's in their intensity and looked positively villainous, especially when she got angry. Though Lucy didn't hate her eyes. She rather enjoyed seeing the kids that took their teasing or pranks too far freeze before her glare.
Another aspect of her new life was the lack of friends, she could not for the life of her connect with the kids her age. If they did not avoid her for her looks , they often found her to be too boring to be around. Not that she could blame them , she would rather help in her family business than roll in the mud with the kids her age.
All in all, the first decade of her life was great by her standards, she could always work harder to make more friends as she grew up and learn enough to put her get rich ideas into practice, though she supposed that no matter how rich she got this little flower shop her family owned would hold a special place in her heart.
It was rainy December evening, the heavy rain blanketed the ground. Her father had closed their little store early because of the heavy rain. They were relaxing in the living room , while her mother started on dinner. Lucy was slowly sinking in slumber lulled by the sound of the radio .
Suddenly the peace of their home was disturbed by distant loud noises, screams and finally tremors rocking their whole house.
Lucy couldn't react till she was hauled blanket and all inside their basement.
She felt the screams and tremors getting closer and closer, no longer concealed behind the heavy rainfall , and the fear finally began to set in.
"Do not leave here. I'm gonna go grab your mum" said her father softly.
"what's going on?" asked Lucy anxiously
"...no idea sweetie, be good" said her father strongly before leaving.
Lucy didn't know what to think about this sudden turn of event. She felt the after shock of another explosion close to their home. Even wrapped in her blanket she couldn't stop shaking. She couldn't think, she could only hope and pray that her parents would soon join her . Alas a pained scream tore through the temporary peace of her hideout, and to her horror she recognised it as her mother's. Coming closer to the basement door, she strained her ears only to hear panicked footsteps and shrill laughter.
" Did you hear the pig scream" said a drawling voice gleefully.
" Why do we have to waste our time on this filth, torch the place and let's join the others." growled a second man with a nasally voice.
" You don't get it, its the little things in life, you have to learn to enjoy our little outings, these muggles make for great guinea-pigs , not to mention great entertainment" affirmed the man with the drawling voice.
"...Well if you had your fun let's hurry out. We don't want aurors on our tail" grunted the second man.
" Fine killjoy. Let me try one last spell while she's still breathing" relented the first man .
Lucy stood there, disbelief and anger marring her expression. These crazy people were hurting her family and they were enjoying it. Worse yet they are going to do god knows what to her mom.
Her blanket lay forgotten on the icy basement floor , she raced to the shelf, grabbed an old hammer and made for the door. She knew that, hammer or not, she had no chance against armed adults. Her best bet was to take them by surprise.
While the interlopers were still busy arguing, she slowly opened the door trying to be as quiet as possible. What first greeted her sight was the absolute dismal state her home has become. A big hole lay where the front door was supposed to be as if made by a canon , and in the kitchen a huge fire was working its way to the living room and there, she saw it.
As she laid hidden in the basement, She had vaguely wondered what could make her mother scream so hard. It wasn't till she saw the mutilated corpse that could only belong to her father that she understood. His once well toned body looked as if it had been torn by hundreds of sharp knives. As the sight and the smell of blood and smoke hit her, she noted vaguely that It was a miracle that she didn't alert the intruders of her presence as she muffled a scream that threatened to tear out of her throat. She felt as if her mind and body disconnected. In her stupor, she took in her surroundings, anything to avoid looking at her dad. It was with vague disinterest that she noticed that the two murderers looked nothing like she expected. For one they were not armed, she saw no sign of guns or rifles and not even a knife, nothing but a thin stick that one of the robed men was waving around while arguing with his equally strangely dressed partner, and second they were dressed in wide black robes and white masks, the only way to differentiate between the two was their height .
There was something strange going on here and she couldn't quite place her finger on. With a start she realised that she was wasting precious time, she had to locate her mother and run .
"For merlin's sake are you dense , just drop the petrification , it will interfere with my new spell" bellowed the taller one, his stick dangerously close to the other one's face.
Their brief spat made enough room between them for Lucy to spot her mother's form kneeling in the floor with a frozen look of horror on her pale, tear stricken face .
"Get that thing out of my face. Here . Finite. Do your stupid spell" grumbled the shortest of the two while waving a stick of his own in front of her mother's face.
Lucy saw her mother's face regain life , her face morphed from its frozen look to the beginning of a scream as her eyes locked into hers. She felt as if she could understand her mother's plea as she held her gaze . 'Run! Save yourself!' she could almost hear those unspoken words when her mother choked her scream and launched herself onto the closer of the two cloaked figures, which was the taller one. An action that took him by surprise as he let out a loud curse.
Not one to waste such an opportunity, Lucy made a run for the other one, who was laughing at his partner's plight, and with all the momentum she could muster, she launched her old hammer straight to the back of his head. The hammer connected with a satisfying crack and she barely felt the rush of satisfaction as he dropped to the ground before she heard her mom scream in pain .
"How dare you! Filth! Crucio!" bellowed the man she had been grappling with.
Lucy watched flabbergasted as her mother started contorting on the ground in pain.
This horrifying scene stirred a distant memory. she saw something like this before, she remembered being entertained by the scene , the acting... The MAGIC.
"STOP!" cried Lucy as she hurriedly grabbed her fallen hammer and rushed to her mother.
The masked man, surprised at her sudden appearance, took one look at his fallen comrade before scoffing.
"Bloody incompetent bastard".
Lucy saw ,as if by slow motion, the man point his stick- a magic wand she knew-at her mom for the second time.
Hammer in hand, and heart thundering in her chest, she stood protectively in front of her fallen mother trying to look as threatening as possible.
"BACK OFF" she yelled. And she watched with trepidation as the man was blown off of his feet and sent rolling back in the dirty floor.
"Bloody hell! Filthy muggle spawn , you dare " growled the man threateningly.
Lucy for her part had no idea how she had done what she did, and couldn't hope to consciously replicate the phenomenon that she just pulled off. So she took a run towards her fallen foe, hammer in hand , to finish him off.
Unfortunately, the man was more nimble than she expected of someone wrapped in baggy robes. He simply rolled out of the way of her swing before he took a few moments to right himself and assess her then he laughed shrilly "want to see real magic girly? let me show you real magic"
Lucy felt herself freeze in her spot mid step, and with mounting horror she realised that this was what they did to her mother prior to her interference. She could not even twitch a single muscle much less blink.
"Looky here girly!" the man said gleefully "you will have the honour no mudblood had ever enjoyed" he continued sounding to her ears more and more like a hellish nightmare. "You shall bear witness to my magnum opus , a spell developed by the dark lord himself with assistance from yours truly".
She knew that this was going from bad to worse. She knew what this was all about.
Magic, wands, dark lord... she knew that in her panicked rush to help her family, she shoved all the puzzle pieces to the back of her mind, and now that she was stuck motionless, she knew. This was a world that was not supposed to exist. Imaginary. A fictional Dark lord getting his comeuppance at the hands of an equally fictional hero. She couldn't help but wonder, is she in a dream right now? Was her second life just a fantasy? A sick scenario birthed by her sick mind?
The anguished scream that tore through her eardrums brought her back to reality. If this was indeed imaginary she could only wish for it to end. Unfortunately, her fervent wish to put an end to this nightmare had no effect on the man in front of her. He now had her mother conscious again, and right in front of her.
Her mother was in a horrendous state, it physically pained to see her once jovial mother in the broken state that she was in right now. Her eyes looked without seeing. Her dilated pupils shifted constantly within her eye sockets as if trapped in an unescapable nightmare , and her shivering body was held in mid-air just a few meters in front of her face no doubt by a spell.
"Well then lets not waste anymore time" declared the monster in human skin, pointing his wand.
This was it, thought Lucy. She was going to watch her mother die a horrible death. She struggled with all she could against her magical binding. This was the woman who raised her, the woman who gave her the love she never thought she would have. She already lost her father she could not lose her mom . The wand made intricate motions. 'I have magic' , thought Lucy 'I could use it, break out, kill the offender and help mom.' She struggled harder, begging for something , anything to get out of her prison.
"Rumpo!" said the man mercilessly.
For a moment nothing happened. The brief flash of multi-coloured light faded to nothing. She felt her heart hitch. 'Maybe the spell failed' she thought, and she was immediately proven wrong . She knew the spell would be bad, but nothing could prepare her for what came next.
Her mother was dying a slow, painful death. She wanted to turn away, to close her eyes, puncture her ears. She did not want to taint the image of her mother. Her mother was a kind woman, a bubbly young mom who spoiled her daughter, not this cursed mass of flesh, pus and blood. Her mother sang her to sleep almost everyday. Her voice was a soothing baritone, not this shrill inhuman scream. Lucy had long since stopped struggling. She was powerless .She could do nothing. She could only watch.
It was the first time in her two lifetimes that Lucy felt so much hatred and anger. She hated the ugly laughter echoing from the man and her mother's weakening scream. She felt anger at her weak self , she had magic, she could have been strong, prepared to face the unfairness of this accursed world. Instead she wasted ten years of her life.
Finally , after what seemed to be an eternity, what little remained of her mother dropped to the ground.
"As i thought" exclaimed the man seemingly disappointed "the dark lord would've kept her alive for hours and the spell would've kept going till nothing was left, not even blood" he continued in a worshipping tone.
Lucy knew her time has come. She couldn't even muster enough will to struggle. 'I wish this would all end' she thought absently 'all this magic , this reality should never have existed . She could have been happy for once, she hoped she would live happily till she grew old , maybe whichever entity reincarnated her did it to torture her.'
'This shitty excuse of a world should just end already'. Then something within her shifted , the dam broke and everything faded to black.