Last chapter: A woman takes Jack home to feed him and he meets her ill daughter, Jane. He tells her a story.
Possible TWs: Blood, illness, disownment. A synopsis is at the end of the chapter.
"Well..." Jane shifts further into the corner of the loveseat and faces me with her stuffed bunny cuddled close to her chest and I take off the hood from shadowing my face.
"Woah!" she shifts closer to me and points to my hair. "How?"
I raise an eyebrow in confusion before lifting my hand to touch my hair, feeling the frosty texture against my skin. The cold is a welcome feeling, and I realize she's probably never seen white hair before. I shrug.
"I was born with it,"
"Thatssocool... is it like normal hair?"
"Kind of," I lean my head toward her and let her run her small hand through it.
"Why is it cold?" she breathes out. I laugh and sit back up.
"How about we finish the story first?"
She nods.
"Okay... Once upon a time, a long, long time ago," I start. "There was a child raised in an orphanage, in a town far from here,"
"What..was the town?"
"It was called Lumen," I smile. "He shared a room with thirty-four other kids,"
Her eyes widen.
"It sounds like a lot," I breathe out a laugh. "But it isn't, trust me."
I stand up slowly, popping my back before sitting on the arm of the loveseat, careful not to touch it with my skin.
"He spent his days playing with the other kids, pulling pranks, having fun. And then he was old enough to go to the orphanage's classes,"
She sneezes into her arm, blood coating her sleeve. She looks up at me, tears in her eyes. I slide down from the arm onto the actual cushioned seat. I sit criss-cross and hold out my arms, beckoning her closer. She hesitates, but eventually crawls into my lap and curls in my arms, relishing in the comfort. I hold her close as if she's my own sister. I feel her heart beating fast, trying hard to keep up. I run my hand through her hair, trying to comfort her. I wipe the blood off her arm with the end of my cloak. The harsh red stains the distressed brown cloth, and I close my eyes, dropping the fabric.
"He was taught that very special people possessed magic," I speak quietly.
"Do I have magic?" I barely hear her, and it takes a second for her speech to register. I look down into her eyes and smile.
"Of course you do, you have a very special magic," I point to her heart. "It's hidden in there."
"What's..what does it do?"
I take a deep breath, trying to figure out how to explain to her.
"Here," I gently grab her hand and place her palm face-down on her chest. "Do you feel it?"
She smiles.
"Yeah!" her eyes light up with excitement, and for the first time, I see the childish exuberance in them.
"That's your magic,"
"Do you have magic?"
I think for a few moments before nodding.
"Yes, but shh," I put my finger over my lips. "It's our secret."
She giggles and nods. "Okay,"
"Anyways... the boy became super well-known!" I gently lift her out of my lap and set her on the loveseat before standing up and walking a few paces away. "He could do many things with his magic."
I hold out my hand face-up, feeling the cold in my veins travel from my heart to my hand. It's refreshing, feeling the power I hold finally be set free after months of slumber in my heart. My palm releases a faint fog of frost, and a snowflake forms itself within it. I let out a laugh and send it toward Jane. She looks at the snowflake in wonder and curiosity, reaching out to touch it. It melts against her warm touch and she looks up at me, her smile reaching her eyes.
"He could make it snow,"
She climbs down from the loveseat and jumps up and down.
"Do it again! Do it again!"
I kneel down and close my eyes, tapping into the bank of freezing frost in my heart. I feel it travel through my veins before releasing itself into the room. The floor is covered in streaks of it and I make a snowflake, tossing it up toward the ceiling. It breaks and snow falls slowly, tangling itself in my matching hair, and dotting Jane's brown hair with white specks of cold.
I know I shouldn't vandalize their home like this, but Jane just got so happy and excited... I couldn't help myself. She jumps around in the snow, trying to catch the flakes with her small, pale hands. She grabs her stuffed bunny and shows it the snow.
"Aster, look!" she spins in a circle with it in her arms. "Jackie made it snow!"
I freeze. I look at her with a smile, feeling my heart melt. Nobody has ever called me by a nickname before.
She carefully walks over to me, holding up Aster for me to see.
"This is Aster," she uses her hand to make its paw wave at me. I wave back. "He loves the snow you made!"
I gently shake 'paws' with Aster, tilting my head in a formal greeting.
"It's nice to meet you Aster,"
She giggles before climbing back onto the loveseat with a yawn, cuddling Aster to her chest. She looks at me expectantly, and a shock of realization runs through me.
"But... his powers scared people," I walk across the frost to sit across from her. "So he ran away."
"A very nice lady found him and took him in. That's when he met a magical girl," I look at her and smile. "Her name was Jane."
She gasps and her face lights up with another smile.
"That's me!"
I laugh. "It sure i-"
Glass breaks. My eyes dart to the corner of the room, near the entrance to the kitchen. The woman stands there, above broken plates of food on the frosted floor. Her eyes burn with uncharacteristic malice. It doesn't take long for me to realize what I've done. I showed her ill daughter magic; 'dark' magic.
I rush to stand up and go to explain, but her eyes burn with an even darker fire than before. It's almost like she's staring right through me. My heart races and my veins frost over with anxiety. She points to the door, her gaze unmoving.
"Out."
I hear Jane struggle to get up and rush over to her mom.
"But mama, he didn't hurt me!" she tugs at her mom's long skirt, her eyes pleading. My heart breaks.
"I said," she exaggerates her gesture toward the door. "out."
I reach behind me to pull on the hood of my cloak, nodding solemnly and stepping toward the door.
"Stop. Let everyone see the monster that you are!" she spat, stalking toward me and ripping the hood off of my head. She pushes me to the door. I see Jane behind her, tears in her eyes.
"Jack!"
I give her a final sad smile before I'm roughly shoved outside. I trip over my feet and fall to the ground. Jane's mom towers over me, leaning down threateningly.
"Stay away from my family, Jack." She turns and slams the door shut. I can hear Jane crying through the wooden walls as I stand to brush the sand off of my clothes.
I turn and trudge off of their property, my heart feeling colder than ever.
And as I make my way back to the marketplace, my stomach grumbles with unsatisfied hunger.
Small filler chapter.
SYNOPSIS: Jack tells Jane a simplified version of his story. He's raised in an orphanage and learns about magic. He shows her her own magic (her heartbeat). He then shows her his, making it snow in the room, and the floor frosts over. She shows her stuffed bunny, Aster, the snow and Jack formally meets Aster the stuffed bunny. Jane's mom then comes into the room and sees the snow and frost. She kicks Jack out without feeding him and he goes back home hungry.
Stay safe, friends.