Chapter Eight: Fight

Everything was white. I floated in a void of nothingness. I was weightless and everything around me went on forever. The irony of me floating in my own private infinite space made me laugh. Then red began to bleed through the white and leaves began to fly all around me. Wind roared in my ears and I hit the ground (or what felt like the ground) with a thud. "Rise, my child. You are needed to fight alongside your brothers and sisters." The deep baritone of the disembodied voice shook my whole world.

The red walls began to fall and I found myself in the ruins of Bloor's academy, in front of the big tree that seemed to always have its autumnal leaves even in the harshness of winter. The tree began to weep tears of blood and I reached out to touch it. It stained my hand but filled my soul with peace and serenity. I no longer felt pain or like a prisoner trapped in my own body.

I opened my eyes and sat up with a large gasp. The woman in green scrubs at the end of my bed screamed and dropped her clipboard. "Dr. Dobinski! 307 is conscious!"

"I just checked her about two minutes ago. She's in a coma, Rachel. She isn't coming out of it any time soon." A tall, thin man came storming into the room. His hair was black and curly and he looked like he hadn't slept in a few days. "Jesus Christ!" His eyes went wide and he rushed over to check my vitals. "Call Amy Bone immediately." He shined a light in both my eyes. "Do you know your name?"

"Infinity Jones." I squinted and tried to dodge his probing and prodding. "What the hell happened? Where am I?" I tried to stand up.

"Don't move!" He instructed. "You have a catheter in and a nasal tube." I blushed and I let him carefully remove my catheter and bag, wincing from how uncomfortable it was before he then moved to unhook what I assumed was a fluids hookup. "Don't strain yourself! You've been in a coma for a very long time. I need to make sure there is no long term brain damage. Please let me evaluate you."

"No, I'm really fine. I promise." I stood to my feet and the doctor went pale.

"You can walk? She's walking!" He chuckled and ran his hand through his hair. "You don't feel any grogginess, stiffness or pain?"

"Nope." I walked over to the window and peeked out. Everything was green and beautiful. The sky was a beautiful blue. "What?" I yanked the window open and a light breeze blew my hair out of my face. It smelled like summer. "What month is it?"

"It's June." He said carefully. "Infinity, I really think you should sit down. You've been through a lot in these past few months and all of this is a lot to take in. I really don't want you to overdo it."

I began to feel dizzy from overstimulation and sat down. "What happened to me? I don't remember."

"Well, what is the last thing you do remember?" He took a seat in the recliner next to my bed.

"I remember talking to my friend Zelda in school and finding an assignment I forgot to turn in. I went to go take it to that teacher's office and I don't think I ever made it. I don't remember anything else."

He smiled fondly. "Zelda is my daughter. It was she and Salem Bloor that found you. She was the one who stayed with you until the ambulance arrived. I really think you should hear what happened from your guardian or her."

"What's going on with everyone?" I heard Zelda's voice from down the hall and perked up. "Oh God. Is Infinity okay?" She ran in the room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me sitting up, unhooked to all of my machines. Her hand flew to her mouth and she broke into a series of ugly sobs. "You're alive!" She stood a great distance away from me for a few minutes trying to stop herself from crying. All I could do was watch, not sure what to say. I didn't understand anything that as going on. When she gained her composure she ran up to the bed and hugged me. I was confused. Since when did Zelda care about me so much?

"Zelda, can you please tell me what happened?" I begged once she calmed down and could form a coherent sentence. She looked uncomfortable with the situation but I knew that she would tell me.

"This is what Salem and I were able to piece together." She played with the hem of her sundress. "You told me that you had to go do something really quick that morning and that you would meet me at assembly. You supposedly forgot to turn in an assignment on Friday and you found it in your locker. What you didn't know was that you did turn in that assignment and Asa planted it back in your locker because Manfred knew you would go back to turn it in. He and Asa waited for you. Asa bound your wrists together with a zip tie and Manfred tried to hypnotize you because he was afraid you would use your magic to help Charlie remember what his father looked like. Asa said they just wanted to scare you so you wouldn't want to try again. They didn't expect you to fight back. You broke all of Asa's toes on one foot and managed to break your restraints and that left Asa unable to chase you. That really pissed Manfred off so he threw you hard into a wall and tried to pin you down. You somehow managed to get an arm free and punched him as hard as you possibly could in the face. Manfred apparently lost his temper at that point. He ended up holding you down by strangling you and hypnotized you. He thought you were dead, stood up and left you in that hallway so someone else would find you. He originally planned to say that someone must have broken into the academy and attacked you, but Salem found you and already had an inkling of what happened. You went through a lot. Everyone thought that if you ever did wake up, you wouldn't be able to take care of yourself. But you're completely okay. Your magic must have saved you."

"Manfred and Asa did this?" I knew Manfred was a bad person, but I never thought that he would try to kill me.

"I had Salem wipe all of my memories of whatever Bloor secrets I knew and I broke up with Manfred. I swear. Please don't be mad at me. I had nothing to do with this."

"I'm not mad at you." I smiled at her and threw my arms around her neck. "Thank you for being such a good friend to me, even if we haven't known each other very long."

"I'm just so happy you woke up before I left for University."

"I missed my graduation?" Everything began to set in a little deeper. It was June. I had been in a coma for five months and all of my classmates had graduated. I was going to have to go back to Bloor's in the fall and stay for at least another semester. My life had been put on hold. I was going to have to catch up on everything that I had missed. I began to tear up.

"If I tell you something really funny will you promise not to be sad?" She put her hand over mine. "Back in May, a new girl showed up to the academy. She was beautiful and her name was Belle. Asa fell in love with her."

"Asa fell in love with a girl?" I wasn't sure if I heard her right.

"That's not the funny part. She was a shape-shifter who was over 100 years old! And Asa knew that… He fell in love with her anyway." She covered her mouth to suppress a chuckle. "I wish you could have been there when all of that unfolded. Salem and I found it hilarious."

I joined Zelda in laughter and I was all too happy to catch up on everything that I missed. I felt like a normal teenage girl sharing secrets with her best friend.

I was discharged the day that I woke up. Dr. Dobinski ran test after test, only to find that my body had essentially reset itself. It was if nothing had happened.

About a week after returning back home, Aunt Amy called Charlie and I downstairs for dinner. She had Paton with her and they both looked solemn than usual. She led us into the dining room where Maisie had prepared a delicious meal, but all the cheerfulness had left her face.

"Hey Aunt Amy, did my mom contact you at all while I was comatose?" I found myself asking. I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from her. Everyone was already in an apparently shitty mood, so I figured this would be the time to ask.

"Ah, no. She didn't." She murmured awkwardly.

"I'm honestly not surprised." I stabbed at a steamed carrot with my fork and stuck it in my mouth. It was delicious. Maisie always cooked them with brown sugar. "I don't know why she went through all the trouble to have a kid if she didn't even want one."

"She did at first." Aunt Amy said defensively. "She cried and cried because she wasn't able to conceive, but she always wanted what she couldn't have." She let out a loud sigh. "About sixteen years ago, when I was a little bit older than you, I fell in love with a man. He was a little older than me and had already graduated high school, but I didn't care. I ended up pregnant. Lyell and I didn't know what to do. I had left home and dropped out of school and had no contact with my family. I had to go live with my sister and she was there with me when I had the baby. She offered to adopt her, saying that she could provide her with the life that Lyell and I were unable to give her… She even gave her my last name so that I felt like she would have a piece of me everywhere she went."

I felt a pit in my stomach. I knew where this story was going. I started to stand up from the table. I needed to leave. I couldn't process all of this information that was being hurled at me all at once. I had just woken up from a coma, and now I was being told that not only was I adopted, but my biological mother was my aunt and I had a brother? "You just gave me away?"

"No! I gave Lily guardianship and I expected her to stick around so I could at least spend time with you and watch you grow up. The plan was to tell you the truth when you got a little bit older, but she just took all of her things and moved across the world and we never heard from her again until her husband died. We didn't know what to do. Adoptions can't usually be reversed unless you were in danger, and after Maisie finally found out about everything, she offered to take you, no strings attached. Ailwyn refused, saying that Lily just needed more time. And then they were gone." She also stood up, unsure if I was going to bolt or not. To be honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do either.

"And we certainly didn't know that Ailwyn would give you that ridiculous name." Maisie cut in. "If I would have known about you, I would have let Amy and Lyell come back and live with me again, but Amy was so scared and embarrassed. There was just so much confusion and miscommunication at the time. None of us handled the situation as we should have. Lillian was very adamant about adopting you at the time, and Amy believed it was the best possible future for you when she signed the papers."

"Wait." Charlie said slowly, the seriousness of the conversation finally sunk into his brain. "Are you saying that Infinity is my sister?"

"I'm sorry." I eyed the archway to the foyer. "I just need to get away from here and process all of this."

"You really shouldn't go anywhere alone." Paton advised. "You may have woken up from your coma unscathed, but anything could happen."

"I'll be fine." I spun on my heel and marched out the door. I didn't even know where I wanted to go. I just started walking through Cathedral Square towards Main Street. Aunt Amy and Uncle Lyell were my biological parents and I was just now being told. It began to make sense though, considering I looked nothing like my mother and exactly like Aunt Amy.

I tried to put myself in her shoes. She was my age when she got pregnant. Maisie had also mentioned that she had also been young when she had my mother, and blamed my mother's attitude and awful personality on spoiling a child because she didn't know how to properly raise one. What would I do if I was put in that position? Aunt Amy had good intentions. She thought she was giving me a better life. She had thought my mother was as excited as my father, but when she realized that my mother didn't have a single nurturing bone in her body, it was already too late. It made sense why it didn't seem like she had that unconditional parental love for me, but not once did I ever doubt that my father loved me. I walked and walked until I reached a park and I sat down on the marble lip of the central fountain. The sun warmed water came up and splashed my exposed skin when the stream hit the basin. It felt nice and the sound was calming. I couldn't be mad at Aunt Amy. She really did what she thought was best at the time.

I didn't understand why my life had to fall apart like this all at once. The man who I thought was my father was dead. Despite being gone often, I loved my father and enjoyed every second that he was home. I was forced to move to a completely different country, my "mother" dropped me off and abandoned me here, I was forced to go to a private school after years of never really interacting with people my own age, I found out that I was a freak, I was almost killed by a lunatic, and now I come to find that I never got to know my real parents at all. Lillian just whisked me away from them, and probably only agreed to adopt me because my father wanted children. She didn't want him to leave. She needed his money.

Now Charlie's battle was my battle. I felt more determined than ever to find Lyell than ever before. I needed to think long and hard about that photograph of him from so long ago. I stood up from the fountain and let myself lay under a large, shady oak tree. I closed my eyes and tried to remember. "Come on." I murmured. "If I'm a witch, then I should be able to use some kind of witchy power or spell to remember him." I concentrated really hard and put my hands on my head. "Come on, come on."

The magic began to flow slowly, and then it all hit me at once. It made me jump and when I opened my eyes. My hands were glowing and I decided to close my eyes once more and cover them with my hands. Messy, wavy black hair, round brown eyes.

I knew that face.

We were right.

The Bloors paraded him in front of us the whole time. I jumped up from the ground and began to run as fast as I possibly could back to Aunt Amy's house. "It's Mr. Pilgrim." I said out loud, feeling liberated. I wish I had paid better attention to my surroundings. If I would have been more calm, I would have known that I had been followed to the park, I would have seen someone step onto the sidewalk, reach their arm out, and grab me.

"I'm not here to hurt you." Dr. Bloor's voice came from behind me. Rather than loud and thunderous, it was soft as if he was trying not to be heard. I tried to turn around to look at him, but he held me firmly in place. "I'm going to handle this how it should have been handled months ago. Efficiently, quietly and quickly. You can come with me by will or I will have to use force. But I will not hurt you."

"You'll have to kill me before I go anywhere with you." I said defiantly. "Did you all get a laugh out of Charlie's expense? Waving his father in front of his face like that? Did you all laugh every time they passed each other in the hall, any time Charlie ever talked to him? Shit, did you know he was my father too? Did Manfred enjoy introducing him to me, knowing that I had no idea who he was?"

"This has nothing to do with punishing Charlie or even you. Lyell needed to be stopped."

"Because he was interfering with your meddling? Because he tried to stop you from treating a two year old child as currency? I know all about Emma Tolly. Paton told me the story the night I came home." I looked over my shoulder. I was about to yell for help when Dr. Bloor clamped his hand over my mouth. I tried to break free but he was much stronger than I was, and I couldn't get my mouth open enough to bite him.

"Damn it, Weedon! Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me get her in the car?!"

"Hold on. Mr. Ezekiel said she might fight. He gave me this!" I felt something get placed on my shoulders. At that moment, my body began to feel like it was made of lead and I lost consciousness.

"It's almost ready." I heard the voice of an incredibly elderly sounding man as I started to regain consciousness. I was dazed and confused and I could barely move my limbs. Everything felt too heavy. I tried to lift my head with no avail. "Ah. She's waking up."

I heard a door creak open but I still couldn't see anything. The smell of chocolate filled my nose. "Here you go, Grandfather. What are you doing up here anyway?" That voice. It belonged to Salem. "Another one of your awful experiments? Who is the unlucky victim this time?" His footsteps were hurried and got closer. He pulled something off of me. It was a blanket. Once he removed it, I could almost move again. That had been what was restricting me. "Infinity?"

"Leave her be, Salem." The ancient voice bellowed. For the first time, I could see the man that this voice belonged to. He was a skeleton with skin. I could see all the bones in his face, his eyes were sunken in and hallow, his hair hung down in waxy strands. Most of his teeth were rotted out of his face. "You can be excused. I have work to do."

"No. She hasn't done anything wrong. I warned you to leave her alone." He brushed my hair out of his face. He leaned in close. "Infinity, can you hear me?"

I was still groggy but I nodded. "She figured it all out. So instead of killing her like your idiot brother wanted to do, you're going to wipe her memory after I take her power for myself. I was told that she walked out of the hospital the day she woke up from her coma. It's been awhile since I've come across a youthful yet powerful witch." He let out a crackling laugh. "If I can successfully siphon her abilities, I'll be able to walk again. I could be young again."

"I'm not letting you do that." He lifted me over his shoulder in one fluid motion and had me in a fireman's carry.

"I have two idiot grandsons. Manfred! GET IN HERE, NOW!"

Manfred, who had been inside of an adjoining room, walked out. "What is it now?" He noticed Salem and I almost immediately, putting together what was happening. I put all of my focus on Manfred the best I could. When he stepped forward to try and apprehend us, he walked straight into a protective ward.

"Run." I whispered, and Salem did exactly that. I didn't expect much of a chase. We managed to run out of what I assumed was an attic and down the dark corridor. None of the candle sconces were lit and it was impossible to navigate the labyrinthine hallways. Then we heard the howl. It chilled me to the bone and I could feel the goose bumps on Salem's arms. "Hurry up and put me down! We have to run!" He sat me down on the floor and we took off even faster. We wouldn't be able to outrun a beast, we needed to find somewhere safe and get there fast.

"Shit." He yanked open a plain wooden door in the hallway and shut it once we both squeezed inside. I heard a snarl and something slammed into the door so violently that it began to splinter.

"I don't know what to do!" I yelled over the thumping. "The door isn't going to hold."

"I'm not quite sure how your powers work, but try to put all of your energy into your hand if you can. I can't manipulate Asa when he's in his beast state."

I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to focus. I felt a tingling in my right hand and when I peeked down at it, the whole thing was glowing. Salem quickly grabbed my wrist and pressed my hand into the door. When Asa bashed into it again, he let out a loud howl of pain and ran off. "How long is that going to last?" I asked, looking at Salem.

"I...I don't know? I honestly didn't know that it would work." I was no longer able to create a source of light but when my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could make out the outline of a light bulb. I stood up and managed to feel my way along the wall for a light switch. The light came to life and we were able to see around the closet. There was nothing else in here with us other than boxes filled with old text books. There was at least enough room for us to at least sit. "Shit, your hand." Salem frowned. When I looked down, I could see that it was bleeding kind of heavily, yet I didn't feel any pain. I wasn't sure what was happening, but Salem didn't hesitate to lift his shirt over his head and wrap my hand for me. We awkwardly stood in the closet and now he was only wearing a pair of basketball shorts and slippers. I looked up at the ceiling to avoid looking at him. "Are you okay?" He asked finally.

I sat down on the closet floor and he followed my lead. "I've been better. I can't seem to stay out of trouble." I leaned my head back against the wall. "So, what's the plan?"

He shrugged and shot me a crooked smile. "I guess we're going to spend the night in the closet until I can think of something better."