Caged in Darkness (3 page)

3: Surrogate

Third Entry: Safety

When Maye issued the council meeting, the
adults from the surrounding houses gathered in the casting circle.
Outsiders from nearby districts drove to Meadow falls and joined
the coven to discuss my situation. The adults clustered together in
the circle surrounding the altar. The outsiders revealed themselves
as representatives of the sister covens. It was decided that my
parents were a poison that needed to be eliminated, and the covens
would band together to be the antidote.

That night Maye made certain my parents
could never hurt another. She took me in and promised to never
allow anyone to harm me. The expression on her face was heart
wrenching. Her clothes were scorched, and she had a gash across her
right cheek. She moved slowly, not due to physical exhaustion, but
rather emotional drain. Her hunchback seemed to be tied to gravity;
she was bent over as though a ghostly weight lay on her
shoulders.

Maye closed the distance between us and
encircled my shoulders to hug me. To others it would look as though
she were comforting me, but she was the one who needed comfort. I
would have preferred not to be touched, but I forced myself not to
stiffen at the contact. This was the woman who had saved me. How
could I deny her one moment of human comfort?

Part of me wanted to ask what had been done.
Were my parents dead? Was it a quick death? Would they ever be able
to hurt me again? It was difficult to imagine a life free of their
constant abuse. I suffered the eternal fear that even if they were
dead, they would find ways to inflict pain on me and those near me.
Was it possible to wage war from the afterlife? I craved answers to
these questions, but I couldn’t bear to ask Maye. I knew she was
hurting and my questions would bring her more pain.

Maye became my surrogate mother, as she had
already been for Ash. His parents died in a car crash when he was
four. Maye, as his Aunt and closest relative, became his legal
guardian. She was the only family he remembered. I wish it was that
way for me. What I would give to slip into blissful ignorance.
Unfortunately, my parents were a nightmare that was repeatedly
inflicted on me in daylight and in sleep.

When I first came to live with Maye, I felt
guilty that she and Ash needed to suffer my presence in their
lives. They had a simple routine that they followed, and I barred
their usual routine with my presence. Theirs was a beautiful home
that I infected. They no longer had peaceful nights. The echoes of
my childhood screamed through the hollowed essence of their home.
They often came down to breakfast with false cheerfulness that was
ruined by the ashen circles beneath their eyes. My nightmares
plagued my dreams, and their wakefulness.

My bedroom was upstairs with a large bay
window, and a bathroom that connected mine and Ash’s room. Maye
originally gave me the guest room on the ground floor, but without
any windows and only a single escape route, I panicked. Maye
understood the unusual situation and switched rooms with me, for
which I was grateful.

I quickly learned to lock both doors when
using the facilities to avoid uncomfortable interruptions. My first
week in my new bedroom, I casually walked into the bathroom as Ash
was drying off from the shower. Rather than have that happen again,
we both opted to be cautious. I knew the bathroom acted as a tunnel
for the sounds that came from my room at night. My nightmares,
which were in fact memories… must have affected him. To hear that
pain, and only have a bathroom as a barrier between him and my
taint must have been exhausting.

I became a ghost, misting through their
home, while avoiding as much interaction as possible. Occasionally,
they would notice an item that had been moved, or leftovers that
were eaten, but those were the only clues to my presence. I often
envisioned a medium coming to their home to banish my existence, or
a priest to exorcise my demons. I wanted to keep my interruptions
to a minimum.

It wasn’t until my sixth month there that
they became fed up with my avoidance issues. I slithered into the
kitchen for some food. It was around midnight, and my new family
was waiting for me. The kitchen was abnormally large with oak
cabinets and a long counter that divided the kitchen from a dining
room. This was not to be confused with the larger dining room,
whose doors were always closed.

Maye was sitting at a table in the room
beside the kitchen. It was a circular structure with one leg
shorter than the others. The table wobbled whenever something
touched the top of it, but was stable enough to eat at.

Ash leaned against the counter, while
popping grapes into his mouth and looking amused at my obvious
confusion. I couldn’t understand why they were waiting in the
kitchen. It was late, and I knew from experience that this time of
night was the safest to leave my room.

I paused next to the counter on the opposite
side from Ash. It helped to have a barrier between us. “Why are you
both up so late? Do you want me to come back later?”

Maye snorted, and swiveled in her chair to
face me. “Dear, this is an intervention. Do you know what that is?”
Her voice was a bit hoarse with a tint of annoyance.

I knew what an intervention was. My parents
had limited my education, but since coming to live with Maye I had
been sucking up as much knowledge, as my mind could handle. I spent
every day closeted within my room reading any book I could get my
hands on, which made me grateful that my mother had originally
employed a nanny who taught me the basics.

“Yes, I know what an intervention is…” My
voice trailed off and I looked at Ash for a clue to what was going
on and he shrugged. “I just don’t understand why you think I need
one.”

Maye lifted her frame from the chair and
crossed to the counter. She stopped at the end and acted as a
physical bond between Ash and myself.

“Child, you are part of this family now. You
cannot keep hiding in your room; it’s unhealthy. This has gone on
long enough and it needs to stop. Are you unhappy here? Have we
done something to make you feel unwelcome?” Her hand reached across
the counter and folded itself across my own; I yanked mine
away.

“No! Oh, God no. You’re the best. You and
Ash are the kindest people I have ever known. If it wasn’t for you,
I’d still be living in a physical portrait of hell. I love being
here. Please believe that!” I felt guilty that they didn’t know how
grateful I was. I made a mental note to make a greater effort to
include myself. I had no idea how to do be part of a family.

Ash shifted his feet and looked at Maye, and
he nodded. “Savannah, we don’t want you to leave. We want you to
start hanging with us. I mean, we are a family. Normal families eat
together, they watch TV, and… I don’t know… they get sick of each
other and argue. You only come out at night, and whenever you see
us you agree with everything we say. It’s kind of weird.” He
wrinkled his nose, and continued. “ It’s not that we want you to
start doing something you are uncomfortable with, but ummm… maybe
stop acting like a crazy person who is afraid of people. We don’t
bite. I promise.” He snickered. “At least I don’t. I can’t make any
promises about Maye.” He cocked an amused grin at Maye, and grabbed
another grape.

Maye sighed, while shaking her head. “I do
not bite. I just nibble a bit.” She then glared directly into my
eyes. “Child, we want you to be happy. I already suggested you have
counseling with a member from our sister coven that specializes in
psychiatry, but you refused. If you can’t find natural paths to
help heal, I am going to insist on her treating you. What happened
to you before is horrifying, but you have a chance here to live a
normal life. You can have friends, find a hobby, go to school and
even learn magic.”

At my blank expression, she continued. “What
you are or where you came from is not important. It is who you are
and the choices you make, that determine who you will become. If
you can look inward and be satisfied, the opinions of others should
melt away."

I knew I would never be someone who is
comfortable enough with other people to develop friendships, and I
wasn’t sure that anything interested me enough to become a hobby.
However, the last two options made me pause. I had never been to
school. School was for normal kids, with normal lives and normal
problems. I wanted that. Magic on the other hand was at the
opposite end of the spectrum from normal, but in this town…
abnormal was the new normal.

I looked across the counter at Ash and then
at the end of the counter to see Maye. They both fixated an
expecting look on me. I wanted those things; I just didn’t believe
that I was capable of them. I had spent the past nine years bound
in a prison of eternal darkness. My parents had torn through my
innocence and left me with a tar-like substance that was corrupting
what was left of me. I could feel it at night; slithering and
curling around my soul as it slowly devoured me.

4: Gothic

Fourth Entry: My Ghost

The day I first came to Meadow Falls is
little more than a dream, though that little girl plagues me every
day. I still hear her crying out, and my skull fractures as pain is
inflicted on her. She remained frozen in an eternal chamber of
torture, and I did not know how to help her escape. Though,
I
would never escape
her
. She would follow me around
for the rest of my life; a ghost waiting in the wings for me to
acknowledge her. Her soft trailing fingers would continue to
attempt a connection that I refused to allow; that I couldn’t allow
if I wanted to survive. That ghostly girl was weak and insecure,
while I needed to be strong and confident.

Current Day

15 years, 11 months, and 14 days old

When I slammed my locker door shut, my
friend Isabella was leaning against the lockers with an irritated
expression on her face. Isabella, or as she preferred to be called,
“Izzy,” was a recent edition to mine and Willow’s antisocial group.
Izzy transferred to Meadow High her freshman year, and immediately
took to us. It wasn’t that surprising since Izzy was peculiar. She
used to live in New York City, which was more accepting of
eccentric personalities. At first, we barely tolerated her. Willow
and I were completely happy with our duo and didn’t need to make it
into a trio. However, after Izzy invited herself to our homes and
conveniently showed up when we were out, we decided to accept the
inevitable.

Izzy had a beauty that could not be
replicated. She rarely wore anything other than black and was
always decked out with bizarre jewelry. Today she was wearing a
short black dress with bright red straps and a flared skirt. Her
blonde hair was cropped short in back and angled forward to end at
her chin. She never wore make up, which suited her translucent skin
and bright blue eyes.

Despite her slightly gothic appearance, her
personality was more cheerful than people would expect. She wasn’t
the most agreeable person and had no patience for the bleach blonde
Barbies of our school, but she had a sense of humor. She was also
extremely loyal and accepting of mine and Willow’s differences. She
never asked about the “witchy” part of our lives, but we knew she
was aware of it. She had been to our homes and seen our town in the
woods with the altar at its center. She seemed to naturally
understand that it was a topic that was off limits.

“Where’s Willow?” I snapped to attention at
my best friend’s name and shrugged.

“She sent me a text letting me know she was
going to be late. She said she’d be here in time for lunch.”

Willow was a mouse with a secret spunk. She
was eternally shy, but was the sweetest person I had ever met. I
would do anything to keep her happy and safe. Her parents were part
of the Meadow Falls coven, which meant she had lived there her
entire life. Until I came along, she had been completely alone. The
other kids in the coven tolerated, but ignored her. She wasn’t
particularly talented in the magic arena. However, all born witches
only had a portion of their true power until they came of age.

On the 16
^th
anniversary of our
first breath, we would come into our true powers. Until then it was
impossible for the witchlings, which is what we called the children
of full grown witches, to know how powerful they would be. Though,
power tends to run in families. Willow came from a weaker line, and
therefore was invisible to other witchlings.

Willow’s family was less powerful, but had a
rare gift that allowed them to bring people back from the brink of
death. That gift only came in handy if they were present for the
exact moment of death; when a person passes through the veil
between life and death.

I looked up when the warning bell sounded.
Izzy was staring past my shoulder with a hungry look in her eyes. I
turned around to see a dark brooding senior leaning against his
locker speaking to someone, who I assumed was Griffin.

The senior was casually dressed with a
maroon, long sleeve button up shirt that hung open to his middle.
The shirt revealed a tight v-neck that accented his muscles. His
hair was short and slightly spiky with a messy attitude. His eyes
were devouring; I knew from experience that when those eyes were
fixated on you, you could feel yourself being pulled into their
vortex. His eyes were mesmerizing and kind. Most girls wanted to
fall into those green orbs, but I was not one of them. Ash may be
the most beautiful guy I had ever met, but he was the closest thing
to a brother I had.

Izzy had issues with being interested in
guys who were off limits to her. Ash, being part of my family, was
off limits. He was also a senior, which made him even more tempting
since seniors rarely dated sophomores.