Demonborn - 15 XIV

Week threw himself away from me as soon as the flames died down. I sat in the chair, silent and angry for what he had just done.

“I’m sorry, Rose, but it was-”

“Did I ever give you permission to kiss me?” I asked, my voice laced with my anger. Week clinched away from me as if a puppy running away from an angry owner.

“No,” he responded, backing up farther and trying to put space between him and my anger.

“Then why?”

He let out a small whimper as if in pain and collapsed to the floor, holding his head in his hands. I didn’t back dow and continued staring at him coldly.

“I did it to… help you… magic was… out of control…”

A growl escaped me and he was pushed to the group and let out a scream. When he did, I noticed the pressure in the room was all towards him and it was suppressing him at my will.

“Rose, stop it!” I heard and turned towards the door, losing my focus. Lizzie stood there, staring at me with fear in her eyes, then I realized what I had done. I looked to Week and he was on the ground, blood dripping down his face from a large cut on his forehead. His normally red eyes were dull and silver like mine. He looked up at me and tried to stand, only to fail and have Lizzie run to him and catch him before he fell.

“Lizzie, I-”

“Don’t,” she said, silencing me with a glare full of hate and laced with fear. Fear of me, fear of what I had just done to her brother.

I watched as she lead Week out of the room and looked back at me, “We will talk about this later, Rose,” with her words, the door slammed shut and I was left alone again.

I heard the yells from Marissa at the injuries Week had and her excitement that her daughter was alive. I stayed still as the world outside grew darker. I heard a knock at the door before Lizzie walked inside, her face was blank as she closed it behind her. She stayed with her back to the door and watched me closely, as if waiting for me to break.

“Why did you do that, Rose?” she asked, closing her eyes like she always had done when she was upset about something.

“He kissed me out of the blue, Lizzie, that justifies-”

“He did it to stop your explosion of untrained and uncontrollable magic. By doing what he did, he took part of the dangerous stuff away from you so you could learn to control a smaller amount, like you should have been taught to do when you were younger.”

“Why does it matter, Elizabeth?”

“Because you just hurt my brother, and if I hadn’t stepped in, you would have killed him.” Her eyes glared into me when they opened. The Lizzie I knew and loved was gone in that moment, replaced by this creature of hate.

“Lizzie, I-”

“Rose, just stop. I’m leaving again, I’ll be gone by morning, and this time I’m not coming back.”

My heart broke at her words as she turned back to the door, reaching for the handle.

“Why?”

“Why what, Rose?”

“Why are you doing this? Don’t you,” I paused and choked back a sob, “don’t you love me anymore?”

She turned to me and stopped to stare at me. She didn’t approach me, instead just waited and stared as I cried.

“Rose, what we had wasn’t love. It was me being rebellious to my family and my duty. Whatever we had between us, Rose,” she stopped, and I saw the glittering of liquid on her cheeks, “it’s over.”

I fell to the ground and felt my whole world fall unbalanced. The bedroom door shut behind her and a loud crack of lightning sounded outside my window and I sobbed. I heard the talking underneath me about the randomly appearing storm.

I threw myself onto my bed and smothered my cries into my pillow. This was my fault. All of it was my doing. Thanks to me, Week was injured, Lizzie was leaving, and I felt so broken and torn to pieces that I couldn’t breathe.

I heard a soft knock on the door as someone entered the room. They closed the door and sighed before sinking into the bed next to me. It was far enough away that they couldn’t touch me, but close enough that I knew they were there.

“It’s alright, sweetheart, I’m here. I know I’m not your mother, but I don’t mind being a replacement until you feel better,” the soft voice said, I looked up to face Marissa. Her face was softer than when I first met her and her eyes weren’t glowing angry, instead, they reminded me of a mother trying to calm a child. Without a second thought, I threw myself into her and let the sobs come naturally.

I felt Marissa tense up for a second before running her fingers through my hair. She started humming something that I could only remember in a bit of darkness. I let myself begin to calm down slowly as the voices inside began to soften to a whisper from their harsh screaming.

“Your mom was so obsessed with this room being perfect,” she started after I had calmed, a small smile had graced her features as she looked around the room. “She used to say that red, white, and pink were the only colors that she would allow for your room. She wanted to make you and your father happy for when he came back to see you.”

I paused at her words and looked up at her face. It was light, but there was a twinge of jealousy and hurt in it. “You knew my father?”

“Not personally, but I had known enough to know how special you are. I’m sorry for how I acted when we first met, but I was upset to see how much more you resembled your father rather than your mother.”

I sat next to her as a single tear rolled down her cheek. I reached over and wiped it away before turning away from her.

“You have both their eyes. The silver was your mothers, but the blue was most definitely your father. Your hair was your mom, but your facial features are all your father.”

I nodded at her words and finally noticed a picture of a man and woman standing staring at each other. The woman reminded me of the woman I had been told was my mom while the man seemed foreign to me. He didn’t look at all like me, instead he reminded me of Lavender.

Marissa must have noticed where I was staring because she captioned the picture for me. “That was your mother’s promised. That’s Lavender’s father. He died not too long before your mother and father met. Lavender was about two when he passed.”

I nodded and suddenly felt extremely exhausted.

“Go to sleep, little Rose. I’ll be here when you wake,” Marissa sighed as I laid down into the bed. I nodded and felt myself dozing off. The last thing I heard was Marissa humming the song from earlier before I fell victim to the darkness.