The Family Curse (Cursed Wanderers Series: Book 1)

Chapter 9 - The Hardship of Consciousness

 Chapter 9

The Hardship of Consciousness

“EVERYTHING WILL BE alright Oksana,” Matvei repeated for about the hundredth time while I kept on hitting my head on the wall by the front door.

            School had never really been a subject of stress for me, but that was before being aware that it would be crawling with mythical creatures. Because, as I had been graciously informed, this city was one of refuge and a bunch of freaking creatures were living among the humans, playing house.

            I turned around and threw my hands up in the air. “How can you be so sure?” I exclaimed. “I could get kidnapped and dragged into some warehouse and get eaten for all we know!”

            Pavel, with one strap of his backpack lazily swung over one shoulder, walked towards the door, “Don’t be silly,” he said, slipping in his shoes, “there aren’t any ghouls around, and even if there were, they have to stick to corpse, otherwise we’d kill them.”

              I narrowed my eyes at him. “That makes me feel so much better.”

          Matvei scowled my cousin momentarily and then looked back at me with kind eyes. “Look Oksana, you’ll be fine. Pasha and Hugo will be in most of your classes and Marisha will be there too, and there are other suprahuman in the school that will see you with them and know that they have to behave around you. Nothing’s going to happen.” I know what he said should have made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but no, things just didn’t work that way.

             “You deliberately put my life in peril!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air again.

          That bastard was trying to hold back his laughter—I could see it because the corner of his eyes always crinkled when he laughed, just like Semyon’s did. “Look,” Matvei said, taking a step towards me, “if you don’t want to go, it’s fine, don’t go. I just assumed… you’d want to have a life as normal as it can be, curse aside.”

          I sighed. What was I supposed to answer to that? And it was weird to have someone actually caring about that kind of stuff for me. A normal life. Nobody ever cared about me having a normal life. It was kind of nice in a way.

          “Now, come on let’s go. Don’t want to be late on your first day of school, do you?” Pavel urged me, trying to push my back, but I quickly shied away from his touch. He just shrugged and headed outside, Marina quickly following after him, while I just stood there, awkwardly swaying on my feet, looking everywhere but at Matvei that obviously wanted to say something, or maybe—oh the dread—hug me!

          I got the hug part right though, because Matvei tentatively took a step forward, his arms slightly opening. I gazed around, panicking, trying to find a weapon close to bash his head with it, but then reasoned with myself. What is wrong with you dude, that’s your dad, he’s not going to try to grope you god dammit, you aren’t in HillBillyTown.

          Very slowly, always making sure I wasn’t going to deck him I think, Matvei wrapped his arms around my shoulder, giving me an awkward hug, while I stayed stiff—okay well I patted his side a little, to let him know I wasn’t going into shock, and then we both stepped back quickly. I was sure that to any outside people watching this happen it would have been hilarious.

          “Maybe if you don’t get killed by anything, tonight we could go out to eat, to celebrate your first day of school,” Matvei asked, looking unsure. I think that deep down, he really wanted to take me out and have some father/daughter bonding time, and I couldn’t argue with the logic. He had been nothing but kind and understanding with me so far. I should really try to make more of an effort, starting by acknowledging he was my father maybe.