This House Is Not A Home: Bleeding Heart (Scomiche) (Troyler) (Kavi)

Chapter 18 - Sacrifice

"Experiments." He said very quietly as if someone was listening. "He did them to her."

I shut my eyes. Things were piecing together more quickly. I saw Catherine, young and beautiful talking to Eddie in the hallway. His tone was charming and he spoke of helping the boys in the house. She was obviously impressed. I saw the desperation in her eyes, something she probably picked up from losing her husband, Gregory's father. He moved a stray piece of hair from her face and her cheeks flushed pink. She smiled wide and looked down to the ground so he wouldn't see. A flash of evil took over his face.

I looked at Gregory and his eyes looked back at mine, darker rimmed and serious.

"After the fire I knew everything." I whispered. "He's the one that took my Mom away. He did something to mess her up and then didn't do anything to stop it from getting worse."

"He didn't really love her."

"He loved her when she was crazy."

I swallowed back the disgust and shook my head. "When did the magic start?" I looked up and around the room.

"When she started getting sick. She said she had to get help. She went and saw a witch."

"Where?"

He shrugged. "Salem." He said. "The woman gave her the book and told her to write down things. She gave her a book about magic. Good magic. But my Mom said it wasn't enough. It wasn't helping her. She went back and talked to people until someone gave her what she wanted."

"The book she had?"

"She started to learn Latin...and wrote down whatever she thought she could use from the book. Eddie found it and took it. He wanted to learn too."

"He does it too?"

Gregory shook his head. "No, he didn't understand it. Whatever he did to my Mom made her understand better. He fell in love with the fact that he created something that could learn all that evil so quickly."

I imagined a messy Catherine standing in Eddie's office doorway. She had a scab under one eye and scratches on her face. Her hair was matted and Eddie pushed a stray piece away once again. He smiled and a flash of evil crossed her face.

"She loved him back?" I asked.

"Not by the end." He said. "By the end she hated him but it was too late. She already cast the spell."

"So when he killed himself..."

"He wasn't really going to be dead and he knew that." He said. "He set it up so Natalie found him. He knew she would do something she wasn't supposed to."

"Your Mom put the spell on herself?"

He shook his head. "She didn't want to." He said. "I know that now..."

"Did you speak to her?" I asked him. "She didn't seem all there."

His eyes looked down towards the floor, looking far away. "Only in pieces. But I can see things like you can. I can see everything that happened." He looked up at the symbols. "She did this for a reason."

"Why?"

He pointed towards the door and it opened, and the four frantic boys were rushed into the room.

Nathaniel. Timothy. Robert. Gregory.

It faded to dark and the room was encased in nighttime. Gregory looked up at his Mom and pleaded she let him out but she just touched his forehead and lightly pushed him back into the room. She knocked off the door handle and slammed the door, all while looking directly at Gregory's eyes. Gregory screamed and knocked on the door before turning around to face the other boys.