Wonderful | wicked | book 2/3

Nessa

"Nessa please!" Elphaba begs, following me around as I take a candle into my lounge, "I don't want you to get hurt again."
I shake my head,
"Im doing the spell, you can either be here when I do it or not," I say forcefully, Elphaba throws herself at my feet.
"Nessa just promise me you will take no notice of her ramblings, she's confused."
"I won't," I promise truthfully, "I just need to talk to her again, then I'll be done with it."
Elphaba gets up from out of my way and I set the candle down onto my table.
"I'd really appreciate if you where there." I mumble "I'm sure mother would too."
Elphaba smiles and sits down on my sofa, she places her spell book onto the table.
For a few minutes I roll a question around in my head, I want to ask Elphaba about my childhood, before I can remember.
I want to know what it was like when I was a baby.
I just need to know to get some peace of mind before I speak to my mother one last time.
I have to know.

"I need you to tell me something," I say "what was father like when I was born, was he disgusted?" I say dryly.
Elphaba shakes her head frantically,
"Nessa he loved you!" She protests,
"That's not the question."
Elphaba sighs,
"He cried Ness, we all did, mother was gone and you looked like you were in so much pain... your legs." She interlocks her fingers as she says this, as if visualising how twisted my legs were.
"I wasn't allowed to hold you untill you were a month old, I could only watch as father hesitated to lie you down."
I start to cry, I've never asked about this before,
"Nessa do you want me to stop?"
I shake my head solemnly,
"No, I need to hear this."
Elphaba takes a deep breath and continues,
"Father took you to every doctor in Oz, they first tried to give you medication in hopes that your legs would continue to develop."
I know this part of the story, the part where the medication did nothing accept ruin my ability to fight away infection.
"Then they gave you leg braces."
"What?" I question, I never knew that they actually did anything, all those times I complained and moaned to Elphie about them.
I feel awfully silly.
"You wore them at night, until your legs grew straight, then finally I was allowed to hold you, father started to get less angry and worried..."
I wipe my eyes and sniff away my tears.
"Then..." I mumble,
"Then you got to the age of one, and you didn't learn to crawl, then two, then three and suddenly father started to hate me again..."
Elphaba sees the guilty look on my face and jumps up to hold my hands.
"But it's not your fault!" She reassures me.
"Thank you for telling me, I understand more now."
I squeeze her hands tightly, she smiles at me and I just about manage to smile back.
Elphaba perks up a bit, her face seems less tense and more relaxed.
She seems a bit more at peace.
"Elphaba," I whisper, unsure as to why I lowered my volume, "when you first held me, did you hate me?"
She looks up and mimics the motion of cradling a child in her arms, she looks down at them as if there is something there that I just simply can't see.
"Nessarose, when I first got to hold you, I didn't want to let go, I was so happy that you were okay. It was so simple to me then and there, that I was going to love you until the day I died." Elphaba takes a deep breath "the day father brought you that wheelchair I cried, I cried so much because I thought you wouldn't be happy."
I sniff away some tears that have begun to listen to Elphabas story,
"But Nessa, when I first got to push you around the garden and you cheered for me to go faster, was the greatest feeling in the entire world."
I chuckle to myself.
"I can hardly remember back then, everything felt so confusing to me then, how I would have felt so much better then knowing this is where we would end up."

It's been minutes, I said the spell, the candle is still burning orange and the room is still dark.
Neither of us know what to do, we're scared to speak, scared to breath.
This time Elphaba is sat in front of me, I glance down at her, almost trembling with anticipation.
I do hope I haven't messed it up.
"Nessa," Elphaba whispers "I don't think you said it right."
Oh god, not again, I don't have the best track record with saying spells correctly.
I shouldn't have tried to do this, I'm not ready.
I'm not capable.
Suddenly the candle glows white, Elphaba and I breath a frantic sigh of relief.
But just as all seems merry the candle starts to shake, it topples over onto its side and sends a roaring white flame racing across my carpet.
I scream and back away, shortly followed by Elphaba who waves her arms around in front of herself, seemingly trying to extinguish the flame.
The carpet, though on fire, doesn't seem to be burning, in fact the flame is dormant.
It gets slightly taller and brighter, I cover my eyes as the room fills with a piercing light.
Then darkness.
I slowly take my hands away from my face, the flames are gone, and In there place lies a woman.
A beautiful woman, with flowing brunette hair and a simple yet pretty face, she's wearing a white dress with horrible red staines around her legs and stomach.
Blood stains.
But this time instead of being able to see through this woman, I can see her perfectly, almost as if she's alive.