"You're lying to me! Why are you lying? After we took you in without question?"
"I'm not lying!" Agatha shouted back.
Elizabeth jabbed a finger at her. "You have that same look, just like when we were kids and you said we wouldn't get in trouble, and we always did. When you talked me into mischief...You're up to something, tell me! Where were you for six months?!"
Elizabeth and Agatha were seated on a stone bench in the garden, until Elizabeth jumped up and spun to face her cousin as she shouted, her cheeks and the tips of her ears tinged pink.
Agatha's shoulders slumped. "I have become a Banshee. I made a deal with an older Banshee. I had to, I would have died..."
"No! I don't want to hear one of your stories...Banshees and fairies and nonsense! Tell me the.."
Agatha mumbled a spell under her breath. A spell that caused her glamour to vanish, revealing her real appearance, with long glistening white hair that floated and moved around her head as though she were underwater. Agatha tried to keep her expression neutral as she gazed at Elizabeth with ruby eyes.
Elizabeth screamed and backed away so quickly her feet tangled in her skirt and she fell on the stone pathway.
Elizabeth covered her mouth, eyes wide as they could go. Agatha felt like time slowed to a crawl, as she waited to hear what Elizabeth would say.
'Who...what are you..." Elizabeth stammered in a whisper.
Agatha closed her eyes and whispered the words of the spell to restore her glamour.
"It's ok! I know it's a shock."
Elizabeth didn't move or speak, just sat there staring, taking shallow gasping breaths.
"You can't tell anyone, I'll explain everything, but please, you must..."
"Elizabeth!" The voice of her father Denis was raised in alarm as he hurried over and helped his daughter to her feet. "What happened? I heard you scream!" Denis spoke to his daughter, but his gaze was narrowed on Agatha.
"I'm fine, Papa. I saw a mouse, it scared me so badly I tripped trying to run from it."
Agatha breathed a quiet sigh of relief. I'll make this up to you, somehow.
Denis turned and helped his daughter to her feet. "If there are mice in the garden, we'll have to set out traps."
"Or get a cat," Agatha offered.
Denis turned and looked at her coldly. "I don't care for cats. Filthy, sneaky beasts."
"Come inside, Elizabeth," Denis said as he turned his back and walked into the house with Elizabeth by his side.
Agatha followed more slowly. He isn't overtly hostile, He allows me to live here, but he could just as easily cast me out in the street if he chose.
When she entered the house, Elizabeth was walking up the stairs, and Denis was sitting on a cushioned bench near the back door. When he saw Agatha, he motioned for her to have a seat on a nearby stool.
"Agatha, I wanted to speak with you about your position in this house. Please have a seat."
"I have no problem with you being here, I am happy to give a place to a poor homeless relative of my wife's family. But, I do have some requests to make of you, in return for our generosity," Denis said as he pulled a folded sheet of paper from the pocket of his vest.
"I wrote out a list of daily chores that I want you to complete, in addition to your duties to Elizabeth."
She slowly took the paper from his outstretched hand.
Denis stood and began to walk away, as he said, over his shoulder. "Report to Elsa, the cook in the kitchen, at sunrise tomorrow. She is aware of the duties I've given you."
This was often the way of wealthy people.
Agatha climbed the stairs to Elizabeth's room on the second floor. I won't say anything about the conversation with her father, it will do no good, and only cause a possible rift in the family.
She knocked on Elizabeth's closed door and waited until Elizabeth gave her permission to enter.
"Are you alright, Cousin? I know that must have given you a shock."
"So you are a Banshee. How did this happen?" Elizabeth watched her with wide eyes, seated on the edge of her bed, leaning slightly away from Agatha like a bird about to take flight.
Agatha sighed, and then told Elizabeth the entire story of her encounter with the Banshee.
"That is where I was for the missing six months, in Sheehough Forest to the East, learning how to alter my appearance to look human. Time moves slower in the fairy realm, so it only seemed like a single day to me, there. I haven't quite mastered it, people can tell I'm different."
She went on to tell Elizabeth about the woman in the Inn.
"Oh, Agatha, you must be careful! What if she tells someone? Inns are hotbeds for all types of news and gossip."
Agatha's mouth turned down. "I hadn't thought of that, I just wanted to ask her why she suspected. I think I give away clues, when I become emotional, like afraid, or sad. It doesn't happen all the time."
"Too often, I'm sure."
The cousins sat in silence for a moment, thinking.
"I have an idea, you have to learn to control your emotions better."
"Elizabeth, that is hard enough for a human, even more so for a Banshee, we are wired to outwardly express our strong emotions."
"I see. Wait, I have a question...will you age?"
Agatha shook her head. "I will appear to be this age forever."
Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Another difficulty! How will we explain that?!"
Agatha smiled in response to Elizabeth's use of the word "we."
"I'm sure that we will think of something brilliant."
Agatha collapsed to the floor, folding herself over and placing her face in her hands. Her body trembled, wracked with sobs. She pressed her fists to her mouth, struggling to quiet her own wails.
"Oh Elizabeth, you don't understand how horrible it has been, how lonely!" Agatha stammered between loud sobs.
Elizabeth got up and put her arms around her, patting her back in an attempt to comfort her. "It will be alright, dear Cousin Aggie. You are with family now, we will take care of you. You're not alone."
Elizabeth wept with Agatha, her tears wetting her cousin's hair.
"I'll never see them again, they are in Heaven, but I am stuck here, and will be, forever." Agatha's voice was high-pitched and cracked over nearly every word she spoke.
"It was horrible, and so sudden. If it had been my parents, I would be devastated, too. Mother wept bitterly the night I told her, when you arrived."
Elizabeth meant for her words to be empathetic and comforting to her, but she was at a loss when Agatha shook and wailed even harder.
The sound must have carried, because in a few moments, Elizabeth's mother gently tapped on the door, and, opening it a crack, peeped in. "Is she alright?" She asked Elizabeth.
Agatha cried for a while, and Elizabeth and Eleanore did their best to comfort her.
"Agatha, you took good care of them at the end, as much as you were able to. You'll see them again someday, as I will. My sister lived a happy life, and though she suffered briefly, she isn't suffering now," Aunt Eleanore said, her eyes filling up with tears. She started to say more, but she was wracked by a coughing fit, ending with her spitting blood into a handkerchief and putting it away quickly. "I'm sorry girls, I must go back to bed."
Agatha watched Eleanore leave quickly and close the door behind her, then turned her gaze to Elizabeth, who would not meet her gaze. "She'll get better," Elizabeth said.
"Thank you for being so calm, I think we should get some sleep," Agatha said. "Yes, I'm sure you're right.
It seemed as though Agatha had just fallen asleep when there came a rapid knocking on her bedroom door. She got up stiffly, still wearing her dress from the day before, and opened the door to find the young English maid. She was holding an old tattered blue apron which she thrust into Agatha's hands.
"Follow me," the maid said in a clipped tone and turned on her heel.
Agatha was bewildered for a moment, then she remembered what Denis had said last evening. Yawning, she followed the maid to the kitchen.
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Author's Note
Thank you so much for reading! I'm getting "Wails in the Night" ready to publish, so I want it to be as polished as possible; please help me out by leaving a critique on each chapter!
Also, what did you think of the emotional scenes in this chapter? Did they work, or did they seem to be flat, or hollow? Would it be better to change it so that Agatha DOESN'T reveal her secret to Elizabeth, and as a result, the tension increases, between the cousins?
Thanks so much!
~ Annie