↳ ❝ [TAG, YOU'RE IT] ¡! ❞
CHAPTER 4.
by notanotherwinchester
TW FOR ABSENT/DRUNK MOTHER AND TALKS OF ABUSE
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in which
ATHENA HAD LEARNED THAT NIGHT TO NOT TAKE GOOD THINGS FOR GRANTED.
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Athena was an optimist. She had thought when she heard a scream, maybe her little sister had been scared by Chris. Or maybe she screamed because she saw a spider. But of course, luck was never in her favor. Her father left her family when she was still a toddler, and her mom was always anywhere else but home. Her whole life had been anything but lucky. Even when she went to the arcade to play one of those whack-a-mole games where she'd try to guess which hole the mole would come out of, she always was wrong.
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AND AFTER THAT NIGHT FILLED WITH GRIEF, ANGER, AND LOSS, THE CASTEELS NEEDED A NEW SLATE. Portland, Oregon hadn't been good for them, as many horrible things happened in that one house. The abuse the children endured by their stepfather, the killings of Chris and Amara, and the breaking point of Michael Casteel, it was all too much. That's why when their mother came back from the bar much later that night, she'd find a note on the kitchen counter.
Dear Mom,
It's Laila. I left with Reagan and Athena,
Amara and Chris were killed by Michael,
he shouldn't bother us ever again.
You may think "Oh, what did I do to deserve this?" You weren't our mother. You were always gone, leaving ME and Chris to take care of the kids on our own, with no money, and no job. You were supposed to be my mother. You were supposed to tell me everything was going to be okay, or that you'd get better, but you never did. I was 13 when dad left. You went off to the bar, while I was stuck at home, stressed out of my mind trying to think of what to do to support my siblings. I WAS 13. I didn't get to have my childhood. I didn't get to go to daddy-daughter dances or worry about my homework. I had to worry about what I was going to make for dinner for my little sisters who were confused about where their mommy went.
You were never there. Now you can suffer like how we did. How Michael did. He needed help, but you weren't around to see it, now were you? Try and find us, you can't. I placed a spell on us to hide our locations. Have a nice life, alone.
Bye,
Laila
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WHILE LAILA WROTE THE NOTE ANGRILY WITH ATHENA LEANING OVER HER SHOULDER TO READ IT, Reagan had sat on the floor, playing with her teddy. She was clueless to the tears in her older sister's eyes, or the sympathetic expression on Athena's face. Laila angrily scribbled the last part of the letter and picked it up, walking over to her brother. She ripped the blindfold off his eyes and shoved the note in his face.
"Even after all you did, I still defended you. You don't deserve my kindness, nor my sympathy. That's why you're going to stay here and rot. For the rest of your sad, pathetic life." Michael had a face of deviance as he thought of all the ways to escape.
Laila noticed this and laughed sarcastically. "Oh! My bad, I forgot something," She grabbed the knife off the counter and turned to Athena, the note still scrunched in her hand.
"Go outside with Reagan," She ordered, looking at Athena with a look in her eye she normally wouldn't of recognized, but that night she did.
"But-" Athena started, getting cut off by Laila who opened the back door with a swish of her hand and pointed her head in the direction. Athena shuffled on her feet with a conflicted expression on her face before stomping and groaning, picking up Reagan.
Michael looked at the interaction and laughed hoarsely. "Even after all that happened, you still never changed," He stated, looking up at his twin with a look.
Laila scoffed. "You never even knew me. You thought you did, but you didn't. I went through the same shit you did, but I didn't turn out a sociopath as you did."
Michael pursed his lips and nodded. "Fair enough."
Laila raised a cocky eyebrow at him, looking at him in amusement then she remembered who she was talking to. "Shut up," She ordered her annoying brother.
"No."
She sighed and got up from her kneeling on the floor, walking up the stairs and heading to her room. Her door to her bedroom opened with a flick of her hand. The blonde ran a shaky hand through her hair and looked down at her empty hand. She forgot the note downstairs. Laila brushed it off, looking for her spellbook, not knowing that her twin was reading it downstairs.
Michael read the whole note slowly, taking in all his twin had said. As he read, he felt something wet drip from his eye. Thinking it was blood again, Michael sighed and wiped it away, peering down at his finger. But there was no red. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he twisted his finger around.
"What is that?" He questioned no one in particular under his breath.
"That's tears." Laila suddenly called out, making his head snap up. She was on one of the stairs, a book clutched in her arms. She walked down the creaky stairs, wincing at the noises that emitted from the wood, and set her book down on the kitchen counter.
"Who knew you could show emotions other than murderous tendencies and anger?" She added on bitterly, making sure her words hit him hard. And they did.
Michael looked down in shame and bit his cheek. "I never wanted to do this, you know."
Laila turned around from the counter and gave him an unamused laugh. "Oh, so you didn't mean to kill our brother and our little sister? That makes a lot of sense." She said as she opened the book to a page she had bookmarked and read the words.
"How to trap a human in an animal's body, blah, blah, blah. Ah hah! There it is."
The blonde witch finally came across what she was looking for and got up after reading the spell a couple of times in her head.
"I don't know why I did it, okay? It's like... I snapped." He said slowly, looking at his twin with a look in his eyes that usually would've made her tremble with fear, had it been a complete and utter psychopath like Michael Myers.
Laila outstretched her hand towards Michael and looked at him, smiling at him falsely.
"Have fun in hell." Was all she said as she immediately started revising an incantation. Michael's eyebrows furrowed as he pushed and pulled against the ropes, no tear ripping from the tightly tied rope. Michael looked up at his sister in fear as she kept speaking.
"Sanguinem filio, sanguinem effurgarex perpetuum. Sanguinem filio, sanguinem effurgarex perpetuum. Phasmatos filio, Phasmatos effurgarex perpetuum." Laila spoke louder as she opened an eye to peer at her twin, blood running from her nose. Her vision started to darken as she recited the spell even louder. Michael screamed out in pain as he desperately tried to free himself from the rope. The lights in the house flickered rapidly, trembling. Laila pushed through the headache pulsing through her head and raised her hands to her chest, practically yelling as she said the final words to the spell.
The blonde boy screamed out loudly as pain shot through his body, making him convulse on the floor. He looked up at his sister, begging her to stop the spell, but she continued and said the last incantation, looking him right in the eye as she did.
A bright light enveloped Michael's eyesight, his body disappearing from the floor. Laila sighed in relief and dropped to the floor soon after.
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Athena waited outside with her sister as she anxiously paced back and forth. She hadn't heard from her sister and was starting to get truly nervous. Once the lights started flickering in the house and the wind picked up drastically, the 12-year-old decided to go inside. Reagan walked right behind her, holding onto her hand tightly.
Athena opened the back door and looked around. After seeing nothing, she looked behind her and motioned Reagan to follow. The young girl slowly walked to the living room where she saw Michael's body gone, and Laila on the floor, blood falling from her nose and staining her jean jacket. Athena dropped her sister's hand and raced to Laila, shaking her body.
"Laila!" She yelled out, praying that this was just a joke. That her sister wasn't on the floor, bleeding out. Dead. Reagan appeared from the corner and laid her eyes on her older sister's body. The young girl screamed in fright as she rushed over to her body as fast as she could.
"Laila?" She whispered to her, shaking her body after Athena had pulled away and ran two hands through her own brunette hair. Athena took shaky breaths as her heart raced rapidly.
No, no, no, no, no, no!
She yelled at herself in her head, already recognizing what was going to happen. Hot tears streamed down Athena's face as her eyes kept straying to her lifeless sister. The brunette sobbed loudly into her hand and looked away.
Athena's heart rate sped up, drumming in her ears as she wept on her kitchen floor. Athena grabbed Reagan and hugged her tightly, both of them crying in each other's arms.
That was when Athena had finally lost all control over her emotions. The lights shook inside the house, the trees outside swinging with the sudden wind. The young girl cried into her little sister's shoulder, her whole body shaking.
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a/n sorry for this chapter yall🥲 totally didn't shed a tear writing it