❝Sometimes, when you don't ask questions,
it's not because you're afraid that someone will lie to your face.
It's because you're afraid they'll tell you the truth❞
ｊｏｄｉ ｐｉｃｏｕｌｔ
___
Ｉ turn back around so I am facing the door. I gently push it till I hear the soft clicking sound telling me it's closed. I stay there for a moment, staring at the door.
"Who are you?" I ask bluntly.
I hear the soft clicking of a pair of heels walking towards me.
"Morgana." She said simply.
I turn around to face the woman. Morgana had a hand outstretched, waiting for me to shake it.
Instead, I stare at her, taking in her cold, dark eyes to her dark clothes and ebony skin and her black hair in a pristine bun on the top of her head.
She raises an eyebrow, looking down at our hands then back up to my eyes.
I give in. "Lucy. Br-"
"Emma, you don't have to lie to me." She interrupts calmly, "I helped choose your name."
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. She knew my real name. That meant she was important, but that's not what caught my attention. "What?"
"Brandson was a bit of a play on words." She continued as if it explained anything. "Tell me Emma, do you speak Swedish?"
"I thought Brandson was my mother's maiden name."
Morgana shoots me a look that almost resembled sympathy, "Is that what they told you?"
I open my mouth to reply but close it again. I throw a questioning look at my uncle and aunt. "Is this true?"
For a moment, neither of them reply. I take my jacket off, and hang it then start pacing around the room.
Uncle Ted stood up, "Em, honey." He began in a low voice. "I think you'll want to sit down for this."
I pause, midway through running a hand through my dirty blonde hair. Aunt Victoria stands up as well, a worried look on her face. I exchange glances with my relatives. I exhale heavily, nodding silently before going to take a seat.
They all wait till I am quiet before they sit down too.
"Emma, do you remember anything from your childhood?" Morgana asks. I look at her in surprise. She sounded almost hesitant. "Before you moved in with your aunt and uncle?"
Aunt Victoria and Uncle Ted inhale sharply at her question. I throw them questioning glances before replying. "No, not really." I admit slowly, "But what does this have to do with anything?"
Morgana scrutinises my aunt and uncle for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. "Seeing as neither of them plan on telling you, I will." She turns back to face me. "Emma, you have abilities."
"And what are these abilities?" I ask, trying to keep my voice from breaking as I spoke.
Morgana hesitates for a second before replying. "You have... Fire powers." She states almost as if it pained her to put it in that way.
"Excuse me?" I raise my eyebrows in surprise. I don't know what I expected her to say, but it wasn't that. I try to laugh it off me. No one joins me. I shut up.
"Obviously, if not controlled, your abilities can be extremely dangerous. Usually we are able to help people like you earlier but your relatives weren't very eager on letting you go."
I turn to the aforementioned people. They both avoid my stares. The sound of shuffling paper brought my attention back to Morgana.
"You may have noticed your condition has been worsening over the past year." Morgana continues, pausing her rifling through the papers to make quotation marks with her fingers.
I moved closer to where she sat to take a closer look at the papers. They were articles. Articles covering all the unexplained disasters that have been happening over the past year. Disasters that usually happen shortly before I fell into a coma. The coma that was supposed to be a defect of the accident that had killed my parents.
Morgana is still talking about who knows what but I am no longer listening. My eye catches on heading in particular.
MYSTERIOUS FIRE NEARLY BURNS DOWN LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL.
I stand abruptly. Morgana stops her rambling to look at me. My relatives stop avoiding my gaze to shoot me looks of concern.
"You mean that was me?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
Somehow Morgana manages to catch my words, "We can help you. At my school."
She wasn't denying it. I look to my relatives in desperation. They weren't denying it either. I run a hand through my hair again, "What school?"
"We have other people. Similar to you-" Morgana tries to explain.
"Wait, you mean you're telling me that I am this, ...thing, this freak, your only solution is to send me away?" I look directly at my Aunt and Uncle.
"Emma..." Aunt Victoria begins, standing up to walk to me.
"No." I back away, "I came home today, after a freak explosion at the parade. And now all I think is that it could be my fault."
"What?" Aunt Victoria stops abruptly. Uncle Ted furrows his eyebrows. Morgana frowns.
"Emma, what happened..." Uncle Ted asks slowly, rising as well.
I shake my head. I keep on backing away until I reach the doorway. "It doesn't matter."
"Em!" Aunt Victoria calls again, but I'm already up the stairs and locked away in my room.
❧
It didn't make any sense. It didn't sound plausible, real.
Yet, at the same time, it explained everything.
I have been lying on my bed, staring at my ceiling for the last ten minutes. There used to be stars stuck on my ceiling. Hundreds of little ones that glowed in the dark. I took them off a couple years ago, when I started having the dreams. They reminded me too much of my old house.
I sighed, rolling so I lay on my side, facing my open laptop.
Ten minutes ago- before I began staring at the ceiling, I was online searching everything about any other mysterious fires or explosions in Haven. They all followed the same pattern. I tried searching Morgana but I realised I didn't know her last name or the name of her school. I regretted not staying till the end of Morgana's talk.
They were still talking downstairs. Even though I walked out over half an hour ago. Morgana was still there.
Morgana, who was probably the only one who could tell me the answers to all of the questions running through my head. Morgana who might just be able to explain everything that didn't make any sense. Morgana, who was about to leave any moment now, if the conversation downstairs was any indication.
I take a deep breath, making my decision in that instant. I jump off my bed and run down the stairs just as Morgana and my relatives are saying their goodbye.
"Wait." I say.
The three turn to me curiously, their conversation immediately forgotten.
"Yes, Miss Sparke?" Morgana inquires, raising an eyebrow.
"I'll do it. I'll think about going to your school."
"You will?" Aunt Vic and Uncle Ted ask in unison, their voices both full of shock mixed with surprise.
"Yes." I nod firmly, "In return for some real answers."
Morgana stares at me for a moment, considering my offer.
A man in a black suit and dark tinted glasses walks in next to Morgana. "Ms Noble. We have to leave in the next five minutes if we want to make it to your next appointment today." He informs.
Morgana spares a glance at the man, responding with a curt nod of her head.
She turns back to me. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"That seems like a reasonable compromise." She replies with an approving nod, "I suppose I'll be seeing you all again soon."
"I suppose so." I reply, watching her wait as her bodyguard opens the door. Morgana stops again and turns to face us.
"Victoria, Edward. Till we meet again." She says to my aunt and uncle, nodding her head at each respectively.
"Morgana." Uncle Ted responds with a nod of his own. Aunt Vic simply replies with a tight smile and a small wave of her hand.
I stare quietly, wondering why none of them could simply say 'goodbye'. A moment later there was a soft click of the door closing behind Morgana and her bodyguard. And then, the revving of a car leaving our driveway. I was sure there hadn't been one when I arrived. Perhaps, it had been parked somewhere else.
I turned my attention back to my aunt and uncle who were both staring at me intently.
"Are you okay?" Aunt Victoria asks. I ignore her, turning to face my uncle.
"Ted stands for Edward?"
To say my relatives were surprised would be an understatement. "Is... that the only question you have?" He replies, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"No, but I doubt I'd be getting any real answers from either of you." I respond before exiting the room again.
"Em-" Aunt Vic tries to call my name again but stops short.
At least she realised that right now, it wouldn't make a difference.