don't worry I haven't forgotten the story ;) just was on VK for a little bit but I'm back now though and so is a chapter. If you COMMENT COMMENT I'll dedicate the next chapter! Also this hasn't been edited, so feel free to point out grammar mistakes so I can fix em.
Before, in Millie's life, she'd been content — her sisters made her laugh and Drew would tickle her and throw her over her shoulder, and she could remember the happiness of being in her father's strong hands and her mother's lilac perfume. But the curse had always hung over her head, this hulking beast of destruction threatening to destroy her life.
After her parents had died, she'd always known, in the back of her mind, that someday, something would happen to her. She would fall in love and she would die, and her family would mourn her but they too would move on, and then the cycle would start up again.
Millie had always been aware her life had an expiration date.
But with Sam, she'd momentarily forgotten the curse and her life outside his car. She'd been truly, perfectly happy in that one moment...and had started the curse.
How beautifully ironic.
Millie put her head in her hands and her bag slipped off her lap, thumping against the floor. "Oh, my God, I'm so stupid."
"That's debatable," Brandon said, and she could feel him looking at her. She peeked out from between her fingers. "I'm still surprised Sam managed to start the curse." His smile was a borderline smirk. "I never thought he'd even get you to go out with him."
"It wasn't a date," Millie said almost automatically. She wasn't sure why she was being so defensive about it, really. Did it really matter if it was a date or just two people hanging out? Either way, Sam had managed to do something Millie had thought was previously impossible — make her completely happy.
It was something she thought she'd never experience.
Brandon's smile faded as if he was reading her thoughts. Immediately, she screwed up her nose and narrowed her eyes. If he was a witch, could he read her mind?
"I don't know what you're thinking," he said quickly.
Millie jumped, her hand rising to point a shaky finger at him. "And yet you know what I'm thinking."
"Too be fair, you're pretty easy to read." Brandon shrugged. "Look, I'm not trying to say I know anything about what you've been through or what's happened to you. I just know that right now, my best friend is involved in this. I wasn't even going to talk to you before..." Brandon looked away and cleared his throat. When he tilted is head, his eyes were glassy and his voice was rough. "But I love Sam, alright? And I'm not going to let him die just because he's ridiculously cool and managed to thaw your icy heart."
Millie didn't reply, mostly because he already knew the truth. Maybe Millie wasn't in love with Sam, but this was almost...worse. She'd caused her death, and maybe, at some point, possibly his, because of a second, a wisp, of happiness? At the very least, he shouldn't be dragged down with her because she was an emotional freak that had never been happy before.
Guilt crashed over her in waves. She didn't know how to fix what had happened, didn't know if she even could, but she had to try, right? If not for herself, for Sam and for her sisters and her uncle — even for Brandon, who, while managing to still be an asshole, made her heart stutter with grief, because he was right. Sam had done the unthinkable and had made her smile and now he was going to die.
Miss Tully, apparently tired of listening to the two teenagers talk, shifted on the couch across from them and cleared her throat loudly. Brandon and Millie both stared at her, twin looks of haunting on their faces.
"I think I should tell you a story." At the sound of Miss Tully's voice, Millie tensed up. The old woman was giving her an even, level stare. There wasn't a hint of pity — but empathy, and because of that, Millie found herself sitting up straighter. "Your mom probably never explained the curse to you, did she?"
"No," Millie said, shaking her head. She leaned down and grabbed her bag off the floor, and pulled out the newest diary. "She doesn't even talk about it much in here. This is the last one before she died."
Miss Tully regarded the diary for a moment before she jerked her chin toward Brandon. "Be a dear and look it over for me, Brandon. I think this story goes better without an audience."
Silently, almost solemnly, Brandon took the diary from Millie's hand and strode out of the room, his feet barely making a sound. He disappeared behind the dining room wall, and Millie heard a chair being pulled out, and someone sitting down. At the crack of a book opening, Millie slid her eyes to Miss Tully.
While she was feeling a little bit wary of handing off one of the few connections she had to her dead mother to a witch that didn't like her very much, she also knew she probably had to make some compromises if she wanted Miss Tully's help.
"So," Millie said. "A story?"
"I've never heard the full account from one person," Miss Tully replied, shrugging her shoulders as she folded her hands in her lap, twining her gnarled fingers together. "But I've heard different parts from different people over the years. Mind you, there will be some gaps in the story, since I don't have every detail. But this is what I have managed to gather." Miss Tully seemed to hesitate. "Are you sure you want to know this?"
"I have to know what happened."
"But once you do know, there is no going back."
Millie grimaced. "I don't think I can ever go back."
Miss Tully seemed to nod, conceding.
"A long time ago," she started, "a Clearwater met a Drake. I'd like to say that I know more about the two, but honestly, I don't know much about how they met or about what their relationship was like. It wasn't love at first sight, as I'm sure the families would like to tell it, but it was love of some kind. The boy, John Drake, could not seem to keep himself away from Moira Clearwater." Miss Tully smiled in a sad, disgruntled sort of way. "She was a lot like you, as I'm told, although at the time, she was just surly — she didn't have a curse hanging over her as you do."
Millie leaned forward, propping her chin in her hand as she watched Miss Tully look everywhere but at her. The old lady looked pale, her milky blue eyes glinting in the light.
"I'll spare you the details of their love affair; it was all run of the mill, cloak and dagger, secret rendezvous stuff. Moira was betrothed to a very rich local man, but she was deeply in love with John, whose family was quite poor. They went to their parents and told them they were in love, and that they wanted to be together. The Drake family gave their blessing, but the Clearwaters refused to accept this, and told the Moira that by the next night, she would be married."
At this part, Miss Tully rolled her eyes. She reached up, smoothing her hair back from her face, and sighed.
"Now, this is where it gets interesting," Miss Tully said, straightening her spine. "The Drakes helped their son and the Moira plan an escape. They were idealists, I suppose, and thought that love and happiness should prevail over money. Their escape should've happened without a hitch — they would load up their belongings and escape in the dead of the night, but something went wrong."
Millie found herself looking forward, lost in the story, almost picturing the grim scene as if she were in a movie theater. She could see a reddish-blonde haired girl and a tall, dark haired boy, trying to escape when no one was watching, because they loved each other — because it was what was right — and then...
"I can't explain or tell you why they were up there, but as I'm told, John's mother looked out the window of their home and through the darkness, she could make out two figures on top of the cliff — the one adjacent your home. A third figure joined them and, in the midst of an argument, a girl was either shoved or jumped off the cliff, into the water below."
Millie sat back suddenly, surprised by the gruffness of Miss Tully's voice and the horror of the story.
She knew exactly what cliff Miss Tully was talking about.
The last time she'd been there, she was six years old and was in the backseat of her parents' car. They kept talking about someone meeting us here, don't worry, sweetie, don't cry, it'll be okay, and it was raining pretty hard and then, a crack, a scream, and there was nothing beneath Millie's car anymore, and they were weightless and heavy at the same time and falling down, straight down.
"From what the woman saw, it seemed that the third person had immediately backed away before turning and running and then the last figure standing on the cliff jumped into the water. The next morning, John and Moira washed up on the shores."
Millie tried to imagine Mrs. Drake watching all this, having no clue that it was her son and the love of his life. She tried to imagine shaking her head and turning away from the window, only to wake up the next morning to find out that her son and his love had died while she watched.