"You know about me, what do you know? What do you know of our kinds? What are you? Tell me," I demanded.
"Let me down, let me go you freak. I don't know what you are talking about, " she angrily told me.
She was then back to normal and if it was anyone else telling me how she changed a while back I would have disagreed but I saw her myself, even if it was for a short while.
We had been going on like that for almost half an hour and it looked like neither of us was planning to give up sooner.
"I can clearly see this isn't working out. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use my plan b but you left me with no other choices," I told her and then dropped her down. She groaned when she hit the ground. Before she could wake up and run I nodded at Sherry and she immediately understood and moved behind me, away from Britney. I then looked at the candles and muttered some words before the fire started growing and started rotating in a cirle around her, in a ring manner. I made the circle with atleast one meter radius. I wasn't sure If I could do that, the last time I practised that trick was ten years ago with my birth mother.
"What the..?" she jolted up in shock after probably sensing the rise in temperature around her.
"Are you out of your mind, stop this madness!" she cried.
"Are you kidding me, we have just started" I shouted "How about I'll stop when you are ready to talk. Fair, isn't it?"
I then made the fire ring smaller and increased the intensity of fire, it now covered half of her body and it was atleast half meter radius. I continued like that untill it's length almost covered her. I was hoping she would talk already.
"Okay, okay. Fine. I'll talk," she finally yelled after a while. I reduced the height of the fire to her knee level and increase it's radius back to half a meter. I wasn't gonna put the fire out completely, it's Britney I was dealing with, she could have been tricking me to put down my guard.
"What are you waiting for? On your mark, ready and go sign?" I asked her, getting impatient.
"You want me to talk like this??" she asked in disbelief pointing at the ring of fire to make a point.
"Would you rather talk when it's above your height and much closer?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow. I was getting tired of that already.
"No," she answered faster "Ok, fine. I know that you are a witch. I knew that since that time in the library."
"How did you know?" Sherry asked her, moving closer to her but not so close.
"I just knew," she answered.
"You know that we have all night, right? It's just your choice if you want to spend it inside a fire ring," I smirked at her.
"Fine. I knew when I came in contact with you. You electrocuted me!" she accused me.
"No, I did not!" I defended myself. She just rolled her eyes.
"We will get back to that. Tell me first what are you? How could you do that?" I asked her.
"You probably already have that part figured out by now, seeing the look you gave me a while ago," she responded with an annoying look. "Now, will you let me go!!" she yelled.
"Not yet, say it with your mouth! Say it! What are you? How many of you are there, tell meeeee!!" I shouted at her angrily, I was now pissed at her. She wasn't my favorite person to begin with but then adding the fact that she was among those horrible creatures I loathed wasn't helping her case. I kept on decreasing the radius of the ring while increasing it's intensity. I could hear Sherry saying something but her voice...I couldn't hear any of her words.
I remembered how my birth parents were burnt infront of me and I could feel that pain, that helplessness I felt at that moment and the urge to burn her increased and.... and..
"Stop this madness right now Kayla!" I heard her voice, Betty's voice. There was no way I could have mistaken that. I felt something cold passing on my cheeks, was it tears?
I turned to the side where I heard the voice to see her standing there with Luke and Kyle in each of her sides. They were all looking at me in disbelief or so, I couldn't tell exactly. But they knew, all that long they knew, the look on their faces said it all, they weren't surprised at what I was at all. Did Britney tell them that I was a witch and that's why they no longer wanted to be involved with me? With this freak? This monster?
"Kayla calm down, you are hurting her. Let her go!" Luke told me. "This isn't you Kayla, you are not a kind of a person to hurt others, let her go."
"Then what kind of a person am I? The one to be hurt by others?" I asked him in disbelief.
"That's not what he meant," Betty said.
"Oh.. so now you are even defending each others," I scoffed.
"Kayla, listen to me. You know I never lie, it's not what you think, you were mistaken. We will explain everything if you let her go. Please let her go," Kyle told me with the most begging look I have ever seen.
I let her go then, I stopped it. Sherry ran to me and hugged me. Luke, Betty and Kyle all ran to Britney to look at her. She wasn't burnt, I knew that much. The ring was very close but not close enough to burn her. Her face and clothes were covered in smoke and some part of her clothes burnt a little but that was all. She was coughing a lot and I could see she was in disbelief with what happened, she never thought I could actually really try to burn her. Well I wasn't.
* * * * *
We were currently in my car but Kyle was the one driving us home. Sherry and I sat in the back seat. Luke offered to drive us home but I refused and insisted that I would drive myself, Kyle offered instead or more like he declared that he would drive us. He knew that I was most uncomfortable with Luke and Betty, not him. Luke had to send Britney and Betty home instead. We didn't talk at all after our little fire incident, I just declared that we should all meet tomorrow. I had enough in that day which they all agreed and then we all left.
"How did you know what was going on? How did you all three know to come?" Sherry asked Kyle.
"Ah about that, we were together at Betty's today and Luke happened to saw the text I sent to Britney. He demanded I tell him what it is for so I told him, Betty heard and told us you already finished your play project last week and that it was a lie. So we knew something was fishy and then we decided to come and check," Kyle explained.
"Oh...I am sorry I used you," Sherry told him.
"No, it's no big deal. I would have done the same if I were you," he assured her.
We then went back to the dead silence we had before. After a while which felt like a year we reached our house. I thanked Kyle and got out as fast as I could. I ran to my room and locked the door, I wanted to be alone. After a while I heard Sherry trying to knock and I immediately felt bad for running like that and lock the door. She must have been worried and it was not fair to her, she had been beside me all that time. With that thought I ran to the door and opened it, I hugged her. She was taken a back by my sudden change of mood but she hugged me back.
"I'm sorry for being selfish and thank you for always being here," I told her.
"What do you mean selfish, you are the most unselfish person I know," she argued.
"But you don't know a lot of people, you don't even have friends," I argued back. She gave me a look and we glared at each others before we both fall on a fit of laughter. A forced laugh on my part. I was too sad for a real laugh.
"You should rest, I know you need it. I understand that you need to be alone to process everything and clear your mind so don't worry about me and get some rest," she told me after a while.
I was thankful for that, I hugged her one last time before saying good night to her and went back in my room. I cried myself to sleep that night.
* * * *
I got off the bus and watched it as it disappeared. The place still looked as deserted as that night. I looked around, even the few scattered house which used to be there were no where to be seen. I guess everyone got tired of living on the countryside. I could see the old half burnt abandoned house I used to live in few meters away. I started walking towards the house and I remembered those many times I got back to school and ran on this same road to our house. My school was very far away from home but then again everything was very far away, not so many people used to live here and so all the social services were too far. Mother used to say that we have to live here where no one can easily find us for our safety. I reached at the front of the house and stared at it for a while. I could feel tears threatening to run down my cheeks. I kneeled down and touched the sand.
"Father, mother I am here now. Sorry I am late," I said and closed my eyes. That was where my parents were burnt alive, that was where their souls are rested.
"I came to properly show you how I grew up and to thank you. I also came to say sorry for letting you down," I paused and shed a single tear that fell down on my cheek. I am a big girl, and big girls don't cry.
"Maybe you had too much faith on me. I am not as strong as you thought, you said I'll be the end of them, you said I'll bring the end to their existance but yesterday I...I couldn't do it. My mind kept on telling me to do it and I thought I would do it but I didn't. They are bad creatures, they kill people you said but I found one yesterday and I did nothing. I am sorry for letting you down, for dissapointing you. I'm really really sorry."
"Don't be, you can do better next time. It's not too late. You're the strongest witch of all times because you have a hunter blood in you," I heard a voice saying.
I opened my eyes and abruptly stood, I looked around but there was no one. I was all alone. But what was that? What did I hear? It was definitely her voice, my mother's voice but it was more like in my head. Was I imagining it? I didn't know, I wasn't sure.
I missed her, I missed them. I never knew this before but I really missed them. With ten years that have passed one might think that the pain would be less but it was painful, very painful. I sighed deeply and sat down on the sand. I sat there doing nothing. I just sat there closing my eyes, feeling the sand, reviving every memory I had in that place.
The sound of my phone ringing was the one that brought me back into reality. I took my phone out to read the caller id, it was Sherry. Oh shit! I left home early inthe morning when she was still sleeping, I was going to leave a note but it slipped my mind.
"Where the hell are you!!??" she shouted as soon as I picked the call, I flinched.
"Well Good morning to you too," I replied.
"It's no time to be joking right now, with all that happened yesterday and then I woke up to not find you here, do you know how worried I was?" she said.
"I am really really sorry, I was going to leave a note but it slipped my mind. But I am on my way back. I'll be there in like four hours," I told her, saying the last part with the smallest possible voice hoping she wouldn't hear it.
"WHAT??" she must have heard then, " What do you mean four hours? Where exactly are you!" she demanded.
"I am in that place, I just wanted to come here for a while," I told her avoiding saying my parent's place or what it used to be. I felt like I was betraying her. Although I was adopted Sherry and I never really spoke about it, we have always considered ourselves as if we are blood related.
"What place are you talking about? What place would take you four full hours?" she paused before adding "Do you mean there? The place we found you last time?" I nodded before realising that she couldn't see me so I muttered a small yes.
"You should have told me then. I would have gone with you," she said and there was a hint of sadness in her voice. I wanted to tell her it was okay, but she beat me to it.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I am. Don't worry I am taking the bus now. I'll be there as soon as possible," I told her while getting up so that I can walk toward the bus stop, I am not sure if it is right to call it that way as it was in the middle of nowhere, even the roads were still sand roads.
"Okay, take care," she said and we said goobyes and then hang up.
After going there I felt ready, ready to embrace my fate. I was ready to hear the whole truth. But was I really?