CHAPTER 5- Story Time

"Where to begin?" I muse to myself, surprised my voice is smooth. The water must have done it. I don't feel like I have something scratching at the inside of my throat anymore and my lips are moist for the first time in weeks.

"How about the beginning." Baron's tone told me he accepted me as an ally, knowing we both care about protecting Bloom. I begin my tale from the very beginning, the days of my unspoken past. I smile, I know Master would be furious if he were here to hear me speak of it, to someone or just speak to someone in general. A part of me resents myself for smiling.

I start with my parents. "Well my dad- I mean Master. Well he hates me more than well anything in the world, I think it's because of what I am. I mean it was my fault that-"

"what are you?" Jake steps In. I realize I didn't tell them what I was in the secret excitement to tell someone, anyone, something. I've never been listened to like this.

"I'm a moon Spirit. A moon Spirit is a powerful being. They call us witches in the human world, but the only thing we are guilty of is having a special relationship with the natural energy flow of the world. It's nothing like they think; we don't have rituals or anything, we're just energy."

"Rumour has it they're always on the edge of extinction but, they're always somewhere, no one knows how... Moon Spirits are one of the strongest creatures in our world." liz was leaning inward, her ears perked. Liz is already excited with my life story. Her eyes however held a different story, they were distrustful, she wasn't sure if she believed in me regardless, of what I did for Bloom. That much is clear.

"Yes, we are endangered but no, not extinct. We are generally a docile, peaceful kind but even so we can defend ourselves from nearly all attackers, if we are trained to do so. There are few hundred left or so I've been told but I was never told as to why our population is getting so limited. I am a very special one or so my mother used to say. I happen to have the power to change anything, unlike others, I have no level of power I'm unable to open and use. I can control energy more than the others I suppose. Though I've been with Master since I was born so I don't know how to use my abilities. My mother knew but she didn't live long enough to tell me. We trained as long as we were able together. I never met another Moon Spirit besides her so I'm not quite sure what it all means…. She had to teach me a lot in the time she spent alive, how to speak and take care of myself she nearly had time for much else between my father and her illness. My mother taught me how to heal and told me stories of your world." My voice feels rough at the end. I am failing to fight the memories and the tears. This is much less exciting to talk about. Now, I just want to shut up and act as if it never happened but I can't stop short. I take a deep breath to try to assure my voice when suddenly there is a hand on my back. Liz, trying to sooth my pain, gently squeezes. Liz doesn't look at me, she doesn't smile, she just acts as if she's not doing it. Although shocked that I find comfort from this physical contact I also find sadness in knowing I haven't felt kindness since my mother was killed and I met Bloom.

I start to speak again, "Master, who is also my father, killed my mother because of me. Her illness is my fault, you see. He says that he was taking away her pain by killing her but he killed her in such a long, painful way … to ensure I knew it was my fault. He beat her as she raised me, I was beaten as well. She was beaten until Master got bored with her I guess, She was tied to a tree I was able to speak to her for a few minutes, I had been chained with her to that tree for weeks prior. I never thought I'd not want to leave it. She spoke and I was too choked up to say anything except 'sorry mommy' and she shushed me saying 'it's okay as long as you survive okay? Do that for me there are more alive, you have to find them and you and those two girls will save us all. Their names are Ellie and Mia, find them. You have a journey to accomplish so find them and find something to live for. I know you have the power to leave. You are more than you know, you are the hope in the world for me and I've tried my best to prepare you with knowledge but there is so much that-' She was cut off and I was dragged away to a tree across from her. She smiled at me. A tear fell from her check. Master tied me up tight and watched me cry for a second then he sewed moms mouth shut and her nose, for the fun of it. I was forced to watch her turn red, than purple and finally white. I much later understood it was simply to punish me. The illness was going to kill her anyway. Father often mumbled that it was really me who killed her, that he did a great favor to her by ending it all. I'm the one that caused her pain, not him. Then, while she was purple, he set her to the flames. She could do nothing but struggle and silently cry as her face turned ashen white and her body jerked one last time before the flames reached her cheeks."

Someone coughs, I snaps out of my memory. Their faces are horror filled, wide eyed, disgusted. I feel shame, I feel disgusting, wrong.

Silla was horrified at my life as well. She was a girl who offered me some odd substance, asking if I needed some money. She was caught later by my father who said she should be damned for helping a murderer. She was rather thin and scared. Her hair was oddly smooth looking. She had cried and begged as I have before and as my mother had at one time before my memory. She wore odd clothes of weird colors I hadn't seen but in the fall. She wore the type of clothes I wear now. She told her God once, before Master cut her throat, that she was horrified by me and my life and apologized to some for being ungrateful in her past and asked that God took her away from here. I didn't understand but she was too scared to speak to anyone but her God. She got her wish, Master took her far away, In fact I never saw her again.

"I'm going to skip to the day I met Bloom, Master was tired and made me go beg people at the park for money, no one ever went to that park and I never actually made money except for one time...anyway, I think Master simply couldn't bare to look at me so he sent me away.

He was too tired to beat me that day. It was cloudy but not rainy-cloudy, just cloudy. I sat in a box putting mud on my cuts to make them not visible and me look homeless and hungry and sad to say, it wasn't hard. I sat there for awhile no one was in the park I always went to the one that people hated, it was run down and broken. I was surprised to see someone running over crying to herself I sat there staring as she wiped her tears away realizing I was there, she gave a fake smile and to this day I don't understand it but anywho, we made a promise to come back the next summer, but before that she pointed to the one thing that worked on the playground- the sandbox.

I got up and she took my hand and pulled me to the box of sand were we laughed and talked about our lives and dreams problems and wishes, we had made up a game and we both felt safe from our tears there, in our imaginations. I had to wait for her to leave before I could go into the forest without her following before she left we promised to meet again next summer when she would be on summer break and not busy. We pinky promised and then she ran off. I was happy for that moment until I got to the forest edge where Master stood. He had seen her. He had heard us, I was punished for speaking but she would of been more punished.

The next summer he waited for her arrival at the park but, when she never showed up, I was disappointed. I learned over the years what happened to people who spoke and knew I existed... so I became glad she never came. I decided to live and one day find her, to thank her when I am free, for being nice to me. It does not sound like much but, it's the only good thing I can tell about my life except that my mother loved me and blamed nothing on me. I love and loved my mother very much."

I looked up to see Bloom up and shock filled at my words.

She stutters, "I-I-I'm so sorry. I-I-I"

she stops trying to apologize and I'm glad she does. Saying sorry doesn't do anything, I don't really know how to respond to something like that.

"It's ok it's much better you didn't come and he didn't catch you…Thank you by the way."

I realize I have to go before he traces my scent here and finds her alive. I feel a pain at needing to leave people who seemed so kind, when I had been lonely for so long. I know I can't leave them in danger. I am on guard now, I stand up fast and start to run towards the open door that leads out to a clear forest of green. They move to block me realizing I am going back, to him, to Master so that he wouldn't look for Bloom. Fleeing West does not keep her from him.

I fling my hand up, using my power to freeze their energy, encasing them, for enough time that I can make my way out the door and be gone. I have never done it before, I'm as shocked as any one else, I just decided I wanted to do it, visualized it, and somehow it became reality.

I let my guard down for a second to look back at them a group of beautiful, kind, and stunned creatures, next to Bloom, I smile. Turning my head back to my destination my heart thumps quicker, I start to run as panic starts to swell in me. Holding back the block of emotions that yearn my mental evaluation. I can feel my chest rise and fall as I am forcing air into my burning lungs, I can hear my heart pounding in my head and the world begin to spin. Just as I am about to reach the familiar forest edge, I take a unplanned sharp turn and run frantically down the dirt path. I don't want to go back to the pain, I never want the pain that he inflicts on me, I don't want to go back to where I was born.

All my life I had one hope, to play 'sisters' with Bloom once more but now that I've seen her healthy and alive all I want is to protect her from the consequences of my birth. It is all my fault that my mother was ill and I am the reason my father killed her- to punish me and I've learned my lesson. I won't put others in danger. Especially not those who have shown me a kindness I can't repay. The world has blurred to nothing but abstract shapes and shades of green. Turn back, go back. The feeling not alien to me as I have been beat to the point of going days without my vision. Follow the path... I looked for the memorized patches of dark in the mix of color. I don't know where I am or where I am going I just know that I'm running away from my pain, also away from the happiness and fear. I run until a toxic smell pollutes my air, a fresh scent and fear spikes in me. My ears ringing with the ongoing roar of unfamiliar beasts. I feel my chest ache at the sudden lack of strain as my heart thuds lighter and my vision gets clearer, I see what I have seen only once before.

I look towards the large black rock that stretches past my vision. The beasts run on the rock, I've seen them as a child briefly but with no mother to explain these loud, scary, fascinating creatures to me, they lack a name and a definition. The creatures flew past me faster than the speed of running elk, louder than any call I have heard before. These creatures shine and shimmer in the light of the sun, it has no limbs or face nor fur or feathers. It's constant roar never seizes a break for breath. Although the unknown terrified me, I still am captivated at its power.

I have seen these creatures once before years ago but as I grew older I had lost confirmation of their existence, yet, here they are. So many of these vibrant creatures pass me in a herd of color that all fail to leave the black sheet of rock. None of them look the same, I had never been so close to such a captivating and scary creature before. All of them look different from the next as they zoom past. Some were red like the leaves before they fall, some grey as the clouded sky that hovered over us, some a poor comparison to the color of the sun, however different they all zoom past me.

I stop for a second knowing I should go, yet I truly wanted nothing more then to learn about these things. Questions pass through my mind as fast as they pass by me. What is it? Where is it going? What is it running from? Should I run from it too? Where did the rock come from that splits up these trees, what is that awful smell? Can they not see me? I can't afford to stand and stare as I feel panic rise inside me. what if Bloom doesn't know about these creatures? What if they're dangerous? What about them? I hear in the distance, the redheaded vampires voice call to the others. If I had paid better attention, I could have felt their vibrations on the earth. I turn around knowing I am blocked by these creatures and I would press my luck but I don't want them to attempt to follow me across the rock. I turn to see the flames of Liz's red hair bounce around in the wind as she slows herself to a cautious jog. Her slender figure coming to standstill a many feet away from me. She rests her weight on her hip, she holds her hands up, her palms facing me. I had expected her to speak but every time she opened her mouth she would simply shut it again.

A eternity in a second passes and I start to walk towards her, surrender is all I know. Surrender is what I want to do. All of the sudden the roar behind me gets louder and shivers spike up my spine. I hear a deep voice yelling unintelligible words a few seconds before I am surrounded by dark spots and pain is crawling within my body.

I feel the cool ground welcoming me to surrender into unconsciousness; as I do I find myself staring at a boy with black hair that covers his blue eyes just a bit, his face filled with worry and panic and he starts yelling down at me, and at who I assume is Liz but I am passing out too fast to catch any of what he is saying.