Chapter Eleven

(trigger warnings: physical abuse)

I see him standing in the hallway, arms crossed.

 Fuck.

 "Why haven't you been answering my calls?" he asks, his voice as cold as the snow outside.

 "My phone died," I say quickly.

 He raises his eyebrow. "And let me guess. You didn't bring a charger?"

 I look down. "Yes…"

 Father sighs and rubs his eyes. "Do you know how worried I was?"

 I press my lips tightly together. Yeah, sure.

 "I'm sorry."

 He's silent for a while before replying firmly: "You're grounded for a month."

 I look up. "A whole month?"

 "Yes, the whole month. You can't go to your friends and your friends can't come over."

 "Isn't one month a little too much?"

 "Oh, okay. Two months."

 "Father-" I try to protest, but he cuts me off.

 "Three. Now go to your room." He turns around and leaves me standing there. "And don't make me say it again."

 When I come to my room, I quickly text Eef. 

father grounded me for three months

 He replies in an instant.

WHAT

WHY

because hes a bitch, thats why

i didnt pick up his calls

you okay?? can i call you??

yeah

 I pick up and his angry tone rears inside my headphones. "Why the fuck would he ground you for three fucking months? For simply not picking up the phone?"

 I sigh and lay down on my bed, petting Cheshire behind his ears. "It's him."

 "Jesus fucking christ. He didn't hurt you?"

 "No, not this time."

 "Are you okay though?"

 I pause for a second. "I…don't know."

 "I can come over?"

 I laugh and shake my head, even though he can't see me. "No, don't worry. Father also banned anyone from coming over, so."

 "What a goddamn bitch. Your mom knows?"

 "She has no way of knowing. I can send her Cheshire with a message, though."

 "...Do we need to wait three months until I'll be able to drink the potion?"

 "Hmm…You know, I don't really have to listen to him. We can meet in the forest, Mom makes the potion and boom."

 "Won't you get in trouble?"

 I shrug. "Father doesn't need to know."

 "...Okay, when will we meet?"

 "Can you come at midnight today?"

 "Yeah, sure. I'll tell my parents…something."

 "Okay, perfect. We'll meet at the station, okay? Text me with what train you'll go."

 "Okay. See you at midnight. Oh no, wait, that sounds bad."

 I laugh. "See you at midnight," I say with a smile and hang up.

 Father behind the door frowns and quietly goes down the stairs.

 The moon is hidden behind clouds full of snowflakes, the cruel horse of winter blowing wind around, creating creatures roaming through the endless dark.

 I climb down the wall and jump into a pile of snow. After looking around, I head towards the train station. Cheshire is following me curiously, his ears searching for any kind of suspicious sound.

 Eef comes exactly at midnight. As we sneak into the forest, I can hear the church bells ringing through the night.

 "What did you tell your parents?" I ask with my voice toned down.

 "Uhm…nothing."

 I look at him swiftly. "You didn't tell them anything?"

 "Nope."

 "So you sneaked out."

 "You did too!" he tries to defend himself.

 "Father is shit, I don't care about his feelings."

 "Well…what eyes don't see, heart can take."

 I roll my eyes.

 We walk quickly between the tall trees, our footsteps muffled in the snow, only breathing and occasional owl hooting descending into the sky sprinkled with stars. 

 One of the windows on Moms hut lights up the garden and she waves at me with a smile. We walk in, hit in the face by the warm fire dancing in the fireplace.

 "You have the potion made?" I ask and put my coat on the chair, sitting down. Eef sits next to me, trying to find where Mom is standing.

 "In a few minutes, dear. It's a long process that takes precision."

 I nod, rubbing my hands against each other to regain sense and nerves in my fingers that have frozen. "It's gonna be done in a few minutes," I say so Eef understands.

 "Oh, okay."

 I laugh slightly. "You sound very lost."

 He smiles, dimples showing. "I can assure you I am."

 "Just try not dying after drinking it. If you did, you'd turn into a ghost."

 "That's a…really terrifying side effect."

 Mom eyes us both with a smile. "You two look adorable. It's sad that I won't be able to say all these things without Eef hearing me."

 I roll my eyes. "So sad."

 "What did she say?" asks Eef with too much innocence.

 "Nothing, just smartass comments."

 There's a sudden bang in the pot and a pile of purple and grey smoke comes out. "Oh, it's done!" exclaims Mom and runs to the pot, taking three glass bottles with her.

 "It's done," I repeat to Eef who almost got a heart attack.

 "Uhuh, okay."

 Mom stirs the potion and scoops it up with a spoon, pouring it in the bottles. She puts two of them away on her shelf and places one in front of Eef. A thin line of steam comes out from the neck, looking omnisciently.

 We're all silent, no one daring to say anything. Eef looks at the potion for a minute before taking a deep breath. "You sure this won't take me out?" he asks nervously.

 I laugh. "Don't worry, Mom knows what she's doing."

 "Eh," she makes a little sound. 

 Glad he couldn't hear that.

 But before he can pick the glass up, someone rummages in through the front door, breathless. His eyes fixate on me, not giving a second thought to the person sitting opposite of me.

 "Why are you here?" Father whispers with anger.

 Eef is about to stand up, but Moms cold hand stops him. "Don't." 

 I blink. "Father, I-"

 He slaps me across my face. "Didn't I ground you? You little disrespectful brat!" 

 He yells on the top of his lungs and I fall to the ground. Eef now doesn't care about the freezing feeling that goes through his chest and stands up, screaming back. "Don't you dare do that to him!"

 Father kicks me in my face, making my nose bleed. "Eef, go away," I try to say but blood gets in my mouth and I choke on it, not being able to stop coughing.

 Father's gaze moves to Eef and he pushes him back into his seat. "He's my son and I can do whatever I want to him."

 "You can't!"

 "Oh, I can. It's not my fault that your parents can't teach their son how to behave."

 He turns back to me and picks up the bottle from the table. "And what is this?"

 My eyes widen and I quickly sit up. "Don't drink it!"

 "Why? Is it one of your witchy potions?" He scoffs. "As if it could do something."

 "Father, I'm serious, don't-"

 He lifts the glass up and drinks the potion in one shot. 

 "Silvain, you stupid dumbass!" screams Mom and tries to slap it out his hands, but the damage was already done. Her words reach his ears, her pale figure slowly appearing.

 Eef watches all of this with shock and I quietly curse under my breath: "Fuck."

 Father freezes in place. He turns his head from me to Mom to Eef and back, processing what just happened.

 "Raquel…?" he sighs with shock.

 She grins with anger. "Long time no fucking see, Silvain."

 He stands there for a little longer before collapsing down on the floor. "Oh no." I crouch next to him with panic. "No, no, no, no. No, he can't die."

 Mom joins me, slapping him on his cheeks, but his face gets paler and paler. "Fuck, Silvain, wake up."

 It's too late. He has had heart problems since birth, and seeing his dead wife a ghost was probably too much.

 His heart stops beating, and all color leaves his body together with his last breath.

 "Where did…where did he go?" I ask Mom. "What's his favorite place?"

 She shakes her head and sits down on the cold floor. "Probably lost somewhere in France near his parent's house."

 I rub my face, only now realizing the pain in my nose. My hands get messy with blood. "He's…lost."

 "Can't…can't he be somewhere here?" ask Eef, not letting his eyes off Father's corpse.

 "His favourite place is probably somewhere in France, and we don't even know where. Mom, could you please give him the potion? I'm sick of repeating everything."

 "Of course," she says softly and leaves the last bottle on the shelf.

 Eef doesn't think about it for too long now and drinks the potion as if it was whiskey. 

 My mom smiles at him while she appears, and he bows his head. "Good to see you, miss Lefévre."

 "Call me Raquel."

 He blinks. "Of course, Raquel."

 I check Father's neck, but he's officially dead. "Eef, don't flirt with my mother and come here. We need to do something with him."

 He purses his lips in disgust. "Arson?"

 I bite my lip. "I would love to, but we need to play it like he got a heart attack. People from his university are gonna question where he went."

 Mom frowns worryingly. "Won't they take you away since you don't have any parents and aren't eighteen?"

 "I don't know," I sigh, "But we can't have police behind our backs."

 "Maybe my parents could do something?" Eef tries.

 "Hmm…They can't send me to my grandparents because they're in France…What could your parents do though?"

 He shrugs. "I don't know, adopt you?"

 I'm not very happy with the thought of Eef being my step brother. 

 And it looks like he isn't too, because he immediately shakes his head. "Nope, not adopting. Maybe only like taking care of you? Like you could sleep at ours and shit until you turn eighteen?"

 "I don't think the government will agree to that," says my mom.

 We're silent for a few minutes before I sig

h. "We have to take him home so it looks like he got a heart attack in his sleep. I'll report it tomorrow morning and we'll see how it plays out."

 Mom nods. "Yeah, okay…"

 Father's corpse glazes at us, and I shut his eyes, repulsed from how soft his skin is.