Page 86 of Demons & Damnation

“It’s not bullshit, Kyla. I’m trying to help you. Just because I never practiced magic, it doesn’t mean I wasn’t aware of rules and laws. Your gran brought me up in this world don’t forget.”

Kyla let out a sigh. “I’m afraid it’s too little too late and I don’t believe you. I think I’m more than enough of my own person to decide when, where, and how to use my powers. No one can manipulate me differently.”

Anna-Rose reached out and grabbed Kyla’s forearm, digging her nails in to the point of fetching blood. “You’re not getting it,” she said, all but hissing. “You’re not in control. All you have to do as an elemental is think something and it happens. That’s why you must have complete control at all times. You leave one gap, the smallest of gaps in your mind, and they’re in. Then that’s it. You’re done for.” She dropped her hands from Kyla’s arm and gestured at Tony. The mud brown vines had worked their way around his entire body, even covering his mouth. “You are clearly not in control.”

“Maybe I like it,” Kyla replied. “I want things to happen just from thought alone. Go with the flow, see what happens.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t know my limits if I don’t push myself.”

“This isn’t maths or running on track. This is the fate of the world, Kyla. If they get what they want, that’s it—the New World Order is going to be happening faster than you can say your own name.”

“Well, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. It’s hardly as if the world is a marvellous place as it is, is it?”

Anna-Rose sighed and ran her hands through her shoulder length strawberry blonde hair. “Just promise me you’ll bear in mind what I said.”

“I’m promising you nothing.”

Anna-Rose turned and walked into the living room, Lina still clinging to her side. Kyla followed, glancing around the bland, cream coloured room. Various family pictures hung on the walls and cute ornaments were dotted about on shelves.

Kyla watched her mother collapse into a brown coloured leather chair and seemed to deflate, as if all the life had been pushed from her. She stared into the distance, fixated on nothing in particular but clearly lost in her own thoughts.

“Liiiiiinnnnaaaaa...”

The chirpy, giggly voice of a young girl floated through the air, singing her sister’s name repeatedly. Kyla turned her head towards the doorway and waited for the child to appear. Right on cue, a small girl with sunshine coloured hair, porcelain skin, and piercing blue eyes appeared. With her little blue dress, she really did resemble a miniature Alice in Wonderland.

As soon as she saw Kyla, she stopped dead. When she turned her attention to her left, to see her father covered in earthy vines that had broken through the floor, she let out a piercing scream.

“Arana, come here, sweetheart,” Anna-Rose said, leaning forwards in her chair and holding her hand out.

Arana ran for her mother, sobs and heaving cries taking control of her little body.

Kyla looked at Tony, staring him straight in the eye. “You’ve got a miniature Snow White and a miniature Alice in Wonderland,” she said. “I wonder what ours would have looked like. Cinderella, maybe? Or maybe Aurora? Or perhaps she’d have had my trademark red hair and been a miniature Ariel or Merida?” Kyla sighed. “But we’ll never know, will we?”

Arana, now sat on her mother’s lap, stopped her cries long enough to ask, “Who is she?”

Kyla, upon hearing that, turned her attention to her younger sister and walked over to her. “Hello, sweetie. I’m your older sister, Kyla. It’s lovely to meet you.”

“You never told me you were my older sister,” Lina said, narrowing her eyes at Kyla and sticking her hands on her hips with a defiant tilt to her chin. “I think you’re lying.”

Kyla raised an eyebrow. “My, you’ve certainly got some sass. I think we could get along just fine.”

“I don’t like liars so no, we won’t.”

“That must mean that you don’t like your mummy or your daddy then, sweetheart, because they are both liars. Very big, very bad liars.”

“No, they’re not. You’re lying,” Lina replied, shouting, and stamping her foot for effect.

A gargled noise cut through the exchange, taking Kyla’s attention. Tony’s eyes had glazed over with a hardened stare, anger and hatred oozing from them. Spit rolled down his chin from where he’d tried to talk through the grip of the vine.

“I can’t quite hear you,” Kyla said, tapping her right ear. “Have you got something to say?”

Tony strained against the vines, grunting at the effort of trying to wriggle free. The more he struggled, the tighter they held him.

Kyla looked back at her mother who cradled Arana against her chest, resting her chin on top of her daughter’s head, gazing off into space.

She never held me like that, she thought to herself, a spike of jealousy hitting her square in the heart and spreading through her veins like poison.

The creaking of the vines curling around a struggling Tony took Kyla’s attention back to him. In a moment of spontaneity, she decided she wanted to hear what he had to say, more curiosity than anything. With a carefree flick of her wrist, the vine around his mouth slithered free, scraping its rough surface against his flesh. Dots of blood sprang to the surface and trickled down his skin, hypnotising Kyla instantly.

Her heart raced to new speeds, pumping adrenaline through her veins at the sight of spilling Tony’s blood—just like he did hers. As Kyla realised he was finally feeling pain at her hands, just like she did at his, a strange sense of relief seemed to lift itself from her soul but at the same time, urged her to do more. To avenge herself and then some.

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