Page 76 of My Dark Obsession
I stopped in my tracks and gaped at him, “How do you know that?” Was he in my head? Had he seen my dreams? I wouldn’t put it past the nosy fucker.
He raised his brow at me, and tutted. “The dead told me. Chatty lot.” Of course, my ancestors seemed to like to tell him everything.
“So it was the White Witches. But why, what did they want? Why did my ancestors want to protect thehumans?” I pondered aloud, unable to keep the dismay from my voice when I spoke of the humans.
He hummed and shoved his hands in his pockets as we followed a trail that led to a street containing small cottage-like homes. Each one was filled with flowers and life, all except one right at the end. Instead of bright sunflowers, this one had a garden of dead shrivelled up roses. Instead of neatly painted gates and window trims, the wood looked as though it was rotting. The low windows were each covered by thick drapes obscuring our view and making it look all the more abandoned.
“Why are we here?”
He ignored me, opened the gate and slowly stalked towards the door. I followed him, jolting when my body vibrated from the feet up, my noisy filled mind almost screamed as a spicy stale smell burnt the hairs in my nose. I wrinkled my face in disgust. Ziel reached into his pocket and withdrew ...a hand. A real hacked off at the wrist hand. Its bluish hue looked as though it sweated.
I decided then that I was most definitely mentally unwell, because who watched on as someone withdrew a hand from their pocket and didn’t scream and question them? I simply waited expectantly as if it was all very normal to me.
“What is that smell?” I asked pinching my nose together.
“Black magic” he muttered as he flattened out the hand onto the glass pane of the door and waited as it began to glow. It vibrated before a click sounded, letting us know the door had been unlocked.
“Why the hand?” I muttered as we stepped over the pile of dead bugs littered by the open door.
“It’s a magic hand,” he rasped as he shoved it back into his pocket. Somehow it left no smell, no bulge or showed any sign of being unable to fit. I could use a jacket with magic pockets. The amount of books I could keep with me at all times would be incredible.
“It’s my damn magic hand,” a gnarly voice snapped from somewhere behind a huge pile of dusty books. “Now give it back boy.” He snapped the B with a pop of his mouth as he wobbled around the books.
A tiny bald Asian man stood leaning against a stick glaring at Ziel. I sensed the magic there within him and somehow, I knew it wasn’t his. It belonged to someone else. This man was utterly human. My heart began to pound as I looked to Ziel, now realising why we were here.
Ziel walked past the man leaving me stood on his bug-riddled door mat as the man squinted at me.
Turning around to follow Ziel, he yelled, “Who’s the girl!” before peeking back at me and snapping, “And shut the damn door!”
I hastily slammed the door shut, wafting up that vile spicy air and quickly followed them. His living room was full of books, towers and towers of them, leaning like the leaning tower of Pisa. Each thick book had bookmarks or noted paper sticking out.The elderly in Wisteria sureliked their books, and to be honest I couldn’t blame them.
The old man plopped himself into a green looking armchair opposite the small fire that created too much warmth in the already stuffy room. Ziel rummaged around on his knees in a basket full of tea-stained looking paper.
“You’re human?” I found myself saying as he adjusted himself in the chair, sighing contently as he lifted his slipper-clad feet onto the little stall in front of him.
“Obviously. But you can already sense that can’t you girl.” A steaming teacup floated past my ear, the spoon stirring whatever was inside.
“I need to know how; I have two humans that need to be able to stay here.”
He never answered; instead he lifted his stick back up and poked at Ziel kneeling on the floor.
“It’s not that one Idiot.” Without a word Ziel moved on to another basket, this one fuller, bulging with screwed up papers.
“Stop staring at me with those purple eyes witch-it’s unnerving.” Sipping at the contents of the cup he peaked at me again, squinting and pursing his lips.
No one in this realm gave me answers, always staring with that squint of unease. I was starting to get fed up with it. And the new me was going to start getting stabby if I didn’t start receiving answers.
“Got it.” Smoothing out a crumbled paper Ziel stood and nodded to the man before walking back to the door.
I stayed put, glaring down at the old man and his stupid teacup. I was so irritated, so fed up with blatantlybeing stared at and yet ignored at the same time. I wasn’t in the human realm; I was in Wisteria. I was somebody here. I had a home, I had people. So why were people still ignoring me?
My anger threatened to boil over as I rubbed my hands along my legs.
“Your anger is not the answer.” He sniped as he blew delicately into the cup.
“Then what is the answer. Hmm? Or are you just going to ignore my questions like everybody else? Are you going to tell me I need to accept things? To harness my power with acceptance?” I stepped closer to the man.
My anger wasn’t just with him; it was witheveryone.It was with every single human who had ignored me, sneered at my appearance or turned a blind eye to my abuse. It was at Isa for leaving me with that monster, the Council for their laughable try at controlling me, with Cole and his tired fed-up eyes and stick up his ass. It was with Lyal and the bitch social worker, withmyselffor thinking I had control over the beatings.
