31. Amelie #2
“Yeah, yeah, we are all the son’s and daughter’s of Christ. That doesn’t give you magical powers.” I waggled my fingers in front of his face like Kiaran did when he cast a spell. Kiaran bowed his head into his palms to stifle the laugh falling from him at my outburst.
“Sure it does,” Al responded without a second thought. “ That’s what faith is. It’s magical, powerful. Not in the same way Kiaran’s or your maternal magic is but it’s magical nonetheless.” Al spoke so nonchalantly like explaining this wasn’t a ridiculous piece of my history.
“So what? If I’m a good little Christian, say my prayers and thank God for the horrific life I and so many others have I’ll be able to snap my fingers and all will be right in the world?
Get on my knees and praise the almighty?
” I scoffed at him. Horrified that I had family that believed so heavily in God being good.
“Do not take that tone with me.” His voice was stern. Much like my father’s was the few times he disciplined me or my brothers.
“Do you hear yourself? If you are the all knowing, then you would know exactly why I have a hard time believing there is a man in the sky who decides who deserves what in our time on Earth.”
“That’s what I’m telling you, Amelie.” He took my hands in his and I tensed. “You are the decider of where your life goes. God? Well he might guide you but ultimately you are a Bloch. Do you know what Bloch means in the old language?”
“No?”
“It means foreigner. Someone who wanders but isn’t lost. Someone who decides where to plant roots and paints the world around them with their minds, their dreams. You are the final part of the prophecy that God set for the Bloch family when he sent us to Earth.
The greatest love he ever created. It was too powerful, so he split your heart in two to find the other when the world was ready.
Your life? It has been a great test, and you have passed.
You made it here. You found me, you found him.
” Al pointed to Kiaran. “You can decide your own fate.
The High Priestess has a lot of power in the physical world, that part is true,
“But you have Morgenstern and Bloch blood racing through you. You have a spiritual side that can manifest any world you want, and an elemental magic that his Coven has wanted a piece of since the beginning of time. Don’t you see?”
I didn’t see, I was so excited to sit with my family tonight and find a sense of normalcy I never had nor might I ever have again.
Now I wondered how much of my life was my own undoing.
My own negativity. I wondered if my father was so happy because he knew exactly what his place in the world was and he made it better by bringing art to it.
If my dreams could’ve been my reality, if I hadn’t been waking up every morning only praying for the worst not to happen.
Since I’d arrived here, my dreams were lovely, usually playing out within days of having them. Life felt like it was worth living, there was a reason to wake up in the morning and it wasn’t just to say I survived one more day.
Kiaran’s hand was making comforting strokes around my lower back.
“You okay?” he whispered into my ear. I lied and nodded.
“So what now? I have less than twenty four hours and this was not a part of my plan.”
Al turned even more to face me fully, tightening his hold on my hands.
“It’s already a part of you, Amelie. You know exactly what to do. Stop worrying so much and enjoy this time with the boy.”
My tiny friend came waddling through the trees in the distance. I wondered if the bonds Kiaran spoke of between us could form between friends, because when I needed my friend, she was somehow always there.
Ethel was making a bee line for our fire but I needed space so I released Al’s hold on my hands and patted Kiaran on the knee before standing, “I’m going to speak with Ethel. Can we go soon?”
Kiaran nodded as I turned to run to my friend.
“Oh!” she squeaked as I squeezed her tight. “I’m happy to see you too, girl.” I felt a tear slip from my eyes, the weight of tomorrow finally crushing me beneath it.
Ethel combed through my long hair as more tears fell.
“Shh…” she coaxed. It wasn’t a sob and I wasn’t sad. It was a release.
“I’m okay. I just…” I leaned back and took a seat on the ground with her. “I’m scared about tomorrow.”
Ethel smiled at me. “I’d worry greatly about your sanity if you weren’t.”
“What if I fail?” I sniffled, laying all the way back to admire the stars in the night sky.
“What if you don’t?” she offered, laying next to me. My hand was wrapped between her chubby little fingers and I breathed in her words.
If I didn’t fail, if I finally got it right, then maybe I’d get my happily ever after.
If I dreamed of it, willed it into existence, then was it meant for me? Al said I’d been in charge of my own fate this whole time, that God had only been a guide, so where did my choices end and his paved road begin?
Hesitant footsteps approached us and I’d recognize them anywhere.
“Ready?” Kiaran’s soft voice floated through the air. Tilting my head to see him, the orange light gave him an angelic silhouette.
“Ready.”