28. Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-eight
" G randmother?" I call out to her. She glances at me before continuing to walk. I rush after her. "Grandma," I call again, but she ignores me. She is dressed differently, in a dress. Grandma never liked dresses.
She sneaks half a glance in my direction before walking into the store. That's not Grandma. But she looks like her.
I open the door and follow her inside. The store is gray and dim like the street outside. What is this place? Cold climbs up my back .
I survey the room and the shelves are full of small test tubes, while other shelves are filled with books. The smell of dust greets me as I go farther inside.
“What are you doing here?” a voice asks.
Moving to the side, I come face to face with a beautiful woman looking so much like my granny, only younger.
“Granny?”
“You can’t be here,” she says, looking around, a little afraid. “Come with me.” Taking my hand, she leads us out of the back door, back outside.
“Granny, is that you?” Dazed, I follow her, stumbling on my feet just to keep up. As we hurry down the sketchy road I ask, “Where are we going?”
“Shh, child.” Stopping, she looks at me angrily before continuing to push me forward.
When we reach the sixth house down the road, she leads me in, and only after she closes the door does she look at me, letting out a sigh. “Hailey.”
“How is this possible?” I ask, looking around the house. It’s the same one I grew up in.
“Come, sit.” She points to the couch. Sitting in front of her, I wait for her to explain what the hell is going on as anxiety bites at me.
“I’m your great-great-grandmother.”
“Grandmother Esmeralda?”
“Yes, honey.” Her voice becomes softer.
“How do you know my name?”
“My great-granddaughter Elizabeth told me about you.”
“My granny did?” I ask in a shaky voice.
“She did, when she came here.”
“How is this possible?”
“It’s part of the curse. Or better said, it’s part of your trying to break the curse.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Each strong generation is trying to break the curse. It’s like stubbornness is embodied in our DNA,” she says with a light voice before her face turns severe. “This is a fail-safe we created while still having our magic.”
“What’s the fail-safe?”
“You have two options. Help us by contributing your potential power now so when we are powerful enough to fight back when we can, or decline and go on with your life as it was.”
“How does it work? When do you think you will be strong enough?”
“There is no right answer to that. It’s all dependent on the amount of power of each new witch in our line.”
“What’s the catch?”
“Sorry, grandchild. I’m not familiar with that phrase,” she asks confused.
“I mean, you do your thing when? And where? And what’s stopping you from just taking my blood?”
“I see why you made it here,” she says, smiling sadly. “Unfortunately, there are some uncontrolled conditions. The when answer is the hardest. There is no knowing. It all falls under the scale of the amount of magic we need to observe. The where is here in this timeline. I can’t just take your blood. Witches must be willing to give up their magic. Magic can’t be shared unwillingly.”
Relieved that the process must be voluntary, I let out a heavy sigh. “What does that mean about my timeline? About my family?”
“We can’t know for sure, but there will be changes. When it’s done, you won’t be powerless, Hailey. You will be one of the most powerful witches of your generation.”
“What about my family?”
“Do you mean about your mother? Well, she won’t have to be an addict anymore. She will become the mother you deserve to have.”
My mother wouldn’t be an addict. That thought fills me with a renewed wave of hope. Can it be possible? To have a life where my mother doesn’t come home wasted in the company of a new boyfriend? Or just disappears for weeks at a time? A mother who would read me books to sleep, and we would talk about boys and classes .
The thought of that future is so compelling. A perfect future that I may not get to see. Not me, but another version of me.
“It may not happen in my generation,” I say, realizing that I have too much to lose.
“That’s correct.”
Standing up, I say, “I may not have a perfect mother, but I have the most loving, caring grandmother, and I just can’t leave. I have to try until my last breath to save her.”
“I see, child. I can’t say I am completely disappointed.”
“Can you tell me how to find them? The coven that cursed us?”
“It’s not that simple. The only thing I can say is trust only yourself. Disappointment is a heavy trait that unfortunately all the witches in our coven have to suffer from.” Standing, she shakes my hands tightly in hers. “Promise me you will do it. Do whatever you can to break the curse.”
Nodding, I say, “I promise.”
“Good. Now wake up,” she says before everything turns black.
Waking up with a start, I fight back nausea as I feel the pounding in my head pushing against me. Everything hurts. Blinking twice, I try to construct the image around me, and only when I notice John’s familiar hotel room do I let myself feel a sense of relief.
Sitting up, I tilt my head to the side and see John lying still beside me on the bed.
Holding my head steady, I get up and go to the bar. Pulling a bottle of cold water from the mini fridge, I take a long sip. After finishing half the bottle, clarity pushes the fog away and I sit down on the bed.
How did we get here? The last thing I remember is going to the bathroom and then… then there was the witch. The witch that pushed her powers into me, knocking me down.
Shit.
And then this dream. I need to speak with my grandmother. There are a lot of things unsaid. Was it a real dream or not? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I can’t quit. I can’t stop. Not now, not ever.
But the witches will come after me, the fearful voice inside my mind bites.
So lost in thoughts, I don’t notice the vibration in my pocket until I hear the sound of a phone call.
Quickly pulling out my phone, I answer, “Yes.”
“Hailey, honey. It’s your granny. It’s bad.”