We look at each other, unsure what she wants us to see.
With a frightening calm, Callie picks her tea back up and leans forward into the empty space in front of her. Then, without warning, she holds out her free arm and pours her boiling hot tea over it.
“Shit, shit, shit… that still hurts,” she hisses through gritted teeth, shaking her arm.
“The fuck, Callie?” Donovan roars, standing and ripping the empty mug from her hand, and Nolan quickly reaches for the injured arm.
Kaleb is immediately on his feet, heading towards the kitchen, I’m assuming for ice, and I’m about to pick her up and follow, when Nolan shouts, “Holy shit! Guys, look at this.”
With a silence made of horror and awe, we watch the angry blistered skin shift to a vibrant red-- the white bumps receding back into her flesh-- before slowly returning to the same golden color as before.
Nolan’s fingers hover over the freshly mended skin, but only after Callie’s nod of encouragement does he hesitantly touch her arm. “It doesn’t feel any different than the rest of you,” he whispers, exploring past what was damaged.
If we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, there would be no way of knowing she just had second degree burns.
I knew we were similar, but it’s like looking in a mirror, her scars fading away like mine do with every shift. I pull her against me, and she comes easily, resting her head against my shoulder.
“This is nothing,” she grunts, tears escaping down her cheeks and dripping into my flannel shirt. She wipes them away angrily. “No matter what he did, I kept healing, and he would yell at me to save myself… but I didn’t know how.”
I feel nauseous and furious over what she’s suffered. At least I know I’m just supposed to take it, but for that sick son of a bitch to make her feel like her abuse was somehow her fault-- that she should’ve been able to stop a full grown man from hurting her-- forget hoping he doesn’t come across me. He better hope I can’t hunt him down.
“Oh, my darling,” Mildred cries, her brown eyes filled with tears, “there was nothing you could’ve done.” Her fingers curl like she wants to strangle someone with her bare hands. “Prison is too good for that bastard!”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Callie laughs wetly, before continuing. “There are certain things that can trigger memories, though it’s never been like this before. Um, open flames,” she offers a weak smile for understating the obvious, “large kitchen knives, baseball bats, and--” This time she looks embarrassed when she stops. “Stairs. I have a real hard time with stairs, but I’m working on that one.”
“I forgot the stairs,” Felix mutters so quietly I’m the only one to hear him.
Until now, I was so focused on Callie, I forgot he was in the room. He’s tucked away in the corner and looks like he’s watching without seeing, which makes me nervous.What did he see inside Callie’s mind? How bad was it?
“My god, Callie,” Nolan groans, rubbing at his face and drawing my attention, “why didn’t you tell me? There’s an elevator at the house we could’ve taken instead of all those flights of stairs.”
She shrugs meekly. “I didn’t want any of you to know. I don’t…” she grunts with frustration. “I don’t want to be like this. I don’t want to freak out at stairs or fire, or worry that I can’t go to Kaleb’s baseball games in the Spring because just looking at the bats…”
“Callie,” Kaleb interrupts gently, sorrow in his voice, “those games don’t matter. I wouldn’t expect you to…”
“That’s not the point,” she fires back with frustration. “The point is that I want to get better. I don’t want what happened to me to keep me from living my life. I finally…” Tears drip down her face, and she wipes at them harshly. “I’m finally away from him and have a chance to really live.”
Kaleb sits back down next to us, reaches up and brushes away one of her tears. “That doesn’t mean you have to do it alone, and these things take time. Let us help you.”
She bites down on her lip hard and nods. “I’ll try. I’ve never had,” her voice hitches, “anyone… before. I’ve been… so… alone.” She grits her teeth and turns her head into my shoulder. Muffled against my shirt, she complains, “Damn it. I hate crying.”
“We’re not big fans either,” Donovan grumbles, as unsure as the rest of us on how to make things better, but it gets a laugh out of Callie.
She sits back up, takes a deep shuddering breath, and I can almost see her pushing down her pain and reshoring the steel in her spine. I’m in awe of her strength and furious about the conditions under which she forged it.
“So, that’s it. That’s the big secret. The, uh, healing thing didn’t start until a few years ago, but until recently, that’s all the witchy I got.” She laughs ruefully. “It was like the bastard literally beat the power out of me.”
“That’s exactly what he did,” Mildred whispers, silent tears dripping down her pale cheeks.
“I don’t understand,” Kaleb interjects. “I know some witches can heal wounds, but I’ve never heard of anything like this.”
“Callie is very special,” she replies with a twist of her lips. “You’ll find there are a lot of things she’s capable of that you’ve never heard of before.” She stands and holds out her hand to Callie. “Come, darling. It’s time you learned the truth about a great many things.”
We all tense, knowing this is it. This is the beginning where we lose her to the business of witches, and even though she’s agreed to accept our help, there will be things she can’t tell us. Parts of her world we’ll be locked away from. Except, I should know better. Callie is no normal witch.
To our surprise, Callie stubbornly shakes her head. “No, anything you say to me, you can say to them. I want them to know.”
Mildred’s lips press together into a white line, while we trade looks with each other. She sits back down and folds her hands in her lap.
