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My mom’s eyes are worried, looking so much like mine. Most people believe we’re sisters, not mother and daughter. Her long, dark hair reaches her lower back, with a slight wave to it. She wears a pair of mom jeans and a long-sleeve shirt that has a picture of a wild horse on the front.
She’s different.
“Hazel, we need to talk,” my mom says, standing from her chair.
My grandmother, Tabitha, narrows her eyes. Her hair is still dark yet has turned a little thin, with streaks of gray floating through the strands. She lifts her poncho-covered arm in my direction, pointing directly at me with a dark purple-colored nail. “Don’t speak, Willow. Don’t you smell her?”
My mom lifts her nose, taking a deep inhale. “Whatisthat smell, Hazel?”
I frown at them. “I know what happened to Castle Pointe Academy.”
My grandmother stands up, her veiny hands pressing against the wooden table, the herbs smashing under her palms. “You did this?”
I bite my lip as tears fill my eyes, and I nod. “Yes,” I whisper.
My mom’s mouth pops open in a shockedO. “How could you? Don’t you realize what’s happened?”
“She’s a fool who’s put away her magic. She’s playing oblivious.” My grandmother scoffs, still irritated that I don’t want to practice anymore.
“Mother!” my mom shouts.
I raise my hands and slap them back down at my thighs. “I know exactly what happened! I-I felt it, okay? But it was too late. It was all too late, and I couldn’t stop it.” Tears spring to my eyes, and I bat them away with the back of my hand, frustrated and embarrassed that I got myself into this position.
“Do you realize what you’ve let free?” my grandmother snaps.
“I know.” I nod. I look at both of them, my eyes darting between the two. I already feel idiotic, doing something as stupid as we did last night, but I have to tell them what I believe, even if they already know. I need my family. They will know what to do. “Something… dark was released. It was like I could sense the entire history of Castle Pointe. It’s so much more than the witch that possessed Malik. This land has been evil since before it even became Castle Pointe.”
My mother gives me a look, and I can read the knowledge in her gaze. She knows everything. “You knew?”
“Some things are better left buried underground, where they belong,” she grinds out the last part, like it’s my fault.
Which I guess, in a way, it is.
“At one point, there was a rush of cold air, almost like water, rushing through me. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, and then I gasped for air, and it was gone. Just like that. Do you know what that was?”
Both their eyes widen, and they stand up at once, walking toward me. My grandmother takes her poncho off, using it as a glove as she wraps it around my naked arms, so our skin doesn’t touch as she grips me, pushing me toward the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” I ask, though I already know.
Whenever I dabble in the dark, I need a “reset,” as I like to call it.
Just as they put a protection spell around the house, they will put one on me. But they can’t wash the house.
But they’ll do their damnedest to scrub every bit of evil off my skin.
“You’ll have to fight this battle, Hazel. We can protect you, but once you open the portal, you must figure out how to be the one to close it.”
I know, and that’s the scariest part.
“Hey,” I say into the phone, propping it between my cheek and shoulder. I raise my arms above my head, staring at my creamy skin, rubbed raw from cleansing.
My cleanse was long, hot, and rough, but as my family says, they believe what I experienced was the touch of a dark spirit, and a spiritual cleanse was my only option. Afterward, a protection spell went over me, and then they picked up their accoutrements and gave me a look of disappointment, walking out of the bathroom.
Ashamed. So damn ashamed.
But not before my grandmother could leave me with an ominous parting remark.
“If you don’t find out how to close the gap you’ve ripped open with your bare hands, you might find yourself falling straight into that dark void yourself.”
