Eternal

n case Hades decided to pay me another visit. So, all I could do was let my thoughts run riot within my brain and I tried to shake Unya free from my mind.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Unya

Another week had passed since the summer solstice and I finally managed to convince myself to speak to Mihaela about the things that I had learned. To say she was shocked would be a great understatement, she even seemed a little scared, I just wasn’t sure what caused that feeling to rise up within her.

“Please say something Nonna, you are acting really strange, I guess I thought you would have been pleased to have such a connection with me.”

“Oh Nipotina, it is not that simple, you are clearly growing stronger by the minute and I have no idea what that means for you. Even the ancestors aren’t talking and that is a huge deal, seeing as they usually never shut up. They won’t talk to me about the prophecy or who your father could be. They won’t even explain how you have come to be so powerful before you even hit eighteen. I’ll be honest with you dear; I am scared of what could happen when you are finally hit with that final surge of power and how you will be when you come out from the other side of it.”

“I don’t understand why that would scare you, doesn’t it mean I will stand a greater chance of protecting myself if I really am the one that the prophecy talks about.”

“There is something I haven’t told you, it’s not that I wanted to keep it from you, it’s more of the fact that it hurts me to speak of. But it’s only fair you know the full story of my past and just why your mother and aunt may have turned out the way they did.”

I sat forward in my seat, waiting for her to explain her words, I would give anything to have a much wider understanding into the two minds that had destroyed my childhood so much.

“Your grandmother, my daughter, was a twin. They were both two beautiful girls, but not identical, in every sense. Your grandmother, Julianna was very feisty and only believed in her logic, even if she was proved wrong in a belief and had the facts right in front of her, she would never concede. My other daughter Aria was quiet and kept to herself, she shied away from confrontation and allowed Julianna to treat her something rotten.

It wasn’t that Julianna was a bad person as such, she was opinionated and head strong.

As they grew older, they did seem to grow closer and Julianna become her protector of sorts. Now they knew all about our history and the significance of my hair, but due to the general rule, they would never possess the abilities that we have. Now they both had beautiful chestnut brown hair, but Aria had an ebony strip running through her fringe. I never thought much of it, thinking it was just a coincidence until they hit eighteen.”

“I remember Julianna running into my room, screaming at me to come quick, that I had to save Aria. I flew from that bed as fast as I could and found Aria rolling around her bedroom floor, with the shadows flying off of the walls and almost trying to climb inside of her. It was very disturbing, and we quickly made sure no light could get into the room so the shadows would go. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, for some reason the darkness had been drawn not just to her, but in her as well and as the night turned into day she began to slip further and further away.”

“She would sit in the corner of her room, slowly rocking back and forth as the shadows wrapped themselves around her, almost hiding her from our sight.

I tried to reach her, but every time I laid my hand down on her, she would howl as though my touch actually caused her pain. She started to talk to herself sometimes in whispers, other times shouting back responses to voices that only she could hear.”

“The ancestors went out of their way to inform me that she was not speaking to them and even they did not know what was going on. By the third night myself and Julianna were exhausted and then our Aria suddenly got up and walked over to us. She crouched down low and said she had fulfilled her purpose and she was now free. She then placed her hands to her head and cried out in pain, before she collapsed to the floor.

When I turned her over, her eyes were wide open and covered in black veins, just like the rest of her body, but unfortunately she was gone.”

My heart went out to Mihaela right then and even though I had lots of questions, I thought it would be best to leave them for the time being, until she came back from that dark memory that had sunk its grip into her.

“I’m sorry dear, I should have told you sooner I know that now, but it brings up a lot of pain that I tried to bury long ago.”

“I don’t blame you Nonna, I can’t imagine it could have been easy for you having to go through that. But I have to ask what that would have to do with Jackie and mum?”

“Julianna was twisted that night, I honestly believe that the good in her died right along with my sweet, sweet Aria. She decided I was cursed and that she had been blessed when the power skipped over her. She vowed to make sure her daughters never be felled the same fate as her twin, she couldn’t actually stop it per se, but she wouldn’t let a child of hers grow up with the cursed hair.

She was over the moon when Jackie and your mum came along with dark blonde hair, without a sliver of ebony to be seen. She had promised me she would not hold our history secret and she kept that promise, only she twisted the truth and painted a much darker picture.

Your mum become terrified of the possibility that her child could be cursed to suffer with madness and be turned to the side of evil when they eventually came of age. She vowed she would never have a child so our bloodline would die with me.

Your aunt on the other hand was seething, she felt as though she had been cheated out of some sort of inheritance. She got it in her head that if she could somehow reach a being from the underworld then she could change her fate and become all great and powerful. That girl was born evil, spoilt rotten and twisted to her very core.

She made a deal with someone who promised her all the power she could ever want if she was able to deliver me to him. So, I faked my death and went into hiding, it’s not that I was scared of her, far from it. I just did not want to have to stop her from attempting it, as well as the fact there is clearly someone out there who wanted my life to be solely in their hands and without knowing who that was, I felt it would be best to just disappear.”

My family was messed up, but the jealousy that Jackie had portrayed towards me finally made sense in that moment.

“But my mother did get pregnant, she had me so why would she if she was so scared of what I could become?”

“I wish I knew Nipotina, but unfortunately the reasons as to why your mother did anything continue to elude me. Just because I can convene with the dead, does not mean that they will always talk back. I’ve never spoken to either of my daughters or your mother, they seem to elude me every time, and the ancestors refuse to tell me why that would be.”

I allowed her words to sink in and I wished that I kept my next question to myself, but right then, I had no idea what would happen once the dreaded idea popped into my head and me and my Nonna had our first official fight.

You see I had the marvellous idea she could try to take me with her to the other side. I thought if I went there myself and asked my own questions, maybe I would get some new information, maybe the ancestors would pity me and decide to finally fill in the missing blanks in my knowledge of my own history.