Cursed

22. Tatiana's Past

12 years ago...

22. Tatiana's Past

Tatiana sat on a bench in a park somewhere that was really nowhere in particular to her, on Earth. The people around her spoke English, though with a strange accent. She had picked the place at random when she first escaped by finding a human map and pointing at it while her eyes were closed.

There were children around her, playing on structures, running in the grass and laughing. She envied them greatly. Their lives were so simple, so lacking in responsibility, suffering and magic. Sometimes she really hated magic.

She was scarcely more than a child herself, though she was several hundred years older than the ones before her, but she was a witch and time passes differently for witches. She wished she could be as carefree as they. She began to cry, tearless, hiccuping sobs.

"Why are you crying?" asked a little girl who was maybe five or six years old, curiously. There was nothing particularly remarkable about her. She had very plain dark hair, boring brown eyes that were far too large for her face, which made her seem a little like what humans called aliens, which were supposedly beings from other worlds. She was just generally awkwardly proportioned. Tatiana thought to tell the puny human to leave her alone but she already felt so alone that she decided that she did not mind her company after all.

"My sister hates me, and everyone in the Witchdom wants me dead."

"Witchdom?" she asked slowly, doing her best to pronounce it correctly.

"Yes," replied Tatiana and proceeded to explain, "witches do not have kingdoms, they have the Witchdom."

"You are a witch?" she asked incredulously.

"That I am."

"Well, why does your sister hate you?"

"I did something very bad and now everyone hates me."

"But your sister is family. My mommy always loved me even when I was very, very bad." Her innocent little smile faltered and a little tear welled up in her eye.

"Now why are you crying?" Tatiana demanded.

"I'm not crying! I'm a big girl," she pushed her chin into the air indignantly and placed her hands on her hips. Then her face fell again and she said plainly, "My mommy is dead."

"What happened?"

"She got cancer and the cancer made her very sick."

"I'm sorry," Tatiana gave her condolences. The girl, however did not seem to understand.

"Why? It's not your fault," then her expression livened abruptly, "If you're a witch, prove it!"

"For you, I shall," she pointed at a limp weed in the grass that seemed to have been stepped on by many a foot. The weed's leaves unsquished themselves from the surrounding grass, its ugly head lifted out of its limp state and a lovely little flower bloomed from within it. The girl watched the flower in awe. She laughed and clapped eagerly, wanting to see more.

"If you could have anything in the universe," Tatiana began once the flower was in full bloom, "what would it be?" The girl thought for a moment before answering.

"My mommy," she said finally. Tatiana smiled sadly. The girl had come to her in a moment of sorrow and succeeded in making her smile, so she wanted to give her a gift. What the girl wanted most however, was not in the realm of wishes she could grant.

"I cannot grant such a wish," she explained, but the girl did not seem too disappointed. As young as she was, she must have understood that her mother could never come back, "anything else?" she asked.

"My mommy was so beautiful," the girl said, which she thought to be unlikely as the girl herself was nothing special. She wondered why the girl would mention such a thing for it seemed perfectly irrelevant, "but I'm ugly, I wish I could be so beautiful." She paused and seemed to think for a moment before saying, "Like you!" Tatiana beamed.

"Well then," she held out her hands for the girl and the girl placed her miniscule ones within them without a moment's hesitation. Tatiana's hands glowed and she gazed at the girl who's eyes were large with naïve wonder as she gawked at their conjoined, glowing hands, "when you grow up, you will be the most beautiful girl on Earth." The glow died out and the girl giggled. A man with dark hair like hers called, "Belle!" and the girl squirmed out of Tatiana's grasp and skipped off to meet him.

Tatiana was reluctant to see her leave but she knew the hiding spell she had cast would soon run out. She needed to return to the witches' realm before Miranda came home and saw that she had escaped. She closed her eyes and cast a transportation spell. She was in her shackles before anyone knew she was ever otherwise.