The Curious Cat: A Petunia's Peculiar Particulars Prequel

Isaiah's Death

Author's Note: Edits and reformatting. 7/12/21

His wife and daughter stood in the center of the patio staring at him with shocked expressions on their faces. Bathsheba waited quietly beside them while John sat on the bench and hung his head low. This was the burden that hung over her father's head that her mother told her about, Rhiannon thought. That was why her Dad kept his magic to simple protection spells and never used it for anything more, not that Rhiannon understood what more there was to magic. She had only a vague idea of what magic could do, and she was pretty sure it wasn't like the stuff she'd seen in movies or on TV. She had never seen her father look quite so down. The silence in the cool air was palpable.

"I'm not going to talk about it," John said eventually. "I need to talk to someone, but I'm not ready to tell you what happened. I need more time."

His wife nodded her head. "Did you find a therapist?"

John nodded. "Just this morning actually, I start sessions next month. For now, what you need to know is that it was an accident and that I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt. The guild ruled it an accident. I was barred from using magic for a year and when they lifted the spell that sealed my powers away, I just went forward like they never unlocked them."

"Dad?" Rhiannon shuffled a little closer to her mother.

"Yeah?"

"Did what happened to you have something to do with Isaiah?"

John shrugged. "Not directly, but your brother and I were a lot alike in a lot of ways. He had an adventurous streak and he hooked up with some people that said they could teach him some real magic. He told me a little about it and I told him he wasn't allowed to see them again, but like most teenage boys, that just added fuel to a fire that was already burning out of control. He snuck out and I'm not sure what they did that night, or even what they tried to do, but somehow in the midst of it all, your brother was killed while they were experimenting with magic that was just way too far above their pay grade."

Rhiannon stood next to her mother silently as she absorbed the news. Tabitha put her arm around her daughter's shoulders and hugged her tightly. Bathsheba, however, approached John and sat down in front of him. "You've been there, where your son was killed."

John nodded at the cat. "I had to see it."

"So you saw the remnants of the spell?"

He shook his head. "It was more like an odor. Sort of like the faint lingering smell of smoke after a fire has been put out for a few days. I caught the scent of magic and it was everywhere, not concentrated at all. It was like an explosion it radiated outward from a central point."

"Was your son the only one that died that night?" Bathsheba asked.

"I don't know," John replied. "I couldn't tell when I visited the scene and the Enforcers never said. It's not like you go around asking Enforcers questions about things like that, Bathsheba."

"True, they have become a danger in their own right," the cat agreed. She looked over her shoulder at Rhiannon and inclined her head apologetically before adding, "Your daughter sees spirits, just like your mother did."

"Most witches and warlocks can see spirits."

"You missed the last part. 'Just like your mother did,'" Bathsheba repeated. "They ask her to take messages to the living, John. She helps them pass over."

"That's—"

"It is," Bathsheba agreed.

"It's what?" Tabitha asked them.