Needle and Thread

VIII: Thomas Spoolston (The Cat)

Thomas Spoolston, once a young boy who grew up in the village that burned and hanged necromancers for usage of witchcraft; innocent or not. The one memory that made him hate the idea of people being burned alive, reduced into ash. It was cruel to punish those that didn't deserve to die. Believing they are servants to the devil himself. Every time he thought about it, his stomach flopped in disgust. As he grew older he was fascinated with what magic users lived with inhuman powers or associated with mythical creatures lurking in the woods or in the swamp. Then there was Thimbella, the youngest daughter of the Needle family who owned a successful business to produce thimbles made of steel. They met in high school when they went a few classes together. After Thomas heard of rumors of her sister Sewlona could be a witch, but nothing about Thimbella. He wondered what if the sayings are more than just fiction? What if they  were necromancers all this time? 

Though when it comes getting something you want in life, there could something blocking that path. Obstacles you could walk around or move it yourself. Thomas's family of course was a very difficult obstacle to pass through without doing both. The Spoolston's had a feud with Needles before with disagreements to one another. When the time came the his father knew his son's relationship of the daughters, he was furious. 

"Son, is it true that your with one of the daughters from the Needles?" His father would ask. Thomas would be silent for a moment, while the eyes of his father burned including his mother and his younger sister. They sat and waited for an answer, leaning closer in case he spoke too low to be heard. 

"Yes." Thomas spoke calmly with confidence and determination in his voice. His mother gasped and cried out, his sister looked down, an for his father though his expression was blank but the eyes still scorched and burned. 

"Son, I don't want you to be with her. She's could  put our family at risk." 

"Why is that? Don't tell me you believe the lies they say about her sister are true?"

"WHY? Because she could be one of those damn necromancers plaguing families and place hexes." his mother said woodenly.

Thomas looked at his parents, anger rising inside him willing to burst if they were to say the wrong things. He hated how his parents judged the Needles sisters despite of how they dealt with death of their parents, let alone their uncle disowned them himself. Thomas had loss of loved ones before, his grandfather who him and his sister advice in life. But there was something he told Thomas before he passed away. A secret he kept for so long, he too was magic user and wanted his grandchild to believe that not all of them were evil as many say. Marcus, his elder brother died from heartache from work. 

"How would you know? You never met them to know for yourselves. That what some believe, that doesn't it true!"

"Enough! By tomorrow you will end this unruly relationship with this girl-"

"NO! I SHALL NOT!" 

His mother was about to argue about his son not to use that tone of voice but her voice lost by the outburst. Her inside freezing with fear, something of Thomas spoke out of turn made her stop. 

"Tom, please." Thomas's sister pleaded sheepishly. Valerie hated arguing or kind of arguments in that matter. Whether it was a screaming or a violent one where fist will fly and pounding hard onto flesh. 

Thomas remained mute while their father shouted for him end the relationship with the "witch".  At that moment, he had enough. His wasn't going to live with a family who discriminated against magic users, those who didn't pose threats towards mortals like himself. He had to leave, but he didn't want to leave his sister alone. What choice did he have? When left to find Thimbella at home, though sometimes he had uneasy feelings whenever he set foot by the Pink Palace. Fearing her sister is watching him from the windows, her dark eyes piercing through him like a sewing needle stabbing through fabric. But the feeling wasn't there, there no was watching them through the windows with dark colored drapes pulled shut to prevent anyone seeing what was inside the house. 

The front door swings door open with Thimbella, her arms already wrapped around Thomas in a tight embrace. But the embrace was not joyous, it was grief from loss. 

"She's gone. My sister fell down from the well and she's forever!" she sobbed, letting her tears seep through the fabric of his shirt. After she tells of her elder's death of falling through the well while being chased by the mayor and his people for questioning. Thomas was struck deep in his chest. He couldn't bare the idea of his love alone with no one to care for. Her father died from the plague, her mother murdered, her uncle not wanting to interfere, and now her only sibling was taken away by fate. 

"Thimbella, listen to me." Thomas said softly, looking into her eyes. There love and sadness all at once, unlike her sister. Sewlona eyes were icy and wary, like looking inside a skill with burning embers inside dimly lit. This was one reasons why he loved Thimbella. But he wanted to be her even more to share a life some people could never do. 

"I know it's to accept death that happened to the one you love, but they are gone entirely. They still live in spirit. In the heavens, watching you live on here on earth. I had lost one that still wish there were with me."

At the words Thimbella stopped, registering each word Thomas spoke from his heart. It was true that her family died from each tragedy, but she still remembers them. Her parents would be proud of her for being a strong woman and a lovely daughter. But what Sewlona? Would she be proud? 

Of course she would. Thimbella scolded herself for doubting of what her sister might think. Sure she was strict and disapproved of Thomas for being a mortal. But she was always was always there, keeping her safe and thought her to control her magic to keep secret from others. 

When the discussion became with inheriting the families fortune, being the last descentant of the Needle. Thimbella accepted, but refused the deed for the Pink Palace. The place once called home was now a monstrous reminder of her families deaths. She wanted to be father away to start anew. Thomas politely agreed to her decisions and even took the liberty to changed his last name to Needles for his wife. 

The Needles had moved place to place time to time over the years. While Thimbella had made a youth potion for her husband without the natural ending their love. Then one night, the spirit of Nedra herself in a red wine dress delivers news about Sewlona's fate in the other world and her undoing unraveling like thread unwind from it's spool. Thomas had volunteered to be watcher of the Pink Palace as a black cat leaving a keepsake for his daughter Frimly to remember who he was. 

A permanent position searching for any sign of wondering children, did had some advantages. Getting in and out from other world without having to go to the small door, and speaking like a human. But remained himself silent in the real world to prevent exposure of magic existing. No children, were near the house for decades after the third went missing while their twin had to leave. Three new neighbors lived there, no children of course. But one had jumping mice with them, though they weren't the ordinary mices for they spoke and sense dark presences from the pale pink home. The Cat wasn't interested in mice, but rats on the hand. Rats who were servants to The Other Mother who do what she says. 

A family arrives, a family of three. A man, a woman....and a girl who was no older than twelve wearing a yellow rain coat, matching boots, short blue dyed hair with a dragonfly hair clip. Wondering in the abandoned gardens traveling with a branch, calling it a "dosing rod" that would guide her to the well.