When It Breaks

| SIXTEEN |

"Your family belongs to the first generation of humans we call the Original humans or Purebloods."

My eyes widened at his words. This was the last thing I was expecting to hear. It beat all my expectations.

"What?"

"I know but there's more, Feli," Father said and nodded her head, allowing my mother to continue.

"Because of this reason, your family's blood affects every species. For wolves, it makes them ten times stronger.

"For vampires, it would quench their thirst for a hundred years while making them stronger. It would taste like the sweetest ambrosia to them. But witches had it greater.

"By having Lillian's blood, it was possible to empower an entire coven but the amount of blood needed for the sacrifice is every drop of blood in her body."

"Forgive us, baby, we didn't hide this from you because we wanted to but we hid it to protect you. Your kind was hunted for their blood and for that reason, Lilian was killed.

"At the moment, you are the last of your kind," Mother explained, causing me to stare at her in shock.

"This must be a joke, mother, it can't be true. Tell me it isn't true," I pleaded, holding her hand.

"You are a smart girl, Feli, you know I am telling the truth. Why do you think you have never gotten sick and your injuries heal a lot faster than that of a regular human?" She asked and I shook my head in denial.

The signs were all there, I just chose not to see them. As a kid, I never got sick, not even the regular flu or cold. I always thought I had a stronger immune system. Whenever I got injured, I healed quickly.

My hand went to my forehead to check the wound I sustained in that town, only to find that the wound had scabbed over.

I gasped as realization dawned on me. They had not been lying. Amelia was unknowingly telling the truth when she joked about me not being human.

"Why, mother? Why did it take you this long to tell me?"

Softly she took my hands in hers and squeezed my hands. "We were only trying to protect you. Lilian entrusted you to us before dying and we swore we would not let the same thing that happened to her happen to you.

"We took you away from that town and brought you here. We took it upon ourselves to protect the last pureblood. At first, we did it because of the responsibility to our friend but later we fell in love.

"We fell in love with the black-haired and green-eyed baby who couldn't wait to conquer the world that she walked at three months old.

"The baby who called me mama as her first word. That baby quickly became our whole world and we didn't need anything else." She smiled with tears running down her eyes.

Teary-eyed, I reached forward to wipe her tears. I didn't know what to say but I knew I would forever be grateful for all their sacrifices.

I wondered why I imagined I would never see them the same way ever again. Nothing needed to change. Nothing had to change.

Even though they aren't my real parents, they never once made me feel adopted. I had all the love in the world and every other thing I needed. It was always enough with them, never lacking.

Father took over from where she stopped. "You are our whole world and that is why we will even lay down our lives for you.

"Let us handle the witch. We have a secret compartment in the school for the gifted. I will take you there to hide while we deal with the witch."

From all my years in that school, I never saw a secret place and I knew every inch of the school including the forbidden library which no student was allowed to enter.

The door had no lock of any kind and no one could decipher the way to get in. Even Madison who was best at locks, codes and doors couldn't find a way to get in.

She concluded that the door we were seeing wasn't the entrance.

After so many failed attempts to get into the forbidden library, I stopped trying but that didn't mean I gave up wanting to know what books they hid there. That added to the secrets of the school for the gifted.

"How do you own a compartment in the school?" I asked, my face twisted in absolute cluelessness.

"Sweetheart, we own the major shares in the school."

I blinked rapidly without saying anything.

My body had run out of reactions to shock.

"I don't even know why I get surprised anymore," I said with a sigh.

"After what happened with the witch, we decided to keep a watch on the supernatural world and what they knew about you.

"That's when we decided to but major shares of the school and now we own it. We majorly control the curriculum and most of the popular writers come from the school of the gifted.

"We stopped production of books containing too much information about your kind. The lesser things people know about your blood, the safer you are," Dad said.

"Are you aware of the wrong practices going on in the school, the inhuman experiments as well as the awful disciplinary actions ?" I asked, silently hoping for a negative answer.

Dad looked away guiltily and I frowned, turning to look at mum who wouldn't even meet my eyes.

"You knew?" My voice became higher and blaming.

I couldn't believe they knew and didn't stop it.

Mother jumped in to explain. "We couldn't do much, baby. Although we hold the biggest share but other shareholders also contribute in making decisions. It wasn't our decision to make–"

"That doesn't make it right, mother. I have seen some inhumane experiments done on different species just for the sake of knowledge. It was horrible, mother. You could have voted against it!" I exclaimed, leaning forward in my seat.

"We tried but the board threatened us with you. They threatened to tell the world what you are and let the government scientists take you.

"Original species are almost extinct and we couldn't let you become the property of the government," Dad explained anxiously.

"I understand you were trying to protect me but at the cost of what, the lives of hundreds of innocent people?"  I barked back, with an incredulous look on my face and my parents looked away in shame.

The things I had seen in the school needed to be stopped quickly and legal actions taken against them. The school scientists torture people in the name of experiments. New drugs and weapons were tested on innocent human beings and most were unwilling.

Finally, dad sighed and said, "We will try to convince the board to end it but at the moment, there are more important things like keeping you away from the witch."

"Promise me you will try, father," I urged.

My parents shared an identical look of apprehension before agreeing and making the promise. Immediately a tattoo of a hand, writing some words appeared on both their necks.

I smiled, satisfied.

(•)

Thank you for reading.