Destiny's Witch (BxB)

Chapter 24: The Truth about Destiny

Perry

The intensity of my anger is hot enough to singe the sun. Not even the look on Alan's face is enough to soften the blow of Porter's unbinding.

Porter has never intimated he is a witch or shown a propensity for magical displays. Penny must be offended to her core that Porter is not the Zion. The favored child Porter is, it is no wonder he was handed his magic back on a silver platter while I scrape the bottom of the barrel. They were waiting on him to become something he is not.

Rage fuels my search through the many boxes in the basement. The basement used to scare me when I was younger. I believed something evil lurked in the shadows named the Nowhere Man, an invention of my grandmother. The sad part is the feeling never leaves. You just learn to stay in the light as long as possible.

An hour passes as I move from box to box looking for the infamous Bennett grimoire. Porter and I happened upon the grimoire a while ago and he cautioned me away from it. He wrote it off as a Halloween prank while simultaneously warning me about it. I went back afterward to find the book gone. Now I know why.

As I am rummaging through a box of photos, I come across a black-and-white photograph of a woman with two children. A younger, slimmer Patricia stands with my mother and an older girl. My mother looks about ten in the picture and the older girl must be twelve, if I am correct. I look away briefly as the door to the basement opens and someone descends the stairs.

My attention returns to the box of photos as Porter reaches the bottom of the stairs. His energy is unmistakable. I identify him without much effort.

Porter's heavy footsteps inform me he has stopped right behind me as I shuffle a few more photos. "Who's this girl? She looks like she's mom's age?" I ask.

"Aunt Persephone. She died when she was sixteen. She was heavy into magic and attempted a spell that was too dangerous for her level." Porter says.

I drop the photos in the box. "There are levels? You'd know better than me, right?"

"So, you're mad at me now? Or just them?" He asks.

"I was always bad at choices, so all of the above." I say. "You get a pass because you're not the one who stripped me of my powers."

Porter sighs as he sits beside me. "Is this how it's been since I've been away? It's really toxic here." He says.

"Oh yeah, we all fell apart without you." I say. "What do you want me to say? Things weren't like this the entire time. Mom and Dad were solid, I was kicking ass, and we all lived the lie happily."

"What changed?"

"Me." I say. "You know the sucky thing about this? I actually thought dad was being a dad. He was guiding me and protecting me but all this time he was trying to control me like he usually does."

"And that makes you sad, doesn't it?" Porter asks.

"No."

"Come on, little bro! I was here when the parentals brought you home."

I cut my eyes towards him. "If I remember correctly, the story is that you dragged my car seat onto the porch."

"You grew on me. Not super fond of you right now. You're kind of mean. But it makes sense. Mom and Dad lied to you, and it hurts you, which is my original point."

"Why aren't you angrier? They took your powers, too."

"Who says I'm not? But what's being pissed off going to solve? I'm more worried, I guess." He says. "You're looking for a grimoire to fight a couple of vampires and who knows what else. Doesn't it scare you?"

The question is confusing. A normal person should be terrified of my circumstances. The prospect of facing off against two supernatural creatures and an unknown threat should feel like stepping into the darkness, and yet, I feel little fear.

I only feel anger and frustration.

"I don't have a choice, do I? What? Am I going to hide under my covers?" I ask. "I'm the Zion, for whatever that means. As much as I'm starting to hate what that means for me, I can't really fight it. It's a waste of time."

"You can be scared, too. It's okay." He says.

I laugh as I fold the lid to the box. "Thanks. I appreciate your generous allowance of my feelings and emotions. You don't get it." I say.

"Hey! I'm here, with you, little bro. You're not alone in this."

I push the box away and stand as Porter does as well. He crosses his arm, flaring his nostrils under the scant light from the overhead fixture. He calls it his 'big brother gaze of death' and I am supposed to fear it. He has clearly missed the part of the story where I fight demons every night.

"You know, it's very sweet of you to come in here with your favored child ideology, but I've been doing this for a while now. I had a partner once but he turned out to be...human." I say. "It's me now. I'm the Zion. I'm the only thing standing between all the scary things in the dark and everybody else. I accept it."

Porter's gaze softens and I feel worse. His ability to pull things from me I would never say is astonishing. My feelings of being alone and separate have never been verbally expressed until now. It makes me feel emptier.

In the same way I felt Porter descend the stairs, I can feel Penny and Alan at the top of the stairs. It escapes me whether the two have been there all along or if they have just appeared.

"I'm the only one in the family that didn't know. And even after Alan told me I'm this mythical being that's chosen to save the world, nobody told me. I don't know what I am anymore and nobody will tell me the truth. I went to sleep one night and woke up different, and no one can tell me what it really means. It's the journey that I have to take alone, I guess. So, yeah, it's just me now. I can feel it all day, every day."

"Have you told mom and dad how you feel?" Porter asks.

"I just did."

I pat Porter on the shoulder as I walk past him. I head up the stairs, out of the door, and into the hallway. I am careful not to make eye contact with either of my parents as I head up to my room.

The twins are safe for now. The two vampires have not shown any malice towards me yet, so I will choose to let them be until I need to extract more information out of them.

Besides, the Harvest Festival in only a couple of days away now, and I feel as if something worse is coming our way.