The Cursed One ✔ - Book One of the Phoenix Trilogy

One ~ Painful Memories

15 years later

Venus and Nuscha Andrews had a happy life even though it was just the two of them-it was almost perfect.

Almost...

Nuscha loved Vee dearly. If there was anything good out of the terrible things that had happened to her, it was having her daughter. It made all her hatred disappear, and her life had meaning and purpose. She could have had headed back home after giving birth, but she couldn't leave her bundle of joy behind. So she decided to continue hiding, practically running away from everyone, including her own kind. She didn't have anyone else but Venus.

Sylvie was long gone.

Besides their golden locks, it was a good thing that Nuscha's lavender eyes changed the moment she gave birth because their deep blue eyes were uncannily similar in hue. Although in the naked eye they probably resembled as kins due to a couple of things they physically had in common, Nuscha knew better. Vee was growing up so fast and it was only a matter of time before her features would start to drastically change. More and more, Vee would become an exact replica of her-not the meatsuit but the real her. And before that happened, she needed to make sure that they would be away from people whom they were familiar with. They needed to run away from prying eyes to avoid unnecessary trouble. Until that phase occurred, she wanted Vee to experience a taste of normalcy, even for just a short period of time. She hoped that her daughter could live and enjoy a steady environment. It was the only reason why Nuscha decided to take a short break from their carefree gipsy lifestyle. She knew it was an odd way of life but it worked for them for years. Even if she hardly acknowledged it but it was a necessity to protect what was important to her-Venuscha.

Nuscha worked hard to maintain a good relationship between them. They were close like sisters; open to each other like best friends. Everything was absolutely possible except for one thing: she had only one rule-no daddy talk.

Period.

Venus never argued about it. They shared a bond deeper than that, and they always exchanged good-natured banter on almost everything. The rule was no big deal to Vee, and she was completely cool with it. She wasn't interested in someone who left her even before she was born. The story about her dad was something they never discussed, like ever. It was a taboo topic. Aside from that, her mother also had a strange habit of hopping from one town to another under the guise of a new and better job offer. They only stayed a year at most in each place. It was the reason why Vee never had any friends. Not that she was complaining-having her mom was more than enough for her.

Venus knew something was off but whatever it was, she didn't have the courage to pry. So she pretended to be dumb and went with whatever her mom wanted as long as they stayed together. Vee was afraid of asking and honestly, she was terrified of whatever that truth was, especially when she thought that the truth would force her mother to abandon her too just like what the dad she never knew did.

Vee often dreamed of finding a place made just for the two of them. A paradise beyond the veil of reality that would serve as their safe haven. It would be somewhere they belonged and didn't have to run like fugitives from whatever or whoever was chasing after them.

It always had been an itch she couldn't scratch-a nagging feeling buried deep inside her mind that kept on bothering her from time to time. It might be intuition or instinct or whatever it was-something was not right. She could feel it catching up to them sooner or later, although she was kind of hoping it was the latter. Or perhaps, even wishing that her gut feeling was wrong.

But, the truth of the matter was, everything was just her personal assumptions.

After all, Vee didn't experience being in a dangerous situation. It concluded the fugitive scenario as just a ridiculous product of her imagination until proven otherwise. For all she knew, her mom was really telling her the truth all along. As the judge would always say, no one's guilty until proven beyond reasonable doubt.