Magic Spawn Origins

Magic Spawn: Chapter 58

by Meredith Skye

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The air grew cold on the small outcropping of rock where the two girls huddled, watching the macabre scene below, as the undead wandered the graveyard. One tall skinny skeleton lumbered fairly close to the place where the girls hid. Haley found herself holding her breath until it passed. She relaxed once it was gone.

"Do you think they can hear us?" whispered Anya.

"Sure, why not?" asked Haley. Anya always asked such strange questions.

"They don't have any ears," the girl said factually.

"No, they don't," observed Haley. Anya didn't miss a thing. Smart kid.

"And what about their eyes? Can they see?"

That was a good question. One that Haley didn't know the answer to. "Can't they?"

"Maybe they're like bats; maybe they see by radar." Anya said, her face always cold and passive.

"Maybe," said Haley. They sat there in silence for a few more moments. Anya stared off into the center of the darkness. Haley was never sure what to say to her.

"You're right," sighed Anya, as though responding to something that Haley had just said. "My parents didn't want me."

Guilt crept up on Haley, thinking back to that hurtful comment she'd said earlier that night, when trying to get rid of Anya. She shouldn't have said anything about the girl's parents, knowing that Anya was a foster child.

"The day I was born, my parents left me in a box behind a dumpster. Someone found me."

This stunned Haley. She studied Anya. The child's face was blank and unreadable. She said it with all the emotion as if she'd said it looked like rain.

"My parents threw me away," she said, her voice now almost a whisper, trembling with just a little doubt.

Haley's stomach knotted up. She reached out and put her hand on Anya's shoulder. "Oh Anya, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said those things." She wanted to comfort her somehow but wasn't sure what to say. She wasn't any good at this.

Anya didn't even acknowledge her—the girl could have been completely alone in a desert. Haley had no idea how things had been for her.

"Every year I'd get a new foster family, sometimes twice a year," she said, without looking at Haley. "Because I'm so weird."

This angered Haley. Anya seemed so young and vulnerable. "Hey," Haley said, touching Anya's shoulder more forcefully, so that she looked up at Haley. "You are not weird! You were just a baby when they left you. And you've had it hard ever since then. Don't let anyone tell you that you're weird!"

Anya smiled ever so faintly. "That's what Aldena says. I like her. It's like having a real ... mother."

Anya had been with Aldena for less than a year. Is that why the kid was so withdrawn? Did she think that this would end too? That Aldena would think she was weird? "It'll be all right, Anya." Haley assured her.

Anya warmed up a little at this. "Do you know what I've always wanted?" she asked wistfully.

"No, what?" asked Haley.

"I always wished I had a big sister," she said shyly.

On impulse, Haley took Anya's hand. "I'll be your sister," she said. This brought a smile to Anya's face. Haley smiled back at her, squeezing her hand tightly.

Just then, Haley saw movement out of the corner of her eye, down near the crypt. "Shh," she said quietly and nodded to the field below them. Molan stepped through the door, walking out onto the field. "Roll it," she whispered.

Quickly, Anya got the camera out and began rolling it. She nodded to Haley. Haley watched as Kyran followed the necromancer out. She gasped as, just for a moment, she thought that Kyran looked straight at her. Then he looked away. She relaxed a little.

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