Tricking Death

Chapter 2 - "Death's Maiden"

I was staring at my mom, trying to make her look at me. She was standing over by the window, still crying. Her usually perfectly styled curly brown hair was a crazy mess from the way she was frantically tearing her hands through it. I wanted her to look over at me, tell me that it was all a mistake and that everything would be okay. I wanted her to take me home so we could sit curl up on the couch and watch trashy shows on TV, while eating my birthday cake. 

I wanted to pretend that this was all just some sick joke. 

My aunts were whispering over in the opposite corner of the room. All of us were waiting for Serena to come back and explain. 

Emily Crawford... You're Death's Maiden. 

Her words echo in my head, and I give up on trying to use my non-existent mind control to make my mom look at me, dropping my head into my hands. I feel like I should be crying like the rest of them. I want to cry, but the tears won't come. They're just sitting in my eyes, taunting me. 

Freshly blown-out candles litter the room, no longer needed just like the ceremony they were for. Some of them were scented, and the room stinks because of it. 

I hear the clink of china and turn to see my great aunt come back into the room with a tea tray. She sets it down on the table and then starts pouring, setting a cup down in front of me. 

"I don't want tea," I grumbled, pushing the cup away. 

"You will drink that tea and you will like it," Serena glared at me before giving tea cups to my aunts and my mom. 

I crossed my arms and refused to touch the cup, even after she sat back down and pushed it towards me. 

"Young lady, I'm not saying another word until you drink that tea." 

I glared at her with as much contempt as I could muster over the rim of the teacup. 

I wanted answers, and if I had to drink this crazy lady's tea to get them, then I would. 

She smirked at me, nodding in approval when I put the cup back down after checking to make sure that I had actually drank some of it. I only wish that the tea had tasted bad, because then maybe I would have been able to keep an angry look on my face. I wanted to demand that she start talking, but I knew that it would only make things worse. 

It took until she had finished drinking almost a cup and a half of tea, but she finally set her cup down for good and looked at me. 

"So, are you ready to hear the details of your gift?" 

"Of course I am, I've been-" 

"Don't get smart with me, girl," she warned, wagging her finger at me. "I don't have to do this at all, you know."

I opened my mouth a few times, trying to come up with a response. "Then-Then how would I even find out what this whole 'Death's Maiden' crap is? You're the one that's supposed to know, the one that's supposed to tell every member of the family what their gift is! Isn't that in the rules of your own? That you have to tell everyone?"

 Serena's frown deepened, and she turned around to look at my mother. "So you told her all about me, but you couldn't tell her about this?" 

My mom didn't respond, but I could see her flinch from where I was sitting. Serena turned back around to face me with a sigh. 

"Well, I guess it can't be helped. First of all, what you've got is a gift that's quite rare. It tends to skip quite a few generations, for several reasons." 

"Okay...?" I prodded, since she just decided to leave her explanation there. 

She shot me a dirty look before she decided to continue. "What you have is a serious gift. Much more serious and with a heck of a lot more responsibility than anything else you could possibly get."