The Story of Udonia

Chapter Twenty One: Monica Sophie Vasquez

"What did you think of Monica?" Jasmine asked me the day after my birthday during our regular class time.
I looked up from the pencil that was trying to fuse into an eraser. "She was nice. You two seem happy together." I replied then went back to my work.
"Claire..." She had a serious tone of voice. "There is something we are keeping from you..."
"We?" I asked and looked into her eyes.
Jasmine swallowed. "Monica wants to talk to you about something. It might not make any sense at first, but what she has to say is important." Jasmine explained.
"Okay...?" I got up and walked over to her. "Should I call her?" I asked.
Jasmine shook her head. "I just got a text from her. She's here. I wasn't expecting her to want to do this today. She said she wanted you to get to know her first, but now she's here."
I was really confused now. "Am I missing something?" I asked.
Jasmine walked to my door and opened it. There was Monica standing behind the door.
She smiled nervously.
"Did you tell her to bring in the other?" Monica asked.
"I forgot." Jasmine turned to me. "You might want to bring in Lacey and Ashton. I assume you told them that Monica is also a witch?"
I nodded. "I can bring them here."
Ashton was the office. He often would go in there while I was learning from Jasmine. Lacey was god knows where in the castle. I texted them both to come to me.
They both arrived quickly.
"Claire?" Ashton asks while he walked in the room.
Lacey poked her head in next. "What's going on?"
"I wish I knew." I replied. "Monica and Jasmine want to talk to us about something."
Ashton, Lacey, and I sat on the foot of the bed. Monica stepped forward and was practically shaking with nerves. She took a deep breath and then turned back around to Jasmine in panic. Jasmine whispered something to her. Monica turned back around.
"Here goes nothing." She said.
I watched Monica move her hand from the bottom of her head up over the top. I blinked a few times to make sure what I was seeing was actually true. I then turned with my jaw dropped to see Ashton and Lacey's shocked expression.
In front of us stood Bianca. My dead sister.
I got over my stubbed star after Monica's face reappeared.
I stood up in anger. "What the hell was that?! Is this some sick joke?!" I yelled at Monica.
Her face fell. "No, Claire. It's me. It's Bianca."
I didn't want to believe it.
How is this possible?!
"Proof it!" I shouted in disbelief.
"How?" Monica begged.
"What's your birthday?" I asked.
"January 13, 1992." She responded quickly.
"How old did you just turn?" I asked next.
"23. The same age Ashton will be on September 10th." She replied.
Lacey cut in. "Claire, she could've Googled that before hand. Ask her something only Bianca would know."
I searched my mind and came up with a few things. "What age did I start my period?" I asked.
"13. You woke up one morning in August and freaked out. You ran to my room for help. You knew what was happening you were just scared because you didn't want to be a woman yet." She smiled.
That was true, but there was something more. "When did I lose my virginity?" I asked.
"You hadn't yet. When we left for our trip to Rome you hadn't yet." She glanced at Ashton. "Now that you've been with Ashton you probably have."
"Claire do you need anymore convincing?" Ashton asked.
I turned around and looked at him. "You believe this?!" I asked.
He shrugged. "Why would she lie about this?"
"If she is the one trying to kill me!" I argued.
Suddenly Monica began to sing. "Stay awake don't rest your head. Don't lie down upon your bed. While the moon drifts in the skies. Stay awake don't close your eyes." She stopped and looked at me with expecting eyes.
I stood still and frozen.
"Bianca used to sing that to me all the time." I explained to the others. "I loved Mary Poppins. She would come into my room to help me go to sleep. I always thought Bianca had a wonderful singing voice." My eyes teared up. "Like that." I slowly turned and looked at Monica.
She was a my sister. So many questions ran through my head. I thought I should allow her to explain.
"Let me explain." Monica said as if reading my thoughts.
I was still just stunned. Ashton grabbed my arm and pulled me down to the bed. I sat and listened intently to my sister's story.
"It was late at night. I was feeling unsteady and couldn't sleep. Something didn't feel right, I didn't know what. Tim must've felt it too, because when I went up to the bow to get some air, he was there. He said that he couldn't sleep. I said I couldn't either. I wished him a happy birthday since it was after midnight. We stood in silence and watched the sea as the yacht glided across it. I gazed up at the stars for moment, then suddenly felt sleepy. So I turned around to go back to my room. That's when the bomb exploded. I panicked as the ship began to sink in from the middle. I shouted for our parents but they were probably killed in the blast. I didn't know what to do. And I was about to loose my footing when I felt Tim push me to the side. I grabbed the railing. He screamed at me to jump of the ship. And I did. I landed in the cold water and he came in next to me. We swam away from the ship and watched it sink. No one else survived."
I interrupted her. "Wait? Tim lived too?!"
Jasmine shifted uncomfortably behind Monica. "Let her finish." She said.
Monica continued. "Tim and I didn't know what to do, so we picked a direction and swam. The moon was hidden by clouds so we didn't know where we were going. It turns out we went south. We stopped swimming when we realized. Then I spotted an island. I know what you're thinking. 'That's not possible.' But it's what happened. I don't know how it got there and why it hasn't been found by anyone else, but we swam to it. We slept in the sand. I woke up to the sun rising to my right. I woke up Tim and we explored. That's when she came. A beautiful African American woman appeared in front of us. She was dressed in all white. She told us she was our guardian angel and that you," Monica gestured to me, "were in trouble. She said we needed to go back to help you. Then she told me how to do it. She explained that we were witches and that using the combination of my active powers and Tim's dormant power, one of us could come home and still have enough juice left to create a new identity too." Monica paused and took a deep breath. "To be able to use Tim's magic..." She started to choke up slightly. "I had...I had to do a specific ritual that...that would kill Tim." She could barely utter the last sentence.
My mind went crazy. "What?!" I shouted.
"There was really no other way?" Ashton asked.
"If there was don't you think I would have done it!" Monica argued. "And even if there was I didn't know how." She wiped a tear from her eye and looked at me. "Claire?" She asked.
"You...you killed our brother?" I asked in a calmer tone.
"Yes." She replied. "For you! We did it for you. He agreed to it and cried the whole time Claire!" She argued. "I didn't want to. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I refused to, but I said it was okay. He just wanted me to get back to you...and so here I am."
"And now you're Monica?" Lacey asked.
"Yes." She replied. "I couldn't come back as me. If I did, people would ask questions. So I made myself a new identity." She explained.
I couldn't speak. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to feel. I was sad, angry, surprised, and confused. What was I supposed to feel when my sister came back to life as a different person but she killed my brother to do so?
Ashton placed an arm around my shoulders to comfort me. My breath was erratic. I felt like I was going to pass out for a minute there.
I pulled myself together. I still had questions and Bianca...Monica was going to answer them.
I looked up with a sudden fire and my face fell when I saw her. I looked pass Monica and saw my loving sister. I stood up and approached her. She seemed surprised when I wrapped my hands around her. She then did the same. It wasn't Bianca's body or face, but it was her soul. I could feel her.
"Claire." She said. "I'm not done yet. There is more." I pulled away and looked at her.
I then stepped back to allow her to finish.
"After I got back here and got a handle on my new life, I needed answers. The only other thing that the angel gave me before leaving us in the island was a small piece of paper with an address on it. I was the first place I went. The house was in Ozrock, Udonia. I knocked on the door to the small house and inside was some old crazy cat woman. She actually looked a Lito like mom. I wasn't sure where to start. So I just asked the lady what she knew about the royal family and magic. Thinking she would just send me off as crazy I realized how insane I sounded, but she actually seemed to know something. She asked me who I was and I answered honestly. I did I was Bianca Hazenberg, but I was supposed to have died a week ago so now I'm Monica Vasquez because I used magic to give myself a new identity. The woman didn't seem to find anything I said was strange. She invited me in for tea or coffee. I walked into her house. There weren't any family photos anywhere. All there was were cats. Like twelve cats. So, um, this lady is our aunt."
"Dad didn't have any siblings?" I said.
"Not dad...mom."
"Oh...so she is a witch too."
"Yeah, a weird old witch. Anyway, she was mom's sister. Her name is Marie Von Voss. She explained to me how she was mom's younger sister and how mom and Debra would always fight. Deb was the oldest sibling. Mom and her didn't get along and poor Marie was always left to watch the conflict. They were learning how to use their magic from grandma after grandpa died when mom was thirteen. Then grandma died when mom was seventeen. Aunt Debby had to take care of them both. She was a year older than mom and Marie was a year younger. Debby and mom constantly argued. Mom met dad when she was eighteen. She claimed she was in love with the prince and that they were going to get married. Debra didn't believe her. They fought about it, but still put up appearances for society parties. One day, they took an argument too far. Mom threw a fireball at Debby in anger. Deb retorted with a plasma ball. Things escalated. They were fighting in the hall above the stairs. Marie came out of her room because she heard screaming. Debby was scared by Marie coming out of her room and miss stepped. She fell down the stairs and died. Marie blamed mom for being too impossible and mom blamed Marie for scaring Deb. They lied to the police saying that they both came out of their rooms after Deb scream and found her at the bottom of the stairs. They had to use magic to hide the burn marks and holes in the walls. Marie didn't want anything to do with mom after that. She changed her name and moved to Ozrock. Mom married dad and never spoke of this again. Dad never mentioned about them either, although he did meet them both." Monica explained.
I took a breath. I didn't know what to say.
"Marie also showed me a family tree tracing back to the first witch." Monica said as she pulled out her phone. "I took a picture of it."
I walked over to her to look at the image on her phone.

"Daniel Wilson was a witch too. I wish we had his family tree." Monica said as I looked over the image.
"I just can't believe any of this." I explained. "You're alive...you killed our brother...mom had two sisters. It's a lot."
"I know, Claire. But this is our reality. There is one thing that I can't answer..." I looked up at her face. "I don't know who's trying to kill you."