The Witches's Theft

7

The first thing he heard when he pulled up, the moon as welcoming as the sun these days, was the sound of Mila crying. He took a deep breath and quelched the urge to run to her side. Bonnie and he, had more than a couple of conversations about his need to spoil Mila at an age when everything was a crying offense. Mila had to learn how to deal with her anger and sadness with her cousin or whoever without daddy coming to the rescue. But as he approached the door, he smelled the blood and his pulse quickened. Speeding into the kitchen to find Bonnie squelched on the floor in front of the deep freezer. Over twenty packs of blood on the floor around her. "What the hell are you doing? We don't drink 'the prune juice' in front of the kids," he said snatching the bag from her hand.

"I was just so hungry. It came on so suddenly." She said getting to her feet as she wiped at her mouth blood dripping down the sides.

Startled by the sound of the smoke alarm going off, and the smell of something burnt coming from the oven.

"Clean this up. I'm going to go check on Mila," he said, looking up at the smoke alarm in annoyance and the overall dischelved look of Bonnie. "Mila, baby." He headed to her room, but was stopped by some unseen force from entering. "Mila, its daddy." Hitting this invisible force field, that pushed against me.

There was movement from the closet, and Mila appeared standing just inside the room. Her eyes red, as she wiped snot on her the sleeve of her purple shirt. "Is it safe now?"

He looked around and got on his knee. "From what sweetie?"

"Mommie."

His heart cracked into a million pieces. He expected her to say that about him one day, even his brother and great uncle Enzo, but never Bonnie. She was never supposed to be afraid of Bonnie. "Yeah, sweetie."

She ran to the corner and removed what looked like crystal, releasing the force field over the door and allowing me to step in. He lifted her into his arms and picked up the pink crystal. "Where did you get this?"

"Patty gave it to me. It's my safety plan for the house. Like we have a safety plan at school. We've been practicing it," she sniffled, laying her head on his shoulder.

He turned it over in his hand. Looks like that Nanny was actually earning the expensive salary he was paying her. "What does it do?"

"She said when I get scared to put it by the door and no monsters can come and get me, and today mommy looked like a monster." She stared him in the face after a long pause. "Am I in trouble?"

"No," he said putting her down on the bed. "But I do need you to tell me what happened?" He placed the crystal down on the nightstand by her Doc McStuffins table lamp.

"Is mommy in trouble?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, growing increasingly angry with Bonnie the more this conversation went on. "Should she be?" Disappearing into the bathroom and returning with some tissue for her nose. Drying her tears as well.

"I don't know. She wouldn't listen to me and just kept drinking the prune juice that you tell me and Emma not to drink. She even yelled at me to get away from her. Mommy never yells at me."

He kissed the top of her head. "Mommy just wasn't feeling well, tonight. So she got a little cranky. I'm going to go check on her and then i'll be back and we can spend some time together okay."

She shook her head. "It was more than that. Mommy didn't look like mommy."

She sighed deeply a if the weight of the world sat atop her five year old shoulders. But more than that he wasn't sure who he was supposed to be angry at. The conversation about his nature was supposed to happen with a pimply faced nervous teenager not a little girl who barely understood the world around her. "When I come back will talk about that too?"