Becoming

Chapter #2: Sofia "The First And The Last Are One In The Same"

"Sofia! Emma took my picture" A young girl with olive skin and brown hair yells to me, Sydney's things are always being taken by Emma. Behind her stands a girl with red hair and freckles dotting her cheeks, Emma. Emma's waving a picture of Sydney with her parents high above her head so Sydney can't reach, laughing all the way. Emma is now eight years old, but still, the same troublemaker she was years before.

"Emma, give Sydney back her picture. You don't take special things like that" I say. I give her a stern look, disapproving. Almost every child here at the orphanage has something they hold on to, something that replaces their parents. Emma is the only girl whose parents left her on purpose. Everyone else's parents had to leave them at the orphanage because of a business trip or something along those lines. Emma's parents wanted nothing to do with the child put on their doorstep. Emma knows why they didn't want her. She can do things, unnatural things. When she touches people, she knows their memories, she can alter people's feelings too, make them happy or sad, nervous or brave. I have discovered that I too have gifts like these. Mine are much more chaotic and they can never be twisted around to seem helpful. My touch stops a heart. My touch kills. It started when I was just seven years of age. My hands brushed against a small houseplant of Mrs. Dodge's. They plant shook, then I watched as my disease spread through the plant. It turned to ash three seconds later. Broken. Gone. Lifeless. Dead. Even though it was just a plant, I knew what this meant. At seven years old I knew about the witches and the demon that came and took people in the night. How if they ever caught a witch they would hang her, or crush her with stones, or burn her. They would call me a witch. Spawn of the demon. They would say that I'm crafty, that I tricked them into giving me food and shelter. Then I would be killed. These were the hard truths that people in Wayville had to learn at a very young age. I knew I had to keep Emma a secret too, even if her gifts were less evil than mine they would still be frightened. I made myself a pair of black gloves, exactly as I had watched mother do long ago. Hoping that the gloves would conceal our gifts. To my pleasure, they stopped me from killing things and Emma could no longer understand people's past. It was always winter in Wayville, people say that a snow princess lives in the forest putting an everlasting winter on our village, so it would not be suspicious that we had gloves. The first time Emma used her powers was when she was seven. She had been teasing Caitlin, another girl at the orphanage when she touched her, just a playful nudge and then, she started crying. I didn't know why at the time but when she explained to me that she had seen Caitlin's parents leave her, I knew what had happened. I knew that Emma was gifted. I was excited to find that I wasn't alone, but I also knew the burden of keeping powers a secret. Emma is eight years old now, her birthday was a few months ago, we don't actually know her age so we celebrate the day she came to the orphanage instead. Last year, when Emma was seven was when she found out about the magic. Since it wasn't her actual birthday, the powers showed up three months after we celebrated. I plan on bringing Emma to my room later today, to ask about her powers, if anything unusual happened. My gifts started going nutso when I turned thirteen, two weeks ago. My hands started shooting red sand, and I could shape it into things, like animals. It was fun to entertain the kids with for a couple days, but the sand started to knock over things, so I had to use another trick that I had learned a couple months before. I wiped their memories, all I had to do is touch their foreheads and they would forget anything involving magic. It scared me that I could do things like that, what if I touched them for too long and they died, what if I killed Emma. I don't understand why I have such destructive gifts while Emma has a gift that could help people. Mrs. Dodge coughs, letting us know that she has a task.

"Now that I have your attention" Mrs. Dodge glares at me, and for a moment I'm scared that she knows about our powers, but then I realize that I've been standing here for quite a long time. Mrs. Dodge persists to glower at me, "I am having some guests over for dinner, I expect you to be out of my way, Sofia make dinner with Emma, and children, clean up the house" Mrs. Dodge thrusts a couple mops into Sydney's hands and pitches a broom into Caitlin's, I get handed several pots to cook with. Emma and I head to the kitchen. I put one of the pots down on the stove in the middle of the room and the others in the sink for washing.