Cursed Waters

11

If there was one thing Millie never understood about her parents — especially after she'd grown up — it was how they had managed to love each other so wholly. Drew had once let it slip that Millie's mom had told her father about the curse long before they'd gotten married or had Angel. He'd known, from the beginning, what he could (would) be getting into.

And yet he'd stayed. He'd married her. He'd had seven kids with her. They'd made a life together.

There had never been a moment in Millie's life that she'd doubted the love her parents shared. Being in the room with them was almost suffocating; their feelings were huge and pulsating and took up most of the space. Just seeing them interact together...

When Millie was younger, she'd thought it was sweet. Unlike Clea and Daphne, who always fake-gagged and would tell their parents to get a room, Millie thought it was cool that her parents loved each other so much. They were unlike the other parents of the kids Millie knew from school. They still kissed and held hands, even when no one was around. They gazed at each other across the dining room table. They danced on the porch on hot summer nights with music playing from the stereo in the kitchen.

Once her parents died and Millie grew up, she realized she was actually kind of pissed at them. How could they love each other so much, how could they have children, knowing what would happen?

She'd never tell Angel or any of her sisters, but sometimes Millie blamed her parents for their shitty lives. If they'd just stayed away from each other...if Millie's mom just had never had kids...maybe she'd still be alive. Maybe Millie wouldn't have the curse hanging over her head. Maybe she wouldn't have dragged Sam into this.

Maybe she wouldn't have been born just to die. 

• • •

If anyone had asked (not that anyone knew what she was doing) Millie wouldn't have said that she was stalking Miss Tully, exactly, but she might have told them that for the past two days, she'd been watching the old woman.

Whether or not she was acting like a creep, Millie didn't particularly care. She was trying to get a feel for Miss Tully, and if that meant she'd drive a few cars back from her all day . . . follow her through the grocery store . . . then, whatever, she'd do it (and never admit it).

Although, she did have to admit that parking at the bottom of Melrose Hill to watch Miss Tully's house was a little bit weird — not that it stopped her.

And, Jesus, for a supposed "hedge witch," Miss Tully was boring. So far, Millie had witnessed her buying multiple potted plants from Home Depot, cook books from the Goodwill and like fifty million apples from the Stop & Shop.

For the past hour that Millie had been watching Miss Tully's house, it had been all-quiet and irritation was eating Millie alive. How was this lady supposed to help her, if she just acted like someone's grandma?

Maybe she should've just talked to Miss Tully instead of following her around, but if Millie was being honest, she was kind of scared. What if she'd interpreted her mom's diary entry wrong? 

What if Millie's father, Kyle, had said something along the lines of "Miss Tully is a crazy old lady that's going to try and murder us with her supposed voodoo magic"? And what if Millie's mom had figured out that Miss Tully was, in fact, really just someone's crazy grandmother that lived in a really shitty looking house?

Another part of Millie was fearful that Miss Tully would be able to help her, but just wouldn't want too. She could ask for a million dollars or just be completely uninterested in having anything to do with the Clearwater family, much like everyone else in town. Clearly, her mother had gone to Miss Tully for help and yet she was still dead. Obviously the old woman hadn't been of any help.