Darkness becomes her //JackxElsa

Ten

Note

"A WHAT?"

"Doue. That's the Novem's nice word for freaks. Weirdos. You know...us," he explained in a fast breath. Everything about Wilbur was nervous energy. Some part of his body constantly moved. "Caroline's got freaky teeth. Aster's got weird eyes. I got tricks. Vennolope got-"

"Nothing," she cut in, disappointed. "I'm the normal one."

"Yeah, but no one else can make things work like you do," Wilbur said. "And"-he put one hand over his heart and the other straight out like he was about to serenade her-" since you fixed the fridge, you rule this house of freaks."

Vennolope's head dripped, and she rolled her eyes, but I could see she was pleased with the compliment. "And your brother, Jack," I asked. "Is he normal too?" Besides being a jerk and a kick-ass drummer.

"Jack doesn't like to talk about it. But he reads people, you know? He feels what they feel. Sometimes too much."

The drums still banged, but not so demanding as before, not so fast. Now it was a steady, even rhythm of full emotion. There was no other way to describe it. It wasn't just a beat echoing down the hall, it was something more.

"So what about you?" Wilbur asked again more quietly. "You look weird and everything."

"Gee, thanks."

"Well, you got that tattoo on your face, your hair is white, and your eyes are a little freaky." He shrugged. "You could be a doue' is all I'm sayin'."

"Maybe she doesn't like to talk about it either," Vennolope said, giving me a small smile. I retuned the smile and then looked down at my hands. It was the truth, I didn't like to talk about it. I never had. And suddenly sharing wasn't something I'd ever do.

"Holy smokes," Wilbur said. I looked back up to see him pulling the blade from my backpack. "It's got blood on it and everything!"

"Give me that!" I lunged onto my knees, snatching the hilt, and then my backpack, out of his hands.

"Sheesh. Sorry." He sat back down, acting as if I'd made a big deal out of something small. But it wasn't small. He had no business going into my things. None at all.

I shoved the short sword into the backpack, hoping the blood was dried by now and hadn't gotten all over my clothes. Smart one, Elsa. Should've thought about that before I put the thing in there to begin with. "Look, just stay out of my things, okay? I'll be out of your hair by morning."

"I can try to talk to Jack again," Vennolope said. "I'm sure he'll help you at the hospital, and-"

"No offence, Vennolope, but I don't want his help."

Vennolope nudged Wilbur on the arm, and they stood. Coraline stayed motionless, so Vennolope reached down and tugged on her arm. "Come on, Cora."

The dark little girl hissed at Vennolope, but got up and left with the others.

After Vennolope brought me the sleeping bag, I waited until silence descended beyond my bedroom door, a silence broken only by the natural creaks and moans of the house.

I took two tall candles from the mantel and lit them with the red-hot coals in the fireplace, setting them on the floor in front of me. Finally, I was alone. Though, honestly, it had taken me this long just to work up the nerve to see whatever else was in the box.

With a deep breath, I opened the two small jewelry boxes first. In one was a silver ring with a Norwegian inscription running along its length. It was polished and beautiful and simple. I placed it on my right hand, fourth finger. It fit perfectly. The next box held a worn medallion, so worn that it was hard to make out the image on the front or the words that went around the edge. It might've been a sun, I couldn't tell for sure. I put the medallion back in the box and then picked up a newspaper clipping about a woman beheaded in Berk, leaving a small child, Eleni, behind with no family. My heart gave a hard bang. Holy shit. Eleni was my mother's name, so this woman could be my grandmother.

The next was a faded letter written to my mother.

Dear Eleni,

If you are reading this then I have been unsuccessful, like so many others before me.

I have failed you.

As you grow and reach womanhood, you will understand that you are different,

All of us have been this way.

No woman in our family as far back as I've uncovered has lived beyond her twenty-two birthday.

We have all left behind a daughter.

It seems fate has chosen our path for us, and it is always the same.

You will be no different.

Unless you can find a way to stop this curse.

My mother killed herself when I was a baby.

She left me nothing, but I've learned that her mother, and her mother before her, also died in the same way.

And soon I will go too.

I feel it in my bones, under my skin, my time is coming.

I have tried, have seen so many cultists, quacks, and priests, but this curse is still with me as it will be with you.

But I refuse to give in to this urge to end things.

Perhaps that alone will break the curse.

Find the curse, Eleni. Stop this madness inside of us. I wish we had more time together. . . . .

I will always be with you.

Mother

Tears stung my eyes, and a lump swelled my throat. I folded the letter carefully and slid it back into its envelope. I didn't want to believe it, but inside I knew. The words were true. Fate had its way with all of them, and now it was my turn. A warm drop fell on my check, and I realized it was tear. I brushed it away.

Screw this.

I wasn't about to die or get pregnant in the next three and a half years. This thing, this curse or whatever it was, would end with me. The beheading of my grandmother meant that something came for her, killed her, when she refused to give in to the madness and kill herself. And something came for me in the parking lot of the hotel-a bit shy of my twenty-first birthday, sure, but definitely looking to end me.

I rubbed both hands down my face.

I didn't have enough information. The only things I knew for sure was that I was different-I'd known that all my life-some thing had tried to kill me, and the women in my family were cursed, all of them dead at twenty-one.

Twenty-one. Twenty-fucking-one.

I rested my chin on the tepee of my fingers, trying to find some calm and direction amid the chaos that had become my life in one night. I had killed the thing that came for me. Maybe that alone had broken the curse.

Weak theory.

But. . I was here now. In New 2. The only logical thing to do was to find out more about my mother, my father, and why the Novem wanted to see me. Or hurt me.

One day. I'd give it one day.

To be continued

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Welp, your welcome I gave you your next chapter, I made a whole bunch of rough drafts to last for a while but still I get lazy. More are coming very soon. Oh ham sandwich, Elsa cursed I don't know how to move the plot. Jk. Thank you for all the love and support I'm getting for this story it means a lot to me. 1300 words, that took it out of me. We will get some jelsa romance up in here soon, very, very, soon. I hope you enjoyed this, if not go F off. Doesn't everyone love a bad boy Jack.