Not What She Seems

Back from the Dead

  "Hello, Monsieur. Is this the location of the priest who believes in The One?" the woman asked.
  "Yes. I'll see you later, won't I mademoiselle?" the man said.
  "Yes, yes you will." the woman answered. The woman walked up to the priest's door and knocked. The priest let her in.
  "Please, can you help me with something?" the woman asked while the priest poured her a cup of tea.
  "With what?" the priest asked, turning around with two cups of tea and putting one in front of the woman.
  "Merci." the woman said, thanking the priest. The priest nodded as if to say "You're welcome.".
  "They said you can see what's unknown to others by making contact with it or someone close to them." the woman stated, taking a sip of the tea.
  "That is true." the priest confirmed.
  "Can you see......if my child is The One?" the woman asked.
  "I've had many, many women come up to me and ask me that question over the years and I did what they asked, but the answer was always no. I'm sorry if I sound rude, but what makes you think you're not the same?" the priest asked the woman.
  "I don't really know......this just....feels different." the woman responded, standing up. The priest stood up and did what the woman asked.
  "Oh my...." the priest said.
  "What is it, Monsieur?" the woman asked, concerned.
  "Your child has this vibe emitting from her. I can confirm, she indeed is The One. I advise you to protect her at all costs, even if it means dying. She will do great things that'll change the world." the priest said, confirming the woman's suspicions.
  Protect her at all costs, even if it means dying....

*****

  "I'm so happy you're home!" Gevora exclaims, hugging me.
  "Yeah, me too. Now we get to rest and have a break for like, two weeks!" I exclaim, happy.
  "Yep, so now we have a longer summer." Relvin adds.
  "Wait, longer summer, what do you mean?" Gevora asks, pulling away from our hug.
  "Yeah, because Raymon decided to make such a big fuss about losing to a girl, they chose to delay the fight for four or five more days.  Since there's eight rounds and there's a fight every nine days, that'd mean it'd take seventy-two days to finish the school competition. There would be fifteen days left in June, then sixty-two days left in July and August. Fifteen plus sixty-two is seventy-seven, that means we'd have seventy-seven days left to complete the competition. Because Raymon made a fuss, he damaged school property so they're giving us another four days of rest to prepare for the competition. Since they're taking off time from us being free from the competition, they're giving us an extra six days of rest, which brings us around September 5th, when school'll start." I explain.
  "It's a really complicated process." Verlynn adds.
  "BUT IT ALL MEANS YAY MORE SUMMER!!!" I exclaim, throwing myself on to the game room couch.
  "You know, Yavara. I expected you to be full of yourself and stuck up, but you're not even close to that. You're a 5 year-old in a teenager's body." Verlynn says, playing with my hair. I giggle.
  "Mom's still acting different." Gevora states. I look up at her, moving the hair out of my way.
  "What do you mean? Can it wait until I get back? I'm thirsty for root beer." I ask. Gevora nods. I walk down the hallway, then downstairs into the kitchen and grabbed myself a root beer. Then, I feel someone wrap their arms around my waist.
  "Sweetheart, I love you but honestly you need to stop eating candy. Let me have it." Mom says.
  "No mom, you're not getting my candy." I say, stern.
  "Well, you're forgetting something very important: I. Know. Your. Tickle. Spots." Mom says before she tackles me to the ground and starts tickling me.
  "NO! STOP! NO CANDY FOR YOU!" I scream, laughing. Mom finds my Trollies and takes them.
  "Yes!" Mom exclaims, getting off of me and running away with my candy.
  "IM GONNA GET IT BACK!!!" I scream. I head back to the game room.
  "What happened?" Gevora asks.
  "Mom stole my candy!" I exclaim, laughing.
  "Yeah get rekt." Markus says.
  "Shut up." I remark, plopping myself on the couch I was sitting on before and watch TV. All of a sudden, I have a flashback.
Flashback:
  Mom tickles me and I burst out laughing and giggling. While she's on top of me tickling me, trying to find my candy, her hair moves slightly away from her neck. The scar. The scar I saw before on her neck that I don't think anybody else saw. It was different. Instead of three similar claw marks on her neck, there were four. It's not like she could add another scar onto that. Those scars were old, there'd be no way she could add another that could perfectly blend in with those. This....this isn't mom. Then who is it?
  End of flashback
  "Gevora, you're right." I state, turning to face her.
  "What do you mean? About mom being different?" Gevora asks. I nod in response.
  "What'd you see?" she asks.
  "Mom, she had these scars on her neck, sort of like claw marks. There were three, almost perfectly the same in length. I don't think you guys ever noticed because she does her hair in a way to cover it up. But when she was tickling me, her hair moved. Instead of three, there were four. It's not like she gave herself another one like that because those scars were like old, like let's say you were 5 years old and you scratched your arm badly. By now, that scratch would've matched the texture of your skin, but it'd probably be darker than your skin. There's no way she could add another scar that could heal that fast." I explain.
  "True....I think I saw it once while you were gone, and the next day I saw four." Verlynn says.
  "Me too, it was a while back though. When I was like, 4 or 5 years old. It was only the original scar." Ravamara adds.
  "Obviously, mom isn't mom at all. Mom is gone...somewhere, I don't know. This isn't even mom anymore." I state.
  "Then....who is it?" Verlynn asks.

*****

  "I can't trust that. I'll have to see for myself." Dad says.
  "Okay then....." I say, walking away.
  "What'd he say?" Verlynn asks.
  "He said he wants to see for himself." I answer.
  "Oh." Verlynn responds.
  ****Rinold
  "Avarra, I think there's something in your hair. I'll get it." I lie reaching for her hair.
"No, I'll get it myself." she says, pulling my hand away from her hair and walking to the bathroom.
"No, I'll get it." I say, turning her back around.
"No, it's fine. I'll do it myself." Avarra assures me. Before she can react, I quickly reach for the part of her hair nearest to the claw marks and move it. She smacks my hand, which causes me to drop the hair I was holding.
"I said I'll do it myself." Avarra repeats, irritated.
"It's already gone." I say. Yavara was right. The claw marks were now four. That's interesting. The only person who had claw marks on their neck is...it can't be.
"Mavaro?" I say, shocked.
"She's dead." so-called Avarra states.
"Stop lying to me, Mavaro. I know it's you." I state, taking Avarra by the shoulder and turning her around as she heads towards the door.
"Fine. You caught me." Mavaro says, turning around.
"I don't trust it, though. You died. You're dead." I say, backing up.
"Quiz me if you're not sure." Mavaro suggests.
"Fine. I'll ask you questions that Avarra rarely says the answer to and only you would know. What color does Avarra hate the most and for what reason?" I ask.
"Yellow. Trick question, there's actually three main reasons. The first one is because it reminds her of pee, the second is it's too bright, and the third is because it looks tacky in general." Mavaro answers.
"Why does Avarra hate vodka?" I ask.
"It makes her throat burn and makes her tongue and ears itch." Mavaro answers again.
"Name all fruits that have an effect on Avarra and what they do." I command. This one Avarra has never told anyone except for me.
"Plums-they make her lips itch. Apples-they sort of make her lips itch. Bananas-they make her ears AND tongue itch. Oranges-they make her lips itch. Grapefruit-sort of makes her lips itch. I'm not sure if an avocado is a fruit, but it makes her lips and tongue itch a lot." Mavaro answers for the third time.
"True or false: Avarra's allergic to chocolate in general. If it's true, say true. If it's false, correct it." I say.
"False. Avarra is allergic to nothing." Mavaro responds.
"What's Avarra's middle name?" I question.
"Myraena." Mavaro replies.
"What's her real name." I ponder.
"I'm not supposed to tell you because you're not supposed to know. She's never told anyone." Mavaro states.
"Then how do you know?" I ask.
"Because I was there." she states again.
"What was the name of Avarra's favorite stuffed animal, what type of stuffed animal was it, what did it wear, what was its gender, and how old would it be today?" I question.
"Berry (Barry). It was a boy polar bear. Barry wore a blue tux with little white boats and wore blue shorts with little white boats, too. Barry would be 28 years old today." Mavaro answers.
"Last question: which of the following don't belong and why: Gevora, Carmen, Yavara, Markus, Savara, Allister, Alton, Relvin, and Maj." I say, listing names.
"Easy. Relvin, Yavara, and Maj. Relvin because he's not your child, he's Armiah's kid. Yavara because she's my child...what?" Mavaro asks, noticing my confused facial expression.
"I get it. Relvin isn't my kid and Yavara is yours, that's why they don't belong. But why Maj? Oh, because he's Yavara and Relvin's friend and not my kid?" I ask, curious.
"No. Maj doesn't belong because he's Yavara's brother. He's my kid." Mavaro states.