Arriana's Return

Arriana's Return - Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

She was so lost in thought that she never noticed that Deacon, Marc and Zoe walked into the kitchen. Mary smiled at them while motioning for them to join the rest of the family. Her hands shaking, Arriana took the locket and turned it over and over, tears starting to well in her eyes again.

My parents are inside this locket?" She didn't look up from it but everyone could tell she was struggling with herself.

"That's not all," Marc replied heavily.

"There's more? What else could there possibly be?" Arriana asked exasperated.

"You're a witch."

"What?"

"You're a witch."

Arriana stared blankly at Marc. For once in her life, she was speechless.

"There are no such things as witches," She replied flatly.

"There are and you're one of them."

Pursing her lips, she looked around the room at each person who was there. Her blue eyes were glassy with tears, her red cheeks stained by the trail they furrowed on their precipitous journey to the ground. Her mom and sister were crying as well, her father had an agonizing look in his brown eyes. She looked at Zoe the girl who had been her best friend throughout her entire life even she looked upset. Was Zoe really her friend or just pretending all this time? Arriana still could not grasp what she was being told. The book sitting in front of her told of another world, of a life she should have had. She stared at the cover. Her mind was racing.

It's nothing but a fairy tale like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Only a fairy tale. Real life does not happen like this. What do I do? How can I accept this? There is no such thing as magic or other worlds.

The pounding in her ears drowned out what everyone was saying. She stopped paying attention and lost herself in her mind.

Focus Arriana. Come on concentrate. You need to sort through everything that has been thrown at you today. What have I been told so far? I'm not Arriana James. I'm Arriana...what was the name Marc used? Baron? Baworn? Bawors! Yes, I'm supposedly Arriana Bawors. I'm a queen of some parallel world. Is it true? Is that book in front of me, right? Are my real parents dead? I'm an orphan? Do I ignore them and go back to how life was, or should I accept what these people are telling me? These people are the ones who have been with me since I can remember. How can I not trust them? Would they lie to me about all of this? Why would they lie? What would they get from causing me to go insane? Should I just accept what they say and go to this supposed other world to fight this supposed bad man? What was his name? Lucas, I think. What if I don't want to be a queen? What if I just want to be a normal teenager?

The questions kept flying through her mind. Arriana had no idea what to do. She wanted to believe her family and friends. The people who have been involved in everything she has ever done, were in fact not who she thought they were. Breathing slowly Arriana looked up at them.

"I don't even know where to begin with my questions, but I have a good idea. How could you people do this to me? Why have you been lying to me for the past seventeen years?" She clenched her teeth trying not to lose control of her emotions, "My entire life! Didn't any of you think about how I would feel? Whether or not I wanted to be normal or have this shit thrown at me? I do not want to go to some other world, if it's even real. I don't want to fight some bad guy, if he is even real. I don't want any of this. I just want to be Arriana James."

She was not doing a good job hiding her fear and distress.

"Arriana, you don't have a choice. You are the only one who can save our home. You are the only one who can bring peace and prosperity back to Coresova." Deacon tried to reason with her.

She whipped her head in his direction glaring at him. Her lips pursed, her eyes narrowed, "I don't have a choice? Oh yes I do! I will not do something I do not want to do and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to make me. Do you understand? I am not a queen of some made up world. Those people in that locket are not my parents. I am a normal, average teenager who is going to graduate from high school, go to college, get married and spit out a few babies. That is it."

It was Marc's turn to plead with her. "Please Arriana, you have to understand. We couldn't tell you. We could not risk it incase Lucas did manage to get an assassin here before the ingression was closed. When Barwick is ready, he will come for us. Then you will see that we are telling the truth."

"Barwick? You mean the guy with the scar? No. I am not talking to him. I'm not talking to anyone else!"

Arriana got up from the table and headed toward her bedroom. She was furious with everyone. Marc started to say something but Arriana was not even sure what it was, she just whirled around on her heels and glared at him.

"Do not talk to me! Any of you. I've heard so many lies today I don't know who I am mad at more! If anyone bothers me, I'm liable to blow up this entire house! Do you all understand me?" She sent dagger stares to each person in the kitchen, including her own family. She couldn't believe that after what she was told they expected her to actually sit with them and talk. How was she supposed to get on with her life now? Everything had been turned completely upside down.

She plopped onto her bed and just laid there. Beau jumped up beside her and put his head on her shoulder. She turned and looked at the big shaggy dog.