They had been searching eighty-five years for her, Mary Alice Brandon. Though when they finally found her; they found much more than they ever expected. Hero had always had an aversion to doctors... Until she fell in love with one.
Carlisle Cullen X...
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BILOXI MISSISSIPPI, 1906
Joseph Kelly couldn't help the sneer that cut across his lips as he watched his children play together in the garden below, their hands clasped together as they spun in a circle beneath the shimmering evening sun, their hair the colour of fire. Joseph had long since grown to hate the power that Simon claimed to have, the way he spoke to people he could not see, the embarrassment he had brought to the entire family as the neighbours gossiped about the little boy who spoke to himself. But, impossibly, Victoria Hero Kelly was even worse.
The issue with five-year-old Hero was that her powers could actually be seen. She made flowers grow, the sky dance with colour, she healed her own wounds when she tripped and obtained a graze- all things that were impossible... But she did them. And that made her even scarier than Simon because there was truth to her claims, she wasn't just a deluded little girl, she was something worse. And every time she looked up at him with those forest green eyes, he didn't see his daughter, he saw a monster, a devil child who had been sent to ruin his reputation and her first act of destruction had been to take Poppy from him.
Though, almost mockingly, Victoria Kelly's powers were opposed to the destruction she caused. Hero did not bring death- alternatively, her power was life and he knew for certain that if a creature were to somehow perish- Hero was the one person who could deliver the animal back to life. Hero and Simon were opposites of one another; one life and the other death, a light and a dark. They were two sides of a dice that Joseph wanted neither of.
Perhaps it was evil of him, to desire ill-will to befall upon his daughter and son; sweet children aged five and ten who had done arguably nothing wrong but a man of tradition- he vowed on that day and every other previously passing day- that he would rid the world of whatever evil darkness resided within his children. Each and every time his son claimed to see his mother, or Hero sprouted a flower from the plain earth- he felt a sickening twist in his stomach because their acts were completely and utterly unnatural.
Across the hill was where his plan became a potential reality; the old asylum was in the midst of reconstruction and he knew then, as he looked down at the red-headed children that that was where they would inevitably end up- he would put them there, whether he had to sell his shares to make that happen. Joseph Kelly did not see innocent, gifted children when he looked at them- he instead saw vermin, the very things the townspeople prayed to banish.
Below, Hero and Simon were completely oblivious to the thoughts of their father who was perched in the window watching them like a deadly hawk as they giggled away together, speaking gently of things only they understood.
Hero Kelly had grown to be an absolutely beautiful girl, and that was to be expected upon seeing her mother. Her hair flowed freely in bright orangey-red curls down her back like a sheet, stopping below her waist, her skin was a miraculous pale, dusted with pretty freckles and her eyes were a chillingly, almost unnatural dark green- shades darker than her brothers light ocean green orbs though his darker red hair made up for that. There was absolutely no doubt that they were brother and sister and their outfits showed off their wealth- Joseph Kelly was already embarrassed enough about his children, he did not need them to be scruffy as well.
As Simon looked down at her, he knew he was beyond happy- sat at the base of their oak tree was their mother with a smile on her face that was only seen by him and at her side, snuggled close was Heather Mulligan, the girl looking almost identical to her niece, Hero. They were so childishly oblivious then to what the world had in store for them, they did not know that in just a few years, they would be succumbed to carry out the remainder of their human lives in the darkness, they didn't know that they would never grow old... They didn't know that Hero's experience beyond the hill would break her so entirely that she would still feel the sting of it eighty years later, they never could have possibly known that their future would shatter her innocent beauty and positivity- That she would not allow a single man to place a single finger on her for eight decades to come.
How could they possibly have known then that their own father was the villain of their fairytale? They basked in nothing but contented peace on that slightly chilly day as Hero's sweet singing blended with the birdsong in the wind and they chatted aimlessly as their own little red-headed family- half of which could not be seen. Hero had never questioned for even a single moment that Simon could see ghosts- she trusted him blindly, without a single ounce of doubt because she knew that he spoke the truth.
Victoria and Simon Kelly had perhaps been cursed, or maybe it was a miracle... Regardless, their lives were just beginning, their powers in forms of infancy. The world was nowhere near done with them yet and one day, the taunts of the other children and the anger of their father would seem to be happy memories in comparison to the world around them.
