Jack
September 31, 2008
"Nuara, what's going on!" I demanded, feeling more anxious by the second.
"It's nothing." She breathed, looking absolutely mortified. I felt my hands shaking.
"Mom, mom!" Daisy shook her mother's arm, and she snapped out of some sort of daze, looking at her daughter with sadness in her eyes. Daisy furrowed her brows.
"You okay?" She asked. "Yes, of course sweetie." She said, ruffling Daisy's hair.
She looked at me with false kindness, and I felt my skin crawling. She seemed almost scared of me. Not to mention Daisy's dad was in the corner, speaking intensely to her older sister.
"Are your parents coming? Would you possibly want a ride with us?"
"N-no thanks. They should be here soon." I stuttered. Her mom nodded, pursing her lips.
"Come on Deebs, we should go." Her dad said, steering her away. She quickly shook away, stumbling back so she was next to me.
"You guys are hiding something." She said sternly. This girl had so much confidence, it was honestly kind of unsettling. I'd never seen a kid so easily talk back to their parents.
"Daisy, don't be ridiculous." Her mother scolded, going to grab her hand. Daisy pulled away, her shoulder brushing mine. I saw her mom glare at me.
"I'm not going anywhere until you guys tell me what's going on." She snapped. Both of her parents faces fell, and Nuara started to tremble.
"Daisy, it's fine." I mumbled. Everyone stared at me incredulously. I felt the heat rising in my face.
"But, Jack-"
I looked down, heaving a sigh.
"They clearly don't want us to know, they're not gonna tell us. There's no point." I grumbled, turning towards my sister. She was watching me with regret.
"You happy now Nuara? I give up. We can go home."
"Jack-" She started, falling flat. I sat on the bench, just waiting for my parents to arrive. At this point, I honestly just wanted to leave.
"Honey, the least we can do is wait for his parents to come. You know, make sure he gets home safely." Her dad said, clearly meaning something else. I'd given up by now. To the point where I'd just stopped listening, dissociating into my own mind.
I did that a lot, usually by accident when I was upset. I stopped paying attention to everything. Staring off into the horizon, ignoring the sounds around me.
I only shook out of it when someone sat next to me.
Daisy.
"My parents said they're waiting for yours so that you get home safely. I think they just wanted us to stop asking questions. Do you think your parents could know anything more?" She asked. I shrugged.
"If they wanna tell us, they wil-"
"Jack!" My mother's voice called. I turned to see her and my dad running towards us all.
When he saw Daisy's parents, my dad stopped short, yet my mom kept running towards us.
"Are you okay?" She asked frantically, stopping herself from grabbing my face with her wet hands. "I knew I shouldn't have let you out today! The weather's never correct!"
"Mom, I'm fine." I said quietly.
"James." My dad regarded Daisy's dad, who nodded back. "Mark. It's been a while." He said stiffly. I sighed, turning to face them and leaning on the bench. Daisy quickly did the same thing and said, "So you gonna tell us what's going on now?"
"James please, we weren't supposed to do this for another 4 years! They're not old enough yet!" Daisy's mother begged. He sighed, and my dad stepped in.
"Sure, they weren't supposed to know until they were 14, but remember The Will? It said if they were ever to meet it'd already be too late. At that point we tell them the truth."
"The truth?" Daisy breathed.
"Too late?" I asked. My mother cringed. "It's a loooong story." She said quietly.
"Clearly." Daisy mumbled.
"Do we just say it?" My dad asked.
"I don't know, I've never really thought to plan for this."
"Just tell us." Daisy begged. Her dad sighed. "Hang on a sec Deebs."
"I don't care how you tell us, I just wanna know!" She begged.
"You two are siblings." My dad said matter of factly. I felt my heart drop.
The entire pavilion went dead silent.
"What?" I said weakly.
"Mark! You should've given some warning! You know how easily you could overwhelm him!" My mother scolded. I was hardly aware of it, yet I managed to force out, "I'm fine.. really mom. It's fine." I added with more stability when I saw her face.
Daisy finally seemed at a loss for words. She just sat in silence, her hands smoking. Her hair fell in face and she didn't even bother moving it.
"Well.." She started after a solid 30 seconds of a tense silence. "If we're siblings, how'd we end up here..?"
Her dad (our dad? Neither of our dad?) sighed, rubbing his face.
"Well, it was in your parents wills, which we'll explain soon."
"You guys aren't our parents." She breathed. They all sadly nodded. "Then why-"
"We'll explain that. Just listen for now." Her mother said gently. I felt my fists clenching, smoke pouring out from between my fingers.
They started to glow.
Calm down, I told myself. I took a deep breath, shook out my hand, and sat on it.
"I'll start from the beginning." My dad-
Mark started. Daisy leaned forwards with anticipation.
"You guys are the twin children of the deceased King and Queen of Drocuya."
"My sister was your mother, which would make me your uncle." James finished.
They gave us a moment to process, maybe even to respond, but I think we were both in shock. Neither of us said anything, sitting completely still.
Mark decided to continue.
"You two both had an older sister, Luna. When you were still infants though, she was kidnapped. Right out of her room in the castle." I felt a chill go down my spine.
"Why?" I asked quietly. Everyone turned to look at me.
"Well, your parents assumed it was for her powers. Though your sister wasn't-"
"Mark, we have to explain that too." James muttered, running his hand through his hair. Mark cursed.
"Right. You guys have sacarad powers." Mark added. "Fire Fairies can be really hard to come by these days."
"Your parents think Luna was kidnapped in hopes of taking her powers, but she was unfortunately just a Wind Fairy, like your father." He gave us a moment to let that sink in. Daisy's eyes were wide, her face looking terrified.
I just bit my lip, trying to remain calm. I felt like I was spinning though. It almost felt as if my brain just couldn't absorb his words.
"Anyways, your parents were worried for you two. They knew from your looks alone that you were Fire Fairies. With your mom being as powerful as she was, it was too risky to keep you two near each other. You radiate such a strong energy, even by yourself I was worried sometimes Jack. Your powers just seemed so trackable." He added, looking at me solemnly. I clenched my jaw, simply acknowledging his words with a nod. He sighed, and continued.
"Since you two were so powerful together, they decided to separate you. They sent Daisy to their only living family, Jennifer's brother and family, and they sent Jack to us, your godparents." I stared at him. All these years, how had I managed to convince myself we were related?
They always say hindsight's 2020, I guess I should've seen this coming from a mile away. I never fit in here. I'd thought of that so many times. I'd never told them, obviously, but that was probably one of the reasons my anxiety was so bad.
My powers never matched anyone in my family. A Time Bender and two Nature Fairies, how did I never see that? Even with the looks. My sister and mom had tan, earthy toned hair and skin and bright green eyes, and my dad was light skinned and had dark, flat hair. I had always been the misfit.
Someone nudged me, and I snapped out of my daze. Daisy nodded subtly at me and returned her attention to our 'parents.' I sighed, leaning on my hand.
"Unfortunately, a few years later, your parents were found dead in the castle. Someone had snuck in and killed them." At this point I wasn't surprised. My backstory seemed to be as dramatic as it could get.
"While going through the will, your parents had a very specific request. You two were to be sent back to Drocuya when you were 14, after your powers were fully developed. If you two me-"
"Why?" Daisy asked, cutting off Mark. She was quiet for a second before asking, "I mean, why 14?" James smiled sadly.
"As I said, that's the age when your powers are usually fully developed. At that point they were worried you would be trackable on your own, so they figured it'd be better if you had each other to defend. And if you met before the age of 14, like right now, it was too late." I felt the spinning get faster.
What was he trying to say?
"In this scenario, you two were to be sent back to Drocuya early. Train hard, learn to protect each other-"
"What!" I exclaimed. I felt everyone staring, but at this point I didn't care. "You're sending us away!?" My 'mom' cringed.
"Jack, we don't want to. We really don't. Even though it may be hard to understand, we did everything for your parents, and your family as a whole. We did all this to keep you safe."
"From who!" I snapped. "We could've easily been sent away together! Told the truth of our past!" She looked away, tears welling in her eyes. I pursed my lips and sat back down, trembling. Daisy looked at me out of the corner of her eye, trembling herself.
"We simply followed your parents dying wish. They weren't idiots Jackson." Mark said calmly. I still felt my face flush though. I knew he was mad when he used my full name. "We trusted their judgement. At the time, it seemed like the best option."
The silence that followed that was chilling. I felt my face crawling with anger and embarrassment and so many other emotions I couldn't begin to explain.
Daisy finally broke the silence, simply asking, "Where are we going?"
James grimaced, and I finally forced myself to look around.
Nuara was still sobbing, talking intensely with Daisy's older sister. I couldn't see her brother's face, as he was crying into his mother's arms. All four of our 'parents' were stony faced and looking distraught.
It was a lot to take in, so I returned my gaze to the table.
"We're going to have to send you two back to the castle. You'll meet your step parents and your sister."
"Step sister?" Daisy asked.
Mark and James both shook their head.
"No. Biological. I guess I forgot to say. Soon before they were killed, your parents had another child. Chloe Thorne." Mark explained.
I felt a random wave of nausea wash over me, and nervously bit my lip.
There was no way this was real life. We were being sent away, just like that? Hardly any explanation. Hardly even a reason. Simply because it was our parents 'dying wish'? I couldn't help but think that was stupid. I'd grown up here, I had a life and people I didn't want to lose, and I was sure Daisy had the same. How could they just force us to leave that all behind, just on the off chance we'd be tracked down for our powers?
All this crossed my mind in barely a few seconds, and without thinking, I mumbled, "This is so dumb..."
No one addressed that, though I noticed Mark sigh through his nose. That just made me more angry, the fact that everyone ignored me just because they didn't want to agree.
"Well, we need to give them time to pack their things..." James mumbled.
"And time to notify Queen Delilah." Mark added, sweeping back his thin black hair.
I felt so irrationally angry at him. I knew I needed to calm down though, this wasn't his fault, or his wish.
"I'd say maybe a month. We can make arrangements for them to still do public school and all that, so they aren't isolated."
James looked away, pain marked clearly in his eyes. "Yes. I suppose that'd work."
I looked over at Daisy. Her lip was quivering as she blinked away her tears. "You guys can't actually do this..." She whispered.
"Sweetie, we have to. It's the best option for you'r-"
"It's not fair." I snapped quietly. Everyone stared at me. I didn't say anything more. I didn't even want to look at them at this point.
These were the idiots who'd lied to us for 10 years and expected us to just accept that we weren't who we had been told we were. Why should I even try to argue at this point? They weren't going to listen. I knew that.
So I just stood ridgedly. "Let's just go home." I mumbled angrily. Mark grabbed my shoulders. "Jack, listen, I-"
"I don't care!" I snapped. He blinked in surprise. "I just wanna go home and drop this." I added quietly, feeling my face burn with embarrassment.
I hadn't snapped like that in a really long time, but to be fair, I also hadn't any reason to.
"Jack, you're shaking." Nuara said quietly. I turned and looked at the sky.
Of course, now it was done raining, and the sun shined happily between the branches of the trees and the roofs of houses.
It felt like a slap in the face, but I just stepped into the sunny skies, and headed towards the car, where I could see it parked on the side of the street.
It took every ounce of willpower I had to not look back.
YOU ARE READING
With Reckless Abandon
ActionJoey Parsons is normal, well compared to his friends he is. The siblings with a lost power and the girl with little power, those were them. Among his family he's known as the Boy-With-More-Power-Than-He-Can-Handle. He never bothered objecting, consi...
