Incubus

Thirteen

Aaron wasn't there to drive Luna home, as she took the short walk to her house, she wondered about it. When she saw her aunt's car sitting outside the house, Aaron was out of her mind completely.

Evie sat in the driver's seat, waiting to take her niece on her first exercise of power.

"Hop in, honey." She smiled through the driver's window as she patted the passenger seat.

Luna wasn't sure if she was nervous or excited as she hopped in and Evie tore away from the curb.

"We're going to start with a very basic strategy, just working with the elements. Well four of them." Evie explained as she drove toward their destination.

"Water, fire, earth, air?"

Evie nodded. "That's right."

"Movies got some of it right then?"

Evie laughed. "Little stuff here and there. We're not praying over chicken bones anymore, we've evolved to harness our internal power. But you're a little different, Luna."

"How so?"

"Well your power has evolved over time too. There's so little out there about what kind of power you have."

"Is there a name for what I am?"

"Of course, honey. The most common name and the one that's easiest to say is Divine."

Luna looked confused.

"Ah, ah. Don't look so confused, it's a perfect description of who you are. From the second I saw your cute little face, I knew you were something special with or without this power." She said as she pulled into the driveway of a large home.

She cut the engine and turned to face her. "You are a special young lady with or without your power. I may not know much but I knew that for sure. You could lose your power tomorrow and you would still be divine. Don't ever forget that." She got out of the car without giving Luna a chance to rebut. Evie knew her response would be nothing but an attempt to negate what she'd just said.

Though her goal was to teach her to control her power, she also made it her goal to get her niece to open up and start to have some real confidence in herself.

They entered the lavishly decorated home and went straight to the back yard. On the railing of the patio there sat two jars, one with water and one empty.

Evie wasted no time getting started. "Freeze the water."

Luna was shocked at how casually she said it. It was no more different than telling her to do her homework.

"What? How do I do that?"

She folded her arms, "Just do it."

Luna rolled her eyes, "Come on Evie, you sound like a Nike campaign seriously tell me how."

"Uh-Uh, that's auntie Evie to you. We don't do first names in this family." She shook her finger at Luna.

She shifted uncomfortably for a moment but ultimately decided she was right and apologized. "Now help me please."

She scoffed. "I don't see how I can help you, it's your energy honey. Use it to do what you want it to do."

Luna turned her gaze back to the glass and took a long deep breath. She tried to feel her power flowing through her down to her fingertips but she couldn't feel anything.

"It's there, Luna. focus." her aunt cheered her on.

Then she felt it. A warmth spreading through her body, running all through her veins. She felt like she was sitting in front of a tall blazing bonfire. She closed her eyes and pictured the fire and instead of shying away from the flames she reached right out and touched them.

A chill ran down her fingers, she didn't need to open her eyes to know she'd done it.

Her aunt clapped from behind her. "Oh honey I'm so proud of you."

When she opened her eyes, the water sat frozen in the glass and threatened to shatter it with the expansion. She touched her nose to find bright red drops of blood. She wiped it on the long sleeve tee she wore because staining didn't matter. She felt such a rush of confidence.

"What you feel right now? The confidence coming off of you in waves? Hold on to that. I told you, you were special and I meant it." She looked hard into her niece's eyes, "I'm sure if you master this there is nothing that you won't be able to do."

Luna's chest suddenly started to feel heavy from the pressure. She went from being this ordinary girl to suddenly having to ascend into this great being. There was no way she could give back the gift she was given but she wondered what she'd done to be burdened with it.

It was terrifying to know that she could either freeze water or kill someone.

"Luna are you okay?" Evie called to her but her voice was starting to sound so far away. Her ears were throbbing and the edges of her vision went dark.

"Breathe honey." She tried her best to soothe the young girl as she was trapped inside her own dark thoughts.

Luna suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe and she found herself gasping for air.

Her knees buckled, bringing her crashing down onto the wooden patio.

Evie felt so guilty for overwhelming her with so much power but it was important that she understood who she was. She also could see the confusion swirling in her irises and she wanted so badly to tell her the truth about the past. But she had to keep it to herself as it wasn't her secret to tell.

She held Luna close and hummed a slow R&B song in an attempt to soothe the panic attack away.

In the dark parts of Luna's mind she could hear the song, it was so familiar and she struggled to remember the name of it.

She followed the tune and even started to hum along which allowed her to control her breathing and come out of her thoughts.

When they'd hummed the Stevie Wonder classic to the end, Luna was able to find Evie's dark brown eyes. She was calm, though her destiny hadn't changed she decided that she would try her best to face her future, no matter how dark it could turn out.

When her aunt dropped her off at her home, she was surprised to see her mother sitting in the living room. She was perched in her stepfather's favorite armchair just waiting for her daughter to walk across the threshold.

"So how did you do your first time?"

"I did okay." Luna shrugged as she dropped her things and sat down on the soft fabric that was the love seat.

Her mother sat forward with her knees on her elbow and hands clasped tightly. "I just want you to understand something. I'm not angry with you, I just never wanted this for you. I wanted you to live a normal life. I just wanted us to have a normal life."

She didn't know what to reply. She just stared at her mother with all the questions she had swirling in her mind.

"You don't understand what this will mean for you. I don't understand what this will mean for you and it's what terrifies me as your mother." She said. There were tears in her eyes but she blinked them away.

"Evie said that you had power too. Did you stop using it?"

Her mother let out a dry humorless chuckle. "No, power doesn't just go away because we ignore it. That's pretty obvious at this point."

"Then what happened?"

Her mother took a deep breath that pushed away all memories of the truth. She couldn't face it, even after all this time.

"Even though I don't want this for you and I'm scared of what it means for your future...I'm proud that you took responsibility for your gift." She stood to signal the end of the conversation. "There's some leftover pizza in the microwave for you."

She left her daughter sitting there in confusion. Evelyn felt terrible for leaving her daughter so deep in the dark about who she was and where she came from but it was necessary. Moreso for herself than for her daughter.