The Crystal Chronicles

Chapter 12 part one: As the Dust Settles

"So?" Amber prompted softly, as I stared down at the cell phone in my hand. It was now approaching four o'clock in the morning and there was no possible way I was getting any sleep tonight. Amber had decided to take the liberty of staying awake with me.

I was going to take Elda's advice and call my parents, but I didn't know what to say, and feared what they would say.

"I don't know what to say to them, Amber."

"Oh I can understand that," Amber said, nodding. "Would you like me to do the talking?"

"Are you serious?"

"Well I'm kind of thinking about it, since I have a few questions for them myself." She snatched my phone from my hand, tapped the screen, scrolled through the directory, and dialled my home number.

Then she handed it back to me. "You just needed a little push."

I winced. I almost felt bad about calling them this early, but this was an emergency.

The line rang five times before I heard a click and the sound of shuffling around. I pressed the phone closer to my ear.

"Alyssa?" My mother's groggy voice floated from the phone and I waved off Amber, who was hovering over my shoulder.

"Mom?" I whispered softly. "Do you have time to talk?" Maybe it was the seriousness of my voice, but she didn't laugh at the absurdity of the question.

"What's the matter Alyssa?" Immediate concern flooded her voice. "Did something happen?"

I bit my lip. I didn't know how to come out with a truth buried by sixteen years of lies. "Why didn't you tell me?" I figured I should just be blunt. "Did you want me to figure it out for myself? Or did you want someone else to figure it out and tell me? Because that's what happened."

"What are you talking about?" Her speech shifted ever-so slightly, her words speeding up.

I could tell, even over the phone, that she knew what I was talking about. "Don't play stupid," I accused. "I'm an Orchin and you are going to answer every question I'm about to ask or I'm hanging up."

"Alyssa—" my mom started, softly gasping.

"Don't!" I exploded harshly. "You need to let me talk! Why did you lie about my element?"

I heard my mom sighing. "We had to disguise you in another element." Her voice was solemn and I could almost imagine the look on her face. "It would be safer. A lot of people would be after you if they knew. We had to keep it quiet." She was starting to sound almost panicked. "Who else knows, Alyssa? How did this happen? We thought you would never know or figure it out! Tell me how this happened!"

"A teacher!" I snapped, gripping the phone tightly. "A teacher tested me." I looked at Amber. "Other than that, no one else knows."

"Which teacher?" My dad's angry voice joined the conversation, and I pulled the phone farther away from my ear.

"It doesn't matter. She won't tell anyone."

"You don't know that! You can't trust anyone!" my mom exploded. She sounded worried ... no, not worried ... terrified.

"I do know." I said, with a soothing lilt to my voice, in the hopes of calming them down. "I trust her." There was a momentary lull, in which I realized that the conversation had taken a wrong turn, with my parents questioning me, instead of the other way around.

"What happened at my Ritual?" There was no answer. "Hello?"

Finally, my mom answered. "We discovered what you were at the Ritual sixteen years ago. You chose the Orchin symbol."

"Does someone else know? The person manning the Ritual that night maybe?"

"Don't worry about the official," my mom said, sounding oddly defensive.

"Don't worry?" I didn't understand. "What happened to not trusting anybody?"

"We took care of it," my dad said firmly. I frowned, detecting something odd in his tone—almost like a nestled feeling of guilt.

"What did you do?" I probed. "What happened?"

"Paid him to keep quiet," my mom said quickly.

The second she answered, I knew. "You're lying." The accusation filled the silence that followed. Then I remembered Elda's warning about my parents doing anything to keep my secret safe. I swallowed.

"Answer me!" I seethed.

"We took care of it!"

The room suddenly tilted on its edge and I grabbed my bedside table to steady myself.

"You mean by killing him."

"It was for your own protection; the government is corrupt—"

"Someone's dead," I whispered, slowly feeling the colour drain from my face, "because of my existence. You killed an innocent person because of me!"

"No one's innocent! He could've told the Society, the Council, or—"

"You don't know that!" I shouted through the phone. "You took away a life! A life! Who gave you the right to do that?" My hands trembled and I struggled to keep the phone from falling. Suddenly I was leaning against Amber for support, her strong hands on my shoulders.

"It was for your safety!" My mom was shouting at me now. "This isn't a game Alyssa! You're a threat to the supernaturals! You would've been killed! How could we have let that happen; you're our only daughter? You're an Orchin! Do you know how special you are? You can't die."

"That doesn't mean someone else should!" I cried.

"We love you and we protected you," she said, suddenly calm. "We do not regret our actions."

I recoiled at the warmth in her voice. These were my parents. They taught me all I knew; they raised and loved me. And yet ... they were never who I thought they were. They were something foreign. They were liars, and more than that, they were murderers. I was disgusted.

"I'm hanging up now," I said faintly, the world locking back into focus. "And don't you dare call back."

"Wait Alyssa—"

"No. You had lots of time to tell me things I didn't know. Your time is up," I said coldly, ending the call. I still had questions, but I knew that I wasn't speaking with them again any time soon. The people who had raised me all my life were murderers. I was angry ... no angry wasn't the right word. I was repulsed. Suddenly my phone was airborne, slamming against the other end of my bed with a muffled thud.

I took a deep breath and let it out. "My parents are murderers," I said calmly.

"Are you okay?" Amber looked at me nervously, as if I were a bomb just seconds from exploding. Her nervousness was fitting. I sounded eerily calm even to my own ears.

"Fine," I said, dazed. "But the person who's dead because of me isn't. How much of that conversation did you hear?"

"All of it." Amber winced. "I'm sorry Alyssa. I'm sorry. They still love you. You know that, right?"

"Killing out of love doesn't excuse it. If they think it's better to tell me nothing, then I'll do the same. I won't tell them about the quest." I tried to digest the giant lump in my stomach, as memories of who I thought were my loving parents replayed in my mind. Where did they put the body? How had they done it? Why did they think that was okay for even a moment?

"They're still your parents," she whispered gently. "Even if they did something awful ... that was a long time ago."

"Murdering someone is kind of an exception," I whispered, staring at the cream-coloured walls in shock.

"They're your family Alyssa," Amber said desperately, though her voice was faltering.

"No," I said firmly. "They're strangers ... and I don't talk to strangers."