Half of What I Could Be

Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Mae

I sat on the faded green carpet of a house my parents and I arrived at just an hour before. It was small, and had the weirdest objects. Right when I arrived, I was drawn to a shelf that had jars of different materials. One of them had red liquid inside. My six year old hands reached out to grab it, but my mom stopped me.

"Mae, this is not your house. You can not play with Miss. Katelyn's belongings," My mother scolded as she reached into her large Coach purse and pulled out my polly pocket, "Here, go play with this on the carpet. Your Dad and I need to talk to Katelyn, okay?"

I just nodded. I had always been a quiet girl, especially in places that I had never been before. As I sat on the carpet, I looked around the strange house. It was very homey, but had a lot of extremely vibrant colors that hurt my eyes. The couch was a bright purple and had random patchworks sown throughout. Exuberant colored pillows nestled into the cushions. The couch sat on the shag green carpet, as did a small center table and a rocking chair. The living room was connected to the kitchen, where dried plants littered the ceiling.

Obscure paintings hung both on the wall, or littered on the floor. Mama told me that Katelyn was not like all the other adults. She was "Unattached from reality."

As I danced my Polly pocket along the carpet I heard my mother and father talking, "She's had it since we found her," Mom said to Katelyn in a hushed voice.

"Well, it is the Protection of Soteria. A very-very-very-very old spell, like Rufus here," Katelyn said as she motioned into thin air as if another man was having the conversation with them. Mama was right, that lady was weird, "Oh Rufus, no I will not tell them that! You silly goose!" Katelyn laughed at the nothingness in front of her. My parents just stood there lips pressed.

"What does the Protection of Soteria do?" My father asked, ignoring Katelyn's delusions.

"Well, I'm no witch, but," she paused suddenly, and let out a huge laugh, "Wait, I am a Witch! Sometimes I forget, other times I think I'm..." she trailed off. After a few seconds of silence, my father cleared his voice to encourage her to keep talking, "Oh right, sorry! Well the Protection of Soteria was used to suppress a child's illnesses, genetic predispositions of said illnesses, or to hide a trait that would put the child at risk," she claimed, in a surprisingly clear voice.

"So, they put it on her to push down her sicknesses? Well, it didn't help because she's sick the majority of the time," My mom bickered, not necessarily at Katelyn, but just at the world.

"It could have been used to suppress something else," she paused and looked at the nothingness in front of her again, "No Rufus, I don't know where Ron is!" she paused again as if listening, "Okay, that makes sense," she turned her attention back to my Mom, "Rufus said that if whatever is repressed took up a big part her, it may be what is causing her to murder people."

My parents' face dropped as if hit in the face.

"Wait sorry, did I say 'murder people?' I meant that it might be what is causing her to be getting sick all the time, because if so much of her is repressed she might not have the ability to fight the illnesses she gets. Sorry about that mix up, murder and sickness are all the same, aren't they?"

My Mom and Dad looked at her like she needed to be in a mental hospital, and in all honesty she probably did. I looked back down to my Polly Pocket, but the weird thing was that it no longer was a Doll, but a miniature version of Jacin, in my hands. My eyes got wide.

Miniature doll Jacin opened its mouth, "Wake up Mae! Wake up!"

"Wake up!" His voice finally registered my consciousness and yanked me out of my dream... Or was it a memory? Both?