Twisted Daydream

Chapter Two

It had been just a few short months since Annora’s arrival at the Parker house.
They had treated the girl well, she had the smallest room in the large house which was more than enough for her, Roseanne, mother of the Parker clan, and Josette helped to decorate it in a pastel creamy yellow color that the child adored. Even Kai had pitched in, much to the rest of the family’s surprise, he even laughed playfully as Annora smudged paint on her cheek and added a matching mark to his own face, throwing a wink over to the child and making her smile.
The act had also caught Roseanne’s eye, coursing an anxious pool to fill in the pit of her stomach, however it had to opposite effect on young Jo, who at seeing her twin brother’s actions almost jumped for joy. He had become cold and abrasive in his early teens, only presenting that charm and wit he had perfectly crafted to appease and manipulate, a phase that never seemed to end. Jo remembered when they were children, how they played and laughed, but somehow, she would always find him staring solemnly from his bedroom window after one or both of their parents had found fault with yet another thing the powerless boy had done.
Even if one of those things had been trying to get a hug or offering a hand to help if his sister fell. Touch was not something her brother was permitted.
She saw how he could be sometimes, sometimes he could be sweet and kind and ever since Annora had arrived he hadn’t been anything but to the girl… she hoped so much that their bond would make him better than their parents thought. Oh, the poor deluded fool.
Kai sometimes watched Annora, she was a beautiful child no doubt, long crimson red curls, snow pale skin, sparkling blue-green eyes and an innocent yet broken little smile…. It was sickening to him.
Oh he appreciated that she was an adorable child, more so than that he saw how much attention she would grow up to crave and expect, because she would be beautiful, but she could never know it… never know she was worth more than what Kai told her she was otherwise all the nicety’s would have been for nothing, and Kai really wasn’t patient enough to play nice for too long.
Over those weeks Annora had settled in well, every time someone tried to touch her there were… incidents. Like how Joey had pulled her hair and the couch imploded, Kai thought it was hilarious, all that stuffing floating around the room, the younger kids scurried away from the loud noise like rats and Annora stood yet again biting her lip and staring at her fiddling fingers. Unfortunately, Joshua hadn’t agreed, he took Annora to the back of the house and glared daggers to the child, telling her to learn control and restraint if she ever wanted to survive.
So after the Gemini leader left she just stood there in her sundress tapping her shoes together, until Kai crept out of his hiding place with fake concern pouring from him “hey, Annie-bee, so dads giving you a pretty hard time huh? I personally don’t know what he’s upset about, that sofa was hideous anyway.”
He’s come to use that nickname often, noticing the child’s attachment to the small creature’s and wanting to be seen as taking an interest. The more she thought he cared for her, her hobby’s and stupid little things like her love of bee’s, the more she could be bent to his will; even if she had to be broken, he would make her bend.
He takes a seat on the cool grass under the summer sun with a smile to the pouting redhead hugging her chest “it’s not fair, it’s not my fault Joey was mean to me!”
“Please, life’s not fair! Besides, that has nothing to do with it, dad doesn’t care about the sofa and he sure as hell doesn’t care about your hair, he cares about one thing… your power!” he speaks as you would when you read a story, putting emphasis on certain words to make them seem bigger and scarier.
Annora kicked at the ground before taking a seat beside him, bringing her knees under her chin “my mama told me not to use it, that I was too little and it wasn’t safe.”
“Yeah, take advise from the woman who tried to kill you, good call kiddo.” He can’t help the eye roll because seriously, come on she’s four, not stupid, or maybe she is, Kai wasn’t sure yet.
He looks at her, so weak and vulnerable, he could suck all the magic out of her right now, no one around to even witness her lifeless, magicless body being discarded in the nearby woods… oh was it tempting, but he had to think long term, yeah the kid was full of magic, magic he wanted but he’d be blamed if she went missing and he was suddenly a practicing witch, they’d deny him his Merge with Jo and he couldn’t have that. No the girl would live, for now.
“look, Annie-bee, I know my father ok, he saved you because he figured you’d be a valuable asset to the coven, so if you don’t start figuring out your magic soon he might very well send you back to the wolf’s, or you know, your family, remember them? Big pretty knife ready to gut you.” in actual fact that wasn’t a lie, Kai knew his parents would always put the coven first… even before their own children and he was right, Annora was a tool to them nothing more.
Annora looked at him, gnawing on her lip again as she crawled closer “will you teach me?”
“Wish I could, kid but you see I’m not a normal witch, I’m just a pesky siphon.” He says with an almost bitter taste in his mouth.
She looked at him though a small gap of the fiery curls that fell over her face with a confused stare “what’s that?”
“A witch born without magic, but I can borrow it from other witch’s.” He said it so flippantly while picking at the grass, like it meant nothing to him, like that small detail hadn’t defined his entire life. Annora looked up at him, unsure of what she was about to ask “show me?”
He tried to hide his smile from the child as he shrugged with fake horror “no, no I don’t want to hurt you… you’re just a baby.”
“I’m four and a half! Show me!” Annora pouts angrily, kicking out her foot while Kai chuckles inside.
Leaning into the redhead a smile creeps onto his face and voice becomes song-like “ok, but remember you asked for it.”
Annora lets out a yelp as Kai grips her small frail arm, and strange tingling pain searing through the spot, almost burning to the touch. As he sucks the power from her with an expression of euphoria the small girl releases a tear with the bite of her lip, her small sniffle alerting Kai to how much pain he’s causing the girl, he can’t have her turning on him now.
With a reluctant linger Kai pulls away from the girl, slapping on the concern he’d learned to mimic from his darling perfect twin sister “I’m sorry Annie-Bee, you ok?”
“It hurt!” she sat rubbing her arms pouting like…. Well like a four-year-old.
Kai feels the magic flow through him like a sharp buzz of lightning, it was a sugar high he’d craved like heroin as he raised his hand to pluck daisy’s from their peaceful beds and twisted together to make a crown that floated to rest on Annora’s head, she smiled brightly, forgetting all about the pain he’d caused thanks to his little gift.
He watches her while she adores the crown giddily and shrugs “to bad I don’t have my own magic, I’d teach you, we could have taught each other, keep the mean old Gemini leader off our cases; Too bad.”
Annora’s green speckled blue eyes shun like the morning sun as she beamed over to him brightly “why don’t you take some of my magic sometimes and we can practice?”
“Really?”
“Yep, we’re going to help each other… ‘coz we’re friends, right?”
Oh, how it made his heart skip, that look of hope as she fell into the palm of his hand “We, my little Annie-bee, are best friend’s.”
With his soft kind words, the redhead threw herself into the manipulative boy, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, careful to protect her daisy crown as she settled into his lap.
How was she to know it was a ploy, he had shown her nothing but kindness, tenderness and honesty since the moment she’d arrived, yes, he could be rude and mean sometimes but he was nice and didn’t seem to hold any pity or fear towards her, that was all Annora wanted… that and to be loved, so she turned to him.
The manipulative sociopath who always got what he wanted… one way or another.
That poor, poor girl.