Edge Becomes a Witch | [Half Bad Fanfiction]

The Seventh Blood Tube in Culkein Drumbeg

We're in Culkein Drumbeg and all I can see is grass, sheep, and a few small houses scattered around. The bus ride was an uncomfortable one, mainly because I was hungover, but also because the man in front of us forgot his deodorant today. Now we're walking to find grandmother's house, and Gabriel is laughing at me because I told him why I had my shirt cover my nose the whole ride.

'And the hangover, how's that?'

'I'm never drinking again.'

'It's probably for the best. You being drunk is the worst thing that ever happened to me. Please stay sober for the rest of your life. For everyone's sake, ok?'

'Ok.'

I feel my cheeks getting hotter, thinking about what I did that I don't remember but that he told me about on the bus ride.

Apparently, I'm a major "lightweight", and got very drunk, very fast. We were supposed to wait for the bus from Inverness to grandmother for six hours, and I was so impatient, and I heard music in the distance, and so I dragged Gabriel to the music ending up being in a bar. I got him to buy me my first cocktail ever. And then a second one.

I'd revealed myself about overhearing his conversation with Arran, which to my relief he seemed to be ok with. We didn't mention anything about whatever mom did that I'm expecting she's going to tell herself at one point. I revealed myself by asking him about the boy they talked about.

He told me I kept asking about him (I don't think I got any answers), and eventually started singing. I talked about Isabella a lot in the end, about how I missed her. I vomited on him twice and laughed hysterically at it, which pissed him off because now he only got one shirt to wear. He had a good time in the start when I just talked, but the drunker I got, the more annoying and embarrassing I got; especially when I started talking to other people at the bar.

On the long train ride, he told me a lot, everything, and that's when I started getting this immediate, deep respect for him. When he told me about seeing me as child, I felt like I'd lost something, I'd lost loved ones, I'd lost Gabriel. But now he's here with me again.

I have all right to feel betrayed by my parents, and I do. I feel betrayed by dad because he's hidden so much from me, and he's been horrible to Nathan and his family. And I feel betrayed by mom because she was hiding as well, and didn't stop dad from going too far, just letting him control everything which sounds just like mom. I love them, of course, but it'll never be the same again and I hope they know that.

The sheeps are bleating around us while Gabriel knocks at the door to the tiny cottage made of stone. Gabriel collected the addresses we needed from the Council's files, and that's why we know the address. But no one opens, and now I'm wondering if she's dead in there or if we got the wrong address.

'No, Edge, she's probably just out right now. We'll wait.'

So we sit and wait in the grass with the sheeps.

'Ew!' I yell and point at at a sheep pooping in front of us. Gabriel laughs, and asks if I've ever been outside a building before.

'I actually tried camping one time with my best friend, Mike, but there were ants everywhere in our tent, so we got his mom to come rescue us before the ants killed us.'

'Wow, you're such a city boy.'

'And you're not?'

'Me and Nathan lived outdoors for months under the War.'

'But that's War.'

'Mm, Nathan used to get ill if he was inside at night, so he slept outside his whole adolescence.'

'Oh my God, how did he handle the ants?'

'He doesn't mind them, I'm sure. He loves the woods, the wildness of it. I love that about him.'

'But he sleeps inside now?'

'Yeah, he had to practice for years, though. Same with his reading, that was probably worse.'

'He couldn't read?'

'No.'

'I have a bad dyslexia.'

'Blame it on Nathan.'

'Excuse me? Can I help you?' An elder woman's voice asks carefully. We turn and look at her standing in the pathway to the house with a walking stick. Gabriel gets up and I follow.

'Good morning, Mrs. O'Brien. I'm Gabriel Boutin, and perhaps you remember Edge, your grandson.'

'Oh, well... would you like to come in?'

She gestures us to sit by her tiny kitchen table before readying tea and biscuits for us, leaving the room with a nervous atmosphere. It feels like she doesn't even know who I am. She asks stuff, like if we want sugar in our tea, if we prefer coffee and if it's fine if there's no sugar because she's out. Finally, she sits down with us. She's dipping her teabag, not looking up from it.

'Grandmother, do you remember me? You came to my bar Mitzvah.'

She doesn't look up at me when she answers and I think she might just be shy.

'Oh, I remember you, Edge. I liked that hat you were wearing.'

'Thank you. It's called a kippah.'

'Oh, you're a jew?'

'Yup.'

This has to be the most awkward conversation I've ever had, and thank God Gabriel is here to keep it going. He explains her why we're here, what's going on with me, what we need. Grandmother agrees to donate blood and then wonders if we're asking Niall for blood, too.

'There's a cut to his apartment in Norway from my cellar... Niall helps me with supplies sometimes, it's quite convenient. I don't think he would mind you using it. Also... there might be a cut from Norway to New York, you should ask Niall about it.'

Grandmother follow us down to her even more cramped, messy cellar. There's overstuffed dressers, closets and shelves everywhere. One of the walls is covered with pictures of children, and pictures of the same family. I go closer and realize I'm seeing mom as a little girl in one of the pictures. I've never seen photos of mom as a child before. I move to a family picture and see mom there, too. I only thought mom had one brother, Niall, whom I've never met, but she had two other brothers who both died in the War. Nathan killed the oldest. Then there's the father in the family. Mom told me he fell down a staircase and died before I was born, but I don't know if I believe that anymore.

'What happened to grandfather?' I ask and turn to grandmother and Gabriel who's been waiting for me by where I'm guessing the cut is.

'He was murdered under the final Alliance attack. I've lost my husband, and three of my children because of your father. Luckily, his black evil couldn't destroy my Niall.'

Gabriel raises his brows beside her and that's when I know I shouldn't take grandmother too seriously right now.

'You haven't lost mom.'

Grandmother sighs and shakes her head dramatically.

'She was the first one I lost.'

'Do you hate each other or something?'

'Something like that.'

'But you came to my bar Mitzvah?'

'It was Ben who asked me to come without Annalise knowing, said it was time for you to meet me. He wasn't even married to Annalise anymore, I didn't understand why he cared, but he did. I wasn't planning on going, but then I got plane tickets in my mailbox and I figured I could at least do it for you. While you were reading your Thorah, me and Annalise were having a fight in the backroom of the Synagogue, and I didn't feel quite welcome anymore, and that's why I left early.'

'You missed the cake I baked...'

'I'm sorry I've been distant in you life, Edge. You need to know that it's not about you, it's about your mother.'

I turn around to the pictures again, and because there's so many of the family pictures, I dare asking if I can have one of them. I'm afraid grandmother thinks I'm rude, but she smiles at me and says; 'Pick one, sweetheart.'