When his wife appeared back with the fresh utensils in her arms, he quickly stood up and went to help her by taking them in his hands and placing it in the kitchen which was in the same room as the hall they were in. Even though it was small, it was enough to get their lives going.
Penelope’s mother looked at her daughter who was holding the parchment and the slate on her lap as she saw her murmuring under her breath as she read them, “Is it necessary to teach her right now? She’s too young. People won’t take it well, Gabriel.”
“People will never take anything well but look at her. She is more intelligent than the other children of her own age. Her ability to learn is amazing, faster than what I was able to pick up. It is only right we teach her early and prepare her,” he responded back to his wife, looking at his daughter who was still trying to figure some words which were new to her.
“She’s too young to know anything, even though she is smart…people won’t perceive it in the right away,” the woman felt slightly agitated over her daughter learning words and sentences on how to read it, “We live in a society where children are supposed to play out, girls are meant to cook for their husbands and take care of the house and their family, not go out,” said the woman, her hand clutching on to her dress.
“Time will change though. As years will come, Penelope can grow and she will grow to be a wonderful woman where people will come to look up to her,” the man said, already feeling proud of his little daughter who had many years before she would grow into an a.d.u.l.t.
But that was what the woman didn’t want. Penelope’s mother could only clutch her hands and stare with a smile which she didn’t mean. She looked at her husband who went back to teaching their daughter.
Her husband didn’t know and hadn’t told her but Laure knew that he was a white witch. A witch she despised but had stayed her building a family to herself away from trouble after killing a whole family to almost being caught by the villagers. She had fled. Fled away from it and had found this fool of a white witch who didn’t know that she was a black witch. Black witches and white witches didn’t get along, they were each other’s nemesis for a generation of decades.
Despising each other’s existence. To Laure, they were nothing but a tool until she was done with her work. So far her daughter showed no signs of being a black witch or white witch which she regularly checked every single day but she appeared to be a human. A pure human, she wondered how it could be. The girl must have taken either his or her side of genes but she had acquired none. Had the mix of blood nullified her nature?
One day, Penny was helping her mother clean the house when she picked some of the parchments which were hidden under the mattress.
The little girl had the habit to read what she picked up and she started to read with her mother who had her back facing her not realizing that her daughter had stopped cleaning and had picked something of hers.
When the black witch turned her eyes widened in shock and fear, she ripped the parchments from the little girl, “What did you read?!” her mother demanded furiously.
“I-I…” her daughter’s hands shook and her eyes wide, meeting her mother’s furious eyes no words came to pass through her lips.
The black witch gritted her teeth. This girl had read it! She f.u.c.k.i.n.g read it! She was doomed if she spoke about this to her father. It would not only blow her cover but would put her in trouble,
“Come here!” the black witch pulled her daughter in force where the girl resisted.
“W-what was that mama?” asked little Penelope.
The girl was too young to pull away or suspect something to be wrong except for what she had just read. She was smarter than the rest of the children of her age but with her mother pulled her to the side, she followed.
Laure on the other end cursed this girl and the white witch who was teaching her how to read. She knew this was going to come back at her. It wasn’t just her husband whom she was hiding things from but now she would have to do it with this little thing. She leaned towards the window to see her husband who was walking towards home. She gulped. This wasn’t good, thought the black witch.
Not good at all, her hands shook at what might happen if he were to know she was his nemesis. They would kill her! But she wouldn’t let that happen. She was not going to let anyone kill her. Picking what she got, she chanted the words for the very first time in front of her daughter. Running through spells and then picking the brick and hitting it across her daughter’s head for the girl to fall unconscious.
When her husband arrived home, carrying logs of woods in his hands to be used for cooking as well as to keep themselves warm, he saw his daughter lying on the bed with her eyes closed. It was not night yet for her to fall asleep this soon.
“What happened to Penny?” asked Penelope’s father, going to his daughter’s side quickly and running his hand over her forehead to see if she had caught some kind of fever.
“She had a little accident,” the black witch answered, cutting vegetables while she looked at her daughter.
“What kind of accident?” asked the father.
“It was a spider on the floor and she got scared, hitting her head,” Laure replied like it was nothing, after all, children did get scared about little things like these.
