Mrs. Artemis stared at Penny with her darker brown eyes that had specs of green in them. The air should have stifled Penny by now, making her feel thirsty enough for her to reach for the drink that was placed on the table but the girl sat there on the chair, her own hands placed on the lap as she stared back at her.
“Why did you say my mother wants to kill me?” Penny asked, wanting to know what else the woman knew about. To think that Penny and this lady sitting at the table were related to each other, she didn’t know how to digest that most of the people she were related to were crazy.
Maybe it was a witch thing, thought Penny to herself. But then she had turned out to be normal like her aunt. Maybe it affected only some people while sparing the others to balance the kind of people that were part of the family.
“Why? I thought she already told you about it,” Mrs. Artemis was vague with her words not giving away anything directly.
“Unfortunately, she didn’t. My mother has been busy and I couldn’t catch up with her. As we are related, I think it is only right you enlighten me on why I have to die,” truth was that Penny felt her heart drop slightly as she asked the woman, her hands clutching on her skirt that she wore.
“Laure never wanted a child. She got married to Walter upon the words of the higher witch. It was all for the sake to unbind the magic. The mother who birthed you killed many children, babies included with lack of remorse,” said Mrs. Artemis with a schooled expression on her face, “When I heard that she was pregnant from Walter’s letter I was surprised. You were a mistake Penelope which was not supposed to come as an outcome from the ritual,” Penny didn’t mind the words of the woman, she already had an inkling that her mother didn’t want a child and hearing it was like a breeze blowing through her.
Penny asked the woman, “What did you mean by the outcome?” seeing Mrs. Artemis not answer her, she said, “I know there are rituals that need to be performed to unbind the magic. Sacrificing the children in the swap, different massacres and now being the soul power.”
“You know a lot more than I thought you would know. Was it Laure who revealed it or was it that Quinn who told you about it,” asked Mrs. Artemis tilting her head in question, “I am surprised Laure has not killed you because the higher witch wouldn’t be happy about it if she learned that there’s someone like you who knows about the steps in the ritual but then it shouldn’t matter, I will take care of you so that there won’t be any problems in the future.”
And though the woman wanted to look satisfied over her words, it bothered her greatly that the air in this room which was of higher density was not working on this young witch, “Tell me, dear. How are you sitting here unaffected when someone else would have fainted or died by now over the madness in the body,” she looked curiously at Penny who hadn’t moved from her seat.
Penny caught sight of the woman moving her hand very subtly towards her own as if she were reaching for something to use it against her, “How are you sitting here unaffected?” Penny answered the question with another question.
“The potion that has been burnt and spread across the house is one which I made personally with the help of another witch who has now moved to another land. There’s an antidote for it but only my husband and I have access to it. So it makes me wonder how you are sitting here like this unless you are a very good actress like your family.”
“Family?” Penny frowned, looking at Mrs. Artemis who pushed the chair back to stand up, “Your father used to work in the theater along with your mother but that was in the past. How do you think I made them meet? It was all a well-organized plan, we had to set a trap for him so that he would fall in love with your mother blind enough to not see and understand what was going on around him. It was the perfect plan,” Mrs. Artemis chuckled in humor that Penny didn’t find it to be funny.
“They were your niece and nephew. How could you betray their parents like that,” the woman had put her father through death and her aunt had to flee to the slave establishment, not showing her face for more than two decades to the outside world.
Seeing the woman walk, Penny didn’t stick to her chair and stood up for her eyes to follow the woman where she was going around when there was nothing in the room.
“What is a family? They were my sister’s children. A girl and a boy. I was the oldest yet I couldn’t conceive children, I got married first before my sister did. It took me years but nothing happened. No prayers were answered,” said Mrs. Artemis walking towards one of the broken window panes, standing in front of it while she looked outside, “And then I realized all things didn’t have to come naturally.”
“You tapped into the forbidden magic,” Penny commented, looking at the back of the woman. Mrs. Artemis wore a long green dress that was dull in color. Her black and white hair tied into a bun at the top.
The older woman didn’t respond to Penny’s words, not confirming it and went on to say, “It was the beacon of light and we used it. And in less than a day, I was pregnant. We found out after weeks that we were going to have two boys. Twins,” the woman now turned towards Penny, the moonlight reflecting on Mrs. Artemis’ face to show the yellowish-green slit eyes to her.
Penny felt her blood run cold, realizing her eyes were similar to the woman’s, “You are a black witch…”
“Who cares. If you have a chance at happiness, and survival, a dying man will make a deal with the devil within a moment of a heartbeat. Even if it means he has to throw the person on the boat to switch places as a sacrifice.”
She sacrificed her sister, thought Penny to herself.
“I killed both my sister and brother-in-law. The memories now are coming back to me and God does it feel good,” there was something very eerie the way the woman said it to her, “She always felt she was the best at everything. Of course, she didn’t agree and had people flock around her. Do you know how it feels? To be looked down on and behave they are right. So I killed her and took her children from her. We also had to share the family name just because my husband didn’t have one.”
