The drive to Maggie’s parents’ house wasn’t long at all. Maggie and Derek discussed whether it would be better than it was, or if Maggie’s father Eddie would be as critical of Derek as he was last time they spent the night for Christmas.
Magnolia smiled at the thought of some normalcy. Eddie was always criticizing any of her boyfriends or partners. Eddie had said something about how Derek’s Christmas gifts were all “over the top” and “too expensive.” Derek had gotten her a beautiful, rare gemstone necklace, and a new laptop for on-the-go work. Derek had made it a point that if they wanted to go traveling or just be lazy around the house, she could always get any important work done without stressing about getting behind. Her heart had melted. He knew her so well, and she never had to utter more than a few words to him. Derek was always kind, supportive, and considerate.
When Maggie and Derek arrived, they sat in the car and looked at the small yellow house in front of them. The front yard was littered with different plants and herbs. The house had two floors and a basement that Maggie remembers sneaking friends and boys into during school. The memories that Maggie had were fond, and her parents only caught her sneaking people in once.
Her parents were always kind and gentle – even when it came to punishments. Maggie knew never to take advantage of their kindness, so they always allowed her to do more things than most of the other kids her age. As soon as Derek helped Maggie out of the car, Maggie could smell food cooking from inside. One of her favorites, her dad’s beef stew. Memories of cold winters or hard days in high school littered her brain, and she smiled warmly. Derek knocked gently on the door as the wind chimes sang to them softly. Maggie felt safe.
The white door swung open and her parents, Eddie and Willow, greeted them warmly. Maggie and Derek were crushed with crying hugs, and Maggie shed a few tears. Willow, Magnolias mom, apologized after she winced from the pain in her neck. But they laughed about it. That night could have been the last night Maggie was alive, and she was super grateful for having such loving parents.
They all grabbed a bowl of the hot stew with some rolls Willow had put in the oven, and each of them fussed over Magnolia. They would not let her try to do anything for herself. She was annoyed, but also grateful. Once they sat down, small talk began, and Magnolia knew the hard discussion would be coming soon after.
“We’re so glad you’re okay,” Willow said, taking a small bite of hot stew. “We had gotten the call from the hospital about the fire… we were so worried…”
Willow’s voice trembled and tears welled in her hazel eyes. Maggie felt herself choking on her words. “I… I don’t remember much from that night,” she admitted. “All I remember was waking up to my room filling with smoke. It was so h-hot –”
“You don’t have to explain yet if you’re not ready, baby.” Willow touched Maggie’s hand. “We’re just glad you’re alive.”
Maggie nodded. Her eyes met Derek’s, and he squeezed her thigh under the kitchen table.
“How did it happen?" Eddie asked, his eyes meeting Derek’s. Derek glanced down, full of sorrow. “I had lit a candle… I was gonna surprise Maggie with a candlelit breakfast… I went to take a shower, and I smelled something burning… when I ran out, I saw the flames. They reached the ceiling, and I panicked. I tried to put it out and yelled for Maggie.. I thought she heard me, because I heard shuffling upstairs. My arm caught fire, and I went out the window... the flames were blocking me in to get out the front door.”
There was a quiet silence. No one dared speak. It was as if the fumes were swallowing Magnolia up again. She could not think. Her heart was racing and she couldn’t feel her fingertips. Maggie felt as if the fire was back again, swallowing her up whole. Her throat started to close, and her breathing became labored. Derek glanced over at her and rubbed his fingers along her hand. Her breath hitched as she jumped and knocked her good leg on the table. Willow and Eddie stared at Maggie with sorrow dancing in their eyes. They knew she was hurting, but she was putting on a brave face as she always did. Eddie and Willow always saw Maggie as a strong and level-headed individual. They’d never seen her so quiet or even jumpy before. Eddie glanced at Willow as he cleared his throat.
“How about that Beef Stew?”
Maggie smiled gratefully. She took a small bite, and comforting warmth filled her up again.
--
Dinner was amazing. Willow poured Maggie a glass of blueberry wine as they chatted about the different things Maggie had accomplished in her career. Maggie was a full-time news editor, she had just recently been promoted to the main publicist for the city company, reporting local and bigger news, mainly small informational panels that she was given.
“You’ve come far, sweetheart. I am so proud of you.”
Maggie smiled. She finally felt some normalcy in all the craziness. The past week was unlike Maggie had ever experienced. Her childhood was normal – one filled with exciting memories and loving parents, kind words, hugs and snuggles, cozying up by the fire on cold winter nights, reading and as a child her parents always read her these wonderful folklore books that Maggie never quite understood. The love of her family was always kind, patient and peaceful. Maggie had never been more greatful than this night to have the parents she got.
“Thanks, Mom.” Maggie said.
The night went on and they played Monopoly – a constant competitive game in the Grace household. There were lots of different things that Maggie had never recognized before tonight – the way Willow focused on her cards, strategizing every move and making calculated trades with everyone else. Her father Eddie was always quite loud, making big gestures. It was so obvious that he was not going to be winning – buying the horrible things and barely making any money to pay for his properties. Derek was a little bit of both. Maggie noticed the way he scratched his chin when making a trade with someone – his brows furrowed, and his brown eyes hardened from playful to serious. He was equally involved in the game as anyone else was, and Maggie felt her heart widen for him. He was a rock, and Maggie realized that he needed this little distraction just as much as she did. Everyone had a good time, and to no one’s surprise, Willow won. She beat everyone and the last to file for Bankruptcy was Derek. First was Eddie, then Maggie, then Derek, leaving Willow the champion.
Maggie smiled as her mom whooped and hollered for the win and told everyone they were not very good at the game, which made everyone erupt into laughter. The night went on with hot cocoa and tea, gently winding down before everyone headed to their rooms. Eddie and Willow exchanged hugs with Maggie, and Willow explained she would take Maggie shopping for some nice clothes in the morning.
--
The next day, as promised, Willow took Maggie shopping. There was silence and small talk, but as they got closer to the store, Willow’s excitement grew. She explained how they had not been shopping in forever, and Maggie smiled. Who knew that this travesty would bring her family closer together?
“Are you okay?” Willow asked.
Maggie wasn’t sure what to say. Physically, she felt okay. Maggie’s leg and neck didn’t really hurt. But Maggie didn’t have the heart to tell her mother that she almost died, so she’d lied and said she was just thankful that the broken bones was all she got.
“Yeah,” Maggie lied. “It’s just… hard, to lose everything.”
Willow draped her arm around Maggie. “We can rebuild. Let’s just do it together.”
The day continued as Maggie sent out emails to her job and explained what had happened. Luckily her parents saved the desktop she had given them. They held it in the office room on the main floor. Relief was overwhelming Maggie as everyone sent condolence emails and texts, letting her know she could come back when she was ready, and she told them tomorrow morning would be when she could do some things from home until she was well enough to enter the office next week. They obliged.
The days dragged and Maggie was killing it. Working days on end, lying in bed, getting caught up on all she had missed and even getting things done before the deadline. Maggie knew in her heart that she should probably be fully resting, or seeking some fucking therapy, but she did what she knew best: be a workaholic. She submerged herself into her work, desperately trying to escape her thoughts. There was no escaping them, however, no matter how hard she would try to distract herself.
Magnolia was sitting on the bed now waiting for Derek to get home, but her neck was itchy. She was so itchy, in fact, that she wanted to take it off. Magnolia had grown tired of being fussed over and taken care of. Her neck was itchy and all she wanted to do was move. Maybe she could take off the neck brace.. just for a few minutes. She reached up behind her neck and released the Velcro straps. The relief flooded Maggie instantly. She could have moaned, but as she reached to pull apart the brace and fully take it off, she realized something. Her neck didn’t hurt.
My neck… why am I not in pain right now? Shouldn’t I be in pain?
The moment Magnolia took off the brace, she immediately scratched her neck. She leaned her head back and scratched and scratched. The bliss that radiated from Magnolia was palpable. Then, she had another realization.
I can move my neck. My neck doesn’t hurt.
In disbelief, Magnolia moved her neck all around. There was no way. Maybe she wasn’t in pain, but shouldn’t she keep her neck still?
Who cares, Magnolia thought. I really don’t want to wear this stupid thing anymore.
Magnolia looked around the room softly.
There was not much to do after her tasks were completed, so Maggie found herself looking upstairs in the attic to find some old mementos from her childhood to show Derek when he got home from work.
The attic was dusty and smelled like mildew. Maggie wrinkled her nose and looked around at the piled boxes and miscellaneous things lying around. There was no set location for everything, but Maggie decided to just be snoopy and see what types of things she could find. Maybe there was something worth keeping, memories she had forgotten about. Maggie wondered if she was just trying to compensate for what she had lost in the fire, all that time spent decorating her new home, the money and time wasted. A feeling of sadness washed over her, and her chest felt hollow. But there was no need for that now, there were things to explore. Maggie was excited as she opened the box labeled with the year 1991 – her birth year, and she smiled softly. Pictures of baby Maggie smiling back at her, and she saw her parents – younger, full of youth, happy as can be with smiles wide on their faces. Pictures littered old scrapbooks of her and her parents doing different things – camping with everyone, which Maggie remembered as a fun time. Memories of her dad teaching her how to fish, hunt, and start a fire using only her surroundings flooded her mind and she felt grateful for having such loving parents. She remembered being a nuisance to her parents when she was younger. Constantly hiding things, sneaking out, and being a rambunctious teen and young adult. Maggie remembered when she first started college. She was ecstatic, but when the work started piling up and Maggie worried about getting it all done, she never went to her parents. She did not tell them when she reached academic probation for all the college parties she went to instead of studying. Instead of telling her parents, Maggie picked up a second job and paid a fellow classmate to “help” her with assignments. Maggie eventually picked everything back up and was able to get her grades up and even graduate with honors, but in that first year, Maggie did not study or work as hard as she should have. She never told her parents, but they did find out from emails that were sent to their home computer with answers she could study for on tests from her classmate, Emma. Maggie’s parents called her and the feeling she had was one of pure regret and shame. Maggie felt horrible. She knew her parents had been nothing but kind to her. They paid her college tuition, helped her with her first car, and did everything for her – and there she was, lying to them. Maggie remembers turning things around after that discussion. She started telling them everything, and her grades improved, as did her mindset. Her relationship with her parents soared, and she met Derek. Derek was in her IT marketing class. They were partnered up frequently for assignments and hit it off well. They started studying together for their class and picking up food for each other.
Stolen story; please report.
Maggie remembers the sweet dates, the flowers left on her dorm bed, the hugs and sweet kisses as he dropped her off from classes. Maggie fell in love with him. He was so kind, so sensitive, and always thought about her emotions. Derek and Maggie shared everything about themselves and their lives. There was never a time where Maggie felt alone, and neither did Derek. He had helped her through her lifelong cat companion passing while she was away for college, her failing grades and he was even there to encourage her and help her study on her own, and she got herself into the wonderful job she has now. Maggie was so grateful for him, and he didn’t even know it.
Maggie held a picture of her and her kitten, Whiskers. She got him when she was 14, and the cat lived for a solid ten years. He lived a long and happy life, and they were best buds. She continued to find pictures of her and Derek, young and in love, in college classes, goofy pictures of them coming home for Christmas, and just all kinds of memories between the two of them. She felt her heart fill with warmth, and she realized that even though things were rough right now, she always had her loving team of people around her. Even through the bad times, she knew she was loved.
Maggie put a few pictures and cute mementos aside to show Derek and her parents later and continued her search. The attic started to feel warm as beams of light shone in the small windows from outside. Maggie looked around and moved boxes that didn’t have labels. There was one labeled 1976, which Maggie moved on top of another box. As Maggie turned around, there was a loud thump as the box fell over, spilling over in contents. There were old Polaroid pictures that we labeled strangely. Pictures from the 1950’s and ‘60’s that Maggie found odd. There was a picture that had a group of beautiful women in white dresses and vined flower crowns, rings and necklaces with rocks and crystals hanging around their necks, hands interlocked around a large bonfire. The flames reached up over their heads, and as Maggie shuffled through the pictures of different angles, she found a tall, slender woman wearing a headband that had a strange symbol on it. It seemed to be two moons facing away from each other with a circle in between them. Maggie felt confused. There was something off about these pictures, and Maggie felt a strange twang of familiarity as she held them. She could almost feel the warmth of the fire, power and separation of herself when she held the pictures. Maggie turned her head slowly as she looked at the picture. The woman looked familiar, but she could not place her finger on it.
Maggie decided to take another peek inside the box. Curiosity was starting to overwhelm her as she pulled out an old camcorder. Hmm, she thought. She never remembered her parents having this… It was covered in dust and looked ancient, but nonetheless was in decent condition. She was surprised by that. The camcorder opened just fine, but it seemed like it didn’t have any type of charge port, but it took batteries. The old camcorder was a handheld and had a small screen. She put it aside and found some old diaries, but she had made a vow to never read anyone’s diary after an incident in high school. Maggie didn’t see anything else inside – just a few trinkets and necklaces, and a few old books that were untitled, but nothing was interesting enough. The camcorder was digging through Maggie’s mind, begging for her to uncover its contents.
Maggie swiftly grabbed everything that she had collected, put the other contents back inside its box and went to her room, leaving the camcorder in the spare room. She went down to the kitchen and searched for some batteries. Maggie discovered her parents were not home, so she grabbed a new set of batteries and ran back to the bedroom. Maggie worried about acid erosion – if the camcorder had been in different climates or even just sitting in the attic, she wondered if this would even work. To her surprise, though, there were no batteries inside, and it was perfectly clean. Maggie slipped the batteries in the camcorder and turned it on.
Maggie wondered why her heart was racing. It may have been something totally innocent. Another thought popped into Maggie’s mind. What if my parents made a sex tape?!
Maggie laughed, for her parents seemed too pure to be doing anything scandalous such as making a sex tape, much less keeping it stored away in boxes with mysterious pictures.
The screen popped on. It was slow, but Maggie was patient. She smiled, thankful it even worked in the first place. The thing looked rustic as hell.
There were a few videos recorded. Maggie only counted three on the entire camera. She decided to select the first one. It was grainy and had horrible resolution, but she could gather enough to know the situation was weird.
“Willow, aim the camera at me!” There was a girl laughing – she had incredibly curly brown hair. She was tall and slender, giggling profusely. Her smile was one of those that could light up a room. Her eyes were a deep blue, her hair luscious and long. Her brown poofy hair hung below her breast line. The camera moved back and forth until it finally focused. The woman stood next to a stocky man with short brown hair and cocoa brown eyes. He was smiling. He also seemed stunned, like he couldn’t believe this was happening.
They were standing in an opening, with trees surrounding them. It was quiet, and soccer balls and knives laid on the ground under them.
Maggie had already gathered that her mom was behind the camera. She wondered if her dad was there as well.
Willow spoke.
“Okay, you have been training for a while, show me what you got!”
The woman took off with a quick swish of her feet, the man doing the same in the opposite direction. The woman reached her hands out and Maggie watched with confusion as the ball levitated in the air and flung towards the man.
“Aw, Cecilia! Come on, you can go faster than that!” Willow shouted.
Cecilia’s face changed from playful fun to determination. She reached her hand out. The soccer ball and a knife levitated swiftly from the ground and shot at the man with rapid pace. He jumped in the air and spun himself through both the knife and the ball. He moved as if he was floating on air. The camera panned over to him as he swiped his hand in a swift motion as the knife flung in the opposite direction.
“Come on, Gills, you almost got cut, do better!” Willow shouted.
Maggie almost didn’t recognize her mother’s voice. It was still her mother’s voice, but it sounded a lot more determined. Firm, directive, and almost a hint of aggression. Maggie’s hands started to shake as she held the camera. She couldn’t keep her eyes off the screen.
Gills voice whooped and hollered. He raised his arms to the sky and let out a strange chant:
“Fulmen infer, per venas fluat,
Corpus caelum est, manus nubes,
Ego unum cum tempestate!
Gills rubbed his hands together. They started to shine in a brilliant white glow. He raised his hands to the sky, and the sunny day began to grow dark in an instant. The camera panned to the clouds, swirling together and rumbling slowly. Rain poured down, and he brought his arms down rapidly. The lightning clapped loudly, and everything turned a bright white. There were faint screams.
The video ended, and Maggie was stunned. What was that? Maggie asked herself. Why was mom there, and what were they doing?
Maggie went back and forth in her head. Maybe there was some kind of CGI effect. Maybe it was something strange going on, but Maggie felt a tingling in her hands. Maybe she was having a panic attack. She must have been.
The home screen with the other two videos sat there, silently. Maggie felt like her arms and hands were lead. She selected the next video, afraid of what she would see.
The video had the same grainy resolution. The video was in a different location. Her father stared directly at the camera. He was adjusting the camera on a ladder.
“How to I angle this down there, Willy?” He asked. Willow’s laugh rang out as Eddie turned to face her. She wore an elegant white gown with thin spaghetti straps. It was flowy and kind to her body shape. She wore no shoes, and her hair was in a half-up half-down braid, loosely flowing down her shoulders. Flowers littered the braids. Willow wore a few layered necklaces, and rings littered each of her fingers. She looked beautiful.
“How many times do I have to ask you to stop calling me Willy?” Her smile radiated playfully as she put her hands on her hips.
Eddie started down the ladder. “Maybe when I finally get to the after.”
Eddie put the ladder to the side, and gently placed his hands on Willow’s hips, leaning into her for a kiss. The kiss was full of sweetness and passion.
“Come on, Ed, everyone needs to come in for the ceremony.”
Willow walked away and different people walked inside the large room. Bookshelves filled with dusty old books, and a beautiful wood design was built into the floor. It looked like a flower of some kind. There were twelve people in total, all men and women. They were all dressed in white, with necklaces and rings. Maggie noticed they all wore the same ones. Different flowers littered everyone’s hair, but they all were barefoot, just like Willow. They gathered in a circle around the flower. Everyone was calm and collected.
Willow came into the center of the circle and began to speak.
“Welcome, everyone. We’ve called you here for this meeting for the monthly moon cycle ceremony. This month, just like every other, we join together for peace, harmony, and to thank Mother Gaia and Hekate, for they have helped bring us peace, joy, community, and love. So, as we join hands, we begin to recognize our love for them both, and continue to serve them, with humbleness, love, and peace.”
Willow and everyone among the group grabbed hands, almost in sync, and they closed their eyes. The group started humming, slowly coming together in sync, in a beautiful melodic harmony. A peaceful energy came over the room, and the people started glowing. All beautiful different colors. Their skin and eyes were glowing too, different colors of red, blue, green, and white. The harmony continued, but the words were unrecognizable.
“Pro his beneficiis matri gratias agimus, pro nostra pace quam posuimus, et pro gaudio quam largiris nobis. Gratias tibi ago pro omnibus quae fecisti et sicut nunc canimus –"
There was a loud crash that enveloped the room. There was panic among the people, but their hands did not unlink. There were exchanged glances, but one look from Willow had them changing the direction of the chant. It became clear that there was no longer a peaceful, thankful glow through the room, but a menacing energy that made the air grow cold. The beautiful white suddenly seemed to turn grey and stormy as the room began rumbling. People started swaying as books fell off the shelves, the ceiling cracked, and dust rained down. Their chanting became more erratic, more intense.
The people were almost screaming, as one final, blinding light flashed through the room and the chandelier fell, knocking over many people. Screams of surprise rang throughout the room. A black mist formed above the broken crystal chandelier, swirling around and around, looking like a tornado.
Do you think Maggie will confront her parents right away?
