(Note please read the whole chapter before you make your judgment)
“I never wanted it to be this way Papa please” Achelle cried, but her father didn’t seem to care. Javier Sato was firm in his choice this time. How did it come to this? Achelle wondered miserably. Her father always said she was his gift from above. Had he… Had he known?
Screw it, Achelle thought to herself. She needed to get out anyway. The customers at the restaurant might miss her. But her father seemed so angry that her only choice was clear.
He wants me gone, well I’m gone then she said to herself standing firm.
But still, as she grabbed her bag she wondered to herself how it came to all this.
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She knew this was a bad idea to meet with an old woman from down the street, but she needed answers, answers her father wouldn’t give her. She needed to know about that bitter cold January night. So unusual for Oklahoma even in the “winter” months in Tulsa a time like that was unheard of. The day a woman walked into town and placed her baby on the doorstep of a mixed-race diner owner.
He had cared for her like his own for such a long time, he was never quick to anger, not even when Achelle started having a drinking problem before age 18. But when Achelle asked questions about that day he’d shut her down. She used to be able to live with that, well at least until.. now.
“Ah yes that day, you were such a teeny thing, it’s a miracle you hadn’t gotten frostbite by the time Javier found you even wrapped in that blanket”
“Sam, what about the woman?” Achelle pressed.
“Does your father know you’re here Achelle”
Achelle simply smiled and nodded, trying to keep her face from cracking.
“I see, so I’m assuming, that he told you about her enough that any extra information I give is completely unnecessary” Sam answered.
Achelle’s face fell instantly.
“I thought so,” Sam remarked.
“Sam please, I need to know, help a girl out” Achelle pleaded desperately.
Seeing the desperation Sam relented, “Okay, but do not go telling your papa okay, I have relationships I need to maintain in this city” Sam stated point blank as if she even needed to.
“Deal” Achelle smirked, this was her chance to finally know at least a little about her past she would not pass this up.
“She was…” Sam paused as if unsure then seemed to shake it off “an ethereal beauty, with pretty green eyes and dark skin just like you,”
“When I saw her walking by that night as I was taking my last puff I could tell she wasn’t from Tulsa most who looked like her who could get out got out while the getting was good”
“She was wearing some pretty blue jewelry too, I’m surprised she wasn’t afraid of being mugged” Achelle relished all this information. But one thing she was curious about was
“Did she do anything weird?” Achelle questioned.
“Weird, why ” Sam shot back.
Achelle sheepishly folded “Because I can do weird things”.
She wouldn’t have said this to anyone else, but Sam was a family friend. Albeit a weird old family friend.
But the more Achelle thought about it, what right did she have to call someone that? With what she could do, was she normal? The electrical outlet, the rain with not a cloud in the sky prior that day, the earthquake, the supernatural healing abilities.
Sam looked into her and almost seemed to look through her.
Then Sam sighed,
“Alright what do you wanna know”
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“Yes, we’ll make sure Aino doesn’t get any more ideas about pranks,” Audrey Vauhkonen told the principal as she eyed her daughter. To which the daughter rolled hers. The principal eyed them both and then said
“You know what we’ll talk about after-school detention instead of suspension since Aino has a pretty clear record before this year.”
Audrey silently looked at him and nodded. She elbowed Aino whose head was already in a book that she had gotten out of her backpack. The seventeen-year-old was all too anxious to distract herself. She had always been this way. She didn’t know why, maybe it was because. She shut the thought out because, in addition to all that stuff she wasn’t supposed to talk about, she was Autistic. She knew that better than anyone.
“Aino, say you’re sorry for the incident” Audrey chastised.
“I’m sorry for floating the desks… I mean putting the desk on a wire system.” Aino hadn’t been paying much attention to what she was doing or saying until then, but she snapped back to reality after realizing what she was talking about.
Her mother gave her a look that spoke volumes. It said in no uncertain terms we’ll talk about this later.
The principal looked suspicious but let it go. He had worse things to deal with than a prank.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Aino Sara Vauhkonen” her mother looked furious as they climbed in the car.
“An earthquake and floating desks. What were you thinking sweetie?” Audrey looked at her daughter, saddened by her lack of attention to the imparitive situation.
Aino stared aimlessly off into space. She hated this. She didn’t see what the big deal was; this was the South, and worse things had happened here than what Aino had done. And most of those were done by regular people. But the moment she wanted to play a little psychic prank or that she got a bit upset and caused an angel quake she was the bad girl.
“Aino are you even listening, young lady, this can not happen again” Audrey looked at her daughter, and murmured something that was certainly not Swedish. It was probably an angelic saying that Aino didn’t know. Angel language was hard for Aino even as a Nephilim. It didn’t sound like gibberish, but it sounded like clunky Arabic or Hebrew to her.
Her mother, whose true name she couldn’t pronounce either, had once said it was something like a mixture of two of the oldest versions of those languages plus some weird noises not present in either. So most modern speakers of either one wouldn’t have a hope of translating it anyway, much less a half Swedish and Irish American raised in the south. Even if the other half was angelic.
Both she and her mother had hoped that once her powers had come in it would be easier for her to learn (had been), to speak the language of her angelic people (had not been), and to truly grasp their situation (one out three ain’t bad). She was better at memorization, and it wasn’t as hard to focus as it had been, her retention was slightly better, and she was more extroverted though not by much. That is to say, nothing much had changed in that regard. But the powers, oh they gave Aino a rush, super strength and elemental abilities (per standard), and psychokinesis (per specialization of her mother). Probably more thanks to her human half though she never knew what that would be due to nephilims being rare AKA forbidden. Her mother had always been a rule breaker so she’d heard.
Aino just sighed, unzipped her bag, got out her book, and started reading.
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The boy dipped, dodged, and weaved through the shadows of the marketplace, holding tightly to his fruit.
He stopped suddenly seeing a cut on his hand from a man’s knife. Ladarius cursed under his breath. Everyone always said that he had quite the mouth for someone so young. But this one-time swearing might have been warranted, because it wasn’t healing as quickly as it normally would. Or at all which was very unusual. Must be cursed, he thought to himself.
He hated cursed stuff or blessed stuff. They were the two things that could hurt him after all. He heard a voice yelling, and then several yelling.
No time to think about that now he thought teleporting out of the marketplace and onto a sidewalk. The sidewalk was roughly thousands of miles away but details, am I right? He looked at his shoes still smoking from the sudden jump. Oh well, he thought looks like Cali he guessed wistfully Plenty of rich people to steal shoes from.
Atlas Ez Poetry 