#romula

My study group stared at me in stunned silence. Whatever story they had been expecting, that certainly wasn’t it. After a few long moments of confusion, River choked out a very eloquent, “What?”

I shrugged again. “You ever see that movie the Labyrinth with David Bowie?”  I got a few nods in response. “It was almost like that, but I never tried to get her back. And I asked that they make it look like a regular kidnapping.”

“Why?” Goliath asked. His voice softer than you would think a guy his size would be capable of.

His words sparked back to life the flames of a rage I’d thought to be long dead. “Because I hated my stepmom.” I must have said that with more force than I meant to because they all shrunk back slightly at my words. “I hated her. She didn’t love me or my dad or anyone in the world. All she cared about was money. I begged my dad not to date her. Then I begged him not marry her. Then I begged him to divorce her. None of it ever worked. Then they went and had that stupid kid and my chances of them getting a divorce went out the window.”

The more I recounted the angrier I got. How dare my dad choose her over me. I took a deep breath to calm down. I told myself none of that mattered now. In the end, I had won.

“So, what? You summoned someone to take your sister away?” Daisy asked.

“Not exactly,” I said. “I was baby sitting one night while they were out one date trying to ‘work things out’ for the billionth time, when they baby monitor went crazy. It played nothing but static no matter what I did to fix it. It kept playing even when I took the batteries out. I went to my sister’s room to see what was wrong and found a man standing over her crib. He was tall and skinny with pale white skin, long silver hair, and hollow, black eyes that seemed to glow yet reflected no light.”

River shuddered involuntarily and Goliath swallowed hard. Daisy, however, seemed to hang on to every word. I didn’t know if they would think of me the same way when the story was done, but rules were rules, so I kept going.

“Long story short he wanted her and I didn’t, so we made a deal. I knew my dad and his horrible wife were having problems. I figured the loss of their kid would be just the thing to push them over the edge, and they would finally get the divorce I’d always wanted. My only condition was that he make it look a real kidnapping. A forceful break in that I never could have stopped. We shook on it and a week later the divorce papers were signed. I was fifteen and it was the happiest I had ever been in my entire life.”

I took in the faces of my friends. Goliath and River looked horrified while Daisy smiled with glee. I made a mental note to look into whether or not Daisy had been taken. “Do you ever regret it?” Goliath asked.

“Hell no,” I said immediately. “That was the greatest decision I’ve ever made.”

“Really?” River asked. “You’ve never once regretted handing your baby sister over to the Fair Folk?”

“Half-sister,” I said as leaned back in my chair. “And the answer is: not once ever.”

“How?”

I set all four of the chair legs back on the ground and shrugged. “Some of the worst monsters are human.” There was moment of silence after that. Was I talking about my dad’s now ex-wife or was I talking about myself? I wasn’t entirely sure, myself.

“Never have I ever peed in the school pool.”

“Seriously, Goliath? That’s disgusting. Why would you do that?”

“It was one time!”

And the game went on.