#writingaspen

There he was. Marvin Turner, there were only three in the book, and only one had the title of entertainer next to them. Tentatively, he called the number, wanting to be sure it was him.

“Hello, who is it?”

“Are you Marvin the Magnificent?”

“Yes, of course I am, do you want to book me or are you wasting my time?” Anti hung up. He had found them, he had found Maya!

He wrote the address down, and almost ran out of the house then and there, until he remembered that there was going to be five against one, possibly six depending on what they had done to Maya. He hoped she was okay, that they hadn’t hurt her too badly, but knowing his brothers, that wasn’t a possibility. He just had to be ready to deal with whatever they had done to her when she got home.

In another place, exactly while Anti was hoping that Maya would come out of this with only mild trauma, she was huddled in her wardrobe, hiding from a fuming Henrik who was tearing through the house trying to find her. She had never seen him that angry before, and she was terrified that he would break her like the bottle of pills she had knocked onto the floor.

“Maya, come out here!” His footsteps got louder, and she knew he was in her bedroom.

“Where is she?” Kenna yelped as he grabbed her hair, pulling her over to the wall where he wrapped his hands around her neck.

“I.. I don’t… I—”

“Stop.” Kenna’s choked lie was broken by Maya, whispering just loud enough to be heard. Immediately Henrik dropped his grip on Kenna’s neck, letting her drop to the ground to regain her breath, and stormed over to the wardrobe, almost ripping the door off as he opened it.

“And what are you doing in here little duck?”

Any bravery Maya had displayed to protect Kenna instantly disappeared when faced with Henrik, and as such she couldn’t bring herself to speak.

“Come.” Henrik pulled Maya out of the closet, and dragged her through to his lab; she was terrified of resisting, but even more scared of what was about to happen, so she pulled back, trying to get away from him.

“Don’t fight me and this will be much easier.” The muttered words sent a shiver down Maya’s spine. Whatever he was going to do was not going to be easy, no matter how submissive she was.

They got to the lab, and Henrik pointed at the smashed bottle on the floor.

“These are expensive. Tidy up your mess.” Maya slowly got down onto her knees, but he pushed her forward, her hands landing in the pile of smashed glass. Whimpering, she looked at the glass now embedded into her palms.

“Tidy up.” He kicked her, forcing her to continue to clean despite her injuries.

When she was done, he examined the pills that were now in a new bottle.

“This won’t do, they’re bloody. You have ruined them, you stupid girl.” He grabbed the back of her shirt, dragging her back to her feet.

“You shall pay for this.” Something within Maya clicked. This was it. A certain resignation overwhelmed her; this was the end of her. There was no point in submission now, whatever she did would lead to her death, so why not go out fighting.

Screaming, she began to pull against Henrik, trying to both escape him and get close enough to him so that she could push him away. She wanted to leave a mark, anything that would remind them of what they did to her. Not that they would care, she had learned of their ways, how many deaths they caused or allowed, all for money or fame. 

“Stop fighting!” Henrik seemed to become stronger the more Maya fought.

“Not until you kill me, you fucking bastard! Let me go!” She still wouldn’t give up, even when every remaining survival instinct she had was screaming at her to make it easy. And that’s when it happened.

For the first time since she joined the family; she glitched. Out of his grip, and behind him. But her surprise outweighed his, and he recovered quicker, grabbing a scalpel from his desk and shoving it into Maya’s stomach.

She didn’t scream, no sound was formed at all, just a look of pain and fear on her face. Henrik pulled it out, taking advantage of her dazed state, shoving it into her stomach again and again, until she was collapsing on the floor.

Marvin, who was the only other one home, had heard the sudden lack of commotion and had come to see what was happening. When he saw Maya crumpled on the floor, pouring blood, he sighed. 

“Again Henrik? Really? You better be able to fix her, or Chase will murder you and make sure you don’t come back.”

And then he left.

...

Oh my god I love this chapter so much and I have no idea why. Tbh, my chapter notes are fricken hilarious

Anti finds the address Henrik goes stab crazy on Maya Maya just straight up fucking dies Marvin is a sassy bitch

So yeah, one of my favourite chapters even though it is pretty short. Love you guys so much and I look forward to seeing your reactions. reblogs appreciated!

~A xx

“You do not get off that easy Henrik, you know this. I don’t care that you fixed her, if you hadn’t, we would have lost the only reason that Anti is coming here.”

“Yes, yes I understand. Get it over with.” Everyone stood, and formed a line around Henrik. Jackie, the eldest, threw the first punch, before leaving to sit down again.

The order followed down their ages, Marvin, Chase then finally Jameson. As Jameson sat back down, Henrik left the room, going to find some food before he went to bed. He didn’t care if Maya woke, or even if she was in pain: it was her fault this had happened.

Surprisingly, Chase had given in to Kenna’s pleas, and allowed her to see Maya. Maya had been half awake when Kenna had entered, and she had made sure to let her know that if she needed anything, to wake her. Not that she slept. She spent the whole night too scared to even doze. Every night she had been there had been plagued with nightmares, and Maya holding her was the only thing that would help to ward them off. But now, with Maya in the hospital bed, she couldn’t hold her, and Kenna couldn’t sleep for nightmares. 

As well as this, Maya woke frequently in the night, almost like a clock, every three hours when one set of her painkillers had worn off. Really she should have been on a drip, but Kenna didn’t want to say anything, knowing that Henrik had done this to her. So, when Maya woke her up, she would give her painkillers, and help her get back to sleep, often clutching her hand.

Kenna woke up in bed, Maya nowhere to be found. It took her a moment before she remembered that she was in the hospital. But she had been there with her, who had moved her? She didn’t remember falling asleep, but maybe she had. She glanced at the clock, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. It was almost midday! She jumped out of bed, swapping her pyjamas for clothes and rushed to the door. Wait, she had never put pyjamas on last night. A shudder ran through her as she thought of one of Maya’s uncles changing her, but she tried to suppress it; she wanted to get back to Maya. She turned the door handle and tugged, but it wouldn’t budge. Pulling harder, she started to panic. Someone had locked her in! 

“Let me out!” She banged on the door, making as much noise as she could. Eventually it opened, a tired looking Marvin on the other side.

“Look, just shut up okay. Nobody got any sleep last night, just because you did, doesn’t mean you can start causing a scene.”

“I…” Marvin’s abruptness startled her somewhat. “I just want to see May.”

“Later, okay? She’s asleep and we want her to stay that way; she kicked up a real fuss after you went to bed, bust all her stitches, and didn’t let any of us sleep. She needs to calm down on her own.”

“Okay.” Kenna went to move around Marvin and out of the room, but he continued to block the door. “Can I get some breakfast?” 

“No, to make sure you don’t disturb her, we’re going to keep you here today. We’ll bring you food when we eat, but that’s it.” Before Kenna could argue, Marvin had shut the door, and she heard the lock click. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the uncles were sat in the kitchen, discussing Maya. 

“We know Anti is coming; he could show up any second, so we need Maya to be ready.” Jameson said. “And right now, she isn’t.” Everyone nodded.

“There is nothing more I can do for her, it will take time for her to heal.” Henrik spoke, defensive over his earlier outburst.

“We know, but Anti can’t show up with her like this, otherwise he could just take her away. We need her on her feet and fighting for us.” Now Chase was almost yelling: they didn’t understand the importance of this.

“Look,” Jackie spoke, “I’ll talk to Marvin, see if he can help speed up the process and what the cost would be.”

“Good, go and do that, sooner rather than later.” Jackie stood from the table, and left to find Marvin.

“Hey Marvin,” Jackie waved awkwardly as he walked towards him.

“What do you want?”

“Well, Anti is going to be here by the end of the week, and Maya isn’t going to be ready by then. We were wondering if you could maybe sort that for us?” He laughed nervously.

“You want me to heal her? Is she still that bad?”

“Yeah, she’s still completely out of it. Henrik said she died twice when he tried to save her. She’s really lucky to be alive, but we need her fighting in a few days.”

“It’s a powerful spell, you know, so it will be costly.”

“And what will it cost?”

“A life. An animal should do, like a dog or a cat. On second thoughts, best keep it a dog.”

“How soon can you do it?” Jackie was hesitant, the idea of killing a dog mildly upsetting him. “How soon can you get me a dog?” Marvin smirked, and Jackie left.

A few hours later Jackie returned, half dragging a dog behind him. It was so old it could barely walk, and the shelter had been days away from putting it down.

“So this is what you brought me?” Marvin smirked.

“Look, it was going to get put down in a few days anyway, and it’s a living breathing dog, so it will work, right? What’s the difference?”

“Nothing, nothing at all. It’s just strange seeing you so compassionate.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Marvin cut off his laughter, trying to keep a straight face as Jackie covered the dog’s ears and kissed it’s head.

“Alright, help me get him up the stairs and I’ll leave you alone.”

The spell started, and Marvin took some of the blood in his hands, lifting it above a candle before letting it drip into the flame. He muttered some words, drawing symbols, before the dog disappeared, and he felt a surge of power rush through him. It wouldn’t last long, these forces were out for what they could get. He rushed through to Maya’s bedside, and chanted some more words, watching as the pallor of her face softened, before letting Henrik check that the wounds were fully healed. They were.

Eventually, over dinner, she decided to address these problems. Over her time with her uncles she had learnt how to bring up conversations in a way that would be more likely to get accepted, and she had managed to go out—with accompaniment—with her method.

Conversation at the table had died down a few minutes after everybody had started eating. Maya had taken Jackie’s turn on the rota to sweeten everyone up, both because she was doing extra work and everybody loved her food.

“I was thinking,” everyone’s attention turned to her, “am I not a burden on all of you, hanging around the house all day?” She watched the mix of nodding and shaking heads. “And, I don’t want to be a burden on you, so I was thinking that I could maybe go back to school. It would get me out of the way, and I’ve kind of missed my friends.” Jameson chuckled as he held his hand out and Henrik scowled as he put his own on top of it. Chase, however, was the first to speak.

“Now, little duck, don’t think we don’t appreciate the sentiment, but you could never be a burden.”

Marvin continued. “Look at me, little duck, look me in the eyes. Now, why ever would you want to go back to school?” Maya looked Marvin in the eye, a lie queued in her head, but she couldn’t release it. It was as if her brain had gone foggy; she couldn’t think for herself.

“So I can see Kenna.” Marvin looked proudly around the table, and Maya, having realised what she said, clamped her hand over her mouth.

“And who is Kenna?” There was no magic involved this time, but the question itself sent Maya into a flat spin. Who is Kenna? A friend? But aren’t they more than that, or did that come to a close when she missed their date and then ghosted her for a month? Was she even a friend anymore?

“Little duck, we’re waiting.” Marvin prompted, his eyes growing steadily brighter, a warning sign of the ticking clock.

“She’s the class hamster.” Internally, she facepalmed.

“Why the fuck do you want to see the class hamster?!” It wasn’t said to be funny, but everyone seemed to find it so, and laughter separated both Jackie and Maya from the group.

“Because I love her.” It wasn’t entirely untrue: Maya did love Kenna, in whatever way. However, Maya was very much aware how deep this lie was getting, and how badly it could end for her.

“Okay, but if you want a pet, we can get you a pet. Hamster, guinea pig, mouse,” Marvin’s eyes lit up, “cat, dog, whatever you want, you can have it. But you’re not going back to school. End of story.” Everyone turned back to their food, and the table was silent again.

Maya’s mind, on the other hand, was buzzing with ideas. Maybe, if she got a dog, she would be let out of the house to walk it, and then she could go to Kenna’s house under the pretense of taking it on a long walk.

After she had cleared the dishes, and everyone had dispersed, Maya ran through the house, trying to find Chase. She had learnt that if she wanted something, he was the one to go to; he was the head of the family, unofficially. 

Eventually, she found him in his studio, with the door open. Her gentle knock on the door turned his head towards her, and he grinned widely, prompting her to come in. 

“What’s up, little duck?”

“Well, I was thinking… about what you said at dinner… and, well, I was wondering if...” she stumbled over her words, her hands wringing in front of her stomach.

“What animal do you want?” Chase interrupted, certain of what she was there for.

“That’s not exactly what I was wanting, I was more wondering if I could maybe have a phone?”

“And what exactly would you want a phone for?” Was this a challenge? Maya could never tell with Chase.

“So I could talk to my friend. I miss her. I miss her a lot.” Maya looked at the floor.

“And is this friend called Kenna, by any chance?” Maya nodded, awaiting a blow.

“Why would you lie to us little duck? Do you not trust us?” Putting her hands up defensively, Maya took a step back, shaking her head.

“No, no it’s not that at all, it’s just, things are complicated between us. I don’t really know what we are anymore.” Why was she being so truthful? Now Chase knew all about her relationship with Kenna. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Whilst she was chastising herself internally, she didn’t notice that Chase took a step forward, closing the safety gap that she had opened between them.

“We can get you a dog if you want. We’ll go choose one tomorrow.” The change of subject took Maya by surprise, but she took it as a blessing.

Little did she know it was truthfully a curse.

Maya was sent to bed early that night, being told she looked exhausted. Once she had left, Chase assembled everyone else, a plan in his head.

“Tomorrow, I am going to take Maya out somewhere. Whilst I am out with her, Jackie and Henrik, you are going to find this Kenna girl, and bring her back to the house. Maya gets a present tomorrow.” Jameson and Marvin looked puzzled, as if hurt that they had been left out of the plan.

“Jameson, Marvin, don’t look so upset, you have the best job of all. You get to tell Anti that we have his daughter. Take as much creative liberty as you want, that goes for all of you, as long as we get the girl and he knows. By the end of the week we will be rid of that let-down of a brother, one way or another.”

School went by in a blur, lessons dragging and smudging together, until it was almost the end of the day. By now, Eve’s head was pounding, her blood felt like gum in her veins, and having had two nosebleeds already, Virgil finally convinced her to go to the school nurse. Standing up to leave the classroom, the treacle blood rushed to her head, and before she could move away from her table, she was crumpling to the floor.

A few hours and scans later, Eve woke up in a hospital bed. Her parents by her side, a strong unit that could outlast anything. 

“Evie!” Her mum, Maisy, exclaimed, shuffling towards her daughter and squeezing her hand tightly. “How are you feeling?”

“Foggy...” She tried to lift her arm to rub at her heavy eyes, but it felt like lead. “What happened mum?”

“You passed out at school baby. They had to call an ambulance because you wouldn’t wake up. They took some blood tests and scans to find out what’s wrong, but you’ll get through it because you’re our strong and beautiful baby girl.” She planted a gentle kiss on Eve’s forehead before moving back to her husband. 

“The doctors wanted to know when you woke up, they’ll be here soon to explain everything.” David, Eve’s dad, sat down next to Maisy, and everything felt peaceful. Until the doctor came in.

“Hi Evangeline, I’m doctor Granger. How are you feeling?” Despite being a tall man, doctor Granger wasn’t imposing, and he stood semi-awkwardly inside the door.

“Icky,” Eve half laughed, “and heavy.”

He scribbled it down on a clipboard that was folded inside the tray at the foot of Eve’s bed. “I’m sorry to hear that Eve. I’m also sorry that right now I don’t have a lot of answers for you either. Your x-ray shows some swelling in your chest, and you have some abnormalities in your blood test results, so I have referred you to a haematologist who will be able to get to the bottom of the problem for you.” He smiled kindly. “They should be here to see you by tomorrow, but in the meantime we are going to keep you in overnight if that is okay, just so we can keep an eye on you. Great! I hope to see you fighting fit tomorrow ready for discharge.” Placing the file back in its place, doctor Granger left.

“What does he mean? Why can’t I go home?”

“I don’t know kiddo,” David comforted, “But we’ll stay with you all night.”

“We will, but I’ll also go home and pick you some bits for the night. Is there anything you want?” Maisy stood.

“Can you bring me my bear?” 

“Of course sweetie. If there’s anything else you think of, let your dad know and he’ll text me. I’ll be back soon. I love you so much.” Another kiss on Eve’s forehead and Maisy left. Whilst she was gone the haematologist came to see Eve.

“Hi Eve, I’m doctor Brown, but you can call me Amy. I’m going to be your haematologist, so I’ll be investigating the abnormalities that appeared to get to the bottom of what made you pass out today. If you would like, I can go over in a bit more detail what we found that we want to investigate?” David nodded, Eve starting to drift asleep. Noticing, Amy started to talk to David instead.

“Okay, so the x-ray returned that there was some swelling around her chest and neck, specifically where we would consider her lymph nodes. This in itself isn’t a huge worry, but there was also a deficiency of red blood cells in her sample. Again, on its own this wouldn’t be anything to worry about, but because of her age, we just want to rule out some more severe possibilities. At this point I would say it is too early to be worrying too much.” She smiled reassuringly. 

“What are these possibilities?”

“Well, mainly cancer. The symptoms demonstrated are parallel to those of a specific form of leukemia, but it is extremely rare, so it’s most likely no cause for concern.”

“Okay...” David was slightly in shock. “What’s the course of action now, then? There’ll be more tests?” Amy nodded.

“Yes, in the morning, I’ll be back to talk it over again with Eve and Maisy as well, answer any questions they have, or that you may have thought of, and I’ll take a sample of bone marrow from her hip before she is discharged. I understand that you are going to be worried, but try not to, as of now there is no real evidence that it is leukemia, we just want to rule it out as quickly as possible.” Another friendly smile before she left David and Eve alone. Maisy returned to a sleeping Eve and a crying David.

Amy returned the next day to take the sample of bone marrow, which she did quickly, and she took another sample of blood for further analysis. Then she was gone again. And then came dr Granger, who discharged Eve from the hospital, with a time arranged for when her test results would be back so they could be expecting a phone call.

Eve continued to bounce through the days, half maintaining her usual energy. It was her phone that was meant to get the call, so all day she carried around the note, brandishing it to each teacher at the start of the lesson. And eventually, at eleven forty seven AM, it rang in the middle of french. Dashing out of the classroom, Eve answered it.

“Good morning, is this Evangeline Miller?”

“Yep, that’s me.”

“Hi there Eve, it’s Amy Brown. I’ve got your test results back today. If it isn’t too much trouble, I would like to talk them over with you in person, if your parents could bring you through?” Why couldn’t she just say it over the phone? Didn’t that mean something was wrong? If everything was okay why would she have more to say?

“Yeah, yeah they’ll bring me. What time?”

“As soon as possible, if that’s okay?” Something was definitely wrong if she was urgent.

“Yep, I’ll be there soon. Thank you.” The line buzzed silent, until it rang. Her mum would be able to help. 

“Mum?” A lump had formed in Eve’s throat.

“Evie baby, what’s the matter?”

“It’s the doctor, she wants to speak in person, asap. Can you pick me up?”

“Of course, I’ll be there in ten.” Once again the phone went dead, leaving Eve in the silence of the corridor. She was going to have to go back into the class eventually. Nobody knew, but she was still scared of being asked what was wrong. But it was barely a few minutes until her mum would be here, and she didn't want to keep her waiting, so she balled up the lump in her throat and pushed it into her stomach, trying to imagine it into courage. She had a feeling she was going to need a lot of that. In the classroom, she packed up her things, earning strange looks from her peers and a sympathetic glance from her teacher, who wandered over while the class was working in its groups. 

“Is everything okay Eve?”

“Peachy, I just need to go.” She walked off, not wanting sympathy as if she was already dying. There was still a chance she wasn’t.

Amy met them at the hospital reception, walking them to a private consultation room. It was cramped with four people in there, but Eve felt empty enough to make up for it.

“Okay, the reason I wanted to give you your results face to face Eve is because I didn’t want you panicking.” Eve looked at the paper on the desk, but she couldn’t read upside down. “The sample of bone marrow came back, and it revealed cancerous cells. From the bone marrow and the blood sample, we’ve confirmed that you do have acute lymphoblastic leukemia.” Everything froze, silent and cold. Eve heard her parents stop breathing, she felt the tears welling in her mum’s eyes and the fear in her dad’s mind. But she felt nothing.

“So what does that mean? Is there a treatment?” Maisy was panicking, so much for that plan.

“Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of blood cancer, and it’s quite rare, that makes white blood cells enter the blood before they are ready, taking up space for the rest of the important bits of your blood. But just because it is rare doesn’t mean it is terminal. We have caught it early enough for it to be treatable; the majority of patients live a healthy life for at least five years. We’ll need to take some more tests to confirm the best route of treatment for you, but it will likely be based on chemotherapy and blood transfusions until we can get it into remission.”

“Okay." 

"How long until treatment starts?” More panic. Eve wished that they would stop panicking.

“I’ll take the samples I need now, and then treatment should start within a week. If you would like, Eve, I can connect you with some charities and sources of information that should help you to learn more about what you’re going through?”

“No thank you, not right now. I think I just need to let it sink in. Thanks though. Can we just get the samples taken so I can go back to school? I have drama this afternoon.” It was the most she had spoken, and it snapped right out of her.

“Of course, right this way.”

The sample was taken, and Eve returned back to school just after the start of drama. 

“Sorry I’m late.” She dumped her bag in the corner and joined the circle sat on the floor. 

“No worries Eve. As I was saying, today we are learning about emotion memory and context. Does anybody know what emotion memory is?” A few people put their hand up, and somebody answered, but Eve didn’t pay attention to who. Maybe she didn’t have emotions, that was why she was so calm about all of this.

“Eve!” She looked up to see everyone on their feet in pairs working. She hadn’t even heard the assignment. 

“Sorry sir, what are we doing?” She climbed to her feet, trying to muster the amount of energy she normally had. 

“Right now Eve, you and me are going to have a little chat.” He walked up the few steps to the back row of seating, watching the students pretend to break up and give bad news. “What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing…” That was a lie. “I’m fine.”

“Is it a school thing?” She shook her head. “A home thing?” She shrugged. How could she even begin to categorise what kind of thing was making her upset.

“Is it a thing that a coffee would help?” She shook her head. At least for now, a coffee and a chat sounded like the worst thing in the world. While Eve waited for Mr Derbyshire to think of anything else to offer, she thought about what was happening at home. Were her mum and dad crying? Had they gone back to work, trying to ignore it? Were they sitting with coffee trying to figure out how to tell people close to them that their daughter had cancer and it might be terminal? She didn’t know.