Ashes and Bloodlines

Seventeen was supposed to be easy. Or at least tolerable.

Julianne never asked for a fairytale. Just a normal, boring senior year. One where she didn’t have to fake-smile through awkward dinners, flinch every time her phone buzzed, or pretend she didn’t see her parents’ marriage crumbling.

She only found out her dad had left when she saw a post-it note on the fridge. No ‘I love you,’ no hug to say goodbye. Sometimes, she wondered if her parents ever really cared about her. Even when they were present in her lives, she had always felt alone.

Her mom didn’t cry after he left. She just poured herself a glass of wine and muttered something about ‘freedom.’ And even after all that, she still pretended to care, to believe that everything was normal and everyone goes through those sorts of things at least once in their lifetime. She kept going to school, doing her homework, baking cookies like she used to when she was eight, hoping maybe the smell of chocolate chips and vanilla would glue the pieces of their lives together.

It didn’t.

And just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, she walked in on her boyfriend, Shane, in bed with her best friend_Brooklyn.

Brooklyn with the glossy smile and fake laugh who always ‘joked’ that if Shane and her ever broke up, she would be first in line.

Guess she wasn’t joking.

She just stood by the entrance. Frozen. Shane didn’t even bother pulling the sheets up. He had the nerve to look annoyed, like she had interrupted a movie while Brooklyn gasped and started crying. Of course, she always cried when she got caught. But Shane just shrugged and said, “You weren’t around much lately. We didn’t think you’d care.”

Julianne had managed to calm herself down and walk out the door, leaving them be. She knew what she was supposed to do, like every other girlfriend would do when they see their best friend having an affair with their boyfriend, but she already knew the relationship was falling apart, and that her friendship with Brooklyn was getting distant.

None of them ever bothered to ask her why she hasn’t been around. They just…moved on. That was two months ago.

Two long, lonely months.

People at school whispered about her after that. Of course, the story she heard were that she betrayed her friend or that she broke Shane’s heart. She knew it was a story made up by Brooklyn. She always does that to cover up for herself. People at school won’t stop bringing up new things about her and they even made it obvious by talking aloud and staring at her whenever she walks down the hallway or was in the cafeteria. And whenever something happens, they would always suspect her first. Like when they said she had hexed Brooklyn’s I*******m into glitching for three days straight.

In reality, she just faded.

She stopped answering texts, deleted her socials, and went to school like a ghost. She would sit at the back of the class, leave school earlier than the rest of the students. The teachers stopped calling on her and it was like she became invisible, which would have been fine until the weird stuff started happening.

Julianne always knew there was something else about her. Something that made people look twice. She knew, deep down, that she was different. But she wasn’t exactly sure how.

It started small. Flickering lights when she was angry. A crack spidering across the kitchen window when her mom screamed at her for not moving on already.

Then there was the dream.

It felt real. Too real.

She was standing in a forest of ash trees. Everything was grey; the sky, ground, even the wind. Then she looked down and saw something glow on her skin. A mark. Twisting vines circling her arm, pulsing like it had a heartbeat of its own.

Then a voice, whispering her name. It didn’t sound like her mom’s, or Shane’s, or Brooklyn’s. It was something distant. Something older. And it felt too real.

She woke up sweating, her bedsheets all tangled, and noticing something to be off in her room, she looked at the side to see her mirror cracked, from top to bottom. Just like the kitchen window.

Julianne knew everything happening was not normal, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe she was a freak. Why couldn’t she be perfect like Brooklyn or the other kids out there? She told herself there was nothing wrong with her, that it was stress or trauma. That she was grieving, mourning the life she’d lost.

But then the next morning, the coffee machine exploded. Flames, sparks, right in front of her in the kitchen and she just stood there, stunned, frozen. She barely touched the thing, only reached for it and boom! The fire alarm rang aloud and her mom came running in like she had set the house on fire on purpose. She stared at her, like she was a stranger, like she was scared.

At school also, after Math’s class, while everyone was chattering and laughing aloud, she suddenly became angry at herself, at everyone. First, her dad for leaving, then her mom for moving on so fast and not caring about her, then Shane for hooking up with her best friend, and then Brooklyn for betraying her. She clenched her fist hard on the table and couldn’t bear the loud laughs and chattering from her classmates.

Why was everyone happy except her?

And just then, she stormed her fist hard on the table and it cracked to pieces with a loud noise. Everyone stopped and raised their eyes. It was not just her table, but the rest of the tables and chairs up from her row that cracked.

Julianne could see their eyes, the way they looked at her. They were scared. And it was like they knew she was a freak—no, a monster. It was the same eyes her mom had when the coffee machine exploded.

Before they would accuse her, she grabbed her backpack and fled from the classroom, running down the hallway and sprinting out of the school gates, not stopping even when the security told her to. She ran all the way home, willing herself not to cry from everything that was happening to her.

She flung the door to her house opened and ran all the way to her room while her mom shouted after her. But she couldn’t care. She locked the door and shut all the windows, shutting her ears from her mom’s loud banging and yelling on her door and eventually shutting herself out from the world.

That night, when everything already went silent, and her mom was tired of yelling at her to come out of her room, Julianne wondered if there was any hope left for her. She can’t return to school after what she did and running off like that. How will she be able to face everyone again?

This time, she really wished she were invisible, or that things would return back to normal. She wished it was all a bad dream she hadn’t woken up from yet.

She picked up her phone and went online, browsing through schools that are a little distant from home but affordable, a place where no one would recognize her. Maybe this is where her savings would pay off, she thought. At least, before she starts worrying, she would have started a part-time job. Another chance to be away from home all day and from her mom’s tantrums.

She saw some that were close by and some that were really distant, but none of them was her choice. It was either one of her classmates lives close to the place or it was expensive. After scrolling endlessly, she came across one that neither had a description nor the f*e to pay. It was just a huge building, something like a boarding school, but somewhat modest. She clicked on the image and a message popped up.

Ready to Apply? It read.

She clicked on it anyway, hoping that a description about the school will come up or anything at all, but the page just stared at her, blank. She shoved the phone aside and stared upward at the ceiling as she laid flat in bed. It was just few hours till morning and she wished for nothing than to just disappear right there and then. If only her dad had left an address of where he moved to, or if he had not dumped the sim he uses, maybe she could still have a chance to escape this situation, but no. She was all on her own.

The next morning, as she stepped out of her room to get a glass of water from the kitchen, her mom showed up right in front of her with a frown and her phone screen flashed right to her face.

“What is this about?” she asked, putting the phone away. “What kind of trouble did you cause to make them suspend you for a week? And not to talk of the f*e I was asked to pay for destruction of properties.”

“A week?” Julianne thought. That was enough time for her to figure out what to do. At least, the gossip about her would have died down by the time she resumes. She couldn’t be happier the school gave her suspension on a time like this.

“I asked you a question!” her mom yelled at her.

Julianne hated her mom yelling. Each time, it stirred something in her and the end result is always not good. Not wanting to have a heated argument with her, she turned around and wanted to return to her room when her mom held her cloth from the back and shoved her hard to the back.

Julianne managed to pull herself together before she would stumble and fall hard to the ground. She turned to look at her mom with anger in her eyes and screamed back at her, “What do want from me?”

“That is no way to speak to your mother who puts food on your table and lets you live in her house rent-free!” her mom yelled back.

“Whose responsibility is that then? Mine? Did I bring myself to this world? Why have me when you can’t even take care of me?” she shot at her mother who raised her eyes at her. “It’s your fault that I got suspended from school. Maybe if you had cared more, things would not have turned out this way. It’s your fault that dad left too!”

Julianne could suddenly see the venom in her mom’s black eyes. She was raging too.

“Why do you have to destroy everything you touch? I never should have taken you in!” her mom screamed.

“What are you even talking about?!”

“You are not mine, never have been. I took you in. Do you understand? Out of kindness. It would be a shame if you were my real daughter.”

“Do you even hear yourself right now?”

But her mom’s eyes held deep rage in it, almost like murder. “Why do you have to take everything away? You have never been good luck. It’s your fault that your dad left, not mine. He was finally free from your bad luck and left me alone to deal with you. I wish I never took you in. I wish you’d just disappear and never come back!”

As soon as she said those words, Julianne felt her mom’s hands on her neck, choking her in death’s grip. Her eyes flew wide open and she struggled with her until she couldn’t take it anymore. She felt fury within her, with all the things her mother had spilled to her, and her rage spread to other parts of her body. Then she started to feel hot, very hot, and then the mark she had seen in her dream appeared on her skin, glowing and circling through her hand.

Her mom’s grip suddenly loosened and Julianne saw her step back in fear. There was the smell of meat burning and it was only when her mom raised her hand that she knew what had just happened.

A scream followed and her mom dashed straight into the kitchen, yelling at the top of her lungs. “You demon forsaken child! What have you done to me?! Aaarghhh!”

Julianne couldn’t wrap her head around what just happened. She didn’t check on her mom or wait for her to walk out of the kitchen. She just stormed out of the house and ran all the way down the street and wherever her legs would take her. She soon got tired of running and knowing there was nowhere to go, she stopped and caught the tear that had managed to slip from her right eye.

The dream… It was real. Everything wasn’t making sense anymore. Who is she, really? If her mom claims she is not her real mother and just took her in, and her dad left because he was tired of her bad luck, then, who are her real parents’ and why did they abandon her?

Why does everything have to be worse, all the time?

As she was there wondering, her phone buzzed in her pocket and she took it out to see an email notification. She clicked on it and it read;

“Congratulations on being accepted to Blackthorn Academy!

Hi Julianne Ashwynd,

We’ve collected your name and address from the website.

The bus to Blackthorn leaves in two days. Please find your way to any bus stand and be there before 8 am.

All details will be passed on by Headmistress Eldryn when you arrive.

We look forward to serving you our best in our prestigious school.

Best regards!”

Julianne read the email all over again and blinked twice. Was this some sort of prank? She wondered who would have sent such an email that looks so spam-like. She remembered seeing the name ‘Blackthorn’ while she was browsing through schools, but there was no information on it. Even now, the email didn’t give her all the information she needed. Also, how did they get her email or name and address from the website? Could it be possible that someone perhaps, knew the situation she was in and decided to help from the shadows? Could it be her dad? Or was it her biological parents’?

Julianne thought hard but couldn’t come up with a definite answer. She glanced at the email one last time before pushing her phone back into her pocket. The only thing she could believe was her name gotten correctly and the name of the headmistress of the school.

Maybe this was a chance the universe gave her after all.