“He’s no love one!” Ellen again interrupted with. “He killed my brothers and sister.”
“That was a tragic accident, Ellen, and I’m truly sorry for what had happened,” Mitchell told her.
“Save your remorse for Judgment Day!” Ellen shot at him.
“Yes, well, according to you I’ve been judged and found guilty,” Mitchell said.
“You are guilty, you prat!” Ellen retorted.
“Ellen!” Harris uttered to get her attention. When Ellen looked, he continued with, “Ellen, you can be the better person here.” He then glanced towards the staring clergyman and mourners. “And at the moment your brother’s friends are seeing you as not being the better person.”
Ellen glanced back at the clergyman and mourners for only a second before hissing at Mitchell, “I will never forgive you! Never!”
“And yet I know you will need me at some point,” Mitchell assured her.
“You have nothing…” Ellen got out before thinking of something that she wanted to know.
When Ellen stopped talking, Mitchell chuckled. “See, there’s something you want… already.”
“All I want is an honest answer from you,” Ellen hissed. Mitchell just gave her a curious look. “What do you know about our family’s Legacy?”
“Our family’s Legacy?” Mitchell echoed in a confused tone.
“That’s actually the second time I’d heard those three words together like that,” Brandon added.
Ellen crossed her arms before asking him, “And when was the first time?”
“When your father and I…” Brandon stopped talking when he saw Ellen cringing as if his chosen words had stabbed her through the heart. “When Mitchell and I were seven, I found an old letter hidden inside the lining of our grandpa’s old briefcase and I took it to my mom. She read it aloud.”
When Brandon stopped talking, Ellen asked, “Can you remember what she read?”
“Hold on,” Brandon said as he was trying to remember. After a brief moment he continued with, “Our family’s Legacy is among the ‘stars’ of Saint Louis.”
“What does that mean?” Ellen quickly asked.
“Don’t know, but Saint Louis, Missouri is where our dad and his parents were born,” Brandon said.
“So I have relatives living in Saint Louis?” Ellen questioned.
“Not living ones,” Mitchell corrected. Ellen shot him a curious look. “Our grandpa… this is ridiculous. Your great-grandpa had died just after your Uncle Brandon and I turned seven.” Ellen just stared resentfully at Mitchell as he continued with, “But before that, I have a memory of him telling me that your great-grandma and her family were killed—all of them burned alive—just before your great-grandpa and grandpa moved here to Kansas City.”
Ellen and the others were suddenly drawn to the clergyman and the mourners when the clergyman loudly cleared his throat. Once the clergyman had everyone’s attention, he continued with, “Ms. Anderson… and friends. Should I continue?”
Ellen glanced at Mitchell and back at the clergyman before nodding. Ellen then casually walked back to join the mourners. The others followed suit.
Once everyone was focused on the clergyman again he resumed his services.
The funeral services lasted for another twenty minutes, and once it ended, each mourner gave Ellen, Harris, Shannon and Avery his or her condolences for their loss before he or she walked towards his or her car to leave.
Once everyone had left except for Ellen, Harris, Allyson, Shannon, Avery, Jane, Mitchell and Brandon, Mitchell and Brandon stepped closer to Ellen and the others.
Mitchell saw the hatred in Ellen’s eyes towards him as he approached her. Before Ellen could comment on anything, Mitchell questioned, “You really hate me, don’t you?” Ellen scowled at him while crossing her arms as a response. “I’ve made mistakes.” Ellen’s scowl deepened as she slightly tilted her head. “Okay, obviously getting your brothers and sister killed was the worst mistake anyone could make.” When Ellen just stood while staring at him as if he had lost his mind, Mitchell continued with, “Was asking me about our family’s Legacy the only thing you needed from me?”
Ellen thought for a second before asking, “How did you learn about Michael’s funeral?”
“Arthur Bennett went to high school with me and your Uncle Brandon,” Mitchell said. “He called me with the details.”
Ellen slightly grunted in disgust before saying, “Figures.”
“May I call you Mitchell?” Jane requested.
“That is my name,” Mitchell simply said.
“Okay, well, this is obviously none of my business, Mitchell, but I’m curious to know why you and your father kidnapped your children sixteen… seventeen years ago,” Jane said.
“It began with Megan… Ella’s mother kicking me out,” Mitchell was only able to get out.
“Stop calling me by that acronym nickname,” she hissed.
“Your initials create the name ‘Ella’?” Brandon asked.
“E-L-A, Ellen Louise Anderson,” she replied.
“You were saying,” Jane prompted for Mitchell to continue.
“Anyway, I should’ve known then that Megan was pregnant when she kicked me out,” Mitchell began. Ellen scowled confusingly at Mitchell. “Don’t get me wrong, El... Ellen. Your mom was a great woman, but I had a knack of getting under her skin, and when she was pregnant, she couldn’t stand to be around me.
“Anyway, I went to my dad’s place to let Megan calm down, and when I got there, I met my dad’s new neighbor who happened to have been a psychic. The guy took one look at me and rattled off some facts about my life, and the fact that particular birds are drawn around where Megan and I live had frightened him. He strongly felt that those birds around my house were a bad omen and that my kids were in mortal danger.
“Obviously the psychic’s warning had frightened the hell out of me, and when my dad and I went to warn Megan, Megan thought that my dad and I had lost our minds. I was desperate to keep my children safe, so when Megan refused to heed the psychic’s warning, my dad and I left with the kids… and I’m guessing that you know the rest from there.”
“Now tell them what you had told me when I had visited you in prison,” Ellen prompted. Mitchell gave Ellen a curious look. “How you would get under Mom’s skin.”
“I’m not the same person I was back then, Ellen,” Mitchell claimed.
“If you don’t tell them, I will,” Ellen challenged.
Mitchell sighed before saying, “I lied to Megan about my job and where I would go when I left her sight.”
“That’s sugarcoating things,” Ellen accused. “Now tell them the non-sugarcoated version.”
Mitchell stared unemotionally at Ellen before saying, “I told Megan that I clean things for a living… which wasn’t exactly a lie because I did clean things. My father and I cleaned up after Clayton Seawall…”
“Clayton Seawall?” Jane questioned quickly. “The drug lord-slash-weapons dealer who went to prison several years back?”
“Slash-gangster-slash-murderer,” Ellen added.
“He wasn’t a gangster per se, but yes,” Mitchell said. “He was who I had worked for, and although I had never deliberately killed anyone, my job consisted of disposing of bodies and making sure that those bodies were never found. When my kids were killed, the DA offered me a plea bargain. If I testify against Clayton Seawall and tell where I had disposed of the bodies, I would get an extremely reduced sentence, and that’s just what I did. I did thirteen years in prison. I’m now out and I have a legitimate job, working in a warehouse in Independence, Missouri.”
Ellen wrinkled her nose while rhetorically asking, “Ew, you live that close to me?”
“If you give me half of a chance, Ellen, I can help you,” Mitchell assured her.
“How can you help me?” Ellen quickly asked.
“You’re apparently looking for something that is called ‘our family’s Legacy’. I don’t know w
here it is or what it is, but I can check the records and find out where in Saint Louis my grandparents… your great-grandparents were living while they were alive.”
“I can do that myself,” Ellen pointed out.
“Do you even know the names to your grandparents and great-grandparents?” Mitchell asked.
“It shouldn’t be difficult to look up,” Ellen said.
“I know their names, Ellen,” Mitchell pointed out.
“I’m happy for you,” Ellen retorted.
“I can help you, Ellen,” Mitchell insisted.
“I don’t want anything from you or from your brother,” Ellen quickly said.
“You would rather take the long road than come to me for the answer?” Mitchell questioned.
“I would climb Mount Everest and ask Guru before I’ll ask you for anything, and I have no current plans to climb Mount Everest,” Ellen retorted.
“You’re just as stubborn as your mother.” When Ellen just stared apathetically at him, he sighed before he continued with, “Fine; you win. I’ll leave you be. But before I leave, here’s the information you’ll need.” Ellen just gave him a curious look. “Felix and Gloria Anderson are your great-grandparents from Saint Louis. Your other great-grandparents are Aaron and Katie Clancy—those two are from here. Alexander and Holly Anderson are your grandparents’ names, and of course you know my name.” After hearing the names, Ellen continued to stare apathetically at him. After a second of waiting for a response, Mitchell nodded. “Right. Bye, Ellen.”
Again when Ellen didn’t respond after a second of waiting, Mitchell turned and walked away into the cemetery without saying another word.
“Bye,” Brandon told everyone.
“Bye,” Jane replied. Everyone else, except for Ellen, gave him either a slight wave or a nod. Ellen just stared indifferently at him.
Brandon slightly nodded before he turned and hurried to catch up to Mitchell.
When Ellen looked at Harris, he told her, “As to how tightly you can hold on to grudges, remind me not to offend you.”
“I’m not forgiving him for what he had done,” Ellen quickly retorted.
“He’s obviously filled with remorse and regret, and most likely, he hasn’t had a good night sleep since it had happened…” Harris was only able to get out.
“Good!” Ellen interrupted with. “He doesn’t deserve to have a moment of peace over his actions.”
“Ellen!” Jane uttered to grab her attention. When Ellen looked, she continued with, “A renowned psychic had just told me that Sonya is going to die if she doesn’t leave that hospital right this moment.”
“That’s not funny!” Ellen shot at her.
“You’re right, it’s not funny,” Jane quickly agreed. “But what would be your honest reactions if it was true?”
Ellen stared annoyingly at Jane for a moment before saying, “I don’t know.”
“I believe you do know,” Jane accused. “I believe you would do what it took to keep Sonya safe. I believe you would do something similar to what your father had done.”
“I’m nothing like my father,” Ellen insisted.
“Putting your father’s criminal activities to the side, I truly believe that your father thought that he was doing the right thing for your brothers and sisters at the time,” Avery told Ellen.
“Sister,” Ellen corrected. “I would’ve had only one sister and four brothers.”
“Yes, well, I can understand your unwillingness to forgive your father…”
When Avery paused, Ellen said, “I feel a ‘but’ coming.”
Avery grinned before continuing with, “But harboring the amount of contempt that you seem to have for your father is unhealthy for you and the people around you. And I may be just a partisan to Merlin’s descendants, but I believe it would be dangerous for you to learn witchcraft as long as you are harboring those feelings.”
“Avery’s right,” Shannon agreed.
“I wouldn’t cast a hex on my father,” Ellen insisted. When she received incredulous looks from a few of them she continued with, “Okay, I might think that he deserves to be mentally tormented with guilt for what he had done, but I wouldn’t cast the spell to make it happen.”
“You’re not grasping the concept of magic,” Shannon told her. Ellen gave her a confused look. “You don’t have to cast a spell to put a hex on someone. With wizards and powerful witches just his or her ill feelings towards someone would be enough to unintentionally harm someone with magic, and the person unintentionally harmed doesn’t have to be the one who he or she feels contempt for.”
“So my feelings towards my father could harm Sonya… or make her sick?” Ellen questioned.
“It could,” Shannon told her. “Before you begin to learn witchcraft, you need to find it in your heart to let go of your ill feelings towards your father; otherwise the witchcraft that you want to learn that would protect Sonya could unintentionally harm her.”
Ellen sighed before grumbling out, “Fine, I’ll play nice with him for now on… if he would ever come back around, but I’m not promising more than that.”
“It’s a start,” Allyson said with a pleasant grin. Ellen just responded with a grin.
“Everyone had left the cemetery; so we should do the same,” Avery suggested.
“Let’s go,” Shannon said while gesturing towards the parked cars.
Before the group was able to get too far into the cemetery, Ellen announced, “I’m going to Saint Louis.”
“And how are you going to get there?” Allyson was the first one to ask. “You don’t have a car or a driver’s license.”
“A bus to Saint Louis shouldn’t cost all that much or take that long, and I still have a couple of thousand in the bank from when my mom’s life insurance policy had paid out,” Ellen pointed out.
“You shouldn’t be gallivanting across the country…” Avery was only able to get out.
“Saint Louis isn’t across the country,” Ellen interrupted with. “It’s not even out of state and I’m going.”
“It is on the very opposite end of the state and about four hours away,” Jane pointed out. “And a sixteen-year-old shouldn’t be wandering that far alone.”
“I’m going to Saint Louis,” Ellen insisted.
“You are a stubborn person when your mind’s made up,” Harris told her.
“I’m going to Saint Louis,” Ellen repeated in an unyielding tone.
“Yes, I believe you, and if you hold off a night, you and I can drive there first thing in the morning,” Harris told her.
Ellen gave him a look as if to ask, ‘okay, what’s the catch?’
“I’m not trying to trick you or talk you out of it, so don’t look at me like that,” Harris told her. “And if we leave around seven in the morning we can get there at least by noon.”
Ellen grinned before saying, “Thank you.”
Harris nodded with a grin before saying, “You’re welcome.”
“Being that Mike was my son-in-law, I knew him,” Shannon began. “But, Ellen, what were the names to your other siblings?”
“Oldest to youngest, their names were Mike, John, Christian, Rebecca and Andrew,” Ellen said. “Mike was thirteen years older than me. And Andrew was only one week away from turning two when he was killed.”
“And you had turned sixteen on July 21st?” Avery asked.
“July 19th,” Ellen corrected.
Avery shot Ellen a confused look before saying, “I thought your birthday was one day after Tanya’s birthday.”
“On our birth certificates, my birthday is one day before hers, but, in fact, our birthdays are on the same day and time,” Ellen informed.
“How do you figure?” Allyson asked.
“I was born on July 19th at 10:31 P.M., Kansas City time, and Tanya had pointed out that she was born on July 20th at 4:32 A.M., London time.”
Shannon grinned before confirming, “You were born on the same day and almost at the same time, but t
welve years afterwards.”
“Your birthday will be easy for me to remember now,” Avery pointed out. Ellen just shot him a grin.
Mitchell’s seventeen-year-old blue pick-up truck was parked a few car-lengths from Harris’s rented SUV and had failed to start when Mitchell tried to start it.
As Mitchell was lifting the hood, Brandon was coming around from the passenger’s side. As the two were trying to determine the trouble, Ellen and the others were walking their way.
Mitchell and Brandon both looked back at the same time and saw the group approaching.
Mitchell was the first to look away and back towards the engine. As Brandon turned away, Ellen asked them, “Birds had never come to you?”
Mitchell and Brandon faced Ellen again before Mitchell asked, “You’re speaking to me?”
“I’m speaking to you,” Ellen confirmed as the group was walking up to the two. “Don’t birds come to you?”
“They do actually,” Mitchell said. “Is there a reason why you’re asking?”
“When that psychic had told you about the bad bird omen, didn’t you think that, that was a contradiction of your life?”
“El… Ellen, I don’t know why birds, rats or even squirrels would come to Brandon and me the way they do… or to your grandfather for as that matters, but between the time when Michael was born and your mother had become pregnant with you, the birds that were flocking around the house had more than tripled.”
“You naturally attract birds and animals… and so does he and so did grandpa,” Ellen began as she gestured towards Mitchell and Brandon. “I do too, and so did my brothers and sister. Now I’m just guessing here, but I’m thinking that the attraction that the birds and animals have for us is accumulative. As more of us are gathered, the more birds and animals are attracted to us.”
Mitchell thought for a second before saying, “That thought had never occurred to me.”
“No duh,” Ellen said barely loud enough to be heard.
Mitchell shot her an annoyed look for her comment before asking, “So why the change of heart?” Ellen gave him a confused look. “Why have you decided to speak to me?”
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