Vanessa 1973
"You need to eat," My mother puts a plate of my favorite foods in front of me. "Come on, Starlight. Do you think Romulus would be happy if he saw you starving yourself?"
Brushing the hair out of my face, I try to smile at her but fail miserably.
"No, he'd probably get upset at me," I agreed and took the fork. I was taking forced bites of food.
I'd been with Romulus for nearly four years now. We moved back to Georgia last year after an incident with the police in DC. It was alright, I'd lived there long enough, and my age would be an issue sooner than later.
I hadn't wanted to come back here. I'd managed to avoid it all this time, but Romulus helped convince me to let go of some of the past.
My parent's house was much smaller than the one I'd grown up in, but it was still big enough for several families.
"He'll be alright," My mom takes my free hand. "You don't have to worry so much."
"I know," I nod, taking another bite of food, but I'm lying. I don't know if he'll be okay. I'd had a bad feeling in my chest for days and couldn't get rid of it. Something that woke me up in the middle of the night in tears.
Romulus left six months ago for Asia. The war was getting worse, and the king sent his best warriors to take care of the problem.
It wasn't good when my dade agreed with the course of action the royals were taking. Whatever shadow was spreading into the human world came from ours, and it touched all of us.
The darkness was reaching out to strangle everything, and there was only so far you could hold that back before it affected the human world. We saw the damage it was doing. Mistrust between soldiers and civilians, hate, and madness were just the beginning.
My dade played it down, but he was constantly at court now, something he'd never needed to do before. We saw the exhaustion every time he returned and whatever he wasn't telling us weighed heavy on his shoulders.
I know he'd told my mother and daddy, but he refused to discuss it with me. It scared him, and I felt that.
What were we fighting?
"Did I get any letters?" I asked my mother when the plate was empty.
"No, Starlight," she took the plate away. "But it's still early. You know how entit'a mail runs randomly."
I nod in agreement, but I'm not hopeful. I haven't gotten a letter in weeks.
Getting up, I numbly walk out of the kitchen, ignoring the sad way my mother looks at me.
The house was a small tower compared to the castle we'd had, but it didn't matter. It was a home, and because my parents lived here, it was more than any palace would ever be.
It was only eight bedrooms since they didn't have to house so many people. The coven lived nearby, and they were always over here, but my parents refused to let them live together like before.
Walking to the back french doors, I see my daddy tending the trees that are getting ready to flower.
Garrett was sitting in an oversized rocking chair, staring out at the garden.
Stepping out into the warm spring afternoon, I go and sit beside him and take my brother's hand. He turns and smiles at me, his eyes glassy like always.
"Starlight," He laughs. "When did you get here?"
"A little while ago," I lied, smiling at him with as much strength as possible. It's hard to look at him without bursting into tears.
Garrett must be having a bad day again.
"You wear men's clothes now?" He chuckles. "always the rebel."
"Just here at the house," I brush his long hair back. "Are you enjoying yourself?"
"Yes," He nods happily. "The trees are exciting. Can you hear them?"
I nod.
"But, I can't hear, old man," Garrett frowns. "He's being reticent."
I have to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from crying.
It was my fault Garrett was like this.
"Starlight, I cant' feel, old man," Garrett's smile is gone. Oh no.
"Old man is sleeping, Garret," I stand, coming to crouch in front of him. "You don't need to worry about him."
"Oh," His frown doesn't go away. "But why?"
"He's getting ready for the blooming," I explained. "You know how special that is for him."
"Yes," Garrett sighs in relief. "You're right. He always likes to show off. I keep telling mother we should sell the flowers. They're so pretty."
"We'll talk to her about it tonight," I assure him.
"You know, I'd like to check on old man, just to say hello," Garrett tries to stand up, and I have to force him to sit back down. "Just for a minute."
"No, it's okay." I try to soothe his panicked nerves. "Daddy's going to check on him."
"But...," Garrett's breathing quickens, and I turn to see my daddy running over to us. "No, the fire, the trees. No, NO!"
"Garrett," My father grabs his face. "It's alright, son, there's no fire. Everything is fine."
Garrett's eyes flash, and the color becomes smokey gray.
"I feel the fire," He screams. "They're burning, they're dying!"
My mother runs out, holding a box in her hand, and I help my father hold Garrett down.
The night the Old man told me men were coming for us was the night my brother lost his mind.
"It's alright, baby," My mom declares. "It's alright."
Injecting Garret with a red liquid, she hugs him as his body starts to relax.
The night the forest burned was the last time my brother knew what sanity was. None of us realized how close to his elven blood and how connected he was to those trees.
It'd affected me too, but I recovered ten years after we'd been chased out of Atlanta. My father was strong enough to endure the madness; he had my dade and our mother to help him.
It was all my fault.
The man I'd shown myself to never forgot what he'd seen. No one knows how he convinced others, but that night, they came for us, everything I'd done, protesting, fighting, helping those families all working against me.
Maybe no one believed him, but they saw an opportunity to take my family down. To get rid of me.
We felt the trees all die, their screams entering our minds and breaking some part of us.
My father feared Garrett would never recover from the madness, and he lived in a bubble of happiness and memory.
All because of me.
"I have him, my lady," Jasper comes running outside, his skin already turning red. Still, he grabs my brother and carries him unconscious inside.
I watch helplessly as the vampire helps my mother get Garrett back to his room.
"Don't do that," My father warns me with a stern look. "It is not your fault."
"But," I start, and he pulls me into his arms.
"It is not your fault," My father insists. "What happened was a circumstance that we didn't consider."
"If I hadn't done all those things," I try to explain myself.
"My beautiful girl," My father breathes. "Do you think Garrett blames you for what isn't your fault?"
"But it is," I whisper. "If I'd tried to be like everyone else. If I hadn't shown myself to that man...."
"My love, we never wanted you to be anyone but who you're meant to be," He wipes my tears away. "It's our fault for not protecting the two of you better. Do you believe it happened because of what you did? No, it happened because we have enemies out there who will use any excuse to hurt us."
I know he believes that, but I can't get the guilt out of my heart. How many died that night? Including Robert and Charlene, who tried to get Garret and me out of there.
"I lost both my little ones that night," My father mourns. "But I hope someday I'll see that spark in the both of you again."
We both hear the sound of my dade's car pulling up to the house, and my father fixes my hair for me and uses his shirt to clean my face.
"Remember one important thing, starlight," He held up his hand for me to take it. "a tree never truly dies."
"I don't know what that means," I admit, and he smiles at me.
"When you do, your life will be much easier."
With my hand still in his, my father takes me inside to greet my dade.
"Where's starlight?" I hear him ask my mother.
"In the back," She responds, and my heart stops in my chest.
Running towards the sound of their voices, I stop at the archway to see the look of pain on my dade's face, and I know.
He doesn't have to say anything because I already know.
My father grabs me, so I don't run away, holding onto me tightly as fresh tears cascade down my face. I don't scream or try to get away. I don't have the strength to do anything else.
In my dade's hand is the matching necklace Romulus always wore with a green dragon on it.