Heart of the Bayou Beasts

r

ars waiting for this day. The day I refused to be their pawn and their property. They had a contract in blood I was not consulted on or asked about, nor did my blood adorn the scrap of old parchment willfully. They had held me down and stolen it. I was 14 then. My mother kept it under lock and key, hidden somewhere inside her apartment upstairs. After the night of being confronted about Andy's kiss, everyone backed off except for my new little messenger. First, Trent had dropped a note in my lap in biology. It said, 'I'm sorry I've bee

ork. I looked in the mirror at my gaunt expression. The soft, faint light the magic cast in my swampy, green eyes rimmed in a smokey azure was the only sign the woman looking back was still aliv

The old cook used to leave me plates in the fridge but my mother fired her when I was 15 thinking that would force me to join them at dinner. She had been a kind woman. I often found her more nurturing than anyone else in my life, after my father die

nd empty like the heart of the woman staring back at me. I swear Maggie's wit and signature coffee warmed my soul, in a way it felt like a grandmother's embrace. Not that I ever knew wh

ut a response to that. He had never been a part of the punishments, never been around to see them, but that didn't get him off the hook. I didn't know his story and I didn't care. "Want some company?" He asked. Odd, very odd. I glanced up at him, inside I was seething. Instead of lighting him ablaze like my magic demanded I replied as I looked back at the floor. "No, I'd rather go alone, just like I've been doing for the last 10 years,

ing up back behind a wall of granite. He just nodded, stepping aside. So spineless, so easy to make him so uncomfortable that he folded. Weird. "Thank you," I mumbled, giving him the briefest of glances as I brushed quickly past him, careful not to touch him as I hurried to the d