A/N: This here is a Holly chapter. Some things mentioned occurred in chapter 153, Rebellion. It’s actually been a year in-game since that chapter. Enjoy. 🙂
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At first, living with the witch coven that I’d met at a party was just dandy. We had some laughs, I’d transform them into toads a few times, we’d get drunk and partied all night long. I woohooed with Barney a few more times.
Life was good.
But at the same time it wasn’t. Tallah’s eyes were always boring into my back. Except when we were drunk, we hardly ever talked. I knew it was because I’d slept with Barney instead of getting to know her better at that first party.
I tried with her, I really did. When I came to live with her coven, I tried to get to know her, but she was cold. So I was driven back into Barney’s arms.
That was how the thing happened. A couple months into living with them, I started throwing up.
Soon as I did, I left and went back to living with my aunt Zoey across town. I couldn’t face Tallah’s coldness any longer, or knowing that Barney wouldn’t make a good father.
Then Gran called me to babysit my uncle Charlie.
“Brat, it’s nearly midnight. You’re not supposed to be up this late.”
“You’re not my mother, you’re only my niece.”
“Yeah, well, I’m also a very pregnant tired witch. Capische?”
“I’m not getting off the computer.”
“Well, you don’t get a choice.”
“I’m supposed to be the evil one! Don’t go threatening me with poisoned apples!”
“I’ll do what it takes.”
“You’re crazy! I’m going!”
“Thank you.”
I wasn’t really going to poison him…it’s just a sleepy apple. But he didn’t need to know that.
“I’ll tell her there’s monsters under the bed. That way I can stay up all night! Muahahaah…oh no – “
“THERE’S REALLY MONSTERS UNDER THE BED!”
“Kid, quit it! There are no freaking monsters under the bed, and you know why? Because we’re the real monsters, you and I! Now eat the da – just eat the apple and get to bed! I’m so sick of you and it’s only been a couple days!”
“You promise it’s not poisoned?”
“It’s not poison, it’s a sleepy apple. Mom used to make them for me all the time when I wasn’t ready for bed.” I took a bite out of it to prove it.
“Fine, whatever.”
“If I die, I hope the monsters get you!”
I stayed in the room until I was sure he was asleep. While I did that, I checked my phone for the umpteenth time. Gran was supposed to have gotten back tonight, but she wasn’t answering my texts or calls. I thought her flight might have been delayed, so I went to bed. I guess I could live with the brat for one more night.
But in the morning, I still hadn’t heard back from Gran. I was starting to worry. It wasn’t like her not to return calls.
But I didn’t panic until I saw my mom fly up outside.
“Mom? What are you doing here?”
“I came because I had a vision of Mom. It looked like she’s been kidnapped, but I didn’t see where they took her. I thought there might be some clues here.”
“Kidnapped? By who?”
“A male fairy with turquoise wings and a tranquilizer gun. He said something about experiments.”
And that was when my blood went cold. “Experiments? Did he mention anything about aliens?”
“No. But it’s entirely possible he’s linked to the lab that took your grandma’s grandma all those years ago.”
Mom went over and asked the Magic B Ball for answers to Gran’s whereabouts. Apparently since Gran had owned it for a while, it should have been able to trace Gran’s location. But it couldn’t.
I checked my phone to see if Gran had texted in the meantime. I didn’t want to think she’d been kidnapped. Instead, I saw a text from Tallah, which I ignored. I didn’t have time to deal with that crap.
I tried calling my uncle Clark and aunt Carrie, who my mom had been visiting with. But they said they hadn’t seen her since she got on a plane for Moonlight Falls. And when I called the airport, they said she’d arrived safely, had left the plane, and hadn’t been seen being followed by anyone.
I was exhausted by that point. I wanted to keep helping to try to find my grandma, but being pregnant took a lot out of me. So I fell asleep to my mom chanting while she did some past-seeing spell or something.
The stress of Gran being missing was too much for me.
“MOM!”
“You shouldn’t have come with me. Gran needs to be found. It’s not like her to go missing. Go. I’ll be fine.”
“I can do magic just as easily at the hospital as at home. Besides, I’m not missing the birth of my first grandchild. I’m sure Mom will understand.”
“Grrrrr.”
“Curly? What’s up, buddy? You see more monsters under the couch? Where’s Holly? Is Mom home now?”
“Not quite, kiddo. But I’m here to take you to your mom.”
“Why isn’t she here to get me herself?”
“She’s…not feeling well, at the moment. She’s at the hospital, in fact. I’m one of her baby dads, she asked me to bring you to her.”
“Okay, then.”
“Grrrrrrrrrrr.”
“Actually, I don’t think that’s so okay. My dog doesn’t like you. Dogs are pretty smart, you know. Where’s my mom really? Don’t make me get my witch niece. She’ll poison you!”
“I didn’t want to have to do this to a kid, but you leave me no choice. The boss wants you, and the boss gets what he wants. Now, either come quietly or get a big dose of sleepy meds and we’ll hope they don’t do funky things to your brain.”
“NO!”
Mom and I had arrived home just in time. Despite the seriousness, I couldn’t help laughing at the plum-terrified look on his face.
“Wait, stop! What are yooooou – “
Then, poof! Wait, what? I thought Mom was going to knock him out, not make him disappear!
“Mom? Where’d you send him?”
“Oh, back to the age of full-grown dragons and common unicorns. Why does it matter?”
“That was thousands of years ago!”
“And?”
“Is there any way you can bring him back, lady-I-don’t-know? He knows where my mom is.”
“Yeah, we could’ve questioned him! But you don’t have the ability to bring people back to the present, do you?”
“Oops.”
Of course, we did call the police, but they didn’t have much more luck than we did. So we did what we could with the resources we had. At least Mom could cast past-seeing spells and Charlie look online for clues. All I had was that stupid magic book. I might as well have asked the walls where my Gran was for all the good it did me.
My magic is with genetic manipulation. Not very useful for a full-out search.
We did find out the last place Gran was seen was a salon in town. But the police found no clues there, and neither did my mom.
Mom and I called other people too. We called my aunts and uncles, who did searches of their own with nothing to report. Even uncle Jacob, my mom’s full brother, couldn’t find anything with his dream-searching. My great-grandpa and great-grandma and great-great-grandma were also contacted. We even got in touch with Mom’s distant cousins she hadn’t seen in years. All leads from them led to dead ends.
Mom kept fainting at odd moments when a vision took over, but she couldn’t see anything useful. Her past visions had always been sketchy at best. She hadn’t seen that Aston was responsible for uncle Cameron’s death. Sometimes she caught flashes of Gran’s face, but she said they didn’t give her much clue as to where Gran actually was.
I didn’t get a lot of time to worry about it all, though. Naomi needed constant care. Though I’d helped out with my baby aunts and uncles, somehow just one baby seemed like a whole lot more work than all of them combined.
“You’re making extra work for me on purpose, arentcha, munchkin?”
Mom helped out when she could. She seems just fine with being a grandma even though I’m really young and don’t have a job.
Sometimes Charlie would wake me up in the middle of the night and go over what we’d done to find Gran and what we could still try. He already loved her like he’d been born to her. I liked him for that, I only wished he wasn’t so annoying.
I also wished the ideas worked, because none of them did.
Before we knew it, a couple of months had passed and Naomi had grown a full head of hair. She looked a lot like her father. I’d called him once to tell him about her, but he hadn’t even bothered to come visit.
Mom was still here, because she was really worried about leaving us alone. She called Dad a lot and they had really private conversations in the living room. Ugh. But at the same time I was glad she hadn’t left. I wasn’t sure how I’d deal with things all on my own.
Poor Curly was pining for his mistress. I did my best to keep his spirits up, but I didn’t have time to play fetch all day with him.
“Great-Grandma! We called you about Mom being missing, right?”
“Yes, you did.”
“Have you found anything?”
“As a matter of fact, I have. Yesterday, I finally made contact with Elena.”
“How? We’ve been trying for months.”
“Simple. My mind touched hers. I know where she is.”
“Where? Is she okay?”
“She is fine. Not wonderful. We must go to her.”
“Why?”
“She is in a magical prison of sorts. I will explain away from tiny ears.”
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A/N: Most of the reason it took two months until Elena was found is because I wanted to save Naomi to bin. She’s aging at a normal human rate so she’s going to be a baby for like five years.
Queens' Hive 