𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄 | 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

🌹 The Uncharmed Child [II]

Author's Note: Unknown date for this piece so it's most likely from around 2010 or so like the previous installment. Noah as well as Tomas and Vilmar were all originally celebrities whose names (and country of origin for Tomas and Vilmar) that I changed - the latter two real twin musicians (kudos to anyone who can guess who they are LOL). "Harala" is a world of my own invention as well as the "empyrean catamaran" which is basically like a "skiff" or "ship" from Star Wars. It's so surreal to come back and write about Vicky 10+ years later. Thank you all for reading <3

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Reconciling with my father had not been an easy thing. For one, the status of my non-magic blood remained a source of tension. Evidently, in the time my parents had been separated, my father had not had more children. It seems, I was to be his only child. Too bad for him, I suppose.

As for me, I had made a good life for myself. I missed my mother but my relationship with my half-brother, Jude, was growing stronger - a fact I was thankful for. I could always count on him, no matter the situation. I'd also made friends at my new school as well as gotten my first job at the campus music store.

I'd even had and lost a few relationships along the way, including one with a sweet guy who'd fallen in love when I hadn't. His name was Noah and he was the lead singer/guitarist in a local band that mostly played odd gigs on campus. There were times when I wished he wasn't so melancholic over our breakup, that I hadn't broken his heart like I had. But I couldn't create feelings in my heart that just weren't there. And he deserved someone who loved him back. I just wish he would quit writing songs about me.

However, my first great love was Tomas. He and his twin brother, Vilmar, were exchange students from Denmark. Together, they were starting a band of their own - Vilmar being lead singer and Tomas, the guitarist. It seems I had a certain weakness for guys who play the guitar. Not to mention his broken English melted my heart of stone.

All of that paled in comparison, though, with the growing relationship I was forming with my father. Jarek was hard to be close to and even harder to love. Yet the undesirable traits I saw in him were reflected in myself - a fact which I couldn't deny or regret. I was who I was and Jarek the same. And as the months went by and my high school years began to draw to a close, the gap between us formed by my lack of magical ability began to close as well. Graduation was upon me faster than I had realized and with it, the loss of connection with my father. Soon, I would be moving back to Hawaii and he would leave back to his own realm.

It struck me harder than I had thought it would - the blow of losing the relationship I had fought so hard to form. Post-graduation saw me moving with my father back to his own world - a world, I feared, would never truly accept me as one of their own. Was this what it was like to be "mixed" in a magical sense? Was it as bad as being racially-mixed in a racist neighborhood?

Yet, almost as soon as we had arrived, a change came over me - something strange that was completely new and unexpected: I began to show potential as a Charmed. Despite himself, Jarek was overjoyed. Perhaps now I could finally have powers as he had always hoped I would. Although, I knew now he loved me even if I never developed the magic he so desperately wished to survive him in his offspring.

My newfound powers were not the only big surprise to come that year. Yet, the other surprise was entirely unwanted: a new step-mother named Ondine. She was a dark witch (supposedly reformed however I did doubt this fact) and Jarek had met her through work. And of course, the first thing she wanted to do was bond with me on a family vacation. Oh, joy, how fun that would be.

Glancing around me at the fluff of ivory snow-capped mountains and grass laced icy white, I couldn't help but feel unimpressed.

"It's ugly," I remarked, blunt as always.

Ondine frowned as she tore her gaze away from the skyline to glance over her shoulder at me, "What is?"

I almost snapped at her but held my temper in check as I responded, "The scenery, Ondine,"

A laugh burst free of her lips and she shook her head, golden hair spooling down her back as she did, "What an impudent daughter you have, Jarek... Why do you say that, Victoria?"

I bristled at her impudence of using my full name that she knew very well I hated and scoffed.

"There's no color! No pink, no purple, green, or blue. Not even the yellow of the-"

"Well, of course not! This is not your "Hawaii" on Earth. This is Harala - it snows year-round and never can you find a speck of green. Any foods of color have to be imported in, child,"

I wanted so badly to correct her that I had not been referring to the food but instead, the nature of the area but it was futile. Another laugh escaped her mouth and I wanted to slap those cherry-pink lips closed for once in her life. She seemed to laugh at everything, most especially at inappropriate times - it was a trait in her I absolutely detested.

Jarek, however, seemed not to notice any of this as he finally cut the engine on the empyrean catamaran, "We're here."

Somehow finding humor in even this, Ondine laughed again and I rolled my dark eyes, feeling as if I would snap if I spent one more minute closed in with this insufferable woman. Yet as I looked over at my father and the cheerful smile on his face - a rare sight, to be sure - I couldn't hate the woman. If she made him this happy, then who was I to judge that happiness? We both needed joy in a world that had left us bereft for far too long.

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