The Silent One: Cursed Daughter (Book 1)

The Curse

(Alice's POV)

He pulled me along behind him, but I could barely walk. My mind was elsewhere. Just thinking about what she is possibly enduring made my head and chest hurt.

"Okay, can either of you tell me what you remember about the creatures?" she asked us both.

"There were so many of them, but we will try," Tate said as he looked at me and nodded his head.

"What did they look like body type wise? Short, tall, skinny, fat, muscular?" she started off by asking.

"Their body types were similar. They all looked like average humans, but they definitely weren't," Tate answered.

"Did they have any distinguishing facial or body features? Such as unique eye color, scars, tattoos, extra limbs?" Ceciellia asked.

We both shook our heads at the same time, but then Tate remembered something.

"Actually, yeah, I believe I saw a few of them with vibrant colored eyes," he stated.

His grandmother flipped through this very old book with an ominous symbol on the front of it. She's scanning through it so fast, I can hardly understand what any of it says.

"Hmm, that's interesting. What about potent smells, like sulfur, burning flesh, or pure rot?" she asked as she suddenly stopped flipping the pages.

There was so much happening at once, I couldn't possibly pay attention to every detail of every creature that was there. Only two of them really stood out to me. The one who attacked me for a second time, and the other one who took Anna. Tate continued to answer his grandmother's questions, while I hardly answered any of them. I decided to use my ability to telepathically talk to her.

"I can only remember the two that stood out the most. The man I killed had long white hair, and his eyes were a light blue almost gray color. He was quite tall, and smelled of alcohol and death," I said to her telepathically.

Her eyes grew wide as she stared at me. I couldn't tell if she was surprised by my abilities, or if she knew the creature I had just described.

"I've never known a banshee to have the ability of telepathy," She said with her voice slightly shaky.

"I don't understand, what does that mean?" Tate asked Ceciellia.

She flipped to the chapter written about banshees in her strange book. After finding the page she was looking for, she pointed it out to me. I read so many interesting facts about the banshees.

They originated from a curse put on a woman by a white witch who turned evil when her husband committed adultery with the woman. Cursing her to never be able to speak to another living creature, after she seduced the witch's husband with her persuasive words. The witch made sure that the adulterous woman would never be able to poison the mind of any man ever again.

A hunter had tracked down the banshee, after being told about a string of murders happening in a nearby village. While helping the sheriff investigate the mysterious deaths of multiple men, the hunter caught the banshee in the act. Following the creature into the forest surrounding the village, the hunter found herself standing in front of the creature on the edge of a jagged cliff.

The banshee grew tired of running away, facing the hunter that threatened her existence. They both charged at one another, throwing punches and kicks until they both slipped on the loose gravel close to the edge. The hunter clings to the edge of the cliff, with the banshee holding onto her legs. She struggles to shake the banshee's grip.

Once they make eye contact, the banshee flashes an evil grin, before opening her mouth wide. The piercing sounds are deafening to the hunters' ears. Her hands begin to sweat, causing her to lose her grip on the jagged rocks that cut away at the skin of her palms.

The sheriff and his deputies heard the wailing sound of the banshee.

They followed the direction of the sound, leading them to the cliff. Her wailing sound was so powerful that it stopped them dead in their tracks. The sheriff attempted to save the hunter by crawling towards the edge, but her bloody hands prevented him from getting a better grip. Her hand slipped right through his, causing her to fall, with the banshee still holding onto her waist.

The banshee finally let go of the hunter, after they hit a jagged piece of the cliff on the way down. She hit the ground first, cracking her head open like a walnut. The hunter landed on top of the banshee, her bloody hands shielding her face as she dropped. When she landed, it knocked her unconscious. She would've died, but the curse had been transferred onto the hunter. Because the open wounds on her hands touched the crushed skull of the banshee, it formed a blood bond, changing her life as she knew it.

Once she returned to the village alive, the hunters who were there to retrieve her body took her back to their base for further observation. After she killed a few hunters and scientists, the leader of hunters ordered the remaining scientists to execute her. One of the scientists did something greedy. He drained the ex-hunter of all her blood, before chopping off her head.

The greedy scientist used the blood of the banshee to perform a blood transfusion on his dying wife who was pregnant. He saved her life and their child, but at a cost. Causing the banshee curse to spread throughout generations. They all possess the same characteristics and abilities.

"From what I'm reading, I don't think you're a Banshee, but something of a higher power," she says in a surprised tone.

"A higher power?" I asked.

"If I'm thinking correctly, you were most likely given the Banshee curse at birth, but you ascend from something much greater." Ceciellia said, before gasping and covering her mouth.

Tate glances over at me with a smile. The words she is saying are unbelievable, but the more she explained, it started to make more sense. Though I still have many questions that have yet to be answered.

"I knew it," He said with a smirk.

"It is said here that the highest, and oldest, mythical being is a group of immortals. They were the first to be discovered, and soon after every mythical being in the world ascended from their bloodline. Each one created a different breed." She explained.

She stops reading the book for a moment, and grabs a bowl and some ingredients from her shelves. While mixing a bowl full of strange ingredients, she grabs my hand. With a quick movement, she pricked my finger, and squeezed a few drops of blood into the bowl.

A cloud of purple smoke blew upwards from the bowl of strange ingredients. Ceciellia flipped through her book, but stopped to read something on the page.

"What was that about?" I asked, as I tried to peek at the book.

"You are the descendant of a pure bloodline," she finally said something after a few moments of silence.

"So, what does this mean?" I asked while exchanging glances with Tate.

"Meaning you come from a higher power, and have many abilities that others do not. Your normal abilities have been subdued, due to the curse, but you still have strength, telepathy, and wailing," Ceciellia explained.

After all this time, I am finally receiving some of the answers I had waited so long to know. I waited eagerly, as she continued to read from her book, wanting to know more.

"Your blood is what they're after. It can enhance the abilities of anyone who forms a blood bond with you," she says quietly.

"I don't understand," I pushed the thought into her head.

"Your blood contains something strong enough to make any being more powerful than what they are," she says with a concerned face.

"Who are they, though?" I asked her.

"That's what we're going to figure out. I have another question for you, though. How old are you? " She asked.

"I just turned 16 in May. Why?" I asked with a confused expression.

I couldn't believe what I had just heard, but the news I heard next is what really caught my attention. It was the one thing I had always wanted to know.

"You have until you turn eighteen to break the curse of the banshee. You'll lose your banshee abilities, and gain the ability to speak freely," Ceciellia said after reading a passage from the book.

Hearing that made me believe that there is a light at the end of my tunnel. Now it's just about the journey. If I could save Anna, and be free of this curse, I could finally live my life.

"Though you will become whatever it is that the curse has suppressed, because you were never human to begin with," she said softly.

I sank in my seat at the dining room table. What I thought would give me a chance at a normal life turned into figuring out how to live it all over again as something else. At least I'd be able to talk out loud though, so it would make things slightly easier to adapt.

"How?" I asked.

"Um, well, you would have to pass along the curse of the banshee," she said.

"How does that work?" I asked.

"If you choose to pass it along, you would have to cut open the vein on your wrist as well as the vein of a newborn," she says while reading another passage.

"When you press the open wounds together, it forms a blood bond, transferring the curse."

She looked at me with a hint of concern in her eyes. As if I'd actually cut into the flesh of a newborn.

"I don't think I could do that. So, I'll be stuck this way forever," I said while looking down at my lap.

My hopes and dreams of being rid of this burden were shattered. I will always be the silent one.

"Well, if you choose to do it, that is completely up to you," she surprisingly said as she closed the book.

"I'll figure that out later, but right now we need to focus on finding Anna." I said.

I pushed aside any thoughts about myself, and began talking about the plan. It was the least of my worries. My main concern right now is finding a way to save Anna.