Twisted Returns

Nobody says anything. Questions fly through my head. How did you do it? Where were they? Did you do it personally?

"No one ever found out?" Dean asks after a long pause.

"There are people who suspect me," Marigold says. "But by now, they wouldn't dare to do anything about it."

"So it's basically... they lose their lives so I can have mine?" Statistically, this is sick. Give up the life of many for the life of one. But to be honest, I prefer it that way.

"Yes. Some of them did it having good intentions - to protect the universe."

"Why didn't you just let them kill me?" I ask bitterly. "Maybe then, this could all prevented."

"I couldn't lose you," she says, and I wonder if she regrets everything. She saved me, but I'm not her daughter anymore. Not really. "And not all of them had good intentions. Some wanted to do it for their own selfish intentions."

"What would those be?" I picture them laughing, enjoying my death. "Did they just hate me that much or something?"

"Some. Some just wanted to kill you just for the sake of killing you. I don't know what they were thinking," she says, shaking her head sadly. "But most of the 'bad' group's intentions made sense."

"What, to steal my magic or something?"

"That's exactly it, actually. It's one of the only ways to truly transfer magic - killing someone. Who knows what would have happened if they succeeded?"

"We'd probably all be dead," Dean says flatly.

"Or worse," I add.

"When I... killed the people, I used that as an excuse. I told myself that bad things would happen if they weren't stopped. I used that excuse for everyone, regardless of their intentions."

I don't know what to say. Dean doesn't say anything, so I guess he doesn't know either. Marigold looks down at her hand, like she's holding a cell phone in it or something. She appears to be reading something. If we were on Earth, then that would just be a lame excuse to stop talking. But here in the magical world, you never know.

"There's something I have to take care of," Marigold says a few minutes later. "Don't tell anyone what was said here today. Normally I would cast a classification spell, but I don't. I won't take away your freedom like that. I trust you."

Dean and I still don't say anything as she leaves the room. We simply watch her go.

"I didn't..." I say, as the door shuts. "Did you?"

"No, I didn't expect it either," he replies, knowing exactly what I was trying to say.

"What do you think?"

"I'm... not exactly shocked, but surprised," Dean says. "Logically, with great power, things like this are bound to happen. I just didn't expect Marigold."

"I didn't either. But from the moment her voice appeared in my head, she's been mysterious. I kind of remember the past, too. I never completely, truly knew her."

"She was your mother, though."

"I don't know," I say, sighing. "It was kind of... she kind of felt like my mom again, recently. I guess I got more comfortable with the fact. But now I just feel like I don't even know her. Like she's a stranger."

"Do you think she lied?"

"No." I hadn't actually considered this until he said it. "But now that you say that... maybe, actually. She keeps so many secrets already. What's a fake one gonna hurt? I don't see why she would lie, though."

Dean gets up and looks at the book. "Maybe she's on the bad side... It's possible."

I get up too. "But then why did she try so hard to save me? To save us? Why did she even go through with the experimental spell in the first place?"

"It was Alina who actually cast the spell, not Marigold. It would have been suspicious if she tried to stop her."

"She still could have made an excuse."

"Maybe so. But she didn't."

"So why didn't she just leave us on Earth? We would have stayed human, never able to ruin her 'evil' plans."

"Well, the planet was frozen," he says, flipping through the pages of the book. "She needed someone to unfreeze it."

"It makes sense... but I don't want to believe it," I admit.

"None of us do," he says, shutting the book. "But if that's the truth, then it's the truth. That's the way it is."

"Do you think it's the truth?"

"Me? I don't... not really. There's holes in the theory. But that doesn't mean they can't be filled in. I think there's a possibility. It's just not likely, in my opinion."

"It's all so weird. Why can't things be easier?" I complain. "Maybe we should have stayed on Earth."

"Maybe so," he murmurs, but I know he doesn't mean it.

I'm always going to wonder what would have happened if I had chosen to stay. About what could have been, what I could have had. But we're here in the magical world. And as Dean had just said, that's the way it is.

"What are we going to do about this?" I ask, finding myself using the plural like he does.

"What is there to do?"

"We could tell someone."

"What good would that do? The authorities might already know about it. They wouldn't do anything. We're not supposed to know. Besides, do you really want something to be done when our theories could be completely wrong? She is your mother, after all."

"I know... but can we trust her?"

"We can't trust anyone. There are too many secrets that we don't know."

"Yeah, I guess," I say. "We should get out of here."

As we leave the study, I keep thinking. And thinking. I can't stop myself from having these thoughts.

If I can't trust my own mother, who can I trust?