Chapter 27

Rows and rows of books lined the shelves. All with their spines facing outwards with colored dots. Jenna ran her hand down one of the shelves letting her fingertips brush the spines. She could just imagine the worlds; the stories would take her too.
However today she was there for a different reason. Escape wasn’t one of them although she did feel like running away and never looking back. Yet she wasn’t a fool, and she knew that the curse that was placed on her centuries ago would follow her.
She made her way to the section where the computers were and took a seat. She switched on the computer and waited for it to load.
By the time the home screen appeared, Claire had plopped down in a chair beside her. She dropped her bag nosily on the floor.
“What’s up,” Claire asked leaning closer to Jenna.
“I need you to hack into dad’s workplace and access their files,” Jenna explained casually.
“What? Are you insane?” Claire picked up her bag and shook her head before walking away.
“Wait, Claire just trusts me. please?”
“Fine,”
Within minutes Claire had worked her magic and was in the G.G. M’s server.
“What are we looking for?” Claire asked.
“What dad was working on,” Claire scrolled down the screen and paused. Jenna felt her heart race and her head begin to pound. A file with her name one stood out. Claire clicked on the file and photos appeared.
Jenna gasped has images of her as a toddler filled the screen. They showed her in her dad’s lab being injected and just watching him work. Blood drained from her face when a familiar face appeared. Josh, or was it? He was laid on a hospital like bed and she was strapped to a seat beside him.
“What the hell?” Claire muttered.
“Print these please,” Jenna whispered.
“I need to know the names of all the people that dad had recently worked on?” Jenna said as she watched the images coming out of the machine. It took Claire a good few minutes before she found what Jenna needed.
“Print them please,”
Once everything she needed had become evidence, she plucked them from the printer.
“Do you wanna tell me what this is about?” Claire asked throwing her bag over her shoulder then placing her hand on her hip.
“You were right. Gran had always been right. Magic the supernatural’s, there real.” Jenna looked around and seeing the room empty she quickly shifted and then shifted back. Claire jumped up and took slow steps back with her hand raised in front of her.
“Claire, it’s me,” Claire let out a deep breath.
“It’s true, everything is true,”
“Yes,” Jenna whispered.
“You have just had me hack into dad’s private documents. I could be in big trouble for this. Why?”
“Claire things…. well…. dad did something he created an army of monsters and….”
“You know what forget it, Jenna. I don’t think my mind can take much more,” Jenna watched Claire walk away. She fully understood. She was still struggling coming to terms with everything. With the images and names of the monsters her father had created Jenna left the library.

***
Claire couldn’t believe what she had just done. Grandma Rose was right. Jenna needed her. All the time that her gran had spent teaching her to hack and fight. It all fell into place. All her cryptic words. Claire would help Jenna, no matter what. “Claire Jenson?” she heard a male voice and turned around.
“Yeah,” she smiled when she saw a blond haired blue eyed young man who flashed a killer smile.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Claire didn’t get the chance to reply as her head erupted into pain and bright lights flashed in her eyes.

***
Jenna paused as she made her way across the car park. Claire’s red mini was parked in a bay. As Jenna got closer, she noticed that Claire wasn’t inside and nowhere in sight.
She didn’t get time to pounder where Claire had gone and why she would leave her car as pain took her breath away.
She clutched her head as it felt like someone was squeezing her skull. The pain stopped suddenly. Jenna picked up the photo’s which she had dropped and dashed from the car park. She needed to confront Josh and find out what the pictures meant. What had her father done to her? To him?
Jenna ran from the car park and into the woods. As the trees covered her from view, she shifted into the ginger cat.
When Jenna got within feet of the house she shifted back to human form. The first thing she noticed was that Donna ‘s car was gone. She ran inside the house and shouted both Donna and Josh. The house was empty.
With no luck she made her way to the front door when her feet rooted to the ground. Beside the free-standing coat rack was a full-length mirror.
Jenna glanced at herself in the mirror and blinked a few times. Still there was no change.
Her reflection showed her in a brown medieval dress sporting a bow and arrow attached to her back.
Jenna lifted up her finger and touched her nose. Her mirror self-did the same thing. Next, she stuck her tongue out and again her mirror self-copied.
Jenna spun around and when she stopped, she jumped back. “You cannot fight me,” her mirror self said giving her a creepy smile.
The door crashed open, and Josh barreled inside. He skidded to a halt.
“What’s wrong,” he asked.
“We need to talk,” Jenna glanced back at her reflection. Everything looked normal.
Without waiting for Josh to answer she walked into the living room clutching her evidence tightly in her hands. The paper felt hot. Her hand trembled as she waited for Josh to take a seat. Inside fear of the unknown swirled in her stomach. She was afraid of the answers she would find.
Taking a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves she stood and shoved the pictures of her and Josh into his hands.
She watched his face drain of color. His skin took on an ashen look.
“Where did you get these?” his voice was low and held a hint of anger.
Before Jenna could answer the front door opened and slammed shut. Donna called down the hallway.
“In here,” Jenna replied, when she entered the room, her face dropped, and she took a seat in silence. The tension in the air was thick.
“It doesn’t matter where I got them from. What happened?”
“It was a long time ago. we were in Ireland as we had been given a mission to hunt down Reece Moore who had disappeared,” Donna gasped at his words.
“I made a mistake. I didn’t know there was a man hiding in the countryside and I shifted. I don’t remember what happened, but I woke up in a cell. A few days went by. Needles, tests. Everything is a blur. Then one day something changed. I woke up in the testing room and a red-haired girl was with the man. He gave her my blood. I don’t know what happened to the girl or why he had done it,”
“I was the girl,” Jenna whispered.
“I didn’t know until I took you home one night and he answered the door. I thought my blood had killed you. That day, I was able to break out,”
Sighing she looked to Donna.
“You lied to me,”
“What?”
“Edina, will rise and I will be gone,”
“Jenna you will only gain her powers and memory to keep Cora locked in her sleep,”
“No, Edina will take over my body. I have seen her memorizes,”
“May I,” Donna asked, and Jenna looked at her in confusion.
“I would like to access those memories,” Jenna nodded and sat beside her.
“This may hurt a little,”
Donna placed her hands on either side of Jenna’s temples. They both closed their eyes.
“Jenna, I need you to pull up that memory,”
Jenna thought about what she had saw, the clearing the old man. She found herself stood before the old man with Donna at her side.
“One day you will rise again, and your soul will take over a body of a blood relative,”
“You lied to me?” she felt her lips moved yet she wasn’t the one speaking.
“If I had told you the truth then would you have gone through with the spell?”
“No, I would not have. I do not want to be a part of this. No one shall die for me to live long after my life as expired,”
“Then I am afraid it is too late,”
“Do the spell again. The girl shall only need my memories and power to keep Cora sleeping,”
“Edina that is not the way magic works. I am sorry,”
“So, I shall kill an offspring of mine to fix the mistakes of the witches?”
“It is the only way to save the human race from the twisted roots of our past sins,”
The man walked away, and Jenna/Edina was left in the clearing. Jenna felt her body move, yet she wasn’t the one in control.
She had turned in Donna’s direction.
“Cassidy, it has been a long time,” Donna’s mouth hung agape as Edina gave her a smile.
“I will see you soon, but for now….” they both snapped their eyes open.
“How?” Donna whispered.
“Donna?”
“I need to fix this,” Donna got to her feet and left quickly.
“What just happened?” Josh asked.