Lena Matthews
"Boo!" I jeered at the TV screen. I even tossed a kernel of popcorn to emphasize my point.
"Really?" Jacob asked, offended.
"Yes, really!" I laughed. "I mean, what is he thinking?"
"He's thinking-"
"That was a rhetorical question!" I exclaimed. "Stephen Gray is the most endearing and idiotic character on Spellbound. You're not changing my mind."
"You think I'm endearing?" Jacob asked.
"I said your character." I corrected matter-of-factly. I grabbed a small handful of Jacob's popcorn spitefully.
"You know you have your own bowl for a reason." Jacob pointed out.
"Yeah, decorational purposes." I teased. I hadn't planned on spending the entire day with Jacob, but one activity blended into the next and neither of us wanted to say goodbye. The hours had melted away a lot faster than I had expected.
"Don't let my popcorn thievery distract you from the real matter at hand here. Stephen Gray is dumb for thinking that burning the book is going to break the curse." I added.
"Come on, just because a solution sounds simple doesn't mean it won't work. Everyone else is overthinking it." said Jacob.
"But did it work?" I asked smugly.
"I'm not answering," said Jacob. I looked at him knowingly. "Fine, it didn't work. So what?"
"So there goes your entire point!" I said, laughing.
"Whatever." said Jacob. "Next episode."
"So, how was it?" Kiara asked teasingly. She had volunteered to walk home with me from the Academy since I was still avoiding Aurelie and Finn. I had accepted, even though I had a feeling that Kiara just wanted to tease me. It seemed like my suspicions were correct.
"It was good." I said, refusing to divulge any more information. "Have you figured out how you're going to sneak Aaliyah and Jerome past the gate?"
Kiara groaned. "You're no fun." she complained. "I'm the reason you got to go out with him."
"And you're the reason half the school thinks I made out with some random dude in the auditorium." I added.
"Are we going to keep bringing that up? I was doing my job! Besides, helping with Jacob cancels it out. PENDAS, or whatever it's called." said Kiara.
"PEMDAS." I corrected. Kiara rolled her eyes.
"I knew that." she retorted.
I wanted to say something else, but held it back. Even though Mrs. Pearce had the upper hand on both Kiara and Taylor, I had a hard time separating them from every bad thing they did. I wished I could forgive both of them, but it was difficult.
"We're almost at my house." I informed Kiara, slowing down my walk.
"And?" Kiara asked innocently.
"You should probably go now." I explained.
"Why?"
I sighed. "My house isn't super safe, okay?"
"What? Is your family racist or something?" Kiara asked.
"Yes." I answered, deciding to go along with Kiara's explanation. The truth was that I didn't want Kiara remotely near another agent.
"I've seen your dad before." said Kiara. "Is no one going to tell him he looks a little... y'know?"
"It's internalized racism." I clarified.
"Okay yeah. That sounds like a mess. See you tomorrow!" said Kiara, parting ways. "Oh! And we're going to sneak Aaliyah and Jerome in my trunk!" She added with an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
"You didn't have to shout that!" I yelled to Kiara. I chuckled as I walked to the door by myself.
As soon as the house came into view, I spotted Aurelie and Finn walking up the driveway. I cursed under my breath. I thought I had waited in the library long enough for them to get home before me. I must have underestimated Aurelie's habit of finding detours. I glanced down at my phone, debating whether or not I should call Carter and pretend to be busy.
"Lena!" Aurelie called excitedly, racing to hug me. I didn't even bother to lecture her about using our real names outside. Aurelie wrapped her hands around my waist enthusiastically.
"Hey." I said, laughing. "You know you see me every day, right?"
"No I don't." Aurelie pouted, crossing her arms and looking back up at me.
"Yes, you do." I argued playfully.
My smile faltered as I remembered the consequences of shutting my family out. Aurelie had no idea about what this family really did, all of the innocent lives our father probably took, or the Ifrit heritage that she would have to keep a secret for the rest of her life. She had no idea, and I envied that.
I tried not to let my thoughts show as I took Aurelie's hand with my non-dominant one and twirled her playfully. Aurelie giggled, her blissful ignorance as potent as ever. "Now get inside." I instructed lightly, guiding her to the front door.
Aurelie sprinted inside. Through the window, I could see her violently toss her backpack on the floor. It looked like she had already developed a distaste for school.
"I feel bad for her teacher." Finn commented. I just nodded. I had no idea who Mrs. Delaney's replacement was since I haven't walked Aurelie to class in a while.
"Yeah." I agreed quickly. "Mrs... um..."
"Mr. Doyle." Finn finished for me.
"Yeah, that was what I was going to say." I responded quickly.
"Sure." Finn replied sarcastically.
"I'm serious! I totally knew that!" I defended. Finn didn't say anything, but I took it upon myself to continue talking. "I'm not a bad sister, for the record." Finn still didn't say anything. It was like he knew I would keep going. "It's not my fault that I've been keeping to myself lately." Nothing again. "This family's dysfunctional, can you blame me for avoiding it?"
"There it is," said Finn.
"What? Do you think you're better than me for sticking with them?" I asked. The question seemed to take both me and Finn off guard.
"What are you talking about?" Finn asked.
"I..." Adrenaline was coursing through my body at the prospect of releasing every single pent up thing I've felt since I've died. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been avoiding you. I've been avoiding Mom, Dad, and Aurelie too. And I don't know why."
"I think you do." Finn nudged.
I crossed my arms and tapped my finger against my forearm pensively. This was dangerous territory, but I had no idea how much longer I could keep every angry thought to myself. "Has it ever occurred to you that we're not the good guys here? Or that our dad might be the real monster? I'm not talking about Ifrits or anything; I'm talking about how cold you have to be to kill for a living."
I knew that I should stop there if I knew what was good for me, but something in Finn's expression echoed a kind of recognition. Suddenly, I realized that I was never alone. I wasn't the only one questioning the Agency. Maybe it was some kind of sibling intuition, but I knew that every single thing I had said was something that Finn had thought about before.
"Have you ever thought about what it means if the Forbidden source was right?" I continued, trying to break through to Finn. "If there really are several Forbidden in this town, then only one of them is killing. One out of dozens, maybe hundreds! But almost every single agent, without fail, has killed someone. So why are we siding with them?"
My anger was starting to boil over, and I couldn't control anything I said anymore. Every single thought spilled out, unfiltered and raw.
"The truth is that we're on a mission to torture a bunch of people. How could that be a good thing? It's messed up. It's disgusting, actually! We're disgusting, and we've never questioned it!"
Finn glanced back at the house for a second. "Lena, I think you need to calm-"
"I'm totally calm!" I yelled with reckless volume. "Everything is finally making sense. We were lied to. We were kids when we were told all of these things. Dad is using us, and his dad was just as awful when he left his son at the Agency to fend for himself. It's a really sick and deplorable cycle, and we're just going with it. Can you blame me for keeping my distance? I don't want anything to do with this stuff anymore. The Agency is twisted and evil, and the Forbidden aren't. They're complicated, but so are people. We can't sit by and let a bunch of innocent souls get hurt."
"Have you even met a Forbidden?" Finn asked.
"Would that change anything? You have to know, deep down, that all of this is wrong." I insisted. Finn crossed his arms, but I could tell that he was trying to hide that a part of him agreed with me. "Just think about it." I finished quietly.
I tried to collect myself before walking into the house. As soon as I made it inside, I nearly tripped over Aurelie's aggressively discarded bag. I picked it up carefully, and ended up carrying it with me to the kitchen. Dad was already there, situated at the table. He was wearing his reading glasses as he unpacked the contents of a mysterious cardboard box.
When I was little, I used to get so excited about Dad's reading glasses. As soon as he put them on, I would decide that we looked exactly alike. Every differentiating feature we had would become void when the glasses came into the picture. I had an odd concept of perception when I was little. I remembered being so upset that I was the only sibling that didn't inherit my father's genes. Now, I was at peace with it.
"Where did Aurelie go?" I asked. "I have her bag."
"She's in her room." Dad replied, focused on the task at hand. "Do you want to see this? It's straight from the Agency." He pulled out a minuscule camera and set it on the table. He pressed a button on his phone, and the camera turned on, a small green light signifying that it was recording.
"It's one of the smallest we have. It only records, so I'll have to collect them and retrieve the footage, but I think it'll work. Come here. I can show you how to use it." said Dad, inviting me closer.
"I'm good." I responded, slowly backing away.
"I thought this was what you wanted, Lena. To be in the loop about my job." said Dad.
"Well, I changed my mind." I said.
"You can't just change your mind after so long." said Dad, laughing.
"Dad. She changed her mind. Just let it go." said Finn. Dad glanced at Finn, surprised. I couldn't remember the last time Finn had ever talked back to Dad.
"Thanks." I murmured to Finn as I left to go find Aurelie. Dad was still in a stunned silence.
Aurelie didn't even look up from her tablet when I set her bag in her room. I sighed and went back to my empty bedroom. I hated its bare walls, but I would only be dealing with them for a few more months.
A few more months. That's it. If Dad runs out of time, then this town would be safe. Waiting this out was really all I could do. That, and find the cold woman. But even if Dad got evidence of her, he would still have four more Forbidden to go. It wasn't looking good for him, but I didn't want to risk it. The cold woman was out there, and I needed to find her.
No one knew what type of Forbidden the cold woman was, and that was the biggest problem right now. I could ask Dad to access the Agency's database, but I probably blew my chance earlier by dismissing him. All I had now was the internet and its loose legends that sometimes aligned with different Forbidden.
What was I supposed to do, Google random myths until something looked promising like last time? It hadn't exactly worked.
As Jacob had mentioned, just because a solution was simple didn't mean it was inherently wrong. Or something like that. As stupid as it felt, I typed "cold woman" into my computer.
Nothing.
I tapped the keys, wondering if this was a waste of time. If finding the answer was really this simple, I would have figured it out by now. At least it was better than doing nothing.
I typed "snow woman" into the search bar. There were significantly more hits for this one. I went to the next page of results, but couldn't find anything useful. New plan.
The legends of the Forbidden came from a million different cultures. If "snow woman" was an important phrase, maybe I couldn't find the right link because it wasn't in English. I went to translate and entered the phrase again, changing the language to see if I could find anything new.
Kar kadın. Mulher da neve. برف عورت. Gynaíka chióni. Yuki Onna.
Yuki Onna.
Yuki Onna (n): A deadly woman, often cloaked in white, who can summon snow and sometimes blizzards. Often has a special connection to children, long black hair, and pale skin.
I stared at the picture in awe. It looked exactly like what had killed Flora that day.
Yuki Onna.
I finally had a name for Josh, Rowan, and Flora's killer. It really was that simple. I wasn't sure whether to shout with happiness or slam my computer into the wall for taking this long to figure it out. I decided on neither. I didn't want to draw attention to myself right now.
I grabbed my phone and quickly called Makaya's number.
"What is it, Honey?" Makaya asked as soon as she picked up.
"Yuki Onna!" I exclaimed a little too loud. I realized my mistake and walked out of my room to make sure no one had heard. "Yuki Onna." I repeated at a more reasonable level with the door closed. "That's what we're looking for."
"You're sure?" Makaya asked.
"Yeah. There's this Japanese legend that matches it almost exactly. You need to tell the court so we can make a list of everyone in town with the right predispositions." I said, starting to get excited.
"Slow down. We need to think this through." said Makaya. "I think it's smarter if we keep this whole thing between us."
"Why?" I asked.
"First of all, doesn't onna mean woman in Japanese? Because that would mean that the predispositions for a yuki onna include being Japanese and a female. Does that sound like someone you know?" Makaya asked.
"Mrs. Moriyama?" I questioned.
"Her and Mrs. Pearce," said Makaya. "I know almost everything about Setsuka, but there's one thing she likes to keep private. I don't know what type of Forbidden she is. If it's actually her, we need to keep this operation as discreet as possible."
"So what now?" I asked.
"I can make a list of people with the predispositions of a yuki onna. I'll get it to you as soon as possible. Then you can do some old fashioned detective work." said Makaya.
"Sounds good." I agreed.
"We're gonna get her. One way or another, this is going to end." Makaya promised. The call disconnected.
I fell back onto my bed, relieved. This was going to end. Somehow.
I wasn't used to being taken seriously. It didn't take much to convince Makaya that I knew what I was talking about. I remembered when I had tried presenting my werewolf theory to Dad, only to get shot down immediately. But now it was different.
Maybe the things I said were worth listening to. I thought about what I had told Finn in the heat of the moment. Even now, I stood behind every word. The Agency was twisted. Dad was twisted. The way he had raised Finn and I was cruel, and Mom wasn't innocent for just standing by as she watched us get fed a steady diet of fear.
I wasn't afraid anymore. I wasn't even angry. I was ready.
A/N: Finally! We have an actual legend to match the killer! I don't think I've seen any correct guesses about the type of Forbidden so far. But a lot of you guys were on the right track. There were a lot of comments that said the Forbidden was of Japanese origin. We're so close to finding out who our killer is... get excited!
QOTD: Do you think Finn could actually turn against the Agency?