Conjuring Dragons by Chante Francis (surface ebook reader TXT) 📕

Chapter One

            Tucked away in our room on the second floor, my sister and I crouched at the only vent of use. Silently listening in on a conversation occurring downstairs, we waited to hear our fate. If we strained hard enough we could hear the caretakers of our orphanage animatedly arguing back and forth, with no real end in sight. We weren’t the least bit alarmed as the harshest of threats and accusations were thrown around left and right. That type of speech seemed pretty standard when the subject was related to either of us.

            "She blew up the fucking barn!” Miss Mij yelled over the others. Her use of profanity so early in the conversation served as proof of how pissed off she was. She obviously had stopped caring whether or not the other children heard her, “We're lucky none of the animals were in there!".

            "They’re demonic! I’ve told you time and again that we need to take them to the church!" Her sister, Miss Gladys shouted. She was demonstrating that like her sibling, she too did not care about disturbing the younger wards. They always forgot they existed when the time came again for them to try to convince David to get rid of us.

            As a moment of silence passes in the conversation I imagine that David is pinching the area between his eyes, I can see it all as though I was in the room. It’s all very predictable as Mr. Ruthford replies in his usual calm voice, "Ladies,” Cue loud sigh “please lower your voices.” Pause to make sure they’re listening, “I’m sure that you both remember we've already tried turning to religion. It hasn’t resolved this problem you both seem to claim we have with them. We've baptized them, practically drowned them in holy water, we’ve had priests pray over them, had them adorn crosses and we've gotten them both exorcisms.” We hear the door to the room open and one of the little kids excitedly alert everyone that they saw a car at the gate, before rushing out. “Everything leads me to believe that the girls are simply suffering from some type of mental illness brought on by their situation, or they’re acting out for the attention we have not been able to provide them with." Another brief moment of silence as I imagine he’s shaking his head. Slight smile on his face as he marvels at his own ability to diagnose everything and everyone around him. “Now with that being said I believe this conversation is over. Would you ladies like to join me in the front room to greet our unexpected guests?”

            Continuing on like he hadn’t spoken we hear, “The things those girls are capable of are nothing short of evil David. They’re sick twisted little bastards that probably sold their souls to the devil for his influence and powers!” We could actually hear the tremble in Miss Mij’s voice as her body shook with what had to be an unhealthy dose of disgust, knowing her, it was probably both disgust and prejudice.

            "Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean its evil." Veronica mumbles to me, as I roll my eyes.

            I smile up at her and say, "One more year and we'll be 18 and free. No group homes, no more foster homes and no orphanage." We had learned early on in our lives, that you have to have faith in something, even if it’s something miniscule or you risk losing yourself. Once you’ve lost yourself, it’s hard to find your way back. It’s already hard enough to keep living every day, faith in an impending reprieve just makes it a little easier.

            "You really don’t seem to understand David! I told her to clean the stables, as punishment for getting expelled from school--"

            "You see David?! Even the nuns couldn’t handle them!" Gladys interrupts sounding exhausted, the old bat was well past her prime.

            "--she wouldn’t listen, so I used a little bit of force. Next thing you know, the barn is on fire and she’s smiling like she’s the damn Cheshire cat from Alice in wonderland!" I shiver at the malice in her voice. "Do you know what she said after it burnt to a crisp?! Do you?” I can just imagine the hot steam coming out of her ears, slowly at first as the anger builds to new levels, “Ouch!”

            My sister glares at me as I whisper “Whoops”, immediately I remove the image from my mind before a trip to the hospital is needed.

            “Well David?!" Her sister chimes in for her, as I’m guessing she’s too busy rubbing her ears.

            Veronica turns to look at me, one eyebrow raised, silently asking me for my side of the story. My vision starts clouding over, and I begin to see red, "She slapped me. She slapped me and then dared to say that mom was some irresponsible slag who couldn’t keep her legs closed. I couldn’t help it. I just got so mad..." I started to seethe so much that I could no longer speak, I just crouched there grinding my teeth. I felt invisible fingers in my mind, like someone trying to get in, so I closed my eyes and replayed the memory for my sister to see.

            She watched my flashback and swore when it finished. She opened her mouth to say something to me, but was cut off by the sound of the doorbell floating into our room.

            We heard shuffling through the open vent, before the room below cleared out. Unfortunately for us, our closet sized room on the second floor in the back of the house was in no position to allow us to hear what was happening at the front of the old building.

            Veronica sighed and shut the vent before moving around in the cramped space so she was sitting across from me, her back leaning on the filthy mat she was forced to use as a bed. I mimicked her posture, sitting to lean on my own mat, our knees brushed and she stared into my eyes. We were quiet for a moment, both thinking of the conversation we were about to have.

            She would tell me that using my powers out in the open like that was risky and stupid. I would tell her that it was a moment of weakness, and I lost control for a bit. She would sigh and tell me that in this world we couldn’t afford to lose control, we couldn't afford to slip up. I would tell her that no one would know, because right after, I handed Miss Mij a box of matches and came back to the orphanage. She would ask me where I got the matches with a raise of her eyebrow, and I would sigh and say I pulled it from the kitchen drawer. She would scowl and say it was dangerous and what if she had noticed. I would tell her that the woman is going blind and doesn’t pay attention to detail. She would get exasperated with me and give up. I would feel guilty for endangering her as well and we wouldn’t speak to each other for a few minutes.

            I sighed and closed my eyes, effectively ending our argument before it could even begin. I felt Veronica get up and sit on her lumpy bed, putting a little space between us for comfort. I feel her staring at me as I open my eyes and stretch my legs. When I look up I see that she’s closed her eyes and has started massaging her temples. Futilely trying to get rid of the headache I’m causing her as she starts stressing too much.

            "I just don’t want to see you get hurt Jyps. You're all I have left in this world."

            "Mom's still out there." I remind her, although I know it’s no use thinking about her. We've never known her, and although she’s blood, Veronica doesn’t consider her family.

"We can’t be sure of that. We don’t even know what she looks like, we know absolutely nothing about her. What if she doesn’t want us? I mean obviously she doesn’t or else she wouldn’t have brought us here." Veronica states, knowing fully well that’s what I was thinking.

Veronica and I are strange like that, yes, most twins are close but we’re different. We were the same person, but complete opposites at the same time. We had an unbreakable bond, and we could read each other perfectly, even without our powers. It’s like we shared half of our minds, in a connection that was never lost, yet we still had a separate mind from the other. It was strange, and had been there long before we received our powers on our 13th birthday; it was something we were born with.

"Someone’s coming!" Veronica hissed, breaking me out of my thoughts. My hand flew up just in time to catch the book she threw to me as the door opened. We looked up to see Miss Gladys' face of perpetual revulsion shining down upon us.

"Pack up all your crap." she said with a sneer before turning around to go back downstairs.

"Miss Gladys?" I said as politely as was possible for me, my face the picture of innocence.

Without turning, she said to us, "It seems that someone is foolish enough to enter the adoption process for you."

Chapter Two

"Which of us will be going?" Veronica asked while sliding over to my side to grab my hand.

"Thankfully both of you." She sped up her pace, not wanting to spend any more time around us than absolutely necessary. We watched as she practically sprinted down the stairs, before turning to grin at each other.

We had no reason to believe that we were going to a good home where we would be loved and understood, but we still stood there grinning like idiots for a few moments before jumping into hyper drive to pack the few things we owned. We threw all of our clothes into our backpacks, which consisted of only about 6 pairs of jeans between us and about 8 shirts. We grabbed our shoes; we only had one pair each, and slipped them on. Veronica began stuffing our few possessions into both of our bags as I brushed my hair. Once I was done I threw her the brush which she used and stuck in my bag while I found the borrowed screw driver.

She hopped over me and shut our room door, leaning her weight on it so no one would see as I pried the floor board open. Once the corner popped out of place, I pulled it up, successfully disconnecting it from the rest of the floor. I quietly reached in to grab the envelope we had cryptically received on our thirteenth birthday.

At first it was hard to obtain, my fingers just brushing against the edge, but with a sigh from my sister