A/N: Pause for a moment and vote for this chapter. Thanks!
Chapter 9 – Double, Double Toil and Trouble
Self-deception. A process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception. This was the word that dominated Cameron's thoughts as he carried Melissa's unconscious body through her living room and out the front door.
It was the word he'd seen on a notebook that he'd magicked off the table of a therapist he and his brothers had seen after their parents had died. Demonstrates an extreme sense of denial and self-deception with regards to the physical absence of his parents, which further stems into hallucination, the notes had read in unfeeling block letters.
At the time he'd only had a rudimentary understanding of that observation and, admittedly, had opted to ignore it. But after two years of dealing with his grief, having grown and become more aware, he'd recalled his stolen glance at the recorded machinations of his mind during what he considered his 'hard months' and decided to understand them better.
After some extensive research (a visit to Wikipedia and various online health forums), the basic idea he'd gathered was that he, as the affected individual, had undergone a paradoxical thought process. Presented with a traumatic yet logical fact, he'd convinced himself that the converse of it was the truth. This made sense to him, as his clearest memory of the day after his parents had died was Melissa's parents and a social worker giving him the news, and thinking over and over that it couldn't possibly true. That his parents were powerful witches, and that nothing could actually kill them.
The following days sort of blurred together as various travels sprinkled with a stream of seemingly rational thoughts. A trip to court to handle guardianship issues. My parents are fine. A visit to the foster home where he and his brothers would be living. Dad's probably working late again. Returning home to pack their clothes and belongings. Mom will be home to tuck me in.
Somewhere along the line during his first months at the home, he ended up in a continual daze in which he genuinely believed his parents were with him. He couldn't physically see them, but he could feel them nearby, and hear their responses in his head when he spoke to them. The other kids naturally found him weird, and a few boys even picked on him, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by a threatening stance from Landon, who had already started growing into his height by then.
One day, though, he simply couldn't feel them anymore, and it crushed him inside. He got used to being without them, though, and with the help of Landon, integrated into the society at the home. But now, as he cowered against the snow-dotted wind while stumbling towards his house, he could feel his mind slipping into that same perpetual delusion from when he was twelve.
Objectively, it wasn't as traumatic a discovery as the death of his parents, but then he couldn't possibly see it objectively. And so he began to hear a voice in his head that kept telling him that everything was just fine. Melissa is your bound witch, it told him. She loves you unconditionally. She could never hurt you. She could never be with anyone else.
But this time around, it was harder for him to fashion a truth for himself. This time, he couldn't escape the reality – not with the weight of Melissa's body bearing down on his arms, her skin growing cold under his swollen hands, and blood staining her lips. Not when he had seen her more-than-kissing Anson, and beaten him to her pulp, and put a sleep spell on Melissa to stop her from making his brain explode.
YOU ARE READING
Cursed (The Spellbound Series, #2)
Fantasy"Pain is a difficult feeling to escape." Melissa has finally come to terms with being a witch, and after the battle with those who had killed her parents, she is ready to get back to her normal life. Well, as normal as her life could be, now that sh...
