ADWF - Bonus - Emancipated (Patreon)

=::= Claire PoV =::=

It was getting towards dusk as we pulled into the driveway at Sue and Kaitlyn's place. She shut off the engine and gave me a hopeful smile, "I'm happy you're moving in with us, even if it's not under the best circumstances."

I smiled back at her, "Thanks Kaitlyn. Me too."

We both got out of the van and opened the sliding door. I grabbed my backpack, laptop, and a couple bags of clothes. Katie picked up my pillows and another bag, then closed the door on the minivan and led me up the steps to the front door of the house.

Once we were inside, we went up the front staircase together to the second floor. Then down the hall to the end and through the door on the left, into my room. It was a nice sized bedroom, located at the back of the house. 

There was a queen-size bed against the wall on the right. On the wall opposite the door was a window that overlooked the side yard. There was a little table below the window, in between two big comfy chairs. The wall on the left had a large dresser in the middle, with a flat-screen TV on top. There were two doors, one on either side of the dresser. The one nearest the hall was a closet, and the door on the other side opened to a small washroom. It didn't have a tub, but there was a shower stall, toilet, and sink.

All in all it was a pretty cool room, compared to what I had at my parents house. I felt a little bad that I'd be taking up space Susan could have otherwise made money on all summer, but she and Kaitlyn both said it was ok.

There were two more rooms like this on the second floor. The house had a third floor, but that was just for Susan and Katie. The front staircase had a locked door blocking off access to the top floor. And there was a back staircase but another locked door kept it separate from the guest area on the second floor.

I'd been here a few times before, I knew Sue had a large master-bedroom at the back of the third floor. Katie's bedroom was smaller, near the front of the house on the same floor as Susan's room. In between they had a small cosy living-room on one side and a large bathroom on the other side.

Down on the main floor, the front of the house was the 'public' side for the guests. There was a fourth guest bedroom that was wheelchair accessable, and a large living-dining room where guests could relax and where breakfast was served. The back half of the ground floor was the 'private' side, with their large kitchen and a good-sized laundry-storage room.

About the only thing I could complain about, though it wasn't really a complaint, was it was complicated getting from my room to Kaitlyn's or vice versa, if we wanted to hang out together.

From my bedroom door I'd have to go the length of the hall to the front of the house, down the staircase, then through the living-dining room into the kitchen, across the kitchen to the back staircase, then all the way up to the top floor. Then I'd have to walk the length of the house yet again to Katie's bedroom at the front.

Realistically it wasn't all that bad. And it was way better than trying to get together from my parents' place. We lived about eight kilometres apart, so one of us needed to get a lift or borrow a car whenever we wanted to see each other.

After we dumped all my stuff on the bed, me and Kaitlyn turned around to go get the next load from the minivan. As we went down the stairs we ran into Susan, who'd come from the kitchen to see how we were doing.

"Hello Claire," she greeted me, "How did everything go?"

I smiled, "Hi Sue. I guess it went ok? There was only a little shouting. Nobody threw anything, nobody got hurt, nothing got broken."

She frowned and looked a little worried, "I'm glad to hear that, but I hope that's not what you expected to happen."

I shrugged, "Not really? I figured there'd be more shouting though, and maybe some threats."

Susan looked to her step-sister and asked sort of hesitantly, "Katie, did you have to resort to magic at all?"

"Yeah," Kaitlyn replied calmly. "Nothing bad though? Mister Davis kind of trapped us on the staircase, and I was afraid he was going to get pushy with Claire and me? So I teleported us both past him and out to the minivan."

Sue's eyebrows went up when she heard that. "Oh my. I assume he saw that?"

I grinned, "Yeah he sure did. He was pretty confused. But it got us clear without any trouble, and we were able to leave without things getting too bad."

"I'm glad to hear that," Susan smiled. "Do you two need a hand bringing things inside?"

"No thanks," I shook my head. "I think we'll have it all with two more trips."

Sue seemed a little surprised, "Oh? You didn't leave anything behind did you?"

I shook my head again, "Not really? I got everything I wanted, everything I needed. I left my winter stuff behind but I don't exactly need that right now. I guess we could go back some other time and see if it's still there."

"All right," she smiled, "I'll leave you both to it."

She added to Kaitlyn, "I'll be upstairs, please lock up when you're done."

"Ok Maddie," the small redhead replied. "I'm probably going to hang out with Claire and help her unpack and stuff, but I'll see you before bedtime."

Susan just smiled then she turned and headed back through the door into the kitchen, while me and Kaitlyn went out the front door and over to the minivan.

"Things will start getting busy on Friday but there's no guests here tonight," Katie said with a smile as she opened the door on the minivan. "So we can stay up late and just hang out if you like, after we get all your stuff put away."

I smiled back, "Sounds good. We should have picked up some snacks or something."

"We still can," she pointed out. "Once we get your stuff inside we can always head back out and grab something."

"Great!" I grinned.

I was still smiling as the two of us pulled more of my stuff out of the minivan. She had one bag of clothes and I had three of the heavier bags. I watched as she closed up the minivan again.

Then as we both turned to go back into the house I spotted something out of the corner of the eye and my smile vanished. 

My dad was there in his car. The tires squealed as he turned into the driveway a little too fast, and for a split second I thought he was going to run us down. I dropped my stuff and grabbed Katie and pulled her clear of the driveway.

My dad hit the brakes, he stopped just short of the bags I'd dropped. My heart was racing, I had no idea if he was just trying to scare us or if he was going to get violent. I stood there with an arm around Kaitlyn and stared at him. She was still holding the one bag of clothes. I wasn't prepared to go back in front of his car to retrieve the ones I'd dropped though. Not while he was still sitting there with the engine running.

He left the car running but he swung the door open and got out. He still looked angry as he demanded "Claire what the hell do you think you're doing here?!"

My arm was still around Kaitlyn's shoulders, and I felt her muscles tense as he yelled.

I gulped and tried to sound brave and defiant as I replied "I told you, I'm moving in with my girlfriend."

Dad scowled, "That's bullshit girl! You're not queer, your mother and I raised you right! Now get in the car, I'm taking you home."

"No," I shook my head. "I'm staying here with Kaitlyn and Sue."

"Like hell you are!" He stalked towards me as he said "You're coming home right now!"

Kaitlyn dropped the bag she was holding and stepped forward, putting herself between my dad and me. On the one hand it was sort of comical, she was a tiny skinny girl, my dad was six-foot-two and probably weighed twice as much as my girlfriend. 

On the other hand I knew Kaitlyn was really almost six hundred years old, she was a fae mage, and she used to be evil. I didn't know the details of what sorts of stuff she'd done in the past, but it suddenly struck me she might have killed people. And now she was facing off against my dad.

I felt a chill go through me. For all my joking, for all my talk about zapping my folks with magic or whatever, I didn't actually want them to get hurt. And if my dad tried something, my skinny little girlfriend could potentially kill him right here in front of me.

Dad hesitated as he looked down at Kaitlyn. Not out of fear or anything like that, he just looked confused. Like he was wondering what this tiny girl thought she was doing.

"Mister Davis," Katie said quietly. "This is private property, and you aren't welcome here. I'm asking you to please leave."

My mind was racing and I didn't know what to do. I only knew a half dozen spells, and only one of them seemed like it would be useful right now. It would leave my dad sort of frozen or stunned for a minute or two. Enough time for me and Kaitlyn to grab my stuff and get into the house. But in my panic I couldn't remember how to cast it. 

I had my crystals, I had the power I needed, and I'd been learning fae magic for eight months. Now that I really needed it, my mind was going blank and I didn't know what to do.

Dad seemed to get over his surprise at having Kaitlyn standing up to him. He took a step forward and reached out for her and me, when the front door of the house flew open. Sue came storming out with her phone in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. I'd never seen her angry before, but she actually looked frightening.

She had the bat pointed towards my dad as she shouted "Get away from those girls and get the hell off my property!"

My dad stopped and looked at Sue. He stated angrily "I'm here for my daughter!"

Susan moved quickly to get herself between my dad and me, taking Katie's place. Kaitlyn stepped back next to me.

"Claire is eighteen, she's an adult now and she can make her own decisions," Susan replied in a firm voice. "And she's decided she wants to stay here. Isn't that right Claire?"

I gulped but nodded. My heart was still racing but I tried to sound confident and brave, "Yes! I'm staying here dad! I'm moving in with my girlfriend and her sister!"

Dad looked back and forth between me and Susan. For a few seconds I wasn't sure what he was going to do, if he was going to try and grab me or whatever. He was bigger and stronger than Sue and me, but she had the bat and we had him outnumbered.

He finally glared at me and said "Fine. Then that's it, you stay here. Don't bother coming back, and don't expect any money or anything else."

He turned and got in his car. The tires squealed as he pulled back out onto the road, then he drove off back towards home.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. Sue turned to Katie and I and asked, "Are you both ok? He didn't hurt you did he?"

"I think we're fine," Kaitlyn replied. 

"Yeah," I nodded. I felt shaky though as the adrenaline was leaving me. "We're ok..."

Susan picked up the bags I'd dropped, and the three of us went back into the house together. 

As we headed up the stairs towards my room again, I asked "Hey Kaitlyn? Why didn't you use magic? Why'd you just stand there waiting for him to do something?"

"I did use magic," she replied with a little shrug. "I used a telepathy spell to call Maddie and asked her to come help us."

We dumped the last of my stuff on the bed and I stared at her, "A telepathy spell? But you could have made him leave? And what if Sue couldn't scare him off, what if he actually tried to grab me, or hurt us or something?"

Katie sighed, "I wouldn't have let him hurt you Claire, and I wouldn't have let him take you. But like I keep saying? I don't want to hurt anyone. And I wasn't going to use any kind of mind spell on him to send him away. I knew Maddie would help us, and she was ready to call the police if she had to."