ADWF - bonus - Excruciated (Patreon)

*** Content warning: Mind reading, disturbing imagery, mention of sexual assault. ***

=::= Keira PoV =::=

Kelly and I sat next to each other on the sofa, while granddad sat across from us on a chair. My twin and I were both keeping a very close watch on the small fae girl before us. We were in her and Susan's private living-room, on the top floor of their house.

Kaitlyn was just wearing a nightgown, while Kelly and I were in jeans and t-shirts. Tegan brought us out east to Cape Breton unannounced, so granddad wouldn't have any warning or any chance to prepare herself for our visit.

Tegan made me and Kelly promise we wouldn't hurt her, but that was a promise I was prepared to break. I hadn't forgotten what she tried to do to Kelly. And I hadn't forgiven her for what she did to Amy.

And knowing she had the power to start doing those sort of things again set all my nerves on edge.

At least my sister and I were ready now. We'd both been fully fae for nearly three years, and in that time we'd both been studying and learning more about granddad's old tricks. I'd become pretty adept at the sort of mind magic she used to use. Kelly was reluctant at first, but even she gradually realized we were better off knowing those spells.

And being prepared to face Kaitlyn also meant we were ready to deal with any other fae too. I had no doubt there were more out there who were just as nasty as our granddad used to be. 

Kelly and I had also become pretty strong with magic over the past few years. Everyone tended to overlook us in that respect, since our girlfriend outshined every fae mage alive. I didn't mind that though. It meant people underestimated Kelly and me. I had a feeling though that it wouldn't be long before we could call ourselves mages too. 

/She doesn't look scared,/ Kelly said to me through our link. 

I thought back, /No, she's pretty calm. Typical though. She was always overconfident./

My twin agreed and added, /I still can't get over how much she looks like us now. She could be a third twin, just a few years younger and a lot smaller./

That almost made me scowl. I tried to keep my expression neutral though, I didn't want to give anything away to granddad. 

I responded to Kelly, /Maybe we should fix that./

/Let's not get ahead of ourselves,/ she responded. /You know we promised Tegan we wouldn't do anything to Kaitlyn. I don't want to break that promise until after we know for sure what she's really up to./

/Fine,/ I sighed. /I'll get started then./

I finally addressed granddad, "So you know why we're here? You know what we want to find out?"

Her eyes flicked back and forth between me and Kelly. Like my twin observed, the kid didn't look nervous. She wasn't acting full of bravado though, more like she was just calm or keeping her feelings to herself.

She replied in a soft, level voice "You're worried that I'm up to my old tricks again. You're worried that having made myself fae, I'm going to start abusing my power, that I'll start harming humans."

After a moment she added, "And I expect you want to know how I did it, how I was able to reverse part of Lady Tegan's spell."

Kelly nodded, "That's exactly what we want to know."

Kaitlyn asked, "Where would you like me to begin?"

I replied in a warning tone, "Begin by shutting up and staying put. We don't trust you to tell us the truth, you've obviously done a good job of keeping Tegan in the dark about a lot of things. I'm going to use a mind-reading spell, and if either me or Kelly sense you're using any magic what-so-ever, we may well end you right here and now."

"I understand Lady Keira," the kid replied calmly. "I will not resist."

She sat with her hands resting in her lap, her back against the back of the chair. I had to give it to her, she was an excellent actress. She completely sold the 'quiet docile teenage girl' performance. It wasn't hard to understand why Tegan had been fooled. She had Susan and Claire sold on it as well.

The three of them were downstairs waiting in the kitchen. I knew Susan and Claire were worried, Tegan probably was too. But this was for everyone's benefit. If Kaitlyn was up to no good, Sue and Claire would probably be among her first victims.

/Are you ready?/ Kelly asked. /I've got my magic sense active, I'm monitoring her closely. No sign of any spells on her, and there's nothing enchanted either. No crystals, no amulets, I don't see anything she could use to block or defend against you./

I nodded slightly, /Ready. I'm starting now./

/I'm with you,/ she confirmed. She was monitoring Kaitlyn, but Kelly was also listening in through our link. She'd see what I saw, she'd know what I learned.

I cast the mind-reading spell and focused on Kaitlyn. This wasn't just a light gentle look at her surface thoughts, it was a much stronger, much deeper spell. It would let me shove aside any attempts she might make to distract me by focusing on safe or mundane thoughts and memories. And it would let me dig into memories she'd forgotten, suppressed, or hid with magic.

It wasn't exactly the safest way to read her mind and it definitely wouldn't be comfortable for her, but considering who we were dealing with I figured it was justified. We needed the truth, not more lies and misdirection.

Kaitlyn winced and her muscles tensed as the spell connected. She didn't resist though. She took a few deep breaths to try and keep herself calm. There was a natural tendency to try and fight this sort of thing, but that would just make it hurt more. So she was doing her best to just relax and let it happen.

I started pushing backwards through the recent stuff. I saw Claire moving in with her, and the confrontation with Claire's father. A perfect opportunity for granddad to flex her magic muscles, but she didn't. She used telepathy to call Susan for help, rather than use any magic against the human. And before that she teleported herself and her girlfriend away rather than confront the father. 

That could have been staged, I realized. Or she could have been holding back, knowing Kelly and I would be coming to investigate. I pushed further back, deeper into the girl's memories.

An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach as I found Kaitlyn crying while Susan hugged her and comforted her. As the memory unfolded I saw the conversation between Susan and the kid, then the disagreement with Claire that led to it. Kaitlyn refused to use some simple mind-magic on Claire's parents. She refused to even teach her girlfriend the spell so she could do it herself. 

Claire wanted to make her folks stop being homophobic. It wasn't even a bad idea. Hell it's something I'd have done for her if she asked me. But Kaitlyn refused on principal. Because she didn't want to take even one step towards being the sort of person she used to be.

It wasn't what I expected from her at all. I wasn't entirely convinced though, and there were still several questions that hadn't been answered, so I kept looking. I pushed harder, dug deeper.

I found her memories of the ritual she and Claire did, to restore her fae nature. I reviewed the complicated spell she came up with that unravelled part of Tegan's curse. I felt the gratitude and love she held for her human friend. That hit me harder than I'd have expected. The kid didn't see Claire as a primitive lackey, to be used and discarded. She saw the girl as her equal, and the love she had for the goth teen felt as real to Kaitlyn as my own feelings towards Tegan.

Once again I felt uneasy, but I kept digging. I followed the thread of that ritual, that spell. I needed to know how she did it.

Her months of research opened up before me, and I felt a shock through my system. Kelly and me, we were the answer. When Tegan made us fully fae she purged all the humanity from us. That left Kaitlyn's original self as the sole source of our lineage. We were basically clones of that man, except Tegan said her spell would ensure we didn't look any different. She made us clones of Keenan, but kept us female, kept us twins. 

Tegan probably had no idea what her spell truly did. Kelly and I certainly never considered it, but Kaitlyn had. She knew our blood was her blood. We were her. The old her. The powerful evil her, from before. Just wrapped up in prettier packaging. And she knew she could use our blood to restore the part of herself she lacked. She could regain her original fae nature through us.

My mind reeled. No wonder Kelly and I were getting more and more powerful. In time we'd both be as strong as Kaitlyn once was. We were destined to stand among the most powerful mages in Otherworld.

I took a couple deep breaths to try and calm myself. There were still more questions. We knew Kaitlyn only started down this path last autumn, I wanted to know why. 

I found her first encounter with Claire. The light-spell she demonstrated in the school library. The conversation and introduction in the cafeteria. There was no answer to why, that had to be further back. So I kept digging until I found it.

The memory was deep, it almost seemed protected or barricaded. I wasn't sure if she was trying to hide it from me, or from herself. Either way I had to know so I pushed through. There was a sob of pain from the girl sitting across from me but I tuned it out.

There it was, last summer. July. Almost exactly a year ago. I pried it open so we could see what happened.

It began innocently enough. Kaitlyn was helping Susan with the Bed and Breakfast. It was mid-week, they had only one guest that day, a Toronto resident vacationing in Cape Breton. The guest was a tall, muscular man. He seemed pleasant enough at breakfast. He said he worked as a police officer back in Toronto, this was his first trip out east and he was here to visit family. Then Susan went out to run errands, while Kaitlyn was doing laundry. 

Their quiet pleasant guest slipped into the private part of the house and joined Kaitlyn in the laundry room, where he...

I suddenly felt nauseous, like my stomach was full of lead.

Kaitlyn was too small, too weak to fight back. Not that she would have anyways. He represented authority. He had no idea how lucky he was, but not only was Kaitlyn easily overpowered, she was also almost entirely docile and compliant to his wishes.

Because of my spell. Because of what I did to her.

When he was done, he threatened her. If she ever told Susan, if she went to the cops, if she said a word to anyone else, he'd kill both her and her sister. He told her he'd know, because of his connections.

So Katie kept quiet. She cleaned up the laundry room, cleaned up herself, and she never told another soul. But the threat remained. She knew she was too weak, too helpless to protect Susan, let alone herself. She realized her only hope was to find a way to access magic. She needed to be able to do more than cast a harmless light spell.

Her initial plan was to find a way to charge up crystals, so she could draw upon their power. That was good enough. It was slow, inefficient, and limited. But it let her access enough power that she had a means to protect herself and Susan, at least long enough to call Tegan for help.

Then when the three of us had to return to Otherworld, Katie knew she couldn't rely on us anymore. And worse, knowing the potential trouble could come in the form of human police, the same kind of person who assaulted her, she felt she had no choice. She had to do whatever she could to ensure her loved ones would be safe.

So she took the chance and performed the ritual, she broke just enough of Tegan's spell to let her regain her fae nature. She didn't break it all though. She wanted to keep being Kaitlyn. And she didn't touch my spell at all. 

She was actually grateful for what I'd done to her, even though my spell indirectly contributed to her assault last year. Because two and a half years ago she realized who and what she was and what she'd been doing to people. And that shook her core deeper and stronger than anything either Tegan or I did.

The memory of that experience flooded my mind, and through me into Kelly. 

The trip to Vancouver. The last time Kelly and I saw our mom. Tegan relented and agreed not to leave the kid with Kelsey. Then the breakdown, the realization of everything she'd done, all the lives she'd stolen and destroyed. That was the moment she truly became Kaitlyn. Not because of my spell, not because of the way I manipulated her, and not even because of the physical changes Tegan did to her. 

She became Kaitlyn that evening in Tegan's guest room, and both me and Kelly were oblivious. Only Tegan knew what happened, when she found the kid crying in bed.

/Keira that's enough,/ Kelly's thoughts pushed through Kaitlyn's memories into my awareness. /End the spell, stop digging. Please!/

Her tone was pleading, and I could feel her pain. It mirrored my own, and Katie's. I felt a shock as it suddenly hit me. By forcing myself on Kaitlyn with this spell, forcing her to relive these memories, I was practically doing the same thing to her now with my magic that the cop did last summer. 

A wave of shame passed through me as I broke off the connection and ended the spell.

I was still looking at Kaitlyn, but I'd been so focused on her memories I hadn't noticed till now that she was crying. Then I realized Kelly was too. And so was I.

/She needs a hug,/ Kelly thought to me. /So do I./

/I need a hug./

My eyes widened, /Who said that?/

Kelly and I turned to look at each other, then back at Kaitlyn. Meanwhile Katie was staring at us both in confusion as she sniffed and asked "What's happening?"

I was too startled to respond but Kelly just reached an arm out and said, "Come here Katie. Please?"

The kid got to her feet. She wiped her eyes as she slowly approached me and my twin. She looked nervous and confused, and above all she looked vulnerable. When Kaitlyn was close enough, Kelly took hold of her and gently pulled her onto the sofa between us. Me and Kelly both wound up sort of hugging our little sister as a wave of love and regret passed back and forth through our bond.

"Kaitlyn I'm sorry," I whispered. "I had no idea."

/Sorry for what? Why is she apologizing to me?/

I shook my head as I responded, /For everything I did to you. For everything I said to you. For the things I accused you of, and what I suspected you were doing. And for what I did just now. For the pain I caused you, for the memories I forced you to relive./

/Why can I hear your thoughts? What does this mean? Did you do this?/ 

Kelly and I could both feel the confusion she was experiencing.

My twin responded, /Keira and I share a mental and emotional connection. Because we're fae twins. It was an unexpected side-effect of Tegan's magic. Now that bond has extended to include you as well./

Kaitlyn sniffed quietly and frowned, /Why did it just happen now? Why didn't it happen before?/

The answer came to me, and I held her a little closer as I shared it with them both. /It couldn't happen until Kelly and I accepted you as our sister. As long as we saw you as... As who you used to be, our minds kept you blocked out./

Another wave of emotions washed between the three of us as Kaitlyn understood what that meant. 

Finally Kelly said, /Me and Keira have to go and speak with Tegan. We'll send Claire and Sue up to be with you, ok Katie?/

/Thank you,/ Kaitlyn replied as she fought back another wave of tears. /Thank you both./