She stepped off the plane and walked across the private landing site into her family’s shiny white limousine. She sat down in a comfortable leather seat while her bags were taken into another, less stylish vehicle. She was clean and fresh from the shower she had taken on the aircraft. The chauffer shut the door behind her as she slid her seatbelt into its lock.
“Isn’t this a nice welcome for the prodigal daughter’s return?”
Daphne turned towards Michelle’s intense look, and smiled ironically.
“Did you slaughter your best calf for me then? Oh, wait, you can’t kill your son, he’s your ticket, isn’t he.”
Michelle sipped from a champagne glass.
“We’ll see.”
“You’re revolting. What are you going to do with him if he isn’t what you thought he would be?”
“Then he’s as worthless as you and disposable as your father.”
“You’d kill him?”
“No,” she put on a face of false torment. “I might just have his memories erased and put into an orphanage or something.”
Daphne rolled her eyes at a typical, heartless Michelle response.
“And yet you tell me all this because….”
“Because if you live past tonight, you will not be living in this country, and you will never be able to come back to this country.”
“You do realize that I am 19 and you have no legal power over me…you never did, remember, even when you married dad.”
Michelle twitched in irritation.
“Trifles. I have powers over the airways and in the government. Don’t forget that Daphne.”
“Whatever. Just try, you obsessive whore.”
Daphne had not seen Depp for over a year and a half. She had learned not to miss him, but when she saw his cute face, his enormous brown eyes, and his floppy golden hair, her heart melted again.
“Daphne, you came for my birthday!!!”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” How true that was.
Ian came into the room and spoke, “The birthday ceremony will take place in ten minutes. Please come to the Banquet Hall.”
The two step-siblings walked along after Ian. There wasn’t much changed in the familiar hallway, except any pictures of Daphne had been removed, Daphne noticed. There were none of her father’s favourite paintings, either.
The Banquet Hall was huge, and decorated for a boy just about to turn ten years old. But it was so sinister to Daphne. She noticed that the cake had already been cut, and there were thus no knives in the room. There were spoons to eat cake and ice cream with.
“Damn,” Daphne said silently. The only weapon-like things she had were her high heels, nails, teeth, and a cell phone.
Michelle hugged her son. If you didn’t know her, you might have actually thought she loved Depp.
Daphne looked at the clock. Five minutes left.
She looked over at Depp and his mother. She was helping him up onto the dais of the “Birthday Chair” the one specifically built when he was born to be used every year at his birth moment, to see if the prophecy was true.
The five minutes slipped by as they sang “Happy Birthday”, and started to have the cake distributed and the gifts come in. Then the timer rang.
As soon as it did, Daphne felt dread enter her heart and knew right away that Michelle was getting her wish tonight, and that she had to be prepared to escape.
An unearthly radiance took over the room and Depp was flooded with a burning white light throughout his entire body.
Daphne backed to the door.
But what about Depp, she couldn’t leave him here…
She ran out of the room, and no one noticed. She ran to his room, and packed a bag with his stuff, and then she ran to hers and grabbed her clothes that had not been unpacked.
Now she just had to kidnap Depp.
She ran back to the Banquet Hall.
She knew what could happen to Depp.
She remembered when Michelle hadn’t hated her so much, back when she thought that she could use Daphne. She had taken her into the room with the door made of some iridescent, non-solid stuff. The room had no smell, and was simply a round room made entirely of glass. She had seen pictures float in and out of sight on the glass. She was amazed, and thought it the best treat, especially when Michelle had promised she could visit here anytime, just as soon as she turned ten. And that was just two months away! Daphne had thought that maybe her new stepmother, already almost nine months pregnant, wasn’t going to be as horrible as she imagined.
“Daphne, love, I want you to try something, just to make sure that you will be able to come here again…sort of like seeing if you can figure out the password, because you always have to unlock the door before you can come in here.”
“Ok!” Daphne said as she looked at her stepmother. Michelle really was beautiful, she thought, especially when she looked so happy. And it really didn’t seem like a ridiculous request, it made sense, didn’t it?
“What do I have to do?”
“See how there are pictures on the glass? Pictures of people doing things?”
“Yea, it’s like a bunch of movies playing at the same time.”
“Exactly, darling.” Michelle grinned. “I am glad you pick up so quickly. All right, so what I need you to do is focus on that picture right there…”
Daphne looked to her right at a man who had a worried expression. “That one?”
“Yes, Daphne. Now, I am going to tell you a story. A long time ago, this man made fun of me. You know how I am going to have your little brother soon?”
“Yes!” Daphne was overjoyed at the prospect of a sibling, especially when the doctors said it was a boy. She longed for a little brother.
“Well, this isn’t the first time that I have expected to have a child, that man made me pregnant years ago, and then, when I wasn’t sure of what he was doing, he made the baby die before it was born, because he was a selfish man.”
“He killed your baby?” Daphne said, troubled.
“Yes”
“That’s horrible. So she never lived to see anything?”
“No, she never saw the sun, or trees or birds or anything at all, Love.”
Daphne started crying.
“Don’t cry Daphne, it was a long time ago. But I wanted to kill him, He deserved it, and no one would blame me, it wouldn’t even be illegal.”
“Really? You wouldn’t have got in trouble if you killed him?”
“I wouldn’t, because he had killed someone first, so I would just be making it right.” Michelle lied, false tears in her eyes. “I guess I should have, when you see it like that. He had no right. I even had a name for the baby.”
“What?” Daphne asked.
Michelle sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Emma.”
Emma. Daphne’s mother had been named Emma, and she had been killed too. Just like the poor baby. What an evil man. The thought of the baby being killed and her mother being killed, and never finding the murderer for the mother, and never punishing the murderer for the baby, started to make Daphne sob. She was so angry, as she looked at the man, calmly reading a book in his big chair. Why did he deserve to be alive? Why did Emma have to get killed? Why did her mother have to get killed?
Her angry tears flowed faster, blurring her vision. She blinked them clear.
Using one of the words she had recently picked up from her nanny, “You asshole!” she yelled at the man. She could feel her body vibrating, and remembered moments from her life before her mother died. She remembered her funeral. She imagined if Emma was alive, she would have had her as a step-sister right now.
Michelle looked at her step-daughter, a small grin forming on her face
“Don’t you think he deserves to die? Just like he killed Emma. Just like someone killed your mother.”
It never occurred to Daphne to wonder why Michelle knew her mother was killed, when everyone was told it was cancer. But the words she said took effect.
Daphne yelled at the man. “I want you to die!”
She felt a strange, huge energy she couldn’t control run throughout her body. She stared at the man and screamed at him. Instantly, she felt the energy flow towards the man on the glass wall. The next instant, his calm facial expression had turned to one of terror. Then, he was writhing on the floor, pain all over his face as his body spasmed.
Michelle laughed. “Do it, Daphne, he deserves it! Do it for your mother!”
Daphne closed her eyes, the power humming in her body made her unable to hear the man’s screams or Michelle’s triumphant laughs. She squeezed her eyes even tighter, tears dropping like acid on her cheeks.
She screamed one more time, and then, suddenly, the power left her body and she fell on the floor panting.
She got up slowly. The Man in the Glass was dead, lying on the floor with blood coming out of his nose, his ears, and his teeth. There were no eyeballs in his sockets, they had exploded.
Daphne realized she had done that. She felt triumphant, especially when Michelle hugged her.
“Oh, you did so well! Now, you can come and visit here anytime!”
“But how do I make the door open?”
“All you have to do is stand in front of the door, and think of someone you hate. Then, you think about them dying so hard that the door will change to what it is right now,”
“That’s all?”
“Yes, sweetie, that’s all.”
And then Michelle and Daphne left the room, while the man lay dead on his carpet.
