CONTENT WARNING: Child Abuse/ Slight blood and gore mention

After the night of events, Darren saw Amelia in a new light, when she wanted him to wait the next night to reveal her true intentions of helping the group. At first, Darren thought Amelia was an extremely nosy person who needed to mind her business. However, based on the conversation last night, he knew Amelia was being serious right now. Sitting in the study room of the safe house, he observed Chantel looking at the latest news articles in a gossip magazine.

Watching her flip the pages, Darren saw Chantel was reading an article about Mark and Linda. His eyes went wide when he saw the article on how his old band leader became the hottest new star on the scene. Darren nudged to his friend’s shoulder to hand him the gossip magazine for him to read. Without hesitation, Chantel hands the magazine over to the mage, then he flips through the pages. As he was reading, the biggest part that stood out to him was the fact that his brother and Linda were dating!

It was the most random thing he ever heard since his time here! One question came to his mind: How in the hell Linda downgraded from dating her grumpy boyfriend, Dana, to his narcissist brother, Mark?! There was no doubt in his mind that something sinister was happening to her behind the scenes. The doors swing open with Leticia, Amelia, and Toby coming into the room. Darren puts the magazine down to focus on the group that comes in.

The three of them sat down on the opposite couch, right across from Chantel and him. All was quiet within the group. Amelia took out a big bowl and put it on the coffee table. 

“Tobias, can you get and fill up a jar of water for me, please?” Amelia asked her brother, which he nodded to her request.

It did not take so long for the portal magic mage to come back to the room, carrying a large jar filled with water. Together, Amelia and he poured the water into the bowl. Darren watched over where Leticia's and Chantel had a look of confusion on their faces, while they observed what was happening. The mage felt his friend Chantel nudge him for his attention.

“What’s she doing, D?” Chantel asked as she continued watching Amelia taking out a spell book and flipping through the pages.

“I’m not entirely sure… But I know Amelia wants to tell us something big. The way she wants to do it is using her magic to tell us a story, I guess. What Amelia is doing a spell that my sister tried to do once when I was little to talk about our father, but she wasn’t success---,” Darren said, until Leticia interrupted him.

“What are you two are talking about?” The other girl butted in the conversation.

Amelia waved to the group, calling their attention once again. Darren noticed that Amelia’s face changed from smiles to frowns in a second. Toby had his hand on Amelia’s shoulder with a look of concern on his face. The music magic mage turned to her brother and saying to him that she was fine.

“I’m glad that all of you have the time to make it together. I just feel that I need to be honest with you guys. Instead of explaining to you all the truth, it’s better if I show it to you," She voiced, pulling out her wand, then pointing it at the water bowl. 

With a couple of chants, the water in the bowl fogged the room, which made Darren a little frightened of what will happen next. The entire room changed into a cold cave and they could see a little brunette girl standing in the cave. Her hair was in pigtails with red ribbons, wearing a black dress, and slip-on shoes. The little girl was trying to hold her wand, as her grip was shaking in fear. She pointed it at a boy, who looked at her in fear, curling into a ball.

Darren observed the little girl, who now dropped her wand on the ground. She collapsed and started crying until a loud voice boomed in the room.

“Augusta, darling, be a good girl and rough that dominant outsider up a bit more!” The voice shouted.

“No! No! I don’t wanna do it!” She screamed.

Darren noticed Amelia was standing next to the girl, who was crying. Toby grabbed her hand tight while the rest of Darren’s group continued to watch all this. The voice continued to torture the girl while trying to hurt the injured boy. The shouting went on until a tall man with similar colored hair as Augusta came over. He was wearing a long black coat with gold buttons underneath that business suit.

“Uncle Chancey, please, don’t make me hurt him… I don’t like that spell! It hurts people!” Augusta begged the man.

“Augusta, that boy is the reason people like your parents died! Also, this boy’s parents don’t want him. He is defective, powerless, and useless. However, he is only surviving his purpose to help strengthen you to become a powerful mage. That boy is okay with being hurt, my sweetie. Do what Master Farris would want you to do,” the man replied to her coldly.

“What the hell is wrong with this guy?!” Leticia screamed out, walking over to the man, then she shouted in the man’s face, “You are making an innocent child hurt someone! You should be arrested!”

The man did not respond to Leticia. Amelia explained, “Uncle Chancey can’t hear you… No one can hear you, Leticia.”

“It’s your memory, Amelia, right? You’re that little girl here, aren’t you?” Darren figured out what was going on here.

He saw Amelia just nod to them in response, without saying a single word. Toby then goes over to the three of them with ear plugs. The portal magic mage said, “This is the part where this will get bad. Put those ear plugs in now and when the bad part is over, we will signal you.”

Without even protesting, the three of them put the earplugs in as Toby and his sister did the same.  Darren did not know what would happen next, except that there was nothing they could do other than let Amelia’s memory play out. Darren watched Amelia’s uncle, Chancey continued scolding the young Amelia, who was almost on the verge of tears. The young Amelia gives her uncle her wand as he hands her a black flute. The girl positioned herself, gripping onto the instrument and glancing at the boy.

What happened next was just unbearable for the three of them to watch when young Amelia played her flute. Darren watched this boy twitch and screaming suddenly. The little boy then moved to banging his head on the hard cement floor repeatedly. So much blood spattered over the boy’s face and floor as his face went from horrified to happy. Every time the boy hits his head on the ground, young Amelia almost bursted into tears again. Whenever she tried to stop playing, her uncle placed his hand on her shoulders, preventing her from doing so.

As this horrid scene went on, Darren checked over to the older Amelia to see tears falling down from her face. He wanted the music magic mage just to stop this memory lane right here. This was too much, even for him. After the scene was over, Toby told them to take out the ear plugs when the young Amelia fell to the ground, once again crying, looking over the body of the now dead young boy. Suddenly, Amelia’s uncle dragged the young girl’s arm, forcing her to stand up.

Darren winced when he saw her uncle slap the young Amelia in the face. The crying stopped at once. No more tears, only just the young girl staring at her uncle with a blank face.

“I’m sorry, Augusta. But you need to learn: You cannot just fall apart in front of your enemies. Your sister and you have powerful magic, but you are the only one that is not taking your training seriously. Why can’t you be more obedient? Your sister is miles ahead of you! Perhaps I need to teach you differently then…”

“Uncle Chancey! I finished my training for today! I showed those outsiders who’s boss!” Another girl cheered, running up to the two of them.

The dark-brown-haired girl, who looked older than the young Amelia, wore a similar outfit to hers.

“Ah, Roxanna, good timing! I think you should teach your sister how to use her magic the RIGHT way,” Chancey praised the older girl as she returned a bright smile to him.

The girl, Roxanna, nodded, then took the young Amelia’s hand. Just before they left, their uncle turned his back to tell them one last thing. “You need to learn one thing, my dear niece Augusta. Your kind nature makes you weaker. You will never be a powerful mage for that attitude you have. Be more like your sister, Roxanna…” 

Darren, Leticia, and Chantel did not say a word after seeing all this. The three of them stood frozen like statues as they watched the dysfunctional family walk off. Everything was silent until Amelia burst out into rage. Looking over to where she was, Darren saw the music magic mage, holding her wand up and pointing it at her uncle. Amelia shouted spells loudly, shooting bursts of magic at him, but with every spell that hit the man, it went through him, diluting the illusion spell that she created.

For Darren, this was a hard scene to watch; to see the music mage almost having a breakdown seeing her past. Her loud pits of screaming and cursing made him chill down to his spine. Soon, Toby stepped in, then grabbed Amelia’s hand quickly to make her stop shooting spells at once. At first, the music magic mage tried to fight her brother, but then she collapsed into his arms, exhausted. Toby just hugged Amelia, cradling her in place to calm her down. Hearing her loud sobbing, Darren went up to her to touch her shoulder to at least bring the music mage comfort.

Soon, Chantel and Leticia joined in to comfort Amelia. Everyone allowed her to let out whatever she was feeling right now. Darren knew how Amelia was feeling, since he knew what it was like to be forced to keep a horrid secert for most of your life. It was the most exhausting thing he ever done, almost destroyed him on the inside. For Amelia, keeping this secret that she used to be a member of the Rise of Light must have been exhausting for her.

There were so many questions that Darren wanted to ask, but for now, this was not the time for this. After Amelia disentangles herself from Toby’s arms, Darren smiled to see the girl at least being back to her normal self. From this point on, it was best for everyone to be honest with each other in order to make this team work.