Chapter 4
Retribution
Corina knew that she did not have the potential to be a truly evil person. She felt guilt far too easily and it had always come to her rather quickly. This proved to be quite true with all the horrid feelings that had been bubbling inside her stomach ever since her argument with her father. The long walk she had taken in the barren landscape outside of the hotel had done wonders for clearing her head of her short-lived anger, but of course, all that was left were feelings of incredible guilt and dreads the evolved from these previous feelings.
Standing beneath a flickering lamplight just outside the hotel’s front door, Corina tried to contemplate what exactly she would say to her father upon returning to their room. Of course, an apology for her behavior would be in order. Her father deserved that much. She might even manage to apologize for her rude intentions towards Annie Two-Moons. But now what she had to do was find a way to still refuse to have anything further to do with the little Indian girl once they had left Pennsylvania.
Anyone else might have seen making a decision to change her mind and agree to help Annie in every way she could have possibly needed as the purest gesture of apology, but it was one that Corina could not force herself to even consider. Her father was certainly free to do whatever he pleased as far as Annie Two-Moons went, but Corina was still completely adamant about never seeing the girl again after she had left this place.
Just how she was going to go about telling her father all of this, however, was something she was struggling to put into words.
It was something that Corina found herself contemplating right up until the very moment she saw reached the door of her hotel suite, less than one step from the doorway.
“Father?” she called quietly from the hallway. “Are you in there?”
The door wasn’t locked, which suddenly dawned on Corina as being a good thing, for her father had their only key. And given how deeply her father seemed to be sleeping, there was a good change she might have been locked out in the hallway all night.
The interior was dim, with only embers left glowing in the hearth. None of the lamps inside were lit, and the only light to see by came from the dusky sky outside. There was almost no evidence that he father had even been there since the morning. Even the newspaper was still draped over the arm of one of the armchairs, a group of politicians looking very staunch and official on the front page.
Out of the corner of her eye, through the open door leading to the bedroom, she could see a very distinct lump from underneath the covers, no doubt her father. He had probably chosen to make an early night of it, the fight with his daughter probably having been as draining for him as it had been for Corina.
“Father,” Corina called out softly at first, then louder. “Father.”
As she slowly approached her father, she felt an increasing feeling of dread with every step she took, if just from her own pride not wanting to suffer the indignity of apologizing. The quilt was pulled up completely over his head, which struck Corina as seeming rather odd. What person really slept that way? It wasn’t even that terribly cold that night.
“Father, please wake up. I have something I need to say to you.”
Once she got close enough to the bed, she shook at what she believed to be her father’s shoulder. As she moved her, Corina noticed her father felt incredibly stiff, and felt no warmth through the blankets. Corina made several attempts to awaken her father, but they were all met with no avail.
Finally, Corina thought she saw the smallest bit of movement, offering what seemed to be proof that her father was finally awake. She then lifted the covers, fully ready to give her rehearsed apology, no matter how fake it might have been.
It was her father, but it was a most terrifying state he was in, one that caused Corina to stumble backwards and grasp at the nearby chair as though the shock would literally throw her off the edge of the earth. It was clear that he was dead; Corina had certainly seen dead bodies before, at funerals for family friends and relative she barely knew. His skin was stretched tight over his skull, his veins bulging out from underneath, swollen with his now-frozen blood. His eyes were gone”and in their place were nothing but black, empty holes opening clear through into his skull.
The muscles in his jaw were stretched visibly tight, and his mouth was open wider than Corina could have thought possible. His arms were folded over his chest in a mock coffin pose, but his fingers were jutted out at odd angles, and again, more bands of muscle were stretched tight beneath his skin that almost seemed melted onto his skeleton.
As for what had caused the small bit of movement that she saw from beneath the covers. Spiders, large black ones, crawled from the empty holes where his eyes had once been. Dozens upon dozens of the arachnids crawled down his cheeks, his neck, his suit, and finally onto the bed sheets and to the open window. Taking turns and waiting in line, the spiders began jumping from the window sill like rats from a sinking ship, as though they didn’t want to be somehow blamed for the man’s death.
Time, or at least Corina’s sense of it, seemed to be suspended. At some point, one of the hotel maids came to clean the room and stumbled upon Corina seated on the floor. Someone strong pulled Corina to her feet and led her out of the bedroom, out into the hallway. That night eventually gave way to morning, to officials trying to get her to answer a thousand different things Corina didn’t want to think about because it all had to do with the fact that she didn’t have a father anymore.
Funeral arrangements should never be made by children as young as I, Corina thought to herself. And yet, she forced herself to look at different coffins, pick out the clothing her father would be buried in, what music would be played, and just how she would go about announcing to father’s death to everyone who would want to pay their respects.
Out of pity”and possibly even fear of retaliation”the innkeeper allowed Corina to remain in her rented room free of charge while she carried out the planning for her father’s funeral and deciding what to do with his affairs. Hotel staff would bring her meals and delivered flowers along with their own personal condolences. They had all known Corina’s father in one way or another.
They all said he was a good man and he was taken from the world far too soon.
Various Healers, curse specialists, and Department of Magic officials had been coming and going throughout this whole process. The Healers had, of course, determined that Connor Payton had not died of natural causes, that it had been some sort of curse that had met Mr. Payton with his demise, but that was as far as their expertise went. Afterward, Healers starting coming with specialists who had devoted their entire careers to the study of magical curses and what they could do to the human body. They combed every inch of the room where Mr. Payton died and then they would come for Corina, each time prying for one more new detail she must have forgotten about.
But ,even after all these experts, still no one could figure out just what it was that had killed Corina’s father. The Department of Magic offered to pay to have even more specialists sent over from Europe to see if they could offer any help, but Corina turned down their offer. Her father was dead, and knowing the details of how he had suffered before he died…Corina didn’t see how that was supposed to bring her any comfort.
There were more department officials still, though, sent from the Office of the Welfare of Underage Wizards, sent to put the affairs in order for the Payton orphan. Corina’s mother had died giving birth to her, so it had been just Corina and her father for as long as she could remember. Connor Payton had never even attempted to find a stepmother for Corina. It was as though he had thrown all his energy into his work and raising his daughter.
Their efforts were completely unnecessary, however. Connor Payton had made sure that Corina knew exactly who was to take her in and where she would end up should anything happen to him. Corina’s mother had had an older sister, Miriam Andres, who lived in Louisiana who had agreed long ago to raise her sister’s child should worse come to worst. Corina had only actually met the woman, a confirmed spinster, five times in her life, but acknowledged that her parents could have made worse plans for her.
Thankfully, she only had a month before the school year began. After she could go back to Bell, she could at least pretend everything was back to normal.
On the day Corina planned to leave the hotel in Pennsylvania for good, she tried to do so as quietly as possible. The last thing she needed was to have any more people tell her ‘just how sorry they were’. While she sat in a high backed chair in the parlor, rubbing her temples, though, a man walked up towards her, so silently she didn’t even notice him until he was standing right beside her. When Corina finally did see him, though, she let out a sharp yelp, banging the back of her skull against the back of her chair.
“Who are you?” she asked once she was finally startled into alertness.
He was a tall man whose robes fit him like a column, an odd mix of wizard and Muggle fashion, as though when he had woken up, he hadn’t been sure of what he was going to be doing with his day. Deep creases lined his brow and the corners of his mouth, and beneath his top hat, Corina could see graying, thinning hair.
“Miss Payton,” he greeted with a tip of his hat. “My name is Mr. VanRossem. I am so sorry for your loss.”
Corina exhaled deeply, the sound of condolences beginning to sound more like obstinacies in her mind. “What is it that you want?”
“I actually find myself here on official Ministry business,” the man admitted. “Nothing to do with your current situation.”
The man had a certain knack for saying the exact wrong thing. He also seemed to be aware of this as he realized what he was saying to the grieving daughter as he began to chuckle nervously and fiddle with the buttons of his outer coat. “I’m actually here as something of an escort.”
Instead of explaining any further with his words, however, Mr. VanRossem simply made his way to the doors of the parlor, opening them so that Corina could peer through it.
Standing just outside the parlor was Annie Two-Moons, pacing the room in an anxious, yet curious manner. She still wore her unattractive school uniform, but as she had come to the school when she was only six, Corina imagined the girl’s old Indian clothes had no hope of fitting her. She was continually shifting on her shoes from front to back and smoothing her skirt for wrinkles that did not exist.
The shock of seeing the Indian girl was what it finally took to force Corina to her feet. “What is the meaning of this?”
“I’m sorry, I though you would have wanted to know” He turned his head to stare at the wandering child. “Your father’s petition to the Department of Magic was approved. The Department is stepping in over the heads of the laws that brought Miss Two-Moons to her boarding school, and she is leaving for Montana today. She will be allowed to live with her parents until she is old enough to start attending Bell.”
She felt a sudden pain in her chest that her father couldn’t be alive to see all his hard work come to fruition.
A small smile came to Mr. VanRossem’s face. “Your father was a very good and kind man, to do such a thing for this child. I’m sure it will make all the difference for her. You should be very proud.”
For a small moment in time, she did feel something related to Annie Two-Moons that wasn’t complete and utter distain. Granted, it had more to do her father than the little Indian girl. The girl was still waiting in the hall, as though she was unsure of what to do with herself. Her expression was blank, even for all her anxious mannerisms.
“When I came to get her from the school today, she insisted I take her to talk to you,” the man suddenly said. “She was quite persistent.”
Corina turned to him. “Why on earth would she want that?”
Mr. VanRossem shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps since she cannot thank Mr. Payton himself, she would like to thank you instead. And perhaps she wants to express her condolences as well.”
Corina offered a sideways glare at the mention of those words, and Mr. VanRossem felt his foot in his mouth once again. But Corina relented; regardless of what feelings of animosity she might feel towards the girl’s mannerisms, this was the last time she would ever see Annie. What harm could there be in simply letting her say her piece before she was sent off to Montana.
Paying no more mind to Mr. VanRossem, Corina made her way through the doors and into the hall until she was barely a yard away from the Indian girl. “Annie Two-Moons.”
Annie spun around, her short, but thick locks flying and her white skirt resembling the petals of a flower. “Miss Corina!” Annie greeted her with that same low and formal curtsy of hers. “I am so happy I was able to see you.”
Corina nodded, keeping her teeth clenched so that no words she might later regret could slip out.
Annie rushed toward her. A normal child might have taken her hands or attempted a hug, but Annie stopped just short of the action, as though she were confused, as though she had no natural instincts towards human behavior.
“I’m leaving today,” Annie told her. “They’ve even brought a carriage to take me. They said it’s going to have flying horses, but they’ll be charmed so none of the Muggles can see their wings.”
Again, Corina nodded. Having seen her fair share of young Muggle-borns in her life, she had seen the wonder at what seemed even the most mundane aspects of wizarding life. Even Annie Two-Moons had a sort of innocence on her expression as she described these things. Corina couldn’t help but feel a little lighthearted herself at these descriptions.
“Mr. Payton said I should be with my mother and father before I go to his school.” Annie suddenly changed the subject. “Mr. VanRossem from the school says that it’s because of him I get to leave the Indian school.”
As she said this, Corina was certain she could see just the faintest hint of a smile on the Indian girl’s face. “I’m very excited to see my family again, even if the reservation isn’t a very nice place. I remember it a little bit, you see. I was born there, though, so I really don’t know anything else.”
Annie must have realized that she was rambling, and just skipped right to the point. “I’m very happy that I get to leave the Indian school. I really don’t care where I have to go now, that I’ll be going to another school with white children; I’m still glad I’m going to be able to live with my parents for now.”
The look on Annie face seemed about as close to a sense of peace as Corina had seen on the girl. Although she still seemed to have a rather nervous disposition, most of the previous tension she had seen in the girl seemed to have vanished. Before, she had been like a stiff little statue, now she was beginning to look like a real little girl. It was though finally, Corina was able to see what had driven her father to pursue the girl’s plight at such a determined level.
Her thinking was soon interrupted by Annie’s voice. “Can I see Mr. Payton?”
Corina blinked herself back into attention as she glanced down at the girl who was still waiting for her to give her an answer. “Annie,” Corina struggled to keep her voice even, “Mr. Payton died. Don’t you remember?” Calling her father ‘Mr. Payton’ made it all feel more distant.
“I know that,” Annie said. “I want to see his body.”
The blunt-edged statement physically forced Corina to take a step back. Her arms spear out as though she were afraid of losing her balance on the flat floor.
“Why?” she heard slip out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
The little girl leaned in as though she were whispering a secret to a friend in the classroom.
“I want to see how he died,” her voice was hushed, almost raspy. “I want to see if what everyone is saying is true.”
Corina’s eyes went wide, but she didn’t move away. “What is everyone saying?”
“I heard it was a really bad curse,” Annie told her in an almost sly sort of gossip. “That spiders were crawling out of his eyes.”
At this last bit of shocking news, the Indian girl finally pulled away, but she was far from finished speaking. “The old people in my village used to tell stories to scare the children when it was late at night,” she went on. “It happened to people who had not yet gotten what they deserved. No one ever told us why what happened to them happened, but they did make sure we knew all the details of what did happen. Their insides are twisted tighter than tight, like a string on an instrument. Even though they are tightened to where the point where they should break, they stay wound tight; even after their skin is gone, their bone stay rigid and contorted.”
There was one last thing she had left to say. “Spiders crawled out of people’s eyes there too.”
And once Corina was thoroughly chilled down to her bone marrow, Annie went back to her previous attitude of childish glee. “But I have to go now,” she said. “Mr. VanRossem says it will take a week to get Montana by coach, so we had best leave as soon as possible.”
And again, Annie spun around in her flouncy skirt, making her way for the door, a small skip in her step as she left Corina standing dumbfound in the hall.
As she watched Annie make her way to the same carriage that had brought her there, Corina felt her stomach begin to twist and crawl. The carriage driver, who seemed to have a very progressive view when it came to the Indian people, was introducing Annie to the two horses leading the carriage.
“Don’t read too much into it,” Mr. VanRossem said to Corina as they stood on the hotel porch. “Annie is an Indian. Those people have strange ideas about death.”
Corina crossed her arms tightly across her chest and inhaled the humid air as the two of them carried on a conversation without even looking at each other. The carriage driver was allowing Annie to pet one of the horse’s noses. Corina was not convinced.
“Maybe she thinks she needs to say some prayer or ritual over the body. Something she learned or saw when she was in her village.”
Corina glared pure venom onto the patch of bare earth her eyes rested on. “I am not letting her see my father’s body!”
Mr. VanRossem flinched away, not at all ashamed that he was as frightened as he was by a teenage girl. “I know, I can understand that,” he assured her, “but Annie might not. You have to try and see it from her point of view.”
The carriage driver reached into his pocket, taking out a handful of sugar cubes for Annie to feed to the horses.
“Indians, they…,” Mr. VanRossem struggled to find the right words, “they do all they can to keep their lives separate and different from the white population. They don’t believe in keeping magic a secret from the Muggles within their tribes. They wouldn’t abandon their Muggle tribesmen, even when the American government sent them all off to those reservations Annie was telling you about.”
“I don’t know how much longer it will be before the Department of Magic has to step into this whole mess,” the Department official mused as his hands went into his pockets. “Those Indian wizarding folk, they use what magic they can to make the life on those reservations a little more bearable, and they see nothing wrong with using magic right in front of those Muggle government runners. Only a matter of time before Obliviators will have to set out their own homesteads within walking distance. Don’t know what will have to happen from there.”
Mr. VanRossem stared out onto the flat plain as though he were trying to clear through to those far West Indian reservation. “But maybe if Annie is allowed the benefit from an education from one of the best schools in the country, she might have a chance to get out of that kind of day.”
If Corina had any sort of concern for Annie Two-Moons at this point, she might have pointed out the parallels between what Mr. VanRossem was saying and what Annie’s old Indian school was trying to achieve: turning a savage into something that could potentially be a member of white society. “Annie’s not so innocent.”
This was finally what it took for Mr. VanRossem to finally turn in Corina’s direction. “Excuse me?”
“Annie told me about a story the old grandmas and grandpas used to tell the young ones., where those who did wrong would be punished. Spiders crawl out of their eyes, allegedly,” Corina regaled him with every detail. “Does that sound like anything that has happened recently?”
“Just what are you implying, Miss Payton?”
Corina wasn’t sure how she could make it any cleaner. She tilted her head in Annie’s direction while the girl was giggling as one of the horses shook its head to rid itself of flies.
Mr. VanRossem’s eyes went wide once he finally figured out what Corina was implying. “You don’t honestly think Annie had anything to do with what happened to your father, do you?” he gaped. “How could that even be possible?”
Corina’s head snapped in Mr. VanRossem’s direction, unable to believe he could possibly be so dim. “She’s a witch!” Corina reminded him.
It wasn’t as though the idea of Annie Two-Moons performing a curse was as unreasonable as a buffalo learning to read.
“Corina, even if it was possible that Annie would be able to perform such a curse, what motive could she possibly have? Your father had done nothing but try to help her from the moment they met,” he replied to her in a condescending tone. “He got her out of that horrible school; he set the wheels in motion so that Annie could go back to her family.”
Corina’s mind began to race as she tried to come up with a counter argument, but her brain disappointed her again and again. She would have like to tell the man that Annie had so much as confessed to the crime, but she knew that would never be good enough. As far as any good legal defense would argued, Annie had only shared a quaint little story with the daughter of a man she had grown quite familiar with over the passing weeks. And even with what Corina knew, even she barely believed the nine-year-old Annie would have been capable of doing what had been inflicted on her father.
The young woman was so obsessed with her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice Mr. VanRossem bid her farewell and step off the porch. By the time Corina forced herself back into attention, Mr. VanRossem raced back to the carriage, holding tight to his hat as though he wasn’t sure how fast he was allowed to move before it would topple off the top of his head. The carriage driver bid his good-bye to Annie Two-Moons before climbing back up onto his perch on the carriage, a wave of his wand lifting the concealment charm on the winged horses. Brilliant chestnut-colored wings spread outward to reveal each tawny feather as the houses whinnied at a frantic pace.
Before stepping into the carriage himself, Mr. VanRossem bent down towards Annie and whispered something in her ear. Annie cringed away from the close proximity, but eventually obliged the man in waving a vigorous good-bye to Corina.
Corina was quite convinced she had never seen the gesture looked more forced or unnatural in her life. She also couldn’t quite understand why she herself waved back.
Dawes & Carlise by OliveOil_Med
Chapter Notes: Corina gets ready to leave Pennsylvania, but not before she has to give up something she cherishes.
Thanks to Apruva, my beyond amazing beta!