The Attached

The only reason why he would be helping her is if he didn't know who she was and that she lied to him about his family. What she told him they would never know until they met him?

CHAPTER SEVEN

Douglas was busy packing some things he needed for his trip to Richards bay. He looked around to see if he might have missed something. He never felt at home with Brumilda still she raised him.

He has faint memories of another older woman and an older man with her raising him. He also has memories of a young boy playing with him.

When Brumilda took him she had to knock him out cold, when he came to, he couldn't remember who he was or who she was, which was perfect for Brumilda. But she made a fateful mistake by calling him on his birth name his real parents gave him.

Everytime she called him he had snap backs, like distant memories. In those memories he was happy with those unknown people. As he got older he started remembering more of his childhood from before his memories with Brumilda. Who were these people he saw in his dreams?

He wasn't planning on going through with her plans at all. The four years he spent preparing everything gave him time to choose who he wanted to be rather than who she wanted him to be. He was going out to seek the truth. He only thought about one person who could help him find himself and that was a woman named Alex.

Brumilda mentioned her before, she forgot about who she was talking about in front of Billy. Brumilda got a bit forgetful in her older years of age.

He keeps replaying a fight they had over and over in his head. He was playing outside and didn't do what he was supposed to do, what she asked him to do. She came outside beat him and said something that he would never forget.

'You are just like your mother; she never does as she is told.'

At that moment he knew Brumilda wasn't his mother. He thought to himself about what she had said, she spoke in the present and she spoke as if she knew his mother.

Since that day he has been trying to find out more from where he came from. Every now and then she would let something slip. After she died he was free to do as he pleased.

He spent five years trying to find the courage to leave this lonely place and find his routes. He was a man in his forties now and knew he hadn't long to live anymore.

He set fire to the old house and turned around vowing never to return again. As he walked away he didn't even look back once. He hated Brumilda for lying to him about his past.

*******************************

It is the kids' fifth birthday today. They were all sitting under the lapa celebrating. Graeme took the kids out for ice cream. Ma stood up from the garden couch.

"I know how we can end Brumildas evil once and for all. We have to destroy her book of spells." She said as she left to fetch the spell book.

She took the book from its hiding place and went back to the bar. She stood at the braai lighting a fire then through the book into it watching it burn; watching it turn into ash. The book wasn't bound together by evil so it was easy to destroy.

The rest of them sat there in silence, just watching. Alex and Jane looked at each other and suddenly felt a calm wave upon them. Ma felt the same thing.

"As long as that book was around the danger will never be over." Ma said as she sat back down taking a deep breath.

"We all agree with you Ma."

Max said as he poured himself and Jane another drink offering another for Ma and Alex.

The kids came running up the path from the gate very excited, their faces were full of chocolate. They looked so cute and messy. They were happy and totally innocent of all that the family had faced through the years.

"How was the ice cream my angels?" Alex asked them taking them inside to get their faces cleaned.

"It was ice cold Mommy." Xander said with a smile.

"And it was very sweet Mommy." Janet said finishing Xanders sentence. The twins had the same kind of bond that Alex and Max has. It's strange to understand but still kind of cute with the twins.

"That sounds very nice." Alex said escorting them to the bathroom.

"I hope you didn't spoil them to much Uncle Graeme?" Jane asked him. He came walking up the path with his hands full of bags.

"No of course not Squirt. I just did what you would have done." He said smiling.

"That's what I'm afraid of my brother."

All of them started laughing. The kids came running out the house with clean faces, laughing and having fun.

"Uncle Graeme, may we have our toys now, please?" The kids asked him looking at the bags in his hands.

"Well only because you asked me so politely, don't let your parents see what I got you? Your Mommy and Mom will fight with me." He said hugging them and giving them the toys.

The kids ran off down to the beach with their toys. Alex was still in the house.

Alex went to the kitchen after cleaning the kids' faces from their sweet innocent indulgence. As she walked through the door it closed behind her. She looked in fear at a strange older man standing in front of the door.

"Please don't scream? I won't hurt you. I just want answers. Can you please call your wife here to the kitchen, and please don't alert the others?" The man said with a remorseful look in his eyes.

Ma, Max and Graeme started talking. I sat there with fear suddenly welling up in me. I concentrated on Alex. Before I could say anything she spoke to me.

'Honey, I need you to come here quickly. I'm in the kitchen.'

'Are you okay Baby?'

'Yes I'm fine, stay calm and get here please? Don't alarm the others?'

'Okay, now you're scaring me Baby, I'm on my way.'

Jane stood up calmly and went to the kitchen.

Alex was standing behind the work counter on the opposite side looking her way. As Jane came through the door it shut behind her. She turned around and saw a man standing in front of the closed door.

"You must be Douglas?" Jane asked while trying to stay calm.

"Yes, I am, please don't be afraid. I won't harm you."

"Then why are you here Douglas?" Alex asked him.

Jane watched him carefully. She couldn't feel any evil in his heart so she relaxed and sat on the counter in front of Alex. Alex could feel what Jane was feeling so she relaxed. She walked around and stood in front of Jane between her legs pulling her arms around her.

"I'm here because I feel that I can trust you. You two know the truth about who I am and I want to know what that truth is."

"So you aren't here to take our kids from us?" Jane asked him just to make sure.

"No, I'm not as evil as Brumilda was. I suspected all these years that she was hiding something from me, something about my real family."

"Ok, we can help you with that but we need Ma with us because she knows more than what we do."

"Alright, your wife can go fetch her. You stay here with me."

"Okay, I'll be right back."

Alex walked through the kitchen door to the sliding door in the lounge.

"Ma, Jane and I need you to help us with something for a minute please?" Alex asked her as calmly as she could.

"Alright my child, I'm coming." Ma could see in Alex's eyes that something was definitely wrong. She calmly stood up and walked to the sliding door.

She stood still and whispered to Alex; "What's wrong my child?"

"We have a guest in the kitchen Ma, its Douglas." Alex whispered an answer.

"Okay let's go." Ma whispered again.

They walked calm and collected to the kitchen. As they got at the door it opened. Ma looked at Alex and walked through before Alex. The door closed behind them again.

Alex went to stand right in front of Jane again. Jane put her arms around Alex and rested her chin on top of her head. Ma chose to stand by the door close enough to yell for help if needed.

"Hi Douglas my name is Michelle." She asked him watching him closely from top to bottom.

He wasn't bad looking, she thought to herself. He is about her age. He doesn't have a lot of grey hair; he only had grey hair around his ears,a person can still see his natural hair colour. She could see that he is well built.

Surprised at what she was thinking she started to blush so looked down at her feet.

"Hi Michelle, these young women tell me that you can tell me who I am? I came all this way to find out what the truth about me is that Brunilda was hiding from me all these years."

Douglas stood there admiring this woman's slender body, long black hair with grey highlights, beautiful face and amazing smile. He thought he was looking at an angel from heaven.

"Yes I can tell you everything about yourself. I can tell you right at this moment that you and your brother looked a lot like each other."

"Okay so I have a brother, wait you used past tense?"

"Yes I did, he and his wife died one year apart from each other when Alex and her brother Max were still young."

"So I'm Alex and Max's uncle?"

"Yes you are."

"And his name was?"

"His name was Michael."

"What happened to me?"

"Well, your parents, brother, you and my friend and I went swimming at the beach one afternoon. A huge wave suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swept you away. We searched for you for weeks after that. We couldn't find you or a body for that matter. We suspected that Brumilda was responsible but could never prove it. We couldn't even find her. She just disappeared."

"Okay, let me guess, your friend became my brother's wife years after and had her and her brother?" He said pointing to Alex.

Alex and Jane were still there listening to the whole story. They both had tears in our eyes.

"Yes that's it. We only found out about a month ago that you were still alive from Jane's brother."

"What does he have to do with the whole thing?"

"Their parents, other brother and him were out camping and were attacked by Brumilda. Her older brother is the only one that survived, he found her about a month and two days back from now after seven years of searching for her."

"He told us about you the day he found her." She told him everything he wanted to know.

"Yes I remember that night. It was very horrible for me to see what she did to them. One more question, what were my parents' names?"

"Their names were Douglas and Alexandra. You were named after your father and your brother was named after your mother's father."

Douglas dropped down to his knees now understanding everything. He understood all his memories now. Ma got down to her knees and hugged Douglas. He through his arms around her and sobbed.

Alex and Jane caught the drift and left them alone in the kitchen. They went outside to Max and Graeme and told them what was going on.

"Well is she going to be alright alone with him?" Max asked shooting to his feet.

Alex grabbed his hand as he got ready to run to Ma's aid.

"She is going to be fine Max. She can take care of herself; she has been doing it for years now."

"Okay sis. You're right as usual."

He sat down trying to relax. Just then Ma and Douglas came out through the lounge door.

"Are you alright Ma?" Max and Graeme both asked.

"Yes I'm alright boys. Boys this is Douglas, Douglas this is Max and Graeme." She announced pointing to each of them.

"Right Douglas, you asked me a whole lot of questions. It's my turn for one question." Ma said as they sat down next to each other.

"Sure, ask away." He said smiling at her.

"What made you change your mind against going through with Brumildas plans?"

He looked up at all of us then down at his hands on his lap, to ashamed to look them in their eyes. He took a deep breath and looked up at each of them.

"I was standing up the driveway watching your kids play in the sand down at the beach. I couldn't hurt them, the woman might have raised me but I didn't have that evil in my heart. I will never be evil. I burned all her belongings before I came here looking for someone to help me remember who I was.................. who I am."

"Well then you will fit in perfectly with all of us Douglas. As you can see we are all different in our own way but yet the same in other ways." Michelle said taking his right hand in her left.

"Yes Douglas you're welcome to stay here until you get back onto your own feet." Alex and Jane said holding hands.

"Yes I agree." Max said after a while keeping in mind that this man has lost everything in his life and he was after all their uncle.

Michelle let Douglas stay with her until he found his way. After a few weeks there, he and Michelle started developing feelings for each other and then decided to ask Michelle to marry him instead.

Max stayed with Graeme at his house for the mean time. They became the best of friends or brothers rather than friends. Max got married a few months after and moved into his own home. Graeme met a young woman and she moved in with him. They kept magic to a minimum around new people in their lives.

Janet and Xander grew up beautifully because of all the family they had near them. They grew up protecting each other wherever they were. They were always together no matter what.

Alex and Jane found out that at the age of ten the twins developed a telepathic connection to each other and to their parents, the very first in witch's history ever.

They were finally one big happy family at peace but still protecting others and each other from unforeseen evil. The Church of Peace and Light; the only white witch clan that survived centuries of disaster, now stronger than ever before.