Central Park
Tags: Kaige
Her first words hit like a brick in Candice's stomach. She wanted to speak up but there was no pause for the older woman to chime in, Kaige on a rant like no other. She was glad no one was in hearing distance of them. The few people around were wandering the park or had walked away, leaving them alone beside the fountain.
"
Do I look like a threat? Does anyone look like they’re in danger? Look at me, really look….at me. I look normal Candice." the words sunk heavy into Candice's mind. Of course she looked normal, her niece always had. But it was the danger lurking under her skin Candice worried over, not the girl controlling it. But Kaige couldn't see that, see that the things Candice did weren't out of hate but out of love. But standing there, looking at her in this environment, Candice contemplated if she had made the right choices. She had done what she had to to protect her, hadn't she? How had she gotten so far off track? How had it come down to people hunting her niece because she felt the need to escape a place that obviously hurt her. Candice had been making excuses for years now on why the doctors did what they did. When would she stop?
It hit her like a train. The realization she had done something wrong. All this time she had thought she was doing right by Kaige, even if the redheaded girl couldn't see it yet. But her desperate words stirred something within the older woman, and her recollection of that fateful day reminded Candice of when this had all started, of the reason she had done what she had done. But she had chosen wrong, and she needed to fix things now.
"C'mon," she stepped forward, grabbing Kaige's hand but she didn't yank her towards the street, instead pulling her further into the park, "The park ends near the bus station. If you grab a one way ticket to Los Angeles, you can grab a bus to go anywhere from that city. To Mexico, or Canada, or take a plane and move to another continent. You just need to leave before they find you. Hurry Kaige."
She pulled her along, but she didn't go too fast, not wanting unneeded attention. If she left her niece and walked away the girl would likely be dead by morning. They had some of the top trackers coming down to search, and there was no way she could hide. But if Candice could help it, she'd give her a running start, and pray she make it.
"Don't tell my I'm not your aunt," she snapped as they continued, "Don't tell me I don't love you girl. I did all of this for you. I made the wrong choices, but I did it to protect you. But your old enough now and in control. I should have seen that, but I made excuses as to why I kept you there, why I couldn't let you out. To be honest, I think I had even grown afraid of you. The reports I got about you, the way you handled yourself. I didn't see a girl who could go into the world and not cause chaos. And yet, here you are Kaige. Grown up, and not burning down buildings, or starting fights. I was wrong. Maybe you can handle yourself."
They reached the end of the park and could see across the street the bus station shop, with an Open sign flashing in the front. Candice pulled her niece along, getting them across the street and into the ally beside the bus station.
"Please stay here. I'll buy you a ticket, but you shouldn't be seen. Authorities know to look for you, so I'm sure they told the bus station and train station."
Squeezing her hand Candice let go and rushed inside, buying a one way ticket to Los Angeles with a fake name. The lady behind the till didn't even ask for I.D, assuming Candice was who she claimed she was. Thanking her she stepped over to the ATM in the shop and withdrew money, then quickly moved back to the alleyway to find Kaige, handing her the ticket and a envelope full of twenties and fifties.
"There is a thousand dollars in there," she explained, "That's my limit to withdraw but I can send you more money. Get a cell phone, make sure its prepaid, you don't want to be traced. I know you don't know what that means, so just go to a convenient store and ask for a prepaid phone. They can do it. Call this number-"
She had written down a number on the envelope with the money on it, "- its my personal cell and I will answer, and send more money, alright? But you have to go. You have to disappear."
The bus pulled up on the street and Candice knew it was now or never to tell her the one thing she had always been keeping from her niece. gripping her upper arms, Candice squeezed and looked Kaige in the eye, "If I had ever known what they were planning to do with you, I would have stolen you from them much earlier."
Taking a deep breath she continued, "My sister stopped letting me come over after you were four, almost five. I loved visiting you, but suddenly I was never allowed. My sister would make excuses, but I could hear something was wrong. When she told me they had something planned to make it all better, I thought she meant a vacation. And then you were...gone. Like that."
Her throat restricted as she remembered it, "I was able to get them to tell me where you were. They said they had lost you in the woods, but they weren't going to look for you because they assumed you were dead. I couldn't believe it. To leave a child out there, and not care if they made it home. Your uncle wasn't around to help me, so I went out alone. I searched for you for days Kaige, I even hired people to help. And we did find you, after a couple weeks. Holed up in a cave, eating berries, looking so scared. It made me hate my sister so much, for letting you stay out there. I took you in, and no child you won't remember any of this. I took you in and I cared for you, like you were my daughter. I raised you for a whole year, I home schooled you and let you be a kid. You were so bright and happy at my house."
Tears were welling in her eyes but she fought them back, "You were happy and so was I. And then it fell apart. You grew angry one day at me and you burned your favorite teddy to ashes. You cried for hours over it and blamed me. I realized your powers were linked heavily to your emotions, so I tried to cheer you up, but it backfired. You were just so mad at me for that teddy. You only got more angry as the days went on, drawing away from me, wanting nothing to do with me when I reached out. You'd get yourself into such a fuss and burn your toys, and then cry over them, always blaming me. One day it got too much for both of us. I yelled. I didn't know what else to do. And you got so angry and upset you hit me in the chest with a fireball. Forced me into the hospital by an ambulance. You cried all the way there, saying sorry over and over for what happened, promising me you'd do better. But I knew then that you couldn't control it, not all the way. One day you might hurt someone you love and not be able to fix it."
She was shaking, trying not to cry, "I made a lot of bad decisions then Kaige. I met a doctor who said he could cure you, make you a normal girl. And I believed him. I just wanted you back, without worry of harming anymore people. But he kept you for years, and I couldn't get you back. I had you illegally after all. If I had tried to take you, it would have landed me in jail, and even when I tried to take you back, he wouldn't allow me. He made sure of it too, with one of the drugs he tested on you. It wiped your memory of the last few years till the day you were abandoned. you were lost again, pushed back to that bitter girl who had been left. And he used that, as they all have. I couldn't just take you, and I had already lost you so I joined on to be one of his funders, hoping I could help, hoping I could make sure he did no harm. But all it did was lead me down this rabbit hole to today. I'm so sorry Kaige. I'm so very sorry I can't fix all the wrongs I did, but I can make this one right. Just get on the bus. No one will know, okay sweetie."
"Well...one person will know."
She whipped around, pulling Kaige behind her as her eyes went wide. It was Miller. And he was pointing a gun...at Candice.
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