A few minutes later, I heard Damien's heavy footsteps pad over in the direction of his closet. 

"Damien, come here," I called out from under the duvet.

He let out a squawk and spun around. "Damn you Abigail, you gave me a heart attack."

I smiled. "Sorry Day." 

He shuffled around and I imagined him reaching for the clothes in his closet. "Come here when you're done," I said to him.

A couple of minutes later, the bed dipped as he took a seat on the edge, and then shuffled closer so that he wasn't sliding off. "What's up?"

My face was still mostly hidden beneath the duvet and I was running low on oxygen. I peeked my head out from one corner, taking a gulp of clean air.

"Nana is acting weird," I blurted. Damien's eyes darted to his open door.

Shut it, I mouthed. He nodded. When he sat back down, I told him about what Nana said to me.

"Why don't you look surprised?" I wiggled the duvet lower and angled my body fully towards him.

He leaned forwards till his mouth touched my ear and whispered: "I was eavesdropping-"

I scrunched my up nose. "Jeeze Damien, really?"

"I was curious." He shrugged. "Anyway, that isn't like Nana, I was hoping you could give me an explanation. Let me see your arm."

I let him pull my arm out and his outraged gasp made me look down. My previously pale appendage was stained with five deep purple marks that hurt when pressed. The surrounding area was inflamed and red where Nana's sharp, hawk-like nails gouged my pliable skin.

"She said she was going to research more about the mark on my arm yesterday but when I asked her about it today, this happened." My heard gave a painful squeeze. Nana was never violent; I didn't understand why she would start now and over something so small, too.

Damien wiped away a stray tear on my face that I didn't even realise fell. "Don't cry sis, we'll figure something out."

I let my arms fall limp at my sides, "Like what?" I wanted to shout it out loud for the entire world to hear but all that cane out was a whisper. I knew that we couldn't let Nana know that we were suspicious of her. And that sucked. Big time.

"I don't know. I'm only the brawn, you're the brains here. Now think: What are we going to do?"

I pursed my lips as I thought. "Nothing yet. We just watch what she does and learn. I guess we have to do our own research."

"And fix Nana," he added.

"And fix Nana," I repeated.

"Children," Nana called out. "Time for the lesson I promised you." Speak of the devil, I thought. From up here she sounded exactly the same. But I knew without a shadow of doubt that it wasn't her, at least not the real her.

"Here we go," I muttered, pulling myself out of the bed. Damien shoved his shoulder in mine, "Brave face, give nothing away," he said.

I gave him a brusque nod as we made our way to Nana in the living room.

_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_

I scowled. "I can't do it."

Nana looked up from her knitting needles. "Think about the power as a tangible source in your mind. Then think about it doing what you ask. Go on, tell it to do something."

I shut my eyes, "Fire," I whispered. I opened one eye and peaked at my outstretched hands. Nothing happened. I felt like an idiot.

"See, it doesn't work," I huffed, letting my arms drop to my side. My hairline was drenched in sweat and I was at wits end. Damien and I had been practicing for the past two hours while Nana watched us from her perch on the settee. She'd given us a brief lesson before setting us on our merry way to practice. Neither of us managed to do anything with the 'magic' she was convinced was inside us.

Nana put her needles down and stretched out her arm, "Watch me," she said. She stared at her closed fist for a fraction of a second before whispering: "Fire." Immediately, she turned over her fist and showed us the little ball of flame in the middle of her palm. "Easy," she said. "Now you try."

Damien went and sat next to Nana to watch me. I stood up straighter and pushed my shoulders back. Come on Abigail, I said to myself, you can do this, just think.

I thought about the power flowing through my veins, pumping around my body to the beat of my heart, warming my core and giving me strength. I thought about the power rushing to my closed fists and settling there, warming up only my hands. "Fire," I breathed out with as much conviction as I could muster.

"Open it," Damien said, coming closer to observe my hands.

Please be there, I begged. Hesitantly, I turned over my palms. In one swift move, I forced my tight fists open. In the middle of my palm, about the size of a pin head, was a little fire ball. "Yeah!" I screamed, jumping up and down, "I did it! Yeehaa baby!"

Damien joined in with my celebration, screaming until he was breathless.

Nana raised her eyebrows at our antics but smiled softly. "I told you," she said. "Next week we'll tackle freezing unfreezing things. Make sure you practice what I taught you today. Same time next week, don't be late!"

With that, she stood up from her seat, stretched her back, and went into the kitchen to cook dinner.

Damien and I looked at each other in silence, neither one wanting to be the one to voice what was troubling us.

"Nana doesn't..." he started.

"...knit," I finished. I chewed my lip as I looked at my brother.

"What the hell is going on with her," I said.

Damien shrugged. "Maybe she hit her head on one of those heavy books she always lugs around?"

I squealed. "Books! Yes," I said, clapping my hands.

"What?"

"You know, so I can check out what the thing on my arm means."

"Smart idea, when do you want to look?"

"Keep your voice down!" I hissed, shooting a look in the direction of the kitchen. Whatever happened to Nana was serious. I didn't even want to entertain the possibility of her finding us rummaging through stuff.

Damien looked contrite as he apologised but I shrugged him off.

"Later," I told him.  "I need to go and a ask Nana if she's going to take us to school tomorrow."

Nana was cutting up the vegetables to go into the chicken pie she was making when I entered the kitchen. I sat on the kitchen table, crossing my legs under me. "Are you taking us to school tomorrow, Nana?"

"No! I'm too busy in the shop. You can take the car," she replied nonchalantly as she mixed the filling for the chicken pie.

I jerked back in surprised. "Nana, that's mum's car."

She sighed, like I was an irritating gnat she couldn't get rid of and put down the bowl. "Yes, I'm aware of that. She's also dead, so she's not going to need it now is she?"

My mouth dropped open in shock. Nana never let anyone drive that car! It meant the world to her. "Nana!" I gasped in outrage. 

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady. It's just a car," she said.

I was speechless; I didn't know how to respond to her. I wanted to demand her to tell me why she was acting so weird and what happened to her. But I couldn't. Whatever it was, I had to deal with it myself.

I pushed myself off the table and walked to the door. "Okay," I whispered. "Damien and I will take the car."

She made a shooing motion with her hand before turning back to the stove and ignoring me.

Dismissed.

It felt wrong to sit in the driver's seat of my mother's car. I had no idea what possessed Nana to suggest such a thing. I trudged up the stairs to Damien's room and flopped myself onto the bed with a sigh.

When Damien entered about ten minutes later, I told him what happened and his equally horrified expression consoled me. At least he was still normal. 

I slept restlessly that night, tossing and turning the whole time. My mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, racing through. I thought about Hunter, the mark on my arm that refused to fade, and why Nana was acting so strange lately.

However as the days passed, Hunter was still MIA and Nana's strange behavior calmed down to the point where I thought it was all in my head. Her saccharinly sweet smile as she made us breakfast the following day sent a chill down my spine but I threw it to the back of my mind and ignored it.

Maybe the move was messing with her head and I should give her the benefit of the doubt. Heaven knows she's been through a lot.

By the end of the week, I deduced that stress and lack of sleep made see Nana's behaviour as abnormal. That was the only rational explanation I could come up with. I decided in that moment that I would try my best to forget it.

It was time I faced up to the reality that I was nothing more than just damaged goods at this point. The warehouse was just the beginning and I had a foreboding feeling that my whole world was going to turn upside down.