THE ORIGIN

Sara Ambrosius never wanted children, then again she never wanted a husband either. Yet at the age of twenty six, she found somehow she had inherited both and she was the only person she knew that was surprised.

As a teenager she never understood some of the girls' dismay at the one child rule. She could imagine nothing worse than being stuck to two individuals considering she was already stuck in space listening to her grandmother recall her regret of both of those actions.

That's what attracted her to Samuel Scarfone; he simply couldn't be contained. She had seen it ever since they were kids; a prodigy, a boy whose talents almost made him the Second Messiah, all until he discovered that being a rebel gave him a lot bigger thrill than studying.

"What do you want to be on the Ark?" He took a large bite of his apple as he asked their group of friends around the table in the canteen one day during their final year of school.

"Run this place. That's the dream." Marcus replied as if it was as simple as breathing.

"You're going to need to cut your hair mate before that can happen." Samuel laughed as he leaned over the table and scruffed his best friends shoulder length locks, the boy next to him, another close friend David Miller joined in.

Sara ignored the squabble happening next to her and looked down, moving a piece of food with her fork. She didn't feel like answering.

"Very funny. But you know, I can't do it alone," Marcus smirked at the three girls in their group of six, Sara saw Abby roll her eyes,  "And I'm talking serious power ladies and I personally guarantee that I'm the best lover on this table."

Maybe Marcus was telling the truth and he never settled down because no girl in the Ark believed him. Looking back, Sara would have told you with the utmost certainty, that she should have taken Marcus Kane's offer right then and there.

However something in her, a mix of love and hormones probably wouldn't let her look at anybody else but Samuel Scarfone. She loved the flecks of stubble on his face and his eyes that never allowed her to concentrate on anything. God, he was her weakness and she thought it was love. She truly did.

Samuel laughed and she felt him drag his foot up and down her leg as she sat next to Marcus. If only Marcus had looked at her like that, if only, but it was Samuel Scarfone that stole her heart first. He just didn't keep it in a good condition.

When they left to go back to lessons Samuel continued his favourite game of tease by whispering in her ear, "I'm the best lover on that table and one day Sara, I'll run this place, just wait and see."

Sara went home that day and talked to her grandmother, Wilhelmina. She told her of the question about what her dreams are and how all she wanted to be was free; free of everything and it was this burning passion inside her that was almost as toxic as her relationship with Samuel.

"Oh darling," Her grandmother had a cracked and throaty voice, as if she was always suffering from a sore throat, "I've heard you talk on hours about your little crush on Scarfone but this the first time you have ever said anything meaningful about yourself,"

She moved slowly from her armchair but continued talking and Sara like always listened as if her gran was telling her the secrets of the universe, "I was always disappointed that my son chose your mother, he settled, he could have done so much better. And then my daughter, your aunty well, we don't talk about her now do we.

"My son, your father, never listened to me," She was boiling the kettle, like she always did but this was a conversation unlike anything Sara had had with her grandmother before. Wilhelmina never talked about family. Never, "I mean -  Sara," Wilhelmina spat the name back at her grandchild, "What kind of a name is that? She must of chose it, it means Princess of all things apparently. I'll tell you, I had never thought about using my powers against my family until that day."

Sara had let her grandmother ramble on and on but now she had to intervene. Age had finally caught up to her, "Your powers Gran?" She laughed slightly, "Dad always told me you had a way with words that did more than just scold him."

Wilhelmina stopped dead in her actions, the kettle began to hiss, "Don't joke child."

"I'm not a child." Sara fought back.

She had heard enough, her grandmother wasn't giving her the usual normal advice; that she was too good for Samuel Scarfone and she shouldn't fall for boys so quickly, especially those that had served two years in the Skybox and were only realised on account of a suspicious 'clerical error'.

"Oh Sara, haven't you ever thought there's something special about you? You're stuck up here with two thousand people and you are one of the only people that actually feel stuck." Her gran put the tea leaves in the kettle and put it to the side yet she still wouldn't face her granddaughter.

"Everyone feels that way gran. I'm not special." Sara rose from her seat and began to leave.

"Sara Ambrosius," There was something in the way her gran said it that sent a shiver down her spine, "You are special, more than anybody, you just haven't had the chance to be it yet,"

And when Sara turned to face the women the look on the old ladies face bred a terror in her that she would never forget. She thought she had seen hints of the devil in the glint of Samuel's eyes and she had felt hatred before but never like this.

The look on Wilhelmina Ambrosius face was Satanic. Sara's mouth went dry and goosebumps littered her skin.

"And I'm going to help you reach your potential."

Sara was never asked if it's what she wanted but she didn't dare disobey. There was the part of her that knew she wanted it as soon as Wilhelmina had explained what was going on, no matter what every other rational bone in her body said. And with an iron grip on the counter, her knuckles turning white as her legs shook beneath her, she completed the ritual.

She swore the smell of burning never fully faded from her skin, it was like she was always coming back from a bonfire where she had stood too close. Some swore occasionally they could also smell burning flesh.

There were never any screams but Sara couldn't talk for a month. She completed high school in a vow of silence. Her friends wondered why she did but all their questioning was met with silence, it was years later when she finally confessed to Samuel what had happened, it explained why his wife never liked hot drinks. She tried not to think about the coincidence that her gran died the following day.

That was the day that Sara became a witch and that was the day she sealed her daughters fate.

———-

From that day forward she promised herself she would never scream, because she left that in her old life. She broke that promise on only two occasions; her death and the birth of her daughter. Neither were out of pain.

Sara died on the day she delivered her second child, there was always that nagging thought at the back of her head that it could have been the day but she ignored it. She was as prepared as she could have been; it was just a complication.

"Winnie, do the spell," Her voice was forced in-between the contractions. It had been four hours since her waters broke and she knew she was nowhere near delivering this baby.

"I've never done one by myself before..." Winnie tried to say but her voice shook, she wasn't ready for that kind of spell. She needed more teaching but that's something her mother was terrible at.

"Well," Sara tried to continue but another contraction started and her eyes went wide and her iron grip on Winnie's arm started to burn. Sara let it run it's course before she continued, "Just try." It was an order.

Winnie swallowed all her doubts and began, "We call-"

"No!" Her mother screamed and Winnie had never been so shocked in her life, "Wrong!" She sounded like a strict school teacher a "It's no we is it Winnie! I can't bloody call the spirits to protect myself can I?"

"No," Winnie, "Sorry. I call upon the spirits of the earth-"

Sara couldn't take it anymore, Winnie didn't have the skills she needed. Winnie wasn't ready at all and Sara was not going to die because she got the most basic spell wrong, "We're not on motherfucking earth are we Winnie, are we!" Her voice struck down Winnie blind onto the floor, she didn't care about breaking her daughter, Sara learned everything the tough way and so would Winnie. That's how it worked, "Try again! And do it right this time."

"I call upon the spirits of the light," Winnie paused, she didn't think it would be appropriate to call the dark, her mothers pregnancy was already shrouded in secrecy, "And I summon you to this mortal world from the divine and I ask for your protection of my mother and her unborn child." And she blew the breath from her lungs into the open space of the room.

"Better." Her mother commented and to Winnie that made up for all the shouting and reprimanding, the girl even smiled.

Yet that couldn't last forever, Winnie couldn't keep her mother happy for hours on end. They ticked away, marked by a beep each hour from Winnie's watch. She counted eleven and still the baby remained in her mother.

"Where's dad? He should be back by now. He would want to be here." Winnie asked.

Sara laughed behind the pain, the contractions were almost constant now. She knew her husband wouldn't want to be anywhere near this room and for once in her life she was happy that she had no idea where we was. Of course in the early days she always knew, Aurora Blake's cabin was not hard to find but since she was floated Sara didn't even like to think about Samuel's antics.

Her daughter had always liked her father more. A daddy's girl, Samuel never failed to remind his wife. For the longest time he instilled in her the Scarfone name and made her forget her Ambrosius heritage. It was only recently that she was learning to accept the gamily gift but it would never be enough for Sara, she had needed a witch in the family. So when she fell pregnant against all sense of logic and rational thought she had ever had, she kept the foetus.

Then it happened, Sara had not felt pain like it since her grandmother poured boiling water down her throat. She knew what labour pains were meant to feel like and this was nowhere close, she felt like she had been set on fire, her flesh began to burn and she could think of nothing else.

She was giving birth, now. And something was terrible wrong.

"Get," She tried to tell her daughter who had leaped into action but the words weren't;t forming correctly in her mouth, "Help," She held Winnie's hand so hard that Winnie felt a small bone move out of place and the sound of popping joints.

"Who can I call? You'll die mum." Winnie tried to reason with her, she thought she was ready. She could handle delivering a baby.

Sara screamed; a bloodcurdling monsters noise making up for years of silence.

"It's okay," Winnie tried to reassure her mother. She looked down, the baby was coming now "Oh my god, you just need to push mum, I'll have a true sibling. It will all be worth it."

Sara screamed again but this time it was directed purely at her daughter. How dare she lie straight to her own mother, she was playing the fool for her sake. She already had siblings, illegal bastards that bore the name Blake. Sara was happy about she would never share her own name with them. And Winnie knew, of course she did, she was just trying to protect her mother.

"Shut up Winnie, shut up!" Sara cried and Winnie tried to ignore her as her mother needed to push and if anger helped her then so be it.

The shout provided the last bit of energy. Winnie was ready for the baby's head yet when she saw it, the girl froze. It all happened quickly from that point onwards. A blur.

The baby was coming and it wasn't greeted by the warm hands of its sister. Instead it fell onto the sofa and didn't even cry but it's mother continued to scream, "Winnie! Take the baby!"

It could have been a skeleton for that sight would have been better for Winnie to see. The baby wasn't her blood, it didn't have the same colouring. The baby had brown, tanned skin with black hair, Winnie couldn't see anything else, her brain saw the umbilical cord wrapped twice around his neck but never comprehended its meaning.

"WINNIE!" Her mother screamed again and tried to move herself to grab her child but the contractions kept on coming, she was bed bound in sweat and blood but all was quiet in her room.

No baby cried and it took another second for Winnie to come back to reality. Instantly she picked up the boy but she couldn't help her shaky hands, her world was still falling apart around her. The pressure of the room had seemingly doubled and pressed against her skull, she pulled at the umbilical cord and within seconds the horror of realising she was tightening its grip.

"No no no," Winnie muttered as she started to pull it the other way. He would survive. She yanked it off finally but the crying never came, she tried to bounce it up and down, there was life left in him she could tell. She didn't know what to do. Heart compressions, but when she placed her hand on his little chest she knew that it wouldn't be able to stand any pressure. He was a weak baby. Too weak.

Still she tried to wake him, she played with his little arm but the desperation soon turned to her doing any sort of manic movement out of panic. And then she stopped. Winnie held the corpse in her arms.

"Give him to me," Sara finally said with grimaced teeth but despite the menacing tone, Sara was loosing all the energy she once had, "Now."

When Winnie looked at her mother she was shocked into silence, there was even more blood. Too much, "You're bleeding out mum. Oh my god, I have to get someone. I have to-" Winnie whirled in her step, she couldn't breath, she didn't know how to think. Her mind whirled. Her thoughts trapped her and she had a pounding in her head that threatened to kill her. She forget about what was in her arms and then when she looked down she screamed again and again.

She dropped the baby's body on her mother and then saw tears in the women's eyes, "He could have been so beautiful." She whispered. She didn't panic like Winnie did, instead she treated the corpse as if it was still alive, playing with his hair.

Winnie felt sick, she needed to get help and she knew that the only person she could turn to was the other half of the baby's family. Her mother was dying.

The clock read 3. She wasn't sure if that was morning or evening, she had to take that chance. She didn't want to leave her mother but she knew she could never live with herself if she didn't try to save a life today. Coated in blood except for the channels her tears had cleared, she reached for the door and paused,

"You should have warned me. If I had known," The realisation dawned on her like a sunrise, illuminating more and more each second yet plunging herself more into the darkness. If she had known then she would have caught the boy, she would have done everything quicker, "I could have saved him."

Sara Scarfone paid no attention to her daughter, she focused on trying to be happy with her son. Not noticing her own tears and her slowing heart rate, "He's called Leviathan,"

A shiver ran up Winnie's spine but just when Winnie was about to close the door her mother's voice rose up, "You did the spell wrong Winnie, be careful next time."

The witch didn't reply. She ignored the weakness in her knees as she sprinted to the Jaha's. It was an artificial afternoon, she passed a couple people as she trailed her bloodied arms against the walls. She passed a couple people who retreated back into the walls in fear of the bloodied witch.

Wells answered the door by her third knock and swallowed the saliva in his mouth. He closed the door again. Winnie never moved until it reopened and Wells and Thelonious joined the girl. They ran back to Sara in silence.

They arrived too late and it was Jaha who took the dead women's hand and squeezed it watching the two still chests in front of him.

"She called him Leviathan." Winnie said.

"The sea monster." Wells explained.

"Or Satan." Thelonious rose and turned to face Winnie. He could hide the corpse of a child but he couldn't explain ten hours of screaming and a dead women so he arrested Winnie on the spot and the witch never said a word.