Chapter 5
Fiona knelt down, trying to embrace him but got rejected again, "Baby I know you hate all those things," she stated.
"And I want to cut my hair, I hate this long hair," he said while scratching and pulling on his hair.
"Yes yes, I will cut your hair, please Igram calm down," Fiona pleaded. She finally managed to grab him and held onto him tightly.
She had prepared herself for the reaction she was receiving, his whole life was a lie and it was her fault. Maybe if she had put him up for adoption, he would be a very happy boy, she thought. "I'm sorry Igra," she whispered into his ears and began kissing him. She always called him Igra, it sounded more masculine even though other witches always pointed out Igram was too weird for a girl's name. They always wondered how a sane mother would name her child with such a depressing name.
"Please do not tell anyone, they will kill me and later kill you," she added, receiving total silence.
"Do you want them to kill me?" She asked but received no response again. She needed to give him time to process everything. She chanted a spell, teleporting them back to her room. She waved her hand over him and turned him into a girl again. Ingram looked into his mirror pissed.
Without saying a word, he took off and ran outside ignoring his mother's calls. Fiona tried to run after him but stopped herself. Caging him in her room would only make things worse. She had to rely on him using his head and realizing opening his mouth about their secret was going to be their death.
Igram kept running and bumping into a lot of witches that were busy partying and celebrating the festival. The entire Coven court was full of festivities and laughter. He only stopped running when he hit into Ezeldah and landed hard on the ground.
The music and cheering stopped, all eyes on Ezeldah.
"How dare you!" She spat out.
Igram looked up at her pissed, he was in the wrong but did not feel like apologizing. He slowly stood up and began walking away, eliciting a murmur from the crowd. They could not believe the audacity and Nerve. Ezeldah was their high priestess, she was the most respected in the Coven and feared. She never tolerated nonsense, One mistake from anyone landed them doing chores in hell.
"Stop!" She yelled.
Igram stopped
"How dare you hit me without apologizing! Who do you think you are!"
Igram stared at her without altering a single word.
"This girl is very arrogant and has no manners, she is Fiona's daughter," one of the witches spoke up.
"Yes she is very indisciplined," another witch added.
Igram stared at them pissed, he folded his little hand into a fist but before he could alter a single word, his mother came running out of nowhere and knelt before Ezeldah;
"I'm so sorry your high Priestess, my daughter has loose screws in her head and does useless things," she begged.
"You are the one who is useless and with loose screws!" Igram spat at his mother.
Everyone present held their hands over their mouths in shock.
Fiona stared at her son with pleading eyes while Ezeldah chuckled. She could not believe she once felt threatened by the girl kneeling before her and her daughter. However, looking at them both she only saw misery and hatred. She felt sorry for Fiona, the woman was raising a nut head, there was always room for such nut heads in hell chambers. And it was only a few years until the girl was assigned her division.
"You couldn't even raise your own baby into a respectable witch and now she is disrespecting you in front of everyone," Ezeldah spoke up.
Fiona only stared at the ground in shame
Ezeldah grabbed a glass of wine and took a sip; "And you think you would have made it in the sorceress division!" she added and hit a nail.
Fiona stood up, the hag in front of her had no right to bring up a decision that altered her life. She stared at Ezeldah like she was about to hit her, everyone held their breath, including Igram.
"My daughter was born in a graveyard because of some rumors, rumors you tolerated and maybe a spirit got in her head. Oooooh, I forgot you cleansed her…. Ooh did you!" She spat out mockingly.
Without a second thought, Ezeldah splashed the entire glass of wine on Fiona's face. The courtyard fell into total silence.
"You will spend one week in hell gathering souls with your daughter, maybe you will prepare her for her division as a soul gatherer!" Ezeldah yelled and ordered the mother and daughter to be escorted to hell.
Ezeldah could not believe the audacity, her mood was completely ruined, she was no longer interested in partying. Fiona had ruined everything, she felt insulted, in fact, she was insulted. Anyone who knew what transpired the days after Fiona gave birth knew exactly what Fiona meant, she questioned the high Priestess's cleansing ability.
She stormed into the chambers throwing everything in her way. For unknown reasons, she hated Fiona and her daughter, she could not wait to assign the degenerate to hell and get rid of them.
Outside the courtyard, the guards escorted the mother and daughter to the pits of hell and gave them instructions on how to harvest lost souls. The trip was quiet with Igram's eyes fixed on the ground.
Once the guards were away Fiona grabbed her son's hands, "Over my dead body will that hag assign you to these pits," she assured him.
Igram only glanced away and picked up a shovel.
Fiona could not stand her son's miserable sight. Most mothers would be scolding their children for landing them in trouble but not Fiona, she felt he was already suffering from all the spells she cast on him. She blamed herself and instead of punishing him she always gifted or praised him. He was her spoiled brat, and only she understood what was troubling him.
Ezeldah was going to assign him a wrong division just because of spite but not before she acted fast, not on her watch, and not for the second time.
She picked up a shovel and began working next to him.
"The day you were born, there were a lot of male children at the human hospital," she stated, receiving no response.
She cleared her throat again, "those boys should be about your age right now," she added.
"Mother you are making noise," he finally spoke.
"So a little someone wouldn't love it if I taught them how to shapeshift or if we took a trip to meet boys his age in the human world?" Fiona asked with raised eyebrows.
Igram stopped and stared at his mother, she finally got his attention.
"We can go back to the realm, I can't teach you at the coven because Ezeldah will be back on our case and your shifting is based on spells that I have to teach you?"
"I can shift into a boy anytime I want?" Igram asked.
"Not at the Coven, I will repeat myself, not at the Coven. Ezeldah will smell you from miles away and you will be dead," she explained.
Igram stared at her disappointed, as much as it was shocking for his brain that was still processing the fact that he was a boy, the possibility of turning into his true self calmed him a bit but the restriction meant he was going to live the rest of his life as a woman.
"Listen to me, your shifting is limited to several people, you can only change into other different 365 forms of people. So you better stick to a particular person," she explained.
Igram was confused.
"In short, you can shapeshift into me as many times as you want but you can not shapeshift into different kinds of people, or else you will be stuck in the last form…" she tried to clear things but only got him more confused.
"Okay fine, I will explain this to you when you are older, first you have to learn the spells and how to hide in the realm," she stated and began work
"What of the human world, I want to meet other boys and play with them," Igram asked excitedly.
"We will talk about that later, not in here, let's first get out of the shit you both got us into," his mother replied.
"You should have kicked that old hag in the face," he spat out.
Fiona quickly held her hands over her son's mouth before.
A week elapsed and the mother and son completed their punishment in the pits of hell. As soon as they were out, Fiona began teleporting and teaching him the spells she linked to his shifting. He was very excited, for the first time she could see life in him.
He liked sneaking out into the realms and most importantly learning the spells in his male form. The realms were the only place he was free to be what he was without the stupid dresses.
Slowly, Igram began knowing the spells by heart, he was very intelligent for his age and really wanted to learn which made Fiona's Job very easy.
Seeing the progress, Fiona rewarded him with a visit to Disney land in Florida, to the human world. Igram was very excited, it was the first time he got to see another world apart from his and he loved every bit of it. He found humans fascinating and their ways more advanced than the boring Coven full of old has.
They watched movies, tried on a different cuisine, and rode a lot of rides at the ferry. Igram loved the human world, he got to interact with boys his age and he had everything in common with them. He did not want to go back to the Coven, it took Fiona dragging him back home.
She tolerated his nonsense but not when it came to issues that would lead to Ezeldah catching them. The mother and son returned to their room with a very pissed Igram. He made her promise to go back every weekend before he went to bed.
But Fiona could not promise anything but she assured him more visits in the coming days.