The following Wednesday, I had decided to make a break for it. I just couldn't wait any longer. I had planned on Joel taking me, but he really needed to be working on the farm. I told him I would wait another day. But then as I was in town, I bumped into Isaiah. He was in the book store.

"Hey, long time no see." He came up behind me as I was looking at some of the books on different rituals and spirits dealing with witches and gypsies.

I turned around and gave a fake smile, my hands trembled a little and I happened to drop the book, it just so happened to open up to the page that I was looking at. "How are you doing Isaiah?" I had asked bending down to reach for the book however he beat me to it.

"So you picked up on new reading material. This looks interesting." He flipped through some of the pages. He grinned with his little smirk of a smile.

"Isaiah." I reached for the book. "I'm just looking it's no big deal." But then I thought, why am I trying to defend myself to him.

He handed the book back to me and laughed, "You're not going to find her in there." He amazed me at times because it was like he always knew what I was doing or what I was looking for.

I knew that he would take me. I had promised my Grandpa that I would never go back there. I had told Joel that I would not go without him, but at this moment something was telling me to just go. I had to know and that was all that mattered at the moment. So I said yes and got into his car. Within minutes we were on the road to Shady Grove. I didn't realize before, but now as we traveled down the old road it was covered with Cypress trees. Every now and then there would be some Pine trees. I wonder if they had a meaning to this town. As we pulled into the old café, my fingers felt all tingly and numb. I watched Isaiah get out, walking to the other side to let me out. I hesitated briefly, remembering the dream that I had not so long ago about them taking me. Would it happen today?

"Come on, get out. This is what you want remember." He reminded me with a corky kind of grin.

I got out, searching to see if anyone was looking at us like the first day when I came here. Apparently everyone was inside. We walked up to the door and as he opened it the little bell on the door chimed. He walked in first and then I followed. I could feel all eyes on me. The old gray headed lady smiled, with a twinkle in her eye. She was glad to see me. He grabbed my hand and walked me over to her.

"What can I do for you, child?" She sat back down to drink her tea.

"You know who I am. I know who you are so cut the sweet talk. Tell me about her?" I asked calmly but rather rudely.

"I don't know who you are talking about child," she hissed back and then glared at Isaiah.

"Yes you do!" I slammed my hand so hard on the table that it rattled her tea cup. "Tell me about Kamilah." The room stood quiet. I don't know if it was because of my temper or if it was because I had said her name, the name that no one cares to mention. But now everyone in the café was staring at me.

"No one has said that name in a long time, child. How would you know of that name?" She took another sip of her tea, not taking her eyes off of mine.

"She was my mother, my real mother." I glowered.

"Kamilah didn't have any children; you must be getting your information from a rather bad source." She frowned, glaring at Isaiah again.

I in turn looked at Isaiah, shaking my head. I didn't know what to say to her, as I continued biting my bottom lip. I then remembered the day I had come and she had said that I was the one. I looked her dead in the face and said, "I am the one, I am Aislinn. Yet you called me, Elita. You had come for me before. I remember clearly now. You wanted me then but they would not give me back to you. You are my Grandmother, my Great-Grandmother aren't you?"

Her eyes transformed in front of me. It was like everything had clicked in. She reached for my hand and held on tightly. "My little Elita. I knew you would come back home when you found out the truth."

"But I don't know the truth, the whole truth. I want to know about my mother." I demanded.

"She died giving birth to you. There's really nothing to tell." She looked at the man behind the counter. I turned to look at him as well. He was not as old as her, yet his eyes looked like he had lived many years.

"Who is he?" I asked. Yet no sooner than the words came out of my mouth, I realized who he was.

"He is my son, your Grandfather. His daughter was Kamilah. She broke his heart when she ran away from us. She didn't have anything to do with us anymore and so she took you with her."

I stood up walking over to him. He started to walk around the counter at the same time. Both of us looked at each other what seemed forever even though it was only a few seconds. He reached out to hug me. But I did not hug him back, I stood there frozen. I looked in his eyes feeling his pain of rejection. I then wondered if he had ever hugged my mother. Was he really a good father to her?

"You look just like your mother." He looked me over, looking at every freckle, every inch of my face and then back into my eyes. "I'm sorry; I wish things could have turned out differently. I wished that we got to know you then. So many years has passed."

However, I knew that he had never wanted anything to do with me. She betrayed him long ago and he never wished that I was even here, even now. And he says he is sorry. Sorry for the way things were. His voice echoed in the back of my head. I don't know why, but I suddenly felt like I had to defend her. "You killed her. You were forcing her to marry someone that she didn't even love. She sneaked behind your back and fell in love with my father. If you would have only let her be with him, none of this would have ever happened. She would still be alive and I would have a family. I blame her death on you." I looked at him coldly.

"Please don't say that. I would have done anything for her. She was my baby, my girl. Here in Shady Grove we have rules to go by, family traditions. We have arranged marriages for a reason and she was so damn stubborn she insisted on doing things her own way."

"She was young and foolish. She was spoiled. She lied to us every night. We thought she was with Dedrick and comes to find out she would be sneaking off to see him." Another woman interrupted, taking the old man's arm within hers. "My husband is right, you look so much like your mother, but I can see him in you. You were to be the chosen one. Why did you really come back after all these years?" She insisted.

"You know why I am here. You all put the curse on me. You made sure that I would return. What I don't understand is why you had to take away my family. They never did anything to any of you."

She walked over towards me and got so close to me that I could feel her breath in my face. "They kept you away from us all these years. They knew you belonged to us, but they took you away and made sure we never got to see you again." She brushed off a loose strand of hair from my shoulder.

I wanted to scream at her; I wanted to push her so far from me. I tried to hold in the emotions that were now jumping around inside of me dying to get out and pound on her. "You didn't have to kill them. You didn't have to kill my brother." I started to cry, grabbing my own head and running my fingers through my hair as if I was getting ready to pull all of it out. I wanted to hit her so bad.

"Aislinn it was all an accident, really. Besides they didn't even believe in you. You had to fight to live day by day, wishing that they would listen to you, praying for them to just believe in you."

"She believed in me; Josh believed in me. Why take their lives?"

"Aislinn." She tried to put her arm around me to comfort me, but I pulled away. "You wanted them to believe. She tried to but you scared her. As for Josh, he was just a kid, looking up to you whatever you believed he believed."

I let the words sink in. It was like she was trying to make me turn against all of them, my family. Maybe she was hoping that I would turn to them. Maybe even come here and live with them. I felt miserable what if she was right? What if I had been pretending all these years to have the perfect family and in reality they were never on my side, never believing in anything that I did or said? I just wanted to belong somewhere but I knew for a fact that I did not belong here with them. I started to back up slowly.

The old gray headed woman then spoke up, "You came here on your own free will. You came here to find out the truth. Sit down child and have a drink with me." She demanded. Her son brought over another cup of tea for me to drink. I have a hard time calling him Grandfather. "Please child take a drink." She smiled.

I should have known not to drink it. I should have known that these people are just plain out evil and cruel. My head was spinning like a merry-go-round. Everything around me was so blurry; the walls, the tables the people were all turning to liquid, like fresh paint dripping, interlocking with each other. I couldn't tell where an object began or where it ended kinda like a Van Gough painting. I tried to force my eyes wide open unfortunately within seconds I was out. When I came to I was in a dark room. There was one small light above my head. The light was so bright that it hurt my eyes to look up at it. I knew that I was not alone. I could feel the presence of others in the room as they had waited for me to wake up.

The old gray headed lady came up close to me and whispered, "It will all be over soon dear. We got to test out your blood." She licked her lips, waiting to taste. I thought of my mother's words in her journal. I knew they would drink small sips of my blood to test it out and I had a feeling it would be what they wanted and then take my soul right along with it.

I started to get up, frightened. I knew if it was what they were looking for they would want all of it. I would be laying somewhere in a ditch, letting Mother Earth take over the rest of my remains. As I was fighting with her, her son and a few other of the men attempted to hold me down. I zoned out for a second, thinking of her, my mother. I yelled for her, "You saved me before, why don't you save me now. If you love me, save me now," I demanded. I opened my eyes and as I turned my head, Isaiah was in the distance with eyes wide open. He was staring at me just like he did in my dream. A part of me will never forgive him for this. He knew this was going to happen. Forget about friendship this was betrayal all the way. I closed my eyes again and pulled all my strength together to fight them off. I don't recall what happened next, all I know is that everyone was standing away from me. It was like they couldn't touch me, as if I had some kind of magic shield protecting me.

The old gray headed lady screamed, "Where did you get that?" She pointed to the amulet made out of Tourmaline. "We can't touch her as long as she has that on," she screamed, making the room echo of evil. "How are we going to get to her NOW!"

My mother's amulet protected me. It was the one thing that they could not touch. She as well had learned magic and the one thing that she did many moons ago was to cast a spell on her own amulet. The spell would have protected her from all evil that tried to take her back to Shady Grove and now as it draped around my neck it was to serve as my protection, to keep me safe from all evil. As I had focused on my survival the amulet came to life and sparkled of pure protection from everything. They started to back away as I sat up, and got down from the table. I started to walk over to the door backwards, watching them and they made a path for me so that I could leave. There was nothing that they could do about it. I was still trembling as I got to the other side of the door and made my way outside of the café, letting the door slam behind me. I gasped for air as the wind fingered my hair; my hand held on tightly to the amulet. There was only one way out so I started to walk back home.

I was half way down the road when a car pulled along beside me. At first I had thought of Isaiah but for some odd reason I thought at this very moment that he as well would never be able to touch me again. He was one of them after all.

"Hey you need a lift?" the guy had rolled down the window. I tried to answer him but I started to cry instead. He got out and attempted to comfort me. But then when I looked up at him he froze as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "Kamilah, my love; it can't be?" he questioned, his tender eyes swarmed of confusion.

I was not able to answer him back something in his eyes made me want to cry even harder. I suddenly felt weak and nauseated.

"Come with me, let's get out of here." He picked me up caring me over to his car. Instead of going into Shady Grove he turned around going in the opposite direction. When he stopped, he got out and helped me inside.

"You don't remember me do you? I thought that you were dead; you still look good just like you did back in high school", he rambled on. "Why didn't you tell me that you were in love with Sonam. I have tried to get over you all these years but you are always there in the back of my mind. Why did you leave me?"

It finally dawned on me of who he was. It was Dedrick. I remembered back when Isaiah had said that his father never got over her. I didn't know if I should play along with him or tell him who I really was. If he thought I was Kamilah would he become mad and if I told him the truth would that make it worse. I struggled for a moment then decided to tell him who I am. "I'm Shayla. The others back there call me Elita. Yet my birth mother, Kamilah, she calls me Aislinn. You were in love with her weren't you?" Just then it was like time froze for a split second, both of us looked into each other's eyes as if we were trying to figure each other out.

He stared back in shock, taking an even deeper look into my eyes. "I'm sorry for the mistake you look so much like her." He went back outside and sat down on the porch steps. "This was to be our home. We were to get married the day after graduation and start our own family. But she had other plans. She was already pregnant with you. She thought that I wouldn't know about it, but I knew."

"So you are not my father?"

"No, your mother and I fooled around some; however we had to wait until after the wedding to really be together if you know what I mean. She was so persistent. I should have given in to her and then maybe we would have still been together. I kept telling her to wait; we would be together soon enough. Our parents would have never allowed for us to be together before marriage. But your mother oh she was a wild one alright. She would find a way to explore and she did, with him. She fell in love with him and they were so secretively about their relationship even though I had my doubts about their relationship early on. I was furious when I found out that they had been together. I was supposed to be with her not him. I was even madder when I found out that she was pregnant." He shook his head. "I knew I had lost her; she would never be mine ever again."

"You found someone though right. You got married and had kids of your own?" I asked.

"I did get married; I tried to love her unconditionally, even though it was always Kamilah who had my heart. Mayleen and I got married and she gave birth to a son a few months later. Isaiah has had a hard life since she passed away. It was probably all my doing though. I can't count how many times I had called her Kamilah by mistake. She was nothing like your mother."

"I know that I shouldn't ask you but I feel like I just have to know; do you know where my father is? Where can I find Sonam?"

His fist tightened so hard, showing the white of his knuckles and then he released them. "I guess you have the right to know, after all he is your father. He lives just outside of the county line. He was ordered to never step foot back into Shady Grove or the county all together. I'll give you directions." He went inside and got a piece of paper and a pen, then came back outside. He sat down and drew out about the area where he was. "I hear he is still living there. I've only seen him once since your mother died. They blamed him for everything, I blamed him as well." He handed me the directions. About that time Isaiah pulled up. "Here comes my son right now; I would like for you to meet him."

"Looks like it is time for me to go." I held up the directions, trying to walk away before Isaiah got out. "Thanks again." I called back, "It was nice to finally meet you." I didn't hear his reply I was too busy trying to get away.

I started to walk off towards the main road. Surely I could find someone to give me a ride. I heard Isaiah yelling at me to wait. Then he yelled at his father, "What did you say to her? What did you do?"

He must have realized then that we already knew each other. I heard him yell at him, "Let her go son, just let her go."

"Yeah, just like you did with mom, uh!" I could hear him slamming his car door shut and speeding off to catch up with me. He got ahead of me and jumped out. "I'm sorry; I should not have taken you there," he apologized so quickly, but standing back from me, maybe he wasn't able to get too close to me now with the amulet on.

"Leave me alone, Isaiah, just go." I continued to walk. He followed behind me. I quickly turned around and slapped him hard across the face. "You, of all people you. How could you? You were my friend; you were going to let them take me. You stood there watching as if nothing seemed to matter to you as if I meant nothing to you. Don't you dare stand here telling me that you are sorry. Don't you dare look at me like that and think that I am just going to forgive you. Why? How could you?" I turned back around, walking away from him.

He started to yell, "Don't go Shayla. You belong with us. Don't you get it; you have a power that no one else will ever understand. You need us, Shay!"

I stopped to look back at him. Then I screamed back, "No you need me. They need me so that they can live longer. You have it all wrong, Isaiah, I don't need you or them." My voice echoed all around. In the distance I saw his father on the porch steps standing with watchful eyes. I think he would saved me from his own son if I needed to be. I turned from both of them and continued to walk.

Just as I got to the end of the street, I turned to go into the direction that he had drawn on the map. I didn't realize how late it was getting. It was already going on four o'clock, not long from now Joel will be calling me. For the moment I just needed to see him so I held out my thumb and hitched a ride with a stranger for the very first time of my life. I know it was a really stupid thing to do and I promised myself that I would never do it again. My parents had taught me to stay away from strangers; you just never know who you can trust. He seemed pretty nice, even though he looked a little rough looking behind the wheel of the old rusty Ford truck. Luckily he took me to where I had wanted to go. I got out of the truck looking around. There was nothing for miles but trees and trees. The graveled drive went deep into the woods.

"You sure your ok little lady?" He asked before leaving me there.

"I'm sure; thanks for the lift." I waved up my hand for him to leave as I shut the truck door. I wandered down the old drive. At the end was an old rustic log home. There were a few wooden wind chimes on the porch. As I stepped up on the steps, I heard a rustling noise and then growling. Two big black dogs greeted me, growling as if they were ready to sink their teeth into me, turning me into their tasty treat. I did not run from them. I stood still and stared into their eyes. Within seconds I heard a rough voice, "Down boys." As I glanced up towards him, I thought he was going to faint.