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Chapter 6: Madison Awakens
[General POV]:
No one in the Hewitt family knew when exactly the change in her occurred. Only that it did around her seventh birthday — And that it had not been gradual, not even a little, but fast and nigh-immediate.
Hazel's entire personality shifted — And with it, her aversion to sunlight.
She, who had been a complete stuck-in at home, never really socializing with anyone at home, suddenly became a bright flower — Sociable and positive, and able to go out in the sun without feeling any glaring weakness.
Ironically, this all came at cost, though.
For her psionic capabilities, memories of a past life, active knowledge of her gifts and abilities as well as the knowledge that her family was one of the most powerful supernatural families in the world — All of that vanished.
And, in their place, was a singular mark upon her head — One placed directly on the side of her forehead where the forehead met the hair: A sun tattoo she — nor anyone who knew her — has had any idea how it got there.
She was too young to get one on her own and no one in the Hewitt family took her to get one, so it was a bizarre, strangely appearing mark upon her skin: A golden circle with 8 curvy waves almost like sun rays.
When her parents learned of the total amnesia, the weird mark and the loss of psychic abilities, they were horrified. Investigating the mark to be a curse, they took Hazel to various witches they had connections to hoping for a cure or solution, but received none.
Her grandfather reacted strangely to the news, sinking his psyche will into the weird mark just a peek to see if it were truly a curse. But, when he received the familiar psychic pushback he typically received from trying to breach his granddaughter's mind, only this time, it was coming from the mark itself, he frowned.
'It's almost as if the part of her that held all her abilities retreated into the mark, probably taking whatever ailments she possessed since birth along with it… But why would my granddaughter do that?' Argus pondered, deep in thought, before his eyes widened at a sudden realization. 'Don't tell me… she did this to herself for a chance at a normal life?!'
After that incident, Argus ordered Hazel's parents to not worry too much about their daughter, and that openly using psychic powers around her should be prohibited. He also sealed Mason's budding psychic abilities which had only just began trying to appear, though he ensured Mason would know enough about the family and his abilities for both himself and his twin sister.
'If she wants herself a normal life, then, as her grandfather, I am obligated to give her one,' Argus thought.
And so time went by.
Hazel attended school, easily acquiring her own group of friends in Lori Talbot and Cora Hale.
The three had many playdates together and, considering their parents were all pretty close friends, they got on flawlessly. It helped that they were the same age and in the same 1st grade class together.
They were inseparable.
Hazel still had mornings she felt more tired than usual, typically on mornings after the full moon and other celestial events, like meteor showers, comets, super moons, red moons, etc.
But, when she considered the fact that she was almost certain she dozed off those nights, she just chalked it up to her body having trouble fully waking up.
Little does she know that those are the nights her mark seems to shift and someone else takes over… Not that she knew anything about that, of course.
She was just an ordinary school girl.
And, like the seasons, time passed.
Hazel was 9, now. It was summer. And, though she couldn't have been sure, the vibe around town was… off.
She first really noticed the occurrences — really noticing them — after her birthday, some time in March.
Howls. Wolf-like howls. Except California didn't have wolves according to the Internet and the tons of library books she read in her free time.
Mountain lion and animal attacks that seem to be on the rise. Except she can never really find these "wild animals", no matter how hard she looks. Maybe they were just really good at hiding.
Arrowheads all around town, almost everywhere, actually. It was easier to spot them than it was to spot mountain lions — And they were always spotted with blood.
Try as she might, Hazel could never make much sense of any of this, so she did her best to ignore them — The wails of pain mixed into the howls heard on the full moon, the almost claw-like shapes embedded on the walls of certain parts of the town, but are much too big, much too wide, to belong to any conceivable beast native to this end of California.
The strange auras Hazel would pick coming from her walk home from school — from the direction of that infamous mental ward, Eichen House — Auras because she could think of no other word for the sensation she was picking up from.
It was during a summer night in 2003 that one of the instances she wasn't aware of occurred —
She dozed off — or thought she did — One minute she was certain she was dosing off, and the next, it happened.
Her dark brown almost-black hair associated with Hazel turned auburn red-brown, as the sun mark on the right side of her forehead turned into a pale yellow moon with three stars beside it.
Even her aura changed — She went from easygoing, easy-to-like and fun to be around to being mysteriously heavy in presence with a faint dark but dreamy and powerful presence.
This was the true owner of Hazel's body. This was Madison Hewitt — The alter ego — No, the true ego of Hazel.
And she was now awake.
Just in time for the Hale fire…
"It's a good thing I awoke when I did," Madison tensed and untensed her fists as she looked at the clock in her room and the setting sun outside her window."The Hale Fire is to start soon."
Madison got out the bed, walking to her closet mirror where she took in her appearance: Her mark was active, her hair almost red, her eyes glowed faintly an amber red and a faint, almost imperceptible crimson psionic aura radiated from her being.
"By altering my biology on a genetic level and using my advanced psionic abilities to rewrite neural pathways and a whole host of dangerously specific modifications I had to use a week's worth of research just to safely touch — I made it so that the longer I'm suppressed within Hazel, the stronger my psionic abilities become even faster than before," Madison said to her mirror. "It's a compounded effect that allows me to get stronger psionically while the Hazel aspect of me interacts with the world during my slumber within her."
"Of course, the negative effect is that I assumed the sun debutffs twice as hard as before, but for Hazel to be able to interact with others and make friends, that's a price I don't mind paying. It only means I can only be active at night, that's all."
"You know, talking to yourself is a sign of insanity," a voice sounded from Little Mick's birdcage.
Madison walked over to her ginormous birdcage where her owl companion stared at her.
"Hey, Little Mick — You ready out of your cage?" Madison asked.
"Oh, so now you acknowledge my presence," the Barn Owl said sarcastically, clearly dissatisfied with Hazel's inability to truly — or fully — commune with animals and spirits. Madison set him free from his cage. "It's like you have two souls living inside you or something. That other you is completely clueless!"
"Yeah, yeah," Madison waved her hand as she opened the window before heading back to the closet, where she pressed a hidden button and a secret compartment showed itself with a click. Wordlessly pulling out a jacket that made her look taller and a cloak that hid her face, she donned both, genetically altering herself psionically so that she looked 16 years old in height. "C'mon, Mick. We've got a den of wolves to rescue."
And, together, both girl and owl leaped through the window into the star-touched night.