Chapter Six (He's Alive?)

Julian didn’t know what she was thinking. All she knew, was that she needed to get away from that house. Her heart was beating as fast as her feet were going. She allowed the hot tears to stream down her face. She could not believe that her mother had tried to kill her, with what she assumed was poison in the soup, but why? Sure her mother was crazy, and no she never won nicest mother of the year, but she did love Julian. So why did she try to kill her? Julian went through everything that had happened in their life up to that night. Nothing was out of ordinary, until she had asked her mother about magic. That had to be it! But her mother used magic, from the looks of it, she had a spell book in the basement. So why was she so adamant that Julian not believe in magic?

Out of Julian’s peripheral vision, she saw a tall large black shadow just as she was passing the white oak tree she had found the frog at. A shiver of cold fear shot through her body, and boosted her adrenaline to where she was running faster than she ever had in her life. She had nowhere to go, though. The only thing to do was run, and hopefully find somewhere to hide or find a house close by. She could hear his feet catching up to her. All at once she found her face in the soil beneath her. Her arms were pressed behind her back and a heavy weight was on top of her.

“Get off! Get off me now! Now!”

“Calm down!” She heard a deep voice yelling at her from above. “If you’ll calm down, I’ll let you up, ok? I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”

Well there was nothing else she could do. So instead of struggling and getting nowhere she stilled herself, and waited.

“Ok, let me up now!” He let go of her hands, and slowly got off of her. Julian got to her feet quickly, to face this big gorilla who found it necessary to scare the crap out of her and tackle her down! “Who are you and why did you tackle me?” asked Julian.

As Julian stood staring him in the eye, she realized he looked familiar. His eyes were a light green, she knew this because they were softly glowing in the dark. They reminded her of the frog she had met earlier. As the man stared back at her he could tell she was shocked and scared. So he decided it was time to tell her the truth that had been hidden from her ever since her birth.

“I’m…I’m your father, James. I know you think I died but I didn’t and it’s a long story, you’ll just have to hear me out.”

Julian didn’t know what to think as she listened to him. No speech would come from her mouth.

“I’m the frog, Julian… I mean I was a frog, something must have happened to your mother because I just changed back, and I can’t do that unless she speaks the words or she dies… Julian, what happened to your mother?”

“I…I…I killed her.” Julian replied with a whisper. Julian’s father dropped his gaze to the ground as he ran his hand over his face, wiping away the tears that had started to trickle down his face.

“How did it happen? Is that why you were running in the woods?”

Fresh tears started to roll down Julian’s eyes, as she turned them towards the ground.

“She tried to kill me…it was an accident…”

“I’m sorry Julian… Sorry you had to do that. She wasn’t a well woman, but it wasn’t her fault.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t her fault?! She tried to kill me, it was her fault!

Julian couldn’t handle all of this. She slumped to floor as she sobbed uncontrollably. James slouched down in front of her.

“Julian, I promise it’s going to be okay, let me get you back home.” Julian slowly calmed down and stood up with her father. She needed the support from him now, after all, he was the only one she had left.