The Warlock's Daughter - Chapter One

Olivia Richards' father has always been different and has issues with hiding his odd skills. After her mother passed away when she was 18, Olivia left culinary school, her dream, to take care of her strange father. Now she's 22 and he's about to push her too the limit.

When I was 18 my mom passed away and I dropped out of culinary school to return home and take care of my father. It wasn’t that he wasn’t capable of feeding himself or making sure to bathe, he just had little issues with keeping his ‘ability’ under wraps.

Mom had been patient and kind and seemed to understand why my strange father couldn’t keep his weird ‘powers’ to himself. She would apologise to the neighbours with grace and gentle smiles that nearly made them all forget the strange on goings they had seen.

I, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have her same gentle smile and always ended up getting yelled at or screamed that my Dad was a menace and needed to be kept under house arrest. It wasn’t that they could prove what they saw but the threats were bothersome and I couldn’t help but recoil under them.

Dad seemed oblivious though regardless if I talked to him or not. If I voiced my concern he’d just laugh it off that humans were slow and I, in turn, would snarl that I was human and I was pretty damn sure he was the brainless one.

If I didn’t he’d just go on with his life, hidden in the back room I had never been allowed in while I scrapped together money at the diner run by old man Hogan.

Putting up with my father had always been difficult. He was a childish man, one who barely noticed his wife’s death and barely seemed to care about his daughter screaming at his face.

Yet, I released a sigh, I put up with him because he was all I had and deep down, he did care about me, even if he odd ways of showing it.

The television droned in the background, the buzz of some morning children’s song hummed in my ears as I sat quietly at the kitchen table. Hogan, my boss at the diner, had decided to keep his business open all night in the hopes of getting the numerous bar stragglers.

It had worked, sure, but now not only was I completely exhausted I was pretty sure I had learned to loathe every drunk that had come in that night.

“Good morning, Olivia,” chirped my cheerful father’s voice. He wandered into the kitchen with a bright grin on his face and not a single black bag hanging under his eyes.

My head hit the table.

“Olivia,” said my father with a frown, “You don’t look so good. Did you sleep last night?”

“No,” I moaned into the wooden table, “No, I did not!”

“Maybe I can whip up some potion to -”

“No, Dad, I don’t need a potion,” I scowled into the wood, “If you happened to actually pay some form of attention to me and  maybe the world around you you’d know that I had to take on night shifts to pay the bills.”

“Night shift?” My father released a little chuckle, “Hogan’s Diner isn’t open all night, you silly girl.”

I just released a loud groan, snarling as the wood suffocated my anger growls.

“Would you like something to eat, Olivia? I was going to cook -”

My head snapped up.

“Oh no you don’t, last time you cooked you nearly burnt the house down and regardless of these new shifts, it’ll take me forever to pay off the damages,” I was upon my feet in an instant, shoving my head into the fridge.

My father simply took a seat. Sometimes I wondered if he purposely tried to burn the house so he’d never have to cook again.

“Olivia,” my father called as I grabbed a bowl from the top cupboard, “You know I do care about you.”

“I know, Dad.”

“I do worry about where you go at night -”

“I know, Dad.”

“So that’s why I’ve been working on a surprise for you.”

My breath caught in my throat, “Dad, please don’t tell me you’re playing with your ‘gift’ again.”

“It’s called magic, dear, and yes, of course I am -”

“Mhmm,” I muttered, “Well I don’t want any part of it.”

He sighed, “Olivia, be reasonable. You’re a beautiful young lady who ‘parties’ until the early hours of the morning. You need an escort.”

“I have one,” I shoved his breakfast into the oven, “Ryan always takes care of me.”

“Oh,” My father was annoyed. He never liked Ryan, “You’re seeing him again.”

“Yes, Daddy, Ryan and I made up -”

“Sure,” He breathed and I, in turn, just rolled my eyes, “He is a vulgar young man, Olivia. I forbid -”

I yanked the warmed meal from the oven below, “Don’t go there, Daddy. I’m 22 and I don’t care where you pretend you’re from but women here no longer need escorts.”

He only scoffed, “I highly doubt that. If you are dating that Ryan boy than I think you need more than one escort to keep you on the right path -”

Again, I only rolled my eyes.

We sat together as he ate, shoving down the meal with barely a thank you in reply while I tried my hardest to keep my eyes open. When he was finished, I washed his dishes while he excitedly raced off to finish playing in his secluded study.

“I’m going to bed!” I screamed after I turned the tap off, knowing he really didn’t care what I did.

As I crawled into the small single bed I had owned since I was a child, I began to wonder what really caused my mother to adore that man. He was so immature, so selfish that it blew my mind that my gentle and polite mother could’ve ever married such a man.

I loved him and I’d do what I needed to keep him out of trouble but it was absolutely ridiculous how infantile my father truly was.

I was awoken a couple hours later by a buzzing on my side table. My phone was having a heyday as it sang and vibrated across the wood. I sat up with a groan, pulling the phone to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Ah, Olivia, you sound a little tired,” sang a joyful female on the other end.

“Tired? I’m exhausted, Meg. I can’t believe Hogan actually instilled nightshifts, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“Well you still have the night off, right?”

I stood, yawning into the speaker, “Yeah, I’m off. Why? What’s up?”

“I thought it’d be fun to go out tonight,” smiled Megan Phillips over the phone, “Ryan said he’d come.”

“He better come,” I muttered, “It’s been weeks since he’s taken me anywhere.”

“He’s just lazy,” breathed the girl on the other line, “So are you in? I’ll even be DD.”

“Deal.”

“Great!” and Megan hung up without a goodbye while I wandered into the living room, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

Unfortunately though, as I entered the small living area I found quite the annoyance lying sloppily upon the couch. It was a young boy, probably 18 or so, or at least that’s what he looked like. His eyes were a pretty brown but there was no life in them as he stared off into space. I waved my hands frantically in front of his face but when there was no reply, I released a loud cry.

“Dad!” I screeched, glaring at the hollow shell upon my couch, "Dad!"

My father came rushing in, “What? What is it, Olivia?”

“That!” I screamed again, “What in the world is that?”

“Oh,” He chuckled, “that happens to be Toby, your new escort.”

“Toby,” I muttered, “No offence to Toby, Dad, but he doesn’t look like he can do much protecting. I’m pretty sure Megan could take him out if she really wanted too.”

“Well of course she could,” laughed the man, “he’s not finished yet.”

I eyed the creation, “What exactly is he anyway?”

“A wooden doll.”

“No,” I muttered, “He looks to real -”

“Olivia, when will you learn that I’m a -”

I sighed, “Dad, look, I know what you are and I understand all about your gift but I’m not mom. I’m not going to put up with this anymore. You can’t just create things out of thin air because you feel like it. This is my world, the human world, and when you live here you can’t do crazy things like this.”

He frowned, “Toby isn’t going to be completely stupid. I’ll inform him of the limitations of your world.”

“No Dad, no Toby.”

My father sighed, “Olivia, I am your father and I think I know what’s best for you. Toby will be your protector and there will be no ‘ifs’, ‘ands’, or ‘buts’.”

“Dad, no!”

But because my father never cared about my opinion I was struck with a blinding light. I could hear him muttering undistinguishable words beneath his breath until finally that white light subsided. There was a bit of shuffling, a cough and slowly the blurred figure moved. 

My eyes focused.

Before me stood Toby, a hastily made doll and basically the start of all my problems. He was the reason I would find myself, about 4 days from now, tossed into my father’s world, a place named Avalon.

To be continued...