Stuck in reverse

Date | 20th of January
Time | around 11am
Weather | Cold
Place | Oliver’s place
Attire | An oversized t-shirt and fluffy socks.

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Since Florence had been by, every day had been the same. Oliver had tried to talk to her, she had just starred. Not spoken back, and he had then retreated. She wasn’t even sure if they slept in the same bed anymore. It was like the entire world around her had just turned numb. Like no sound or touch could wake her from the slumber her mind had retreated in when her magical powers had surfaced and almost burned her out. Almost killed her.
She was standing in the kitchen, making herself a cup of tea. She was getting so thin, she knew that. Or did she? When had been the last time she had looked herself in the mirror? Her fingers scratched her forehead as she looked down at her cup. She hadn’t even put in a teabag, great. She was just about to pick a box down, when someone knocked on the door. She didn’t think much of it, Oliver would open. Wait, no. Had he said goodbye? He had, hadn’t he? Work, yes. She looked towards the fridge and saw on the calendar that he was working because the small magnet told her that it was a Thursday.
Madelaine steeled her nerves and walked towards the door and opened it. It was like every fibre of her entire being started to scream as she looked how it was. “No” then she tried to slam the door back. No, no, no! Tears sprung for her eyes as a sob left her. It couldn’t “Go away!” she cried, pushing harder on the door.

Now it had been a long time since he had been able to catch up with his friends in the house he had outside of town. Where he had kept his trail of witch experiments happen, now of course he was very aware of the fact that he had removed the curse and let the witches out. Had he hoped at least a few of those unthankful bastards had stayed back to wait for him to return, yes, was that really too much to ask? For that sole reason he had started to track out the ones he had been missing the most, his precious favorites. Now, did Joseph shake by the thought of a Jones' witch protecting his precious little gem? No. What was Oliver Jones even going to do to him, say a few magic words and poof hope he would vanish? The mare thought on its own made Joseph laugh a little to himself as he walked down the street towards the house. Oh today, today was going to be a glorious day.

Joe walked further up towards the larger house and let his eyes travel over it. Interesting. It was fused by magic, pretty boy thinking he was so clever. He lightly walked towards the door, placing his palm on it siphoned the magic, he wasn't without manners now was he? No, far from. So of course after he politely had knocked on the door, he waited like the good local sociopath he was. Joseph placed his hands in his pockets and just waited, listening. He could hear her footsteps coming in closer. Then the door opened and he could see her beautiful face in the door, just about to greet when she tried to slam the door in his face - rude really. Joseph used his magic to stop the door from slamming, crying for him to go away, what kind of greeting was this? Joseph sighed a bit before chanting a few more words letting the door bust open and force her to give in, then stepping through, closing it again with a small hand movement. "Now that is no way to greet old friends Mads," he shook his head a little looking around, "I thought you had better taste than to date any Jones', what a bunch of show offs," he mumbled looking around then letting his eyes rest on Madelaine. "What? I'm not here to take you anywhere, I just wanted to see how you were doing, and thank me that I did, I mean look at you."

She was knocked back; she didn’t feel it at first. But because of the backlash she hadn’t been able to shield her face. It was first when blood was running down from her nose, that she realised that the door had slammed into her face.
Sitting, looking up at Joseph as he stepped into the house. She let out a half-chocked sob, mostly because she had no idea to react to this. If it wasn’t because pain was spreading through her body, she would have thought this was just one of her occurring nightmares. Because she always saw him when she closed her eyes. She woke up bathed in sweat, because she had felt how his fingers had run down her skin. Panting while her heart had beat so heavily in her chest. Her green eyes just looked at him, how pitiful she had to look. Blood running down her lips, forming by her chin before it dripped down on her hands that was hugging her t-shirt in front of her. Thank him? She should thank him!?
Magic flared up in her, one of her hands had found the hardwood floor underneath where she was sitting. And without even noticing. The palm of her hand had burned the floor underneath it. Her other hand glided up and wiped away some of the blood, so she wouldn’t get it in her mouth when she spoke. “What do you want?” she hissed, her voice almost cracking under the pressure of not being used for so many days.

He didn't have to stand close to feel the magic and how it flared up in her. Now this was what he was talking about, not that he had thought of her as a failure when she hadn't shown many signs of magic when he first had turned her. No, no he knew there was potential, why else would he have kept her alive? Joseph could easily as breaking a twig have killed her a long time ago, but he hadn't. He chuckled a little bit looking at the burned hardwood floor before looking at her removing the blood with the back of her hand. What did he want? "I wanted to check up on you dearie," he replied with a small shrug and pulled his lips up in a smile. "And from what I see I am not impressed by how things are going on with you, is he even feeding you?" Joseph wondered and pressed his brows a bit together, shaking his head a little. Now he wasn't too scared of her running out, he had siphoned a bit of the spell this Oliver Jones had made, but he had also changed it. Making sure he well of course he didn't want Oliver inside right now, so that was taken care of and Joe also didn't want Madelaine to just run off. They were talking, so her taking off would just be rude, right? "Oh you were making tea? Lovely lets get a cup," he clapped his hands a little bit walking towards the kitchen to look around trying to figure out where the cups were placed, because only one had made it to the counter after all, and they were two people. Finally, he found it and placed one on the counter, making both of them a nice cup of tea. "See, I'm sorry I haven't checked up on you before now. You see, I was on a road trip back like - in summer I reckon? Yes, yes in summer. Have you ever been on a road trip before?" He wondered but didn't really look at her. "It was very soul freeing for me, cleared out my pores and everything," he did a small hand movement and placed the cups on the nearest table. "Come and sit."

Of course, he just wanted to check up on him. What had she been thinking? That she could just walk away, and never see him again. She closed her eyes, as realisation struck her. That she might never be free of him, that there would always be a time where she would look over her shoulder to see if he was lurking behind her.
A watchful eye that didn’t sleep, because she was afraid that he would be standing at the foot of her bed, just watching her. With that intolerable smirk on his lips, might even sit in a chair eating popcorn, enjoying the show of seeing her freaked out. She would never be free. And he was here to remind her of that. She turned her head as he walked around as if he owned the place. Making them tea in the kitchen, while she kept sitting on the ground. Now, she had learned a thing or two while she had been his captive. If you shut up and let him talk, you would come out on the other side better, than if you talked back. Well, at least if you kept persisting in a manner that he would find tedious, and if you didn’t say anything at all, you were dull. There was a very fine line, that was exhausting to balance. But it had been what had kept her alive, besides his unwanted interest in her.
Madelaine slowly stood up, and walked towards the table, sat down in the chair where he had placed a cup. Her hands closed around it and pulled it slowly towards her. Trying not to look him directly in his eyes, nor say anything to him. Waiting, for him to tell her, or explain to her why he was here. How long he was staying, now that he wasn’t going to take her away.

At least she didn't try to outdo him, good for her. It was really the best choice she had made today really. Joseph gave her a bright smile as she sat down as he instructed her to. His eyes wondered over her shorty, "you activated your magic not long ago, huh? I wondered how long till it kicked in," he mumbled a little bit and pressed his brows together for a second, then mumbling a small spell to cool down the tea so he wouldn't burn his tongue, and picked up the cup. Joseph took a smalle sip and leaned back in his seat still not really taking his eyes off her for longer than a moment at the time. "Staying with a Jones I see? Thought you would have better taste, well then. At least it seems like this one isn't keen on killing the rainforest to make his spells," he mused a little bit. Well, of course everyone did their spells how they found the best, Joseph just didn't see a need to break a piece of paper every time he wanted to do something useful. Enough about that. "You don't like your tea?" He wondered nodding towards the untouched cup. As always Joseph never saw a problem with his choice of action regarding of showing up unannounced, or to spice things just a little bit up. Or this time he had no intentions of adding spice in other shapes than the fact that he was still around, and to the fact that he wasn't going anywhere. "I also saw you had been hanging around ... or its been a while, what is his name Evan? No... Nathan - Ethan, that's the one," he nodded a little bit. "Oh Ethan and I go way back, or not as closely as his friend," he snapped his fingers a little bit trying to recall the name, not because he had any issues in actually remembering names actually, Joseph just had a flair for being dramatic, "Cecilia that was the one. Oh yeah, that was some fun and not fun months, I will tell you that."

Madelaine folded her lips into a thin line, when he asked about her magical powers. It was true, it hadn’t been all that long ago since she had finally been able to activate her powers. Not that she would ever remember that very fondly, mostly because it had almost killed her. Now it just felt like her entire body was being ripped apart by some extreme force that she wasn’t able to control. Maybe that had been his idea all along, that she should escape, and be in a situation where she would die anyway, because the powers he had granted her, was too much for her body and mind to handle. She wouldn’t put it past him. Even if it hadn’t been his intention, something told her he only found it even more fascinated if it were so.
Kill rainforest, what on earth was he on about. But once again she kept quiet, letting him talk and hoping that Oliver wouldn’t be far away. There was a constant thought in her head telling her, that she should just keep staling.
When he nodded towards her cup, asking if she didn’t like it, she slowly leaned forward and took it in her hands. Afraid what would happen if she tried to defy him too much. Fear made people do unimaginable things every once and awhile. At least she had been having a lot of practice to not say anything, so she just sat there and looked at him, while he went on about something she wasn’t even sure what kind of relevance it had. It only made her heart sink, because he clearly had kept taps on her, more than she had hoped. Taking a small sip of the tea she sat it back on the table and folded her hands in her lap, once again sending a hope out in the universe, that she wouldn’t have to endure this much longer.

She was so quiet. He knew why, and could he blame her? Clearly his little experiment had made her nerves to wild, what a shame really. He cleared his throat a little, "you didn't lose your voice dove, you can speak," Joe reminded her and narrowed his eyes just a little bit. Because even if Joseph adored listening to the sound of his own voice, it was also something more of listening to the sound and tone of her voice, how it dropped, she clearly waited for her warlock to get home. Because Oliver would be able to do anything, it was almost a funny thought. The only reason why Joseph didn't mingle with the Jones' was because he had promised Primrose back in the day to stay clear from her family if she helped him with the mate mark experiments, so he had kept his promise. Which was also one of the reasons why he right in this moment didn't touch even a hair on Madelaine's head, because if anything there was something more freeing by the idea of having another siphoner on his side regarding this than tormenting a young witch that in his state of mind couldn't even really be of much use. "I'm not staying long, I just wanted to see you."

There was something in his voice that made her believe him. Both that she could speak and that he wasn’t going to harm her. Well, not that he said it with so many words. But even though Madelaine didn’t want to admit it, she knew this man better than most. She had seen him at his high, at his low. She had seen him work and ramble for himself as he tried to see if the next big idea would work, seen his expression when it had failed again. It scared her that she could look at a person that had inflicted her so much pain and suffering and know who he was and what made him tick. While she, at times, could look at Oliver and not have a clue. How was that right? It almost made her angry that he had done that to her and constantly showed how he had infested her life in more ways than one.
“There are better ways of seeing people than breaking in when you’re not wanted”, she pointed out in a meagre and calm voice; with a sigh, she leaned over and took her cup of tea and started sipping from it. Her eyes wandered towards the door before she looked back at Joseph again. “Why did you want to see me?” she asked, her calm and almost emotionless eyes monitoring his every move.