"Oh, I'm sorry dear, but really, did you have to make the cup explode? It costs me time, my dear you see, and as it is nearing the end of August, I have lot's to do." The man says strictly, in his deep voice.

   "I, I... How do you know my name? Who are you? Why are you here? What's this all... Oh my God!"

   I screamed, because the man had extracted a long, wooden stick out of his cloak, pointed it at the broken shards of china on the floor, muttered something, and the broken pieces had sealed themselves together, and flown right back onto the counter they had been sitting on before!

   I was pretty sure by now that this man... no, not a man, some kind of alien, hadn't come to wish me birthday greetings. He had probably come to, to take us away to his faraway planet and experiment on us and...

   "Calm down, dearie. I'm not going to hurt you..."

   "Yes you are! You're going to take us away to your messed up planet, and experiment on us with your alien friends, and, and... Stop calling me dear! I don't even know you!" Immediately, my father is standing next to me, enveloping me in a bubble of protection.

   "No, I am not. And for your information, I am not an alien, and I come from the same planet as you. My name is Felix Carslow, and if you calm down, sit down, shut up, and listen, I will explain everything to you." I stare at him, shocked, fury ebbing into my every vein.

   I start to shake with anger, a sure danger sign. Promptly, my father notices, and wheels me around to sit in a squishy armchair nearby. Instantly, my anger and fear dies down. My Dad has it under control. He'll get this man out of here, I know it.

   "Okay. I think it is time for us to know. I assume you're the one who sent us Scarlett?" My father says. I turn my gaze to him. Why is he not sending this weirdo away? "Oh, and please don't speak like that to my daughter."

   "What are you talking about?" I cry,"I thought, I thought... What's this all about?" My father sighs deeply, a look of intense resignation etched all over his face.

   "Scarlett Zalikah Riddle. That is the name we learnt when we were given you."

   "Given me? I thought you found me at an orphanage? Didn't you?" I say, uncertainly. My father sighs again, looking worried, but before he can talk, my mother interrupts.

   "Scarlett, dear. You know that we aren't your real parents, but there's something else we haven't told you either." I look at her daggers, and suddenly she looks older, aged beyond what I've ever seen of my thirty-five year old adopted mom.

   "We told you that we picked you out from an orphanage when you were just a baby, but the truth is that you were picked for us." She exhales deeply, and I take that moment to interject.

   "What are you talking about? I was in an orphanage! I was!"

   "We don't know that, Scar," says my father sadly, "The man, he turned up on our doorstep in the middle of the night, and asked us to take you in. The moment we said yes, he disappeared. Gone. Poof."

   "We took you up, all we knew about you was your name, Scarlett Zalikah Riddle, and that you needed a home. We raised you like our own, and had Abe." I know by the way my mother says his name the way I say it shows she knows how much this is hurting me.

   "You know the rest," Agrees my father, "If any strange things occurred with you, we didn't question it. And odd things did happen. But we always loved you, no matter what. And we always will."

   The man looks at my dad slyly, then turns to look at me again. "Okay then, Miss Riddle. You want the truth? You're not going to start shouting at me again?" I nod. "Okay then," he repeats. "Well, Miss Riddle, you know all these "Odd things" that have been happening with you? Well, they're because you're a witch."