╚╩╩╩╝ Jaime ╚╩╩╩╝

I lay awake in my bed, staring at the ceiling. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stay asleep.

For the past several days, I’ve only been able to sleep for a couple of hours. The nightmares that haunted my dreams forced me awake and took away any rest that I’d gained.

I watched the shadows dance across the ceiling of my room as the hours passed by until the sun began to send rays of light through the gaps in the curtain covering the window.

A knock came from the door, so I sat up and said. “Come in.”

Slowly, Hamil opened the door. He looked worried. They all looked worried.

Hamil said that breakfast was ready, so I started to get out of bed. If there was one thing that I desperately wanted, aside from a good night’s sleep, it was a warm meal.

Dressing as much as I needed for a morning meal, I stopped in the center of my room as pain gripped at my heart like a vice. My body seized and it felt like I was drowning. Falling to the floor, I had to force my body, through a series of painful cramps, to still. Still twitching, I pulled myself up to my bed and swallowed hard.

After a few minutes of deliberate breathing, my body had calmed. Reaching underneath my shirt, I felt the cool glass of my mother’s pendant against my fingers and sighed with the relief that the feeling brought. Gently stroking the pendant, I stood up and walked over to the door. Letting go of the pendant, I brushed my hand over the rough cloth that remained of my father’s cloak. With no need for something like a scarf, I instead wore the long scrap tied around my chest, under my clothes.

Taking my hand out from under my shirt, I straightened my clothes and left the room.

Breakfast was still warm when I arrived. Sitting down, I started slowly pulling food onto my plate. The kitchen staff made large helpings of each dish, since the house staff would be eating what was left over.

I was starving, or so I felt. Each bite filled an endless void. It brought only momentary relief from the hunger. I felt several eyes focused on me, but I didn’t care. I needed every bite.

After some time, the hunger lessened to a point that wasn’t painful, so I stopped eating and excused myself from the table. As I did, from the corner of my eye, I saw Pert, Licilia and Hamil. They still looked worried, but they still did nothing.

‘They don’t care about you. They don’t love you. You’re a monster. Look at how much you just ate.’ A voice spoke in the back of my mind.

Hearing this voice, I cringed and felt my heart pounding in my chest. It reminded me of the one that told me to heal people, only this one didn’t want to help.

Hanging my head low, I returned to my room. The light coming through my window was dizzying, so I closed them entirely.

Dressing for the day, I put on my smock and left my room again.

The part of the manor where I painted had unofficially become my own area. Pert and Licilia had purchased special furnishings for the corner so that I could work there without getting any paint on anything, as well as to store all the tools that I used. Licilia asked if I wanted to use a room, but I insisted that the hall corner was good enough.

Stepping over to this corner, I set a blank canvas on the easel and sat down in front of it.

Grabbing my palette and a brush, I stared at the gray square. Suddenly, my eyes felt very heavy, and I couldn’t focus my eyes. Closing my eyes and shaking my head, I squinted to try and focus on the canvas, only to see a collection of vague shapes on its surface.

Then, as I tried to make out what was on the canvas, I heard voices echoing around inside of my head.

‘You won’t be able to hold us in for much longer.’ A high pitched, shrieky voice spoke.

Another voice came, this one was deep and smooth. ‘Your power, alone, is not enough to stop us. We grow in power every day, while your husband fades.’

‘I will do whatever it takes, if it means that she stays in control.’ I recognized this voice. It was my mother’s.

I watched this scene play over and over again on the canvas until something changed.

The blurry shapes on the canvas became clear. I saw my mother. It was like looking into a mirror, only she was far older. Standing a short distance away from her, inside of a giant glass heart, were two shapes that quickly became clear. One was the man that I had been painting in my father’s place, the man that Kasper had called Tim, the other was a giant, golden chicken. The chicken screeched and clawed at the glass, but couldn’t break through.

Suddenly, Tim looked directly at me and let out a small chuckle. ‘Your power has lessened. The child can see and hear us.’

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Then, my mother turned to look at me. ‘Look away, Jaime. You need to look away.’

I tried to, but found my body frozen, unresponsive.

‘Since you’re here, why not a gift?’ Tim said before pointing in my direction.

My mind was immediately filled with memories that seemed to belong to me. A hulking, monstrous creature looking directly at me. The monster’s twisted, bloody form seared a brand in my mind, but the memories didn’t stop there. I remembered doing something to stop it, and then blacking out. But at the moment that I remembered blacking out, the point of view changed. I was seeing things from the sky, like a bird or bug. The first thing I saw, however, was my own body. I was a charred, bloody mess on the ground.

Pert rushed me back to their home here in Renae, to have Licilia heal me, but she could barely stop the bleeding. The two of them left the room to speak quietly in another room.

Then, as I lay on a bloodstained bed, my body began to convulse. My flesh twisted and bubbled, deforming itself. Then, a diamond-shaped ember appeared on my forehead. This flame spread out in ribbons of violet-gold light that penetrated my body. Slowly, my body returned to its original form as the parts that were missing began to regrow.

‘Do you see now? You really are a monster.’ Tim spoke.

I wanted more than anything to leave, but my body was still frozen. I could feel my heart crashing around inside of me, trying to escape its cage.

The memories faded from my view and I saw my mother again. She looked worried. ‘You’re not a monster, Jaime.’ She pleaded, tears rolling down her face.

Then she raised her hand and pointed to me like Tim had done. A drop of white light fell from the tip of her finger that rippled into the ground they were standing on. The ripples grew stronger and stronger as the memory of what I had just seen began to fade.

Just as the final memories faded away, the canvas was suddenly pulled from my view. Startled, I looked to see Hamil standing over me.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Charlotte asked if you could come out with us.” He said, gesturing behind him.

It had been some time since I left the estate. I’d frequently felt very nauseas over the past several days, and I’d spent nearly all of my time inside, so maybe going out would help.

Nodding my head, I stood from my seat and said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

I wanted to clear the sick feeling in my stomach before leaving, so I left for the kitchen. They usually kept a nice, warm drink ready. Today’s was a pot of lemon-flavored tea. Drinking a glass of it, I felt the tenseness in my chest fade with the churning in my stomach.

Going to the parlor, I found that there were several unfamiliar faces beyond Charlotte. Though I did recognize one other face. Clementine Evane smiled at me and turned to continue her conversation. We’d not seen each other much since we first met, but she was usually very nice.

The trip into the city was interesting. All the other girls kept asking me questions and asked for my opinion on the things that they were talking about, though I didn’t have much input to give. Arriving in the city, the coach we were in stopped and everyone started to get off.

Right after getting out, Hamil turned and said something to Charlotte before turning and running off into the crowd.

“Where’s he going?” One of the girls asked.

“He said he had an errand to run. He’ll be back later.” Charlotte said before guiding the group in one direction.

The first store we went through sold clothes, though I had more than enough, so I didn’t really look much. I soon found that the reason was that they wanted to try things on and see how they looked.

While the crowd of girls were trying on clothes, Charlotte came up to me.

She stood there for a while before finally blurting out. “How have you been?”

Startled by the sudden question, I stammered. “U-um, good. I’m a little sick, but the kitchen staff have been making stuff to help.”

“Are you sure you should have come out today?” Charlotte asked.

“Yeah. I’ve been stuck inside for a week, so its nice to get out. Thanks for inviting me.” I said.

Charlotte pursed her lips and nodded before smiling broadly. “If you ever need anything, just say the word. My father knows the best healers around, though your mother happens to be one of them.”

She was right, but Licilia seemed to be avoiding me for some reason. Pert too. They both looked at me, eyes full of worry, yet they did nothing.

“It’s just cramps and stuff.” I said.

Hearing this, Charlotte furrowed her brow and frowned, saying. “I get it.”

We chatted for a few more minutes before something loud caught our attention.

We turned toward the source of the noise to see a group of slender men, dressed in all black. There were at least a dozen of them, and some of them were holding the still bodies of Charlotte’s friends.

“Lady Renae, if you want your friends to stay alive, you’ll come with us.” One of them said.

I turned to look at Charlotte and saw her trembling in fear. She took a step back, but stopped. I watched as she reached a hand up and pinched herself on the arm.

She started muttering to herself. “Be strong like him.”

Seeing her reaction, one of the men pulled out a knife and held it against Clementine’s neck. “You better make a decision. I’m feeling pretty twitchy today.”

‘Kill them! Show them the monster that you are! Devour them whole!’ A voice cried out inside of my mind.

I felt the blood as it ran through my body. Everything tensed and screamed to move, like my body was still deciding whether to obey me, or the voice.

Just as it seemed like my body would betray me, Charlotte stepped forward. “Leave them behind, and I’ll go with you.”

The man who had spoke first stepped forward and raised a hand. “Not a chance.” He looked back at the others and nodded his head. “Our orders were only to take you, but everyone else here has very wealthy parents who would pay a mountain of gold to get them back.”

Sucking in a breath, Charlotte stepped forward. “If anything happens to any of them…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” The man interrupted before gesturing for someone to come forward. “Collar and bag ‘em.”

The group of men gathered around Charlotte and me. One of them pulled out a thin metal band and wrapped it around my neck. The collar suddenly tightened around my neck, hugging it snugly. They then started leading us to a door in the back of the building. The door had a lock, but it had been smashed to scrap.

Behind the building were two wagons filled with clothes. The men with their hands free walked over to them, lifted up the clothes and pulling a lever that unlocked a secret compartment underneath the clothes.

“Get in.”

Quickly, the men began to shove the unconscious girls into the compartment before Charlotte and I climbed inside.

Just as we got in, another man came out from the store in a hurry. “We had a witness. A crowd is gathering around the storefront, let’s go!”

Looking down into the compartment, one of the men grinned. “It’ll be worth it once Gelling pays us.”

Charlotte’s eyes went wide in horror right as the darkness enveloped us.