Deepest Betrayal

A Ghostly Visit

          Blair sit  at the old worn wooden vanity in the giant bedroom that was assigned to her.  She looked into the cracked mirror and made a face. Outside the wind howled like an enraged beast and the snow fell fast and heavy. They were stuck tight until the storm passed. Blair looked down, long forgotten, bejeweled bottles holding perfumes lined the top along with old cosmetics. An old comb and hairbrush long since tarnished beyond recognition laid next to a container of rogue. She wondered what the lady who once sit here attending to her daily toiletries looked like. She knew she must have been afflicted by some malady to be granted leave to wear rogue and other such cosmetics as it was greatly frowned upon by the church, or was she simply so rich she did not have to abstain by such rules? She sighed stood and wandered over to the giant wardrobe that stood in the corner. She flung it open, curious to see if anything remained inside. She was greeted by the familiar smell of lavender and mugwort. She peered inside and found several beautiful dresses, mostly in reds and blues and some silver. Tucked away in the very back was a white dress of the finest of ivory satin, beautiful silver birds were embroidered all over the skirt as if they were flying up to softly land on the woman's bodice. Pinned to the bodice was a tiny silver brooch, depicting a falcon clutching a rose in it's talons. This puzzled Blair and she ran her hand over it. This was her family's emblem. What was it doing in a castle that has been abandoned for to her knowledge at least four centuries? Tucked inside  a dried bouquet of roses and wildflowers laid upon the shelf below the dress. Finely crafted shoes matching the dress were beside the bouquet. So this was this woman's wedding attire. She didn't know what possessed her to do so but she carefully removed the dress and smoothed it out on the bed. She returned and got the shoes and sit them down by the chair to the vanity and sit down. She took one in her hand and admired it. It looked to be about her size, so she slipped off her shoes and slipped her foot inside. It fit perfectly, as if they were made for her. Over her shoulder, she could have sworn she heard a slight giggle. She shrugged it off and tried on the other shoe. This time she was certain she heard excited clapping just to the right of her. She took the shoes off and quickly strode to the bed, running her hands over the dress. She wondered if she dared put it on. She was told many times by her mother not to disturb things that belong to the dead. She sighed and sit down once again at the vanity and looked into the cracked mirror. What she saw made the hair on the back of her neck raise up and a chill run down her spine. Behind her floating towards her was a ghostly image of a woman. She had long flowing blonde hair and gentle but eerily shining grey eyes, she was dressed in a bright blue gown that Blair could see right through to the other side of the room. She paused and looked longingly at the dress and turned and smiled at Blair. She came closer and stopped right behind Blair. Blair squeezed her eyes shut and muttered to herself assuring herself that she was just tired and imagining things. The lady simply wasn't there. She slowly opened her eyes and the lady now stood in front of her, well kind of, her lower half was currently inside the vanity. 

    " Hey, I know you can see me. Hello. It's rude to ignore someone in their own chambers, you know."

   Blair looked at her and slowly shook her head.

 " No I don't see anything, not a thing," she said. 

   " Then why did you answer me, Blair?," the ghost demanded. 

   " How, how do you know my name?," Blair stuttered out.

   " Your mother often speaks about you, she's mighty proud of you. 'Course it's a sight better than her wailing and weeping for her lost child. Bout drove us insane the first few nights she was here."

  " You must be mistaken, my mother passed in my castle and was buried with proper rights on hallowed ground. She wouldn't have become a ghost." 

   " Oh, I'm sorry,  I be forgetting your the expert on the afterlife and you aren't in fact talking to, oh I don't know, a freaking ghost." 

 The ghost picked up one of the bottles of perfume and threw it across the room shattering it against the wall and causing the room to be filled with an overpowering scent of roses. 

   "You come into my chambers, uninvited I remind you, ruffle through my beloved dresses, take out my wedding dress and shoes, which I was willing to overlook, because I thought finally, FINALLY one of my kin was going to do me the honor of taking my stuff out of this god forsaken castle and you have the f*****g audacity to not only deny my existence but to also tell me I don't know what the hell I'm talking about?! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!"

    The ghost began throwing things at Blair, barely missing her, screaming at her to leave the entire time. Camilla must have heard the commotion cause she burst into the room and shielded Blair from the onslaught. 

       "ENOUGH! Stop this nonsense right now or so help me I'll banish you right here and now!"

  The ghost stopped, gave a pathetic whimper, and floated to the bed and hovered slightly over it with her legs beneath her. 

    "It was her fault for not believing me," she pouted.

   Camilla turned to Blair, and raised her eyebrows.

     " What did you not believe out of her?," she asked.

     "She said my mother is a ghost that haunts these halls, but she can't be she died at Falcon's Nest, our home."

   " They're calling that descriptive pile of rubble Falcon's Nest?!," the ghost gasped in disbelief, " My child that little spattering of tiny huts they deemed efficient to flee to true name is Fledgling Hall. You stand inside the true Falcon's Nest, what was once a mighty castle and your true home."

  "This castle is the true Falcon's Nest? Why was I never told? Why were we kept away from here? What would drive our family from a castle of this proportion?," Blair asked. 

   "Something horrible. Something so vile and horrible that it smote the very land my once beloved castle stands upon. Nothing grows here now but the twisted trees you passed through. The gardens were once full of life, and the winters were both mild and beautiful. Deer and rabbits frolicked through the meadow below and fish filled the stream. Our days were filled with song and laughter, then it happened. I became frail and sickly. A mysterious illness that no physician could identify. My beauty quickly faded and I could barely move. My king desperate to restore my health turned to the darker powers. I begged him to give up and let me pass in peace but he refused. He built a strange altar inside the catacombs and said he  was summoning forth this.. this thing. I gathered what little strength I had and confronted him, but I was too late, he had finished the ritual. This thing promised him to restore me to full health in exchange for his never ending loyalty. When he agreed, it turned my darling into a monster, a hideous bloodsucking creature, and instructed him to do the same to me. I ran as fast as I could back here and flung myself out the window and onto the ground below. I would rather die then became that."

     The ghost ethereal eyes shone with silver tears. Her lip trembled. 

     " My king was enraged and he tried to destroy this entity, the one you now call The Void, resulting in it cursing the lands and every single one of my descendants that does not swear fidelity to it. That's why your mother is here Blair. None of us may cross over until it is defeated.  When we die our spirit will return here and here we remain. Four hundred years have passed and I have watched these halls fill with many who have either fought against The Void or simply bid their time, choosing to ignore the matter at hand. Only one other clan knew of The Void's existence.  They have been fighting it's allies these past centuries. Sadly, the only way to truly defeat it is with a union of the two clans, but no one was willing to marry into the Slayers. No one that is until you."  

   The ghost laid a chilly hand on Blair cheek and smiled. 

      "You're going to save us all Blair. You're our hero." 

    "I'm no hero, I didn't choose to marry Duncan, I wasn't given a choice in the matter."

    "No woman is given a choice in their husband Blair, do you think your mother would have married Lionel knowing of the curse? No! But she was forced in marriage by her father in a feeble attempt to stop this madness. An utter failure to say the least."

     " But I did not know of this curse or The Void or of anything except what were in the stories my mother told to me at night. I don't even know what I'm going up against," Blair said.

   "Then allow me to show you," the ghost said.

   She stood and rushed inside of Blair. Blair felt an extreme cold come over her body and an intense pain fill her head before she fell face first onto the bed. Camilla gently turned her over and placed her hands on her stomach, then pulled the chair over beside the bed and sit down, keeping watch over Blair in case the vision she was about to see became too much and she had to force the ghost Queen out of her.

    "OK, Cora, show her what you must, but be careful, sister. She isn't strong enough just yet."