King Of Monsters

chapter 11

Amara’s POV

I woke with the worst pain in my head groaning before I could even open my eyes. I heard shuffling around “is she waking up?” someone said in a hushed voice I groaned again as if to say yes “Someone go get Lucille now!” the voice said again, a little louder this time. I tried opening my eyes to reveal a blurry figure rushing out of the room. And another coming to sit beside me before closing them again. I felt them grab my hand and fell my forehead and cheeks with the back of their hand. “Mom?” I groaned out “yes baby, it’s me. How do you feel?” “Like I got hit by a truck and fell out f a building at the same time. My head is killing me” I felt mom get up from the bed, I heard water pouring and the sound of tablets being shaken from the bottle, then I felt the bed dip again. “Here honey, sit up and take these, they should help the headache and the other aches and pains as well” I inhaled sharply as shooting pains went through my arms, protesting as I used them to get into a sitting position. Still keeping my eyes tightly shut, mom grabbed one hand putting the glass of water in it and the other hand putting two tablets in it before getting up and drawing the curtains, so it wasn’t so bright. I popped the tablets into my mouth and took a large sip of water gently tilting my head back to swallow. I forced my eyes open to look at her. She was now sitting beside the bed watching in the chair I usually keep at my vanity. “How long have I been asleep?” I asked in a croaky voice. “Around 17 hours” she said lowly so as not to hurt my head.

I opened my eyes wider ins surprise ignoring the pain “17 hours!” then I got confused “why am I still so tired? I feel like I haven’t slept in days” I said she looked at me with fear in her eyes, she looked away trying to hide it “what’s wrong?” I asked her she just shook her head not looking at me, I could see tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. “Mom?” she looked at me and burst into tears coming over to sit on the bed beside me holding me tightly. I was shocked and scared; she was acting like I was dying. Wait, am I dying? The pains were completely forgotten now as I was just feeling fear now. Lucille walked into the room followed closely by Sarah and Sally. She looked at my mother and the fear in my face then spoke “Lorelei, why don’t you and the twins go down to the kitchens and get some tea to calm down.” She spoke soothingly but with authority, she wasn’t asking. I’d never heard anyone speak to a royal like that. Mother lifted her head to look at Lucille, her arms still wrapped tightly around me, “No, Lucille, I can’t leave her she just woke up” she whimpered Lucille took a deep breath and closed her eyes, when she opened them, they were a glowing purple, when she spoke it was her voice, but it wasn’t. It was different, it had a power that I had never felt before. She looked at mother “Lorelei! Snap out of it. The girl needs to lean on you for strength not have you throwing yourself at her scaring her more than she needs to be! You are a queen! Act like one” I was beyond shocked at this point. I just looked between her and mother, the twins had the same look of disbelief. Mother cowered at the harsh words but sniffled and stood up. Straightening herself and her dress she wiped her face on the back of her hands and composed herself. She looked at me again, this time her eyes were hardened “I will bring you some tea in a bit for your throat along with some food” she bent down and kissed my head before nodding at Lucille and leaving, the twins hot on her tail behind her, no doubt eager to ask about what just happened.

I looked at Lucille, her eyes were back to being their normal white now and she stared calmly at me waiting for the room to empty. Then she came and sat on the chair. She was watching me carefully, her body positioned in a way that told me she was ready to pounce if I lost control again. I looked at my hands in shame, picking at my nails and the skin around them, tears starting to drip from my eyes as I remembered the death and destruction I caused. Lucille just watched me patiently, waiting for me to speak. “How many people did I kill?” I whispered looking at her from under my eyelashes “11” she replied I looked at her in shock, 11! I killed 11 people, I started to hyperventilate, the candles I’ve collected over the years suddenly all lit at once, the wicks burning various scents into the room, Lucille sat beside my on the bed and grabbed my hands making me look her in the eyes, was she going to command me as well? “They weren’t innocent Amara” she said calmly “You didn’t see it because they stood behind you, but as soon as Markus had grabbed you and put the knife to your throat they pulled out guns which had bullets laced with silver and they pointed them at your family” I felt outraged at the new information and the candle wicks began to burn higher “you saved your family by picking the hunters up with the tornado when you did. You then carried it and yourself away so you wouldn’t hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it” I closed my eyes and began to breath deeply. “So, I’m not a murderer?” I asked my voice strained “no” I opened my eyes and looked at her, searching her for any signs of dishonesty. Finding none, I breathed a sigh of relief, and the candles all blew out. “What am I?” I asked her I was scared, and I didn’t bother trying to hide it. I was already too tired to even try.

She looked as if she was judging whether or not I could handle the answer “we believe you’re an elemental” she said simply “an elemental? How is that possible I'm human, I'm clearly human” she then went on to tell me everything that her brother Marshal had translated, the information about the jewelry particularly grabbed my attention because it truly was talking about me. “So…the moon goddess in my birth mother?” I asked gingerly Lucille nodded “ok. And she abandoned me in the wilds to be left for dead or be found by whoever?” she nodded again this time looking slightly uncomfortable “huh, ok.” I got up from my bed and began to pace. How the hell could she just abandon a helpless baby! No, four helpless babies! I thought in outrage. Then I stopped releasing something I turned to look at Lucille “you said I have siblings, two brothers and a sister, right?” she nodded at me hesitantly not knowing where I was going with this I got excited “when I was unconscious I saw two men, well I saw their eyes, they glowed yellow and they called me sister” I couldn’t hide my excitement Lucille stood up “What else did they say?” she asked quickly “They said they knew where I was now and that they were coming for me” I couldn’t read her expression, she turned around before looking back at me “shower and get dressed, I need to speak to my brother”

“ok”, I walked to my wardrobe to grab some clothes to take into the bathroom with me when i caught my reflection in the vanity mirror. Someone had changed me while I was unconscious into my favorite set of green checker pajama pants and black crop top but where they used to fit perfect and comfortably, they now hung loose. My breath caught in my throat, I walked closer to better take in my new appearance... My usually glowy, slightly tanned and toned but curvy body was almost gone. It had been replaced by a pale, bony ghoul. My black hair was dull and flat and brittle, my green eyes were glazed over and dull and sallow, with deep dark purple bags under them, they didn’t hold any life. My lips were chapped and instead of the usual natural pink they were now white. My face was no longer full but sunken, my cheek bones now sharp and sticking out under my skin. “h..how has this happened so quickly?” I whispered in disbelief. I know Lucille told me my powers were destroying my body, but I didn’t expect it to happen so drastically, so rapidly. I didn’t recognize this young woman in the mirror, this couldn’t be me surely, I looked to Lucille for confirmation. She just watched me with sad eyes, wow, ok. So this was why Mom was a wreck earlier, I was really going to die. I couldn’t stand looking at myself anymore so grabbed a long sleeve dark green hoody, a white tank top, a bra, a pair of knickers and some black leggings, I then walked into the bathroom avoiding the mirror and placed my clothes on the bench beside the sink before turning on the water on to warm up. Removing my pajamas and throwing them into the corner and stepping under the running water.

I couldn’t stay in the shower for long because the usually heavenly water pressure felt like knives on my now paper skin. Just another reminder of my impending doom. I also can’t stand up for too long now without feeling weak so most of shower was spent sitting on the tiled floor while I washed my body and hair. I got out and started dressing having to stop and steady myself on the bathroom basin, tears stinging my eyes because I could barely even do the most mundane tasks of showering or dressing myself anymore. After dressing, brushing my hair and teeth and slipping some shoes on I decided I was as ready as I was going to be. I didn’t bother with my locket, I felt weird about wearing it now that I know it was a gift from my birth mother who abandoned me and left me to die. I was angry with her; it was different when I thought maybe she was killed or had to give me up to keep me safe but this? The moon goddess being my birth mother, making me human knowing I would die before I even hit 21 and then just abandoning me and my brothers and sisters, no screw her.

Smiling at Lucille we left my room and headed who knows where. I pulled my hood up to avoid the stares I was getting. I hated being the centre of attention and I didn’t know whether people were staring because I’m some curious oddity, because of my drastically changing appearance or just because my presence pissed people off. Suddenly having elemental powers didn’t change the fact that I was still human, and vampires especially despised us. I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going, I just absentmindedly followed Lucille, too focused on my anger thinking about everyone who ever said a bad word or pulled some cruel prank on me just because of my race. I didn’t notice that we were outside, and that Lucille was yelling at me trying to snap me out of it. It wasn't until she slapped me hard across the face that I refocused, holding my hand to my stinging cheek my eyes narrowed at her dangerously. She took a step back before getting her courage to walk over to me. “I’m sorry Amara but I tried everything I could first to snap you out of whatever you were thinking about. You had no idea what you were doing, I had too.” Then she stepped aside clearing my view to see the destruction I yet again caused. The ground was split open, walking closer I saw that it was around 6 meters deep and about half a meter at the widest part. The crack carried on for probably about 20 meters give or take a couple and it ran directly under a big tree, making the tree collapse. I looked at Lucille, shock evident on my face, thankfully no one was out here at the time, or I could have seriously injured someone. Lucille seeing my distress hugged me tightly to help calm me down and comfort me before another incident occurred. “How do I keep doing this?” I whispered in between silent sobs “I can’t keep doing this Lucille” I said desperately. Ben came running out of the house to tell us something, quickly noticing the new damage he looked at me with a mix of emotions before stopping “There are some people here to see you Amara” his voice was hard and he didn’t look at me before going back inside.