Chapter 15 - ROSA
621 Words
My eyes open to thick slimy darkness. I feel the cold of stones on my back and try to sit up. Restraints cut immediately into my arms. I cry out in pain but no sound comes out.
Oh God No!
The basement of the Academy. No one says so but it is the place for the doomed. In all the years of my existence, no one who has been tied up here has ever returned to the land of the Fairies. Usually, it is the young charges who fail during their training period in the Academy. More rarely though, it is unfortunate souls like me who foolishly challenge the Siren’s beliefs.
That certainly worked out well for you, didn’t it! Get ready to die.
My first thought, after the certainty of my impending death sinks in, is my charges – Twinkle and Twinklina. Would they be whisked away from my cottage and given to someone else – Eric maybe…The thought makes me shudder.
No…No…No…
And then the two girls…I had promised to visit them today. I try not to imagine Fiona’s eyes watching the forest and gradually filling with disappointment as I do not emerge. And fierce Adrian maybe declaring me as bad as the other Fairies for hurting her little sister. I smile a little as I imagine her anger. Maybe one day, she would do quite a bit for her kind. Her passionate heart and kindness would….
“Hello, Ember.”
If I had not been firmly tied up on the platform, I would have jumped out. I feel my eyes widen in horror as I shadow moves close to me, it’s smoky form visible in the dark. A woman’s face stares at me through the smoke, tears dripping down her sad eyes. Just as suddenly though, it disappears.
“You are not…”
“Oh yes, I am. I am here as surely as the death staring at you in the face.”
“But the enchantments…”
“Ah yes…” The shadow laughed. “Somehow I managed to get through the two places the enchantment was the most powerful- The Sacred Woods and the Academy. Curious, isn’t it?”
My hands shook. My teeth begin to chatter. My thoughts race so fast that I can barely make sense of them. How had this curse managed to…
“You should be more concerned about staying alive.”
I feel the magic inside me suffocating, held by Siren’s enchanted bindings. The Cleansing…It would take place at dawn tomorrow. My magic would be drained and put back in. To clean me of the curse…But I will not survive it. Siren would be performing the ritual and she would make sure that I won’t.
“You are simply going to lie down and die? Go gently into the good night? That is a disappointment on so many levels my Ember…”
The Shadow steps closer to me and I shudder. I can feel it…A rage, a wrong waiting to be righted.
“Who are you?”
“A monster…” I hear the smile in its voice. “Isn’t that what you think I am?”
I want to tell it that it is right but I can’t. For a second I can’t understand why that is. Something is tugging at me. Something even more than the fear that this thing would end me even before the Siren would…
“Monsters do not come to existence without help young Guardian. We do not exist without sorrow, hate, anger…”
“You are telling me I am a monster for having enough hate to bring you to me.”
“Who in the world told you that I am your monster and you summoned me?”
For the briefest of seconds, I am speechless. Why then…Why…
“The thing about bad deeds, dear Ember. Is that they linger.” The Shadow pauses dramatically. “So do things like me.”
“Who…Who…”
“That is a story for another time. Now, I have to make sure you don’t die.”
- Writer
