THE DREAMSCAPE : THE EMBERS OF CHANGE

Chapter 6 -ROSA

I let out a gasp, disoriented. A fog seems to have lifted from both inside my head and my cottage. The shadow creature is gone. I am sure of it. Yet I am ashamed that I attracted it in the first place. I remember Autumn’s words.

A Guardian should be pure of heart. Corrupted thought can attract shadowy demons. If you let them take over you, the Dreamscape could be destroyed.

That had been the day I was crowned Guardian. A day that I had been so ecstatic that I could see no troubles in the future. And here I am now…Broken, grieving, one step away from a death sentence. And so full of hatred that I wish death on another fairy.

“Are you all right, Rosa?” A tiny voice asks “Twinkle was too scared to come in. She said you looked upset and you wouldn’t want anyone to see you like that. She thought you would be so very angry if someone walked in on you crying.”

I look up to see one of my charges, Twinklina, poking her little head into my room. Her huge violet eyes look genuinely worried. Her lower lip trembles as she scans my face, looking for any signs of anger.

“Don’t worry sweetheart.” I instantly paste a smile on my face and walk over to her. She quickly takes a step back and stands up straight.

“I was just checking…” She begins, her eyes wide.

 I kneel beside her and ruffle her brown curls. For just an instant, she stiffens. The little moment makes me sick. I have heard tales of what happens with Guardians and their charges. I want to change that. I want to make sure things Siren preaches becomes practice. But would I be able to? Would I be at least be able to properly reassure this little thing in my charge that everything would be fine? That she doesn’t have to be scared? How could I be sure that Siren would not take her away and throw her into one of the Vortexes for something minor?

“I am sorry you are sad…” Twinklina says earnestly. “Twinkle is sorry too. She is outside. She would have come inside if she wasn’t scared that you would turn her into ash…” Twinklina claps her hands to her mouth. “I’m sorry…sorry…”

“Hey!” I say, gently, pulling her hands away from her lips. “I would never do anything that horrible. You know that, right?”

“I…”

“I will never hurt you,” I say, looking into the frightened eyes. “Never…And if anyone ever tries to hurt you, all you have to do is call me and I will come running.”

“You didn’t save Ella, Bella, and Fern from the Witches.”

Hearing those names again, in an accusatory tone, hurt. It was true. I couldn’t do anything when three of my charges wandered off from the boundaries of the Dreamscape. Their torn apart remains were brought to me by Knight three days later. Witches…The damn Witches.

“I couldn’t get to them in time,” I say. “I couldn’t find them.”

“If you had found them, would you have punished them for breaking the rules?”

“I wouldn’t have,” I say and know immediately how weak I sound. I wouldn’t have, of course. I wouldn’t have put those young fairies through any kind of punishment. But Siren would have and I wouldn’t have been able to do a thing about it. I would have been powerless. Just like I have been today.

“No one is to enter this cottage for a while. Charges, get out!” A deep voice sounds outside and Twinklina immediately scampers away. I sit down on my bed and close my eyes, bracing myself for the bad news.

“Rosa…” His voice is warm and caring. I feel him sit beside me and touch my shoulder. Yet I do not move. Exhaustion overtakes me and suddenly, the only thing I want is to sleep and never wake up. It envelops me like a thick poisonous fog – Lavender’s death, the Council not moving a finger to stop the death of an innocent little girl, Siren with her malicious smile, and the Shadow… I feel cold when I think of the vile creature and its ominous prediction.

You will let the world burn…You will decide that some things should not exist….

“It’s going to be alright. Siren does not want to punish you any further.”

I know he means to be kind but his words spark a surge of anger inside me. The exhaustion leaves as quickly as it had arrived. “So she killed Lavender to punish me and she admits as much.”

“She killed a child so our world would not be destroyed. Is that such a difficult idea to comprehend?”

“I guess it is,” I say. “Seeing a child killed may not affect some of us but to me it’s unforgivable.”

Knight sighs and the sound infuriates me. He is doing it again. Treating me like a misbehaving child, when I am not the one in the wrong.

A coward…That’s what he is…All of them are…Blind foolish cowards who worship at the feet of Siren.

“Would you look at me, Rosa?”

I do what he says. It is not easy to dull the burning hatred for all of them but I do. Whatever the Shadow says, I am not someone who wants to annihilate the world. No matter how messy it is…No matter how many people I don’t agree with…No matter how much I despise every single one of them at the moment…

“Would you please behave sensibly instead of acting like every single person other than you in the Council is a monster?”

“I will make sure I will stand aside and bow down to Siren the next time she wants to murder a child.”

“Or you will die!” His next words are a shock because Knight is the one saying them. No matter how far deep his loyalty to Siren runs, he has never threatened me. Not one time. I also notice that he seems remarkably guilty.

“What have you done?” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop myself. Suddenly I am convinced that the Siren has punished me in some way again after Lavender’s death. And that Knight has been the sword that carried out her wish. “Who did you hurt for her?”

“It does not matter.” He says and I feel a chill run down my spine. I open my mouth to speak but he raises his hand, his blue eyes silently urging me to listen. “What matters is that you are out of Siren’s crosshairs for now. And…”

I feel the heaviness of the news he has come to convey weigh on him. I can tell that he hates having to be the messenger. “What is it?”

“The Witches are coming. Siren has called a meeting with the Head Witch.”

A fury as I have never known bursts into flames inside me. The image of the three of my charges, boiled alive and eaten…All that remains of them, bones and bits of flesh…At that instant, I understand what the Shadow means.

This messed up world should burn