Invoke

Chapter 23

Scarlett was incapable to move — unable to gather her thoughts. She simply stood stagnant in the field, the soft sounds of day reaching her ears.

Veronica tilted her head to the side, her eyes firm on Scarlett.

"Ahh... But you need not ask me my name, Scarlett. It echoes in the recess of your mind, and you know it like your own. We are tied, you see. You and I have been one in the same since the night of the storm."  Veronica moved in front of her, pacing in thought.

Scarlett swallowed back a lump in her throat. "How?" she asked, shaking her head with disbelief. "How is this possible?" Yet even though she asked, she knew that everything was tying together. She felt as if the life she was leading was now linking to another, since her feet had planted on Storm's Light soil.

Veronica stopped dead. "How can you not see?" her voice rose. 

"Did I not place dreams in your head? Do you not feel me within you?" She came closer, stopping breaths away from Scarlett. A low groan escaped her. 

"You have seen what my eyes have seen, and felt the fear that had struck me then. You denied your gift one too many a time, Scarlett. This must cease, as I cannot allow you to refuse me any longer." 

Veronica breathed in, stepping away from her.

The sunlight streamed down on Veronica, giving her an ethereal look. She looked alive and well, and no one would have thought otherwise if anyone happened upon them. Scarlett could not still the thumping of her heart. Questions were abundant in her mind, but she could not bring them to the surface of her lips.

"That night, fate changed for both of us. I have wandered the grounds of Storm's Light for over a century, but could not enter the realm of it. My own home, I have been denied entry. Josephine saw to that..." 

She turned away from Scarlett, lost in her thoughts.

"Even in death, her spells carry on." 

Veronica had her hands together in a prayer-like fashion, her head bowed down while treading softly on the ground before her.

"It wasn't until you that I could enter Storms Light, unknowing."  Raising her head, she smiled softly at Scarlett.

"When I found you in the field, my spirit was broken. All I had left in my heart was revenge. My death, and that of my child and husband, tormented me. There is a page that is left unwritten in our story, and I need you to lay the ink for us."

Scarlett's breaths were quick, and the whisper of Regina's words invaded her mind "Spirit's do not know boundaries."

She shook her head, trying to dispel the thought. "How did you enter Storm's Light unknowing? Why couldn't you just come in?" She ran her hand through her hair. "Everyone else roams the place at their own free will; why not you?"

Veronica shook her head. "Because Josephine has banished me from there. Once she murdered me, the spell was cast. Now I cannot see my husband or Louisa. They are trapped as I."

Scarlett swallowed hard. "Then how did you enter?"

But Scarlett knew the answer. Oh yes.... It whispered to her from deep in her soul. She recalled the images of a life that was not hers, flashes of moments that she was within, yet couldn't have.

Veronica came closer. So close that Scarlett felt the cold emanate from her form. The green of her eyes were soft, like lush green grass in the spring. They were sad, yet seemed to hold strength.