Within The Trees

Scarlet Delights

I awoke to the sound of crows, the taste of copper, and a throbbing headache. The night before had felt like a blur, but as I sat up my hands found the cuts. My fingers traced the slices in my sternum...the jagged tears such an odd feeling. Carefully. I stood and moved over to a bowl that I had filled with water. I ripped off a piece of clean cloth from my clothes and dipped it in the water, slowly cleaning my wound. It had taken me some time to realize that that wasn't the only one. There were multiple on my chest, and lastly there was my face...

It was as if the events that had happened clicked in my head, and in that moment my fingers brushed my very messed up mouth. He had sliced my mouth up to shreds. The corners of my lips being ripped wider. Tears threatened to burn in my eyes. His chilling smile flashed in my mind and I gasped. This was her fault. This was ALL HER FAULT. Walking away from the water, I went outside. I couldn't concentrate on cleaning up anymore.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to find my dear mummy and make her feel just a tinge of my own pain. What was I thinking? I wanted her to suffer! I had been pacing back and forth in front of my home when it clicked. She wouldn't come to me... no my dear mother wanted to fight on her terms. Despite not being able to smile, I still felt a rush of excitement over come me. I would return home. I would accomplish my goal and I would either come out alive...or dead. At this point I could care less either way. My mother had gone too far.

Later that night, i packed a light bag with a few weapons and some provisions. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to stop for food, i.e. meat. As I stepped out of my home, I couldn't help but look back, as this could be the last time I ever saw it. I let out a soft sigh and turned my back away from my little slice of paradise. It didn't take much for me to begin my venture. In my mind all I kept thinking was revenge, and what her face would look like. Would she beg? Would she cry?...Would I make it out alive?

As I walked through the woods, the wind picked up around me. It tickled my skin and calmed my nerves just a bit. The moon loomed so sweetly above me, that I began to focus more on it than I did on the trail. In all honesty I didn't need to look to find my way, my legs knew where to go. As much as I hated where I was going... there were still many fond memories that lied there. My father...oh Ronan... if I came out alive that's where I would go. When everything ends I will see him again; either by visiting his grave or meeting him in the afterlife. Just thinking about him, made my heart ache and for the rest of my journey he was all that consumed my mind.

Two days later, in the early hours of the morning, the sky was tinged scarlet and all I could think was how befitting the sky was in that moment. I stood at the edge of the trees and looked from the sky down below to the various homes that housed the people of my old home. My left hand shuffled the makeshift bag on my shoulder, whilst my free hand fixed the cloth that I had wrapped around the bottom half of my face to conceal what had been done to me. This was it. I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and began my descent down the hillside to the village.

Within an hour, I had made my full descent and was entering the village. My hair bellowed around me, the wind whipping through it as if to lend its assurance. It's presence lessened the knot in my chest a bit, making my focus clearer. The flapping of tent hides, and the waft of simmering meats tickled my nose as I walked through the market. My appearance had changed so much that I blended in perfectly. No eyes were on me in that moment and I was completely grateful. My feet had taken me completely through until I came to the cross roads. I went left and the houses became more spaced out until there were none; none but one at the very end of the road next to the forest.

I stopped just outside the house. Nothing had really changed. Its manicured wood walls, the soft fabric that covered the windows. A flicker of lights teasing it's way through and a thin silhouette that stood stock still. She was here, and alone.

I stepped forward, and could feel myself pushing memories that dared flicker to my mind of happier times. Faint smiles, bell like laughter, a warm touch...the signs of a happy family. The thing is that that was gone and now I stood right outside the door of my family home completely set on torturing and killing my own mother.

So, I walked inside and my mint hued eyes found her delicately carved face. Her hair fishtail braided down her left side, as well as her slender fingers intertwined in front of her abdomen. "So you finally come home, Levinta," her voice almost sounded as if she missed me;as if she longed for me.

I won't lie; the way she said my name almost sounded like when I was child...when Ronan was alive. So I pushed those thoughts away and stepped forward. My arms crossed in front of my chest, my jaw slightly clenched as I looked at her. I was practically begging her to throw the first hit, but she didn't. My patience was growing thin, as time ticked by with her merely staring.

"Say something!" I blurted. Her harrowing scarlet eyes were like daggers upon me, and I had had enough. Her lips curled in such a sinister way that instinctively, I stepped back. What was I doing?...

"You ask for me to speak, when it is you who have caused all of this!" She snapped. Her arms slacked to her hips as she continued, "YOU are to blame for so much, Levinta. My husband died, because of you!" She took a step forward, her right wrist moving ever so slightly. My eyes took notice and a warning growl emitted from my chest. My mother's brow rose and then a look of amusement came like a glimmer to her eyes. "Oh so you're gonna snap on me like a wee pup, Levy?" She smirked and moved said arm, procuring a dagger dipped in some odd liquid. My head tilted curiously;my eyes trying to identify what it was. As I did so, my mother continued, "You have been nothing but a worthless waste!" She flicked her wrist, releasing the dagger. My body moved, instinctively to the right, but it still grazed my shoulder. I winced just a tad, my wound burning from whatever was on it.

The slight pain fueled me to physically tackle her. I gripped her wrists with my hands, my face just inches from hers. I drug my knee up and wedged it under her ribs as I then spoke, "tell me how any of that could have been my fault. He was my father! In my eyes he could move mountains and yet I watched, WE watched what they did to him." I saw a tear fall unto her cheek before I realized that it was coming from me, but at this point I didn't care. I wanted answers. I wanted to know how my mother could turn her back on me.

"ANSWER ME!" I screamed. My voice had turned down a few octaves, and I suppose that is what made my mother flinch. It took her a minute, but finally she spoke. "Ronan was not your biological father. Your father was a one night event and I became pregnant with you!" Her answer stunned me.

"No. You're lying," I snarled, digging my knee in harder. She gasped and tried to buck me off, which resulted in my aura to blaze around me. It was pitch black with flecks of purplish hues. It matched what I was feeling to a 'T'. It took a tendril-like form and encircled her throat. It materialized into a chain that pulled tightly, making her gasp for air.

She tugged her arms, trying to free from my grasp but to no avail. Her eyes searched my face, which made me even more mad. The chains tightened as if reading my mind. "Levy, please!" She begged, and I loosened just a bit. "I am not lying. Ronan is not your father. You're a bastard child and his love for you caused him to die." Her voice dropped poison as she spoke to me. I'd had enough.

It couldn't be. Ronan... no he would have told me. I shook my head and my mother began to laugh. That pushed me over the edge and next thing I knew, the tendrils around her throat tightened enough to make her mouth open wide. The moment it did a part of my aura took on a smoke-like shape and shoved itself down her throat. I let go of her wrist, watching her scratch at her throat. Her gasps, the bulge of her eyes...to be honest it was satisfying, but not enough.

"Shall we see if the smoke matches your heart, mummy?" I feigned innocence, whilst I raised my right hand. Slowly my nails turned into claws, my mouth turning into an 'O' as if surprised. Then with a chilling smirk, I drove my hand into my mother's chest. The beat of her heart inside my slender fingers was such a rush, that next thing I knew... I was pulling it right out of her body cavity. I held her beating heart, whilst I watched her eyes roll back behind her lids.

I stood there over her cooling corpse and let her heart slide out of my hand in disgust. My aura flickered out and I stepped out of the cabin. I took a long, deep breath and felt a large weight lift off my shoulders. Since there was dew on the grass, I wiped the blood off there and then slipped through the trees to escape, before someone would find me.

My main problem was now gone, but I couldn't shake the feeling. My mother may have been a bitch, but she had never truly lied to me. Could what she have said be true? If Ronan wasn't my father.. then who was?