Haunted by the Past

Three little miracles

The next morning, as I woke up, I found myself still cuddled up to Diaval. I sighed. He hadn't moved, so he probably wasn't awake yet. Which means he didn't notice me being all cuddled up to him. At least, that's what I thought, until I heard him whisper, "Are you awake... Maleficent?" I stiffened. "I... uh... I am, yes." "Hmm... can we finally talk about that one night?" "Diaval..." "Still not feeling like it, huh?" "Not really, no. My wounds are still healing." "Can't you use magic for that?" I broke away from him and rolled back a little. "No... I know I used some yesterday but... healing all my wounds would cost a lot of energy. I can't afford that right now." "I see. But... And you feel like you can't talk about it until you... physically feel better?" "I just need some more rest, Diaval. The last few months have been hard on me, both physically and mentally." "Meaning?" "I already have enough going on in my head. I can't handle any more right now. And apart from that I am also worrying about Aurora. I mean, she's what? Seven months pregnant by now?" "Six," Diaval corrected me. "King John said she was recovering? Do you know what happened to her?" Diaval sighed, "It was just food poisoning." "Ah." "Now that we're talking about her anyway, don't you think she looks a little big for six months pregnant?" I shrugged, "I wouldn't know, really. I never met a lot of pregnant women." Diaval nodded, "Right, of course."

*

About two months later I was finally starting to feel better. So of course I tried to avoid Diaval, so we wouldn't have to talk about that one fateful night. Because of this I would spend a lot of time with Aurora, who wasn't doing too well. I often sat at her bedside. Diaval would be there too, but he didn't want to argue in front of Aurora. Especially not now that she was sick. I hoped that maybe he was too worried about Aurora and he would forget about it all. But then one fateful night something happened that would cause Diaval not to worry too much about Aurora anymore. Even though in my opinion it was still quite worrying. Philip, Diaval and I were all sitting at her bedside when suddenly Aurora went into labour.

Philip went to get the royal midwife as quickly as he could. Aurora panicked. She kept saying that it was too early. Diaval tried to calm her down. I... I didn't know what to do. I tried to help Diaval, but on the inside I was freaking out about as much as Aurora was. Diaval noticed and he sent me out of the room. Not much later Philip came back with the midwife, who ordered Philip to stay outside and ushered Diaval out of the room. So then we were all standing there, listening to Aurora scream in pain as she gave birth. And I hated it.

It hurt me to hear her scream in pain, even if she was bringing new life into this world. Diaval walked over to me as he saw the pained expression on my face. "Mistress, are you alright?" I shook my head, "No. Not really." "You know this pain won't last. She's bringing new life into this world. After this she'll be the happiest she has ever been. And our family will be bigger." Did he just say "our family"? I thought. "So... if anything, you should rejoice. Right?" "Maybe... yes." "Yes." He carefully put his hands on my shoulders. "And I know... that she's not feeling too well, but... our Aurora is strong. She'll get through this. Alright? I promise." Our, he said our again. He said our Aurora. Why was I thinking this? Why was my mind so focused on his use of the word "our"?

We waited for what seemed like hours. In fact, it might have been hours, but then the midwife finally opened the door. Her hands were covered with blood, which seemed very alarming to me, but she seemed calm. "The first baby is out," she said. "It's a boy." "I have a son?" Philip said with an incredulous look on his face. The midwife nodded. Then Philip suddenly looked confused, "Wait, what do you mean first baby? Are there more babies?" The midwife nodded. "Yes, there seems to be one more child." "I'm having two children today?" Philip said looking stunned. "If everything goes right, yes. But it's not going to be easy for the mother. In fact, it's going to be quite painful. She's already suffered during the birth of the first baby. She's already bleeding a lot. The birth of the second child might make things worse." And with that the midwife closed the door again and went back to Aurora.