After Humanity

Chapter Twenty-Six

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is excited for bi-weekly updates in 2017:-)

In the last chapter we veiwed more of the past. Now its time to get back to the present. When we last left Magnus in the current timeline, he had given Alice the news that Sarah and Judith were coming to the end of lives...

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Rachel

It had only been three weeks since Rachel had come to Magnus's estate, but she had to admit that already she was feeling far more at home. With Kathryn's help, she no longer felt like such an outsider among the other girls. Rachel trailed her friend faithfully until the others began to affectionately refer to her as Kathryn's little shadow. She quite liked the nickname. Growing up as an only child, Rachel had never really had the benefit of a sibling, but Kathryn treated her like a sister and never left her out of her friends' games or discussions.

With Kathryn's encouragement, Rachel seldom went home now after work in the kitchen was through. Instead, she would follow the others to the slave hall to relax and enjoy stories, card games, and the few books provided for them. Alice had even allowed Rachel to take the volume of Grimm's Fairy Tales from her house and Kathryn was helping her to improve her reading skills.

"You will have to try a longer book soon," she'd teased when Rachel completed her fairy tales for the fifth time.

But Rachel hadn't tired of the wonderful tales of knights and princesses and happy endings displayed in beautiful color illustrations side the elegant printed text. She didn't imagine she ever would. While she had tried looking at more books with Kathryn's aide to help parse out bigger words, she always returned to her fairytales.

That night, as she sat reading Rapunzel while Kathryn, Olivia and Bella knit beside her.  The older girls Sarah, Judith, Karen, and Cynthia were playing cards, and the others, many of whom she did not know well, all seemed happily engaged in some sort of board game. It was strange to imagine feeling comfortable among them, but Rachel realized she finally did. She looked up from her book at caught a smile from Kathryn as their eyes met.

"Rapunzel again?" she asked.

Rachel nodded.

"I can tell from the picture. All that beautiful long blond hair. It's your favorite isn't it?"

Rachel nodded again. She did love the story. She felt a bit like Rapunzel after all. Stolen from her family, locked away against her will. All she needed now was a prince to come and rescue her.

The sound of the door opening pulled Rachel's focus and she was surprised to see Alice standing there. It was rare for the older woman to join the others at night. She usually preferred to take time for herself after a hard day's work. When she did join them she always went straight to her favorite chair by the fire, making her presence as unobtrusive as possible.

But there was something strange in the old woman's expression now as she remained motionless, seemingly waiting for her presence to register while everyone looked to the open door. Rachel was even more surprised to feel the mood in the room shift almost instantly.

Kathryn's smile disappeared. The girls set down their cards and game pieces. All focused on Alice and the stoic expression she wore as she closed the door and walked slowly into the room standing straight and tall among them.

"As you may have already guessed," the woman began, "I have an announcement."

Rachel felt the anxiety of all those around her take over her body. In spite of the warm summer air drifting in through the open windows, she felt a cold chill run through her.