Dipped in Blood

The Knocking of Hearts

I refuse to move, the person knocking seemed to hit at a set interval. Their flesh against the wood was hitting at the beat of my heart, playing my soul into a sweet melody. I collapse on the pool of blood and lean on the door. I could hear the faintest breaths as I lay with my ear against the door. Whatever was on the other side of the door seemed to relax me, bring me a sense of calm but my brain controlled my heart with its large grasps, preventing me from opening the door. So I just lay there, allowing the breaths of the mysterious creature to lull me into a calm sleep.

***

That was the best sleep I'de ever had but it didn't last long.

"Wendilin, what were you doing on the floor?" I voice echoes, shaking me back into the real world. I woke up on the soft covers of the bed with an odd material wrapped around my chest. Its rough texture inflicted a ache as I moved.

"My chest, what's wrong with it?"

"I should be asking you the same question. Because when I came back this morning I found you in a pool of your own blood with a scratch across your chest."

My blood? Was that my blood?

I turned towards the wall and pulled the bandage low enough to see the scratch. It was across the skin above my heart, it seemed more like a tattoo than a scar. I touched the skin and immediately my heart beat faster as if responding to my gentle touch. I turn back to my apparent father in anger.

"Are you my father?" I ask bluntly, with no regret. He shuffled uncomfortably and blew a nervous breadth of air, "How would you even know--"

"Are you my father?" This time I stressed it out in way that he knew he had to answer. My eyes hard and unforgivingness echoed deep in my soul if he didn't answer appropriately.

"Yes," I relax my demanding posture with a glance towards Eden playing on the floor.

"How did you figure it out?" I look at him and glanced out the window.

"When I read the entry all the memories that somehow had been forgotten appeared. I saw a woman with blonde hair and pale skin running with me in my arms. She...she said...my name and that's when everything clicked. Your black hair, her blue eyes and then me floating on the river to town," I look out at the cloudy grey sky of the forest, its trees reaching for the bellows of the sky. I couldn't say in this forest forever and my father saw it coming some how.

"Here," He placed the book I had been reading on my lap with the bag I had packed yesterday. I look at my father in happiness but he only returned a sad expression and walked out the door. Eden, my sweet Eden, stood in front of me with an adorable pout.

"Yes, Eden?"

"Before we leave, can I bath?"

"Of course."

The bathroom wasn't very big, but it held all the essentials. Eden got undressed and entered the bath while I looked for a bar of soap. I found the pesky soap bar under the sink counter, covered by a layer of scattered detergents. I paused momentarily at the door of the bathroom to watch the small girl play in the water without a care in the world. Her black hair traced like blood vessels on her back and her pale shoulders hunched towards the moving mirror. A question suddenly tugged my thoughts.

If I was a child of Benith, why did I look like a older copy of Eden?

I walked out the bathroom to my backpack that was ready to go. I scooped my mothers book out of the bag and slouched against the bed. I paged forward in the journal to five years ago when Eden was born. I knew her birthday because I asked while we sat for lunch and talked about boys, I still remember it distinctly. I asked her about her birthday and she asked for mine, the conversation then took a detour down Boy Ave. She told me of a boy in her class that kept pulling her hair while I told her of Lucas. I found the page quickly.

2010/11/24

I'm pregnant, again. I really don't want to lose another child again. The effects of loosing my beautiful baby girl Wendilin has already left the biggest scars on my heart but I knew she was safe. The consequences of my selfishness will cause great disturbance in her life, she will feel pulls towards the forest and it will be inevitable that she enters it. Benith warned me that Wendilin had been a child of the forest and shouldn't be kept away from it and in this warning I was also told about the consequences I still face because of my disobedience. But the punishment of giving birth to children that don't belong to me is punishment enough.

I will name the child Eden, which was described as the beautiful land filled with life. 

I wiped a tear from my eyes and placed the book back in the bag. I look through the bathroom door to see my sister lying in the bath with her porcelain doll, the dolls face was blank and emotionless. I immediately recognized the doll and gasped, the dream of the broken dolls flashed in pulses through my head. Then only did I realize that all the dreams where warnings of a great importance, we had been living with a creature of this endless forest.

"Wendy?" I look at Eden in fear only to be turned to stone. The same scar I had was on her skin except on her shoulder blade and a exact copy was imprinted on the doll. They were connected in a way, a child of the forest with a creature of the forest.