Desperate to stop the events of a recurring nightmare, Leora is forced into a world that wants nothing more than to see her dead.
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After being plagued with nightmares of the murders taking place in t...
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AETOS MANOR
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I COULDN'T BE STOIC. A memory of my first visit to her grave came to my mind, I frowned as tears streamed down my face.
Her grave? My frown deepened, my mother had a grave? Who's memory was it. I remembered my aunt telling me that my parents had no grave, that their ashes were spread in the ocean. Throb. I winced, the headache from the vial hadn't worn off.
“What is this?”My mother approached us. “Maeve, are you causing trouble again? Would you like me to call your mother to speak with you?”
Maeve sneered. “Ines is not my mother. ”
My mother sighed, shaking her head. “She can be such a handful, I extend my apologies Dame Anika, Dame Cassandra. I shall take it from –”she paused when she noticed me still crying, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, she looked at my prison jumpsuit, at the label. “Why is a prisoner here... Crying?”
“Auntie Rosa, ”Althea called her. “She's the girl the witch mentioned, the one who's connected to Auntie Camilla, our cousin. ”She looked like she was walking on eggshells, I noticed she didn't call me her daughter, she didn't need to, the implication was there.
“Y-Your... Saints!”She exclaimed, Dame Anika ran to her side as she collapsed. Colette didn't, she stood rooted in the same place she was when she was told I was her sister, her eyes never strayed from staring at me.
“My baby!”My mother wailed. “My sweet baby! That woman! My sister! She burned her! She burned her in her crib! She burned her! My baby! My baby!”She was hysterical, thrushing around in Dame Anika's arms.
The tears thickened in my eyes. Seeing her grief tugged at my heart strings.
I felt Officer West's grip on the handcuffs disappear, she tapped my wrist. I made a beeline for my mother, I kneeled where she fell on the ground hysterical. “Mom?”Tears stung my eyes. “Mom, it's me. She didn't burn me, Aunt Ed– Aunt Camilla took me from you, she hid me, she lied to both of us. I thought you were gone, I have a birth mark on my upper back, it looks like red paint splattered on it. I can show you, that it's me. ”
Dame Anika paused, she looked pained when she looked at me, she broke eye contact and went back to comforting my mother.
“Dame Anika?”Colette broke her silence. “Is it true? Did my sister truly a mark like that on her? I am aware you were a nanny to her as well, is it true?”
“Miss Aetos–”
“You look like you are about to dismiss my question, I do not ask this as your charge, I ask this as your princess. Did she have a mark like that on her?”Colette repeated while our mother kept screaming out 'my baby' and rolling around on the ground.
