Chapter 25

Anna led me back down the hallway, past the bathroom, and into a small bedroom. I stared in confusion at the room around me. It almost looked like a kitchy honeymoon suite, like the kind at low-budget motels. I only knew this because one of the better foster families, pre-Andersons, had attempted to take me on a family road-trip with their kids. It had ended up being a disaster. The car had broken down and needed to go in a repair shop while we were in the middle of nowhere. The motel we were forced to stay in while the car was fixed had surprisingly only had one room available, their version of a honeymoon suite. I remember it had been decked out in red velvet with a lot of white and black trim. This room was similar.

The furniture was all black, but the bedding, curtains, lamp shades…basically everything else, was a blood red, and seemed to be made of some sort of velvet material. It all seemed strangely out of place in the house. Everything looked more expensive than anything else I had seen in the other rooms. A shiver went down my spine. I felt like I wasn't understanding something.

Anna cleared her throat behind me and I jumped. I had forgotten she was in the room with me.

"Do you need to use the restroom before bed?" she asked quietly.

I sighed. I had ended up in the same kind of prison as before, albeit a prison with more decorations. I nodded, not able to speak after the horror I had just witnessed. There was another bathroom attached to the bedroom. Anna followed me into it, "kindly" averting her eyes while I did my business. I supposed that they were worried I would find something to help me escape if they left me alone for even a minute. Looking around the bathroom I didn't see anything that looked like it would be useful in escaping at all.

After I finished, Anna led me back into the bedroom where she bid me goodnight, and locked the door behind herself. After I heard her footsteps fade down the hall, I went to the doorknob to see if it was similar to the one at the Anderson's, and could be picked. Much to my dismay it looked like a heavyweight deadbolt lock had been installed recently. I wondered if Reverend Darcy had picked the Anderson's brain about my escape.

Thinking of the Andersons made me want to puke. I gingerly got into the bed, sniffing the sheets first to see if they smelled okay. I really didn't have a right to be picky. This bed was worlds better than the basement floor I had slept the night before, or the cot that I had slept in for four years with the Andersons.

I pulled the covers up, but couldn't keep my eyes closed. Visions of the ghastly dinner party twirled through my brain. I kept seeing how the Andersons twitched, the retching noises they made, and the blood that dripped from their eyes. I began to sob, overcome with the horror of the night. My back muscles began to twitch again, and I shifted uncomfortably. I wondered if they were just protesting from my uncomfortable position in the basement. I would have thought I would have healed from that already.

I tried to think of anything else to get my mind off of the nightmare I was in, but I could feel a panic attack rising within me. My breath started to speed up, and I started hiccupping while I cried.

A whisper of frost caressed my cheek. Another specter was near. I took a deep breath, the cold air filled my lungs. An icy touch, and then…

The guard had spent his entire long life watching the queen. He had loved her since he was a child and thought of himself as her most loyal guard. He would have done anything for her, given her anything. Watching her light fade away was tortuous.

"Ailean," the Queen's weak voice called out. The guard rushed to her side.

"Yes, your majesty?" he asked.

He shivered as she laid a hand on his cheek, and brought him near to her. She was burning up with fever.

"I'm afraid that my daughter is in grave danger," she told him, her eyes staring deeply into his. "I need you to go get her and bring her to my chambers. I need to keep her safe while I am able."

The guard knew this wasn't possible. The Princess wasn't here. She had left on urgent palace business earlier this morning. He had no idea where she had went, and was hesitant to leave the Queen's side to find out, not when she was so weak.

"The Princess left this morning, my Queen," the guard told her hesitantly.

Panic slid over the Queen's features. "When will she be back? I have to do it, I have to protect her," she said feverishly, madness filling her eyes.

She kept repeating the same statements while the guard tried uselessly to calm her. He finally had to have another guard call for Brianag, the Queen's personal witch, to have her bring something to help the Queen sleep.

The Queen's admonitions to the guard disappeared from his mind in his anxiety over her health. He could tell by Brianag's face that there wasn't much time left.

After the vision I stayed awake for most of the night going over what I had seen for the millionth time. The specters were obviously memories from the same place I had kept dreaming about. But what did all of it mean? And why did I keep seeing it?

I must have finally drifted off to sleep during the night, because I woke up to hear the lock clicking on the door. Anna stepped through the doorway.

"The Reverend has requested your presence," she told me, as stiffly as the night before.

I nodded and got out of the bed. Anna laid out a rather revealing black dress for me to change into. I could tell she disapproved whole heartedly of how much skin the dress showed, and I agreed with her. I just knew that I was going to feel dirty all day long if I had to sit in front of the Reverend in this dress. Despite my disgust, I slipped it on. The thought of the Anderson's faces twisting in agony preventing me from pushing back too hard against the Reverend's desires.

Anna led me to the dining room table. An assortment of breakfast dishes lay on the table. I waited for the Reverend to appear, but when Anna silently prayed and then began picking at her food, I realized he wasn't coming. I went to take a bite of some eggs, but stopped suddenly, images of the Andersons both foaming and convulsing at the table making me lose my appetite even though I hadn't eaten in days.

If Anna noticed that I wasn't eating, she didn't say anything. We both sat there in awkward silence until she looked at the clock and finally stood up.

"Follow me please," she said.

She put a hand on my arm, as if to ensure that I wouldn't run away. She led me into an office. Much to my dismay, the Reverend was sitting at a large mahogany desk, scribbling away at something.

"Take that chair, and set it in front of the desk please," he told Anna, motioning to a padded seat off to the side of the room. Once she had done as he asked, he motioned for me to sit in it. Thus, started one of the more bizarre days of my life.

The Reverend sat for most of the day behind his desk, preparing what I soon realized was a sermon. He would frequently stare at me, going over something in his mind before he resumed writing, and muttering random bible verses to himself. He didn't talk to me, only speaking to Anna when he wanted her to bring us something. My body ached from sitting on the hard wooden chair for so long, and my back twitched continually with the weird sensation.

My anger at Anna rapidly faded throughout the day. I realized she was just as much of a prisoner as I was. When she wasn't doing the Reverend's bidding, she sat in a chair in a corner, reading from what looked like a bible. After several hours of writing, the Reverend finally stood up.

"Anna, accompany Eva to her room, and then return to me please. I have several important matters to attend to."

The Reverend seemed preoccupied as he said this, staring at me intensely like I held the key to something he was trying to figure out. Anna led me to my room, and locked me inside once again after allowing me to use the restroom.

Unlike the day before, Anna brought a tray to me for dinner. I was grateful to eat away from the dining room, and scarfed down the sandwich and salad she had brought me, so hungry that I only gave a fleeting thought to the fact that the Reverend could have easily put poison in it.

I didn't hear from anyone until the next morning. The silence was maddening as my mind concocted various horrors that the Reverend was preparing for me. My fragile nerves were put more on edge by Anna's demeanor when she came to get me the next morning.

Anna was twitchy. Her eyes glancing nervously at me and then away, as if she had something to say but was too afraid to get the words out. After a silent breakfast in the dining room, I was led back into the study to sit again directly in front of the Reverend while he worked on his sermon.

Unlike the day before however, the Reverend only wrote for a few hours before standing up abruptly.

"I have errands to attend to," he announced to us, his eyes shining gleefully for some reason.

I thought he would have Anna lead me back to my bedroom, but immediately tensed when he pulled the same pair of thick silver cuffs from before, out of one of his desk drawers. He walked over to me, and fastened my left wrist to the side of the chair. The metal chafed at my skin, and I gave him a furious look.

"Don't fret my sweet," he said to me. "I'm allowing you to stay out today as a sign of my trust. Anna will be reading several sermons to you today to begin your church education."

He gave me a perfunctory kiss on my cheek which made me gag once again, before striding out of the room without another word or a parting glance at his wife.