Not giving her a second to comprehend, light conquered the place in blinding way, obliging her to shut her eyes for a moment. As soon as she opened them, the regret was so overwhelming. One of the shadows stepped toward her in lightning speed, to be face to face with her. The others stood in a circle around her wearing black cloak, and hiding their heads under the hoods. Chains, all around their legs, stomachs and hands, surrounded their bodies. Their arms were crossed above their chests. A bit of skin were obvious for some of them, and it was all what she needed to scare the shit out of her soul. A rotten, decaying flesh with ruins written on it. Long nails like claws dangling from their fingers.
Her stomach trembled at the realization, nonetheless her panic amplified as the faceless shadow standing in front of her held her shoulders with both his hands, pushing her backward into the ground.
When her head reached the floor, she found herself sinking in water. Drowning down and down until her breath was cut off, and her body started begging her for air. She kicked and cried. Her tears got mixed with the water. She was dying, lonely and desperate. In her last breaths, she did not see a flash of her life, as she thought. But she saw the win of her deepest fear and her darkest nightmare. She was dying by her dreams, by her mind. And she was powerless. Hopeless. Is this the end? NO. It is just the beginning.
Anna immediately woke in her room, panting, struggling to put air into her lungs. Dizziness was all what she felt. Her mind throbbed unable to concentrate. Her vines throbbed inside her skull. Her blood popped through her heart as if she was running a marathon. What just happened? Her million dollar question was. But no matter how strong she was, she also had her limits. And today she totally passed them. Curling into a ball, bathing with her sweat, her tears start hammering through her cheeks. Her eyes poured like the heavy clouds in one hell of a stormy day. She was desperate, broken, and lost. Alone in a maze of illusion or reality, she no longer cared. She just wanted it to all end as soon as possible.
Though she was in complete denial, to the facts these creatures were indicating. Inside of her, just deep inside, she knew that she will be facing one hell of a fight.
As Anna emptied her heart, crying all her emotion out, her father stood by her doors listening to his little child's agony. He was hopeless, helpless at that moment, because as a father, he was supposed to protect his family from any harm. However, he wasn't doing a good job at that, I am protecting her, he said. By keeping her in the dark, she will be safe, he whispered to himself. But the guilt was unbearable because he knew deep inside that keeping her In the dark is breaking her a bit by bit. She was losing herself, her mind and her sanity, and he was the reason behind it.
Burdened with shame, he pulled himself down stairs where his wife prepared the breakfast clueless about anything that happened. She stood in front of the stove coking bacons while singing her song with a spring of morning glee. She turned around oblivious of her husband dilemma waiting for her morning kiss, but she found her love sitting on the chair, hands in his hair and fear covering all of his face.
She didn't have to ask what's going on, deep she knew. It must have happened again, she said to herself. She took a deep breath and exhaled. Took not so confident steps even if she tried not to seem so and stood beside him. Stroking his hair like a little puppy, and pulling his hands between hers.
"We can't stay away forever. We can't prevent the inevitable. She can't runway from her destiny forever, it's her battle and we can't fight it in her place." Finally she said the unwanted word, words that cut his heart like a thousand knives.
"I know. But I want to protect her, she doesn't have to sacrifice her life for anyone. It's not her job too, but I am. Am her father and I have to save her." He explained.
"She has our blood. We just have to have some faith in her. We tried to shield her from our world and brought her here so she could live a normal life and far away from war and death. But look, even here she is not safe. They kept hunting us down even after all this time."
"But she is my daughter, my only child."
"She is also my child, don't forget that, but sooner or later they will get to us, the one will suffer the most is her. We won't be able to help her. Who knows, perhaps we will be dead by then. We need to start preparing her so she could stand for herself we wasted enough time already."
Patrick knew his wife was right. Instead of keeping Anna in the dark, he should have told her the truth of their identity, perhaps at that time she may have a way out.
They laughed and acted as any other normal family sitting around the table, eating breakfast. Talking about their plans for the day. They talked and ate with a smile printed on their faces. A mask of happiness and ease they wore, in front of each other in order to hide all their worries and fears. Masking their guilt of a mistake a long done, a mistake that now is destroying their small dynasty to pieces. They felt guilt. She, she felt shame of herself. The Shame by what is happening inside her fucked mind.
They all acted, and what a good show they have done.