The pain finally stops. All day I've been watching Cora make more minions and look for Jaxon. At one point, I swear I saw a dark long tail, Willow's tail, but at least Cora didn't seem to notice. I know she'll do anything to hurt me, she'll gladly kill my cat if it'll hurt me even the slightest bit.
Cora's trees all look exactly the same, roots and vines twist together making human-shaped trees. Cora calls them her "soldiers" I haven't said or done a thing. What can I do? If I do a thing, I'll likely just start choking up blood again. I've been just waiting for her to attack home, for her to get it over with. It may sound selfish, but I just don't want to be her prisoner anymore. I wonder when it's over if I'll be on this planet alone or if I too will be dead. I hope I'll be dead. I never wanna feel that kind of loneliness.
This is the second time Jaxon's told me something was a bad idea, and the second time he was right. I promise I think. I'll listen to you from now on Jaxon. But I don't think I'll ever have the chance. I hate sitting here in my own dread, and I hate even more that that's all I can do.
I'm watching the mirror Cora is looking for something. Probably Jaxon. I sit on my knees with my hands in my lap. I have little faith that she or one of her hundreds of minions won't find him. I wish I could have faith. But I can't. I just can't.
Then I recognize where she's going. The cave! I can't let her go there, I can't! "Stop!" I say loudly but not too loud, fear seems to stop me from screaming. I stand. I feel a slight pain in my stomach. A warning. I don't care anymore. What's the point of living if I'm gonna live like this? Like a helpless animal that'll do whatever it's master wants.
"I said stop!" I yell. I see Cora stagger over a little but she didn't fall she grabs a tree. I didn't feel a bit of pain. What's going on? I think. Did she not know who said it? Then a horrible realization comes to me. Her threat. She's gonna kill everyone I love mercilessly. "No," I whisper. "Stop!" I scream as loud as I can.
But she doesn't, she just stumbles a little again. "Don't hurt him!"
I begin to feel a little sleepy. "No, you- you can't," I say as I begin to stumble over. "Your own son-" I try to get out, but I end up stumbling over and falling into a deep sleep.
In my dream, I'm standing in the wreckage of my home. I stand there stunned. I begin to run down the paths to find Graham, only to find he's dead. It takes a moment before I realize I've been here before. I've done this before. Behind me, I hear a voice. "It's all your fault," it's Graham.
His voice is completely expressionless. Graham is wearing jeans which have a long gash from the home falling on him. His shirt has rips all along it. "No I- I tried- I just-"
"It's all your fault," another voice says. Jaxon materializes next to Graham. Then mom, then dad, then the rest of our village. Each person said the same thing, it's all your fault. They all have the same expressionless voices, tattered clothes, and bruised bodies.
"No, you don't understand. It was her I tried. I really did!" I say. They begin to get closer, and I back away.
I wake up to Cora leading a group of trees towards the fence that stretches for miles around the village.
◈◈◈
It seemed like the whole officer thing had blown over, I had hoped it was all over. Little did I know, it was far from over.
Every month we had an assembly, during this we have big announcements and you can announce your ideas to help the community. Occasionally, they held public executions too.
My mom gave me a nice dress to wear and I pulled my hair out of my face, half up. This was as fancy as I got- especially for this. The only thing I was looking forward to was meeting Graham after. I was mostly calm but still a little nervous. There would be a lot of government officials there and maybe even the officer who saw me. My mom watches me carefully as we move through the crowd. She's always been nervous about these, but especially after she and Dad met one time.
My dad wasn't much of a dad, he used to beat my mother until she finally couldn't take it. It wasn't always like that though, he used to be a great dad, and Mom and Dad loved each other- once upon a time. I hadn't seen my dad in years though. I would've liked to see my dad again but my mom was too scared. She's always been too scared for me, it was part of my future problem.
When she saw him the one time, they bumped into each other, my mother fell to the ground and when she looked up, started trembling. I had hardly recognise my dad. He cut his beard and wore very nice clothes. He must've been an officer. He shared my brown eyes and had dark hair like me. My dad glared at my mom and then left. That was that, my only encounter with my dad since I was six.
Back at work, I get beat at least weekly, he finds any reason possible, one time, I barely bumped a total random person, and Jordan beat me for it. Honestly, I don't know how he still has a job. Everyone knows what's happening, that I'm being beat, but no one cares. I'm the only one he's ever beats, too. I think it's turned into an addiction. Maybe this was supposed to happen. It happened to my mother, maybe it would happen to my children if I had any.
We walked into the big auditorium full of people. My mother keeps a close eye on me. We aren't high up enough in the community to have a real seat, so, like most people we stand in the back. "So," the speaker says nervously. "We have a few announcements to start with,"
The speaker starts talking about the increase of drug distribution and that we need to find the source. For my work, this is like a win. Just another update on how good we're doing. He then went into details about the schooling and stuff, how to make it better for the kids. It didn't matter, I was still gonna hate school just as much.
"And finally," he looked at the paper over and over, as if trying to see if he read it right, then he shows it to someone else who nodds. "We're announcing an arrest," he says, shakily. They never have done this before. The room goes silent. "Of Oberon, rose," my mother gasps beside me. "She was caught delivering drugs," the guards started towards someone in the crowd, then I saw someone stand up. Graham! What are you doing? I think.
"It was me," he says. I try to go to him to cry out something, but my mother's hand cover's my mouth. "I gave her the drugs to give to someone, I told her it was only a package for a friend," I tried to move my mother's hand, try to tell them he was lying, but I couldn't. she holds a firm grip on me.
The guards looked at the man on stage, who had no idea what to do. Kayden stood up from his chair, "Well! Arrest him!"
"No!" I try to scream, but my mother's hand is still covering my mouth. They quickly ended the assembly, eager to question Graham. Mom basically has to pull me outside. We went around the corners of the large auditorium and to the back.
"You put him up to that didn't you?" I yell. My mom won't meet my eyes. "It was the only way-" she began. I sigh, "So you did! How could you?" I scream. "We both believed it was the best way! The best way to save you!"
"I didn't wanna be saved! It was my punishment! I could've taken it! I was supposed to take it!"
"I am your mother, I decide what's best for you,"
"I don't want you to be my mother!" I said, and ran off to talk to Kayden, not looking back. Surely he could fix this. Hopefully he could fix this.