Noa was concerned when she saw I didn't sleep. She thought it was because of the opened window, and she kept apologizing. I was too tired to tell her anything different. She brought me breakfast and tea, and told me she'd excuse me from lunch if I wanted her to.
I told her that wouldn't be necessary. That I had things to do with Mariella's father, and excusing my absence would only create more worry. I was fine beyond my tiredness and that was something I was used to handling. Plus I did not want to miss my opportunity to ask Mariella's father about the commissioned jewelry.
I was changing, getting ready to find Mariella's father when two soft knocks arose from my door.
"Who is it?" I questioned, slipping on the sleeve to my dress.
"It's your father Mariella."
"Oh! Come in." I said zipping up the back of the dress. I had never worn dresses, but it was the only clothes Mariella had. "I was just about to find you." I said once he entered. "I found something peculiar after you left yesterday." I turned to find the slip of paper I had stuck in my end table.
"Mariella." His soft and slow delivery made me stop, and face him. "Noa said you didn't sleep well last night?"
"Oh, well. A bug came in through the window." I hadn't thought of a real excuse so the words that slipped from my tongue forged themselves as I spoke them. "It jumped on me and woke me up. I just got a little spooked. That's all." I was sure if I said something about Silas invasion her father would have done something, but I couldn't be absolutely sure, and in this world I didn't want to do anything unless I knew the consequences of it.
"I see…" He said slowly, "What was it you found?" I spun on my heels and found the paper in my drawer.
"Do you know who commissioned the 'My Baby Ella'?" I asked handing him the tattered page. "I'm not sure where it came from but the only information written on it is the name of the piece." He unfolded the paper, read the handwriting, flipped the page over just as I had to see if there was anything on the back, before rereading the name of the piece again.
"Did this come from one of the old books?"
"I believe so. I'm not sure though. I picked it up off the floor." He looked over the handwriting again, as if something were written in between the letters.
"Well." His thoughts interrupted his sentence. "It must have been your grandfather." He folded the page and tucked it away. "He is the only one who ever called you Ella." My head cocked to the side. "I can't imagine where he put the thing if you do not have it."
"Do you know the piece?"
"No." He said uncertain. "But your grandfather worked on many pieces before his passing. If you are so interested in it you can go check his office. I will let you off bookkeeping for today. You can continue the rest tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" I questioned, picking at the skin beside my nails. "I could do some today."
"It is alright. Go find what your grandfather left you. I am sure he meant to give the piece to you, but never got the chance." He spoke with a subtle sadness. One I imagine arose from losing his father.
I would have never guessed that My Baby Ella was meant for Mariella. I guess the pieces were there right in front of me to put together. But how could I have known Ella was a pet name coined by her grandfather? I imagine Mariella would have known right away that the piece was meant for her. Sadly I am not her.
I debated searching for the jewelry piece all together. I mean what was the point? I wasn't Mariella, why should I care about a gift her grandfather left her? But my curiosity was too large. I wanted to see if I could learn something about the body I inhabited. So I asked Noa to come with me to her grandfather's office. It was an excuse to get her to lead me to it, but it was so that she could help me search for it. I wasn't even sure what I was looking for. How would I know the difference between the My Baby Ella and some other piece of jewelry?
However once I found it the entire world stopped. I recognized it right away. Not as I had the strange language that is spoken in Udros. It wasn't an innate understanding. I recognized the piece from a novel I had read from when I was still me.
It was a necklace, made of emerald and silver. It did seem fancy on the cover but it could not live up to the actual thing. I could see the great care that went into each tiny piece of silver that curved around the prestigious stone. The emerald itself wasn't like anything I had seen before. The jewelry in this house had always looked so extravagant, it made the jewelry I knew from Earth seem like plastic toys, but this was something else. I had never seen such a glistening green stone.
"Wow." Noa said in awe as she hung over my shoulder. "Late-Master Julian really put all of his love into that necklace." She said delicately. "Is this what you were looking for?" Our eyes met for a brief moment as I gently placed the piece back into its velvet container.
"Yes…" My head was spinning. "Noa. Would you go get me a glass of water?"
"Are you alright?" She perked up.
"I am fine. Just thirsty. All this searching sure has made my throat dry."
"Okay! I'll be right back." She looked at me curiously before leaving.
I fell into the red leather chair that sat behind the long mahogany desk. My head pounded as I tried to recall anything about the book from which I knew this piece from. I didn't remember any character named Mariella. I could find the familiarity in the name Vial, but the name Mariella remained an enigma to me. Even the name My Baby Ella was somewhere within my foggy memories.
How could I be inside of a book? That was the work of fiction. I hated that my memory failed me. I could remember some of the plot, but I couldn't be sure if it was the right book I was thinking of. Yes I didn't read many books, but the books I read were all rather similar. They all contained a sad, and mistreated mc, one which rarely got a good ending. I had drowned myself with such miserable characters that I couldn't remember which was the star of one I found myself in. Was Mariella even in a character within this book? Now even Isabella's name was ringing a bell.
That was when the first plot point came to me: The death of the Vial's patriarchy and his beloved granddaughter plagued the household with an unending sadness which led the family to put the piece up for auction. The Vial's weren't the main characters of this novel. The Sinclairs were. The Vial's were even considered villainous.
The room I was in turned in on itself. Mariella was dead. The body I was in was but a corpse that I reanimated. A chill ran up my spine as my brain pounded against my forehead. My fingers slipped under the silver necklace and found the engravement on the back. MV. No one in the original story knew what it meant. None of them even thought to consider Mariella's existence. Her name wasn't even written in the story, of course they didn't. Did the author also forget about her existence? What is this? I knew I had entered another world, but I never imagined I would have entered the plot of some book I read and forgot about. What was this? My punishment for frivolously reading? For indulging myself in stories to escape my own life? Why was I here? In the body of a girl who was supposed to be dead?
"Miss Mariella?" Noa voice plucked my head from hands as they found her. She had questions she wanted to ask, but none of them came. "I brought you some water." She handed the glass over the desk, looking down at me with nothing but concern.
"Thank you…"
Why couldn't I have died with you Mariella? Why was I here? I didn't want to continue a life that was supposed to be dead. What was their continue when even the author cared not about your existence? You were written out of the story before it even began. So why was I here?
"Miss Mariella." Noa interrupted quietly. "Can I help you back to your room?" She asked, her voice barely reaching loud enough for me to hear.
I imagine Noa thought my grief arose from my love for my late-grandfather. Noa couldn't fathom that I wasn't actually Mariella.
How did she die? How did I end up here in her place when she was supposed to be dead? Was this some sick joke being played by the author? How could that even be possible? How was any of this possible?
"What's wrong with her?" It had been awhile since I heard Isabella's voice. Now that I looked at her I could vividly recall the passage describing her:
'She was a cold girl, younger than me, but haggard with the years of an older woman. She was pretty with the eyes of lavender and hair darker than the night sky. I would have been scared of her if her fury wasn't so obviously shown on her face…'
She didn't look like how I imagined her to, but when I read books I hardly ever imagined how characters looked.
"Miss Mariella was just more tired than she thought."
I wanted to scream that they were all characters in a book, that their fates were sealed, and that no matter what they did it wouldn't matter. I mean what would happen when the book finally came to an end? Would this world end alongside the people within it? Did their existence even matter? Once Evren Sinclair got the necklace she sought after. Once her story ended and she was with the character she loved, would this world cease to exist?
"Mariella, what's wrong with you?" Isabella continued to impede the path towards the bedroom. Isabella wasn't asking Mariella, she was asking me.
My eyes found her drearily. I wanted to laugh in her face. I wanted to tell her that her sister was dead, and that she was stuck with me in her sister's body, but I knew she didn't care. Not once did Mariella haunt the storyline. The only person the Vials cared about was their grandfather. There was only a short blurb about Mariella's existence. Mariella must've known her grandfather was the only one who loved her. She knew that know one would care about her death. I knew then how Mariella had died. Even if the book never stated it, her ending was obvious to someone like me.
"Just leave me alone." I pushed Isabella when Noa wouldn't. "Haven't you had enough of me already?"
"Hey." Her voice lowered but I bothered not to seek what was behind me. "Mariella." She took my arm and stopped me. "Come with me." She pulled me back down the hall, but I yanked back.
"Leave me alone Isabella." I hissed.
"Mariella!" She sounded like my mom yelling at me. "What's your deal?" She sounded exactly like her.
"What is my deal?" I snorted. "Please will the gods let me exist without having someone ask me that!" I said to no one in particular. "Just go back to ignoring me Isabella. As you always have."
I could tell I struck a nerve as her face grew bright red. "That's enough." She grabbed me again, this time tighter than before. "Noa find something else to busy yourself with before I get you fired for mishandling my sister." Noa jumped, looked between Isabella and I as I struggled to pry her nails from my arm. "Now Noa!" The inflection froze me while it sent Noa running down the hall. "Now you little rat." Her voice lowered, as she pulled me closer towards her. "What is your problem?" She asked, bearing nothing but teeth.
"Let go of me!" I shook out of my trance and tugged on my arm.
"Not until you explain yourself." Her outrage didn't waiver as her face grew closer. "I thought I was being nice, but it seems you don't see it that way."
"You call this being nice?"
"Suki." Her voice lowered further. "What's wrong?" Now her voice was filled with nothing but pity. "Why are you so angry?" The hall never felt so small. Isabella had this aura about her that suffocated Mariella whenever they were in close proximity to each other. I fought against it, but no matter how hard I tried, Mariella's feelings always won out.