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I head closer to the forget-me-nots, placing my hands on rough bark as I peek around a hickory tree. Movement catches my eye and I gasp, jerking backwards.
A figure stands with their back to me, between two thick elms on the other side of the clearing.
Ever so slowly, the person turns.
My pulse rages in my temples, and my eyes widen.
“Char?” My mouth drops in shock, and my battered, blistered feet move toward her as fast as they can. “Oh gods, Char!”
“My Alessia,” she whispers. “Come with me, dear.”
A smile grows on her face as she swiftly walks toward me, her gait agile. The trees bend and sway almost imperceptibly as she passes them. I squint, wondering if I’m seeing things. There’s no breeze—everything is otherwise still.
My gut swirls with warning as she reaches for me.
But I find myself moving toward her anyway, closing the gap. She grabs my hand, tugging me with her. I trip and stumble trying to keep up with her quick pace. Glancing over my shoulder, I notice the clearing is gone. There’s nothing but dim forest behind me.
“Char?” I ask in a whisper, frowning. “Where are we going?”
“Keep up,” she hisses.
I try and fail to pull free of her. A few paces later, two other figures step into sight. There’s a large stone behind them. I blink, and at second glance, it looks an awfully lot like a table. Like the one from… Lord Edvin and Lady Nilda’s kitchen.
“Come ‘ere, Dolly,” the lord says, beckoning me closer with a stubby finger.
His gut hangs over his pants, and he grunts as he undoes his belt.
I try to rip my hand from Char’s, to turn and run, but her grip is steel.
“No, Char, please,” I gasp. “Let me go.”
The lord appears to float toward me. Before I can fight him, his hands wrap around me, pulling me away from Char.
“I am not your family,” Char says, her voice monotone. “I am not your family. I am not your—”
She continues chanting as the lord drags me to the stone table, shoving me face down. I squirm, tears streaming down my face, but he holds me in place.
I’m stuck helpless, rooted in place, as I watch the lady approach Char. When she slices the blade across her throat once again, a guttural scream rips from my lungs.
Through it all Char keeps chanting, even as her blood spills from the wound in her neck and from her mouth.
I scream and scream, until no sound comes out and blackness consumes my vision. I waver in and out of consciousness before it consumes me entirely.
Fear and exhaustion are a lethal concoction.
***
Something nudges my side, and slowly, I peel my eyes open. My breath quickens as I take in the stone beneath me, remembering where I am. Only, it’s not the lord’s table I’m facedown on after all. It’s only a rock. A regular boulder.
I swear I saw the lord and lady.
And Char.
Is my mind playing tricks on me?
Blinking a few times in confusion, I try to push myself up, but something presses on my back, holding me in place.
I think I hear the word, “stay.”
