˙ɯoʞ noʎ ǝʌo˥ ˙spɐǝɥ ɹno uı splɹoʍ ǝɥʇ uı ǝʌǝılǝq puɐ ʎsɐʇuɐɟ ɥʇıʍ ǝʌol uı llɐɟ ǝɯ ǝpɐɯ oɥʍ lɹıɓ ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ʎllɐıɔǝds s,ǝuo sıɥ⊥
Not all monsters look gruesome . Some have pretty eyes and call you 'sweetie' and pretend to care. Some live inside you and claw at your heart and make you the creature you had vowed to never be. And some, some are beautiful and smart and everything nice.
And some, you see them when you look at any reflecting surface,
Alive and helpless,
you.
The blanket slid to the floor.
Reina's body shuddered and she woke up again. This was becoming a daily occurance now.
Go to sleep.
Weird dreams where she's talking to people she believes are her relatives.
Somebody in the crowd will look at her, then suddenly point at her and scream.
Before that blood curdling sound comes to an end, someone's holding a dagger to her little brother's neck and threatening her. Sometimes it's her friends instead of her brother. Or her sister. Someone she loves.
And always the same question,
Tell us what you know.
She tries to reason with them, tries to tell them that she doesn't know anything.
But they never listen.
They wrap a black cloth around their hostage. And she sees their face one last time through it.
And sssssssssssh
The cloth falls down.
A single drop of blood lies on the floor where her brother or whoever it was, was standing.
And she screams. Everytime. Knowing it's going to end up like that, she still screams.
And her eyes open. Her mind is awake and she's no longer dreaming. Her whole body immobilized, choking , suffocating , sweating.
And when she was finally able to move her limbs, she'll get up , take in a few deep breaths and slowly settle down in the bed again.
The kids can't know about this.
This was why she had made Remi and Daaron sleep in another bed, next to her. He wouldn't stop complaining , but she didn't want him to see all this. He was a little boy , just seven years old. And Remi would obsess over this and worry more. She didn't want them to think she was scared or destroy their happiness.
You can deal with this on your own.
But ' on your own' , is not a pretty place.
The alarm beeped, startling her. It was 6 o'clock in the morning already. Remi was mumbling excuses to stay in the bed longer and Daaron got up , picked up Reina's blanket from the floor and wrapped it around him.
"Rei Rei Rei Rei Rei Rei ," he chanted , swaying his arms and dancing.
"Go brush your teeth," she mumbled, laughing at her brother's antics. "Remiii, you too."
Every morning, ever since her parents went away three years ago , she's been doing this. Wake them up, make sure they eat and get ready for school on time, get back home safely and never ever let them feel like they needed their father and mother.
Even their neighbours , who loved to gossip about their parents , admired and helped Reina. There were a few who still looked at them with disgust, but most of them had a soft spot for the young girl, who had to work and study and look after her siblings and had carefully tended to the magic in her blood, which did come in handy when they needed help. Reina would always help. Magical creatures are naughty , tricksy beings who had to be handled carefully. She had negotiated with countless blemeshes to leave human houses, saved little children from pixie-like creatures and on and on. They lived around them, with them, usually invisible to humans and spent most of their time in the woods and their official home was somewhere on earth, but so heavily guarded with magical enchantments that it was impossible to reach there. She even had a few non-human friends, but nobody could ever tell her what she wanted to know.
Money wasn't a problem, their uncles, though they kept their distance, had taken over their education and other expenses. But if she stayed at home, if she stayed idle , her brain would go back to that day, repeating that scene, that story that only she knew, over and over again. When her world came tumbling down. When the fan spoke and her parents held hands and let themselves be dragged up to nothingness. And no amount of screaming brought them back.
That room was locked up now.
The kids never went there. Rei went there everyday.
Looking for a clue. Some sign.
Maybe the fan will speak again.
But it didn't.
Nothing happened.
Nothing.
