The Allure of Darkness

12

Azia

I'm in the white room again. It's always there when I'm sleeping. But why is it always this room?

My mom is not here nor is my dad or sister. Someone is always here.

"Hello," I yell into the white void.

I get no response. Nothing, of course.

I look around the room. Looking for anything. There is white tiles going across the floor so start to count them. It's the only way to keep my mind off the more pressing issues. Where's my mom? Why am I here, I don't remember falling asleep. Did I make it to the Arsher Kingdom yet?

I look at the ground and I start to count.

"168,169,170,171,172,173,174,175,176," I mumbled to myself.

There's 176 tiles here. Only 176. It's a very tiny room.

I should wake myself up soon.

"Azzy?" A quiet voice asks from behind me.

That voice. A voice I haven't heard in almost nine years. A voice I almost forgot.

"Fayln?"

I turn around to see my eight year old sister, alive but dead.

She runs into my arms and I pick her up. She still smells like lavender even when she's dead.

"Fa-Fayln what are you doing here?"

Her tears are rolling down her face onto my shirt. Her snot is getting all over me.

She looks like a carbon copy of me but just younger. I miss her so much.

She was eight when she died, in my arms. I held her breathless body in my arms for too long. Too long.

"Mum said I could come just this once." She sniffles.

I pull her chin up so I can see her face. Her eyes. They're green. How could I have forgotten?

"Azzy what's wrong? Why are you here? Mum said you weren't supposed to come back here." She stares into my eyes, into my soul.

"Well she likes to lie to Fay but don't tell her I said that. I can always come here and you can always meet me here." I smile at my sister. My dead sister.

"Azzy you're hurting me." Fay whimpers.

"Wha-."

My arm. My arms are turning red. They feel like they're boiling from the inside out.

I drop Fay on the ground and put my arms out in front of me. What the-

"Wake up Azia. You have to." Fayln says with dread in her voice. "Something is happening and you have to wake up." She looks down at the floor and starts to twirl her hair.

My arms. That's all I can think about. How are they not burning off? How-how what's happening.

I start to scratch my arms when Fayln walks up to me and goes to hug me. I put my burning arm out to stop her.

"Stop Fay. What are you doin-."

"I love you." She speaks with a frown and tears. She leans towards me and kisses my forehead.

I wake up to complete darkness. Where am I?

My arms. They are still burning. It's too dark to see what happened to them. But I can feel them like there are things intertwined in my arms like there's something new forming on them.

What happened? I remember walking to the Kingdom of Arsher and getting in line. WHAT AM I MISSING.

"What you're missing, Azia, is that you fainted." That voice makes the hair on my arms stand up.

Emrys

I could hear her yelling in her mind from a whole house away.

I was trying to check if the guard got everyone in the kingdom and branded when her screams interfered.

I had to walk through two houses just to get here. She was in one of the top rooms by herself.

"What happened? Why are my arms burning? Why do they hurt so bad?" She says as she sniffles.

Can she not take pain? She is weak.

"We just brought everyone to houses to stay in. The king will see everyone later today. For your arms, Azia, I have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe you got sunburn?" She can't see me but I'm smiling. I'm gloating. I'm suppressing a laugh.

I want to see her face when she realizes what we did to her, to everyone.

"It doesn't feel like sunburn. Sunburn shouldn't hurt this much, Emrys. It's burning my arms so much I fear they are going to fall off." She says trying to conjure up a laugh.

I can feel her discomfort with her arms. Her fear of meeting the king. Her fear of me. Splendid.

"Get some rest, Azia, you and everyone else have long days ahead." I start to walk towards the door.

"What day is it?" Her voice is barely recognizable.

Why does that matter?

"It's January 6."

I can hear her mind working. My birthday it's tomorrow. Tomorrow I turn seventeen.

"Happy early birthday." I open the door and look back. "Don't party too hard." And I shut the door.

Her birthday is tomorrow. Will she have magic? She has to or she will be useless.

For a birthday present she will belong to the king, my dad. It's going to be fun to break everyone, especially Azia.