Circles and Wings

Chapter 39

*Scarlett*

I was in the same white room I had nightmares about every night. And Jenkins was chained to a table. There were blades next to him, sharp little ones, meant to accurately and efficiently. Incense and Mirth came in, they didn't speak to him like they did to me though. They only began carving crosses into his skin.

"Stop." I said, as he screamed in pain. "Stop!" I said again when they didn't listen. He was bleeding... and his blood was silver and it dripped from him in sparkling patterns. They kept cutting into him, and his screams were growing weaker with his will. "I said stop!" I walked up to them, I took the knives from their hands and they looked at me with blank faces.

They weren't real. I shoved their knives in their throats and watched as they gagged and fell to the floor. Jenkins looked at me, his wounds already healed. "Emily?" He gasped.

I shook my head, "I'm her daughter, my name is Scarlett." I released his hands and feet and helped him sit up. I looked around, at the room, the drones dead at my feet, and the man before me. And I realized what was happening here. And I didn't like it. "Why are you torturing yourself?" I asked.

"I let her down." He said softly. "I told her I'd protect her, but I couldn't..." he trailed off.

"Protect Emily?" I asked. He nodded. "From what?"

"She had nightmares." He said. His eyes widened as he looked at me. "You had nightmares like this... and I figured out how to..." he looked at me with a scrutinizing gaze. "And then Michael... and you..."

"What did Michael do?" I asked.

"You don't remember?" He asked. I shook my head. "Emily..."

"I'm not—"

He looked around shaking his head. "They'll be back."

"Not if you don't imagine it." I said, "This is your mind. You're in control."

He shook his head, "I don't think I am—"

"Jenkins," I said pulling his focus. "Will you try something, for me?"

"I'd try anything for you, Emily." He said.

Emily? I already told him I wasn't... who cares. I might as well be her. I'm trapped in the same cage she tried so hard to escape from. "Will you imagine we're in my library?"

He nodded and in an instant we were in the library. Sitting in the armchairs, drinking tea with books next to us. "You changed your wings." He said, looking me over.

I shrugged, "They've always been like this."

"And... Emily... you've got horns."

I glamoured them away, my wings as well. He seemed to relax at that. Sometimes, putting new things in people's head can stress them out. "What did Michael do?" I asked him.

"You don't remember?" I shook my head. "He stole your fertility..." he said softly. "He wanted to make you undesirable to others so one night, when you had been drugged into sleep... instead of going to the room... he cut out your fertility..."

"What room?" I asked.

"The room of purification." He answered. "But you didn't go there that night. Michael cut it out of you right in your own bed." I felt sick to my stomach. "Emily, you have to leave. I don't know why you came back, but you have to leave again. He's going to come for you again."