Marked for Murder

sixteen: all you who wait

LOOKING BACK AT THE living room,  I ask, "Can you give me a minute?" Macaria nods and quietly steps out into the hallway, heading for the main doors.

I lean against the wall for a few seconds before I tiptoe silently towards my parents' room. Soft light hums inside and I can see it from the bedroom door they've left slightly ajar.

I watch them sleep, their closed eyes occasionally drifting and troubled. And yet, they manage to look so peaceful in certain moments, like they've never been better.

I smile at them, possibly for the last time for a long while. I turn away, slowly closing the door behind me. I walk up the stairs, stopping in front of Charles' door. I can hear him snoring feebly, eliciting a low chuckle from me.

I placed my forehead against his cold door, a single tear making its way down my cheek. I wiped it off quickly; I'd never be able to do this if I started breaking down now. I had already stayed for a day after we found the Mark on my back.

I had already risked them for twenty four hours. I will not be doing that again as long as I am alive. I move away, creep down the stairs and make my way out of the home that had given me love, comfort and safety for seventeen long years.

I find Macaria waiting for me outside, tying our rucksacks to two horses she had somehow managed to procure. She moves ahead to nuzzle a horse's muzzle while rubbing another one's mane. Both of them were as beautiful as the night sky, their mane unfurling majestically in the night wind. 

I glanced at the horses quizzically, when one of them broke away from its companion and trotted noiselessly towards me. It nudged my cheek and a ghost of a smile appeared on Macaria's face.

"That's Orphnaeus," she says, smiling ever so fondly at the horse. She gestures at hers. "And this is Nycteus. The best boys ever." She pats Nycteus' crest. "Orphnaeus seems to have taken a liking to you, better get on that horse before he picks you up himself."

I stand frozen, my hands subconsciously running themselves over Orphnaeus' silky coat. "Are they your horses? How'd you get them here?"

Macaria just shakes her head wistfully. "No, they aren't mine but I wish they were." She swings herself on top of Nycteus and I realise that that is all the response I will get from her.

It bothers me how I am leaving with someone I barely know anything about, leaving my friends and family behind. As I make myself comfortable on Orphnaeus' back, something clicks in my mind. I almost smack myself when the thought surfaces.

How had I been so self absorbed?

"What about Christina? Your family? You don't have --"

Macaria cuts me off, immediately catching my drift. "I am doing what I swore to do."

Before I can protest or even get a confused word in, our horses shoot forward, like they had been released from a tightly strung bow. I had never ridden a horse before but somehow I sank back onto Orphnaeus' back, instinctively.