VOX

Ch 6

Davina had grown quite comfortable in the Stokes household over the next few days. Her feet had healed nicely, though she was made to wear actual socks once the bandages were off. She looked forward to helping cook dinner each night, finding the aroma of seasoned food and Robert's humming comforting. She had unpacked the rucksack Sister Zinnia had filled with clothes, and placed them neatly into the wardrobe and chest alongside the old clothes Robert had piled onto her bed. A Flock of Sweet Spiders sat on the bedside table instead of under the mattress, it was slightly jarring to see a piece of her old life resting so casually within her new reality.

Her nightmares had returned with a vengeance, it seemed that part of her life also planned to stay. Most mornings started with the feelings like her lungs were being shredded from the inside and her heart slamming painfully into her ribs. Sometimes she'd sit curled-up on her bed in one of the many big sweaters that had been occupying the drawers before she moved  in, and  open the window to let in the cool salty air. Watching the boats glide into port as the sun steadily rose behind them helped wash away the images of dark tunnels and those dirt-caked nails that had haunted her for years.

She was glad that Robert's room was on the opposite end of the hall. Waking him every morning with whimpers, gasps and hyperventilating, would only make her seem weak in his eyes and that was the last thing she wanted. Actually, the last thing she wanted was to relive the appalling events of the ceremony, so naturally that was exactly what her mind did.

Now it was the sputtering screams of Viola and Angelonia that echoed in her dreams. The drip drip of their weeping necks playing in time with the rattling of rusty chains. She was almost used to the old nightmare, but this new addition made her feel like a child again. Except this time there was no Sister Zinnia to help soothe her fears away. The Redwell mornings made for a good distraction however. The cries of gulls would send goosebumps across her arms and the quiet roar of crashing waves often lulled her back to sleep.  

She'd explored the rest of the house, becoming disappointed in her observational skills when she realized how much she had overlooked in her first two days. There were four rooms on the second floor, her room, the bathroom across from it, Robert's room at the opposite end of the hall, and what looked like an office in between them. She'd quickly peeked into the two other rooms, not wanting to intrude into Robert's personal space, but also too-curious to not look at least once.

His room appeared to be the same size as hers, but with a larger bed in the center, and a small bookshelf crammed inside. She had shut the door after her quick glance, moving on to the mysterious other door. The room in between theirs was crammed with large furniture. There was a large desk covered in papers, files, and jars, a table with books, two boxes of something, and more jars. Besides the table was a dark grey chaise lounge. Two large bookshelves stood on either side of the doorway, both crammed with large books and loose papers. She didn't quite understand why there was a reclined couch chair in there, but didn't ask any questions.

The first floor held the sitting room she'd been slowly organizing, the small dining room, the blue and cream colored kitchen, a bathroom, and a small pantry. She had not realized there was a pantry in the kitchen until she watched Robert open and disappear behind a door she'd written off as a backdoor. The pantry held scales, cheese graters, spices, spare jars, bowls too big to fit in the cabinets, and large boxes of rice, potatoes, and strings of garlic.

The forged paperwork came five days after Davina's arrival. A fake certificate of birth, that was crumpled and flecked with coffee to appear older than it was, school certificates that claimed she had completed her education, and a small id, were enclosed in an envelope Robert came home with one evening. The id was harder than she would have imagined, with a glossy sheen, and the emblem of Nescio on the left hand corner. The silver hand grasping six arrows, representing the six royal families, was quickly overlooked as Davina saw her own full-freckled face staring back up at her. Robert had taken the photo a few days ago, and she couldn't stop staring. No one had ever taken her photo before, nor did she have paperwork that would allow her to travel between the different counties. The information Lorraine Ann Stokes, 1229 Bell st Redwell, Bridlo was written next to her photo. Underneath it listed her identifying features, hair color (brown), eye color (hazel), height (5'5), and her date of birth (Feb 4, X230).