expire

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Seren swallowed, her eyes widening ever so slightly, as if feigning shock at my question. They seemed to say, 'You what? You want to know about my family?', as if it were an absurd thing to ask. But, being the serene person she was, Seren answered it without any hesitation – although her eyes said otherwise.

“My family went mad, after I died. They were great believers in fate, you see, and my mother came from a family of gypsies. That's how she met my Dad – at a gypsy circus. He was watching the show, she was in it. They met in the fairground after the performance. That's where it all started, I guess,”

“Why did they go mad?”

“Tarot cards. Load of rubbish, of course, but for my mother, they were everything. According to her, they made all the difference when it came to Life or Death, being rich or poor – they even 'predicted' what we were going to have for tea, once. But one day she flipped them over and one of them pictured a skeleton, scythe in hand, and my mother totally flipped out. Of course, when the card came true only a few days later, she was beside herself, although my death was no more than an accident. After that, the whole family caught onto the fact that the cards 'told the truth', and well, they all...” She closed her eyes, looking out the window as if this were a hard thing to say. Looking at her, it probably was.

“...they all just...disappeared. No one knew where they'd gone, or how they went where they did. I travelled the Earth, in our world of course, but could go no further than the Vierra Boundaries. When I came to our house, the car was still there, and inside, everything was as it should be. The cereals were all laid out, the table laid...it was all normal - a typical Saturday morning scene. It confuddled me so – and it still does when I think about it...” Her eyes adopted that strange 'far away' look I had seen earlier, and I returned my attention back to chameleon girl. Clearly, she had been somewhere 'far away' too, as she didn't turn to meet my eyes as quickly as she had before. When she did, she looked confused, as if reciting times tables in her mind, and she opened her mouth as if she were about to say something. But then another pair of white doors appeared before us, and she focused her attention on the task ahead.

“Follow me.” Chameleon girl announced, holding open the door for us as we stepped into a wide, glass room. Glassy pillars supported the ceiling, and four sets of identical crystal tables and chairs were positioned in perfect right angles on either side of the room. The floor was cracked, badly, splitting its gleaming surface into a million mirrors. The whole place seemed to be carved out of glass, but it could be ice for all its glistening walls, floors and sub-zero temperature. Once again I felt out of place here, dressed in multi-coloured silk amongst people dressed in starch white overalls; no colours, no stains, just white. It reminded me of those washing powder ads from back home, with everyone dressed in white clothing to show off their cleanliness now their clothes had been washed with Ariel, or Persil.

We followed chameleon girl further into the room, our reflections shadowing us along the floor as we made our way further into the room, bringing us to face what could only be described as a 'throne'. A few shimmering steps led up to a large, intricately-carved chair, swathes of white lace and brocade fabric layering it like some sort of snow drift. Upon the chair sat a woman, whom I hadn't noticed at first; she blended into the chair so well. 'The Chameleon Queen', I thought, whose clothes were so white she was practically invisible. Once closer, the girl curtseyed, lifting the hem of her overalls so they didn't get in the way, before sidling to the left and leaving us exposed to Chameleon Queen's gaze. I felt like curtseying too, but I refrained from doing so. I didn't even know why I was here, let alone who Chameleon Queen was. Instead I smiled, and I received one in return. The Queen's eyes were black, as were pretty much everyone's in the room, but they had this unearthly look about them, almost scary, that creeped me out. I tried not to look at them for too long.

“Ah, Seren. Long time no see, I hope you're doing well,” Seren, who had remained silent since she had conversed over her family, nodded and said, “Yes thank you. All is well. I wish the same for you.”

The Queen smiled again. Her line of sight seemed to flit around the room, as if she were searching for something. Her eyes refused to focus on anything.

“I am well, thank you. And you, Ivy, you have settled in, I hope?”

I nodded. “I have.” Then, as if suddenly remembering my manners, “Thank you for asking.”

“You're welcome, my dear. But, alas, I did not summon you here to discuss your wellbeing; You and I have other matters to attend to.”

“We...do?” I asked, uncertainty clouding my voice.

“We do, my dear. Now, Cerise, please retrieve my Info-Scroll.”

Cerise, the chameleon girl, acknowledged the request through a bob of her head, a little nod to show she understood, before she left the Queen's side. I followed her with my eyes; it was a harder task than you would imagine. Soon she was lost within the crowd of 'chameleon' people. They all looked identical; the only thing distinguishing one from another would be a small grey crack, or cut. There was one on each person, and they were made obvious through the fact that the rest of the place was impeccably white; they stood out like sore-thumbs. Each crack in the skin was different, some more jagged than others, and all of them in different places. I wondered what caused them.

Seren then nudged me; I realised I'd been staring. Rude, I scolded myself, the Chameleon Queen regaining my attention as I swivelled my head back round. But she hadn't seemed to notice; her eyes stared off into some unknown universe. As she spoke, her eyes continued to stare unseeingly, “I'm sure you're curious as to what you're doing here.”

“Yes,” I answered, “Very much so.”

Her eyes moved, but not to meet mine. “Indeed. I shall tell you now. Please take a seat.” Her hands gestured broadly at the chair-less space in front of her; Seren and I sat cross-legged on the cool floor. I was glad the Queen had no soft spot for Comfort Seats. Just then chameleon girl, Cerise, reappeared, a thin coloured screen balanced in her small white hands. The lights from the screen cast a palette of colour onto her alabaster palms, as if they were a blank canvas upon which an artist had imprinted his work. I felt a smile tug at my lips at the familiar sight of colour.

Chameleon girl placed the screen, or 'Info-Scroll', into the Queen's hands with surprising gentleness. The Queen, her gaze directed into the air above Cerise's head, whispered a thank you, and I watched on as she gazed off into the unknown whilst her hands brushed the screen with movements so soft I was surprised it registered them at all.

“Aha. Found it. The Queen's hands jabbed at something on the screen, and a holographic 3D image fuzzed up into the air in front of me. It pictured a graveyard, a cluster of black-clad people gathered around a large hole. A man in white held a Bible at the head of the hole. A girl on crutches sobbed onto her twin's shoulder. Their mother, face fragile and forlorn, had her arms draped softly over the girl's shoulders, so softly it was as if she were afraid the girls would break. My breath, not for the first time that day, lodged in my throat. But this time it was a stone, a rock, and it wouldn't move. My breath rasped slightly as I continued to stare at the hologram of my mother and sisters. “Ivy. There has been a mishap...at your funeral. This has been called forward as a Special Case.”

“What was the mishap?” My voice was a barely a whisper.

The Chameleon Queen did not delay in her answer. “Your family has, unnecessarily, been killed.”