Dream and Nightmare

Chapter 14 - Vacant Blue Eyes

Silence. A quiet filled the room and made Anah more nervous than the thunderous waves of an ocean storm. Lina's soundless tears of fury and pain rolled down her cheeks. A marble statue sat in Felidy's place. It was unmoving and quite possibly not breathing.  

Touching Anah's arm made her flinch so violently that Jack pulled his hand away. She knew what he thought without having to ask; he thought she mourned for her lost love, but she was far less disturbed by Rendel's betrayal than his words.  

'Sacrifice,' she rolled the word around in her mind a few times. It didn't seem real. She was just a normal girl who happened to follow some random boy through a rock...and was also raised by Elvita, and had parents who frequented another world and were killed by a monster... Maybe there was never any hope for her. Normal wasn't possible. Nor was it wanted. Perhaps that world, that 'Dreamland' was dangerous, but she wouldn't trade it for anything, and Jack would protect her. 

"You won't let me get sacrificed, right?" Anah whispered to Jack softly so as not to disturb the silence of the room.  

"Never," He breathed. She wrapped her hand around his, a small amount of joy trickled through her misery when he didn't pull away, instead holding her hand tightly.  

Lina's voice made everyone jump, except maybe Felidy who Anah hadn't even seen blink in a while. "What was he talking about, Felidy?" Her voice was cold with no consideration to the fact that her sister was obviously upset by Rendel's words. "What did you two have?" 

Felidy closed her eyes. "Nothing," she lied. 

"Oh really? Nothing? Because I thought you two just about hated each other and now he's confessing his love for you!" 

"It didn't mean anything, Lina! I didn't know he was in love with me! I certainly never had any love for him!" 

Lina stood from her bench, accusation soaking her words. "So you're just a slut." It wasn't a question.

"I'm eighteen, Lina, I can do what I want." Felidy hadn't moved much during the whole exchange, not even looking at her sister. her stoicness bothered Anah who had never sat so still in her entire life. 

"Who you want," Lina corrected with venom.

"Don't act like you're any better. How's Tiam?" 

Lina's jaw twitched as she narrowed her eyes. felidy had clearly crossed some sort of line that Anah would have to query about later. "That's none of your business!" she hissed.

"And this isn't any of yours. It's obviously done, anyway." Felidy's voice didn't contain the same emotion as her sisters, keeping whatever anger she was feeling carefully locked away.

Lina stared at her for a long time before leaving with tears on her face. The silence returned, swallowing up the room. Not only would Anah be able to hear a pin drop, it would be deafeningly loud, echoing through the room. 

Jack let go of her hand to comb his hair and then didn't pick it up again which only got more annoying when he moved to Felidy's side. "Are you alright, Fe?" 

She let out a long sigh, laying her head on Jack's shoulder. "Do you really think he's going to die?"  

The question hung in the room. In all honesty, Anah didn't think any of them had a clue to the answer. He'd been lying for years, and was clearly talented in deception. How were they to trust anything he ever said again?

"We can't let him," Felidy decided.  

"He's Shriian," Jack reminded her softly. 

Taking her head off his shoulder to glare at him she said, "But I have questions that I want to be answered and if he dies, they never will be."