Drama Queen // Otto Hightower // Thea Queen

31. Chasing Shadows

"Moira, I think it is high past time you went home." Otto decided. Moira gaped back at him. "This is my families holding, you are a guest but your guest privileges have been revoked." Otto went on and Moira's eyes went wide, why was this insignificant second son and exiled hand talking to her as though he had the power? He didnt. 

"I am Moira Queen." She reminded him. "You need the queen support." 

"And I married your daughter to get it." Otto agreed. "And with our marriage Thea's my responsibility. She is mine to make happy and take care of. YOu make her feel less than, and I think she is perfect." 

"Thats because I fixed her." Moira shouted. 

"She doesnt need fixing." Otto corrected. "And you Moira Queen are no longer welcome in Old town." Moira scoffed back at him. 

"Not welcome?" Moira seethed. 

"You are not welcome." Otto declared. 

+

"I was having a talk with one of the annoying women." Thea remarked and LOttie smiled up at her. "She was saying something about shadows... what was it." Thea whispered as she ran a hand voer Lotties little head as she sucked at her teat.

"We spend most of our lives afraid of our own Shadow. She told me that. She said a Shadow lives deep inside every one of us. So deep we don't even know it's there. Sometimes, with a quick sideways glance, we catch a glimpse of it. But it frightens us, and we quickly look away. This is what fuels the Shadow—our inability to look."

"Our inability to examine this thing that is in fact our raw selves. This is what gives the Shadow its power. Shadows having power, LOttie, isnt that funny but I suppose Peter pans shadow had a great power over him." Thea went on and Otto leaned up against the door frame as Thea talk to Lottie.

"It makes us lie. About what we want, about who we are. It fires our passions, our darkest desires. And the more powerful it gets, the greater we fear it, and the deeper we struggle to hide this Beast that is us . . ."

Thea didnt know why she was telling Lottie these things. Maybe it's a way of obliquely bringing out and addressing her own Shadow. She didnt understand it yet she was trying to. Chasing Shadows...

"But this woman, I dont even know her name, a loon she was Lottie, which was why my mother liked her." Thea grumbled, "she did think our Shadows were bad, her and Moiras, Olivers... everyones." Thea went on. "Big and dark and very dangerous. I don't think our Shadows should ever be allowed out." Lottie burped releasing her teat. "But maybe I'm wrong... maybe our shadows should be set free." Thea corrected. she wanted to be dangerous, not weak and fragile. She wanted her daughter to be brave and strong, not running from something unknown.

+

"You two honestly dont know how much I do for you." Moira declared "And now your husband had the nerve to tell me I am no longer welcome here?"

"He did?" Thea questioned coughing up cookie crumbs.

"He did." Moira seethed. "How dare he!"

"Makes me love him more." Thea declared.