And Icarus Looked Straight Into The Sun As He Burned(Rewritten)

3 - The Sorrow

[2 Days Later]

Although she had her freedom stripped from her, Jordan was glad that she was okay enough to finally roam the castle on her own. She had been given permission to leave her room on her own. Her feet had healed enough and she had been given a nicely padded pair of slip on shoes and comfortable socks. She appreciated the staffs efforts to make her comfortable despite her situation.

Looking up and down the vast but empty hallways and rooms, it was almost peaceful. A huge place for someone to live, and it was gorgeously decorated too. If she wasn't forced to stay here, it would've been much more of a freeing experience. Unfortunately, the imaginary collar continues to hover around her neck, and as she recovers from her injury, it threatens to clamp down at any moment.

Without realizing it, Jordan made her way back to the dining room from her very first night there. Dinner wasn't held here every night since both Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters didn't need to eat actual food, and the staff had their own quarters to eat at. So she hasn't been back here in a couple days. Nonetheless, she was more interested in her surroundings knowing that there wasn't people watching her every movement. Hopefully.

She approached a set of double doors that she assumed led outside. She didn't know why she was so compelled to go outside in the cold, but Jordan couldn't resist the pull. It felt right. So she grabbed the handle of one of the doors and proceeded to pull it open. Cold air washed over her immediately. And yet, she didn't care. Even with her long sleeved blue shirt and thin black pants, the cold was something she hardly felt.

As Jordan stepped out into what seemed to be a courtyard, she took notice to how oddly quiet it was. The sky above was still blotted out with gray, and small yet insignificant snowflakes slowly drifted to the ground. The courtyard itself was rather dark and dreary, with bare trees reaching out from the corners and overgrown ferns climbing up the sides of the concrete railings. And in the center of it all was what looked like a metal gazebo. It was a bit weathered, most likely from the snow and cold.

Jordan began to move towards it. Each breath she let out served as a reminder of just how cold it was currently. She didn't know why she wasn't shivering. Perhaps this was a side effect of the amnesia? Was that how it worked? Probably not. Like. At all. This lack of feeling must've been tied in with her lack of appetite. She could feel regular pain just fine, but if something was too hot or too cold, it was like the feeling of it was cut down to a third of what it should've felt like. It was confusing....

Why....why couldn't she feel anything but fear and pain? Were those two things so ingrained into her system that she could only feel them, even with her memories gone? Staring up now at the roof of the gazebo, Jordan wasn't even aware at first that her vision was starting to tunnel in. She could vaguely hear someone calling out to her. Vaguely. But she couldn't move, nor could her brain even comprehend what was happening.

One thing was repeating over and over again in her mind:

Why?

~

Bela wasn't exactly expecting the scene that she walked up on. But she was certainly not going to walk away from it when she noticed what was happening. Two maids were crowded around someone sitting by the couch next to the fireplace as she entered the main hall. Shifting into her swarm briefly, she then appeared beside the two maids. Closer now, she could see that it was Jordan sitting on the couch with a blanket draped over her shoulders and her legs pulled up to her chest. The two maids jumped when they spotted her.

"A-Ah, Lady Bela. Do you-"

"What happened to her?" Bela interrupted, slowly advancing on the two.

"W-we found her out in the courtyard. She wasn't responding to us no matter what we said, and she was hardly dressed for the cold out there. We're trying to see if she's okay now-"