All The Dark Places

6. The Tea Party

    The kitchen was empty. Most of the serving staff were gone, having gone home to their houses in the village. Some walked to Athelgate. Rosalind went to the kitchen and went about making a simple dinner for Felicia. The girl had been playing in the nursery room all day. 

Rosalind found some peace and much needed quiet in the room just next door. It was a small sitting parlor where she read Keats and Wordsworth. Felicia played with the Victorian dolls and a music box that played an old forgotten tune while a plastic ballerina twirled in a sparkling tutu. The child seemed content. Rosalind brought two plates of pasta, vegetables and sliced fruit up the stairs to the nursery. She was fumbling to open the door when she heard a woman's voice, not Felicia's. At first, she thought she had the wrong room, but no, this was the pale yellow door of the nursery. Rosalind found the door locked and she jiggled the door knob.

    "Felicia? Are you in there?"

    "Yes."

    "Who is with you, sweetheart? Open the door, please."

    "We're having a tea party and you're not invited."

    "Felicia, open this door."

    "Can't you leave us alone?"

    "Who is in there with Felicia?" Rosalind asked, setting the plates on a cabinet near the door. There was no answer, which disturbed Rosalind. "Hey, whoever is in there, open this door right now."

When the door opened, it was Felicia's little upturned face that glared at her. 

    "Felicia, who is in here?"

The child sighed, annoyed.

    "You wouldn't believe me. No one ever does."

    "Try me," Rosalind dared.

    "It was Ka, but you scared her off. She doesn't like loud noises."

    "Ka is... your imaginary friend?"

    "She's not imaginary. You wouldn't understand. Just go away."

    "I brought dinner. Aren't you hungry?"

Rosalind brought in the plates and immediately examined the room. Whoever was in there had vanished and Rosalind had no idea how. There was one door and she had been in front of it the entire time. She saw a low table where Felicia had set out tea cups for a tea party.

The party had been in full swing when Rosalind had clearly interrupted. Two teacups held peppermint tea and honey, though Rosalind had not brought that from the kitchen and she knew Felicia had not either. Rosalind had devised a plan to keep Felicia from sneaking out of the nursery to roam the castle. She found a thick roll of bubble wrap in the storage room and taped it under the rug in front of the nursery. If Felicia stepped on it, the wrap would pop and alert Rosalind. She could not risk the child sneaking around, with all the strange chaos going on around them. Rosalind saw a plate of sugar cookies dusted with powdered sugar and candied ginger. They were large cookies, the size of her own hand. One in front of Felicia's chair had one small bite taken out of it. The imaginary friend place setting had one cookie with half the cookie taken out in one unnervingly large bite. Rosalind noticed the tea cups. Felicia's was messy, with tea spilling over the rim of the small pink cup. The other tea cup and place setting was immaculate. The tea cup had the infuser wrapped around the cup handle, as was proper and not likely something a small girl would do. 

    "Felicia, did Valerie set this up for you?"

    "No. It was Ka. She likes tea. She says it's tranquil, but she uses their word for it. I can't pronounce it."

    "Who is they?"

    "The ones from the sky. They're visiting."

Delusions. The poor child was disturbed. Felicia must have made that voice herself, dropping her voice down to an adult level. It was an impressive feat, but then again, Felicia was not an ordinary little girl. Rosalind imagined Felicia had quite a few talents.

    "How did you make that voice? Can you do that voice for me?"

Felicia looked furious.

    "It's not me! I keep telling you! It's Ka and she talks to me and you'll never understand and you'll call me a liar!"

    "I'm not calling you a liar, sweetheart. I don't think you're lying at all."

    "But you think I pretended to be someone else with my voice."

    "I don't know what to believe. What I do know is that the ravioli is getting cold and maybe we can have dinner and be friends."

    "I'm hungry."

    "I thought you might be."

Only when Rosalind sat down in the chair of the imaginary friend did she realize that the chair was icy cold and wet.

###

    An hour later, Felicia was calm again. The child drew pictures in her diary. The pictures depicted what seemed to be the same woman, only there were groups of them. The woman was pictured next to what was labeled as "me" and drawings of her mother and father holding hands. In the pictures, there was an unnaturally tall woman with stark white hair and silver gray eyes who stared directly at the viewer as if staring out through a camera. The woman wore a shapeless sack dress of black and no shoes. 

    "Is this... Ka?" Rosalind asked.

The girl looked determined not to be disturbed.

    "Yes. And that's Mummy and Daddy and the other one."

Felicia pointed to the tiny figure of a swaddled baby in Thessaly's arms.

    "Oh, you have a brother... or sister."

    "No. He died and I don't want to talk about it anymore."

    "Ka is pretty," Rosalind said, but did not mean it. The drawing of Ka was disturbing. 

    "No, she's scary but don't tell her I said that."

    "I won't. Besides, Ka doesn't talk to me," Rosalind said.

    "Pass me the orange marker, please."

Rosalind fumbled through the markers and found an orange one.

    "What are you drawing now?"

    "All the ones that die." Felicia glared at her.

Rosalind looked at the drawing - a crowd of people with flames over their heads and the crudely drawn figures of bodies on the ground in pools of crimson red. 

    "That's not funny, Felicia. I don't think I want to play with you right now."

    "I never asked you to."

    "Fair enough. I expect you in bed by nine."

Felicia stopped, her crayon sliding off the page.

    "You don't even trust what you see yourself."

It seemed like such a grown up thing to say. It reminded Rosalind that the adult voice that she heard could have come from Felicia. The girl could possibly have spoken that way, like an adult. Well, it can't be anything else, she thought. 

    "I didn't see anything convincing."

    "You not believing won't stop anything. Go ahead and think what you want. They're all dying anyway."