Heir of the Forgotten

~2~

Shrieks stirred in the silence of the night. The beauty of the moon soon disappeared in a thick cloud of ash and smoke. While the grey ash swirled down in the air like a flurry of snow, the intense fire raged on below, showing no mercy to anything in its path. Coppery, flowing blood soaked the once divine soil.

Jolting awake, Selenetta grabbed at her throat. Only a few seconds later, the bedroom door flew open, her mother came in as if she'd just witnessed an atrocity

Selena went years without a nightmare, but lately, they seem to be resurfacing. No matter how hard she focuses on what she'd witnessed, it remains hidden and locked within her mind. "Sorry, I had a nightmare."

Beth released a heavy sigh sitting on the side of her child's bed. "Can you recall it?" Looking at her daughter, shaking her head, she found her lips parting in yet another soft sigh. "Do you think the resurface of your nightmares could mean you're starting to recall things?"

It's been a few months since she turned eighteen; since she started taking lessons in the language her parents speak. She can speak fluently for the most part, but the accent, a soft and sort of whimsical accent, makes some of their words mush in her mouth. "I doubt it. It's the second one, and I can't recall a thing. I just..." Selena shrugs her shoulders as she stares at her ceiling. "Today I woke up clutching my throat like I couldn't breathe."

Beth's eyes widen a moment, but only a moment. She offers her child no explanation for the widening of her eyes. When she'd found the child, she'd hardly been breathing. Her lungs had been a mix of water and blood. "Try to get some more sleep. Your father wants you to take a trip to town to get some things while he has company over."

Selena sighed, parting her lips lightly as she tugged the covers back over herself.

Stepping into her shared room, staring at her husband, who glared at her with his forehead in his palm, she nervously slid into bed. "She might be starting to remember. She was 13 and a half when we found her... she'll be 18 and a half in a few weeks."

"Isn't that a good thing? Maybe she'll stop being dead weight." Mark scoffs, though there's a hint of care in his eyes. "But she was alright?"

With a light hum, Beth nods and opens her mouth to speak, it comes out more of a broken whisper due to her worry. "She's startled and a bit off but she's alright. I asked her to try and sleep again."

Beth had paused, looking at her husband to see his reaction before continuing. "What do we do if her remembering turns into pain? What if she tries to find her home and there's nothing left of it? Her screams are so hard to listen to. Her voice was so raw this morning. The screams sounded so real and raw that I thought she was being hurt. If she recalls what causes her that pain, will she be able to bear it? What if she says she shouldn't have been saved?"

The questions flew out of her mouth in rapid succession. "We act as if we can understand her pain. We were uprooted from our lives. This island, away from the mainland, is full of people who have had loved ones murdered and homes stripped from them, but we are human. Fae have it so very hard, what if she can't handle her memories?"

Mark stared at his wife, running a hand through his thinning hair. "Love, it'll be alright. You raised her and I see that stubbornness I love so much growing in her. You're raising a resilient woman. She's missing years of her life and had no way to communicate, but you got her to talk without a hitch. I still think she needs to sharpen up before she's too old to make her way in society and ends up on the streets, but she's strong. I also know you will be there for her when she needs arms to hold her if she needs it." He comforted his wife, something that happened so rarely.

With a silent sigh, the two parents find their way back to sleep, hoping to dream a few more hours before the sun rises over the horizon.

No matter how hard Selenetta tried to find peace in sleep, she never found her eyes drifting off. Instead, her feet carried her outside to the railing. She leaned against it instead of swinging to sit on it as she usually would. With her hair down, the small woman basked in the breeze. She didn't mind the pelting rain, even if it was cold. She enjoyed how it slammed against her face. She listened to the rolling crash of waves hitting the rocks and climbing the sand higher than they should. Her lips tugged to a small smile as she relished in the night's storm. She held her hands out to catch water. With her head tilted back, Selene wished she could lose herself in this forever. The feeling of having nothing to fret about or to be hurt about is beautiful. The night itself, whether quiet or storming, is beautiful.