LIVING LEGEND [The Inheritance Games]

𝒫𝓇𝑜𝓁𝑜𝓊𝑔𝑒

I am seven years old. My shirt is pink with a unicorn on it. The house is huge and sprawling. So much grander than our McMansion.

"Come on Bells," My mother tugs my hand, her shiny engagement rubbing against my small fingers. "Dad is already inside, talking to Ms. Zara. I have to go."

He's not my dad. I don't know why I think that, I've never known my "real" dad. Though legally, which is something Mom and Dad work in, he is because of a thing called adoption.

I sit down on the uncomfortable, shiny leather couch. "I'll wait."

Mom sighs, but she drops my hand and wobbles down the hall.

Bored, my young eyes roam. A table sits with odd objects on it. My hand reaches into my small pocket and pulls out the little black plastic horse. According to my mom, I grabbed it from Dad when I was a newborn and refused to let go. The lights on my shoes that I begged Mom for come to life as I cross the room to the shiny table. The objects are spheres on triangles, crowns and an odd choppy piece.

Then there's the horse. I look at my palm. They look different but the same. My brain feels dizzy. There are white pieces on black squares and black pieces on white squares. It's oddly beautiful.

"I see you found the chessboard."

I jump, ready to say I wasn't doing anything wrong. The man is old, his face weathered but kind, yet something glints in his eyes, something that scares me.

I stand frozen.

"What's your name, child?"

Something in the way he says that triggers something in the pit of my stomach. "My name is Belladonna. People call me Bells." In movies that I watch people say that their friends call them something other than their real name, but I don't have any friends.

He takes a seat in an elegant chair across from me. "Belladonna. It means beautiful lady in Italian."

I nod. My mother tells me this every day when she brushes the hair from my face after she comes home from work. I can't tell if she's happy.

"However," he says as he presses down on a panel in the table. "It's also the name for Nightshade. A venomous plant."

My eyes go wide. Mom never said anything about that.

A woman appears, dressed kindly in a blue uniform similar to the one our housekeeper wears. "How may I help you, Mr. Hawthorne?" Mr. Hawthorne. The name strikes a distant chord in me. I hear Dad's uncle talking about him sometimes to Dad.

He looks at me. "Would you like something to eat?"

It's not anywhere near my mealtimes, but the food would be nice. I don't know what I should ask him for. I smile shyly. "Yes, please."

Mr. Hawthorne turns back to the woman. "Some cookies, a glass of milk, and I'll take a scotch."

She nods. "Right away Mr. Hawthorne." She leaves as quickly as she came.

"Do you have a second name? All of my boys do." He looks at me kindly, with a smile.

I dip my head. "It's Keira." Belladonna Keira Cosmino, you are beautiful. I don't know if I've ever truly heard those words before. It feels as if they are coming from a dream. No one has called me that in a long time. My last name is different now.

"Now that one's something. It can mean darkness. But, it also means light. A tricky name."

The woman returns a tray with delicious-smelling cookies and a tall glass on it with milk. The shorter glass is empty. She fills it with an amber liquid that she puts in front of Mr Hawthorne. Then she disappears into the woodwork again. I pick up a cookie. It's chocolate and soft.