Twisted Desire

Chapter four

I woke with a start, sitting bolt upright as I gasped for air. Sweat beaded my forehead and it felt as if my heart was like a caged bird, desperately beating its wings in an attempt to escape its imprisonement from my burning, feverish body. I sought and held the tangled bedsheets in an iron-like grip as tremors of pain racked my body. My head was nothing but fog and I couldn't focus on anything, couldn't think about anything but this hot, scalding pain making its way through my body.

Starting at the very tips of my fingers, making its way up my arms, spreading across my chest down to my abdomen where it seemed to split, some curling around, up my spine and the other going down my legs and not stopping until it reached the tips of my toes before retreating and beginning the torture again.

Not an inch of my body was untouched by this raging fire. My head was heavy and void of anything but the inward screams I was releasing. It felt as if lava was flowing through my veins, it felt like if someone were to put their skin to mine in this moment, they would be scorched. I couldn't gain control of my body, I couldn't open my mouth to scream, no matter how much I willed it, I couldnt get influence on my limbs so I could go and seek help. I was utterly helpless. Powerless to the fierce, vehement, inexorable agony that overtook me.

Every muscle burned and every nerve throbbed with unrelenting stabs of pain. How could I be conscious and feel such pain? My body should not be able to withstand these sensations and not be rendered insentient!

I lay there for what seemed like hours.

Suddenly as I desperately begged for anyone, anything to end my suffering, the scorching pain retracted its hold on me, retreating from my hands and legs until the only place I felt it was on my left shoulder, a ball of fire that seemed to explode and leave me with one last burst of pain that had my spine arching off the bed and sending every fibre of my being into an all-consuming agony before it all suddenly just stopped. There was no pain, just a diminutive discomfort in my shoulder that felt like nothing compared to what I had just endured.

Slowly, I felt my mind clear and pushed myself up on elbows, desperate to escape the torture I had suffered, terrified it might enter my body again if I stayed put. Too late, I realised I had pushed myself too far in my panic and blackness seeped in from the edges of my vision.

No no no no, what was happening to me! Was I going to die

My eyes suddenly felt too heavy to keep open and I lost control over my arms, falling back into the mass of pillows as I succumbed to the darkness I would have welcomed only moments before.

***

"Amelia"

"Amelia".

I grudgingly opened me eyes, wincing as light poured in my window and directed into my tired eyes. My mind was still foggy as I struggled to wake up properly.

"Amelia, Mrs.Eliza and the duke want you down in the dining room to eat with them".

Penny, our head maid was scouraging through my wardrobe. Her hands settled on one that seemed to meet her approval and she hung it on the outside of the wardrobe. A long peach coloured dress with a dark pink trim and underskirt.

I sighed and buried my head in my pillow.

"Amelia, do you want Eliza to come up here and get you. You know she will".

"All right, All right" I replied, reluctantly pushing myself up to a sitting position as I tried to shake the grogginess out of my system.

Penny frowned slightly, adding to the lines on her kind, weathered face. Her pale blue eyes studied me for what must have only been a few seconds before she quickly replaced her troubled look with a genteel smile. Curtsying she turned and left my chambers without saying anything more.

What was wrong with her? Now that I had come to my senses, I could feel an uncomfortable throbbing in my shoulder and I winced slightly. Putting a hand over the place of pain as I put the other to my hair and tried to tame it.

The second my fingertips touched my shoulder I hissed and inhaled sharply. My hands felt like gelid ice against my skin and all of a sudden everything came back to me. Flashing images of the night before. The pain. The agony. It had really happened. I felt my stomach clench as I thought over what I had endured. I flexed my hands and curled my toes, testing my control and relief seeped through me when I could move my body with my own free will. Questions enveloped my mind and my head began to ache with an incoming migraine.

No, I would not, could not bear to think about it. I shoved the images away and threw my legs over the side of the bed in a daze. My feet hit the wooden floor with a soft thump and I padded toward the bathroom attached to my chambers. I was more aware of the persistent throbbing now that I remembered. I halted before the crystal embroidered mirror above the sink, leaning forward as I grabbed the edge of my nightdress and lowered it.

Oh lord.....oh lord. And my world was falling underneath me again as I swayed. I grasped the edge of the marble countertop and felt my body trembled as I stared, horrified amazement.

There was something on my skin. Two small symbols were etched in black, four or five centimetres each. Small....but very much there. I ran my fingertip over it, oblivious to the cold now that a shocking numbness was taking over me. I was dreaming. I was hallucinating. Oh lord, I was hallucinating! I scrubbed furiously at the markings, trying to rub them off but to no avail.

My eyes searched the bathroom frantically and I grabbed the cloth from my bath. Turning the tap on, I spluttered and jumped back as the water gushed out with too much force, soaking the front of my nightdress. I leaned forward and quickly twisted the handle. The cloth was soaked through now at least. I scrubbed my shoulder with it, the only effect it had was turning my skin a harsh red. Emphasising the black symbols.

Cursing to myself I looked closer at my reflection. At these strange symbols. One took the shape of a crescent moon, black as midnight and the other was unknown to me. It was three oval shapes, almost the shape of eyes, overlapping each other with no colour but the bare outline, my skin filling the inside of the triangle-like shape.

I brought a hand to my mouth and the other I put on my waist as I paced up and down the bathroom. What was I to do? They were certainly there. I was fully awake and the last time I checked I was not clinically insane.

I continued to scrub at the markings, growing more and more frustrated when they refused to come off. I growled in frustration and the threw the cloth at the mirror, my breath coming in pants.

Where did they come from? What were they? More importantly how did they get on me? Was my pain last night related to it?

That was simply ludicrous thinking! Stop it Amelia!

But a nagging feeling of realisation began to settle in my head. What else could have caused it? I certainly did not do it myself!

"Amelia!" I heard Penny's voice from below.

Oh lord. Oh lord. I couldn't tell Eliza,  It was hard enough for her that I wasn't the type of daughter she had always wanted. But to have me classed as insane would surely be the tip of the iceberg for her.

Now, this.

Why me?

No, first I needed to figure out what this was.Then I would think about what to do about it. I checked to see if it was still there and sure enough, there the two strange symbols were, etched onto my skin as if they had always been there. Taunting me.

But not for long, I needed to get rid of them, somehow.