Blind

The sting of Betrayal

The building is cold. Chilling Hope to her bones. Darkness swallows the structure, making it difficult to see. The cracked cement is rough under her feet, and small stones litter the path. Wire and metal beams stick out of the building, like protruding fingers. The skeletal structure of the trees outside look like twisted hands, and Hope shivers. She glances at the faded red writing on the outside of the building. Pilkion & Son.
Hope takes a careful step towards the building. There is something oddly haunting about it. She knew she shouldn't enter but she felt a propelling force. Like she is meant to be there. Before her mind over rules, she hurries down the path and nudges open the wooden door. It's eaten structure, fragile and altogether menacing. Inside the building it is still fairly dark. A small oil lamp sits in the corner, emitting a dull light source.
"Hope." A voice calls, taunting. And she spins around to see who's there. A figure emerges from the shadows and a feeling of dread latches onto Hope's heart. Armaros.
His feline eyes glint in the darkness. His hair is wild and untamed. Dressed in dirty combat clothes, he looks frightening and Hope stumbles back. But that isn't the only thing she sees. A woman in rags, kneels before him. Blood crusts her forehead and along her arms. She let's out a weak whimper. And Hope yells in horror, as she stares at her beaten mother.

"You did this!" Hope says with venom, staring daggers at Armaros.

"Only with the help of my son." He reply's gleefully. And all the emotions she is trying to suppress come back to her in an instant and she doubles over in invisible pain as the betrayal stings bitterly.

"I wish it wasn't like this." Aiden says, finally emerging from the shadows. Under all the layers of steel she sees something.... Pain? Sadness?

As Hope clutches her stomach she screams at him, "You lied to me. Was everything a lie?"

He doesn't reply, and just stares at her distantly.

"I never wanted this." He says sadly as Armaros raises a bloodstained dagger. It poises over Hope's mother's neck. In a flash, Hope screams out.

"Stoppp!!!" Her voice screeches. But it is to late. The dagger plunges into her mothers neck, just in time for her to whisper, "I love you Hope."
She can't think, can't hear because of the blood pounding in her head. She clutches her head and screams out for her mother who lies, still on the floor. Pain reverberates through her heart.

And then it is over.

Hope's eyes open. Sweat dews on her brow and upper lip, causing her hair to stick to her clammy face. She pants frantically and reaches her hand out. It touches another.... hand? She can feel the linen sheets underneath her and sighs. Just a dream. Or so she thinks. When her eyes clear, they focus one the one thing that will tear her apart and she shuffles back on the bed and releases his hand.

"What are you doing here." She says at Aiden, her voice rigged with venom and grief.

"I... I." He says, raising his hands in surrender.

"You killed her!!" She screeches.

"No I never!" He says unbelieving. His face is sunken and tired but Hope only stares.

"The dream.... It was imst Projection!?" He says finally piecing it together.

"What!?!" Hope says and she wishes that Patrick had gotten to that part of the lesson.

"Armaros put that dream in your head. imst Projection is when an image or scene is put into your mind by another. It can be fake of a memory." He says, trailing off. He rakes his fingers through his hair.