A Thousand Year Obsession ✔

18. Don't Deny The Truth

18. Don't Deny The Truth

My wrists pressed together harshly, bound tightly by an irritating strip of rope, as were my ankles. I lay on a small bed with heavy blankets piled atop me. Darkness crowded around the edges of my vision, trapping me in the distant realm of half sleep. I couldn't tell if I was dreaming, or awake, but judging by the throbbing pulsing out from my wrists and ankles, it was the latter.

A door opened to my right, flooding the dark room with a harsh yellow stream of artifical light. I blinked rapidly before turning my gaze towards the door, catching sight of the shadowed figure looming in the center of the doorway. Fear immediately coursed through my body, chilling every muscle until I remained frozen in terror. My eyes still failed to pick out the figure's features, but my body's instinctive reaction told me exactly who it was.

My breath escaped me in short ragged gasps, and my wrists and ankles pulled harshly at the restraints. My heart beat sped up and I struggled to calm my trembling limbs.

A short snap suddenly filled the air and both my wrists and ankles were freed from the ropes. I scrambled over the side of the bed in shock, staring at my hands as the ropes fell onto the floor. My head snapped up when Derek took a step towards me, my eyes widening in fear. My feet traveled backwards on their own accord, trapping me back in the corner of the room. Glass met my back once I'd reached the wall, prickling against my skin in cold shivers.

I stared at Derek's shadowed figure as my mind spun away from the room, turning on wheels back to the previous dreams, running so quickly I couldn't stop it.

I could still clearly picture the silky, raven black hair and thundering grey eyes, the gentle smile sliding across the thin lips, the sweet caress of nimble hands. And the strands of brown hair, coated in a thin layer of grey and the brilliant startling green eyes filled with so much love and care, and the wide shoulders, and worn hands. My mother. Father.

It had been them for certain. I could feel it, every emotion in my body telling me it was them, they were my parents. And I was sure the crystal had been a present, to help control my magic even maybe, that I wasn't so sure. But the deep well of homesickness and yearning for my parents told me that that was indeed what they looked like.

And then I'd dreamt of that boy again. The blonde boy, Percy. And for some reason, with each thought of his name came sweet melodies of flutters through my abdomen. My lips curved upwards into a smile whenever I imagined his image, my toes curled inwards with each reminder of his face. Certainly he was real as well, my body made sure I knew that. But where he came from and who he was remained a mystery. A past boyfriend, maybe? That would certainly make sense with my reaction.

And if Percy and my parents were real people, then couldn't the others be as well? And if he had been there at my dream incident, then maybe he was there at the actual incident, whatever that was. And if the events actually happened slightly as they did in my dream, then when Sally and I spoke to Percy about Derek, and when we told him my parents are . . . that my parents were . . . that my parents . . . that they were really . . . dead, then could they actually be . . . dead?

I didn't want to consider that possibility.

I had never really considered the possibility of magic either. It was for little children, a thing of fantasies and books. It wasn't reality. Magic was the sorcerers hunted in medieval times. It was the stars shooting swiftly across the sky. It was the force that bound stories together. It was the myths of the Mediterranean. It wasn't real. But then why was it now?

"Morgana?" The sound of my name broke through my train of thoughts, jolting me roughly back to present times. Derek had taken a step forward, and his face could now be seen through the dim yellow streams. His eyes showed concern, but his hands stretched out downwards as if attending to calm a rabid animal. "Are you alright?"