Swan Heart

1

"What of his heart? It's clean."

The woman shook her head,"No. He is not our ruler."

The man turned towards the crystal mirror once again. His black eyes widened as he saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

"That's the one... It has to be."

~*~

The woman sat up quickly. Too quickly.

Her head hit the dumpsters lid with a loud thump. It was becoming a habit of hers and she often had at least one bruise on her forehead a day.

Her heart beat rapidly and sweat covered her brow. Her dreams had become very strange since she had turned 18.

She closed her eyes, holding her throbbing head.

"Goodbye normal dreams." She whispered a loud.

"Hey if your whispering about me I want to know what you're saying." Her adoptive mother, Klara, said startling the woman.

"No I'm not whispering about you. It's been two weeks since I turned 18 and each night then I have had strange dreams." She said furrowing her eyebrows." They're all the same."

"What is the dream?" Klara asked with concern.

"I am running through poppy fields with a girl about two years younger than me. Suddenly the poppy fields vanish leaving me in silence as the girl disappears as well. What appears in the field's place was a dark silent forest. No sounds, no light.

"Then I see a bird cage painted white with black tendrils of darkness dripping off of it's surface. There is never any bird in it.

"It grows in size until the cage door opens and I am sucked inside as the door closes behind me. I am trapped always trapped. That's when I wake up."

Klara opened the dumpsters lid stepping out into the alley. "There is a reason for all things, Lillian. You need to find out what your dream means."

Klara quickly took Lillian's hands into her own.

"I know you'll be able to do it. John and I will be fine on our own. Go on now."

Lillian stared at her adoptive mother in shock."Um... That wasn't exactly what I was going to do but thanks for the suggestion."

"Sweetie, your 18, we live in a dumpster in an alley. Besides the fact that I want you to find the reason for your dreams, you're an adult. You need to get a job, start a new life without poverty... Long story short we're kicking you out." Klara nodded her head with tears in her eyes.

"You're literally telling me to get a life. You know I actually never expected to have a conversation like this." Lillian admitted.

"I'm sorry but it's true, please go." Klara said crying silently with a frown.

"Mom! You can't be serious!" Lillian screamed at Klara almost waking up her adoptive father from his sleep.

"Go."

Lillian froze. She was serious, Klara was serious.

"I hope you realize you're ruining a family." She stated before turning her back away and walking out of the alley she grew up in.

Klara wiped away her own tears before saying,"We never were one."

~*~

Lillian kept her tears in. She never could cry. She didn't cry when her brother died, she didn't cry when she got shot, she didn't cry when others tormented her, and she didn't cry now.