--->Essence of Lydia<---

Essence of Lydia---> Chapter 2: Atticus' POV

I looked around, making sure that Devon wasn’t around as I snuck back into the Night Ceremony that they’d had every year since I can remember. It was the celebration of Lydia. I loved it, although they never really allowed me to come here like all the others; something about my safety. Although I’ve been doing this for every year and nothing had ever happened. Today was my 16th birthday anyway, so I know I’m now allowed to come as well.

As I looked up at the sky, the moon was directly above. I smiled, knowing that it was almost midnight. I’d always heard about how beautiful the moon looked at midnight; it turned a certain tint of green. I’d never gotten to see it due to the fact that Devon always seemed to find me out of my chambers by then. I heard the sound of laughter and hurried forward.

When I neared the chapel-like building, I hear footsteps I cursed under my breath; Devon. I turned towards him smiling sheepishly.

“Hey Dev.” I said cheekily. He scowled at me, knowing exactly what I was doing. Acting as if I didn’t know why he looked that way, I turned back towards the building and began walking yet again. Devon decided to stop me then, by grabbing a hold of my shoulder.

“Atticus…” He began, sighing in exasperation. I was getting tired of this treatment. I’m the prince after all and I can’t even go to the most important ceremony every year.

“Dev… I’m 16 today. You said that when I turned the age of 16, I’ll be allowed to go; did you not?” I tried to reason. Dev seemed to just now be realizing this and a curse left his lips.

“Well… I’m just warning you that it’d be much safer for you not to come… especially when it’s so close to midnight.” Devon said this as he looked up into the sky; he seemed extremely anxious about something I knew nothing about.

“Why do you look so paranoid? It’s just a ceremony Dev; nothing is going to happen to me.” I tried to reassure, but he didn’t seem to find my words reassuring in the least.

“I uh… I guess I’m just a little on edge tonight is all.” He said, giving a nervous laugh afterwards. I shrugged off his peculiar behavior and watched as the moon began turning a vibrant green. At that moment, Dev looked completely alarmed.

“What’s w…” I was cut off by the shearing burn coming from my back, where my birthmark was located. I bit back the pain, not wanting to show weakness and then turned back towards Dev; who seemed to be looking at me with concern. “W-what’s happening? Why is my back burning?!” I asked, panic slipping into my voice, not knowing what to expect as the burning began to increase. Dev looked at me apologetically before speaking.

“I wanted to prevent this from happening, but… I guess this is what was meant to happen.” Then he stalked off, leaving me standing there alone. I cursed him, not knowing what that was supposed to mean. What was with his and puzzles today?! I tensed as I noticed men in black cloaks beginning to form a circle around me.

The pain was unbearable at this point and I let out a yelp of agony. That was when one of the clocked figures stepped forward to reveal Devon. I stared at him questioningly, not knowing what the hell was going on here.

“Give me some damn answers Dev!” I yelled as another burn traveled up my body, but he didn’t seem to be listening to me as he looked up at the green moon. I scowled at all the men as they each, one by one, lifted their heads up to face the moon. That was the moment that I let out another yelp from the pain coursing through me, mostly at where my birthmark was. I fell to my knees, unable to hold my own weight from this amount of pain.

My breaths began to come in short gasps and they all began to chant some weird stuff. When the pain was beginning to die down, Devon decided that this was the moment to look at me; to show that I existed instead of acting as if I didn’t. I scowled at him for ignoring my pain… my agony. He’d just stood there as I went through it, leaving me to panic about what was happening to me. Not once in my life had I ever felt something like that.

I looked back up at the moon and realized that the green tint was beginning to fade. What the hell is going on? If I remembered correctly, the green moon was supposed to last until 1 in the morning. Only about 10 minutes had passed since it had turned the vibrant color of emerald. I turned to Dev, giving him a questioning look, forgetting what had just happened to me for the mean time. He looked at me, gulped and then turned to leave. I groaned in frustration. He was not going to get away with this so easily! Huffing, I got to my feet and ran after him as he quickened his footsteps.

When I finally caught up with him, he seemed to be out of breath.

“Dev… what the hell happened back there?! No riddles, no lies, no going around it. I want the whole truth.” I said, shocked at how serious I seemed to sound at that very moment. He seemed to be shocked as well because usually I was just a fun guy, who took nothing that serious, but this was completely different than the other times; this was totally about what had happened to me. I could see Dev gulp nervously before finally resigning. He took another breath before speaking.

“So you want to know why you don’t have parents, right? Why you were always concealed from this ceremony? Why you had to wait until the age of 16 to even attend this ceremony? And why I hadn’t told you all of your answers sooner?” I nodded curtly, awaiting for his answers. Finally, I was about to find some answers as to why I am how I am. Hopefully it will explain everything I’d wanted to know my whole life. Hopefully I’ll know what had happened to my parents? Hopefully I’ll finally figure out whom the real me is…?