It Has Come

Chapter 5; "The beginning of the End"

When I came to, the storm had ended. I kept my eyes closed and tried to map out my location using only touch and hearing. I felt a cold bed under me. Most likely my own. The sound of a soft dress rustling slightly near me.  Most likely Claire, watching for when I'd awaken. My foot twitched and the sound of a chair being pushed back noisily over hardwood floors and heavy dress fabric being jostled reached my ears. Claire had most likely just risen to see me awake properly.

I cracked one eyelid open a milimeter and discovered that I was indeed in my bedroom and Claire was indeed standing over me. The moment she saw me open my eyes even that miniscule amount, she burst into tears. I sat up abruptly to see what was the matter.

Claire wrapped her thin, delicate arms around my neck. "You were so pale, Mistress Willow," she told me tearfully. "I'm afraid I was beginning to think you were--" she burst into another round of loud sobbing, gulping desperately for air "-- that you were dead, Mistress Willow!"

I held the young girl tightly as she cried into my shoulder. "Claire," I murmured her name into her ear and she pulled away as if she had done something horribly wrong; "how long have I been out?"

"Four days, Mistress Willow. We had managed to get some water into you but food was another story. The most you've had is a small bowl of broth with leeks in these four days."

I lifted the neckline of my shirt to look at my torso. My ribs have always been visible enough, owing to my high excersise rate and oddly high metabolism. Looking at them now, in the four days with little to no food, I looked like nothing more than a pile of bones held together with a thin layer of skin. My slightly astonished face was recognized by Claire who promptly handed me a steaming bowl of some kind of creamy white soup. It smelled heavenly. A silver spoon was placed in my hand and I began wolfing down the delicious soup. Cream, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sweet potatoes all combined in one luscious liquid. It was not long before I had a stack of two empty bowls next to me.

My stomach satisfied, I stretched but stayed in bed. Claire waved her hand over her shoulder and Genivieve appreared with a covered pan filled with coals that were still glowing dimly with heat. She slipped the pan between two sheets of my bed, warming it and me up instantly.

"What did I miss?" I asked them quietly.

"The wills of the late Master and Mistress Chance were read, Mistress Willow," Claire had regained her tentative manner. My chest tightened at the "late" part but nothing more. "As suspected, the mansion and the estates went to you. But there was one odd request for you at the bottom of it all. They had asked that all the gargoyles on the house be destroyed immediately."

"Odd, indeed..." I murmured, lost in thought, before she continued.

"Eric has already seen to that, Mistress Willow. The Chance Estates are now an entirely gargoyle-statue-free place. He is in the dining hall right now, resting and eating soup."

I relaxed. Eric was fine. His wounds have probably healed enough after four days.

I began to rise from my bed, hating to be so useless and frail. My strength had returned from the soup. Claire got out of my path and gave me a soft wool robe to put over my night clothes, knowing full well that I would not want to change. I slipped my feet into a pair of fur-lined boots and walked from my room in silence. I made my way down the stairs, holding my robe tightly around me to trap in the warmth from the coals I had left. As I stepped silently into the dining hall, Eric looked up and saw me. He rose from his spot in an instant and came over to me, abandonning his soup. As he approached, I noticed that his limp was gone entirely. The only wound I saw was the dim shadow of the scar on his eye.

"Mistress Willow," he breathed, seemingly relieved. He was smiling. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, Eric, thank you." He held out his arm and I took it, allowing him to escort me to the table so he could finish his soup. "It's really just-" I choked, the words catching painfully in my throat "-it's really just letting them go, now. I'll try to get on with life as I normally would.."

"Mistress Willow, I thought you'd have figuried it out by now," Eric looked aghast. "You can't stay here. Neither of us can."