Insurrection [On Hold]

41 Reflections

I stare at the pond, watching my reflection scrutinizing me. She has to notice my cheeks that are beginning to fill out again. She'll realize I'm not a skeleton any longer. Her face is very critical, framed by black waves of clean hair. No lice or dirt hide within it. She doesn't look like a princess, and to her she sees me as a Repunzel--a forgotten princess, locked away in my own version of a tower.

The water ripples, distorting me.

Josie takes my hand lightly, a pebble in her other hand. "You should only reflect for so long." She drops her gaze to her own reflection, one that looks like a princess. "There's a legend in Quill that if you stare at yourself long enough in a pool, you'll become trapped in it, forced to forever look out at one tiny bit of the world because you never took the time to pay attention to the rest of it." She tosses the other pebble, hitting her mirrored image. "But that's just a fairy tale, though I do believe there is some truth in it."

I force myself to look away from the pond. "You do?"

"We must learn from the past to protect the future, but we can't forget to enact what we learned."

"Your brothers must be very proud of how wise you've become."

She bows her head to hide her blush. "Yes, I suppose. Have you seen much of Every?"

In a window behind Josie, five stories up, the curtains are drawn aside and Every peers down at us in the garden. When he catches my gaze, the curtains fall back, hiding him.

"Raksana?" Her voice snaps me back to reality.

"What?"

"I said, have you seen much of Every?"

"No." Ever since that treacherous kiss he left upon my forehead, we've avoided each other like the plague is rampaging around us. If we pass one another, we keep our eyes from another, scowls upon our faces. No one can suspect. . . If anyone should have a suspicion that there is something between us and there is not. . . If anyone knew he laid a kiss on me while we were alone in a bed, we'd be forced to be married. Hence why I prevented Jareth from having any relations with my sister. I've spent my time with Josie since.

"That's a shame," she says, beginning to continue down the path, and I follow at her side. "I thought you two might be friends again."

Our feet crunch the sand of the path we travel down.

"Never again." I purse my lips, my hands folded against the dress that I wear of hers. "This is war. And the effects of war last forever."

"The emotions you mean?"

"Yes."

"We could be your new family. I wish you'd give us a chance."

I think back to the interrogation from Maxon and Jareth, and the pain they put me through. Then I remember all the punishments my parents inflicted upon me. Maybe I truly would be better here. I'll never find out the truth that Nate's dead if I stay.

I could be happy here. Couldn't I?

I clasp my hand over hers. "I'll try."

Her face lights up, and she grabs my hands, stretching out her arms. "We could be sisters. I've always wanted one."

"Unless you have some brothers hidden away that I don't know about. . ."

She throws her head back, but I never hear it. The catastrophic sound of a building exploding shadows the innocence of her laugh.

So the Wattpad Block Party by KellyAnneBlount has started and my post went up today! It's a short story called Frostian featuring Jack Frost. The story is a spin off of the novel I'm writing after this book called Claus. The link is in the external link for those on the web!