Tell No One

Chapter 46

Waking up the next morning, it took Kiera a minute to orientate herself. She caught the traces of her dream, but the details slipped away too fast for her to make sense of them. Staring bleary eyed at the spiralled roof of the bed, it took her mind a few seconds to catch up to where she was in her life. The morning's bright light created a rose tinted bubble over the bed. Remembering where she was, her eyes darted across, relieved to find the bed next to her empty. Curiously, there was no disturbance in the covers from what she could remember last night. Sighing, Kiera sat up, her book falling with a muted thump beside her. She'd fallen asleep with it cradled in her arms, and her arms were covered in marks where she had hugged it tightly to her chest. Putting it on the nightstand, Kiera whipped the covers back and swung her legs out of the bed. The marble was cold beneath her feet, leeching the heat from her body.

There were no clothes left out for her today, so after freshening up in the bathroom, Kiera decided to just wear the same black dress from yesterday. Her bruises were steadily fading, and this morning, putting on clothes didn't hurt as much as it did. Studying her face in the mirror, her black eye had faded to yellow, her eye slowly regaining a rapid claim of its usual whiteness.

Seeing her face, her body bruised had become so unfamiliar to Kiera. With rapid healing, she was invincible, but now the pain was a reminder that she was no longer in control. She was steadily losing control- since coming to the Abyss, since those final few moments up on the roof of that skyscraper what felt like an eternity ago, Kiera had never been in control. It was a situational whiplash that had left her with a broken neck.

Kiera thought back to the very first night. That monumental night where everything changed.

Never be hurt again. Kiera scoffed. What a joke.

***

It was odd to leave the bedroom without someone accompanying her. She realised that- for the first time in a while- that there was no knock that woke her up this morning. Stranger yet to her, when she peeked hesitantly around the door, looking down the kaleidoscope of colour that painted the hallway, there was no one waiting for her either. Closing the door behind her, Kiera looked more closely at the stained glass windows that framed the corridor leading to Ramatee's room. 6 in all, Kiera quickly realised that the actually portrayed a story of some kind. She had missed it last night, her emotions blinding her enough that she paid them no attention. Looking at the last panel, there was a depiction of what she guessed to be the Abyss. There were three tiers of land- although the picture shown on the stained glass was blocky and lacked detail, (as it is with stained glass art)- a large disc of black on the bottom, another smaller one above it, and a smaller one above it again. The background was blood red, dotted with notes of silver in a depiction of the abyss sky. And, on the top tier, Kiera could make out a horned figure, obviously in admission to Ramatee. Moving to the next one, there was no story there, just a mosaic of patterns and light Kiera couldn't really make sense of. In the next, there was a depiction of a woman with long blonde hair. She was sitting in the sunshine, head thrown back in supposed laughter. She sat on a grassy bank, a cerulean blue lake before her. Strangely, she was alone and Kiera wondered what she was laughing at.

The next one gave Kiera the most pause. The bottom half was the same painted red of the sky outside, but a gradient of light bird's-egg blue took up the top half. A cloud took up the centre. Although silhouetted, Kiera could clearly tell that the figure on the left half was meant to be Ramatee. With the long curved horns and the amber stones for eyes, it was obvious. Standing next to him was another outline, but instead of being coloured in black, this one glowed white. From their back blossomed two enormous wings, and Kiera instantly thought of an angel- albeit missing a halo.

Out of the 6 stained glass windows, the story ones were oddly spaced apart- almost as if pictures were missing. Kiera counted them from the mouth of the corridor. Mainly, the spaces were in the middle. And if they told a story... something was being omitted.