OPHELIA
Ophelia sat in her room. The room was small, lit only by an over head lamp. There were no windows. There was only one door. A door she rarely risked leaving. She took comfort in the room. The walls were made out of dark wood, the floors were dirt. She had one small chest of drawers. Her bed stood on four straight posts. The mattress was lumpy and dirty. The walls were bare, save for one small mirror.
Mirrors were a rarity in Hysteria. No one could bare to look at themselves. But Ophelia’s parents new her beauty should be appreciated, though anyone who saw it would do the exact opposite and chop her head off. The Forsaken showed the Good Soul’s heads off like trophies. Her parents thought she should at least get to look at herself.
She knew her living area was better than most. Hers was even better than her parents. They tried to make her as comfortable as possible in the place she knew she would have to stay for her life.
Ophelia knew the rules. Her parents made it very clear what Hysteria was like. Monsters, scarier than her own parents, which Ophelia could not believe. Though she thought fondly of them and new that they would never hurt her, that they did everything in their power to protect her, she could not deny the horrible look of them. They terrified her.
Her mother was the worst of the two. Her soul was more damned than that of her father. She had small, squinty eyes, the color of a bleeding heart. Her spin stuck out so you could see every detail of it. Her ears were tiny holes on each side of her head. She had rows and rows of jagged fangs, like a shark. Her movements were jerky like a wild tiger. She crouched like a rabid dog when she ate, making sure nobody would touch her food.
On the other hand, she was kind to Ophelia. She put her first and made sure she was always happy. Her soul was good in the sense of being able to care for people. But in every other way her soul was wicked. She was almost terrible enough to be a Watcher, but her compassion kept her from being able to be one.
Her father was slightly more attractive. He had light brown eyes with thick eyelashes. He had a normal nose and ears. His mouth was frightening. He had the snout of a wolf, always slightly stained with the blood of others. He had long limbs, like a tree. And boney bat wings. But his kind eyes made up for all the rest. Within them laid trust. Something Ophelia wasn’t used to in her mother.
Even though she was reminded time and time again about the terrors of Hysteria, she had never experienced it. She heard how tragic her death would be. She looked normal and that’s what everyone craved. In a time long ago the Good Souls over ruled everything. They controlled the world. But the craving for them grew from the Forsaken and soon an uprising came. The Forsaken of Hysteria won against the Good Souls. They locked the Good Souls in dungeons and tortured them to death. As far as the Watchers know now, the Good Souls are extinct. As far as her parents know, Ophelia is the only of her kind.
She knew that even if she wasn’t beautiful, if she looked like the damned, she had the risk of being killed. The monsters here killed other people. Not as the Watchers kill for sport, but in order to stay alive, to feed. Sometimes the Forsaken mate. They travel in pairs of two. That’s what her parents did. They stuck together and watched each others backs. But since they weren’t completely damned like other Forsaken they were capable of compassion and love. That’s how their family had served.
Knowing all the risks, Ophelia still wasn’t happy with her life. She needed to find others of her kind, more Good Souls. The journey would be hard and possibly kill her. Hysteria was on the border of a huge body of salt water, once known as the Atlantic Ocean. It expanded miles beyond that. Ophelia lived right along the coast. There was no one around for miles. They were alone. In order to get out of Hysteria and get to the Outside, she would have to travel through all of the land.
It was a terrible risk. And to take it alone made the odds against her. She knew her parents would never allow her to go and would not accompany her on the long journey. She would have to escape. She would have to go by herself. But she had to be with others like her. She couldn’t live with these monsters, even if they were her parents. She needed to be around people who looked like humans. More Good Souls like herself.
