Breathe

Chapter 25 - Demon Resting Inside of Me

Darkness. Lying in the dark on a hard mattress. Not a word split, not a word said—only silence with the crickets. Crickets that seemed to come alive during both day and night, keeping us company; not really appreciated company, but still company, anyway.

It was nighttime, generally, a time full of scrapping and scribbling and crickets chirping and fires burning. But tonight, finally, it was different. There were no scrapping and scribbling and fires burning. Inside our little cage-of-a-room, all we could hear were the crickets outside our window. Really, our balcony, but it's all in the same.

It's kind of lonely in here, isn't it? I asked, breaking the silence.

She opened our eyes. It only seems lonely because the lights are off.

In that case, can you light the candle? I can't stand this! These crickets... God, they're so annoying.

Getting up from our bed, she went to matches, flicked it against the side of the matchbox, and lit the candle. Despite its dim light, immediately, the room lit up and the world became so much warmer, so much clearer.

"Better?"

Much better.

Moving back to the bed, she scooted the chair away and sat down. Even now, as an observer in my own body, I could tell how hard it was, how rough it was. It wasn't like anything at the Liberation Alliance. Even those lumpy, cold beds were nowhere near being this bad. The funny part is, this was made for royalty. I snickered. Guess the grass really isn't greener on the other side.

"What is so funny?"

Just thinking about the past, I replied, nothing too fun.

"At least you are entertaining yourself." She looked at the mattress. "I do not have that luxury."

Don't you have any memories that you liked?

She laughed. "All my favorite memories have some sort of disaster linked to them; none of them are purely happy."

Mine aren't, either, I retorted, I just only think about the happy parts and go with that. If they're too sad, I just ignore them until something happier comes to mind.

"Katherine, you do not seem to understand—I do not have anything that is purely happy. All of my memories, every single one of them, have something sad to it. My birthday, my brother's birthday, my first invention—all of those memories, despite how happy I was, are sad."

What about your marriage to your husband?

She perked up. "How do you know that I had a husband?"

You mentioned it before, I replied. Don't remember when, but I remember you talking about some guy that you used to love or something.

Her eyes darted away, but I could clearly feel a smile on her face. "We never married... we eloped. Like the children we were, we ran away from our duties and before we knew it, we were parents to a little boy. A cute, sweet child..." Her eyes narrowed. "I wonder whatever happened to that boy."

What was his name?

"Wynn," she said dreamily. "He had the most beautiful honey eyes, and hair that sprouted from his head, whose color rivaled the night. Almost like tonight."

She looked out the window. Suddenly, her voice became more whispery. "But I forced him to give that all up. I forced him to give up his beauty and become just like the rest of my test subjects. I had to. There was no other way. If I had not...then maybe, he would've ended up like his father. Or worse. He could have... he could have..."