MASKS [Jon Snow]

SEVENTEEN • WARMTH

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

•••

i could watch a million sunrises
and never see one quite as 
beautiful as your eyes slowly
opening in the morning

•••

   "DEAREST Liliana." Eveline whispered as she stroked liliana's hair. "You needn't be afraid anymore." She smiled, looking back up at the sky.

   They were at Liliana's favourite place in the entire world: their roof top. She adored the tiny area, only accessible by the ladder in the corner of her room. Her mother would always bring her up her when ever she had night terrors which honestly was most nights. Despite having grown up and should well be out of the habit of seeking comfort in her mothers arms she could help it, even at fifteen she still craved the safety of her mothers embrace.

   They sometimes sat there for hours, just staring at the sky, it was beautiful, probably the best thing about the shitty world they lived in, Liliana reckoned. That night it was clear and the stars shone brightly. Yet however happy stargazing usually made Liliana, that night she was especially unsettled. She had a horrible feeling about it, like something terrible were to happen.

   Her mother had just put Jesse, her little brother, to sleep but Liliana always took more time to doze off.

"I wish we could stay like this forever." Liliana nuzzled further into her mothers arms.

"Me too." She giggled, placing a gentle kiss on her daughters head. Suddenly the trap door on the roof burst open from the inside. Men in shiny metal amour appeared from inside, on their breast there was the Dean house sigil: a hawk diving down to catch its prey.

"What's going on here?" Eveline exclaimed, jumping up from the floor and pushing her daughter behind her, standing protectively before the young girl like a fierce lioness protecting her cub.

The men didn't speak, only grabbed the woman and her daughter, dragging them down through the hatch and into the house. They roughly threw the girls to the floor in the kitchen, not flinching as they cried out from the sudden impact.

   One stepped forward with some rope, pulling Liliana off the floor he shoved her into the chair by the table and began binding her hands to the back on it.

   "What do you want?" Eveline whimpered as she watched them man handle her daughter.

   "Your daughter is the one to blame. Why don't you ask her." He snarled.

   "What?" Liliana cried. "Why am I to blame? Is this to do with Damien?" She tried to turn and face the man but the rope restricted her. Damien was the son of Hamish Dean. The lord who overlooked the area, and who happened to buy his daily bread from Eveline's bakery. That was where Liliana had originally met Damien.

   "Lord Damien." He corrected, back handing the girl across her face. After finishing on her ropes, he yanked up Eveline and pushed her into the table. Without another thought her rammed his blade through her stomach, letting her fall back onto the table, hand gripping the open wound.

   Liliana screamed, watching her mother gurgle and choke on her own blood as the life faded from her eyes. "Mother! No!" She sobbed. "You bastard! Why?!" She wanted him dead.