Something Bigger Part 1

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

         Iris there back her head in frustration. She crushed the rose bud she’s been urging to open in her palm. Never had she faced such slower progress. She’d been staring at that bud for hours, feeling as if that was the perfect starting point for her. In her initial confidence, she’d gently petted the closed flower. Then she’d talked to it, urging it to open with soft words. She’d moved on to singing soft lilting melodies she’d heard Aden’s mother sing to him when they were both young. When no response to her efforts came, she started to simply focus on the flower, using her mind to send, at first, thoughts full of open flowers. He thoughts drifted to pictures of crushed, dead flowers as if she could threaten the flower to open. But after so many minutes of fruitless effort, there Iris stood. The blossom’s blood dripped down her wrist and she clenched her eyes closed. Iris let the crumpled rose bud fall to the ground and sat back in her wooden bench.

         She sat in silence for many minutes, simply breathing. In she would breath the scents of the impossible garden. Out she would breath her frustration. She tried not to focus on any one thing in her mind, to keep it clean, but Aden’s smiling face kept sneaking past the guards in her mind.

         Iris sighed. There she sat in paradise, but she was alone. Was paradise so wonderful without someone to share it with? Would she be able to open a rosebud if she had Aden there to smile and encourage her? Would he even be willing to do such a thing if it meant leaving his family behind?

         She felt her spine relax, but it was under the pressure of loneliness. Her lungs were suddenly weighed down with the scents that, only a moment ago, had seemed to blend so perfectly. The colors that surrounded her drilled themselves into her pupils, scarring the darkness behind her eyelids. Iris tucked her chin to her neck and shielded her face from her surroundings with her hands. She stood and stumbled, her feet using the pathway to find her way to the arch several steps away. Her feet took her to the arch and, though she tried to take a sharp turn toward the castle’s magnificent doorway, she instead ran into a rather large obstacle.

         “Eep!” The flaxen haired lady squeaked as Iris collided with her.  She looked down to smooth her skirt, something far more simple than Iris had ever seen her wear. “Excuse me!” It wasn’t an exclamation filled with apology, but it was still much less agitated and exasperated that Iris might have expected from this particular person.

         Iris blinked away the colors in her eyes and grimaced. “Lady Catherine.” She tried to smile, but her still-overwhelmed senses had gathered to protest in the form of a cracking headache.

         It didn’t take a moment for Catherine to smile, neither did it take much effort. “Oh, my, Iris. Forgive me.” Catherine leaned forward and encompassed Iris in a much unexpected embrace. “I didn’t see you there.”

         Stunned into silence both by the hug and the casual tone with which Aden’s sister addressed her, Iris simply stood there.

         Catherine looked at Iris, eyes slightly less perky now. “Are you alright, my dear?” She placed a gentle hand on Iris’ arm, but her smile persisted.

         “I’m alright, miss.” Iris said, struggling to break free from a lifetime of custom. She cast her eyes down, not only to avoid eye contact, but also to avoid some of the light slicking off of the castle’s shimmering stone walls. Her head throbbed and, with each wave of pain, her vision pulsed. “It’s been a long day. I was just going to find a place to lie down.” Iris realized that she had no idea where she was supposed to find her room. Then, with no small degree of dismay, Iris realized that, for whatever reason, the only person she had to ask was the woman in front of her: Catherine.