DREAM WAKE --- {COMPLETED} ☑️

THE AFTERMATH

Chapter 18

EYARE'S MOTHER --- QUEEN MOTHER.

I heard voices as I came to.

Everywhere was dark.

I noticed my eyes were still closed so I struggled to open them, but they felt so heavy.

Why did I feel so tired?

I moved and groaned as a sharp pain radiated throughout my head. It felt like shards of glass were let loose inside it.

"Doctor! The queen is awake."

I squinted at the direction of the voice and saw a shape hovering some feet away. I struggled to sit up but firm hands kept me from doing so.

"Relax, my queen."

"Wh. . . what happened?" It felt like cotton wool was stuffed in my mouth. 

A face came into focus above me. "My queen, I'm the family doctor. You fainted and hit your head on the floor."

That's when the events of the morning flooded into my consciousness. After discovering the staff of office was missing, I ran out of the throne room and it was my scream that got the police men running towards me. I was beside myself with upset and fear. The first thing the police men did, was take a head count of all the staff in the house.

Two people were found missing --- the gateman and a maid.

According to them, there was a mole in the house.

I believed it too.

How could you explain someone entering the throne room to steal the staff of office without actually breaking in. Someone knew where I kept that key, had taken it, used it and put it back.

They dispatched some men to the family houses of the maid and gateman, but no one was home. It seemed they had left in a hurry. I was told items of clothing were strewn on the floor, like they had been in a haste to pack up and leave.

That was when I really began to fear for my life.

I had been living with traitors under the same roof all this time and I didn't even know it. It seemed they had taken time out to plan this.

The policemen said they couldn't have been working alone. They were sure they were just paid to steal the staff of office. The lure of money was probably too strong for them to pass up.

But the old gateman?

We had always been good to him.

Why do this?

I promised Eyare I would retire him with a good pension package. Just last week, I called up the family lawyer in order for him to draw up papers to give him a large piece of land in the heart of town together with a lump sum of money. I wanted it to be a surprise for him.

I shook my head now, momentarily forgetting the pain and winced, my hands instinctively touching my head.

"Can I have some pills for the pain, doctor?" I struggled to sit up, and the doctor quickly tried to stay my movement, but I wove him away.

"You need to get lots of rest, my queen," He looked at me with concern in his eyes.

"Doctor! I presume you know what is going on?"

He nodded.

"I presume you also know I can't sit in bed all day nursing a headache?"

He nodded yet again.