The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 19

 The tomb felt emptier than ever that night, as though eleven and everyone else far off in the distance, at untouchable range. I wished more than anything to stop my thoughts, but they wouldn't cease no matter what I did until sunrise finally took all that away from them, if only the sun had not handed it back to me when it set. I had laid in that box all of yesterday, not even bothering to rouse myself more than to take a sip or two of blood, and today I wanted to be the same. I must have laying in coffin hours willing the evening away, it felt so large around me, and I so alone. I slipped out of the coffin and walked to my dresser without a word, like a walking corpse, caught in the action, deprived of the intention. "Eleven," I said, "I'm gonna take a bath." I dropped my clothes to the floor and slipped on a fuzzy white bathrobe, and approached the door.

"Very well," he replied, "Don't scald yourself too badly now." I turned the key and swung the door the open, the light outside almost blinding me, and strolled down the hall. It was empty now, as I had requested it, and as I swung open the large wooden door to the bathroom, I could have sworn that down the hall I head heard footsteps, yet I brushed them off in favor of solitude. It must have been my imagination, for there was no possibility someone would disobey my orders. I dropped my robe and hung it on the wall beside the sink in the tiled entryway, taking a glance at myself as I walked past the mirror.

I could see the tire in my face, my wavy black hair slightly dull as I pulled it up into a nautilus bun. The kingdom's red supplies were going to be taxed today, I thought as I slipped past the door and entered the large bathroom. The blue tiled walls were obscured party by the clouds of steam, and I walked straight past the large bath and the medium temperature one in favor of the hot, which I had requested be brought up to scalding temperatures. The air bubbles rose in it as I simmered, and though it burned my skin as I slipped in, I only winced at the cold tiles as I sat on the edge before entering completely. No matter how hot I made it, it was never warm enough.

But in a moment all my peace was gone, as I heard the slight creak of the open and close of the bathroom door, echoing through the tiled walls like the scream of a child. I swam through the water to the edge, peering through the misty air towards the doorway. First it opened only ajar, but then it fell open suddenly, revealing a white figure in the distance. It couldn't be her, she was locked in the dungeon unconscious, it couldn't be, yet as she grew closer I could tell it was.

"What are you?" I scoffed, "A ghost come to haunt me, eternally unvanquished. Are you the culmination of all bad I ever did, and if so why haven't you come sooner? Dear god woman, how come every since I woke up you seem to lie behind every corner? Will you not leave me at peace, it would do you good too you know?" She was in clear view now, her black hair cut short like it used to be in a sideways curl that hung over the side of her face from the top of her head, the sides shaved down short and round so her ears popped out and made me want to do things I knew I should not. I hated that feeling, I hated everything about seeing her, and everything about not seeing her.

Her white dress flowed out from her hips, a stark contrast to the metal cuff and chain around her waist. God, I thought, she kept the chain on, forgetting for a moment that I should wonder how she got out. Her big blue eyes shone like water in the sun, her sculpted slender face had a sad smile plastered to it's pink lips, and I hated that I knew it wasn't a lie. When she lied, she chewed the inside of her cheek, or at least reached to do so.

"I've nothing to fear anymore Mine," She replied, her voice smooth like silk,"My daughter is as safe as yours is. I have no reason to fear anything anymore."

"You never did in the first place, that might have been part of the problem." I replied.

"But there was a time I did have fears, and having them gone now is ever more freeing than them no existing at all." I saw her cheek go in a dent, her jaw twist to the side, latching onto the inflamed skin I knew existed behind her pale cheek.