Wicked Cindy

Chapter 3

I blinked, closed my eyes and then blinked again. I heard nothing but the loud sigh of the wind and the hoarse cry echoes of the crows. I woke up from a restless sleep and felt as though my heart had been shattered and my soul ripped. I knew I had dreamed again. I just could not remember what it was exactly. This had been happening every single night, for almost a week now, since that day in the town square. I couldn’t shake the memory out of my head, my mind and heart wouldn’t let me.

I knew the queen had done more terrible things than burning someone at the stake for the whole town to see, but it was the first time I had ever seen how horrible and mad she had become, along with her soldiers. They take away innocent people, accuse them of something they haven’t done and punish them right away. No justice, no fairness, no nothing. That's how they work. They’re ruthless and merciless.

As I somehow started to drift back to sleep I heard the faint sound of leaves and twigs being broken beneath someone’s feet. I immediately froze, my whole body going stiff with fear. I listened carefully. The footsteps stopped just a minute later. My eyebrows drew together in both confusion and curiosity. I tried to ignore what I’d just heard and took long deep breaths before trying to force myself back to sleep. The air was cold so I draped my blanket over my body, though only seconds later I felt hot so I removed it. But without it, I was shivering so I draped it back around my body, only this time I left my feet uncovered. Much better. My eyelids were starting to droop heavily when I thought I heard muffled voices. I immediately opened my eyes. This time, I quickly got out of bed and followed the direction of the voices.

In the dark of night I saw silhouetted figures standing underneath an oak tree, just a few meters away from my cottage. I crouched against the water barrels that was placed diagonally across the garden where the oak tree stands, while taking shallow breaths, careful not to make any noise. The clouds covering the moon suddenly shifted and the light shone down over the tree, just enough for me to see the figures beneath it. There were three of them, two wearing hooded cloaks. One of the cloaks were olive green while the other was light pink. I carefully moved closer to them and hid behind the bushes that was at the left side of the tree, along with the row of daffodils. My eyes widened when I saw a familiar face. My nana was one of them. What was she doing here?

"No, no. You don't understand. The queen's soldiers were here in town the other week," my nana whispered to the two hooded figures.

"Yes, I do know and I believe they left already. They don’t stay in one place longer than a week," the lady in pink replied. She had a slender figure, fair skin, and long red hair. I couldn’t see her face properly in the dark.

"But they came so close to finding her and I can't afford for that to happen again," my nana said with a cracked voice.

What is happening? Who's finding who?

"I knew this would happen. But I didn't know it would be so soon. What do you think we should do, sister?" the lady in green said. Just like the lady in pink, she had a slender figure and fair skin, but her hair was shoulder length and black as a raven.

"Maybe it's time to tell her about everything. About her mother, the queen, the prophecy … your prophecy. Everything," the lady in pink suggested.

I didn’t understand what was happening, let alone why my nana was talking with these two women.

"What do you think, Lucinda?" the lady in pink asked.

"I . . . I don't know. Give me some time to think this through, Anastasia," my nana said, before turning her back to them and started to walk away.

Anastasia? Who was she?

Her name sounded familiar but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where I had heard the name.

"We'll come back again, tomorrow," Anastasia said. "Let's go, sister."

My nana stopped walking and turned around to face them. "No, Anastasia. I will come to you when I've made a decision." Anastasia just nodded.

"Goodnight, Lucinda." the lady in green said and curtsied.

I cautiously started to walk back to my house before my nana found me eavesdropping.

"Goodnight, Drizella," I heard my nana say in the distance behind me.
Drizella? Anastasia? Who are these women?

I hurriedly walked inside the cottage and into my bedroom, careful not to make any noise. I slowly and then gently closed the door. I sat at the edge of my bed. What had just happened? What were they talking about? Who were Drizella and Anastasia? Why was my nana with them? What prophecy? My head started to ache as I tried to put all the pieces of information I had heard together, but it didn’t make any sense. There was something missing, I know my nana knew what that missing piece was. Maybe I’d ask her tomorrow. But if and when I did that, she'd know that I'd been eavesdropping. With all of these things swirling in my mind, exhaustion washed over me and I felt my eyes start to close, my body slowly switching off.