Maleficent

Chapter Sixteen

We wait for the humans to come back to finish us all until the end of time, but most days we walk through the forest and mourn what was lost. Gunnar held true to his promise, and all those that stood on that field did not walk off alive, including us. We burned the bodies of Mab and the Morrigan on the ruins of Anope Mountain in the temple. My bones eventually healed, but I burned Cassia by myself at the jasmine fields. I miss her so much. Sometimes, when I am in control of this new body and my sister's spirits fly above the trees, I turn my head and if I let my mind wander, I can see her ghost in the trees, watching me. Another thing that is missing is part of my soul, the part of me that was light and love and laughter. When my sisters died, it was Hecate's price for bringing them back. In its place are echoes of the time when the forest was filled with happiness. I would pay it over and over again, but I wish that we had bargained with the goddess of time instead, and fixed our mistakes. Once, I went chasing Wynn's laughter through the trees to the overgrown ruins of our cottage and when I got there all I could see was the ghosts of my family and I playing together. We have not visited it since. The last scrap of my soul that is filled with goodness is slowly dissolving, as the promise we made is taking over. I can feel it looming closer every hour. Someday soon, I will open my arms and welcome it, and there will be nothing that can stop us when we burn the world down to put to rest the ghosts of our people that haunt us day by day. Suddenly, the remains of Morrigan and Mab's spirits come crashing through the trees. The whispers of madness return with them, and they are strangely gleeful.

Guess what! Guess what! Mab is playful, even in death.

"What is it?" The woodland creatures were the first to start to stay away from us. They could feel the throbbing sense of other that we cannot seem to erase. The fae left us soon after, disturbed by our behavior and our different personalities.

The traitor king has a child. A chance to feel the same pain as he caused us! Morrigan holds the same burning desire and passion that drives us now to hunt Gunnar to the ends of the earth, through the flatlands to his castle.

"Then I guess we'll just have to pay a visit." Revenge will be mine, and suddenly, the whispers are stronger. Come, they say to me, come join us. You will be free. Free. That word echoes in my head for a while after the others fade. The only thing I wanted in my life was to be free. Free to make my own decisions, free from responsibility, free from the confinements of the mortal world. That wish cost me my home, it cost me my best friend, it cost me my sister's lives. I am so damned already that I know that one more sin is worth the price.

The whispers can sense my decision, and when the carefully constructed wall breaks, they take over me.