Cinderella: A Fractured Fairytale

Eighty

Chapter 80

Eric's POV

***

"Guess what I just did," was my greeting to Ana as I plopped onto the couch next to her in front of the fireplace.

"You... fell in a river?" she guessed, looking at my damp hair.

I shot her a little glare. "No. That was me trying to wash all the dirt out of my hair from a week of traveling through the forest."

She grinned. "You... found a fairy?"

"Guess again."

"You... lost all your memories of me and now we're gonna have to start over?" This one was definitely a joke.

I smiled softly and put an arm around her. "I could never forget you, Ana."

She leaned against my shoulder. "Good."

For a moment we just sat there, ignoring the rest of the world and just letting it be us. Then she smiled and gave me an inquisitive look. "So what did you just do?"

I grinned. "Well, I thought it was high time Ethan and Jovette spent some quality time together. SO.... right now they're outside, watching the sunset together. I kind of pushed them into it..."

A smile lit up Ana's face, and she beamed at me. "Perfect!"

"I thought so, too," I replied, laughing at her delight.

She shot me a look. "What are you laughing at?"

"You," I replied simply.

"Why?"

"Because you're cute."

"Cute?" Her expression grew teasingly severe. "Eric....." she said warningly.

"Yes?" I replied innocently, blinking.

Her lovely dark eyes were drawn to mine like magnets, and she faltered, seeming to forget what she'd been about to say.

"Yes?" I repeated, grin broadening.

She blinked, shaking her head to clear it. "Never mind."

I laughed again, patting her shoulder in amusement.

Suddenly, an abrupt pain shot through me, originating in my chest and seeming to pierce my heart. Seemingly out of nowhere, my chest attacked itself and began to pulse with flickers of pure agony.

The glow of my heartstone flickered warningly, and a gasp of pain escaped me.

Ana glanced sideways at me, brown eyes filling with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I replied, breathing hard as the pain faded just as suddenly as it had come.

This had happened before. The fateful day years ago, when Father had dragged Ethan away before the change in my brother.

A tinge of uneasiness threaded its way through me, and I bit my lip. Something was wrong.

It always had been.

I wasn't sure what it was -- just that it was there, and it was coming... from me.

My heart thumped in irregularity, a sudden question springing to my mind. "Why didn't my spell kill him?" I asked softly, under my breath. "I felt he was dead. I knew he'd never hurt us again in the moments before my collapse. Why is he back?"

Ana looked at me, worry on her face. "Eric? What are you talking about?"

"The spell should have killed him," I continued, a realization flickering just out of reach. "It was the only way. He was dead, wasn't he? But somehow... he's not."

The pain came back, stabbing into me like searing cold steel. I flinched, trying to breathe, but the air tore my throat ragged and ignited my lungs, burning. "It's happened before," I whispered hoarsely, my thoughts swirling so quickly that they escaped through my mouth. "The nights when Father was angry or weak. The pain came, and I never knew why. I just knew it had something to do with him."

A puzzle piece suddenly fell into place, clicking in my mind.

Everything was coming together, and the realization was looming like a sun about to explode and go supernova; a pulsing, dying red sphere of flames and mass destruction. Sudden horror filled me as everything began to make sense.

I didn't want to know the truth anymore. The truth was dangerous; this sun was better off not dawning.

"Eric, are you all right?" Ana stood up, fear creeping into her voice. "Phillip! I think Eric's hurt!" she called.

He thought I was the loyal son. So when he took Ethan away, he did something with me, too. I remember how he took my heartstone along with Ethan, and that was when the pain started. He gave it back... but was it ever the same?

I stared down at my flickering heartstone, a chill seeping into me deeper than any outward cold I had ever felt.

The idea looming just below the horizon of my mind was threatening to grow, to reveal itself in the terrible glory of a writhing ball of sinister flames.

Everything was happening too fast, burning the hope from my chest, rising through a battle of inner thoughts and warring emotions... coming and coming and coming and coming and-

The sun will always rise.

But what happens when that sunrise no longer stands for hope?

Thoughts swirled through my mind, and the final realization cast dawning rays of hellish light over a mindscape of previous hope.

Sunrise was the end.