I Am Where You Are | Mystical Flowers#1 (Ongoing)

Chapter Thirty Three

I opened my eyes and looked around me, half expecting to see the little girl for some reason. She wasn't there, of course. In her place lay her older self- Kassandra.
I walked forward cautiously, not wanting to make her feel more vulnerable than she already did.

Just as I took a step forward, she looked up at me, her blue eyes wide with fear. I stopped immediately. I didn't like the way she was looking at me. I felt like I'd done something wrong, which for a fact, I knew wasn't true. I opened my mouth to say something.
Say what? Something comforting? Say that it would all be okay?

I didn't know.

Thankfully, she held her hand up, shaking her head.
"No. Don't say anything."

I stayed silent, watching her watch me. She was laying on the forest floor in a daze, tears streaming down her small face. Her blue eyes looked larger and more vivid somehow.
She looked...scared. Of me. Of what I'd done to her, I realised.

She watched me for a few more seconds before speaking.

"In all of the years I've spent, trying to keep my guard up, trying not to show others who I really am, I've only succeeded. To think that it could all come tumbling down like a feeble block of bricks, and that too, by a child..."

She paused, then sighed.

"You should know that I've never been this vulnerable in front of anyone else...ever", she said, her voice like steel. I wondered if I should be grateful or thrilled.

I still didn't know what to say. I looked at Viva, who was looking at Kassandra with a faint smile on her face. The star on her forehead was back to normal, dull and dreary against her white scales. Her wings were folded against her side, and that made me think of the little girl. I tried not to let the thought affect me too much. Whatever I'd seen of Kassandra's past...that was something I would never be able to forget.

I couldn't even begin to imagine how she must've felt as her own father, the very person who was the reason for her existence in this world, brought an axe down upon those beautiful wings that she had loved so dearly.

She'd dreamed of flying. She had dreamed of unfolding those wings in pride, watching the sunlight play across the thin networks of taffaria, which was what fairy wings were made of. At first glance, they looked clear, but they hid all the colours of the rainbow in them.
She had dreamed of raising herself up into the sky, but he had cut them off, knowing that she never would dream; or rather that she would never dare to dream again.

"Kassandra", I heard someone say.

Her head snapped up as she looked right at me. I realised that the faint whisper of her name had come from me. I swallowed, wondering if I should say it.
She shifted a little on the floor and her sleeve slid slightly away from her shoulders, revealing a gnarly scar that ran across her smooth skin.

Her eyes flickered from me to the scar. I looked away immediately.

When I looked back at her, the sleeve was proper again. No traces of any scars were visible. My eyes locked onto hers.

"It's okay to show people who you are, Kassandra."

My voice was a faint whisper, but it sounded strong.
I felt strong. It wasn't that I felt like I was superior to this lady who had been threatening me a few moments ago, but now lay in front of me in tears. It was the sort of strength that came over someone when they know what you've been through.

She shook her head and smirked at me.

"No it's not", she said. She looked at me with distaste.
"What do you know? You're just a child."