CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Game Start + Level One

This book is not for children, and while never explicit, it does get heavy at times. Content warnings include physical/emotional abuse, sexual coercion/assault, torture, mentions of abortion, and death. You have been warned.

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[MAGGIE PoV]

I feel sick.

I feel sick, and dizzy, and numb to the core of my bones.

This isn't real. This isn't happening.

"Lady Jacintha, you're safe! Oh, thank goodness." Cas. He's smiling at me with such relief, I don't even think he notices that his crown is lopsided. I don't think he notices that I'm not smiling back. He reaches out to me, but I don't take his hand. "Quickly, we must get to the basement, I think mother and Rainette are already there--"

"Casimir get away from her!" Oh God, it's Raini. We turn to face her. She's breathing heavily, and there's blood on the hem of her gown. Her face is red from crying.

"Rainette what--?"

"She killed her, Cas. She killed Mama. And I'm going to kill her!" Raini's scream is enough to freeze the blood in my veins.

I back away, stumbling over the hem of my gown and falling hard on the marble tile.

Cas grabs Raini as she tries to walk past him. She thrashes against his hold, her vengeful gaze still locked firmly on me. "Let me go! Let me hurt her!"

Cas's voice is hollow, pleading. "Jacintha... tell me she is mistaken. Please, tell me she is mistaken."

I want to tell him the truth. I want to tell him everything. But when I open my mouth, the only words that come out are "I'm so sorry..."

His warm brown eyes are always so full of affection, but in this moment, they're the darkest things I've ever seen. His grip on Raini loosens as his fingers flick toward the sword on his hip.

I close my eyes, wishing more than anything to open them and find myself back where I belong. Because despite everything I've experienced here, the bad and the good, all I want is to go back to the time before I stepped through the door. 

~*~

Don't work at a sports grill if you don't like sports.

I mean sure, a job's a job. And I was a college kid without a drivers license and no prior work history, so it's not like I had many options. But being stuck on the graveyard-shift, when only a few drunk classmates come in for half-priced appetizers, with no source of entertainment other than the same football and soccer games that have been on repeat all day long... you start to lose it after a while.

And of course I forgot my DS.

I sat on one of the spinning stools at the bar, idly twisting in my seat while I sketched a landscape on the back of a menu with a blue crayon. It wasn't my best work, but it was something to do. It was a Thursday night, eleven pm, and we weren't supposed to close until one.

I sneezed and my hand jerked, completely ruining the mountain range I'd spent the past fifteen minutes trying to get perfect. I frowned, crumpled the menu up, and tossed it toward the trash can behind the bar. I was no athlete, it didn't even land close. Sighing, I grabbed another menu and started my drawing again.

"God Maggie, do you ever smile? Why do you always look like someone just murdered your gerbil?"

I looked up at my coworker Veronica with the most sullen expression I could manage. "My gerbil just died this morning."