Silent Pantomime

Chapter 8 | Evil mind, angelic face

Chapter 8🌌:

I just want blood, guts and chocolate cake.

I gave up with my green food diet as soon as I read the letter about Oliver. I wasn't sad about him, but after what happened with Ally, it all mixed together; I just felt like I needed cake.

My mum's bright pink curtains in the living room were closed, so the morning light caved in through them, making the entire room glow in a hot hue of pink. The TV was on, interviewing some has-been one-hit-wonder singer, while my dad's old radio was playing an advert for car insurance. And I was eating cake.

Everything felt slightly off normal that morning, yet I couldn't put my finger on it. I was sprawled across the sofa, leaving chocolate crumbs around my mouth as I hummed a tune to a made up song. Despite the noise of the TV and radio, everything felt eerily quiet. As if something was just not quite right.

Even though I had just woken up, I grabbed a blanket and shoved it over my head, to try and ignore the weird atmosphere I was most likely creating myself. I used to do something similar when I was a kid, I would unbutton the sheet of my duvet and crawl inside, as if it were some hidden den. But no thin duvet cover or blanket was going to hide me away from whatever was going on that morning. Everything was just unusually weird. After about five minutes of me trying to fall back asleep, I got bored and gave up. My cake was long gone, but I decided to go back to the kitchen and see if there was anything else I could eat.

I danced over towards the cupboard and there was no cake left, so I let out a small groan as I shut it. I turned around towards the counter and saw one of my mum's old books lying on it, hidden underneath a pile of paperwork that had never been thrown out. Her bookmark was still placed on a page, not even half way through the story, and it was one of those really old, expensive books properly bounded in a lilac leather and laced in gold. Picking up the book, I wondered back over to the sofa and slumped back down.

"She's an old soul with young eyes, a vintage heart, and a beautiful mind. Hazel was a real life Goldilocks, the curls of her hair and her heavenly face placed so perfectly that she was her own fairytale. She walked through the town centre where all eyes were on her. She had a daydream look in her eyes that shone brighter than the stars. Something about her broke all bounds of elegance, yet she had a glaze of fire embedded deep within her as growing embers. Nobody could turn away from her mesmerising posture, everyone wanting to be the king to her queen. Evil mind, angelic face, she's dangerous, yet she's grace. She wore her pain like the grandest of diamonds around her neck, yet the hell in her mind is what gave her beauty an edge. Hazel wasn't just some princess some prince forgot to save - she just had magic in her eyes and a smile that either meant 'I like you' or 'I wish you were dead'."

That was the page the bookmark was left on.

I smiled slightly, the bittersweet feeling because the name Hazel was highlighted and then circled. My mum named me after a character from a story book, yet she never told me about it. A girl with magic eyes that even the stars envied.

I read the rest of the story about my namesake. It was set during the mid 1600s where a manic man in a village convinced everyone that this teenage girl was a witch; they attempted to burn her at the stake, chase her with torches, throw her in jail and to drown her. The girl was left underwater, where she was thrown into and got stuck on a diamond necklace that had been lost in the lake for centuries. She had her lungs filled with water and was surrounded by the tease of not being able to breathe, yet she managed to gather her senses and swim to safety. She woke up on the shore of a beach, with her tattered clothes and the diamond necklace flung around her arms and wrist, when some passing people spotted her and managed to take her back to their house. Her voice was so hoarse that she could barely even whisper a thank you to the nice family who took her in, so in return for shelter she gave them the priceless diamond necklace. The youngest daughter of the family told the girl she was beautiful and had these big blue eyes that looked like pure starlight. The girl smiled, but her mind flooded with nothing but anger that rose up like a phoenix from ashes. She couldn't remember anything from before waking up on the beach, yet the anger building up made all of the memories feel as though it only just slipped through her fingers. Yet she stayed with the family pretending everything was fine, helping to cook and clean as she was allowed to stay in the spare room. However there was always a catch to her, something just off - the little girl of the family even said the magic in her eyes turned into a cloudy night instead of the beautiful starlight. Bad things started to happen whenever the girl was around, always seeming like an accident, but with the sense something was wrong. Eventually someone in the village claimed she was a witch, and history repeated itself with the attempted murder of the girl. Before she was about to get thrown into the lake again, the little girl of the family ran up to her. She placed the priceless diamond necklace back in the supposed witch's hand and gave her a hug. The older girl smiled and clipped the diamond necklace around her neck. "Is it true you are a witch?" The little girl asked sadly. The girl gave back a half smile, "I'm Hazel".

"Hey Hazel," I heard a voice snap, which shot me out of the ethereal world I was living in. I hadn't even realised it was dark, had I been reading all day? I frowned as I looked up at my dad. This was the first time he'd spoken to me in weeks, what was so important now?

"Oh...um, hi," I whispered. I didn't know why I sounded so sheepish when I was around him, but I could never properly have a conversation with him ever since my mum died. We were never overly close, but now we were miles apart in the same house.

"I need to tell you something," he said, his voice feeling icy. I looked down, guessing this must have been why today had felt so strange.

"I'm getting remarried."

I dropped my book, feeling the air get sucked from my lungs like I was being waterboarded.

Damn, I needed more cake.