Enchanting You

2- Rain

The gentle whispering sound of my silk skirt followed me as I swiftly moved through the empty, dark hallway.

I passed the beautiful paintings. Most of the canvases were full of my family's portraits. In a few of them I was there, standing beside my parents, or beside Zenon and Rain, my daughter. In some of them, I was standing alone, illuminating with powerful aura and beauty.

The single portraits were of before my arranged marriage with Zenon. After the marriage, it was restricted for a lady to have made a single portrait of herself. The royals did not deem it appropriate for a lady to overshadow her man with her power. Hence, my last portrait from over a year ago hung in the darkest corner of the hallway, unnoticed.

I did not have to walk much. I came in front of the dark wooden door and grabbed its handle. I noticed my hand was not even trembling. There was no fear, no regret, no remorse in my heart.

There was no going back. My decision was made. I knew what I wanted.

Smiling inwardly, I pushed open the door. There in front of my eyes, laid my next prey, in a crib.

I walked forward swiftly. The one year old girl was playing inside the beautifully ornaments adorned crib with a bone in her hand. I did not even know where she had gotten it from.

I bent down to look at her. Her blue eyes were twinkling. 

"So very innocent, aren't you?" I whispered.

Her attention came to me, but she did not stare right into my eyes. Instead, she stared past me at something else.

And that is when I heard a commotion from outside. A trail of quick, multiple footsteps rushed past the room. Without stopping, the footsteps carried over to the place that I had just come from.

I was running out of time.

I smiled gently at the child. My right hand slithered down to go inside the pocket of my skirt, grabbing the same knife that I had just killed my husband with.

I covered the child's eyes with my left hand tenderly. The numerous black tattoos that were covering most of the skin of the back of my hand started to shine in bright, blue light, illuminating the markings and spells that were embedded there.

The child's mouth opened in a silent scream. When I removed my hand from the girl's eyes, I did not see my child there anymore.

In its place laid a monster. Its ghostly skin was completely devoid of any color. Its eyes were hollow. There were no whites, or eyelids, or eyebrows. Just two hollow, black holes that appeared to be full of unending depth of hell. 

Its mouth was round and full of teeth. There was no tongue, no cheek, no tonsil. Instead, it was full of endless rows of sharp, pointed teeth.

Its head slowly moved sideways, turning towards me. And that is when for the first time since I had given birth, my child stared right into my eyes. Even though there were no eyeballs, no eyelashes giving an indication of her gaze, I could feel those two hollow holes digging a void into my soul.

I met its gaze without trembling. I did not know what it was. But there was no way in hell I was going to take this thing for my child.

Pulling out the dagger from my pocket, I immediately stabbed it right where the child's heart was supposed to be. 

My aim was straight. I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. The knife landed right where it was supposed to be. Where I knew that it would finish the job at once.

The ancient knife entered the child's chest and penetrated her heart. Her mouth left a few raspy, slow breaths for a couple of seconds, and then she fell into a deep calmness with no movement in her body to indicate that there was any drop of life left inside her soul.

My heart was thudding inside my mouth. Bile was rising up slowly. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself but the vomit kept rising until I turned around and threw up on the floor. I heaved until I had emptied everything that I had eaten in the past couple of days and my stomach started to hurt.

Once I was done, I straightened slowly. There was nothing but emptiness and fury inside me. I turned around to look inside the crib once again.

The child was not there anymore.

The knife, covered completely in blood was laying in the crib right where I had penetrated the child.

And then I heard that deep, raspy, sucking sound right before an excruciating pain shot up inside my nape.

I shuddered and panicked. The child was not dead.

The pain started to travel from my nape to my head. I fell down on the floor on my knees, gasping desperately for breaths.

My eyes traveled everywhere in the room to look for the child, but she was nowhere in my sight. My hand went to my nape to feel the spot from where the pain was travelling inside my whole body. But there was nothing there. No wound.

It was getting harder for me to keep my eyes open anymore. I knew my end was near.

What a complete joke this night was. The spoiled princess, the narcissist girl, the most experienced and skilled enchantress, the badmouthed queen, the self centered b***h was at the edge of dying a pathetic, invisible death.

I knew what they all said behind my back. I knew what they all called me. Instead of tears or remorse or regret, the thought brought a smirk to my face.

At least I would be leaving my mark.

I gasped in pain as another shot of sharp, soul crushing pain traveled through my whole body and gripped my heart. 

I tried to stand up. After a couple of pathetic failed attempts, I succeeded in it. I started chanting some spells, trying to find the child. I could not let it free.

I had barely uttered a couple of words when I became cripple with agonizing pain. All the power inside me stopped working. I was too tired to stay awake anymore.

Crashing against a wooden cupboard, I fell down hard in front of the mirror. My eyes could barely stay open.

My gaze collided with my dying reflection. There I was laying on my side, nearly half dead while my child had its monstrous mouth attached to my nape, sucking my soul out of me.