Era of The Lost

Chapter One: Into the Lion's Den

The first time I woke up, I thought I was in a dream.

 I had felt the hands on my skin and the strange glow burning my eyes. My first reaction to it had been to move away, only to be hit by unimaginable agony. In my delirious state, I thought that the cause of it had been the hands that had been placed on me only a moment before. I felt my energy building up and brace myself for attack only to lose concentration as someone pushes me back into the soft surface I was on. “Pull back your claws, little panther, we are trying to help.” 

I struggled for a moment, but the grip wouldn’t budge. Slowly, I fell back into an uneasy sleep.

 I opened my eyes to find myself in my own house. The momentary relief is cut short as I hear the bang on my door. Panic hits me as the loud knock is followed by my father’s voice, “Veronica!” 

My hands try to find a weapon in my bedside table, but I then remember my mother had removed the lamp a while ago. No need to shed a light on what we rather forget. I push away the memories of my mother’s cutting voice in order to concentrate on the matter at hand. I roll out of bed and slowly squeeze myself underneath it as I hear the door finally give away to my father’s shoving.

 His first step into the room halts my breath. He stops moving at the edge of the door, probably looking around at the empty room and trying to figure out where I had gone. I feel the vibration of the wooden floorboards giving away to my father’s weight as he begins searching. “Veronica, please, I want to see you.” 

I slowly place a hand over my mouth, fearing I would start crying if he were to keep saying that name. It was only a matter of seconds before he found me, that much was clear. I just needed a moment. I try taking in a breath, but as I am about to exhale I feel his hand on my legs. My breath is lost in a high pitched scream.

 As I am pulled from under my bed, I start struggling relentlessly. I hear my father grunt as my foot makes contact with his chest. He pulls me up by my wrists, clutching them tightly yet gently as I try to pull away. 

“Hey, Veronica, calm down.” He grabs my face, pushing my hair out of it. I stare into his maddened eyes, realizing I had mere seconds to prepare myself. “I just wanted to see you sweetie.”

 He smiles at me, and I can barely keep in the sob as he takes notice of the white streak of hair that had fallen back into my face. “Veronica, what is that?” 

His expression shows confusion for a moment before the realization sinks in. “Belladonna.” 

I take in his anger for a moment, watching his expression morph into fury as I take a hold of his head and press his forehead against mine. Before he can react, I wrap both of our minds with the energy I had been gathering, and pull.

 “She almost attacked Aven when she woke up.” 

The voice startles me out of my dream. This time, I am aware enough to know that this was reality. I consider opening my eyes to put a face to the voice, but my mind still hasn’t fully recovered from the memory of my father. Facing someone right now seems like too big of a stretch. Besides, they might reveal something that might prove useful later on while they think I am unconscious. 

“She also came in drenched in her own blood so I think I can excuse her for her aggression.” This voice is new, softer, yet also unmistakably male. I can hear the wryness in his tone as he addresses the other person. This must be Aven. 

“Aven is right, she is probably scared out of her mind. She doesn’t know who we are or if we are going to help her.” Female, that’s for sure. She seems more serious about the situation than Aven did. Somehow I know she is the oldest one in the room. 

“Yes, I see that, but she came to us. We are not exactly close to civilization if you haven’t noticed. This isn’t where a normal girl would go to if she were bleeding out.”

 I again consider waking up before he poisons them against me, but the woman speaks up for me again, “Well, she isn’t normal, her hair proves it. She probably felt the pull to us. We are naturally drawn to each other. This place is a giant beacon for others like us.”

 “We still shouldn’t let her in so easily.” I hear him pacing the room. I had foreseen that they might suspect my arrival, which is why I had already thought of a story to feed them. To do what needed to be done, I needed their trust.

 “We won’t, I will call Julian when she is awake so we can question her together.”

 I take note of the new name. This woman was obviously in charge, Julian must also be important if he is going to carry out my investigation along with her.

 “Which brings me back to what I was saying before,” Aven says, his voice almost annoyingly calm, “We have to let her rest. Speak of this outside if you must.”

 There is a long pause in which no one speaks. I almost think they had followed Aven’s orders and left until he speaks again, “I don’t think leaving you alone with her is a good idea. She seems to be a bit aggressive.” 

“I’ll be fine, it doesn’t seem as if she will wake up soon. I’ll come outside in a moment.” 

I hear footsteps become distant and finally the opening and shutting of a door. Aven sighs next to me, and I imagine him running a hand through his face. “I am sorry about Ronan, he can be a bit paranoid.”

 The way his words are directed at me takes me off guard. Still, I persevere. “I know you are awake.”

 My eyes open in surprise. I curse myself for it. Cassandra wouldn’t have approved of my lack of subtlety. She had told me I wasn’t ready for this, and all I seem to be doing at the moment is proving her right. 

 The first thing I notice of Aven is his eyes, they are unlike any other eyes I’ve ever seen before. They are bright gold, and the color swirls around his iris as if it were alive. It must be his mark. I can see a light white scar that goes from the top of his left eyebrow to his cheekbone. It looks old and somehow makes his eyes stand out even more. 

 He doesn’t seem mad that I had been listening in to their conversation, he seems more amused by it than anything. “Are you feeling alright?”

 I look down at my stomach, where I knew I had been stabbed. The scraps of my bloodied shirt remain on, but any other evidence of my wound, including the blinding pain I had felt before I passed out, is gone. My amazement at the fact almost keeps me from focusing on anything else.

 “Yes,” I answer. My voice sounds scratchy, the sound of it makes me realize how thirsty I actually am. “How?” 

I knew the answer to that question, of course. At least enough of it. Acting ignorant worked to take away suspicion most of the time, though, and I needed that.

 “I healed you, it’s one of the things we can do.”

 We. I have to keep myself from reacting to that. It took me a long time to accept what I was. A monster, my mother would say. A murderer, would be my father’s generous addition. I am not sure whether I agree with any of them. Most days, as I picture my sister’s blank eyes facing the sky, her hair spread majestically on the ground, matted with blood, I do. 

 “Here.” I snap out of my thoughts and look down at Aven’s outstretched hand, holding a glass of water. I take it from him wordlessly. “You must be parched.” 

I gulp down the water in almost no time. “Thank you.” 

Aven smiles at me, his eyes somehow shine brighter with the smile and I find myself blushing. Oh, how Cassie would have hated me at the moment. “You are welcome. I am Aven by the way. What’s your name?” 

My mouth opens for a second before I snap it shut, realizing that I was about to say Veronica. I thought the habit had been forced out of me. Turns out, not so much. “Bella.” 

Aven tilts his head at me. “You sure about that?”

 I blush once more, this time from embarrassment. “Yes, I am sure. It’s just that my full name is Belladonna, but I don’t like it much. I rather if people would call me Bella.” 

 Aven nods. He looks as if he is preparing to continue the conversation when a voice from outside screams, “Aven! Staring at a girl while she unconscious is not gonna get you any points when she wakes up. Come out already.” 

Aven rolls his eyes. He turns his stare to me once more. “Well, Bella,” He begins, lifting himself up from the chair he had been sitting on, “I suggest you go back to sleep or at least pretend to if you want to avoid questioning at this very instant.”

 “I’ll be sure to do that.” He walks to the door and turns to me. I smile despite myself and close my eyes. I hear him open and close the door. “Well if your plan was to wake her up with your yelling I must inform you it didn’t work.” 

“Too bad, she must have quite the story to tell.”

 The conversation continues, but it is much too muffled to be heard. I consider going back to sleep, but my father’s memory is still hanging at the forefront of my mind. To sleep would be to give into it too easily. The memory comes for me anyways.

 We are no longer in my room, but that doesn’t bother my father at the moment. He hasn’t even noticed that the ground beneath him is glowing with ethereal lights. His eyes are on me, rather the illusion I had formed around myself. I was half my size, my black hair up in two pigtails, my eyes sky blue and way too big for my face. Veronica’s eyes, my sister’s eyes.

 I am normally made into the version of her that had been before her death. My father must have been thinking of Veronica when she was young. The thought almost shatters me. 

 He smiles at me, his eyes shining with unshed tears. I place my tiny hands on either side of his face. “What is it, Daddy?”

 “Veronica, oh god.” The break in his voice makes my own chest ache. He wraps his arms around me almost hesitantly, his head burying itself into my tiny shoulder. Despite my knowledge of the illusion, I can still feel the weight of it as well as his tears. “I thought I had lost you.”

 I feel the illusion on my face blur as my own tears come out. My father is too preoccupied with his relief to notice. I run my fingers through his hair. “It’s alright, daddy. I am here.”

 It isn’t long before I feel my father calm in my arms. My head is spinning from holding on to both of our minds for so long. I am about to let go when a new voice comes into the room, “Bella!”

 I am ripped out of my father’s grasp roughly. I can feel my mother’s nails digging into my arm. She throws me against the wall a moment after, worsening the headache that had been forming. My mother wipes her hands on her clothes, as if trying to wipe me off her. “You witch! What did you do to him?”

 I use the wall to lift myself up, the edges of my vision becoming unclear until all I can really see is the blurry outline of my mother and my father. Nausea crawls up my stomach. At this point, I am putting actual effort to keep myself from hurling in front of my mother. The pull had taken too much from me.

 “He wanted to see her.” 

My mother’s expression shifts. Her gaze drops down to my father and his lost expression. She takes in a deep breath. “You will not use that against him ever again.”

 I open my mouth to tell her that I had only done what he wanted when my father’s dazed expression fades from his face. He looks at me soberly. “Bella.”

 The urge to hide is strong, but there is nowhere to go. Even if there was, I am too weak to even stand. “Why did you take her?”

 Somehow, I know that he didn’t only mean the illusion I had dragged us into a moment ago. “I-“

 My mother drops down to her knees in front of him. “Because she is wicked, honey, a monster. She doesn’t have a soul.”

 “I saw her, Bee,” my father insisted, his eyes momentarily losing lucidness, “she was real.”

 My mom shakes her head. “You didn’t, she just made you believe you did.She is a liar, a deceiver.”

 I drop to my knees. Even with my tiredness, I try crawling to her. “Mom please.”

 She grabs my father by the hands and drags him up with her. They begin walking out of the room as I desperately try to reach them. “Mommy please.”

 I feel my mother’s eyes on me, her expression showing only disgust. She closes the door behind her. I drop to the floor. “I am sorry,” I whisper, pulling at my own hair, at the white strand that stubbornly remained despite every effort I did to rid myself of it, “I’ll make it better, I’ll be better.” Veronica’s sky blue eyes are staring back at me as I close my eyes, blank and unresponsive. “ I didn’t mean to do it.” 

I lay down on the ground until my mind blanks. All I see is my father’s devastated gaze as he realized that I wasn’t Veronica. Maybe I was a monster like mother said. I stare at the white strand of hair on my face, hating the sight of it. I can’t get off the ground without throwing up, so I just lay there on the ground until the last of my energy leaves me and I lose consciousness. 

The odd-looking infirmary around me returns. I gasp at the sight of it. It had been a while since my memories pulled me out of reality like that. It must be the nearness to the forest.

 Despite my mother’s threats, I had done it again. She hadn’t proven as forgiving that time. I had known the risk, but the look my father gave me when I brought Veronica back to him made me feel less of a monster. It almost felt like redemption for what I had taken from him.

 I slowly sit up. I couldn’t bring Veronica back, I knew that now. It had been foolish of both my father and me to continue doing that. My only redemption lied in making up for my mistake. 

 My mother called me a liar once, and I was, a brilliant one.

 I looked around the room, taking in the wooden shelves and white walls. A frame catches my attention. The shape of the tree is unmistakable, even when not embroidered in gold.

 A smile lights up my face. I had made it in. It was time to get to work.