The Other Queen

Chapter 2

I have never dreamt since the day I died,

But how lucky am I

If I drink fresh blood,

I can see their dreams

Their lustful desires

Their hunger for wealth

And those who wanted to die...

It is never easy to be dead.

----

For the remaining hours after Gina left the mansion, I made myself busy with touring around the house with Aunt Darling showing me around especially in the grand room, where she said, the late Lady Mila and Elizabeth V played the piano.

Inside the room, I smelt the slight odor of the old wood and dust in the air. I walked towards the center of the room, mesmerized by the marbled floor. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

As soon as I heard the tickling sound of the piano, memories of a dance step started to show up on my mind, as if the floor was showing me someone dancing. I remembered the swaying of my mom's hips; how she tiptoed and glided with her light legs. I remembered the music playing as she moved with her arms gracefully swaying and gliding along with the movement of her shoulders.

A piece of lonely piano music played as I tried to mimic every movement in my memories. I glided, swayed, and jumped in light graceful movements— felt all alone inside the room and owned it.

My mom taught me the emotions of music. The more thrilling the piano music can be, the more terrified were my toes and hips to follow the sound. It echoed a loud rhythm like I was dancing in front of a theater room with millions of people boringly sleeping on their seats. I glided and glided, jumped, and twirled with my arm stretched upward dramatically.

The music began to soften with slow changing of chords, so as my toes pointed against the floor. I stretched out my right leg while jump-twirling. My right leg folded in, stretched, as I jump-twirled the second time.

At the last steps, so as the climax of the music, had brought me to the last memory of my mother...her feet above the air. As I tried to look up above me, I suddenly took a wrong step, collapsed to the ground, and almost twisted my ankle.

I heard flat and sharp chords ruined the music causing it to stop.

"Ida! Be careful!" It was Aunt Darling who just got up from the chair in front of the grand piano. She hurried towards me and helped me to get back to my feet.

I smiled and patted her hand on my arm. "I love the music, Aunt Darling..." I complimented.

She grimaced and shook her head. "Oh, stop smiling. I was worried earlier. You almost got me a heart attack!"

I giggled and walked awkwardly with an injury with her. "Sorry. I was so carried away."

****

After I treated my twisted ankle using the first aid kit my aunt gave me, Aunt Darling provided me an old-fitted peach duster dress. It was hers when she was just eighteen years old. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and smiled at the sight.

The dress is nice. It fits a slim body like mine. I wonder what Aunt Darling looked like during her teenage years. She must be so pretty.

Aunt Darling is my mother's cousin. She never married nor had children before. She dedicated her life to preserving the Santerri Mansion from our ancestors. She lived her life maintaining these old walls of Santerris. If our ancestors were still alive, she would definitely be awarded for her dedication, then.

I hurried inside the Mila Room. The room is a hundred percent wood. The chandelier on the ceiling proudly boasts the whole place of its grandiose Classic Spanish-style furniture and ornaments. The whole room was twice the size of my living room. The bed near the window was framed by a neatly arranged sheet colored in gold. The frame had four long handles touching the golden sheets above it. The pillows and sheets were also colored in gold. The only light here is coming from the chandelier and the four other lights colored in yellow mounted in each corner of the ceiling.

At the middle of the room, at the end of the wall near a sturdy table and a bookshelf, there I found a human-sized mirror flatly plastered to the wall near the golden-colored vanity. I turned around slowly as I inspected my reflection from every angle.

I saw how tired my eyes became. My cheeks went pale and my eyes were colored from dark brown to gold. I was confused and looked closely at it. I'm certainly sure that I moved but to my surprise, my reflection was left standing there, crossing her arms across my chest and smirking.

I was taken aback when suddenly I felt that the mirror moved.

Was it an earthquake? But I never felt a shaking of the ground, or did I just imagine it?

I decided to move and turn away. After some steps, I stopped and turned back again to the mirror. I intently looked at my eyes in my reflection. I saw that my cheeks are red and alive again. My eyes were dark brown and had no dark circles around them. After that, I laid on the bed.

I hope I was just imagining my reflection smirking at myself.

****

Woods. Pantings. Screams. Chants. Blood.

More blood.

Dozens of images crept like fast-forwarding motion pictures in my head from a big place to an unknown place. A forest. I've never been here before but my existence felt the strong familiarity of the whole place.

Where am I? How did I get here?

I knew I was dreaming but to my dismay, I was unable to make myself awaken from this. I felt my hands were pinned down to my bed, chained. My body couldn't move. Something was preventing me from moving my muscles. I'm unable to relax, like drowning. Breaths shortened.

Beads of sweat started to trail down my cheeks up to my neck. I ingested the lump in my throat. My fingers quivered.

Pant. Pant. Pant, as I run fast through another path full of trees and grasses.

Someone was after me in this forest. I could still feel his presence underneath my skin. The taste of his sweet scent lingered under my pointed nose. His hostile nature gave me the thrill and lust to run more, play around, and laugh at his anger.

When I was about to change my direction, a strong force assaulted me. I hissed and growled as I saw the blood streaming down from my upper arm. A sharp object hit it. It angered me more.

One more step and I jumped at the tree as the image of a fang about to approach me. I abruptly bent over to evade it.

Suddenly, I opened my eyes, still catching my breath.

It's just a dream. It's just a dream. I convinced myself.

Flashes of her hung body crept in mind again the moment I opened my eyes. Both of my hands pulled my hair and screamed in pain.

The long beige dress full of blood, her swollen feet, and darkened nails, bed full of pictures of me and my biological father, tumbled wooden stool, and the rope knotted on the knuckle of the window lock... Her body... Her beautiful face...

I felt it again; the cuts on both of my wrists and on my lap. They're like fresh wounds starting to open up again. I kept on feeling them one by one as though someone had opened them by force. It felt like it was my first time I lost control— like how the way I hurt myself the first time I saw my mother hanging...lifeless.

I kept on screaming until someone hurried to my door and opened it. It was Aunt Darling in her PJs and white cream all over her face.

From where I was, I should be taken aback, shrill more, and run because of how she looked like with her glowing face silhouetted in the dark, but I kept myself busy with the panic attacks again.

My chest began to move up and down rapidly, fingers trembling. My sobs became soft and silent afterwards when she approached me, caressing my face.

"Ida! Ida! Calm down! Calm down! What happened?" she asked.

I couldn't answer. I just cried and trembled until my fears subsided.

****

It was a long-dead tiring night when Gina hurried back to Tagaytay the next day after she heard my series of hysteria. She stayed in the other room right next to mine.

She tried to ask me about my panic attacks but I didn't say a word. I'm afraid she might send me to the institute again.

The imipramine that I took was a big help to calm down my nerves and my spirit for a while as I drifted to sleep.

For as long as I can remember, I was asleep. Then, I saw myself running into the woods— as fast as the wind itself. I was never this fast in my entire life. The darkness of the place enveloped nothing but the thickness of the woods.

It was cold as I was looking at those fallen crystals from up above me. It was snowing. From that scenario, I knew I'm dreaming again. I was a bit thankful that the images were not forwarded at a great speed. All were shown to me according to the tick of the clock.

I was still running until I felt a great force that thrashed me against my direction. I felt the cold soil and the heat that raged inside of me— as to seem heightened my senses and guarded myself— dark circles under my pair of bloodshot eyes searched for the oppressor's presence.

I waited.

After a moment of silence, I felt a great hand strangled and pinned me to the ground. As impossible as it may seem, I was never intimidated nor breathed shortly on my nostrils.

I mischievously smiled at the stiff face almost covered by his golden hair moistened with the snowflakes falling. "Are you going to kill your future queen, Demetri?" I cunningly asked. Blood was on my teeth as I gritted them.

I felt the fire starting to ignite inside the man's eyes. His beautiful golden pair of eyes became the color of the blood moon at night. Veins started to show on his eyeballs. His majestic and perfectly shaped face became red in anger.

I felt a sudden victory of what I was witnessing. My anger towards this man has been a fulfilling pleasure inside my body. It ached for more.

I felt the very thing I knew his eyes were showing me. Fear. He's threatened with my presence and I'm not sure why.

"You are no queen to me, you liar! You killed her!" The fire was still raging in his eyes.

Inside my mind, I wanted to touch his face and calm his anger, but my body was doing the opposite. Instead, I laughed really hard until my voice had echoed all over the forest until it subsided...

I gasped, the moment I woke up and got up from the deep slumber. The room was still dark when I woke up. Somehow, it calmed me knowing the fact that no one was watching me during my weakest.

My chest started to calm down and heaved a deep sigh outwards. I don't know what to feel right now.

Another dream started ever since I got into this place. There was something eerie about staying here. I've never stayed this long in this mansion my entire life.

Right now, I feel uncomfortable sleeping again. I wanted to scream and let Aunt Darling or Gina rush to my room and calm me down. I wanted to be not alone for the first time.

This dream was different. It has nothing to do with my biological mother anymore. No more nightmares about her. No more series of panic attacks anymore.

It's a lot different. It's like I was watching a movie about another dimension with the other me playing the role of a wicked monster.

This time, this dream was highlighting the inner demons inside me.

It's all about me.

The evil me.

To be continued...