Wishing Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Zerina wasn’t able to wake up in time for breakfast the following day. Her temperature had gotten worse, and her skin felt colder than before. During the night, she howled in pain and woke me up from my slumber. When I went to her room to tend to her, she pleaded me to not think of going outside of the barrier. One moment, she pleaded desperately, and the next, she forced her words upon me, and threatened me. Thus, I was alone in the morning as I was eating my breakfast. Time soon went by without a trace in my mind. I glanced at the necklace my parents had given me and brushed it using my hands. I kept on rewinding Zerina’s words in my mind, but her words were futile. I still wanted to know the truth. The truth as to why everything happened that day. I had every right to know. But, could the cost of me wanting to know be Zerina’s health and her sanity?

I went back inside Zerina’s room after I finished cooking warm soup to check on how she was doing. Zerina was breathing heavily, and she was sweating immensely. She was writhing around and whispering to herself. I assumed she was having a nightmare, and gently nudged her out of her frightful dream.

“Zerina.” I said. Zerina continued to squirm, thrashing and kicking. I repeated again, and my voice was now tougher than before,

“Zerina.” She opened her eyes instantly and looked directly at me in shock. She was clutching her chest in pain. There was something in her eyes that I had not seen in a long time, but then it faded away. I had not seen that look after I caused Zerina great suffering. I barely recognized it anymore. What was that? I spoke again,

“Here is your soup. Eat some so that you may get well.” Zerina stared at me as I scooped from the bowl and blew on it. Zerina was very pale, and she was very sickly. I began feeding her and I was blowing on it so that the soup wouldn’t burn her. At first Zerina refused to eat, but then I urged her and finally convinced her to do what I pleaded her to do. After Zerina was fed a couple of times, she was whispering frighteningly,

“I had a nightmare.” My ears listened intently on the words she uttered out. But now wasn’t the time to be telling me that, so I shook my head, replying back,

“Perhaps another time, Zerina. You are ill, you need all the strength you have, and you mustn’t strain your voice.” But Zerina cut me off, refusing to stand down,

“No, you must hear this.” She urged pleadingly. I stopped for a moment, and reconsidered my original response. Nodding, I set down the bowl, giving her my attention.

“You were planning on breaking the barrier. When you broke it, the people who killed Leah captured you, and forced you to do cruel things. You killed many people, you killed Aria and you killed me. Oh Isolde, it was terrible, terrible, absolutely terrible!” Her feeble hands clutched my arms,

“Isolde, you must not go. Promise me that you won’t, promise! Promise me that you will forget everything!” She begged me and shook me violently. I felt pity for her, and wanted to agree to what she asked, but when I thought of my past, I couldn’t possibly let things slide. That simply wasn’t who I was. Seeing Leah die in such a gruesome way right in front of me, how could I let that go away? Aria too. She was captured, and the look on her face was extremely heartbreaking. Jabez as well. I lost all of them, and I don’t even know the reason why they did what they did. I thought of Cornelia uniting Leah, Aria, Jabez, and me together, laughing joyfully like she once did when she was alive. I chuckled to myself,

“I’m a foolish one, aren’t I?” Almost immediately, Zerina began coughing. She pressed her hands and rubbed her forehead.

“I feel dizzy, Isolde.” Right after, I heard a light shatter far off into the distance. I reached for the blanket and helped her lay down on her bed. My hands reached for her head to check her temperature. I then grabbed a wet towel and placed it on top of her forehead. The barrier is slowly breaking.

“Zerina, rest.” I said again. Zerina returned,

“To think I can rest while preserving your home, if only that could happen.”

I watched over Zerina and took care of her. The soup was cold, but that wasn’t the only thing that was cold in the room. I glanced over my shoulder to look at the window. I saw that the sky truly was cracked, but it was hard to see it. The sky before me cracked from time to time. Sometimes, I nodded off and woke up again due to Zerina’s thrashing. Then, I heard a sound far off into the distance. The sound was melodic, soothing, and memorable. I realized the noise wasn’t a sound, but a tune. It sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure where I had heard it before. The tune calmed me, and I felt at ease. I searched in my brain and tried to find where I had once heard it. Then, I remembered where I had heard it before. The tune was from a song my mother sang to me when I was little. She held me in my arms, rocking me back and forth, and sang an absolutely beautiful melody. I stood up and went towards the direction of the tune. It was very quiet, and I had no idea where to find the origin of the tune, but I still went and followed the tune. So blindly I came out of the room, out of the cottage, and abandoning my caretaker. Everything became irrelevant. The tune swept me off of my feet into a sea of nothingness. I already knew that my mother had died long ago, but I still clung to the possibility that my mother was the one humming the tune. It was false hope, of course, but at least there’s something than nothing at all.

When I drew further away from the cottage, the sky became cloudy as if it was about to rain. The weather became a bit more chilly. But I still carried on, following my mother’s song. Perhaps if I wasn’t so brainwashed with my mother’s tune, then I would have considered that there was something luring me in and attempting to capturing me. The tune became louder as I neared the edge of the barrier. An instrument was playing the tune, and it was the most pleasant noise I had ever heard in a long time. Then the barrier stood before me. There was no physical appearance of the barrier really. It was transparent, but it didn’t show the real world. The barrier didn’t look out of place. It looked normal, more or less. All of a sudden, the tune echoed so loudly it was deafening. But then it stopped. Nothing else came after it. There was just pure silence. After a long time of silence, I heard a voice. The voice was quiet yet desperate. I assumed the voice came from outside of the barrier as the only two physical bodies that live inside the barrier was Zerina and me. I crept closer to the barrier in confusion. As I touched the barrier, there was a shock immediately afterwards. I yelped. Pulling my hand back as quick as possible.

“What was that?” I whispered to myself in fright and suspicion, “why did the barrier just do that? Does Zerina know that I’m here?” I tossed my head back in forth and looked at the dark forest before me.

“Zerina, can you hear me?” I said. There was no response.

“Zerina’s too weak to hear me when I’m this far away from home right?” I questioned. Then, an idea popped up in my head. I looked back at the barrier. It seemed to be curious as to what I planned on doing next. I reached for my necklace instinctively, as if something had motioned me to do so. I tugged on the necklace and hesitated. What was I about to do? I let go of my necklace and cleared my throat. I turned my back and was about to return when I stopped. Thoughts of my family invaded my head. My bright mother, my sweet sister, my wonderful father, and my caring Leah. Remembering them was too painful. The past was too painful. I clutched my chest and heaved.

“My chest hurts and my heart aches.” My necklace was hanging as I bent down. It twirled sadly as I watched it sorrowfully.

“Snow, come over here, your father and I want to show you something.” My mother Cornelia once said to me sweetly. My father stood right next to Cornelia and gently wafted his hands. I played with Aria and my toy bear when Cornelia beckoned me to come to her as she sipped her tea in delight. I glanced at Aria, who nodded at me and tilted her head in my mother’s direction.

“Go on Isolde, I’ll play with you outside at the rose garden.” I skipped towards Cornelia in joy and asked her,

“Mother, father, what is it?” She was smiling lovingly, taking my little baby hands and holding them. My father patted me on the head. His hands were powerful but soft and welcoming at the same time.

“We have something special for you. I hope you like it.” Jabez responded excitedly. He turned and took something, opened my hand, and placed something rather warm on top of my palm. Cornelia closed my hand, and I opened it to see the most beautiful necklace I had ever seen before. The magnificent sapphire stone shone brightly, just like my mother and father.

“For you. Do you like it?” Cornelia asked,

“I like it very much. Thank you mother, thank you father!” I was elated as I hugged my mother and father, and they hugged me back with as much love as I had given them, if not more.

A tear fell down to the ground. My head hung low as I tried sniffing my cries away. I wiped away my tears, but they always came back. Perhaps, it would have been better if I had never known them. I was a cursed child, after all. My head was hurting. I wasn’t able to see from my eyes. My ears were ringing. I loved my family, I loved all of them. Was it so wrong to love them so much? Was it a sin? I felt so much pain just thinking about them briefly. Was this my curse, to forever suffer for the rest of my life, because I bring misfortune? If so, it would be best if I had never remembered them at all. If I had erased my existence from their lives long ago, they might’ve lived a happier and a more fulfilled life. My hands shook as they wrapped themselves around my necklace. What was the point in finding out? What was the point in finding Aria if I would just cause her pain? It would be better if I stayed inside this place and be caught in their illusions of happiness. My tears didn’t stop. They were pouring out of my eyes as if they were begging me to forget all the memories of them I for so long had treasured deeply in my heart.

“I miss you mother, father, Aria, Leah… I miss you all, and I’m sorry for everything.” I hesitated for more than a moment, and then I yanked on my necklace and I heard the silver chain snap. I closed my eyes and I continued to cry as I curled myself into a tiny and weak ball. I wished my memories would disappear. Every single one of them, I wanted them gone. Out of my life. I wanted them to fade away without a trace. I wanted to be happy again, and I won’t be able to if I remembered them, so it would be better for me if I forgot about them completely. All the good, all the bad, all the heartwarming memories, and all the heartbreaking ones. To be reborn, maybe that was my wish.

Then I heard a loud crack above me. I heard more of them, and I continued to hear them for a long time until they stopped, as if holding their breath. I didn’t pay any attention to it at first, but when I thought of  Zerina, I lifted my head up in alarm. But what was I was most alarmed at, was that the barrier was completely shattered, the scenery was completely different, and there was a man, a noble one from the looks of it, who stood right in front of me. Yelping, I was backing up until I hit a tree. I looked at him in fear and shielded myself as I used my hands. For the very first time, I felt the cold, cold wind envelop me.

“Oh, what is this? I don’t recall you sitting and crying there before.” He was walking towards me and I tried getting away, but there was something keeping me from doing so. I was petrified. He kneeled down, leaned closer to my face, and inspected it.

“You don’t look like someone from here. What are you doing in the forest, do you know that you are currently trespassing in a Count’s land? Do you wish to die that quickly? Wait,” he squinted his eyes as he neared closer, “move your hands away and open your eyes.” I went still, pressing my hands closer to my face. Time went by and the stranger said again,

“Remove your hands away from your face.” His tone became more demanding, and I shrank down, vainly hoping that he wouldn’t be able to see me. Then he forced my hands away from me, and he saw my cursed eyes. When he saw my eyes, he was very shocked indeed, but he didn’t look at me like I was a monster. If I were to be honest, I wasn’t sure what he was thinking when he saw me. Then he chuckled in amusement and laughed excessively. Apparently, the laugh was too one sided.

“To think that I would come across my prey like this, I must be very lucky,” he stood up and looked down at me, “I would have never imagined that the rat would be right under the cat’s nose the entire time.” My shock seemed to have drowned, and I regained back my suspicion. I growled,

“Who are you?” He stopped, and questioned,

“Me? Who am I you say?” He snorted, and bent down,

“For now, you can just call me, your soon to be savior.”

“Edmund, I found someone you would like to meet.” A voice spoke behind Edmund. I looked over his shoulders and I saw a woman, who was also a noble. Beside her, was someone who was dreadfully familiar. The familiar person was breathing heavily, and she was coughing so much as if her life depended on it.

“Hello Zerina. It has been way too long. We were looking for you, why did you suddenly disappear?” Zerina’s head trembled as she attempted to face me. She yelled,

“Why? Why did you do that?” Her tone startled me, and her tone startled Edmund as well. The woman right next to her wasn’t as startled as Edmund and me.

“You should have never done that, Isolde! You shouldn’t have!”

“Zerina, calm down. For now, let’s go back to the Count’s-”

“You disobeying, misbehaving child! Look at what you’ve done, look at what you’ve done!”

“Zerina, please listen to Edmund. You are very ill right now and you might die.” But Zerina ignored her warning as she persisted,

“If I knew you were going to do this from the very start,” she began, “then it would have been better if you were never born!” Then, Zerina’s eyes opened wide. She clutched her chest, breathing in and out heavily, and her legs gave way as she fell, choking and gasping for air. She continued to struggle until she stopped and fainted. The woman reached for Zerina, catching her in time before her head was about to hit the ground.

“Zerina! Zella, I’ll be right there!” Edmund came rushing towards Zerina, leaving me the opportunity to run, but I was shocked and stunned once again. Edmund must’ve left me knowing how much of an effect Zerina’s words had on me. I watched silently as Edmund and Zella worked together to lift Zerina’s body so that Edmund was able to carry her. It would have been better if you were never born! Her words rang mercilessly in my head. I clung to my arm tightly. Her words weren’t supposed to make me feel this way. Not after how Zerina treated me. But the feeling wasn’t going away. It stung. Something cold touched my skin. I looked at my shoulder to see what it was. Then the cold touched me again, but this time on my other arm. I whirled around to face it, but there was nothing there except a very tiny drop of water. I looked up and realized what was going on. It was snowing.