"You can't judge a book by its cover, Rhea"
"Yeah well, I can judge a person by their thoughts"
For Rhea Devereux, being in other people's mind was as easy as taking candy from a baby. Being born with the gift of Legilimency, it was something she wa...
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Rhea was in her bedroom. The huge windows brought the sunlight in, the many cassettes she owned were piled on the table. On the floor, Waffles was asleep, snoring once every while.
The music on her headphones made Rhea relax. She was plopped on her bed, humming to a song, but weird enough, she didn't recognize it.
She heard aunt Bree calling her for lunch, and instantly Waffles was wide awake. He barked with delight and ran out of her room.
Rhea stood up as well, pausing the music and placing her cassette player on the night table.
She left her room and found herself walking down a long, dark corridor.
Her eyebrows knitted; she had the slight doubt this was not the way.
She felt this was not the place where she and Theo had been raised by Brianna and Daniel, but somewhere else.
The only light came from an old chandelier. Her feet guided her while her mind wandered, looking at the portraits on the walls of many men and women, with their fine clothes and expressions that reflected their sense of superiority.
They followed Rhea with their gaze, and she realized she had gotten used to those looks.
After all, she had lived in that dingy, creepy house for most of the first decade of her life.
But unlike the memories she had of that place, that she loathed with all her heart, it looked different.
The walls were unkempt, and the tapestry that covered it looked like it wouldn't hold for much longer. The paintings were covered in dust, which its inhabitants detested, and the floorboards creaked with every step the brown-haired girl took.
Despite how different the houses looked, it seemed real. Rhea felt it was real.
She kept walking until she came to a door, tall and made of dark brown wood. She opened it and found her brother. He was sitting on the floor, staring at a wall as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. Rhea leaned closer, Theo was pale, his eyes didn't seem to have his usual gleam.
"You came, at last" said a raspy and cold voice. The voice of her father.
Rhea looked up and there he was, he looked just like she remembered him. A mocking smile, but wary eyes, as if he was analyzing everything around him.
"What did you do to him?" she asked and tried to sound brave, but her voice came out like a shaky whisper. She reached down and put her hand on her brother's cheek, which was as cold as an iceberg. Theo didn't move, it was as if he wasn't there.
"Oh, well, if I tried to explain it to you, you probably wouldn't understand" he said, with the same tone of voice he had always used with his two children, as if they were stupid creatures, of little intelligence and reasoning.
