Hades

Chapter Twenty Three - The Memory, Part Two

Chapter Twenty Three: The Memory Part Two

Treielle watched as her former self paced the huge downstairs library late in the evening, her shadow dancing on the walls in the low lamplight. The girl fiddled with her cross pendant, and spoke in a low voice to herself.

'I can't leave home,' she said firmly, 'to even consider it I must be as mad as the hatter. I haven't ever stepped foot outside my garden! But still, if Honda leaves I'll be all alone again. Could I really handle it if things were just like before; if I had never had anything to look forward to ever again? I can't ask him to stay for me. I'm the caged bird...not him.' Treielle watched herself stop pacing, and put a finger to her lips. 'My first kiss, and my last. But if I go with him it could be the first of many.' This idea filled the girl with such sweet, ecstatic happiness that she suddenly felt energised. The future Treielle felt and remembered those feelings. 'I could really do it,' said the former Treielle, new courage dawning. 'I could pack a few things and leave with him tonight. It's all just as simple as he said. He'd keep me safe. We could really do it...I am going to do it!'

'You're going to do what?' asked a voice softly, and both Treielles spun around.

'N-nothing mother.' Trembling fingers tucked her necklace back into her dress. 'Nothing at all.'

Treielle's mother, her greying red hair tied back in an untidy knot, observed her daughter with weary, haunted eyes. 'You have grass stains all over you. Why do you insist on playing outside? It's so much safer and more pleasant indoors. We spent a lot remodelling your bedroom to make it bigger.'

'The garden is perfectly safe, Mother,' said Treielle, not wanting that particular avenue of pleasure closed, but her mother's eyes had locked onto her daughter's hand and were staring with horror. 'Mother, what's wrong?'

'Your finger!' shrilled her mother, running forward and grabbing Treielle by her upper arms. 'You're bleeding! Darling! Darling come in here!'

Treielle fought to wrench her hand free. 'No; it's just a scratch! Please don't call Dad!'

Her father burst into the room as though expecting to confront an axe murderer, his face panic-stricken.

'What's the matter? Is she okay? Is she hurt?'

'She's injured her hand!' sobbed her mother, and Treielle felt like crying herself.

'But it isn't hurt – I'm fine! Will you listen to me? I just pricked my finger on one of the rose thorns earlier and had to put a plaster on it.' She realised a second too late that this was the wrong thing to say. Her mother squeezed Treielle to her bosom and glared.

'I told you those rose bushes were dangerous to her! Why do we even have them out there? It's just too much of a risk!'

Her father mopped his sweaty brow, his eyes wild. 'Well, we just won't let her play outside anymore. It's far too dangerous for a little girl anyway. She could have had her eyes out with one of those thorns.'

The present Treielle touched her eye patch absently and watched her former self pressed against her mother's chest, her red hair falling into her forlorn face, wet with tears.

'But I wasn't a little girl, Mum and Dad. Not anymore. I just wanted things to be normal. It's all I ever wanted; for you to be normal parents, and to not overreact over every little thing. If you love someone too much, and press all of that love down on top of them, their soul gets crushed and eventually they begin to die inside.'

*

Knowing she was locked in the house with no escape possible and no way to send a message to Honda, at their designated meeting time of midnight Treielle watched her former self creep down the hall to her father's study and open his safe. The combination had been easy to guess; it was hers and her sister's birthday. Metal gleamed in the moonlight, and after making sure it was loaded she removed the gun from its hiding place and walked back to her room as though sleepwalking. It was a handgun, an illegal investment in the family's safety should there ever be an intruder. Treielle didn't know what she wanted to do with it but she liked the feel of the cold heavy metal in her hands, and the sudden feeling of control it gave her. Treielle had never had control over anything in her life.