Down the Rabbit Hole - Book Four

23. Somehow I'm Still Here

VYNDREN

This aquarium definitely has my teeth on edge. It reminds me too much of that damned asylum I was imprisoned and tortured in; everything is just too boxed in, hypnotic and confusing. The shadows of the fish swimming back and forth before the neon lights glowing in their tanks nauseatingly make me recall the way my neon chains would shine in my darkened prison cage...

I feel so claustrophobic, so anxious and cagey, I can't focus on anything other than the walls pressing in on me... I can't concentrate on anything other than the cold, blank eyes of the fish that flash back and forth before my vision...

I can't help but resonate with the imprisoned fish; captured in a cage too small, blinded by lights too bright and yet left to drown in the depths of the shadows...

Someone nudges me and I'm instantly ripped out of my introspection.

"What the hell?!" I frantically demand, sweeping my eyes over Eve'Veil. My heart is still lurching anxiously in my chest. Damn it, how could I've let someone sneak up on me like that?! If she had a knife, she could've stabbed me!

"I called your name like, ten bloody times," she informs me impatiently. "What's the problem with you anyway?"

"Problem?" I scoff and stuff my hands into my jacket's pockets. I can still feel my hands shaking nervously but at least they're not trembling in plain sight for anyone to notice and suspect me of weakness. "I ain't got no problem, what the hell is wrong with you?" I retort and now brush past her.

Don't focus on the lights. The Prince's voice echoes in my head. Just focus on the darkness...it's soothing, it's your home...it's the only place of relief you've ever know, remember?

I guess, I shrug and shake my head. Actually I think in my first human life I enjoyed the sun, I glance at my forearms, darkened from life in the hot sun...

No, no, the night is the master of the day, don't forget that more fear the darkness than they do the light...when you master fear, you're the master of everything. The Prince hisses in my ear.

Yeah, I guess but -

"You guess what?" Eve'Veil glances at me suspiciously.

"I said that aloud?" Holy shick, what the hell is up with my mind?

"Relax, will you?" She sounds annoyed. "You're so damn tense, you're practically emitting a concrete force-field that keeps persons away from you."

"So?" I snap. Is my discomfort really so noticeable?

She rolls her eyes. "All I'm saying is that you don't have to, no one is going to mess with you, trust me." She snorts as she looks me over. I furrow my brow and look away. "So, when do you imagine you'll tell the Prophetess how to close these portals?" she asks, falling in step beside me as I slowly mosey away.

I snort with an eyeroll. "Prophetess. Ya ain't callin' her auntie dearest?" I sneer at her expression.

She opens her mouth as if to retort but now closes it again as she glances over her shoulder at Mira. Mira is smiling and pointing at some fish with Zaria and Neelam at her side, they look pleasantly enchanted by her. I smirk despite myself. "I suppose there are worse persons to be related to...." Eve'Veil says cautiously.

"Yeah," I agree darkly. "Like your mother," my eyes slide over her accusingly.

"Stop looking at me like that," she retorts tersely. "I had no more to do with my mother's crimes than you did your father's."