Forest Eyes

Chapter 20 MURDER

The servers at the mansion were coming by every five minutes with drinks and none of them were alcoholic, at least not any of the alcohol I know of. But before long you could feel the effects. People, and the room, became glossed over, shinny. It was almost as if each person was painted with a sparkling silver coat of paint. And I found myself becoming lighter, lighter in weight, lighter in step, lighter in mood. And it just added to the fun. I forgot all of my problems, even the one I came here tonight because of. I'm not really sure there was even a problem in the first place? I mean, was there? I couldn't think of it. No. There had to be something. A face, a name. There was something floating on the edge of my mind but I couldn't quite grasp it. It was something important for sure. I know it. But I couldn't bring myself to find it and before long it was lost, forgotten, forever, and I let the music, and the party take me away.

  Struggling was pointless. The zip ties that my mothers "henchmen" had tied us down with were cutting into my skin and I could feel the small trickling of blood from my left wrist dampen my forearm. Pain is a marvelous thing, after you feel it for such a long time it begins to numb and dull itself into a steady rhythm, until the pain you once felt becomes a thing you have to live with, it becomes something that's part of your normal day, and you begin to think nothing of it at all.

It was showtime. One of my guards informed me that my "ex husband" was now here. I smiled. Let him watch his daughter be tortured in front of the council members, he deserves it. I'm sure she'll reveal how she can pierce into someone else's mind while her mind is already being controlled, and we'll finally have the power that we've been searching for for so long. And then there'll be no one to stop us when we take over everything in the Dream Walker world. They all will be powerless to our new defense mechanism, and it will be an easy victory.

I walked to the upper floor of the ballroom where my guards were waiting to open one of the many grand doorways that was in this house. It led to a small balcony with a staircase leading down to the ballroom floor. I looked to one of my guards and flicked my head. He nodded at me and then at the man across from him. As the grabbed handles and opened the monstrous door I held my hands neatly in front of me and walked out onto the balcony. The entire ballroom fell silent to my presence. Once I got to the edge of the balcony I razed my hands. Everyone was waiting in suspense. And then I shouted. "Welcome!"

  The cheer beneath me couldn't be any louder. It rose like smoke from a great fire, piercing the heart and exploding the eardrums, overloading the senses till you became numb. I looked around the room nodding my head until my eyes fell, on him.

   It was her. It was her. This was impossible, yet here she was. Lauren, my Lauren. I had wished for this since the day she had died, wished it for Samantha, and wished it for me. And my wish had come true. But something was off, her stare was directly pinned on me, her jaw was set in a menacing smile, her whole body was tense like she'd burst out screaming and try to tear me apart. And her eyes, oh, those horrible cold eyes, could express every letter of the word M  U  R  D  E  R .