Beneath the Fountain

25. Lies

Mystery's hold on me tightens as my "mother" surveys the area. Her dark, predator-like eyes start a slow and careful search, and I watch as they move closer and closer to us, petrified. Even in the dusky light, she will see us. My heart isn't beating. I can't remember the last time I took a breath. I refuse to even blink because I'm scared I'll never open my eyes again. I might as well be a marble sculpture displaying the sheer terror someone feels when they are powerless to change their fate. Or maybe Mystery and I could be a sculpture of two star crossed lovers who were doomed from the start, which actually may be a more accurate display.

I want to run. I want to scream. But I know that running would do no good now, and screaming would just strain my throat for no reason. Instead I stay as still as I can, and it's not entirely by choice either. I feel trapped in Mystery's grasp, but there's something else, too. Something is telling me to become invisible even though that isn't possible. Really, all I can do is pray for a miracle, and if magic is real, can't miracles be too no matter how crazy it would need to be?

Neither of us move, and neither of us make a sound as her eyes land on us, and I know that this is the end. I don't know what she'll do to Mystery, and I don't even know what she'll do to me, but it is the end for us being together and it only just began. But then, the insanely impossible happens. Her eyes are on us. They hover just over our figures, but no look of recognition crosses her features, and after the longest second of my life, her eyes continue to search the area as if she didn't see us.

Yes, it is getting dark out here, but there is no way she didn't see us, especially when my white dress may as well be glowing in this light. I know her eyes were on us; I saw the glint in them, what was in them. I saw anger, disbelief, and most of all I saw fear.

Maybe her fear was only reflecting my own, though.

She stands there for only a few more seconds, but each second feels like its own eternity. And then, just as fast as she came, my mother is gone, her tattered grey dress following behind her. Neither Mystery or I speak, too afraid to even move. Or maybe, just maybe we're too shocked.

I still think she will come back for us. She was just playing a game and giving us false hope that we were safe because no other explanation makes sense. We were cornered, fish trapped in a barrel, and yet here we are still safely sitting? It doesn't make sense.

But then again, nothing in my life makes sense anymore. What is real and what is not? What is a lie? Because I feel like my entire life has been one. Mystery said that woman wasn't my mother, but how is that possible? How do I not know my own mother? How does Mystery, a man who has been hidden away for God only knows how long, know who she is and I don't?

So what is real and what isn't? I guess the better question is what do I know is real?

My name is Sage Sinclair, and I have no parents. My father died six months ago, and since then my life has been nothing but black and shadows till my 18th birthday. My mother- well I have no mother I know of, and I never felt like I had one anyway. My maid Helena was my best friend yet she kept a secret from me and I still don't know what it is, but I have a feeling it has to do with the woman who I thought was my mother. I was supposed to be married to an infuriating and confusing man who had his moments of unpredictable sweetness, but I ran away instead, my heart belonging to another. My heart belongs to a man whose name I don't even know. He could be lying to me just like every other person in my life, but I know he isn't. He is real in a world of lies.

Magic is real.

Love is real.

My life may be a lie, but I do have some truth to hold on to.