Seduce Me ~ The Path To Forgiveness

Path Three, Step Twelve: Time To Wake Up

I struggle to remember the fleeting dream, ignoring the devious creature that watches me in amusement from the other side of the near-shattered glass. The fading images crackle like static, a haunting feeling drawing me to the dining room where the double doors are thrown wide and a sour, harsh scent drifts to me as I approach, but I cling to them desperately, the weight of them bearing on my mind as though my life depends on them. But, as dreams tend to do, the harder I cling the faster they slip away and I glare up at my doppelganger in irritation as if it were her doing.

She meets my sharp gaze with one of barely restrained excitement, her eyes glittering mysteriously with a mischevious smile painted widely along her face. For all her insistence, the brutalized mirror only holding itself together by sheer will, she seems more than content to simply watch me as she lazily twirls a strand of hair between her fingers. After a few moments of silence she draws her face closer to the glass, her twinkling gaze unwavering as she parts her crimson lips and blows gently on it. Her finger trails slowly through the fog, giving me a short wave as my eyes skim the words and the room darkens.

See you soon!

Something in the back of my mind tugs at me as I drag myself wearily from the bed, spending an abnormally long time staring at my reflection in the mirror. I feel as though I've forgotten something important but even as I dress myself, glancing around the room in contemplation, I can't seem to remember what. I do my best to push the strange feeling from my mind, trading my worried expression for a bright smile as I join the others for breakfast.

It's been two days since the funeral and my mind has been sluggish, powerful but short migraines accompanying a fuzziness at the edges of my thoughts, when not in Damiens company. Though I've done my best to keep it to myself, not wishing for him to worry, I've spent every available moment in his presence to ward off the sickly feeling. Today however, despite his company, my head pounds as we spend the lazy afternoon curled up in my fathers, my, office.

"Headache?" He asks as I wince, pausing my reading as the words on the page before me become too sharp to look at. With my back pressed against his chest, his arms wrapped around my waist as I lean back against him, he has to lean forward to catch my eye, worry tinting his.

'Yeah, I'm fine though.' I reply as the pain dims, my free hand unconsciously drifting to his arms and pulling him closer.

"If you need a break.." He begins but I shake my head.

'We're almost finished, I need to know how it ends.' I insist, setting back in where I left off as I push the annoying feeling aside.

Though most of the books in the office are quite boring a brightly colored set had caught our attention and, with Damien silently listening as I read, I've been unable to put it down. It's a gruesome and haunting tale of a town whose adults, anyone over the age of fourteen, have all vanished, leaving them trapped inside an invisible barrier to fend for themselves. Between the chaos of children left to their own devices, the impending worry of a quickly depleting food supply, the struggle of caring for the younger children unable to care for themselves, the solemnity of burying the unfortunate ones not found in time, the sudden discovery of some children developing dangerous abilities, and the power struggle between the town and another group from a secluded boarding school of problamatic children, it's been quite a gripping story that's just now hitting its peak.

He doesn't object, the room falling back into a comfortable silence, as he nuzzles his face into the crook of my neck. The action brings a surge of warmth through me and while it doesn't disrupt my focus it does help to distract me from the merciless pounding in my scalp.

Several minutes pass, a few pages turned, before my reading begins to slow, finding it hard to focus as my mind becomes fuzzy at its edges. Damien notices the change immediately, loosening his grip on me to snag the book from my hands.