Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 28-

Day: 4

Days Left: 5476

Lives Saved: 0

Corinna cupped her face in her hands, rubbing her temples with her fingers. They then slid down to her lips, her teeth biting into them. She glanced back at the basement door then to the objects in front of her. Picking up the garlic crusher, she twirled it around in her hand.

After a moment of fiddling, she rose to her feet and headed to the kitchen area to begin making the food. As she poured the boiling water from the kettle into the pot, she heard something crash down in the basement. She jolted, almost causing her to spill hot water on her hand. Something else also clattered to the floor, and a growl followed afterwards. Leaving the food packets to cook in the pot, Corinna hesitantly stepped towards the basement door.

"Harmony?" She peered behind the corner, listening out for a reply.

She received none.

"Harm? Are you okay?" She took another step closer. "Harm-"

The trap-door flung open, and the chimaera's jackal face popped up, her breath staggered and stunted. Whilst still standing on the basement ladder and her upper body above the surface, Harmony flopped her head on the ground, arms sprawled. Once she had caught her breath, the chimaera looked up at Corinna and attempted a smile, or rather opened her jaw, revealing a set of canines. Her three-fingered hand reached around her neck then paused, finding that her whiteboard was not there. After spotting it near the fireplace, where she had left it, Harmony climbed fully up the ladder and went to pick it up.

'Finally found it' she wrote on the whiteboard, walking back towards Corinna. Harmony retrieved a white notebook and a white pencil case embroidered with red roses that she had been holding onto with her snake-tail, then handed them to Corinna. She hesitantly accepted them and thanked the chimaera.

The young woman flipped through the pages of the notebook, wondering why she was given this. She supposed she could record the date and count down the next blood moon or draw a map of the Eternal Abyss. Upon hearing Harmony give a small grunt, indicating her to pay attention, she looked up at the new words on the whiteboard.

'For your memories'.

"My memories?" Corinna looked down at the notebook, then back up at the chimaera. "Why? Why would I need to- will I lose my memories down here?"

Harmony hesitated, then nodded solemnly, her eyes low and avoiding contact. She wrote the word 'curse' on the whiteboard.

Tracing the scarred word 'treason' on the back of her neck, Corinna remembered the magic ritual she underwent before arriving in the Eternal Abyss. "They put a spell on us before we were imprisoned, didn't they?"

The chimaera nodded.

"So I'll forget everything?"

Harmony shook her head, which brightened Corinna's face if only a little. The chimaera quickly scribbled down a list; 'skills, history facts, songs, concepts, maths, languages, movies, cake recipes, frogs etc'.

Corinna giggled. "Well, I'm glad I won't forget frogs." Her smile faded. "But what about people? Will I remember my family?"

Her claws clutching at the whiteboard, Harmony shook her head.

The young woman nodded. Of course. She reached a hand to the chimaera and placed it on Harmony's wrist. "Thank you." She beamed. "Thank you for telling me." Her fingers felt the softness of the chimaera's fur as she let her hand drop back to her side. "I'm sorry I upset you earlier- that I got angry."

Harmony tilted her head in confusion, which Corinna noticed.

"You were upset, weren't you?"

Harmony shook her head.

"But you went down into the basement again, for like a long time. I thought-"

'Took a while to find those' the chimaera wrote, motioning her head to the notebook and pencil-case in Corinna's hands.

Her hand cupping her face, Corinna let out a groaning sigh. "I thought you were upset. I thought I'd-" A smile cracked through on her face. "We really need to learn to communicate better." She laughed.

Harmony attempted another grin and patted the young woman on the head lightly.

After Corinna had finished dealing out the food into bowls, which was slightly overcooked, she nestled into an armchair with her notebook on her lap. Whilst eating forkfuls of food, she wrote in it, drawing her family tree, attempting to recall her relatives' middle names as well as notes on memories that she wished to remember.

Meanwhile, Harmony ate her food on the floor whilst playing and fiddling with the items that she had traded with Ivette. So consumed with wrapping the beaded necklace around her wrist multiple times, Corinna had to repeat herself until Harmony jolted upwards and heard her.

"What do you remember?" Corinna asked. "What did you choose to keep?"

Harmony sat upright and wrote on the whiteboard 'didn't know about spell'.

"You didn't know? So..." Corinna paused, her voice cracking. "Can you remember anything?"

The chimaera shook her head.

The young woman noticed the chimaera's quivering hands clutching at the whiteboard. Corinna looked down at her notebook, at the many pages that she had already filled with memories. "What about your name?" she asked, forcing a smile. "That's something."

The chimaera shook her head once again and wrote 'not real name'.

Harmony remembered nothing. Nothing. Nothing apart from... 'I know I must escape' she wrote on the whiteboard. 'To kill the queen'.

Corinna swallowed. "You want to kill the queen?"

The chimaera wrote beneath it 'only way to be free'.

Intertwining her fingers, Corinna bit her lower lip. She had immediately wanted to tell Harmony that she was wrong, that regicide- that murder was wrong. But then her own mind guiltly brought up the memories of her fight with the imps and the creature in the cave. She had said to herself before she was imprisoned that she would do anything to survive for her family, yet her conscience would always fight back. How could she play the superior in morality when she was so conflicted in what was right or wrong?

If she helped the chimaera escape, that would mean the queen's death would be on her hands too.

--------------------------------------

100+ Votes Gained

Thank you to everyone who has been voting, commenting, and reading this far!