Blind Beauty

Blind Beauty | 19

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Chapter Diecinueve

Arlette woke up startled, with fast breaths and sweaty palms.

And hot tears.

 

Fear crashed at her spine like merciless rocks.

 

There’s no way that woman could give her a gift, right? She was only a dream. Dreams weren’t reality.

 

But then again, she’d say she was once the Prince’s lover, which terrified Arlette even more than she had expected.

 

And suddenly something clicked, and questions started to rattle in.

Was she the same woman who threw the curse at the Prince? Arlette remembered her mother telling her about an horrible witch throwing a strong curse at him. She itched with curiosity. Who knew. Maybe she was, which put Arlette in great danger and made fear hit her like waves, or maybe not, and she was just one of the women he’d probably encounter. Either of the two, that woman seemed dangerous enough and just the thought of her being a witch petrified Arlette to the point of madness.

 

But then again, the gift she said she was going to give Arlette didn’t seem to have the best of intentions.

 

In her understanding, gifts were good things. They were items or objects or anything else of value that was meant for good. Why would that woman want to give her a gift after the torture she’d put Arlette in? There has got to be something behind it, Arlette concluded as hysteria made its way slowly to her body, something not right. She was more than just a woman in a dream, she was something else, something evil.

 

Arlette, without noticing, was sitting at the edge of the bed, letting her hands wander on the familiar bed and letting her thoughts lurk in.

 

But as thoughts twirled and thrashed themselves against Arlette’s mind, something, something more important and stronger and intense wrecked her whole being, making her choke on her own breath.

 

Her father.

 

That hideous silence strained in, and the only thing she could hear was how hard her heart started beating in her chest, how she felt all her bones shatter into a million pieces, how her breath got faster, like she was trapped and there was no escape, how a hollowness crowded her heart and smashed it.

 

Without thinking, she got off the bed, the cold marble floor making the hairs on her arms stand, and practically ran to the door, the emptiness hugging her as tears threatened to fall.