School of the Crown Assassins

15

The prison cell was colder this time.

The chains clasped around my ankles and wrists in an icy grip, digging in harder than ever before. Once again, the prison cell walls disappeared and blood oozed from the landscape of my home, crawling up my skin and searing through it like acid. The bloody knife in my hand reflected my eyes wrinkling upwards on the sides as if I was smiling, enjoying the sight of my own writhing body.

I screamed and shoved against the chains, a motion I had been repeating the past few minutes to avail, except this time, they gave away. I jerked forward from the sudden freedom, but instead of falling into the coiling blood, I collapsed on a hard steel floor. Getting shakily to my feet, I looked around.

I was in the halls of prison, walking between dark cells that resembled the one I had just been trapped in. The knife was still in my hand, red blood dripping to the floor, the image of eyes no longer in its reflection. I tried to drop the knife, shaking my hands wildly, but my fingers stayed clasped firmly around the hilt.

My bare feet carried me at a gradual pace down the dark hall, towards the only source of light--a flickering fluorescent bulb. My heart thundered in my ears and it took me a moment to realize the light had been timed to my pulse. It blinked faster, plunging me in and out of the darkness. The light turned on and off once again, but now the shadow of a girl stood where there had been nothing before.

I neared the girl, stopping only a foot away from her. Her face was shadowed, but I knew she was me from long ago. She was wearing my favorite outfit from childhood--a black dress that extended to my mid-thighs, pretty white doves flying across its folds. But my favorite part was the way the tips of the doves' wings faded into a dark purple-blue shade.

"He's gone," she squeaked and placed her hands behind her back, a young habit of mine from when there was no scar along my collarbone to rub in nervousness.

"What?" I croaked, my dry voice sounding like two bricks scraping against one another.

"Daddy's gone," she repeated and lifted a finger to my feet. I looked down to find myself standing atop my father's bleeding body.

I stumbled back, a shriek escaping my throat. The knife that had been in my hands stuck through his chest, piercing the space his heart would've been. Shallow water lapped at his sides and the blood swirled through it in patterns that would've been mesmerizing. The water trickled toward me, slipping between my toes, filling the hall.

My breathing shallowed, pulse speeding beyond the levels a normal human should reach. The water was getting deeper reaching my ankles in a matter of seconds. My knees wobbled before collapsing by my father's body. I reached out to touch him, but my hands stilled when blood water bubbled and frothed from his lips.

"I thought you would be happy," the girl said, but the voice was replaced by my mother's. She stepped forward and the shadows slid away from her face revealing bloodstained teeth and the whites of her eyes an endless black.

"I thought you would be happy," she repeated and I shivered as the water crawled higher, reaching past my bent knees. "You were supposed to be happy."

"I'm not happy," I wanted to say, but my mouth was taped shut. Only a pathetic whimper slipped from deep in my throat. My stomach churned at the sound, my mind telling me to do better, to sound fearful. But nothing else came.

My ears started to ring. My head spun as I steadied my rocking body to no avail. It was too much. The girl that had once been me stared through her black eyes while blood dripped down the lips that carried my mother's repeating words across them. My father's body laid still, the knife standing like a gravestone, the hilt bearing the symbol of a bird. The water soaked my prison uniform, climbing higher, plunging me deeper and deeper into icy depths. Sweat dotted my forehead and my hand looked pale, a stark contrast to my surroundings. The tips of my fingers turned blue. My chest constricted, empty unable to inhale any air as if rocks were placed atop me.