Scarred by two

TWELFTH

She took timid steps behind Albia, who gave Marcus a sad smile. Marcus slowly turned to walk in and from the corner of her eyes Albia saw her flinching slightly.

She took a deep breath and kept walking forward navigating her to her daughters old room.

They don't open the room most often because it makes them miss their child, but for the scared child they decide to ignored and let Althea rest their.

Althea felt numb and her heart felt heavy. Because she didn't feel scared and she was used of being scared.

While walking down the hallway she saw square frames with photos in them, their was a beautiful girl with red hair who had her arms around Albia and Marcus holding both of them and all the three of them had wide smiles on their faces.

"That's our daughter"Albia said when the saw Althea not following her but standing before the photo frames looking at them with fascination.

Althea gave her a small nod after she took a few deep breaths to calm her erratically beating heart after she Albia snapped her out her reverie.

Later Albia settled her in the room and tried as possible to make her comfortable.

Althea was kind of  sceptical about the room as she has seen it for the first time but after few encouragement from Albia she sat on the soft mattress and touched the bed softly feeling it under her palm.

After Albia left her alone on her own she looked around the beautiful room. It was really clean and smelt like wood.

Standing up gingerly she moved around the room touching the walls and the tables though she didn't open anything but kept touched and felt the cold walls.

She walked towards the windows and looked out the lonely street and the forest opposite to it.
Though it was difficult to look through the fog and the night made it more difficult.

Moving backwards she moved towards the another door and opened it. She moved in moving towards the mirror after it caught her attention.

In the mirror she saw her tired black eyes looking back at her. She ran her eyes all over herself observing her frail body.

Her once white dress looked muddy and off white. Her right shoulder bare as the dress two time larger then her. It was one of her mom dress that she wore seconds before leaving her house.

Thinking about her parents made her eyes misty, as bizzare as it sounded but she missed them.
The years of her life she spend she made them her life.

Her eyes stopped on her matted black hair, though they were long but really thin and apart from the upper part the rest looked really rough and lifeless.

She moved out the room searching for Albia, she looked around when she saw Marco sitting on the table looking in some wooden box, he had a small smile on his face.

She slowly moved towards him when he snapped his head up and looked at her. She squealed softly and jumped back.

Marcus chuckled softly when seeing her scared face and Althea kept looking at him and unknowingly a small smile came on her own face.

Albia secretly kept looking at the two and her heart fluttered a little seeing her husband laughing after a long time. She came forward and moved towards Althea carefully as to not scare her.

She smiled at Althea and asked her if she needed anything.
Althea moved closer and whispered in her ears.
"Can I have water, I want to wash me?"Albia suppressed her laugh because she knew whispering was waste before vampires.

She nodded and softly took her hands her hers and took her towards bathroom.
Althea stood near the bathroom door while Albia went and turned the shower knob on.

Althea gasped as clear water fell on the floor. She walked towards the shower and forwarded her hand. She giggled as the cold water fell on her hand. Albia kept looking at the giggling beautiful frail lady before and chuckled softly.

Albia came forward and turned the knob so the shower head threw hot water on Althea's hand.
Althea for a minute jerked her hand back and again  moved.

"Stand under it" she snapped her head and Albia and then moved under the shower after softly nodding at her.

Albia left her alone for a while and returned with some of her daughters old clothes.

Althea soon got ready after some instructions from the woman who has been taking care of her since few days.
Albia taught her how to clean her hair and body.
After giving her the cloths which fit her perfectly.
She took her out for dinner.

Marcus was on the dinner busy when he hears soft feets, he moved his head up and saw the scared little lady coming towards him in his daughters old clothes.
At the moment the man flet really emotional as he felt his daughter walking towards him.

He took and deep breath and smiled at Althea moving away a little as he wouldn't want to scare her.

With small steps Althea walked towards the table and looked at the two adults.
Albia asked her to sit on the chair and like a obedient kid she sat down.

Marcus filled her plate a little with food and nodded at her to start eating.
Althea took a spoonful of whatever was on the plate and ate with so much urgency. Albia kept fussing over her to eat more while Marcus kept telling her to not fill her much.

After filling her stomach they took her outside for some fresh air, Althea was sceptical about leaving the house but she almost felt safe.

Covering her with a thick jacket they took her outside on the foggy street the forest opposite gave her chills but Marcus and Albia kept her in the middle.

While walking few people past them who greeted Marcus and Albia all while she kept looking all around the place with fascination.
The night and the moon looked really beautiful.

Marcus and Albia kept telling her about the place when suddenly she started shivering like a leaf and a look of horror fell on her face, her gaze stuck ahead.

They followed her gaze and saw the king and his mate walking towards them with powerful stride.
Marcus was about to tell the two kings to leave when he heard a sound, he turned in a snap and saw Althea on the ground unconscious.

*****