Hello, lovely people! I've missed you. Life got in the way, but since putting away projects that no longer gave me joy, creativity is back in my corner.
Enjoy the results!
LookAliveSunshine03
Chapter 15:
In her head
Iona did not go far. The connections with her guests had dwindled to these three, and she was eager to keep them after tonight's excitement. Beth needed her; that was obvious. Obstinate as any adolescent, the girl still walked with wretchedness, almost dragging her every step. Iona watched her, unseen, from the trees that had given Beth so much happiness for the smallest of moments.
The girl approached Benjamin and Tia falteringly. She frowned, her mouth moving. "Come on. Don't be a coward…"
The couple made no sign they noticed her. Sitting in the dappled grass of the orchard, Tia stroked Benjamin's head in her lap; Iona followed many emotions across Beth's face. Surprise, annoyance, and a yearning so pure, Iona touched her throat.
Finally, Beth's expression settled on resigned, careful passivity. "Um. So I'm going to have a look around. You don't have to come unless you want to, I dunno…" She bowed her head.
"We'll stay here," Benjamin said, his lip lifting in amusement. His eyes were closed, which Iona thought was rather rude. "Our host may follow you."
Look at her. Iona leaned forward through the leaves.
"Right. Great. Guess I'll have to bring more ammo with me." Beth's tone was light, but there was fury in her steps as she went to snatch more apples. Iona smiled, amused.
"Be careful," Tia said, and Beth's eyes flicked to hers in surprise. When Tia kept petting her mate, Beth pressed her lips together to hide her disappointment and straightened her spine.
"Oh. Yeah. Thanks. Bye, then." She forced her legs to move away, out into the yawning landscape ahead. She was doing this to avoid embarrassing herself further. It was pathetic, really. Yet this had been her exact intent ever since leaving Antoine. To find peace and freedom.
Hadn't it? Beth's stomach was cramped with empty longing. Anna had to be on her way by now.
Beth's shoes clacked on the cobbles. If her vision blurred, she let the tears dribble down her cheeks unhindered. She raged and smarted quietly over Benjamin and Tia. Beth had hoped they would join her in finding their way out of this stupid place. They might have opened up to her and warmed to her as they worked together to escape, but they seemed happy to stay put. Leaving Beth alone.
Again. Snivelling, Beth scowled. Idiots. Trapped together. Immediately, her thoughts double-backed from Michael's kind smile to Demetri's bitten, beautiful face. Even Seth's laugh, which always came so easy.
Suddenly weary, Beth couldn't quash a small, sad thought. It must be nice. To have someone.
Her footsteps had started to rustle. The leaves, shockingly dark and vibrant against the pale stonework, made her heart skitter. As Beth glanced up again, Iona's world seemed to waver before her eyes. They were dry now, though still warm and stinging.
When was the last time Beth cried? Still human, of course. When the world made more sense or when she was utterly ignorant of how little it made sense.
Laura. Laura made her cry. She'd been drunk and hurt Beth's feelings. Laura had always played on her self-esteem as adeptly as a musical prodigy might with piano keys. And Beth had let her. Why had she always let her?
"Beth?" A soft voice sent her spirits rising, albeit cautiously. Perhaps Tia had come to offer advice. She wouldn't follow Beth; Tia hadn't seemed like the sort to stray far from her mate, and Beth could hardly blame her. Benjamin was carefree and handsome, and –
Sunlight caught Iona's hair, a heavenly shroud that looked thoroughly artificial. No doubt, she'd placed it there to make herself seem less threatening, but peering up at her, Beth felt disdain like a shard of glass in her gut. "I told you to fuck off," she said dully.
Iona smiled. She did that far too much, making Beth want to hit her. "Where do you want to go, Beth? I can create a forest for you. All the animals you want to hunt."
There was a low, creaking roar, and the forest erupted out of the cobbles, encasing them in shade and the stench of pine.
Beth breathed. She brushed the needles off her shoulders, forcing herself not to lift any to her nose. She gulped. "Right."
She carried on walking. Keep going. Maybe she'll go away. Hopping over buckled stone, Beth avoided the new roots that twisted like varicose veins under the pavement. She ignored the deer frolicking in the undergrowth and the howl of a distant wolf. Her heart wanted to beat fast again.
"Doesn't it fill you with joy? Your home. Poor Beth. So alone," Iona cooed. She raised her arms, and birds landed on her outstretched fingers, tweeting away.
"Yeah, I am alone but have no time for joy. I want you to take me back to my body in the real world!"
The leaves hissed and shivered as if in alarm. Iona sighed prettily. "Your true body is broken, Beth. I'm sorry."
"Oh, you're sorry!" Beth snarled. "You apparently have all this power – all this telepathic ability, and what do you do with it? Nothing!"
"I make people happy," Iona answered calmly, and Beth sneered.
"Well, you've failed. I'm not happy. Let me out of here!"
"So…soon?" Iona spoke slowly and deliberately, and Beth hissed in annoyance. Until the taller woman stepped close, enough to make Beth flinch; then Iona tapped her red fringe like a window. "So many unfulfilled desires in here. I hear them as whispers in the wind, but my Hazel sees them as they are. Did you know?"
"Why?" Beth spat, jumping back. She hated that her forehead seemed to hum like a tuning fork but dared not touch it so as not to show it bothered her. "What else has Hazel told you about me?"
Iona closed her hands, pressing them together in a prayer. She had all the hallmarks of an angel, especially that sanctimonious smile. "You have been wronged by those around you. Abandoned by people you think care for you." Iona's mouth thinned. "My powers are…stopped by faces. Radko could give you those you want."
Beth's stomach dropped and bounced too fast. "What do you mean?"
In the quiet, the hotel creaked. Radko watched the sunlight streaming inside. Feeling a breeze in the day was an alien experience. He shivered, unsettled. "Shouldn't Iona be awake by now?"
"Hm," Dana said. She looked up from her lap and sighed, tsking. "Radko, why are you doing that?"
Having found a broom, Radko started sweeping the lobby, creating a protective circle around Dana. Kneeling between Iona and Beth, she had yet to establish if Radko's actions were intentional or helpful to their situation. Nevertheless, he wasn't panicking, so Dana didn't push the behaviour further.
"Our guest looks calm now. Beth," Radko observed frantically as if Dana had forgotten. "She could be sleeping."
"Radko," Dana sighed. "Tell me what's hurting you."
"Hurt?" Radko said, still pushing the broom about mindlessly. "Dana. Hurt? This night. I have a bad feeling about it. Don't you?"
"We had to take risks for this change." Dana glanced over at Iona, watching the steady flutter of her eyelids. Compared to Beth's tiny, battered body, Iona appeared supernaturally tall.
"So there is a chance?" Radko asked slowly. "Could we change our existence tonight? Come from out the shadows with the Romanians."
Dana sighed again. "The truth? I don't know anymore. After so much planning, it has happened so fast."
"Yes." Radko slumped over his broom, vindicated. "And so much has happened we could not predict. Marek is alive."
"Did you miss him?" Dana asked. She gave a wan smile as Radko considered this. "You don't have to pretend to me, my friend."
Radko sniffed, his long nose hitching adorably. "Did you?"
"Ah. I missed Marek's schemes and efficiency but nothing more. Indeed, the hotel ran better with him, but he was – is – too controlling. We could not relax. And I believe my war wound made him uncomfortable." Dana tsked.
"Do you suppose Hazel has killed him? "Radko went to chuckle, but Dana's grave expression made him gulp. "A strange predicament we find ourselves in."
"All we can do is wait," Dana murmured, bristling slightly. She watched as Iona smiled as if having a good dream.
Meanwhile, beside her, Beth's face twisted painfully. A sound like stones grinding together broke the brief silence, and Dana's gaze sharpened.
"Radko."
He glanced up, eyes wild with a feverish distraction that was losing its power. "Y-Yes?"
There it was again. A soft crack, a sudden pop. Dana knew Radko had heard it by the dark furrow of his brow.
"It's Beth," she explained quietly. "Her spine is mending itself."
Beth reeled away, instinctive and afraid. "You're serious. Really serious." She felt a warmth in the small of her back, but the animal panic scrambling through her body made it easy for it to go unnoticed. "Let me get this straight. You would have Radko t-transform into a face I find pleasing and he would – what? Have his way with me? "
"No." Iona blinked, her bright eyes softening to something like sympathy. "No. Never that. He would do whatever you wanted. All you had to do is…ask."
"I won't," Beth said, embarrassed by the catch in her voice. She cleared her throat. "Have you ever stopped to ask him how he feels about your prostitute?"
Iona cocked her head, and the world dissolved around them. Beth's stomach roiled, though only for a moment, and then the cobbled streets were peach sandstone, the trees thick white marble columns. White bookshelves lined the walls, crowding them in.
Beth gulped. Had her favourite library always felt this cramped? Very few people came to Volterra for a social call, only for desperation and death. And Iona had plucked the fountain in Volterra from thin air, down to the chipped face of the cupid spouting water from its mouth. She knew, and now Beth knew why.
"Come, sit." Iona looked around carefully and smiled. "You have a beautiful imagination, Beth." She sat on a loveseat, and her smile widened. "Would you like to sit?
"Um… "Beth's mouth was dry. It felt like a trap. "What do you want from me?"
God, she sounded trapped, too, a trapped, frightened girl.
Iona shook her head. "Nothing. But I can see…you have questions."
SHE'S IN MY HEAD. "How does it work?" Beth blurted out. "Your power, I mean." Her voice trailed off as she watched Iona's face take on a pinched look as if she tried to eat rocks.
"I told you," she said quietly. "But it is your power you mourn. It was…stolen from you."
Beth's nearly gagged, unsurprised but terrified all the same. "No, no," she retorted.
Iona stood up. "Marek." She made a clucking noise with her tongue. "I must apologise. He never trusted the natural gifts of women." She gave another sanctimonious smile, but something flickered behind Iona's red gaze. A kindred cunning, more subtle than an eye roll, and Beth felt something loosen in her heart.
"We protect ourselves the only ways we know how," Iona said, apparently not minding Beth's silence. "It's easy to hide, is it?"
Beth immediately stiffened. She should run now before Iona delved any further…
The woman nodded, answering her own question. "Marek hated glamours."
Except this was Iona's world, and so Beth was trapped. She suddenly had the mad urge to dash her head against that pillar over there. The marble would crack first, but would it work here?
The heat in her back was rising, and there was a loud crack, though not from her skull. Tingling shuddered through her, and Beth heard a cry ripping itself out of her throat.
Iona grabbed her arms. "Beth." She didn't ask what was wrong. "Is it time to go?"
"G-Go?" Beth squeaked. "My back –"
"Is fixing itself," Iona finished. Her eyes gleamed furiously. "We need to get your glamour back. Come, prepare yourself. This may hurt…"
IIona woke first, rising fluid and comfortable. "Beth is ready," she beamed at Dana, who pushed Radko impatiently back with the flat of her hand. He stumbled back, dropping his broom to steady himself.
"Her spine!" Radko wheezed just as a low moan shattered the fragile quiet. He scuttled to Beth, who started twitching and whining like a wounded animal might. "It's –"
"Yes, yes, yes," Dana muttered. "Stay calm while I tend to her, please." She took Beth's hand between hers. "Beth. It is Dana. Open your eyes."
With a gasp, she did. As Beth's pupils shrank to pinpricks, her body shuddered, and the air snatched in her throat. For now, the loud sobs that left her mouth might have lasted an age, while her feet and hands fizzed excruciatingly with life.
It was time to run and take back what was rightfully hers.
To be continued...