Innocent Blood

Innocent Blood (chapter 23)

Innocent Blood

Chapter 23

    They left me after that. The nurse had asked for a television to be brought to my room, not that I particularly wanted one. It was a luxury that I had learned to live without. I stared absently out the window, it was grey outside, not raining but I could tell it was on the way. When I had woke up I had assumed I was in a hospital, but it had turned out to be a room in the castle with machines all set up around my hospital bed, none of which looked to be a permanent fixture in the room. I was on the ground floor, but there wasn't much of a view from this window.
    My body was stiff, I twisted and shuffled around on the bed trying to get comfortable, but it didn’t happen for me. I wanted to get up, to stretch out my limbs but I was still attached to two machines. The door tapped once, and a man walked in wheeling a small trolley. From it he produced a television and a small black box with lots of wires. He connected everything up in seconds and briefly showed me how to work the remote, neither of us seemed interested and he left quickly. He had left the T.V on just low enough so that it was background noise. Outside the rain began to fall, pattering gently against the window. I used to love rain, my mum thought I was strange for wanting to go on solitary walks in the rain when I was younger, but after almost four years without sun, the dark rain clouds were just a reminder of those dark unending nights. I shuddered.
    “How are you feeling?” Asteria asked as she entered my room.
“I’ve been better”, not hiding the misery from my voice. We sighed together and she placed a hand over mine, taking care not to disrupt the needle that stuck out of it. “You can get moved up to your room now that you’re awake. This room was just a convenient place at the time.”
“Do I still need to be hooked up to these machines?”
“I’m not a doctor” she laughed. Getting up to my own room was good news I suppose, surrounded by the things that had became mine, but it didn’t make me feel any better. After a short silence, Asteria tried to change the subject, “It was a hard way to learn a lesson.” I looked at her sideways, not understanding what it was I was supposed to have learnt. “Overindulging in alcohol, underage drinking, whichever way you look at it. Bound to cause an accident”, she said nodding at my leg. I frowned, not appreciating the lecture. None of us spoke after that and when she decided she wasn’t going to get anymore conversation out of me, she got up to leave.
    “What happens after we die?” I asked quietly, just as she reached the door. I didn’t turn to face her, I watched the falling rain, running down the window in little streams. “Is this about your parents?” she asked carefully when she reached my bedside. I turned now to look at her, tears had welled in my eyes but I said nothing. “The good go to a place of eternal peace, you would probably call it Heaven. The others go to a place, not so nice, you might call it Hell.”
“I don’t think its that simple” That wouldn’t explain what had happened to me, I didn’t go to Heaven or Hell, I just lingered here.
“I didn’t say it was simple.” She said nothing more about it. Growing up I hadn’t been particularly religious, I had been to church when I was younger but when my mother stared to question her own religion and turn more into New Age Spiritualism, I kind of lost interest. If Heaven and Hell exist, then what had happened to me? I didn’t go to either place, I just lingered here.
    “I died, didn’t I?” I said as I turned my head to look at her. Asteria’s eyes crinkled at the sides then she nodded, “for a moment you did, yes.”
“I remember it”
“What do you remember exactly?” Placing her hand on my leg. I thought for a moment about telling her of both experiences, but something held back and I unloaded only the latest one. “Dying. I knew I was dead because I was watching everything from above. I saw myself, and I wanted to go back”, I paused, “there was no Heaven or Hell.”
“That’s quite… something.”
“You think I’m lying!” I accused, anger flushing through me. She smiled at me and shook her head. “No, I don’t think you’re lying at all. I think…” she considered her words before going on, “you’ve been given a special opportunity to experience death and come back from it. There was no Heaven or Hell because it wasn’t your time. You’ve been given a second chance Accalia, its up to you to make it count.” she was the wisest person I had ever known. How did she know just what to say to make you feel better, just like a mother. It was her words that finalized my decision for me.

    The weather had steadily got better with each day, today the sun had managed to burst through the clouds. I stretched up, feeling the pull of each muscle in my body. Then slouched back before reaching over for the crutch that I had insisted upon getting after a day of being carried around to the bathroom. The first three days since waking had been the worst, I was more or less bedridden. In these last two days though I had proven that the only help I needed to get around was the trustee crutch. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, careful not to let the cast thump on the floor. It was incredibly frustrating that I had avoided getting any broken bones through my childhood then, at the age of almost 18, I fracture my ankle! It was still early but the call of that early morning sunshine was too much to ignore.
    My journey to the gardens was a quiet one. I passed only one maid, who nodded to me, not bothering to harass me with questions. The door was unlocked, thankfully, and the sun temporarily blinded me as a profusion of flowery scents filled my nostrils. Some of the flowers I recognised, from my dads insistent lessons, lavenders, snap dragons all colours of roses but there were many more I didn’t know. The birds sang cheerily and fluttered between the mini trees. Everything just screamed summer morning, the heat, sounds, the smells, even the grass was sparkling with dew drops catching the sun and I wondered how I had managed to go so long without living in days like this. In the moonlight the gardens had looked as though it had been touched by magic, where you could almost visualise a mystical night queen, whereas in the morning sun it seemed more mythical, I could almost imagine little fairies being here and the woodland beyond only furthered the concept.
    Ahead of me stood the magnificent fountain, the sprinkling water producing a soft tinkling music as it splashed. The silhouette of a woman in a long flowing dress stood to the side of it. The sun rising behind her, lit her up her hair, causing it to look like a halo of red around her head. She came to me, clearly not as surprised to see me as I her. “Up early?” I nodded.
“Thought I would go for a walk before everybody else is buzzing about.”
“May I join you?”
“No, of course not. I’ve actually been wanting to talk to you” I said as I hobbled along on my crutch. Asteria raised her eyebrows at me as she followed my lead, I walked passed the fountain with her flanking me.
    “You seem to be healing well” she mentioned.
“Yeah, I suppose, but my hair doesn’t seem to want to grow.” I sighed. I hadn’t raised the issue of my shaved hair to anyone, didn’t let them know how much it bothered me. My hair was always something I was proud of, I was always the one, with the long dark hair that everybody envied. “I think you make it work. It looks…” she paused, searching for a word, “funky.” she made the word sound foreign and I snorted out a laugh, Asteria smiled almost bashfully back. “Is Alastor mad at me?” I hadn’t seen him since the party, almost two weeks ago, excluding hearing him at my bedside if that was him. I missed him. “Why would he be mad?” I didn’t want to drag up the embarrassing incident of that night to Asteria, so I just told her, “I haven’t seen him since the party, just thought he was avoiding me.” At least it wasn’t a lie.
“He did visit you, you just weren’t conscious.”
“Hmm” I mumbled in response.
“He has been busy lately though, him and Asteria both. Our parents came home three days ago and they spending time together because they didn’t see them at their birthdays.” She must have noticed my puzzled look because she went on to explain, “my parents live on a nocturnal schedule so Achlys and Alastor were adjusting to that same time, so have been sleeping through the day.”
“No, I get that. Its just…” I hesitated, not knowing how to word my sentence, “I didn’t know you had, I mean I didn’t realise you had parents. No, that’s not what I mean.” I sighed, “I’ve never saw your parents, I didn’t… realise they would be here.” Asteria smiled and let out a soft laugh, like she knew exactly what I was trying to say, of course I knew they had parents, they were all siblings, but I hadn’t thought of there being any parents around, even though there was four year old Calli. “Like I say, my parents are on a nocturnal schedule, and they left two days after the wedding to see my brother.
    "How is Calli? I've not seen her around." I'd seen her only twice in the time I had been here, no one even spoke about her. Asteria looked at me from the sides of her eyes, "she's been away, but I don't think my family members are what you really wanted to talk about?" I let out a half laugh, she was always so perceptive, it was scary sometimes. "I've been thinking", I began, "well I never got to finish school, I want to go back, get the qualifications I missed."
"That's very wise. I could find a private tutor for you, start were you left off?" Okay, maybe not as perceptive as I thought. "I can't stay here forever." I felt bad for feeling that way, after Asteria being so kind to me. All of them, taking me in no question, but be that as it may it wasn't enough to make me stay, be sheltered for the rest of my life because they felt responsible for me. It was totally unrealistic to be expected to stay. I had my own life to pick up. "I know" she smiled, like she knew something I didn't, keeping something from me and Flavius' words came back to me, 'there is more to this than they will allow you to know'. The words meant nothing at the time, a broken man's attempt at softening his brother's sentence, but now I wondered if I should have paid them more attention. Quickly I shrugged that feeling off, Asteria was the closest thing I had to family, and I truly trusted her.
    We had circled one half of the gardens and we were headed for the main door, back inside. At the door we stopped and Asteria turned to me. "I know you're eager to get back to a normal life, and I want that for you too. But you shouldn't run before you can walk." I missed the metaphor, thinking she was referring to my leg, then frowned when I got it. Her words were patronising and I started to hobble away. "Look Accalia", she said as she matched my pace, "I know you are wanting out of here, I have every intention in assisting you in that, but you've been out of society for four years, you're still fourteen in many ways. Where would you go?" Her voice remained calm and steady. Although I had told myself all of those things before, I fumed to hear her express it. Fourteen indeed! I think I'm far more mature than any other seventeen year old would be. Why did her lack of faith in me matter so much? "I'm not a child!" I snapped, sounding completely childish which only annoyed me more. I sighed loudly and tried to calm myself before reasoning, "I'm almost eighteen, I can get a apartment, get a job and go college. I can do this."
"Alright then, so let's say you do all that, how do you explain where you have been for the past four years?" My mouth opened, ready for a comeback, but she had me there. I shrugged, defeated. "Let's go inside to talk, people will be around soon." Her voice was kind and she placed her hand against my back to guide me to the door.
    Asteria's office still held that otherworldly wonder that I had first felt when I came here. I wasn't the shy, scared girl I was at that time, too afraid to express my wonder, I stared openly now. The massive stained glass window was catching the newly risen sun, casting purple and blue light over the room. Asteria went to the chaise after pouring me a drink, she waited quietly as I walked over to the bookcases for a closer look at the profusion of objects that lined the shelves. Up close I could see that some fairly ordinary looking things, candle holder, glass figures, small vases and the like, amongst the more exotic looking ones. The hieroglyphic pyramids, the small gold caskets and bronze animals looked ancient, definitely antique. "Where did you get all these?"
"Most of them were gifts, others are just things I've collected over time", she replied nonchalantly.  
"These are pretty" I commented as I brushed my fingers over one of the metal statuettes, who wore a long dress and held a book, I couldn't tell if these were vintage or modern. "Ah yes, my personal favourites", Asteria said, coming to join me. "The nine muses, the set was a gift from the priestess I succeeded. "That's Calli's namesake, Calliope", she said, nodding at the woman I was still touching. "And this", she went on, dusting her fingers over another that held a mask, "is Thalia."
"Do you know much about Greek mythology?"
"Centaurs, Minotaurs and Venus, that's about it" I told her. It wasn't a subject we had studied at school and the only reason I knew about centaurs and minotaurs was from a story book I had as a child, and everybody knew Venus. "Venus is Roman. Anyway, my father was named after a Greek god, Coeus, of course my older brother was named after him and my mother decided to continue naming us after a deity." She turned and headed back to the chaise and I followed this time. So there was an older brother Coeus, how had I missed that? Well it did explain a lot. "You might think Asteria is bad, but I was almost named Urania", she said almost doing an eye roll. "I don't think Asteria is bad, I like the name. I was named after some Roman guy's mother or something." Actually it was my great-grandmother who was named after that woman, and I was named after her. Asteria laughed on a sigh and spoke as though I gave the wrong answer to an obvious question, "I know the story of Accalia, she wasn't just some Roman man's question, she was the mother of the founders of Rome and", she added in a conspirators tone, "legend speaks of her as being the first of the shape-shifters , Accalia the She-Wolf." Her voice returned to normal, "you should be proud to be named after such a woman."
"Wow I laughed", I never knew that. I feel honoured"
    "Now", she said, changing the subject, "back to the topic of you're desire to leave." I opened my mouth to protest, correct her wording, she had made it sound like I had offended her, ungrateful for her hospitality. But I quickly recovered when I saw the mischievous grin that made her look, if possible, even more beautiful. My cheeks flushed and we both laughed, hers being musical sounding compared to mine. And we talked over plans for my possible departure.