Lamia Prior: Baptised In Blood

Chapter Twenty-Four

Amberlyn opened her eyes. She was heaving. Drenched with sweat. The soft light of the sun filtered into the small cell and she felt the cold steel of the chain against her leg. She wiped saliva from her cold lips and then she sat up. Her clothes clung to her but she would not take them off, not after that. She felt the warmth of the blood in her body and slowly she lay back down. 

She would not sleep, but there was no other way to pass the day. Within moments, of her lying down, there was knock on the door and the key slid into the lock and the door swung open. A woman stood in the door in the way, she was accompanied by a man. Amberlyn swore under her breath. 

“They heard screams, we were sent down to see you.” 

She didn’t speak to the woman, she hadn’t spoken to any of them and she would not start now. The woman smiled weakly, she was human, like all of the people that came to visit and Amberlyn couldn’t figure out why they’d chosen Arlo over the Lamia Prior, when they all looked so scared. Her visitor crossed the threshold and closed the door behind her.

 Amberlyn’s eyes did not moved from the woman, she searched her, her hands her body, her neck, but there was no key. The girl sat bolt up right as the woman sat down on the edge of her bed. She pulled as far away as the mattress would allow. 

“I have them too, nightmares. It’s okay to be scared, some of them feel very real. But they are not, they cannot hurt you. Every time it starts to get too frightening, you wake yourself up. And then, when the nightmare is gone, you can go to be back to sleep. It’s okay to cry.” 

The woman placed her hand between them, her palm facing up. Amberlyn’s mother had done something similar, she knew she was expected to take it, but instead, she held the blankets closer to her chest. The woman left her hand there and she continued to speak. 

“We’ll just be waiting outside, if you need to talk to someone, then you can just talk to us through the wall. We’ll be there for the next little while.” 

Despite the daylight, the hall was still dark. It was lighted by candles that were fixed to the walls, and only lit during the day. The woman slipped out of the door and then pulled it shut. It was thirty seconds before it was locked again and Amberlyn sat in silence. She strained her ears to hear the soft whispers on the other side. It was followed by footsteps, they were leaving. The girl waited a moment longer, then she stepped onto the floor and allowed the chain to drag along until she reached the door. 

“Hello?” 

She asked. 

“Hello.” 

The voice was the woman’s. 

“I’d like to talk to you.”

“What would you like to say?” 

“I’m scared, of talking through the door, can you come in? Please?” 

In a moment the key turned in the lock and slowly, the wooden door swung open and the woman stepped inside. She was much shorter than she seemed and very well dressed, she wasn’t a servant. Amberlyn lifted her chain and she walked  back to her bed and sat down. The woman followed wordlessly and she sat beside her and again she put her hand between them, palm facing up. Amberlyn took her hand and squeezed it tight. 

“My nightmares, they seem very real, they scare me. I feel like I’m going to wake up and they aren’t going to be nightmares anymore, but they’re going to be real and I won’t be able to get away.” 

“What are they about?” 

The woman lent towards Amberlyn and the girl started whispering softly, as though she were afraid the walls would steal her secrets. 

“Lupus.” 

“Are they chasing you?”

Amberlyn’s bottom lip shook and she wiped her eyes. 

“I am…I’m..” She stammered. 

“It’s okay, tell me slowly.” 

The girl forced a lump into her throat and she uttered a few quiet syllables, loud enough for the woman to hear, but quiet enough so that she would need to move in closer.  They were now only inches away from each other and Amberlyn continued in a slow, choked up whisper. 

“I am one of them, chasing a boy and he runs and he runs and  I’m only a few feet behind him, I don’t catch him though, I like chasing him and then he falls off a cliff  and I’m running beside the river, I want to save him but I can’t swim and then I jump”

The woman’s ears pricked up and Amberlyn swung her length of chain around the woman’s neck. She pulled it tight and the woman rasped breathless, her nails clawed her neck as she pulled at the chain. It loosened and Amberlyn drove her foot into the woman’s spine and pulled harder on the chain. Her screams were choked, dying in her throat before they’d even left her mouth. Slowly, she turned blue as the ocean and her hands fell limply to her sides. Amberlyn fell back, she’d not eaten or slept properly since Arlo had taken her and she fell back onto the sheets of the bed. The body lay at her feet and for a long time she didn’t move.