The Sins of Our Fathers

XVII A Stroll Down Memory Lane

"Wake up sleepyhead!"

Light spewed across the room as Davina threw the curtains open making me cringe. Davina however seemed oblivious to my discomfort, as she threw off the covers.

"Come on Neoma! Get out of bed lazy bones, today is special day!"

She followed this statement by dragging me out of bed- literally.

My nose smashed not the ground as my hate filled stare bore into the ground. Jumping up I spun to face my friend.

"What the hell, was that?"

"I like to call it waking the dead." Davina replied with a smirk.

I glared at her. "So what was so important that you had to throw me onto the grown at seven o'clock in the godforsaken morning?"

"Aren't you a bundle of joy in the morning," She grinned, "but I think I can cheer you up! You and I are going to pick out your wedding dress today!"

I gulped, with all that had happened last night I had completely forgotten Shlaköv's forced marriage. "Yay." I said forcing out the words.

Davina gave me one of her signature dazzling smiles before throwing a bundle of clothes at me and disappearing from the room. Scenarios swirled in my mind as I threw on the clothes haphazardly. They varied from disappearing as soon as I was free to find the box Cornelius had described to twirling happily in wedding dresses.

I shook myself after the last one. There was no way the last vision would ever happen- I simply refused. Instead I turned my thoughts to the box and how to find it while I was out today.

Pulling on the loose fitting heavy coat and dark wool leggings Davina had given me I finally settled on a course of action. I would be getting that box today and Davina was going to help me.

•••

A light winter breeze whipped across my face sending strands of my pale hair across my face in droves as we walked. I had convinced Davina that today was a lovely day to go for a walk; telling her it would make today perfect, and for the most part I think she'd believed me letting me guide us towards our destination. The houses around us were growing more familiar by the minute and my throat seemed to be closing in on itself the closer we got. Ghosts of happier times seemed to float all around us as we strolled through my old neighborhood.

Here my past seemed to come alive as memories flashed through my mind. "Friends coming over only to have us running through the streets playing a typical game of rescue the damsel in distress. I sighed at the irony. All the while I'd truly been as trapped as Rapunzel, yet never known it.

As we rounded the second to last corner the settings around me shifted to a much earlier time frame.

A little girl with white gold ringlets and crystalline skin danced through the snow determined to catch a small cat that was romping through a pile of snow. Me. A cough came from somewhere behind me and I turned to see a young smiling version of my mother. She watched me gallivant through the snow happily seeming almost unaware of the shadow of a man who had appeared beside her. My younger self moved closer to her still spinning to catch the falling snowflakes.

"Reena." The man greeted.

My mother turned to nod at him in acknowledgement. "What do you need Kristof?"

"He's finished it Reena."

My mother sighed. "It was just a matter of time."

"Yes, we all knew that, but the president wants to know how you intend to stop him."