Unveiled Shadows: Tales of a Lich

Chapter 24 - Melancholy & Modesty

The rain lashed down upon the shutters with unrelenting ferocity, the beat of each raindrop echoing through the darkness like a thousand tiny drummers hitting the same discordant note. Violenta had not left her room for what felt like an eternity, the passage of time becoming a hazy, featureless expanse as one day simply merged with the next, leaving her feeling trapped in a never-ending cycle of monotony and despair.

"I will go outside tomorrow," Violenta whispered to herself, her voice a soft incantation that became a daily ritual, a desperate attempt to anchor herself in time as one day blended into the next. Though tomorrow never seemed to arrive, she repeated the phrase with each passing dawn, as if the mere utterance of it might somehow conjure forth a reality that was not yet hers to claim.

She lay in bed, her body wracked by fatigue and physical pain, yet unable to escape the tormenting memories that haunted her like a malevolent spectre. The echoes of her father's Chastisement lingered; a deep wound that seemed to have carved out a permanent scar on her soul.

This was not the first time she had been subjected to such horrors, and the fear that it wouldn't be the last gnawed at her like a rat in the walls of her mind. The weight of her past traumas bore down upon her with crushing force, suffocating her under a blanket of dread and despair that seemed to grow heavier with each passing moment.

"Ooh, Reynaldo..." Her voice was barely audible, as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes like tiny pinpricks of pain. As she gazed at her reflection in the dimly lit mirror, the girl she once knew - vibrant, full of life and dreams - seemed like a distant memory, a fleeting glimpse of a past that now felt irretrievably lost. "Ooh, Holy Father, why have you seen fit to thrust such trials upon me?" Her thoughts were bitter as gall, filled with resentment towards her own existence, as if the very fabric of her being was twisted into a knot of anguish and despair.

Violenta's voice cracked like a shattered mirror, her words strained with emotion as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Reynaldo... was the only one, the only man I ever knew who was pure and good of heart," she whispered, her eyes welling up with sorrow. As the dam broke, her watery gaze turned into sobs, and she clenched the covers to her face, muffling her cries in a futile attempt to contain the anguish within.

"Why... Celestial Father have you taken him from me..." Her voice trailed off into a wail as she sobbed uncontrollably, the sound echoing through the darkness like a lost soul crying out for mercy.

Violenta sobbed until her body was wrung dry, leaving behind only a hollowed-out shell of despair. She lay in her bed, her physical form numb and unresponsive, her mind a blank slate devoid of thought or emotion. The storm outside raged on, its fury spent as it finally began to subside, but inside, she was enveloped in a silent, heavy stillness that seemed to weigh upon her like a physical weight.

Not long after the storm's final whispers had faded away, Violenta sat up, dropping the covers to her bed and standing naked in her chambers. Her movements were listless and mechanical, as if driven by some unseen force rather than any conscious desire of her own. Unaware, she walked slowly to the shutters, opening them wide and staring out into the tower's view, taking in the bustling courtyard below with a gaze that was dull and unfocused, yet somehow seemed to hold a glimmer of hope.

As she hesitantly lifted the shutters, a torrent of radiant sunlight burst forth, bathing every corner of her chamber in its warm, golden glow. The sky above stretched out before her like a brilliant canvas of cerulean blue, utterly devoid of any hint of clouds or shadow.

Her gaze fixed on the people below, Violenta's eyes lingered on their smiles, their carefree laughter, and their hopeful expressions, feeling a pang of envy pierce her heart. "How could they be so blissfully unaware of the harsh realities of existence?" she wondered, her thoughts a jumble of resentment and longing as she gazed out at the crowd below, their faces a vibrant tapestry of joy and innocence that seemed to mock her own sorrow and despair.