Strange Beasts || Novella

XVIII

The halls of the castle thundered with their arrival, but Raina did not care for subtleties any longer. She was on a mission to find her family and get them all home. Not pausing to admire the intricately decorated paintings, nor the glistening jewels that lay forgotten in each corner, Raina only noticed the dark silence.

"Stay here," she whispered to the Beast as she slipped off. She needed to retrace her brother's footsteps and riding a large lion-like bear with a vibrant mane was definitely not how Rami entered the castle. Little did she realise at the time, Rami didn't take the main entrance either, but for once Raina focused on following her instinct rather than worrying about the different possibilities.

Motioning to the Beast to remain quiet, Raina ventured down the hallway following any staircase that led her down another level. Her steely focus was almost impenetrable, almost.

She halted suddenly at an open door, not really knowing why she wanted to go inside other than the fact that it felt extremely familiar to her. Like she had been here in a dream, or a dream of a dream. The room was no more brighter than the rest of the castle, illuminated simply by small candles and the moonlight that shone through a large window.

In the middle lay a large bed and immediately Raina ears were filled with echoes of giggling as a little girl's voice sang lullabies trying to soothe a crying baby. Her voice.

She licked her lips, blinking herself out of the memory. How could it be possible?

As she approached the bed, her stomach twisted into tight knots, a part of her recognising it all before she could consciously understand. The bed was occupied like she expected it to be. Hands shaking uncontrollably, she reached out to touch the woman who lay on it.

"Mama?" She whispered, silent tears falling down her cheeks. But her mother felt frozen under her touch, barely breathing as if she was tiptoeing on the line between life and death. For Raina, it was like the moment she had died was frozen in time. Seeing her like this felt wrong. It forced her spirit to stay trapped, suffering in those last seconds which now were eternal.

"Get away from her!" A voice called, sounding horribly familiar as Raina staggered backwards. A tall man entered the room with wild curly hair that reminded her so much of her brother whenever he'd go playing outside on a windy day. His eyes however were identical to her own as she stumbled in her confusion.

"Father?"

"I said, get away! Don't touch her! Who let you in?!" Raina's father yelled, not registering that he was indeed talking to his daughter. At first Raina was too stunned to speak, the shock of finding her mother somehow alive in this strange world capturing her voice.

"Guards! Where are my Guards?" He screamed, rushing towards her mother. It was then that Raina noticed all the wires that were connected to the body, fuelling her life force. As Raina took in all the information, her father, the fact that this could quite possibly be his castle and therefore it was his guards that she had fought outside, a sickening realisation dawned on the girl.

"You? You are Fassa?!" she said in a low voice, no longer filled with shock or fear, but now motivated by pure hot raging anger. The Guardian that the Kingdom had spent years fearing was her own father, for reasons that were becoming all to clear to her now. Having experienced the power of healing from an Empath connection, she knew the motivation that drove him. But clearly it hadn't worked since her mother looked no more alive nor was she at peace either.

"Who are you?" Her father asked in reply, ignoring her earlier question. He squinted as if he knew he should recognise her, but couldn't seem to put the pieces together.

"You kept Mama here even though she's dying, even though she should be dead and left us - left me for this?!" Raina said getting louder with each syllable. The faster her mind connected the dots, the angrier she became.

"Mama? Wha- Raina?" Her father replied disbelievingly. For the first time, he looked away from the body of his wife and gave the child his full attention, the same thought running through his mind.

It couldn't be his daughter, that wasn't possible.

"I can't believe I stood up for you, when all you've done is betray us!" Raina continued, hands balling into tight fists. Her father was still trying to process it all himself, but found that shaking his head got him nowhere against her stubbornness. It was a trait that she had inherited from him after all.

Blood pumped ferociously in her ears. Raina knew that she should listen to his story, figure out why he abandoned them for so long, but a larger louder voice wanted him to feel the pain she had suffered for years whilst waiting for him to return. This man was the reason that they were forced to go to boarding school, where Rami's imagination was ridiculed and her focus was on ensuring her brother's safety.

"You were a little girl; Rami was a baby," her father said in a quiet voice, almost as if he was trying to convince himself of the facts.

"Don't say his name!" Raina screamed, a sob escaping from her despite her intentions to remain strong.

"I don't understand, I let you go with Grammy six months ago," her father mumbled, his statement causing a sharp pause in Raina's anger.

"It's been six years," she corrected bitterly to which her father shook his head violently. Realisation dawned on him whilst Raina rambled on, scolding the ageing man in the only way a scorned daughter could. "Rami grew up. I grew up. We had to. Without you. All because you wanted to gain more power. For what?"

"I was trying to help your mother, I was trying to save her. I am saving her."

It was in that moment that Akkian's words echoed back to her. An impossible situation where a Guardian was unable to distinguish between what they should do and what they want to do. Broken as the man was in front of her, she could not understand how he could be known for the evil of Fassa.

And though it wasn't much, it did soften the child's heart enough to remember Grammy's words about not seeing the world as it was, but as it could be.