The Age of Nightmares

The Letter

The wind whipped at her face- harsh and unforgiving. The elements never seemed to be on her side this time of year. She clenched her teeth trying desperately, but failing, to hide a shiver that wrecked its way through her body. She pulled the edges of her shawl closer together and had just made the decision to go back inside, when in the distance she saw it. Land.

"Annabeth, Annabeth," called a voice behind her and she turned to see her little sister Laila running across the ship's deck toward her. She managed to make it halfway across before tripping over her own feet and tumbling into a heap on the ground. Her skirts twisted this way and that as Laila spent a few seconds trying to free her head from the entrapment. She finally did so and huffed in displeasure as she managed to stand up and right herself.

Annabeth laughed quietly at the scene in front of her, covering her smile with the back of her gloved hand. Her sister shaked off the remaining dust and then walked the rest of the way across the deck to join Annabeth at the side of the boat.

"Is that it," Laila breathed breathlessly, leaning over the edge, all previous displeasure replaced with an amazed look towards the land in front of them.

"Yes," Annabeth whispered, "New York."

~~~~~~~

Annabeth had received the letter just under a year ago. It was from their mother, a woman that neither of them had seen since the day Laila had been born, sixteen years ago. Their mother had been a ladies' maid to the Countess of Lakesfield, or as she was more humbly known, Annabeth and Laila's grandmother on their father's side. Their mother and father's courtship was not one out of love, but out of necessity. Their father was near his deathbed and needed an heir quickly to continue the line. The only woman of suitable age and suitable lack of previous engagement in the entire town of Lakesfield was the girls' mother, Anne (her family name was unknown as was the common practice with ladies maids at the time). Anne and their father, Sir Peter Cambridge of Lakesfield (he had been knighted by the queen shortly before his death), married and Anne quickly  became with child.

Annabeth was born. Though she was not a boy, as tradition required, the Countess, who had been a widow for several decades and did not look down on her own sex, accepted this girl as the heir and as if this was the last thread keeping Peter on this Earth, his life ended only ten minutes after Annabeth was born. Annabeth and her mother stayed with the Countess for several months afterwards, before Anne was with child again. When Laila was born, blinking at the sudden brightness of the well lit room, something in Anne must have broken. She must have realised that being a mother wasn't the pathway for her and thus Annabeth and Laila lost another parental figure. Anne disappeared and the two girls, now permanently living with the Countess, spent the next fifteen years wondering why their mother decided that they were not enough.

Then came the letter. It was crinkly and water stained by the time Annabeth picked it up off the tray handed to her by the Butler. It was addressed to her and her sister, but as Annabeth looked across the room to where Laila was sitting and laughing with their grandmother as they drank their tea, something told her that it was better off not showing it to her sister. Annabeth slipped out of the room, following in the Butler's shadow as he traced his way back to the kitchens. Right before he turned to go into the swinging doors, she pressed herself into a hidden alcove, unbeknownst to most of the house. This alcove was where she spent most of her time: reading constantly or sometimes shifting to drawing sketches in her stuffed notebook, filled to the brim with architectural designs and mathematical equations that had made Laila's head spin the one time Annabeth had let her see it. She smiled at the memory of her sister's bewildered expression, but her expression eventually turned sour as she put her attention back to the letter. She opened it and begun to read.

My Dearest Daughters,

I know you must hate me for abandoning you all of those years ago, but you must know that I did it to keep both of you safe. I have made many enemies in my time here on Earth and I wished for none of that evil to fall upon you. But I have come to realise that our true strength lies in us being together. United. I know you don't trust me and I have given you no reason to, but please for the sake of each other and your grandmother and all of the people you have ever known, please come and meet me in America. I live in New York now. New York City. Just right across from the Main Street Hotel, you can't miss it. It is the utmost urgency.

Hurry,

Anne

Annabeth reread the letter several times before leaning her head back against the wall and laughing in pure shock. "How dare that woman come back into our lives whenever it suited her best", she thought before crumpling the letter into her fist and reemerging from her alcove. She dropped the letter into a nearby fireplace on her way back to the sitting room. She opened the door to hear Laila crack a joke about what Lady Hillside had been wearing to the latest ball a couple days previous.

"She looked like an actual Peacock, feathers and all," she managed to get out through her constant giggling.

"Dearest Laila, you know it is rude to gossip," Annabeth declared as she sat down on the long sofa near the tea table. Laila frowned at the scolding remark.

"Plus she looked more like a parrot if you ask me," Annabeth added, failing to hide her smirk as she reached for a cookie. The two girls broke into uncontrollable giggles as their grandmother looked upon them with only slight disapproval.  The rest of the day passed in a pleasant haze of garden walks and delicious food, and the letter quickly left Annabeth's mind completely.

Until six months later when another letter arrived. This time it included no pleasantries:

HELP ME

HE'S GOING TO KILL ME

The letter was covered with what looked like bloody fingerprints.

~~~~~~~

Annabeth was pulled out of memories as the boat suddenly stopped. She realised that suddenly the city was very close and she had to strain her neck to see past all of the buildings of the harbor. Shouts surrounded her as the crew began the process of getting ready to dock. Laila was still beside her, a source of constant noise as she managed to try and talk about every topic under the sun.

"Oh I know what we must do, apparently I heard this from Rose, not the Rose that you are friends with but the other one, the daughter of that Lord that came over the summer, that New York sells the most wonderful of shoes. Oh we must go and buy a pair. I also heard that Americans have terrible hygiene. I hope that is not true as I am not sure that I could last very long in a place of such dirtiness. That must be a rumor. I did hear it from Claribelle and you know all of the lies she tries and concocts. Oh look at that man over there. He doesn't look very dirty. He looks positively radiant. I must find a man here to court if I want to not fall behind when we go back to Britain, everyone there is already starting their first season. The balls must be absolutely spectacular. I heard they were going to put out..."

"Laila." Annabeth warned and Laila promptly stopped her chatter. She did not however stop her admiring gaze at the city around her, as if trying to drink in all of the sights at once. Annabeth looked around much more warily, twisting her hands around in a nervous manner she had adopted from their Grandmother. She saw many alleyways and side streets filled with shadows  that did not look particularly appealing. Guilt and nervousness twisted around in her stomach. Their mother was out there somewhere. She just didn't know if they were too late.