Kissed by Chaos

Kissed by Chaos (9) - Deciding

Kissed by Chaos

(9) – Deciding

“Claire, please let’s just rest now.” Elisabeth fell weightlessly against a spreading oak tree. Pulling up her knees to lean her head against them, she breathed heavily, trying to regain her breath. Under the light of the moon, she looked pale and sickly.

We had been walking for what seemed like ages, although I knew we could not have been on the move for more than an hour or so. After we had buried Father, we had rushed inside the cottage to retrieve our what we needed. My limbs had been weighed down with misery as I secretly tucked away Father’s book, even though I knew it wasn’t necessary for our journey to wherever we were going. Tears had welled in my eyes as I looked for what could possibly the last time around our humble cottage.

Now, in the cold darkness, Elisabeth's head jerked up at the slighest sound, wary of predators and men with evil intentions. We both knew it was dangerous for two girls to be out in the forest at such a dark hour, but what other choice did we have? I looked around our surroundings, comforted by the light streaming out of the windows of a house quite a distance away. I hoped that if, God forbid, something were to happen to us, the inhabitants of the house would hear our screams. I shuddered at the thought, and sunk down onto the forest bed next to Elisabeth.

For a while, all I could hear was the chirping of bugs and the distant, miserable howl of a hungry dog. Then I realised that there was another sound mixed in with the sounds of the night – a gentle, rasping sort of sound.

“Elisabeth… oh no, don’t cry,” I said, feeling useless as I watched her shed her tears fall silently down her cheeks. At that moment there was nothing more I wanted than to give way to my own tears. At my inappropriate remark, Elisabeth’s sobs became more audible.

“I… I miss him, Claire! How can he… how can he just be… gone?” she said, The word was empty and hollow, like our abandoned cottage was right now.

Suddenly, I knew what I could do to comfort her. Rifling through the tattered cloth bag at my feet, I pulled out the letter I had taken out of my father’s drawer as a last minute thought before leaving. His dying words of some illusive letter neither Elisabeth nor I had heard of all our lives had haunted me as we were leaving. Curiosity getting the better of me, I had shoved the envelope marked To Thomas into the bag.

“I got the letter,” I announced to Elisabeth. She looked up at me in alarm, her bright eyes growing wide.

“The letter? The one Father was talking about? But it makes no sense – why would Father speak of such an important letter as he was dying when he never bothered to show it to us before?”

Taking a deep breath, I replied quietly, “Maybe he had hoped that we would not ever need the letter. So do you want to know what’s so important about it or not?”

Elisabeth stared up at me with a strange expression. I was disappointed to find that there was just a little bit of fear. It was almost unrecognizable, but still there. The monster that had taken over me had helped us evade the wrath of Aaron and the soldiers, but it had undoubtedly transformed me into a madwoman.

Elisabeth quietly mumbled, “Alright then. Let’s see it.”

Crouching down next to my sister, I carefully unfolded the letter. I found it hard to comprehend that it had been hidden from us for fifteen years. I also found it equally difficult to understand how my father, who had had a rough and tough attitude towards life, had so carefully saved the letter. In my hands now, more than a decade after it had been written, it was in perfect condition.

I glanced down at the folded piece of paper in my shaking hands. I was slightly reluctant to open it. This was a letter passed between two lovers and here I was, the daughter of those lovers, about to open it. Still, what choice did we have? It was not as if my father was here, alive, to read it to us himself.