Charlotte once again found herself gazing upon the surroundings of a castle but it had become vastly different from the one she had seen previous. Before there had been so much light, warmth, and splendor, now it had become dark, cold, and withered. Then she heard something in the mist. Someone crying.
That's when she saw the woman from before. The woman who had married a prince and had become an expectant mother, which was now visible. She was on her knees and sobbing over a body. The body of her husband who lay dead in a puddle of his own blood. His form was completely covered in claw marks and his face had been viciously mauled. His death was no doubt a brutal one. A brutally slow and painful one.
"Oh Etienne." She wept, taking her beloved into her arms. "You promised! You promised that you wouldn't hunt after dark! Why couldn't you keep your word?!"
The prince tried to keep his word. He kept it for eight months but at dusk today he had seen the most remarkable creature. A stag as red as blood and he thought that it's hide would make a fine coat for his wife. He knew dark was closely approaching but he was so pleased with the idea o his princess giving him a child, that he felt a coat made from such a magnificent beast was a worthy prize for her. He chased the stag through the forest, a fast and tricky creature who managed to dodge him for a long time. Long enough for night to fall. Long enough for him to be seen by two mysterious birds. An eagle and a nightingale.
When he successfully shot the stag, he brought it back to his royal abode, unaware that those birds followed him. And when they saw him run to embrace and kiss his sweetheart, that was when they attacked. The poor princess had tried to stop them but they were always so much more powerful than she was. She felt herself restrained by an unseen force while they took the lives of not only her prince but the wonderfully kind servants who had always been so good to her. They were all dead. Dead and gone. Destroyed by her own family.
From the shadows, stepped forth two women Charlotte recognized immediately. She recognized them because she had seen them in her dreams many times before. She recognized the firey red hair and emerald green eyes of the first one and the sandal wood blonde hair and ember eyes of the other one.
"Marie." The red head slowly approached the devastated princess and reached a hand out to her.
"Don't touch me!" She ripped her husband's dagger from his belt and held it to them in a threatening manner. This act horrified her sisters, yet it did not nearly as horrify them as the sight of her swollen belly.
"So it's true." The blonde said. "You carry a human's child."
"Did he violate you?" The red head asked. "Did he hold you down and force his seed into you?"
"No!" She screamed. "I willing gave myself to him! Many times! As any wife would!"
The terror in her sisters's eyes grew.
"Sister, how could do this to us? To our people?" The blonde continued.
"How could I?! How could you do this to me?!" She turned back to her prince. "You killed him! I loved him! I loved him and you killed him!"
"Marie how could you love him?" The red head asked. "He's a human? A filthy human!"
"He was the only one whoever loved me without controlling me!" Marie cried. "All my life, all you two ever did was belittle me, judge me, and tell me how to live my life! You never listened to me! You never cared about what I wanted! Etienne...He loved me for me! He actually cared about what made me happy! And you took him away!"
Tears were pouring from her violet eyes like rain.
"We were going to have a family. A son. One who we'd raise with the love and care you never gave me!"
"Love?" The blonde scoffed. "Oh Marie, you truly have disgraced us! Falling in love with a human, marrying a human, and worst of all, conceding to birth a human's child! This is unacceptable!"
"Your hatred and cruelty is what's unacceptable! I never realized how beastly our kind was until I met Etienne!"
"Beastly? You dare to address us as such?!"
"Marie we know that you think that you were meant to be with this human." The red head said. "But what you had with him was an illusion. It wasn't real happiness."
"How would you know?!" Marie snapped. "You never took the time to learn what could give me real happiness!"
"We're your family. We know what's best."
"You're not my family! You never were! I hate you! I hate you both! And I'll never forgive you for this!"
"Marie." The red head said sounding hurt.
"Enough!" The blonde declared. "It's time that you return to your senses! And if ending the life of that urchin you call a mate, will not do it, then perhaps another method will get through to you."
"What do mean?"
"You call us beastly but humans are the real beasts! They are that way right from birth! And this will prove it to you!"
"What? What are you talking about?"
Her oldest sister looked upon the red stag that the prince had killed. Wicked inspiration filled her mind.
"Yes, I think that will do just fine."
The rest Charlotte could not hear but she could tell that the sisters were planning something. The middle sister appeared to be reluctant to go along with whatever plan the oldest had come up with but she still went along with it. They joined hands and spoke in tongues, a red mist covered the princess and the dead stag. She suddenly dropped to the floor, her arms clutching her belly, screams coming from her mouth as she felt a great pain from within.
For a moment, Charlotte thought that she was about to give birth but no such event occurred. When the mist cleared the stag was left in a skeleton form and Marie's pain had subsided.
"My baby!" Marie screamed, her hands still on her baby. "You killed my baby!"
"No not killed." The red head corrected. "It still lives."
"If killing that human wouldn't bring you to your senses than what good would killing his bastard do?" The blonde said with venom.
"What have you done?" Marie trembled. "What in God's name have you done?!"
"We have merely made the abomination inside of you look as all humans truly do. Monstrous. Or as you would say, beastly."
"No." She couldn't stand. "No! Katie you can't do this!"
"It's for your own good little sister."
"Rosie!" She desperately crawled over to the red head, clinging to her legs. "Please! Help me! I know you're not like Katie! I know deep down you know this is wrong! Undo this! Please! If you have any love for me at all then you'll undo this!"
Remorse was slowly spreading across Rosie's features.
"It can't be undone sister!" Katie mocked. "You know that a curse can never be undone!"
"That's not true! Tell me it's not true Rosie!"
Rosie suddenly turned pale. Her guilt and regret becoming more evident.
"It...It can't be undone." She admitted. "I'm afraid the child's fate is sealed."
"Oh no." She shook her head. "No...No...NO!"
She let out a blood curdling scream. The earth shook, fire seemed to burst from all around her, she was overcome with a rage that her so called family had never witnessed in her. It was as if she was possessed by another entity.
"Marie wait!" Rosie called. "Wait there's still hope!"
"There is no hope!" Marie wept in anger. "I've seen the atrocities you and Katie create! If my son is anything like them he'll never be loved! He'll never be accepted! When I die, he'll be alone forever!"
"Not necessarily! Please let me explain!"
"Why should I listen to anything you say?!"
"Because for all my sins against you, I've never once lied to you, have I?"
The earth became still and the flames started to go out. Her form calmed as she contemplated Rosie's words.
"I can't undo what's been done but I can tell you how it can be broken."
"Rosie be quiet!" Katie ordered.
"He can have a life free of loneliness. He can have friends and love. It is possible."
"How?" Marie asked.
"I'll tell you but I must warn you, because he is of our blood, feelings could put him at risk. Should his heart be broken he may die."
"Just tell me!"
"He must-"
...
That's when Charlotte awoke and she felt as if her heart had jump right out her chest. What she had seen was so intense and frightening. All of it. But what scared her most were the words that Marie had spoken.
"He was the only one whoever loved me without controlling me!"
"All my life, all you two ever did was belittle me, judge me, and tell me how to live my life!"
"You never listened to me! You never cared about what I wanted!"
That was basically Charlotte's entire relationship with her family. Always being controlled. Never being listened to or really considered. Marie's sisters were no different than Helsa and Lucifer. Only Marie's sisters destroyed what made her truly happy. Her father and sister had not done that. They wouldn't do that, would they?
Making this even more strange was that, the dream didn't just make her think of herself and her family. It also made her think of Alastor. He wasn't even in the dream but this one had her worry for him more than ever. Giving her the idea that something was definitely wrong with him.
When she sat up from her bed, she discovered an item that was not there before. A hand mirror. An unfamiliar one, one that Charlotte knew she did not posses. It was very beautiful. An antique with exquisite craftsmanship and detail that resembled roses, vines, and thorns. It reminded her of the mirrors in Alastor's castle which made her wonder if this one had magical properties. Of course there was only one way to find out.
She picked up the mirror and looked into the glass.
"Show me Alastor."
Her reflection disappeared and in it's place she saw him and the image terrified her. He was alone in his room, sickly pale, weak in his body, eyes that held tears but no life, his smile completely erased. It was just like in her other dreams. But this was worse because she was awake. What she was seeing was real.
"Alastor!"
She called to him in desperation but that did no good. He couldn't hear her. He couldn't see her. He could only long for her. Long for her until he died.
"Oh my dear sweet Alastor ..." She couldn't breathe. "What have I done to you?"