it first happened, the nightmares had been constant. I had been trapped behind the door, unable to find my way out. With nothing to do but claw at the wood like a madman, doing so until my nails tore off, for I could hear my daughter screaming. Then finally the door would open, and my wife would be standing there exactly the same way that I found her that day. That calm, serene look upon her face. It had sickened me even more so after I realised what she had done.
“Where is Kala?!” I had shouted in panic. Then with those dead eyes of hers she said to me,
“She's in a better place now, she's with your precious God.”
In my nightmare, those same words were spoken as I pushed past her and ran towards the stream she used to wash our clothes in. Once there, I found the body of my daughter floating on the top as if she was merely asleep and enjoying the sun. She would look like an Angel looking up to the Heavens that awaited her.
I ran into the water and scooped her body up, holding her to me as I cried. Then my nightmare would end, and I would wake only to realise that the nightmare didn't end at all…
I was still living it.
26
Lost Queens
Always in my nightmares, it was the same.
And in them there had always been a door. For the reality was upon returning home early one day to find my wife void of emotion. Opening the door and hearing her say those same words about her being in a better place. That was when I knew. Then when I carried my sweet lifeless girl back to the house, Dalene threw in my face her reason. That she thought I would have been happy that now it could be just the two of us once again without anyone getting in the way. For she had known that after the very first second I held that little girl in my arms after her birth, I would never love anything as much. She became jealous, irrationally so, and this combined with Matthias winding his spell around her, convinced her that if she got rid of the child then my love would transfer back to her.
I told Keira all of this and once finished, she had tears once more streaming down her face and I had to keep my own locked back, refusing to let them fall.
“Oh, God,” she uttered again, as if she could barely imagine the pain I went through that day, just as I could barely believe that I had walked out of the house and let her live.
“He preyed on her weak mind because he believed that as soon as I discovered what my wife had done, I would kill her in my rage and therefore I would have sinned. Of course, it didn't happen this way, for I simply walked away and never looked back the day after I buried my daughter.”
“And this Dalene, what became of her… well, other than bitterness and a recipe for a 2000-year-old grudge.”
“I don’t know, other than for some reason, Matthias decided to keep her around.”
“And her powers?” she asked, making me shake my head.
“The fuck if I know, for she didn’t possess a skill beyond pouring fucking wine from a jug and into a cup,” I snapped in my anger.
“Well, she must have got those powers somehow, considering according to you guys, she's the most powerful witch that ever lived,” Keira pointed out, ignoring my outburst.
“Something I intend to discover,” I answered, fucking pissed that I didn’t know already.
“So, what happened after that?”
“I played my part as the ultimate villain, intending to leave and live out the rest of my life until such time God saw me worthy enough to join my daughter in Heaven, should I not be granted her life being resurrected. But then I do remember seeing Dalene that day, she was speaking to the rest of the disciples. She told them things, things I can very much guess were told to her by Matthias. She showed them a bag of thirty pieces of silver that she found in our home, telling them that this was the price of my betrayal.”
“Oh my God, she was the reason that they killed you… fucking bitch!” Keira suddenly snapped, outraged, and swearing because of it.
“I think it was Matthias’ last attempt at trying to make me a useless vessel and no use to Lucifer.