Love and Murder

"Did my father give you an answer?" Adea asked as she and Eran sat on the front porch of the cottage. The sky had fallen dark blue and the stars began to peek out.

"No," Eran replied with a swallow. "Not yet."

"What did he say to you?"

"Well," Eran began rather nervously, "that he would consider my proposal once you've taken your vows."

Adea giggled softly. "Don't let him get to you. That's just his way of testing your patience."

"I'm not bothered. I'd wait for you as long as I must."

Adea smiled as she rested her head on his shoulder. She had never felt so happy in her life. The moment was ruined, however, when Adea heard her mother call her from inside the cottage. "Ugh," she groaned. "Come on, Eran."

The two retreated into the house, where Alyra asked Adea to help her finish with the dishes in the kitchen. Eran went to wait for her in the den, anxious as he mused on the day's events. It had not gone exactly as he had hoped, but his talk with Adea's father left him overjoyed nonetheless. He was so distracted by his own thoughts that he did not even hear the light footsteps enter the room.

Eran spun around to see Lyda standing at the other end of the den. She was not looking at him, rather she seemed to be staring aimlessly around the room, her hand rubbing her eye as usual.

"Lyda?" Eran muttered. "I didn't hear you come in."

At the sound of his voice, Lyda glanced back at him. "Where's Adi?"

"Helping your mother," Eran nodded toward the kitchen. "Is everything alright?"

Lyda took a deep breath. "Can you come with me? Just for a moment?"

"What's the matter?"

"Please," she uttered before turning and walking out of the den. Without a second thought, Eran followed as she led him toward the cellar door. Lyda did not even look back to see if he was coming until they made their way down the stairs. "Can you shut the door, please? It gets drafty."

Eran hesitated for a second before pulling the door shut behind him. The light from the foyer was immediately swallowed by the dimness of the cellar, which was lit only by a few candles spread throughout the area. Eran's first thought was that Lyda needed help with something, but she only lumbered over to her bed at the far end, her back still turned to him.

"Are you alright, Lyda?" he repeated himself. "You've been acting strange lately."

"I know," she answered softly, to Eran's surprise. "I haven't felt like myself in a long time." Her voice was trembling, hinting that she had just been crying.

Eran did not know what to think. He only saw one of his closest friends trapped before him in a state of misery. He let out a sigh as he approached her and placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

Lyda winced at his touch. She tilted her head to rest her cheek against his hand. The cool of his flesh was soothing to spot where her father had struck her. The affectionate gesture took Eran off guard. He instinctively tried to pull his hand away, but Lyda had reached up to take hold of it. It was beginning to make him uncomfortable.

"Ever since we were children," Lyda began to speak, "all I wanted was for Adea to feel safe and happy, as any sister should. I would've done anything for her."

"I know you would," Eran responded with a hint of confusion, "and she still knows it. Is that what's bothering you?"

"A bit. The truth is I feel that I've worried too much about Adea's happiness that I never focused on myself. You know, the things I want." Lyda could not stop herself as she felt her father's words rising to the surface. "A life of my own. A life of peace and happiness, and someone to share it with."

Eran felt his heart racing, but nothing like the way it did when he was with Adea. He was taken aback when Lyda turned her head to gently kiss his hand before shifting to look up at him. As if by instinct, Eran could not bring himself to meet her gaze.

"I-" he stammered in discomfort. "I think I should go. Adea's waiting for me."

"Adea," Lyda muttered the name. She spun around, keeping ahold of Eran's hand as she leaned forward against him. "What do you see in her anyway? What is it about her that sets her apart from me? Beauty? Intelligence? Certainly not a sense of courage. I have all of that and more, more than Adea ever has and ever will. And I think you know that, don't you, Eran?" Lyda reached up to place her other hand against the back of his head, holding him steady. Eran felt his legs going limp. He was frozen where he stood, unable to speak or pull away. He could only stand there awkwardly as Lyda moved closer, gently brushing her lips against his. The closer she got, the more sinister her words became. "Adea is weak, too weak for a man like you. You deserve better than her. You deserve a woman like me."

Eran's skin crawled at the sound of her sentiment. Her lips just rested against his, motionless, as if waiting for the moment when they would both give in to the desire. Despite the uncomfortable position he was in, the touch of her lips was so inviting that the temptation was overwhelming, and it grew exponentially with each passing second. At the moment he thought he might give in, Eran's eyes finally focused on Lyda, whose eyes opened immediately to meet them. The first Eran saw was just how dull and lifeless that they were becoming. That is until his sight panned over to the eye she had been covering all afternoon. He half-expected it to be reddened by her incessant rubbing. Instead, the breath was ripped from his body when he saw that the entire cornea was painted a sickly yellow color. There was nothing natural about it, and Eran's heart pounded painfully when he realized that her eye was glowing.

Lyda closed her eyes again, surrendering to her own temptation as she began to pull him into a passionate kiss. Before she could, however, Eran threw his arms up and shoved her away. Lyda was shocked by the sudden gesture that she stumbled back onto her bed. She stared up at him in disbelief, no longer bothering to cover her yellow eye.

"This isn't right," Eran stammered.

"Eran," Lyda breathed, switching effortlessly to an innocent tone. "I'm sorry." Eran whipped around and hurried back toward the stairs. "Eran!" Lyda's voice cracked as she called after him. "Wait! Please!" Eran did not respond nor look back at her. He did not stop until he was out of the cellar, slamming the door behind him.

Left alone again, Lyda lied speechless on her bed. Her mind had gone from restless to devoid of all thoughts. She was utterly bewildered that her own best friend could just turn his back on her like that. And for what? Someone like Adea? The very name filled her with such intense feelings of anger and betrayal, unlike anything she had ever felt before. Her blood boiled as she leaped to her feet, ripped the blanket and sheets from her bed, and threw them across the room with a cry of pure rage.

Eran could not focus. For a moment, he was not even sure where he was as he lumbered down the foyer toward the front door.

"Hey," Adea's soft voice spoke up as she emerged from the den. "Where'd you go?"

As Eran stopped and met Adea's eyes, he felt a wave of guilt and discomfort sweep over him after what happened in the cellar. Even though he knew nothing happened between him and Lyda, and that it was not his doing to begin with, he could not stifle the discomfort that was enveloping him, and he turned away to walk out onto the porch.

Adea was quick to follow him. "Eran, stop!" She caught up with him and grabbed him by the hand. Her own touch calmed him down almost immediately, for it was much softer than Lyda's. "What happened?"

Eran took several breaths, unsure of what to say. "Don't worry about it."

"I am worried about it," Adea persisted. "You seem distraught all of a sudden."

Sensing that he was in a corner from which he could not escape, he saw no choice but to speak his mind. "It's just Lyda."

"What about her?"

Eran lowered his head in shame. "She asked me to follow her into the cellar. I didn't know what she wanted. If I had, then I would've walked away. She tried to…" his voice trailed off as he anxiously licked his dry lips.

The subtle gesture was all Adea needed to understand. "What?" she muttered in a quivering voice.

"I didn't," Eran said firmly as he turned to face her, and he gave her a look as if to assure her that he was telling the truth. "Please, I don't want to think about it anymore." He looked up at the sky, which had gone black with the coming night. "I have to go." With that, he gave Adea one last glance before hurrying off toward the wooded path that would lead back to his cottage.

Adea was unsure of how to take such news. Eran did not even need to speak in detail for her to understand what he was saying; that Lyda took advantage of her absence to try to move in on him. Adea's immediate reaction was one of anger, but it was quickly drowned out by utter disbelief. Much of her could not believe that Lyda would really do something like that, despite everything she had done to her already. The thought made her reach up to touch her previously broken rib. Even still, there was no way Eran would have made something like that up. There was no choice, Adea thought to herself, she had to confront her sister. This time, as far as she was concerned, Lyda had crossed the line.

Adea hurried back inside, allowing the thought of what happened to fill her with anger, enough to give her the courage to face her sister. She announced her presence by throwing open the cellar door as hard as she could and storming down the stairs. "Lyda!" she shouted, her voice echoing in the dark, confined area. Lyda turned her head to see her sister approaching but continued to hide eye from view. Adea clenched her fists. "How dare you!"

"What are you talking about?" Lyda grumbled.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Adea cried in a tone of voice that surprised even her. "How could you even think about trying to steal Eran from me!"

"Steal him from you?!" Lyda fired back. "Is that what you think? Eran is my friend, too!"

"Don't give me that," Adea stood her ground. "I'm not letting you play your little mind games with me anymore! Eran has made it clear today which one of us he loves, and I don't want you going near him anymore!"

Just then, Lyda turned to stare her in the face. Even in her bold confrontation, Adea took a step back when she met her sister's bichromatic gaze. Her blood ran cold at the sight of her yellow eye. She had seen something like it so many times before. It was the same glowing shade of yellow she saw in her dreadful nightmares. Now it made sense to her why Lyda had been hiding it.

"Oh, big girl now, huh?" Lyda taunted through gritted teeth. "A man throws himself at your feet and you think that makes you grown up? Well, you don't deserve him, Adea! You never deserved him! I'm the one who gave you the confidence you have now!"

Adea felt the rage building rapidly but took a deep breath to try to remain as calm as she could. "Stop blaming your issues on me, Lyda! This isn't about me at all. It's about that horrible ritual you've forced me to participate in ever since we were little kids. Look what it's done to you! You isolate yourself all day. You didn't give a damn about your own mistress, your friend, being found dead in the river. Should I even mention my broken rib? Now you've gone too far by stepping between me and Eran. That's what a whore does."

The atmosphere had gone deathly silent. Lyda was visibly shocked by Adea's choice of words. "What-" she stuttered under her breath. "What did you call me?"

Adea refused to be intimidated. She gave a deep inhale and boldly declared, "A whore, Lyda! You're acting like a whore!"

Lyda was silent. For a moment, she looked as though she might actually cry. Adea immediately regretted her words. She didn't mean them like that, but at the same time, she felt her sister needed to hear it. As Lyda looked away and lowered her head, Adea wanted to pull her into an embrace and apologize, but she never expected what happened next.

Without warning, Lyda whipped back around and punched her sister square in the face. The attack took Adea by surprise, so much so that she couldn't even cry out. A surge of pain shot up her forehead as she dropped back onto the floor. Adea tasted blood as it flowed into her mouth. She ran a hand across her face, which was soaked in blood. She couldn't feel her nose, telling her that it may have been broken. She coughed in pain and shock, but before she could completely comprehend what was going on, Lyda was on top of her.

She knelt on top of Adea, pinning her to the ground. Just then, Lyda stretched her hand toward the bed, and Adea watched as a knife shot out from underneath it as if carried by some unseen force directly into Lyda's grip. Adea wanted to scream, but she was stifled by the bloody injury upon her face. She was silenced completely when Lyda thrust the edge of the blade down to rest against her throat.

Adea's eyes shot wide open in shock and she struggled not to choke on her own blood. The rabid look in her sister's eyes was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. "I'M A WHORE?!" Lyda screamed in a furious rage.

"Lyda, please!" Adea rasped, tears falling from her eyes.

"Don't fuck with me, Adea! Don't fuck with me like Iris did!"

For a moment, Adea felt even the blood staining her face go cold. "What did you say?" she muttered, horrified by what she was hearing.

Lyda's eyes widened as she realized what she had just said, but her anger was burning so hot that she could not stop herself from speaking. "I didn't want to do it! I didn't want to hurt her! She was my friend, but she threatened to reveal everything I've done! Everything we've done! I couldn't let that happen! She made me do it!"

"Hey! What's going on?!"

Lyda's attention shot up as their parents rushed into the cellar, clearly disturbed by the sudden commotion. Alyra let out an astonished squeal and clapped her hands over her mouth when she saw her oldest daughter mounted atop her sister with a blade against her throat and blood dripping from her face. Matthias froze the second he locked gazes with Lyda's yellow eye, the same eye he had seen in his sister, Mara.

"Lyda!" he shouted in a thunderous voice, regaining his composure. "Take that knife away from your sister's neck!"

Her arm shaking uncontrollably, Lyda pulled the knife away, dropping it onto the floor as she backed off of her sister. Alyra rushed forward to pull her injured daughter away.

"Alyra," Matthias said, not taking his eyes away from Lyda. "Take Adea upstairs. I have to have a little talk with this one."

Giving a nod of her head, Alyra helped Adea to her feet and guided her out of the cellar with an arm around her. She took Adea all the way to her bedroom, as far away from the cellar as possible. Adea had already begun sobbing relentlessly. Alyra sat her on the edge of her bed and proceeded to wipe the blood off her face with her sleeve.

"Are you alright, baby?" she asked, struggling to mask her own tears as she examined Adea's broken nose. "Tell me what happened."

"Mother," Adea cried, nearly choking on her own tears. She wasn't even thinking about what happened between Lyda and Eran anymore. She was too shocked to think about anything else. There was only one thing on her mind now. "Mother! It was her! She did it!"

"Please, calm down, honey. What is it that she did to you?"

"No, not me," Adea continued to stammer. "Iris! Iris! She did it!"

"Hold on, what are you talking about?"

Adea was nearly blinded by her tears as she looked her mother in the eye. "She did it, Mother! Iris' death wasn't an accident! Lyda murdered her!"

Alyra froze, goosebumps welling up along her arms at such an alarming accusation. "Adea, how can you say something like that?"

"She told me, Mother! She told me herself just before you came down!"

Alyra did not know what to think. To hear one of her children accuse the other of such a heinous act was hardly compatible with her mind. That is if she hadn't seen Lyda threaten her sister's life right in front of her eyes. How could all this be happening?

Alyra's attention moved toward the hall as Matthias appeared in the doorway. "Hey," he said in a low voice. "Can I talk to you?"

Alyra nodded and wiped the blood from Adea's face one last time. "Stay here. Keep putting pressure on that to stop the bleeding. I'll be right back, I promise." Adea held her hand against her nose, continuing to sob as her parents stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

Matthias led Alyra into their bedroom and shut the door for as much privacy as they could get. "How is she?" Matthias asked quietly.

"She'll be fine," Alyra answered, shaking her head in concern. "She's a bit shaken up by what happened." She glanced back at the door as if to make sure that nobody else was there. "Matthias, listen to me. I actually think Adea may be suffering a bit of trauma from her injury. She told me that she believes Lyda was responsible for Iris' death."

"I know," was all Matthias could muster in response.

Alyra's heart skipped a beat. "What?"

Matthias took a deep breath, unsure of how to speak his next words. "Lyda confessed it to me."

"Oh my," Alyra muttered in disbelief. "So it's true? My baby, a murderer? No! I can't believe that!"

"I know you don't want to," Matthias said sympathetically. "I don't want to either, but she told me with her own words."

"But that doesn't prove anything," Alyra tried to argue.

"Why would she lie about that? Why would Adea lie about it?"

"I don't know, I just…" she could not finish speaking before the tears took over.

Matthias stepped forward to pull her into his arms. "I know this is hard," he said with tears in his own voice, "but we can't just let this go."

"What are we supposed to do?" Alyra sobbed.

Matthias let out a long sigh. "I'll go to the Valley tomorrow and seek advice from the Mistresses."

"The Mistresses?" Alyra gasped. "No, you can't!"

"This is serious, Alyra."

"I know, but if we go to the Mistresses then they'll report it to the Chief, and the penalty for taking a life is…" her voice trailed off again.

"Death," Matthias finished her grim sentence.

"You can't do it! Please don't! You can't ask me to endure the sight of my baby walking to the gallows!"

"You think it's easy for me?" Matthias cried. "It hurts me just as much as it does you, but something needs to be done. Believe me, Alyra, I will plead on my knees for Lyda to be spared her punishment. I won't let our family be torn apart. Not like this."

Alyra could not control her emotions as she buried her face in her husband's chest. As night fell, neither of them could understand how the day ended with such terrible events. One child's hand asked for in marriage and the other accused of murder. How had it come to this? Alyra wanted to go back and comfort Adea, but her mind was lost in her own roiling emotion. Much of her hoped beyond hope that this was all just a terrible nightmare. She would take that any day over such a reality. She would rather endure a thousand nightmares before she accepted that her oldest child was a murderer.