I Hate It When The Lights Go Out

Aelfric woke up in a room he didn't recognize.

He was still in the bloody covered pajamas, and his mouth felt dry. He stumbled out of the bed and into the bathroom, head pounding, stomach rolling. He drank from the faucet in the bathroom and took off his pajamas, covering his body in the comforter left in the drab room.

Around his wrist was a little child's watch, shaped like a rabbit.

It told the time: 10:47 AM.

He didn't remember putting the watch on, but he didn't mind it. It was a little too girly for him with the pink band, but he loved the rabbit. Aelfric tried to take it off, but the watch wouldn't budge.

The band fit tightly around his wrist, and after a couple of minutes he realized it was meant to never be removed, but he had no idea what it could ever be used for.

Aelfric knew that he had to escape, but he didn't know where he was. Of course, he knew he could teleport out of the room. He couldn't go very far, since he couldn't control his ability very well, but he knew he could teleport back to his room.

He closed his eyes and tried to open a tunnel, but instead pain shot up his arm.

He fell to the ground, crying.

Now he knew what the watch was for.

With nowhere to go, Aelfric began to panic. He couldn't leave the room, he couldn't teleport out, and his father was dead.

"It's okay," he mumbled. "Mama will be back soon. She has to."

Since he was a good boy, he would wait until she came home.

She would never come home, her plans changed earlier in the day.

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That morning was another day that Aeris Aeronwyn des Regalis had to pretend she didn't know that something horrible was going to happen. From the completely mundane and trivial, such as someone spilling a cup of juice on a shirt, to the obscene and horrific acts of violence that would occur across town, Aeris kept her mouth quiet, because she knew it was for the best good.

This morning she awoke in her bed chambers, next to her husband, Griffin, the blonde and hairy fat man, snoring and groaning in his sleep. She always awoke before him, on cue, without an alarm clock at the same time, because she didn't need one, her ability activating on cue at sunrise.

She gripped the white sheets, grit her teeth, and broke out in a sweat as she got her daily news updates. Every morning images flooded her mind of various outcomes of bad things that would happen.

Today it was quite different from the usual updates.

Seven hundred people would die in a mud-slide down a mountain, on their way to an annual religious pilgrimage. Her son would be unable to find the left side of his favorite pair of shoes.

A new brain disease would be discovered that might not ever find a cure, two young lovers would get swept out to sea during their beachside wedding, a woman a few villages over would burn her tongue drinking a cup of too-hot tea.

All of these were the usual updates.

Then came the ones that made her pause.

Her youngest son would die, while looking for his left shoe, in his eldest brother's room, his tiny body hacked into pieces, and he would ask right before, why he was in trouble, and he wouldn't do it again.

Many of her servants would be massacred, their blood decorating the walls, soaking into it, marring the carpet, some churned like tomatoes in a blender, others sliced in the same manner as her youngest.

Her eyes fluttered rapidly and a few hot tears came out, because today was the day, the day that she would have to choose very carefully so that one day she may have a chance at finally escaping the cage of her life.

After a few minutes, Aeris groaned, slipped out of bed, nude, and made her way to the bathroom. Her footsteps echoed through her bed chambers, the ancient wooden floors creaking, and she pushed open the double doors to her bathroom.

The moment she set her foot into the bathroom, the runes lit up on the floor, lighting up the room, emitting a soft purple hue, and crawled through the ridges in the floor, towards the antique tub.

Aeris sat in the empty, always clean tub, the runes doing their job, filling it up, always at the right temperature for whoever wanted it, turning the faucet even, and she sighed, sinking in, reminding herself that she had twenty minutes.

The first ten minutes were to bathe and meditate.

The last ten minutes were to decide what to do about her daily news updates.

She wanted to give it more time because today was the day, she didn't think it would come so soon, but here it was, she knew it would be here, as she sat in the tub, hugging her legs close to her.

The runes lit up again, and little by little, foamy bubbles sprouted forth, and Aeris told herself that she had already sacrificed her husband, son, and an extremely valuable weapon so she could save her children.

The ones she loved, of course.

Godiva, Divina, and Cynbel, were quite precious to her, and after some time, even the last remaining weapon she had left became an attachment, and she told herself, that's what happens when you name them.

Aeris played with her hair, her dark green eyes searching the painted ceiling, a fresco of the gods Solara and Lunos creating the universe, lovemaking above her, giving birth to the stars, planets, gods, and all lesser beings, asking for an answer, but none would come.

So, Aeris decided to play a game she loved to play when her twin sister was still alive.

What Would Happen?

As she looked back on it now, it was quite morose.

Aeris with the ability to see all bad future events, her sister, able to see only the good, and they would compare together, believing together they could find such a wonderful balance, thinking that maybe, they were truly the reincarnations of the gods themselves.

Until she died, leaving Aeris alone, at the mercy of the cruelty of the world to bombard her every morning.

So Aeris played by herself, imagining different scenarios, and her green eyes faded to an unearthly black, as she could see the many, many different endings. In each and every ending except for two, she died.

Her life was secured, without a doubt, but the two options were not palatable, to say the least. In all options that she died, but Aelfric lived, he would fare better without her, and this made her…a bit angry. She was his…caretaker. How could he move on and be fine without her?

In the two scenarios in which she and Aelfric both lived, he did not do so well, madness slowly squeezing its tendrils around him, snaking down his throat, stuffed down by others, sometimes himself.

A strange relief washed over her, she had traded her husband's soul for her own long ago, but it was not enough. Now she had to debate over her son's trials and tribulations over her own life.

It was the antithesis of motherhood. How could someone ever think of putting their own life in front of the sanity of their child?

Yet the idea would never leave.

Very little bathing was done, and Aeris sunk to the bottom of the tub, her eyes flickering rapidly, and she tried to keep seeing further and further into the future, but the farther she saw, the murkier and more opaque her visions became, just as her sight in the soapy tub water.

She was in the bathroom for an obscene amount of time, her mouth agape, fingers pruning, her arms hanging over the side of the tub, gasping heavily, emitting a sound of an old door creaking open, her eyes dimming darker and darker.

Her energy reacted with the simple runes on the bathroom floor, and they danced around her, pulsing to her heartbeat as she continued because she wanted her happy ending.

For once, she wanted to be a real princess, the princesses in books that got the prince they loved, and the kingdom, and the Happily Ever After, but there was no such thing, there never would be, she knew it to be true, as her heart and mind told her every sunrise.

Her husband, Griffin the Fat and Hairy, disturbed from his slumber, tottered in the bathroom while holding a towel to see his wife, now gripping the sides of the tub, her back arching, naked and screaming.

He dropped his towel and mumbled something about privacy and left.

He stood out the door, worried but unsure what to do, as he heard an animalistic scream, sounding similar to when she gave birth and eyed the gap underneath the door, the purple lights dancing, and braced himself for many phone calls later in the day.

At once all the runes in Hearst Castle lit up, and everyone, from visiting noblemen, to the stable boys outside, shouted and shrieked in terror as the runes had all the energy sucked out of them.

A collective groan was let out from all the noblemen and women, as once again, Aeris had used up all the energy in the castle just to get a singular power boost, and would not be on for some time.

A collective panic and silent screams hung in the air by all those in the surrounding area, because the energy was gone, and it needed to be turned on, and they would be the first to be sacrificed.

Aeris stood in the bathroom, waiting for the towels to run up to her, all on their own, and remembered there was no more power and fumbled in the dark to find a towel. After finding one, hanging on a silver rack next to the mirror, she found her husband, sitting on the bed, telling her that we should talk this out.

"You did it last time. Now it's my turn," Aeris replied.

"Darling, you always make it hurt," Griffin sulked.

"You're just soft. "

Before he could say another word, Aeris gave him a swift backhand, and he grunted. The lights in the room flickered, and she sighed because this was such a waste of time.

Her french manicured nails this time were her weapon of choice, and Griffin sat there, thinking of what he would do when it was his turn. She cut his skin, and the lights in her room turned on, the chandeliers, however, a dull glow.

"It's not fair I have to suffer. You always take all the energy," he complained.

"Don't worry. This is just a temporary measure. The Harvester will be here soon."

Castle Hearst had its own personal Harvester, and it was at the suggestion of Griffin because he was starting to think his wife was using up all the energy in their house on purpose, but he knew he was just angry that she was so willing to pinch anyone within three feet so she wouldn't have to go without lights for more than five minutes.

With no lights, barely any running water, and many impatient and entitled clients inside the castle walls, The Harvester quickly went to work. She was thankfully inside her study when it occurred, and her portable sources were with her as well.

The Harvester, Piro Rena, was wearing her black and red military regalia, with all her awards, wanting to bask in the glow of the moment, making a show of it all, when surrounded by all the tired and ill-dressed rich men and women that greeted her at the center of Hearst Castle.

They were half-dressed while in the shower, and some were upset to come outside for the show until they heard The Harvester would be arriving.

The center of the runes started in the center of Hearst Castle, connected to every room in the castle, at the gates to the front entrance. They stood outside, the spring breeze was thankfully forgiving, and her audience was impatient, as she declared that who needed science when they had magic.

She smiled, a huge grin, plastered over her face, dragging the chain shackled to the ankle of her most powerful energy source. Rena took very good care of it. It was old and had been used so many times, but that was what made this energy source so valuable.

It, however, in its old age, was starting to become obstinate.

Rena pushed it, and it stumbled to the ground, shaking and crying, asking that it didn't want to do it, that it was too much, that he couldn't suffer anymore.

"Number five, it is not your place to address someone of high standing unless addressed first," Rena screamed.

She picked it up by its thinning white hair, ignoring its pleas, telling Rena that its name was Fi-Ro of Belland, and she stared into the old crevices and folds of its mind, with her eyes turning a horrid black.

Aeris watched, bored out of her skull, holding the hand of her youngest, as an old man flailed and screamed, relieving the day his family was killed by thieves when he was a young boy, and he hid in a closet, listening to the things they did to his sisters before they killed them.

"Mama, I can't find one of my shoes," Aelfric mumbled.

"Don't worry. I can get you new ones," Aeris told her son.

The noblemen and women talked amongst each other, discussing what their plans for the day were, some of them even eating snacks, waiting for the procession to finish, as it was quite an interesting movie to them.

Aelfric held his mother's hand and she told him you should be good or else you might end up bad like him.

"I won't be bad," he replied. "I did all my homework, all by myself yesterday! "

The old man was almost done, relieving the experience of his life, as the thieves had found him, and since they didn't want a boy, they sold him, and here he was, years later, an energy source, reliving it, every day.

"I'm so sorry," the energy source cried.

Polite claps came from the audience as Rena bowed and the man fell into a sobbing heap on the dirt, his body emitting a purple glow.

"The show is almost over," Griffin sighed. "This tires me. Must she always use the same one?"

"I'm hungry. I want some chips," Aelfric complained.

"You can have some of mine," a noblewoman nearby offered.

So Aelfric munched on his chips, as the polite claps, and oohs, and aahs erupted from the crowd. The light show flashed and pulsed, and it spread out in soft waves, and everyone smiled, the feeling of pure energy, washing over them, the finale of their personal performance.

Aeris smiled because the lights went out.

She smiled because the lights went out and everyone in Castle Hearst went out to see the performance.

She giggled softly because everyone was there, no one to chop her little Aelfric into tiny bits, no one to lure him into some corner and take him from her, her little weapon that would one day kill the thorn in her side, that stood behind her, his hot gaze boring holes into her skin.

Leofric, her eldest, stood behind her and told her that she was making Aelfric too soft, always letting him follow her around, giving him no proper sword training, and he will grow up to bend quicker than a blade of grass.

She held Aelfric closer and tighter, so close it made him frightened.

"Leofric is jealous because I made you special," Aeris said. "Don't be bad like him."

Aelfric nodded and said something inaudible between eating his bag of chips.

Aeris looked at the thing, eating chips and telling her about his friends from school, and wondered when she became so fond of it.