The whispers at midnight

Eva's POV

The dining hall in the evening was blessed with a regal gleam. The chandelier that hung directly above the dining table tempted me to not merely take a glance at it. I tore my eyes away from it and continued to walk as confidently as I could to the dining table where my family sat. They were all waiting, their eyes on me. Maybe it was just my paranoia but I could not shake the feeling that they were mildly scrutinizing me.

The queen soon left my side to sit by the king and I found myself trying to make an impromptu decision about where to sit. As though one of the maids that stood by could read my thoughts, she pulled a chair for me. It was the one beside Vivianne. I sat down as I heard my sister stifle a groan. There was silence for an uncomfortable while and I had already started to wonder if I had done something wrong. If it was because I had not greeted them. I could not look up because I was afraid I would see stares of disappointment.

Cling from the meeting of two cutlery pulled me out of my reverie and I thanked the gods that I did not flinch. "The gods sanctify our meal," It was the king that had spoken.

"As they had promised,'' came a reply from everyone except for me. What they had said was not strange because most households said the prayer before they eat. I did not know why I believed it would be different here.

Everyone soon had food in their mouths. I did the same not forgetting to use the cutlery made available to me the way the queen had taught me. It took a while to get a hang of it but before long, I was slicing through the cooked flesh of an animal I could not recognize and picking at greens that looked rather queer. It was scrumptious nonetheless. The flavours were melting in my mouth. The food I had been given yesterday was not able to make my taste buds dance as this was. It could have been my mood or just because it had become cold.

"You seem to be enjoying your meal, Eva," A woman's voice that I did not recognize said. She was sitting opposite me. She was a pale woman with titian curls that seemed to have lost their zest. Her pale thin lips were curved up to a smile. She had the king's eyes. She must be his sister.

I swallowed a mouthful before replying. "It is really good," I beamed.

"Of course, it is," Vivianne murmured mockingly under her breath.

"Watch it." The queen said with a lethal calmness without looking up from her plate.

"I am your aunt," The woman introduced. "Hannah,"

I smiled at her and nodded before another woman spoke up. "And I am your aunt Agatha,"

I could only smile awkwardly. It was not all bad at the table. I took a glance at my 'family' and felt something missing instantly. But it was not the familiarity that was lacking but the presence of the little girl from this morning.

"Where is Josie?" I asked suddenly without thinking.

I felt everyone at the table go tense as soon as the question left my lips. Silence reigned in the hall, there was not a single clink of utensils to be heard.

The first person that recovered was the queen's mother. "She eats in her room,"

I was not satisfied with the answer and pressed on. "Why?"

"She is not fit to eat with us," She replied without missing a beat.

"Because of her condition?" I inquired, only the gods knew why I had become so brazen all of a sudden.

This time the queen's mother said nothing but the king picked up and continued for her. "There is still so much you have yet to understand, Eva my dear," His eyes found mine and I could see very clearly the warning in them. "But soon you will but for now just eat,"

I looked away and stared down at my food as Vivianne scoffed quietly enough for only me to hear. The dinner went on in silence as I knew that it was my fault.

*****

I shut the door softly behind me and let out a long sigh for my long day. The little incident at the dinner table left me confused and sad. I felt for Josie, my sister. What was it like to be seen as an anomaly simply because of a deficiency she could not control? She was just a little girl for that matter. Why hadn't the queen stood up for her? Her own mother for goodness sake.

I needed to find her. She had been so excited to see me in the morning and how would she feel if I did not return the favour? She seemed so sweet and sincere. The way Lisa had been before everything changed. I was afraid of what the toxicity of this place could do to a girl like her. She could turn into another Vivianne or turn into an insecure shell of who she could have been; Someone like me.

I turned back around and held the knob of my door. I did not know which room was hers. What could I do? I did not have time to answer my question when I felt a rush of wind enter the room. I turned around to investigate and that was when I caught the sight of a figure standing at the window. The lights in the room were too dim to get the details of the figure but all I knew of whatever entity stood there belonged to a female. It looked too lithe to belong to a male and there was grace in the way she stood.

I wanted to scream for help but my curiosity got the better of me. "Who are you?" I asked and to my surprise without stuttering. I took a step forward without letting go of the door nub. "What do you want?" I squinted at the figure as it moved forward as well, to the light. The moment the light reached her face, my jaw dropped. My eyes filled with tears. I'd recognize those dark eyes and orchard-coloured hair anywhere. Nothing had been the same without her. "Rose," I managed to call out to her as I ran to her for an embrace.

*****

Igdaliah's POV

As the clock struck midnight, It came as it always did. At first, it was a gush of wind but in my head. The air outside was as still as the stump of a tree. The wind was just an announcement of his arrival and then it would really begin; the torment. His whispers were tortuous. They told me to do atrocious things, inhuman acts that would haunt any human. But I was no longer human and this was the price I had to pay for it.

"They are beneath you,"

"Prey on their vulnerability,"

"Gorge out their eyes as they scream,"

"Tear them to ribbons,"

"Savour in the saltiness of their blood,"
"Sink your teeth into their flesh and feast,"

His voice was always sweet and his words tempting. It was hell as midnight came with his songs in my head. They threatened to rip whatever humanity I had left out of me. If I had known… if I had known… As I bled out in the war zone with Darius staring down at me. I begged him with the same mouth that now craved forbidden meat. I begged him to save me any way he could and he did. And now I wish I had died that day.

It was getting harder these days and I knew that one day I would snap. I would become what I feared the most; a monster. I pulled out my dagger from its sheath. Just as 'he' had begun in the ritual of seduction, I would begin mine too.

Taking the weapon to my wrist, I readied myself for the pain. If I lost enough blood, I would be too weak to hurt anyone and my wounds would have been healed by sunrise.

Then I heard it, a sniffle and another. Someone was crying and I could hear it distort the devil's whispers. That could not be true, it was impossible. When the whispers first started, I realized quickly that I was deaf to any other sound. But I could hear someone crying. I tried something that I had failed so many times at achieving, I tried to drown out the whispers.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the crying from wherever it was coming from and to my amazement the whispers started to lose their dominance. I got on my feet instantly and began my search for the source.

I got out of my room and followed the path to the sound. It was coming from the last room on the floor. The room where I kept my prisoner. Soon the hatch stared back at me. She must have caught wind of my presence and stopped her weeping. Immediately, the whispers were back with a vengeance. No! without a second thought, I pulled the hatch off its hinges and jumped into the darkness. "Please, don't stop," I told her in desperation. "Don't stop," I groaned as I held my hands to my ears.

"Please… don't come any closer," I heard her again, the chains of the whispers breaking away completely. The whispers were no longer in my head. I stalked closer to her, able to hear my footsteps after midnight.

"Have mercy on me," She pleaded. It was so ironic that I could have laughed. I was the one that needed her mercy. "I will stop," She promised.

"NO!" I found myself, running to her and grasping her hands. "Don't stop," I pleaded.

"Huh?" I could see her face despite the darkness, she looked understandably confused.

The whispers were yet to return and realized that all she had to do was to speak. "Tell me about yourself," I asked the first question that came to mind.

She became mute to my dismay. I needed to force her then. "Speak or I will eat you whole,"

"I… I…," She stuttered. "I am Rosé,"

I squeezed her hands a bit harder than I intended but it did the trick anyway.

"I am from Xenia, the land of the witches," She gushed. "I have a twin sister named Nadia…" She went on and on soothing my ears and keeping the whispers away until I fell asleep in her lap.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Happy new year, guys 🎊🎊🎊