Hypatia moved on to the refrigerator and noticed that it was locked. She looked around and saw a key hanging on a hook on the side of a cabinet. She grabbed it and used it to unlock the strange padlock.
Hypatia ran after her and shouted. "Slow down. I still have something to ask you!"
Miseria looked back and weighed the options. I guess it couldn't hurt.
She hopped down in front of the strange woman she had just met. "What's up?"
Hypatia got down on one knee and asked serioulsy while looking into the girls eyes. "Would you go back?"
A flash of understanding flickered across her red eyes. She grinned, and her tears dyed the snow black. "Not even if they begged me."
…
Hypatia ejected herself from the mind of Miseria and blinked a few times to correct her sight. Her lashes bared tears she had shed while deep diving and she wiped them away with the back of her hand.
She turned her gaze to the sleeping child and revealed a knife from within her bodice.
Should she?
Although she shows signs of being vulnerable to it. It doesn't look like she had succumbed to an influence greater than the gods. It's just…How could such a mind exist?
Teetering on the brink of descruction from the memories of something she does not quite remember. Traces of past lives have never been so obvious in a mind before. It was now or never.
Risk the fate of their world or… eliminate a threat before it ever even matures?
Hypatia held the curved blade closer to the neck of the infant. Suddenly all of the candles in the space were blown out.
She looked up and around. "Who's there?"
Unlike the permanent night she was used to, the room was now drowned in darkness. Pure darkness. Something brushed against her cheek, and she stilled.
Her eyes clouded over, and she sank to the ground, petrified. Quick shallow breaths left her throat as she struggled to breathe.
A weary hoarse voice ridiculed. "Do you really think…You are a God?"
"No…No. I-I I'm honored to serve."
"Then serve. Don't interfere and keep your mouth shut."
The air was sucked out of the room and she coughed from the lack. Her eyes cleared up and the candles lit themselves again. They danced in the darkness of the room.
Trembling, she grasped at the warm metal of her pendant. A gift from her Goddess. It burned her sweaty palm, and she heaved a shuddering breath in again.
"Hypatia?"
She jumped and looked down at the little girl with mismatched eyes. She looked concerned for the poor old woman. "Are you ok?"
"..."
"Ma'am?"
"..."
Miseria got up slowly and buttoned her undershirt back up under the terrified gaze of Hypatia.
"You may go."
"Sure…Are you sure you're—"
She choked out."Go."
Miseria didn't need to be told twice; she jumped up, stepped over the crystal bowls, and left without hesitation.
Hypatia collected herself and sheathed her blade. This…must never be known. Ever.
That was weird. I stumbled over to Erichean who was fast asleep on the rug I had left him on and snoring the house down. Damn!He needs a c-pap machine. I climbed over his limbs and dragged a blanket from my bed to cover his torso. It was bright pink and illmatched with his cool ranger clothes which made me smile.
Brief visions and whispers of something wrong filtered into the room.
With a careful hand she opened the refrigerator and shuddered at the gust of cold wind. Inside she found nothing. Absolutely nothing in the icebox.
She tilted her head and turned around. Stairs.
She peeked inside each room.
"Oh my."
Dolls. Wooden effigies of people she assumed were important to this girl were standing upright.
A man and woman holding each other while watching something on a black box hanging from a wall…
A couple of young children were standing on bunk beds while one sat on the ground and looked up at them…
A child was being…She put a hand over her mouth as she couldn't even bear to keep the door open.
She pulled on the string and an entire structure fell from the ceiling. More stairs. She sighed and climbed up the steps.
Poking her head up she judged that it was safe in here and entered the final level of the house. This room was cold. Unlike the rest of the house. Insulation was gathered in a pile close to the hole she had come from and she stepped around it.
A mattress was pressed up against a wall alongside a box that held some of the inhabitants belongings. Books, writing utensils, and a case for glasses.
She scoured the rest of it. No doll. No effegy.
"That's not very nice of you."
Hypatia jumped and dropped the book in her hand on the ground. It made a thump sound and lay there abandoned.
"..."
She gazed at Miseria with new eyes. Horrified, disbelieving, reddened eyes.
"I win."
Miseria stomped closer to Hypatia, and she stumbled back. Her tiny hand reached out for the necklace, and she cleared her throat.
"What is this place?"
Miseria thought to herself. "A house. I used to live here. Now I don't. My prize."
She shoved her hand out again, and Hypatia used trembling hands to take it off and place it in her little hand.
Miseria examined it and smiled victoriously. Then she opened her basket revealing it's contents for just a moment and threw it in.
"Miseria?"
"Yes?"
"Is that what you ate?"
Miseria frowned and looked towards the basket. She opened it up and inspected it. There's nothing wrong. "Yeah. Why?"
"Honey…That's dog food. You can't eat that."
Hypatia reached out to take it from her, and Miseria backed away. "Get your own! This is mine!"
Hypatia swallowed a mouthful of bile and looked around in shock. "How long?"
"What?"
"You said…You lived here a long time ago. How long?"
Miseria scratched her head and looked around. "Ah."
I climbed in beside him and rested my head on his arm. I just had the weirdest dream ever. Who was that? That necklace. Where have I seen that necklace?