Silence
There wasn’t much of anything, anymore.
I was sitting there, alone, in a mansion much too large for the only monster living inside. It was beautiful enough though, with all those blood red colored flowers running all over the stone cold walls. An environment representative of myself, ironically. The rooms were so empty that one could hear its own voice echo at even the slightest of whispers. Unfortunately, there wasn’t even anyone to whisper, or breathe at all.
Watching my own reflection in the mirror of the luxurious vanity, I decided to break this heavy silence, otherwise my mind would never be able to take all of this nonsense.
"I remember, back in Vahnatia, when I used to tell my lost brother about the fate that was awaiting me. As a tiefling, there aren’t many paths to choose from, once you have lived for too long; Two, only two. But I know that you also know that, don’t you?
Quinn, you’ll take the path of the beast, and I’ll take the leap to madness"
The sound of my laughter bounced against the walls while I was brushing the same strand of my hair, for the 10 000th time. All those memories were a burden to carry, overtime… and time seemed to stretch forever in front of me, and I barely had even lived the tenth of my existence. Where was the Family? Where was Michael…? Were was "Mister-Lord-Quinn", even?
Vanished.
—————————————-
I had always wondered why so many peasants were gathering around the bank of Narrowhaven. I managed to squeeze my way into the building, while noticing a group of very loud ones, insulting Merrick. Saperlipopette, was I happy not to be part of such chaos. Perhaps, solitude was better, after all.
; "Scarlet?"
Oh my… of course peace couldn’t follow me for very long, hm? I barely looked over my shoulder, the voice not ringing any particular bell to me. I was positive that I didn’t knew this woman addressing to me rudely. I didn’t attach much importance on what she said afterwards while she was pretending I could be some sort of messenger between her and someone of my past. Rudeness attracting rudeness, I finally left the bank, annoyed by the low vocabulary she employed. I had to wonder why people were telling me about my brother, when I had never even met them before. They should try harder to trap me.
When I thought that day was to be a complete and boring failure, anew, an old face appeared in between the unknown ones. Despite that I didn’t knew that man very well, even not at all, I felt some kind of comfort. It was proof that I didn’t invent all of these tragedies, and that this universe wasn’t all made up in my mind while my body could have been tied down in a basement with the deranged population, somewhere.
Reality seeming to be caught in think fog all the time, I followed him to a place I thought I had heard of in the past. Oh, I’ll admit it right away; I did indeed try to spy a particular group of people around this castle, but never actually was able to. Lucky day? As we arrived, jumping out from a portal, my instincts of suspicion kicked in and I scanned the area, as if I was memorising it to commit a future crime.
Flowers
Pond
Gates
Lots of shadowy corners
Magical tiles…?
Where was everyone…?
Lost in my thoughts of planification, I was rather quiet while I followed the drow upstairs. Yes, a drow. Crazy, dangerous? I didn’t even had a clue. I certainly remembered him to be among my enemies, back then. What did I have to lose, though? Nothing, the sad truth. I had nothing to lose. We say, often, that those can be the most dangerous ones, the craziest ones. I don’t know if he was aware that he had invited a Monster like me in his castle? Should my end was to come, I would accept it and leave this world forever.
"You always said that I never was able to defend myself properly…" I whispered to myself, hearing a heavy door close behind me.
Oh, at least I was talented at keeping a smiling face, while my mind was racing in the background:
" I bet he will opt for poison, what do you think?"
" Poison seems too obvious, it’s a drow, it’s too typical"
" You’re frail, I say he will just stab your back and leave you to drown in your own puddle of blood"
" He might chop you in bits too, and feed it to his next visitors."
I survived.
I wasn’t killed, nothing had been poisonous, but -one- idea started to intoxicate my mind. One little idea that made all the difference. Oh yes, wasn’t I an opportunistic woman? It was dangerous, it could also be some kind of trap, a vengeance?
As I said before, I had nothing to lose. Should it lead to the perfect crime, it will. Should it lead to my death, I’ll die.
