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No matter his anger and hateful stare as he countered me from across the room, he did not want to hurtme.
The note was a warning from himself, to himself.
No, not to himself, but to the creature he was about to become.
26
Iwoke to a deep, thudding laugh. It took a moment to register it as I broke through the grogginess of sleep. I had fallen asleep, back resting against the wardrobe I had pushed against the bedroom door. It was one of many pieces of furniture I had moved to block the only entrance and exit to the room by foot.
The little sleep I had did nothing to clear the cobwebs that wove from bone to bone, and vein to vein.
I listened carefully for the noise again, unsure if it was an illusion from some already forgotten nightmare. All I could hear was the beat of my own frantic heart and shallow breathing. But then it happened again. A laugh that seemed to shiver in the very shadows of the room. It came from here, but also from far away. A noise impossible to pinpoint.
Yet I knew the deep chuckle and its owner.
The open curtains gave view to the dark of night beyond the room. From my perch on the floor, I could not see the blood moon. But its deep, blood-red glow washed across the night and everything beneath it. As though the full moon had been cut down and it bled profusely across the world.
It spilled into the room, waves of crimson that touched everything before me. I raised my hands and saw nothing but the red glow across my skin. There was no time to scold myself on how long I had been asleep or when I had fallen unconscious. I vaguely remembered my eyes growing heavy but blamed it on the lack of food and the long day. It did not matter now.
I stiffened as the laugh shivered around me. A slow, devilish chuckle that dragged on for countless, horrific moments.
The urge to clap my hands over my ears and pinch my eyes shut thrummed through me. To tell myself that this was the dream and I was, in fact, still sleeping. But if my plan was to work, I had to stay vigilant. And no dream begun in such a way. Those types of dreams had other names.
Regardless if I had been trained for this moment, it did not deter the utter fear and panic that riddled through me.
“Calm down,” I said, focusing on my breathing. Marius was strong, likely powerful enough to smash through the barrier I had created with the furniture. But his laugh, although near, was also far. His laugh was different. Raspy and deep, as though it was a multitude of different voices overlapping one another.
I stood slowly from the ground, my body useless to stop him if he wanted to enter. Raising my hands in their readied position, I stood back from the door and deeper into the room.
The moments that followed seemed to drag into oblivion. I kept as still and quiet as possible, trying to pinpoint if he was close. It was impossible to distinguish the violent beats of my heart to the footsteps beyond the room.
“Jak.” The voice was a symphony as he drawled my name. “Jak, I am hungry, Jak. So, deeply famished.”
I longed for the ceiling to crash down upon me. Marius was close. His last warning to tell me to hide trickled into my consciousness. Instead I waited for him in the first place he would have looked.
More moments of silence followed that was not broken by his voice. No. It was a scratch of nails against wood. The sound was so uncomfortable it itched at my skin and made it cold with sweat. Marius was beyond the door, his nails like scraping blades against the barricaded door.
“Do you not want me now?” Marius whispered like a hurt child. “Let me in, Jak, please. Open this door so we can… discuss matters.”
I could not muster a reply. My throat had dried entirely, and my tongue seemed to have thickened in my mouth from fear.
“Let me in so I can be with you.” Marius changed his tone to commanding as he partially shouted.
“What is stopping you?” I said back, unable to hide the shake in my voice. “You could enter if you wanted.”
Marius chuckled, his laugh turning manic. “Where would be the fun in that… witch? Come now, do not be spoiled. Do I not deserve some… fun?” I jumped back as he slammed his fist into the door, wood cracking beneath the force. “Let me in.”
I paced back towards the window which I had left ajar during my preparation.
“I am not letting you in, Marius. I am doing as you wished.”
“Do not mistake me for the man you think you knew. We are nothing alike.”
Magic swirled within my, now, awakened soul. I had a plan to keep him away and this was only the first step. Tiptoeing backwards towards the window, I kept a keen eye on the door. I did not want to encourage conversation for the fear he would hear my voice moving away.
“Beautiful night, is it not?” I shouted, hoping that would distract him from my distance.
“Delightful,” Marius purred. “Red has always been a colour I admired. There is something… passionate about it.”
