Chapter 73- Into The Thorns

The colors of a thousand saris swirled in her mind like water going down a plug hole. She could feel the frigid wind as it whipped at her face, stinging her skin and turning it numb. There were no words to explain the hollow feeling that swam in her heart. It was like her instincts were telling her something was wrong, but her mind had yet to catch on.
However, Crystal heard no sound. Just eerie silence, not even the sound of her shallow breaths could be heard. Was she dead? Stuck in-between two worlds?
She placed her hand over her heart and felt its erratic beat. A rhythm of the fear that crept over her, it was a threat, to send her back into the dark hole she had just awoken from.
Opening her eyes that felt like they were glued shut, she rubbed the grit from them and squinted.
The shock of the scene before her made her eyes open wide and her hand shot to her mouth, as she stared ahead in horror. Panic surged through her causing her entire body to shake.
Her sisters all lay sleeping or dead on the forest floor. She prayed that they were just sleeping. She kept her eye trained on Opal’s chest, watching and waiting for it to rise and fall. A sure sign that she was alive, sighing with relief she surveyed her surroundings.
The ancient tree that held the vortex glowed. Every color imaginable swirled inside the bark. It was a reminder, of the nightmare that was called Athens, which lay just behind that very vortex.
The stories were wrong. Just half-truths that were sugar coated. Athens was home to the ancient mythology creatures that were nothing but barbarians.
Monsters. Yet her people were once a part of that world until they were banished, and her mother would stop at nothing along with many of the witches to return that very place.
Pulling herself to a sitting position she sat up and surveyed the rest of the scene. Her mother’s lifeless body lay in a pool of blood and Crystal had to look away. A stab of pain twisted in her gut. The betrayal, the lies and her sister’s confusion that led to the murder, all mixed together causing many different emotions that Crystal found hard to push away and keep herself calm.
What had happened to them? Who had they become? She felt lost and didn’t know who she was anymore.
They may have had their differences but still she loved the woman and her heart ached for the loss of her mother. It was true what people said.
You can’t pick your family. No matter what happens, deep down you still hold love for them and it’s the choices in life that you hate. It doesn’t really hit home until their gone. Then every bad word, every argument haunts your sub consciousness. Crystal questioned the girl she was. Was she as dark and cunning as her father?
She had trusted him. Loved him and listened to him without question. He had betrayed them.
The one person she thought she could always relay on had stabbed them all in the back for his own personal gain.
How would she move on from such a betrayal?
“Levi!” she yelled as she saw his black hair in the grass. She crawled to where he was face down into the ground. Flipping him over, she shook him frantically. “Levi please wake up,” she begged close to tears. She needed him. But it was more than that. Her soul cried out for him. He was her voice of reason. But could she trust him? Her father’s betrayal had put doubts in her mind.
“Wake up!” she yelled, and she watched as his eyes fluttered open.
His half sleepy eyes locked on hers and she felt a flutter in her stomach. A tear dropped from her eye as she stared into his eyes, feeling helpless and alone.
“Levi, I don’t know what has happened,” she whispered.
He sat up and looked around.
“I think whatever your mother was planning on doing, she has succeeded,” he confessed in a croaky voice, looking as confused as she was.
Sighing she got to her feet. Her legs felt weak and like jelly causing her to wobble slightly while she gained her balance.
“Where’s Ruby?” she asked in a panic. She couldn’t see her amongst her other sisters.
“Crystal. He may have already taken her,” she heard the rustle of the ropes that held him captive and then Levi placed his hand on her shoulder, and she shook it off.
“No, no!” she screamed.
“We need to wake them up and figure out why the portal is looking like a rainbow,” Levi said, and Crystal put her hands on her hips.
“Forget the vortex! What about Ruby!” she yelled.
“Crystal calm down. Right now, Ruby is fine. Let’s think about our next move smartly,”
“Fine,” she said in a huff and began to shake her sisters. None of them responded. Then Pearl groaned.
“Pearl?” Crystal moved towards her.
“Help us?” she pleaded desperately. Pearl moved her head slightly to the side and sighed.
“I am afraid they are nothing but empty shells. Mother used a potion on them to turn them into willing soldiers. Only she can command them,”
“What?” Crystal dropped to the ground and pulled her legs up leaning her chin on her knees.
“Why?” she asked.
“Who knows why mother did the things she did. The best place for them right now is back at Arden Grange,” Pearl said swaying on her feet.
“The mental institute?”
“Yes, that’s where they have been all these years,”
“Poor souls, destroyed by the one person they should have been able to trust,” Crystal couldn’t believe the family she was born into. The evilness that lied in her roots, she feared that very darkness would creep into her soul and turn her into the monster she feared the most. Her mother.
“Levi, can you get your car as close to here as possible?” Perl asked and he nodded before darting out of sight. Alone with Perl she glared at her mother’s pet. Perl had always been the one to guide Jeanette. Crystal couldn’t help but think she was the cause of many of the unfortunate events that had occurred.
“What I don’t understand is, why do I have memories of them? Nieces? Visits and…”
“They were implanted,” Perl shrugged.
“So, you played with my mind?” Perl had the uncanny ability to go into one’s dreams.
“Crystal, it’s not as simple as that,” sighing she lifted Opal from the ground and propped her up against a nearby tree then turned back to Crystal who had her arms folded and was staring daggers.
“Mother could only bore girls. Father hated us all. Each time a girl was born, his rage became out of control. So, mother did the unthinkable. She turned them into nothing but empty souls,” Crystal shook her head.
“That still doesn’t explain the why?”
“Father wanted to kill us all, it was better than the alternative. He didn’t need girls. We were useless to his cause,”
“They’re as much as dead anyway. Look at them Perl! Really look at them! They’re eyes are empty. Just staring into space,”
“I know. Like all magic, sometimes the outcome is direr than first thought,” Perl answered with a hint of guilt.
“What about you, me, and Ruby?” she asked in a whisper.
“Mother tried, but we were immune,”
“What will happen to them now?” Crystal asked.
“I don’t know,” Perl admitted.
“Is there a way to reverse it? Get them back?”
“You have to understand. They have been this way since just babies. Even if we could reverse what mother as done, they have missed too many of their essential milestones to be fully integrated into society,”
“Is there a chance that they could become normal?”
“Very slim,” Perl confessed.
“Then it is a chance I am willing to take,”
“Crystal, you…”
“They don’t deserve to be vegetables for the rest of their life,” she gritted her teeth and stared her down. Perl sighed and looked away. Even if it was a small chance Crystal would take it, no one deserved their life stripped from them. She would give them back what they had lost.
But what kind of world would she be bringing them into? A world fill with fear, loss, and lies. Was it worth it? Her heart told her it was. Yet her brain told her that the world was just as cruel as being a vegetable, if not more.