When I woke up I was in a carriage. It wasn''t the same one that we rode to and from the capital when Mom got sick, it had dark red fabric all over the inside, and the windows were also a shade of red. I looked outside the window and it was pouring outside. I could barely see a few feet ahead of me, but I heard screaming coming from where I assumed the house was. I opened the carriage door and I was blasted with wind and water. I quickly stepped outside of the carriage and closed the door so the inside wouldn''t get wet, and I made my way toward where I heard the screaming coming from. I was pushed back by the wind and rain at every step. I crouched down so I wouldn''t get blown away when I lifted my feet off the ground to take a single step forward. Eventually, while I was looking down and trying to not get thrown onto the ground by the horrible storm around me I bumped into something large and extremely hard. I looked up and I saw that I had bumped into Dad. He didn''t respond to me bumping into him, he was looking at whatever was straight ahead of him. A few seconds passed, and eventually, the storm like no other I had ever seen before passed, and the sun shone brightly on all of us. I saw a group of flowers wrapped up on the ground, I picked it up and held them so they wouldn''t get dirty. Dad was glaring at Mom. Mom was standing near the house with Idrel, Liza, and Elya, and all of them were hugging her. It seemed like they had been fighting.


    "Elya, you should come with me."


    "Why, so you can tell her to hate her mother? So you can convince her that my attempts at making her future not miserable - like you want it to be - are some sort of horrible way to ruin her life?"


    "I''m not talking to you, Alice. Can I even call you that?"


    "Did you lose your memory while you were out doing absolutely nothing?"


    "I was out trying to figure out what happened to you. Do you really want me to tell your children what I found?"


    "I want you to tell my children the truth, but I know that everything you''re going to say is just a lie so you can take them from me, so you can convince them that they should leave of their own will."


    "Elya, I promise you that whatever Mom is telling you about me, about her, about your future, it''s all not true. She''s not in the right state of mind, and I need to take you all away from her so she doesn''t hurt you anymore."


    "Why are you only trying to take Elya away? Are Liza and Idrel not deserving of your love?"


    "It''s pathetic that you have to twist words I didn''t even to say just to turn me against the two children who you''ve spent the past few months conditioning to listen to your every word. You and I both know why I''m trying to take Elya away from you. Idrel and Liza will come to the realization that you''ve gone insane on their own, but I can''t trust that Elya will do the same."


    "You hear that, Elya? Your father says you''re incompetent and stupid. He thinks you can''t fend for yourself."


    "Elya, you were the one who ran to get me because your mother was fighting with Aryet. I know that you understand the gravity of this situation, so why are you hiding behind someone who''s going to harm you the moment I''m out of eyeshot?"


    Elya quickly ran around Mom and towards me and Dad. However, when she got halfway between us-Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    "STOP!"


    Liza''s voice rang out. It sounded just like Mom''s.


    "Elya, don''t listen to Liza. Remember, she was ready to kill you with a boulder if you didn''t say that you gave up."


    "That''s not true. You saw that I caught it right before it hit you. Even if you didn''t say that you gave up I would''ve done the same thing."


    "She doesn''t care about you, Elya. She constantly makes fun of you, hurts you, and forces you to run around when you''re out of breath. She''s just lying to you now so she''ll be able to hurt you again."


    "You really believe that? Aryet is the one who forced you to get punished by Mom, if she had just looked at you sooner then Mom would not have hurt you for that long."


    "Fuck you!"


    "Do you hear that, Elya? I didn''t even insult her, I just stated the truth about her actions and she insulted me. How long do you think it will take for her to turn on you? I say maybe three months until she starts complaining about everything you do, then maybe another three before she starts hurting you when you don''t listen to her. That''s what she did to me."


    Elya slowly walked back towards Liza, and Liza opened her arms so that Elya could hug her. When they did hug each other, Liza was looking at me with a grin on her face, like she had won something. I held my hand out and immediately created water in it, but before I could shoot that water at her, Dad grabbed my arm and pointed it at the ground. The water escaped from my hand, and he let go of my arm.


    "It seems like you''ve taught them how to manipulate others already. You''re really preparing them for great futures aren''t you Alice?"


    "I didn''t hear any manipulation. All I heard was Liza telling Elya the truth about her sister. Isn''t that what you want, Reindt? The truth?"


    Another few seconds of silence passed before Liza spoke up again.


    "Give me those flowers."


    "What?"


    "The flowers you have in your left hand. Dad was going to give them to Mom, so they belong to us. Give them to me."


    "I''m not letting you touch these."


    "Aryet, just hand them over."


    Dad didn''t seem to care about them. I didn''t want to make him angry at me as well, so I threw them over to Liza.


    "Good girl."


    I pulled all the water from the flowers as quickly as I had thrown them to Liza. They crumbled to dust in her hands and a lot of it got on her clothes. She coughed violently for a few seconds, and I heard Dad laugh quietly.


    "You little bitch!"


    Dad stepped in front of me and held a large rock in his hands. He shaped the rock into a sharp blade and pointed it at Mom who was preparing to attack me herself.


    "Get in the carriage, Aryet."


    "But-"


    "If your mother is going to leap at you, do you really want to be nearby when she tries?"


    I started walking back towards the carriage and I heard Mom scream at me.


    "You''re just going to walk away from your family, Aryet?"


    "Do you know what they told me, Alice?"


    "What?"


    "When I confronted your parents about the curse they placed on you, they told me that even if it was weakened you would never truly be rid of it. They told me that they would win in the end, and you would act the way they wanted you to. I wanted to believe they were lying, I hoped that the woman who I fell in love with because of her strength wouldn''t give up so easily. Imagine my surprise."


    Mom had stopped screaming after that, and me and Dad both walked back to the carriage. I got inside, and Dad got on the front to take us away to someplace different. I looked back at them one last time as Dad whipped the horses pulling the carriage with the reigns. Idrel and Liza were both staring at me, but Elya was still hugging Elya and looking at the ground.


    Idrel and Liza I knew would be fine. They would attack each other, they would attack Elya, and they would be the ones who get hurt the least, but I was scared for Elya. What would they do to her while I wasn''t there? Would she even survive until we saw each other again?


    I looked away from them and stared at the red fabric on the inside of the carriage. I wouldn''t spend any time that I didn''t have to thinking about a group of people who have all chosen to ruin themselves in one way or another.


    I laid down on the cushion and spent the last time I would ever think about them until we met again imagining what they would be like when we reunited.


    -


    Cunctatio est Impotentia