Page 81 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

“Hey, Dove, where are you going?”

She’s just a stranger.

She should be just a stranger, but I know her. I’m whimpering and then crying.

“Raven!” Mr Rose shouts. “What did you do?”

Raven slams into us and turns us away, squeezing our eyes shut. I try to fight her, but I can’t.

Kestrel fights Raven. Merle and Raptor join in, but they can’t stop her.

I struggle with the body, fighting to open my eyes.

“Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.”

I can’t stop saying the words, but they aren’t mine.

“Please. Stop. Don’t look.”

I let out a shrill scream, but then I’m swept up into arms. When I look up, the girl is gone. The old lady is gone.

Raven disappears, but I’m wrung out and scared.

I cry because it’s not right, and I don’t like it. Mr Rose scoops me in his arms and hurries me away from the crowds of people. The sun sets on my beautiful day, and the nightmares come back again.

I clamp my mouth shut, afraid if I open it, Raven’s words will continue to pour out of me.

I can’t feel them, they are deep and gone, but not. I know they are there.

Don’t look.

Why not?

The alphas are the ones who keep me in one piece. They whisper and get me into bed, and Pix curls up with me, pulling my head down onto his chest where he strokes my back in soothing circles.

“Did you know that girl?”

I don’t answer. I don’t know the answer.

Time passes. The sun rises. I haven’t slept, too scared that if I did, the bad things would come in the night and kill me.

“Nightingales,” I exhale the word in a whisper and sink into the chamber.

It’s a burnt husk of what it used to be. Raven is sitting on her throne, refusing to acknowledge the others who are shouting at her.

I go to mine and sit there, crossing my legs and hugging my bear as I stare at her.

“We have a family now. The spell brought them all to me,” I say defiantly.

My other alters turn and look at me.

“We have a family, and we are a family. We shouldn’t fight. You did a bad thing!” I shout at her. “You’re not meant to do bad things anymore.”

Kestrel moves away from Raven and leans on her throne. I look to the side where there’s a dark space that I don’t remember being quite so wide before.

“We’re not fighting, we’re discussing,” Kestrel says.

“Don’t lie to me,” I growl.