Chapter 7

Beca stared dully out of the window, usually the view down the hill to the town was quite pretty, but it seemed lifeless to Beca just then.

The sunlight streaming in from the window highlighted her pale skin and brittle hair. Despite the relative warmth of the day she was still covered by blankets in a vain attempt to banish the cold.

Behind her, Beca could here Chloe humming softly as she tidied the room. Beca was tired of being tired, she was so weak lately and had developed a nasty cough. Her sleep was poor as she was plagued with dreams about Mina so she tried not to sleep. She couldn't take the pain of the dreams and usually woke up crying. Her dreams always ended the same, Mina would turn away from her in disgust and hatred and it would break her heart every single time.

Beca's shoulders hunched in as she fought the ache in her heart. Her breath was unsteady and wheezy in her throat as she fought back the feeling of desolation. Mina would never want something as pathetic as her. Beca broke into a cough as she gasped for breath. Her too thin shoulders shook with the effort.

Chloe hurried over to help her mistress with a worried frown. She patted Beca on the back as she rode out the coughing fit. Beca leaned in to her touch happy for some small amount of human acknowledgement, though part of her soul still desperately wished it was Mina holding her. She felt so empty and alone. Tears trickled down her face both from the pain and effort of the coughing fit and the desperate loneliness.

As the fit eased, Chloe assisted her to lie back down in bed. Beca's breathing was raspy and harsh as she struggled to catch her breath. She could see Chloe's scared face from the corner of her eye.

I'm dying

She thought dully. She couldn't seem to bring herself to care. What was the point if Mina would never want her. She should just give up. Beca turned to listlessly stare out of the window. She could here Chloe in the background murmuring to someone

Out of the corner of her eye she notice two men push their way into the room. Their robes were mostly black trimmed in red and they wore long priest like stolls around their necks marked with an I which denoted them as inquisitors of the Papacy. They both wore wooden rosary beads around their necks and swords belted around their waist.

The both moved swiftly towards her bed, their long robes making ominous swishing noises. They ignored the maid's protests that they should leave Beca's room. They loomed over Beca. As she opened her mouth to speak, she was hit by an overwhelming rush of adoration/affection/devotion/love. Her eyes rolled up as the rapid emotions assaulted her mind. She convulsed under the metal pressure as the walls blocking the bond collapsed.

She could feel Mina looking for something in her head, desperately searching until she finally found it. Beca curled in on herself, shaking. Mina had found something in her mind, it felt like she was cradling something desperately thinking that it was too late. Beca though she was going out of her mind. She could here the Inquisitors above her murmuring but she was trapped inside her own mind at present.

It cannot be too late, I cannot lose her

She could feel somebody shaking her shoulder but Beca could not respond, her world had gone dark as the foreign presence drew her deep into an extraordinary dual awareness. A familiar, yearned-for voice was inside her and surrounding her all at once. She swore she could feel Mina's touch; that her entire body was being cradled in the palm of Mina's hand.

I am here now and I will not abandon her again. Please, let it not be too late. There was real fright in Mina's voice. Please, I - I need her.

For a moment, the world was still.

And then Beca's mind suddenly exploded in a thousand points of light. A wave of euphoria, Mina's euphoria, crashed over her; mixed with something else, some new and wonderful sensation that flooded Beca's senses and resonated in her soul.

Never alone again, I will be there for you always, my love-

Mina slipped into German in Beca's mind, the unfamiliar sounds gentle and adoring, like Mina was speaking to something tiny and infinitely precious. Her affection blossomed around Beca like a warm blanket.

Beca felt someone pulling her body out of bed as she mentally struggled back to the real world. She was suspended between the two inquisitors as Chloe yelled at them to leave her alone.

"She's clearly under the influence of witch craft, possibly even a witch herself, you saw how she reacted to our presence" She heard one of the inquisitors say

Beca groggily tried to pull herself away from them but she was too weak.

She could still hear the faint murmuring of German at the back of her mind and still feel Mina's presence.

She couldn't help but wonder what exactly Mina was talking to in her head. A couple months ago, she would have given anything to believe that it was her that Mina was talking to. Now, however, she simply knew better: whatever Mina was so enamored with inside her mind, it was foreign. Maybe it was a by-product of proximity or some kind of Magic thing, but whatever it was, it had nothing to do with Beca.

She didn't even hope. There would be no point. She'd been forced to accept that it was hopeless to long for Mina, and she'd be damned if she was going to rip that wound open just because she'd heard Mina coo at something in her head.

The Inquisitors began to roughly drag Beca from the room, despite her weak struggles. Chloe ran to assist her mistress but one of the Inquisitors intercepted her

"Desist in you actions, she has shown evidence of witch craft and must be separated and locked away before she is judged, otherwise she may spread her taint" The Inquisitor growled at Chloe.

Chloe gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth in horror and Beca felt an icy hand clench around her heart as her legs gave out and she collapsed with the shock to her frail body, Mina's voice still whispering in her mind.