Chapter Two: Yellow Eyes
Nearly twenty miles away, on the other side of the wood, the girl whom Pierre was now dreaming of lay awake, tossing and turning on a small cot in the far right corner of a large square bedroom, similar to a prison-cell; a slight draft was blowing in through the open window, but she didn't have the strength to close it.
The usual rosiness in her cheeks had faded away to reveal pale skin, while her eyes remained dark and blood-shot from lack of sleep.
Marie-Christine was spending another sleepless night full of tossing and turning... Partly because of her new baby sister, Isbaelle, who was busy screaming in the second bedroom, but mainly because no matter what she tried to do, her thoughts were once again filled with him.
A wolf howled in the distant wood, but its sad moan did not disturb her, for she knew the wolves were nothing when compared to him
She rolled over on her side, to drown out the annoying sounds of the baby, just as they stopped. The wolf continued to howl, mournfully, just as her thoughts returned to the man who frightened her so...
He stares at me, even in the shadows of darkness, with those eyes... The piercing, glowing eyes of yellow shot with red... The eyes that hunger for me even in the light of day...
She closed her brilliant blue eyes, as his face seemed to penetrate her mind... The face covered in calluses and blisters from years of hard labor; the red lips, which seemed to glistlen like blood whenver he would call her "La Petit Rouge." The frightening mouth opened to reveal several jagged teeth, yellowed from age... But none of these unpleasant features seemed to bother her when compared to his eyes... his yellow eyes shot with red, that seemed to-- to-- It can't be true, she insisted, shutting the frightening images away; The frightening stories can't be true; he wouldn't hurt me... would he...?
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The following morning, just as the cock crowed, Marie-Christine awoke to find that she had overslept, and the daily chores had begun; Why can't I fall asleep anymore? she wondered, slowly undressing.
Mother and Father know that something is wrong with me, she realized, Otherwise they would not have allowed me to oversleep.
Dressed, and trying to look as if she had had a pleasant night's sleep, she opened the bedroom-door, and stepped out into the hallway; I must have had another dream last night, she realized; shuddering and thankful that it had faded away; That was probably the reason why I could not wake on time... I wanted to reach the end...
Marie-Christine smiled a bitter smile; knowing that the dream that had haunted her for all her life still remained unfinished; she opened the door that led to the garden, tried to push the bad thoughts away, and began her daily work.