VIII. In The Gale
Does she know already? That was the first thing that flashed thought Louise´s mind upon recognizing Henrietta´s carriage. Ah, but of course she did. She was coming with her father. Louise found it unbelievable that father wouldn´t have told the Princess the contents of the letter. And not only that. Henrietta couldn´t have any other reason to leave her important duties as the Princess and come. As much as she would like otherwise, it was the truth.
She imagined herself kneeling in a courtroom, with her hands and feet tied, having to tell Henrietta everything. That she had seen Cattleya die, and she hadn´t made a damn move to stop it. That the very reason It was a threat to Henrietta´s kingdom and all of Halkagenia, was because she had summoned that thing. And then the end befitting all criminals like her: beheading. She imagined her cut off head rolling through the white floor of the courtroom, leaving a trail of blood behind it, her expression locked in a snapshot of fear.
Those thoughts almost made her puke, right there at there. Not just for the graphic details of it, but because the sheer possibility. She didn´t think Henrietta could allow it, but it would be different if the majority called for her blood. Along with the power, riches and luxuries that came with being the Princess, there were also chains like that. It was just how things were.
Louise shook her head, straightened her expression and went to the entrance. Father carriage reached the entrance first, and then stopped. She saw, from the corner of her eye, that this time the usual servant wasn´t riding the carriage, but one of the butlers. His name was Adam, or something like that. Maybe that other person fell sick. The door creaked open, and father stepped outside with a solemn expression. He looked around briefly, his expression going darker and then fixed his eyes on her. Dimly, she heard the Princess carriage came to a stop, and the Griffon Knights landing. His expression softened, slightly.
"Louise, are you alright?" he said. Of course not, she wanted to scream at him, at everybody. She didn´t. It was obvious what he mean by that and, besides, this was the first time father showed such concern for her, so she didn´t want to throw that away. Not now, when she was so alone.
"I am not hurt, father." she replied, drily. She heard a door opening, and turned to look towards Henrietta´s carriage, just in time to see her come out of it. She was beautiful as always, even more so, with that long, flowing white dress and its outrageous neckline, the violet cloak perched upon her shoulders, white platform shoes, matching stockings and the crown shining on the top of her head. Henrietta saw her, and her expression brightened. Louise heart went into overdrive, as the Princess came running towards them. S-so she didn´t hate her? Henrietta stopped near her. Right when Louise was about to kneel down, like it was proper, she suddenly hugged her, burying her face in her breasts.
"Louise! I was so worried! I mean, I knew you were alive, but...!" she screamed, and squeezed her even tighter. Louise blushed. She was glad, very glad, that Henrietta didn´t hate her like she had feared, but that such a scene was witnessed by her own father and the Princess loyal knights was just plain embarrassing.
"Henri... I mean, Princess, this..."
"Stop that! We are childhood friends. You shouldn´t refer to me so formally."
"But, still..."
"Hey." she replied. Louise could almost see her pouting, even though her vision was still blocked by her irritatingly large bosom. "Are you disobeying your princess? You are going to make me cry."
"T-that's not it at all!" she sputtered, even more flustered that before. "Fine. I call you Henrietta."
"That´s better." Henrietta said, and drew apart from her. "It wasn´t so hard, was it?"
"Your Highness." her father interrupted. Henrietta turned to look towards him, with a strange expression on her face. "With all due respect, I understand what you are trying to do, and I like you all the more for it. I think its precisely because of what kind of person you are that you are the ruler Tristania needs in these troubled times. But, even though we know the general details of the attack because of the letter, we can´t proceed any further without her testimony. You mustn't shield her."
"I know that. But..." the princess muttered, and sighed heavily. It took Louise a moment to realize what they were talking about. Henrietta had done all of this to try to cheer her up, let her forget the dark thoughts even if it was just for a little while, and had been prepared to make her stay away from the investigation despite that she was the only remaining witness. It sounded like wishful thinking to her. Nothing but grasping at strands, so she could have some kind of hope, but going by what they were saying, it wasn´t. It wasn´t. She bit her lip. She was ashamed, truly ashamed, that she had doubted Henrietta even for a single moment. "You are right. I am just... not accustomed to... things like this."
"You don´t have to apologize to me, nor anybody."
"I disagree. If you told the truth just now, when you said I was the kind of ruler Tristania needs, then you should know that as well."
"Very well. I am not going to try to change your mind; is unbecoming. Shall we go now, then, Your Highness?"
"That´s right. We talk inside." she said, took a few steps forward and turned back again, presenting her hand to her. "Let´s go, Louise."
Louise took Henrietta´s hand in hers, and smiled. For the first time since that dreadful morning, she honestly feel things could turn for the better again.
They got inside, and the Griffin Knights that had come with Henrietta too. The servants took away their mounts, and leaded them into the stables. The servants greeted them, bowing, and knelled when the Princess came near them. Well, knelled the first few times, anyway, until Henrietta insisted otherwise. Louise had done nothing but follow Henrietta, without letting go of her hand, so she didn´t know they were going to the dinning room until they entered. Well, Wardes had tried to talk with her too, but she had just answered him politely, never showing any kind of interest nor paying much attention to his conversation, but it wasn´t important. She hadn´t see Wardes in so long that she didn´t really care anymore.
A full course meal was prepared just for the three of them. The Griffin Knights remained standing, with their backs against the wall, grasped their sword wands tightly. In case that It would return here to finish the job, she guessed.
Louise sat at Henrietta´s side and father, in the place of her mother, sat at the head of the table. The table looked ridiculously big and empty with so many empty seat. All the hideous truth of death crashed down on her again. She felt the sting of tears in her eyes, and blinking them back furiously. No, no more weakness anymore. She had to be strong if she was to get rid of It. She picked up a knife, and half heartily dug into her food.
"Louise..." Henrietta began, doubtfully. "Can you tell us what happened, exactly?"
"I don´t know everything that happened, Pri... Henrietta. You must understand that." she said, cut a piece of the steak in front of her, put it in her mouth and chewed it slowly, using that as an excuse to think about if she should tell them about her dream. There was something strange about the whole affair, but if she told them about it, then they would just laugh at her. Well, father would. Henrietta wouldn't, but she would surely think she was damaged because of what happened. And maybe she was. Who knew? She swallowed the piece of steak. "And I don´t even know the full truth of what I saw."
"We understand that, Louise. Just tell us what happened."
"Fine. I didn´t see how it all began. I was waked up by my big sister, Cattleya. Don´t know at what hour. Anyway. She called out to me behind the door, her voice panicked. I opened, and she grabbed my wrist, pushing me out of the room still in my nightclothes. She told me about what happened with my familiar. That mother had tried to kill it..."
"What? W-why would she do such a thing?" Henrietta asked, her eyes bulging.
"According to Cattleya, it was because she thought It was the culprit. You know. The one that killed Guiche, Katie and Montmorency."
"B-but why?"
"If I had to guess, because It appeared right before the murders started happening. And Its attitude too, I suppose. It was far too calm with its situation, and around nobility to be just another poor, oppressed commoner."
"Just for those flimsy reasons? What if she had been wrong?"
"She didn´t care. Mother didn´t give a damn about anything but the Rule Of Steel. Not about father, nor me nor the rest of her children. She didn´t need a reason to do anything she thought was right. She was just that kind of person."
"Louise..:" her father said, voice slightly raised.
"With all due respect, father, is true." she sardonically answered. She had thought before that didn´t want to throw his kindness away, because she was so alone, but his words, that accusing tone of his, got a rise out of her. He wasn´t blind; he should know this, and here he was, treating her like a bad daughter when everything was mother´s fault because she didn´t even know how to be a mother. "Or do you think she loved you? No. She married you because you are a strong mage, and a respected person with a good position. The Rule of Steel at work, and nothing more."
"But..." Henrietta muttered. "Surely, she loved you, right? She was your mother."
"Did I ever tell you about the time I made a drawing for her? I was what I was six years old. I gave it to her and she ripped it in two, right in front of me."
"Thats..."
"It doesn´t matter, Henrietta. I accepted that a long time ago. Please, just let us continue." she said, digging into her food, praying that everybody would be focused on her words and no notice her hands were shaking a little bit. "I didn´t want to believe Cattleya and, well... I freaked out. Cattleya told that It... It had said, when mother told Cattleya to run: She will not run. She is me. Like you, Louise, everybody. Just cattle for me to break."
A heavy silence descended on the room, for a moment. Henrietta was simply rather innocent, despite being the Princess. People killing other people still seemed to her as out of place in her world. Father and the Royal Guards were experienced soldier, and so they were not strangers to it, but they hadn´t never faced somebody with the mentality to say something like that. It went beyond disregarding other people, It never thought of them as people. Not like the nobles thought of commoner, but truly thinking of other people as nothing but toys. A thing that couldn´t see nothing that would kill hundred without a moment of doubt, not a single trance of guilt. Just pleasure.
That´s what she thought, anyway. They may have just been pitying her for growing to trust her familiar, and then having to heard that.
"I couldn´t handle it." she confessed, in a small, weak voice that didn´t sound like herself at all. She swallowed thickly. "I couldn´t. And I passed out. When my consciousness returned, we were outside. Cattleya was carrying me in her arms. I told her to unhand me, and went she was about to send me down, It hit her from behind. I fell down hard, rolled on the ground and looked up just in time to see a homogeneous wolf crouched over my sister´s prone body. It grabbed her shoulders, turned her around and gauged her throat. I... I still remember how she screamed. She soon breathed her last. And that wolf turned towards me. I didn´t even try to resist. At that point, I just wanted it to kill me. Then the wolf changed, and my familiar as I knew it appeared in front of me. Bob Gray, the clown. I asked It why it betrayed me, even though I trusted it and loved it like I was family. It told me it wasn´t a betrayal at all, since he never cared about me in the first place."
She felt somebody´s hand grab her right shoulder. She stiffened for a moment, imagining Its breath on her face, the lethal sharpness of Its claws, before she realized that it wasn´t It but Henrietta. She relaxed.
"Thank you." Louise whispered to her, then she continued, raising her voice so everybody else could heard her: "I tried to order It to stand down. I thought the runes must have some sort of mind compulsion, because that is the only reason beasst like salamanders and even dragons obey if they are summoned. It held out its right hand towards me, and took its glove. And then It made the familiar runes dispensary."
"That´s absurd!" father said, his voice slightly trembling. Nobody called him out of it.
"But is the truth." she drily replied. "You know what It told me? It said that I shouldn´t look so surprised, than that trifle thing hadn´t held any power over It since the beginning. It had existed since before there was even a concept of time, so all that us pathetic creatures hold in high stem are just insignificant toys to It."
"Ah." her father snorted. "Such a conceited creature, when its nothing but a mere shape sifter."
Louise stayed quiet. She didn´t believe It was a mere shape sifter, but that It was exactly what It had told her. An ancient, powerful being. She wasn´t believing It blindly, there were facts that supported this. It had defeated and killed mother, and then had done the same to Eleanor. Even thought she had somehow managed to hurt It, that surely hadn´t been nothing but a momentarily annoyance to It. But she couldn´t muster enough effort to correct her father. Let him think what he wants to think. Didn´t matter.
"Anyway." she said, thinking about if she should tell them about the spell. That would make them not take It seriously, which would be fatal, but they needed to know everything. She bit her lip. "It told me to get out of its sight, that it was not my time yet. Of course, I was surprised. I asked It if It was going to just let met go, and It answered that yes, but that I shouldn´t get too comfortable. That when It destroyed this world, It would come back for me and my soul would join the deathlights."
"The deathlights?" it was Henrietta who interrupted her, this time.
"I..:"
(this is not an illusion you foolish little boy)
something suddenly came into her thoughts, something important and slipped away just as easily, leaving only a splitting headache. She let out a little moan of pain, and grabbed her head with both hands.
"Louise, what´s wrong?!" Henrietta screamed, and put her remaining hand upon her left shoulder. It sounded loud, unnaturally loud, yet far away all the same. Her stomach clenched. Reach it. She had to reach it, that something she had forgotten. She sucked in a breath, her vision turned dark and she saw something vaguely familiar that she was sure she hadn´t never seen before. The somehow stark clear darkness of a cave. A beautiful redheaded woman that she didn´t know hanging up high with her arms and legs extended to the sides like a crucified person, crisscrossed in silk. She seemed alive.
(the mind of the writer´s woman was with It; in It, beyond the end of the macroverse)
There was something in this darkness, too. Half eaten bodies hanging there and there, held by silken strands, people not as lucky as that woman. And something much, much worse. Louise saw Its outline in the web, but in a crazy way she also felt It, sense It, that Shape in the web, squealing and mewling in the darkness. She hadn´t no sense of her physical body anymore, but she could still feel herself trembling. She get me, Louise incoherently thought. She is gonna get me.
Uh, she? Had she really thought that?
(the darkness beyond the turtle; the outlands beyond all lands)
Somehow, the Shape in the darkness slowly revealed Itself to her. What she first saw were Its jaws, dripping with foam, then Its stomach, which bungled grotesquely. After that, Its eight legs, each one thick, impossibly long and strong enough to impale a person. Dimly, she realized Its whole body was covered in hair. And that the reason Its belly was so bulged was because that was Its egg´s sack. It was female. It didn´t matter what was really the truth, the horrible, inescapable reality hidden in the deathlights. What she was seeing right now, feeling, was that It was female.
(Its eye, Its mind)
And any of that would have been terrible enough, but as she continued staring at that Thing, though at first she swore it was just her imagination, she could almost see another shape, the true final form, beneath the skin of this giant spider. Hideous, burning light that writhed as if alive. A mockery of life. She wanted to look away from It, from the light that would consume her as it had so many others, but she found herself incapable of moving.
(The deathlights)
She heard herself scream to wake the dead, and all sensations, the world itself, returned to her, hitting her like a physical weight, like the raging waves of the sea in storm. She fell, and her chair came clattering down with her. She curled into a ball, only barely aware of the pathetic whimpers that came out of her throat. Henrietta was kneeling over her. She could see her panicked, tear stricken face close to her own, but she couldn´t heard what was she saying.
When darkness settled down over her, Louise welcomed it with a sharp sense of relief.
Nearly immediately after her consciousness returned, Louise realized she was experienced the world through another person´s senses. Not only for the sense of dislocation that told her she was dreaming, but because she could sense her body and it was small, too small, the body of a ten year old girl. And see could see strands of red hair out of the corner of her eyes.
The little girl was moving confidently about what was surely her home, towards founder knows where. Louise tried to stop her, to look around and place herself somehow, but she couldn´t. After a couple of tries, she gave up. It was plainly impossible. She watched things through that other girl´s eyes, with a sense of resignation, waiting for whatever was about to happen. The girl finally came to a stop in front of some door, opened it and stepped inside the bathroom. It looked strange, like no bathroom she had ever seen before, but she had no doubt it was one. The girl leaned over the basin to get some water.
"Help me..." a voice broke the silence. It clearly came from the drain, under it. "Help me."
She heard the girl gasp. Perhaps she had though it was nothing but her imagination. It was only natural, after all. A voice coming out of the drain wasn´t normal anywhere.
"Help me, Beverly." it said. So that was the girl´s name. Or maybe it wasn´t. Maybe whoever-or whatever- that voice was didn´t really know that girl. But somehow, she doubted that. That voice knew the girl. For some reason, the girl moved again and leaned over the basin. She didn´t understand. Only the knowledge that this wasn´t happening to her, that she was safe, keep her from losing her cool. How could she do that, how couldn´t she not imagine some rotten hand jumping out of the sink, grabbed her and dragging her into the darkness?
"Is someone there?" the girl´s voice was light and it would have been pleasant too, but her terror was obvious in her tone. It made Louise felt bad that she was so disconnected from all of this, so safe. She could only hope nothing happened to her, which wasn´t likely.
"We all want to meet you, Beverly." the voice said. Louise saw a flash of small hands, and then felt them upon her mouth. She suddenly felt cold. This must been the coldness of the grave, she thought, somewhat incoherently. She thought the girl, this Beverly, would scream, but she didn´t. She took her hands off her mouth, and asked that thing:
"Who are you?"
"I am Matthew Clements. The clown took me down here in the pipes and I died and pretty soon he'll come and take you, Beverly, and Ben Hanscom, and Bill Denbrough and Eddie..." it took her a moment for Louise to realize that she recognized those names. These were the names of some of the children in that meadow, who had spoken about their encounters with It. This was It, then. Of course. Who else? "You'll float down here with your friends, Beverly, we all float down here, tell Bill that Georgie says hello, tell Bill that Georgie misses him but he'll see him soon, tell him Georgie will be in the closet some night with a piece of piano wire to stick in his eye, tell him..."
Louise listened, horrified and tried to scream, but couldn´t. All she got was a dizzying sense of unease and dislocation that almost jutted her out the dream all together. But this wasn´t a dream, she understood as much now. None of her strange dreams had been dreams, but visions. The only question was if they were of the past or the future.
"I'm Matthew... I'm Betty... I'm Veronica..." It continued, Its voice changing as It spoke. "We're down here... down here with the clown... and the creature... and the mummy... and the werewolf... and you, Beverly, we're down here with you, and we float, we change..."
Blood blenched from the drain, splattering the walls with blood. This time, there was a scream. It was shrill, piercing, and for a moment Louise thought the scream at come out of her own mouth. She felt the body she was in suddenly turn, and a sense of nausea nearly overwhelmed her. Beverly hit the wall in her panic, and ran. She reached another room, probably their living room, where a man that looked to be in his late thirties was just getting to his feet. Her father, she guessed.
He asked her what the hell was wrong with her intermediately, frowning rather menacingly, instead of trust in his own daughter and think she had good reason to panic like that. Exactly lime my family, she wearily thought, finding only a dark amusement in the truth of it. Beverly, completely hysterical, tried to explain it all to him. She got as far as babbling about the bathroom, when her father interrupted, asked her if somebody was peeking on her and grabbed her arm. Louise didn´t like his tone, at all. It was like a kid getting mad because another one was fiddling with his toys. He... He couldn´t possibly... She felt sick just for thinking about it, but she knew the possibility was very real.
Beverly told her that no, in the sink, trailed off then burst into hysterical tears. Her father ran to the bathroom and, after a while, it told Beverly to come, screaming. She went without protest nor a moment of doubt. When she reached the door, they both saw that man there with an angered frown. He asked Beverly what is this foolishness was all about as she stepped inside. She weakly tried to call out to him, and that man just turned and casually washed his hands in the bloody sink. He didn´t seen it, he didn´t really seen it? What...
After finishing washing his hands, he started ranting at Beverly with a calm tone. And then suddenly he hit his own daughter in the ass with the back of his hand. She uttered a cry, but she didn´t break down, didn´t make a movement. Didn´t even try to get in to stop. Oh founder, she was used to this, Louise thought. So used she can´t even think of struggling. And with she had been thinking before, that he had hit her precisely in the ass seemed more sinister. Like he was marking his territory.
"I worry a lot." he said, like nothing of importance was happening, and hit her again, this time on the arm. "An awful lot."
And having said those last words, he punched her in the stomach. Beverly feel to her knees, her hands clutching her stomach over where he had hit and Louise found her vision blurred by the little girl´s tears. Even now, she didn´t struggle, she didn´t run. It all made Louise felt sick, truly and fully repulsed. Enough. She had seen a lot of terrible things in these d-visions, things far more terrible than this, so it didn´t make sense to shy away from something now, but she didn´t care what made sense or not. She didn´t want to see any of this anymore.
Of course, her prayer went unanswered.She watched helplessly as Beverly, her voice shaking, told him the first excuse that came to her mind. A big, black spider had crawled out of the drain and that she guessed it had crawled back down. That horrible man was pleased by her explanation and just said that if she had told him, he couldn´t have hit her. Then peered into the drain. She hoped It killed him right there and there.
Let it get him, if it wants him. Good-fucking-riddance.
Louise jumped. That thought had sounded like it was inside her head, but it wasn´t her own internal voice. Beverly, she realized. It had been that girl´s thought. She felt sort of happy that, at least, that wasn´t fully resigned to her situation, until she felt the horror coming from the girl at having had that thought, and all her good mood evaporated. She couldn´t bring herself to be mad at her, though. It wasn´t the poor girl´s fault.
The man leaned back. Nothing at all happened to him. Incredulous, she realized there was some blood on his right eyebrow. He didn´t even feel the blood, then. He made a speech about the sewer system that Louise quickly tuned out. After finished his inane speech, he put his arm around Beverly and hugged her. God, what a sicko. She fully knew what he was doing. Treating her like shit, and then give her little scraps of kindness so she would come back like an affection starved beaten dog. Because that was all she was to him. An affection starved beaten dog.
Or at least she thought so. The other possibility, that he truly loved his daughter and still hurt her so casually, was too horrible to think about.
They went out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. He tucked her in, spoke to her softly and lovely, ruffled her hair and left her to sleep. Beverly didn´t. She stayed rigidly in the darkness, without moving even an inch. Perhaps fearing something would be watching in the shadows, that clown, ready to drag her down and finish what It had started. Then...
Louise´s eyes shot open, subconsciously sucking in a breath. Her eyes stung with tears, and she let them fall freely. She didn´t care about that, not anymore. If seemed so frivolous to worry about being seen crying now that she knew that there had been or would be another person out of there in her same situation, only much, much worse. Sure, neither Beverly nor the other boys had got It to their city, but it didn´t matter anyway. They both had do dealt with It, one way or another, and that was bad enough.
"Louise?" she tensed. In sounded like Its voice, the voice that had come out the drain and said those terrible things, but she almost immediately relaxed. It wasn´t It, but Henrietta´s voice. She turned towards the voice, thinking that it was too good to be true, but even though her vision was blurred by tears, she recognized her. Henrietta was the one at her bedside, without a doubt. She sat up, her eyes fixed on the Princess. She blinking back the tears, not out of shame but to see properly. Henrietta approached her, with her face light up by a joyful smile and drew her into a hug once again. Louise let her. "Thank the founder."
She breathed out those last three words like a prayer, with a sort of desperate awe that made her felt happy she cared so much and badly, even thought what happened in the dinning room hadn´t been her fault. Louise hugged her back.
"I...I thought... I didn´t even know what I thought, but I was so scared, Louise. To see you suffer in front of me, without even being capable of doing anything about it... It hurts." Henrietta said, her voice close to its breaking point. "How can I be a Princess if I can´t even protect my best friend?"
"Henrietta, stop that. You know that I am happy you worry about me, but is too much. You can´t beat yourself up for things that are not your fault."
"No. That´s part of being a Princess. You can´t just worry about the things you can stop, but about the whole country."
"Then be Henrietta, not the Princess, at least for this and stop that. Please."
"You know." she hummed. "You say some really smart things, once in a while."
"Ye-hey!" Louise yelped, flustered, having not really expected that dig right now, even thought she knew Henrietta didn´t meant anything bad with that. She just laughed in response. It didn´t sound natural, not at all, but still she couldn´t deny it was confronting and beautiful. If only she could really help her...
"Sorry, sorry. It was just a little joke." she said, and drew apart from her. "Even so, Louise, can you tell me what happened?"
No, of course she couldn´t. She wanted to, but she couldn´t. Either Henrietta would dismiss it outright, or blame it all of her being damaged by what happened. Mages having visions was not something rare, but she would be unwilling to believe the truth of It, that every word It had said was the truth. That It was ancient, powerful, unreachable and unshakable enemy. She hadn´t seen what she had seen, nor experienced what she had. There is no way she could understand it, even thought she was so kind.
"I got a sudden, strong headache and I fainted." Louise drily replied. "There is really nothing more to it."
Henrietta´s eyes narrowed almost immediately.
"That´s a lie."
"It isn´t." she said, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice. "Why do you say that?"
"You know that´s the truth. I don´t have anything to prove it, but you are hiding something important." her expression softened. "Please, tell me. I am your best friend, am I not? I just want to help you."
"It..." she bit her lip. "Isn´t as simple as you think."
"Doesn´t matter. This is about your safety, Louise. You have tell me."
"I... I have been having weird dreams for awhile." she finally confessed, willing a least to take a chance with her. "Or so I thought. They were visions. I had two of those recently. One during what happened in the kitchen, and another one while dreaming. They are all about It. I had my first vision during the familiar summoning ritual. It was watching a street from up high, like a ghost. There were two boys there, on the ground, in darkness and utterly terrified of something, It, that was coming towards them. And then I was in a void."
"A void?"
"That´s what I said." she replied. "One of those boys was there, and It too. It said... things I don´t want to remember. Anyway. The vision in the dinning room was the somehow stark clear darkness of some kind of cave, or something. It was there. Only It wasn´t a clown, or a werewolf, but a giant spider, black... as a moonless night. A woman I didn´t know was hanging, crisscrossed in the threads. She was alive, but her mind was dead. There were also half eaten, rotten bodies hanging in much the same way as her. After that vision...
(Beverly, we all float down here)
nothing important. Just It gleefully scaring a little girl. Ten years old, at the most."
(tell him Georgie will be in the closet some night)
"How can you be sure they were real visions, Louise?"
"I know." she replied, a little harsher that she had intended. "I know. And if you had seen what I did, you would know too."
(with a piece of piano wire to stick in his eye)
"I... I suppose." Henrietta settled for saying that. She didn´t decry her, but it was obvious she didn´t believe her, either.
"It was all too connected, vivid and real to be nothing but mere dreams, Henrietta." Louise stopped, took a deep breath, and then settled for giving her the long explanation, every detail she could remember. She omitted what Beverly´s father had done to her, because didn´t even want to remember it. Henrietta listened to her attentively, but she didn´t know it she was starting to believe her or not. When she finished talking, Henrietta said:
"I don´t know. It is strange, but... We don´t have any proof. If I presented what you told me to the royal court... well, they wouldn´t laugh on loud because I am their monarch, but surely would lose whatever respect they had for me."
"I don´t care, okay? I just wanted you to listen to me, believe me. The royal court doesn´t matter to me at all."
"I guessed as much." Henrietta said, then let out of a sigh. "Fine. At least, is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Yes, please. I need you to tell the healers to prepare a few sleeping potions as fast as they can and bring them to my room."
"I can do that." she said, nodded, stood up and went away. Louise laid back down, staring at the ceiling. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. The visions were visions, that much was indubitable. Past or future, it didn´t matter. Not now. The only thing that mattered was that those visions may be the only chance Halkagenia of living on, and she was the only one who could grasp that miracle. In was time, now. The sleeping potions would ensure she saw all she had to see. If those visions were of the past, then she may see how it was possible to defeat It. And she could do it. No matter what happened, what she had to sacrifice, she was prepared to do it.
After all, that Thing was her responsibility.