v
Phoebe Black
To everyone around me; I was the starlet of the Black family. Everyone said I was the picture of feminine beauty, with long, thick black hair that fell like a glimmering onyx waterfall down my back and around my shoulders. My eyes; unlike my parents and siblings, were the shade of the brightest, newest sapphires.
It was unheard of that a member of the Black family would have blue eyes, and I constantly felt the pressure of that, even though no one really had anything bad to say about it. My mother and father praised my mesmerising good looks; my pale, porcelain white skin, slender limbs and waspy waist, the long eyelashes that framed my unusual eyes. Father said I was named for the Moon Goddess, as I shined brighter than the brightest star.
Hesper was admittedly envious; she hadn't been graced with such good looks. She had the typical dark hair, pale complexion and black eyes of her family. But Hesper's hair never grew past her neck, despite constantly trying to grow it out, and hung like lank, sad tendrils. Her colouring wasn't pale in a doll-like way, as mine was, but sicklier, sheet white. Her skin was paper thin, every vein visible on her arms, neck and legs. She wasn't sender and tall; quite the opposite. She was short; squat, and looked more like our mothers podgy sister. However, Hesper had more pressing worries than being jealous of me – she spent more of her time being envious of the attention that Licorus was getting from our father.
It was Alexia-Walkin that I should have been worried about.
Alexia never spoke. She isolated herself all day; every day. She was the sibling who discovered her magical ability the youngest; having caused the house-elf to soar through the air with his tea-tray, when he was heading to the dining room. She was four years old when she first unwillingly cast this spell, and thus became another child for Father to be proud of.
But something was missing in Alexia, and I felt like she was the only one who could see this. There was emptiness in her eyes; a strange, manic way she looked at me. She always stared at me, making me wary and uncomfortable of her.
Most nights, Alexia would lurk outside my bedroom, waiting for me to fall asleep. More often than not, I would wake up to find my sister hovering by my bed, doing nothing but smiling in the darkness. I wondered if, like Hesper, Alexia was jealous of me, and her creepy manner was reason for this. However, I didn't quite believe this. Alexia looked very similar to me, with the same pale skin, pouty mouth and long hair. The only difference was her eyes, which were as black as tar.
The realisation hit me that fateful night, when I opened her eyes in the night to see Alexia, as usual, stood next to my bedside in her white nightgown. She looked like a ghost, and I was about to tell her to go away, when I noticed that she had a melon baller in her left hand.
"What have you got there—oh my!"
I didn't get to finish her sentence, because suddenly, Alexia was on top of me, pinning my head back. In my groggy, half-asleep state, I didn't have the energy to push her off, and when I managed to regain some strength, it was already too late. Alexia had plunged the melon baller into my lower left eyelid, and effortlessly scooped out my eyeball.
Of course I shrieked. The pain was undeniable, and I passed out before Alexia got to my second eye.
When I awoke, the world was dark. I was sure I was dead, but my mother's voice came to me, through my sightless state. "Phoebe, darling?" Her voice was full, like she had been crying for hours.
"Mother…Alexis, she…"
"Now, now, there's no need to worry about that."
"Am I blind, Mother?"
My mother sighed. "For now, my darling. But you are in the hospital, and the young Healer is going to fix you up, good as new."
I allowed herself to drift back to sleep, with my mother's hand in mine. When I recovered, I would never learn of the true fate of my younger sister.