rachel's perspective
"RACHEL? RACHEL?! WAKE UP!"
My lungs heaved downwards and upwards steadily. My blood surged through my veins while my nerves began to channel energy.
I inhaled deeply before a rattling cough shook my body.
"Rachel, are you okay?"
I sat up instantly and felt cold sweat break all over me.
My vision adjusted and I realized where I was.
I was in the infirmary.
The infirmary was on the left wing of my Home, right off of the Social Hall.
Even the infirmary was elegant with keen and sanitary tools. Scalpels, antibiotics, stethoscopes, and bandages. Everything was put into its place perfectly.
The walls were untainted, inside of them were porcelain counters, marble tables, and a wooden cot for the patient.
Not to mention the door was bronze and silver.
On the wooden cot was expensive spreads of white silk. The pillow was woven delicately in cotton.
My brother Raymond was looking at me with glassy eyes.
"Rachel!? Rachel... snap out of it!" reality drowned on me suddenly.
The last active memory I had was the Gala being ripped apart. I remember the intruder that came in, cursed me, and slaughtered my father.
Right before my eyes.
Every horrid second of the Gala blinked in my head quickly. I was in too much shock to react to my recall and in too much pain.
My head was pounding and my spine seemed as stiff as steel. My limbs were numb and felt detached.
I looked at my fingertips.
They began to turn grey. My fair complexion was being subjected by a silver hue.
"Momma! She's awake!" my brother yelled.
"Shh! Raymond... my head." I winced in discomfort.
"Sorry Rachel... are you okay?" Raymond's worried green eyes examined me.
"She's awake! Rachel, golly, are you alright? We thought you were done for!" my eldest brother popped up beside me.
"I don't know." out of all the eight years I've lived I started to now get a pinch of the dark side of my fairytale.
"Rachel! Good grief child, you have scared me sick!" my mother rushed into the room.
Her outfit was dull and dark and her face was shattered. Bags sat under her eyes, her face was pallid, and her spirit appeared to drag.
"I'm sorry." my eyes stuck back to my changing fingers again.
"Don't be. I'm just... glad you're alive." my mother embraced me as her voice wavered.
"Dada isn't." I wrestled with my tears.
"I know... I know." she sniffed and glanced at me with red eyes.
She tried to smile, but for the first time I realized something.
Her smile was fighting to stay bright.
It was struggling to display itself.
Behind her smile attempted to conceal the suffering her eyes showed.
"Uhm... how long have I been asleep for? Mama?" I asked.
"About six days now. You were in a deep sleep. So deep I thought... I'd lose you too. If you did not wake up by tomorrow, you'd be put to rest with your father." my mother mustered.
"Yeah. People of Royal Families, or anyone in Azarath is put to rest after a week of physical inactivity." Richard said.
"Really?" I raised my eyebrows.
"Indeed." my mother avoided eye contact.
"So tomorrow is Dada's funeral, isn't it." I bowed my head in dismay.
"Yes." Richard confirmed.
"And that Melanie person..." Raymond began.
"Melinoe." Mother corrected.
"Mel-in-oy, cursed you."
"Yes Raymond, I know. I may be eight years old, but I am not dumb." a new feeling pierced my soul gradually.
Like an insecurity or a personal diffidence of
some sort. My heartbeat decelerated and my cells seemed to stop multiplying.
"I never said that Rachel. All I am trying to say is that she cursed you, and it's physically affecting you. Look." Raymond put a mirror in front of my face.
My face was torn between a grey and creamy shade. Blotches of platinum swam over my original shade.
My blue eyes began to show a glare of purple in them, and so did my black tresses.
"Ewwww, what is this!?" I got anxious.
"We don't know. Every doctor in the field has tried to analyze, but can't. They've searched every encyclopedia, atlas, dictionary, scroll, pamphlet... This is something we have never seen before." Richard verified.
"What!? Will I at least go back to normal!?" I stopped brushing my bicolored face and began to dive into emotional hysteria.
"We don't know Rachel."
"WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME!?" I snapped and tears flushed my face.
"We don't know, honey."
"Tell me something, anything! I don't want to live like this, I want to live normal. What's happening to me Mama?!" I tugged onto my mother in a distraught manner and wept in her clothes.
"Rachel, as your mother and as the Queen of a mourning Country..." she wrapped her arm around me and tried to comfort me.
"I honestly do not know what is happening."