*Seraphine's POV*
"Wait! Wait! Please! Just let me talk, Itty." She cries behind me. It pains me, for some reason, but I can't trust her. What if what dad told Barima was true? She could be trying to lure me off to Ezekiel. He would likely be able to absorb my soul, just as I somehow had Barima's.
"I'm sorry! I just need to be alone!" I call back to her.
"Please! I can't keep up." Finally, I turn to look at her. "Thank you. Thank you. Why did you run from me?" She pants.
"They told me what you wanted with me." She bites her lip.
"What did they say?"
"I was to be given to Ezekiel as a sacrifice."
"That's only partially true." I huff. Unbelievable.
"Then what exactly is the truth? I've places to be."
"Father is slowly dying. He was cursed. He needs a sacrifice every so often to restore his strength and turn back the clock. Your brother, you have a brother, father wouldn't take my only child. I-I thought he wouldn't take you either. I loved your father. I loved you. Your father made a deal with my father behind my back. As soon as I pushed you into the world, your father attacked me and left me for dead. I screamed and fought for you, but I was too weak. I thought you were dead, that he had already given you up, but he didn't. He and father disagreed on the deal, so your father took you away and hid with you. Ezekiel could not find you. I had no idea what had happened. Your brother though, he found you. Running on a road, frazzled. He gave you a ride, and it took everything in him to leave you there. He wanted to bring you to me, to protect you, but we couldn't risk Ezekiel knowing where you were. Noxodius summoned me, trying to find your given name and I refused to tell him. He had killed you, upset you, and I was not handing you over to him. I failed you once, I will not again..." She blinks away tears and I study her for a moment. She seems genuine. "It took so long to find you." She sniffles and pulls me into her arms.
"I'm sorry this all happened to you. I never knew. He would never even give me your name. I never knew what I was-"
"It is not your fault. I figured that once you were older that he would feed you garbage about me, if anything at all. He's a deceiver."
"He's even more despicable than I thought. Who would've known?"
"Did he let you leave, to find Noxodius?"
"No. He always left me hungry and alone, only coming around to scare me into staying out. I starting sneaking out here and there to test the water. Once I came of age, I ran away and went as far from him as I could physically and financially afford. I...well...I stole some money from him to do it. Noxodius found me though, and he wouldn't let me be. Somehow from there dad found me again." She still holds me, studying my face and stroking my back.
"You are so beautiful! I can't get over you. Your brother, I thought he was crazy when he swore he met you. He said you had our eyes though, and you do! That's all you get from us though, you thankfully do not favor your father much either. Small blessings!" She laughs. "Why darling, why is your hair green?"
I weep into my knees as I break myself out of thought. I can't bring myself to remember mother's death. I fought so hard, but it wasn't enough. We only just met. I had only just met her! Guilt eats at me as I whimper and grieve. I feel so lowly and pathetic. I have failed again. Even in death I can't win. It hurts, but I keep repeating our conversation in my head, the only information I'll be able to get from her without finding her ghost or soul. Will she roam, like me? I do not want to forget one precious tidbit. I have a brother. I didn't even get his name. I don't even remember him giving me a ride.
"Seraphine! You will not speak to me still? Don't you remember me?" I look up at the younger boy who favors the Yeomorah man. I don't know him from Adam and if I felt better I'd tell him that. I had almost blocked his existence out in my grief. I wonder how long he has stood there watching the ghost girl with bloody tears and snot?
"I don't remember you, and I'm extremely sorry that I know of your existence now. I was doing my best to tune you out."
"Such an attitude. Shocking really considering how you tried to seduce me." I snarl at him and grab the bars, but I can't reach or go through them. A spell?
"How and why would I try to seduce you?" I sniffle. "I'd rather remain dead."
"You were captive here before, if you could remember. You freaked out, tried to attack a servant, walked the ceiling. You came to me and fed, then you kissed me. You rubbed your body against mine and you wanted me. Father gifted you to me, but I turned you down." He smirks.
"I certainly did not. G-good. Saves me the trouble of rejecting you." My voice quivers and I curl up tighter. I'm going to be sick. Did I really? Was I involved with this devil that helped kill my own mother? How could I? Shame overcomes me.
"Chin up lover. I bet you are starving."
"Don't you ever call me that!" My depression turns to rage at that name. Lover. It makes me sick. I'm not his lover. I wasn't, I think. I will never be anybody else's again. I slam into the door and walls in a fit of fury, but no damage is done. This only further enrages me as I throw a cup of water from the cell at him. Injury to insult, giving water to the dead. The dead! I fume. He rolls his lip in anger before he can mask it.
"Very well. You'll be out of there soon, where you can be reprimanded. Father has a surprise for you." The tone he says this in only adds to my growing list of concerns.
I pretend not to be interested as I wipe at my face, but inside I'm dying to know what's about to go on. I've always feared the unknown. I continue to fling myself at and scratch the door and walls, checking every crack and corner. I should be able to walk right through this, but I can't. I finally decide to conserve energy, and I sit down in the furthest corner from the door.
"Hello, beautiful." That scratchy voice makes me cringe and I look up to find Yeomorah at the door. "Want to see your surprise?" I shake my head no. "What a shame. I worked hard to get it." I snap my head up, there's something ominous in his words. He beckons me closer with his fingers, and I reluctantly draw closer. "There, darling." He points down the hall and I lean closer to peer out, not risking leaning on the door incase he tries to attack. If my heart was working, it'd be in arrest. There, up the hall, is that insufferable son of Yeomorah's carrying my body. My body! What's going to happen now?
"Th-that's me...that's my-"
"Body? Yes. I need you, in your body. This..." He gestures at me. "Will not suffice. It's harder to control a ghost, aside from just consuming it entirely. Besides, if I'm lucky, I will have restored you just in time. Lucien, sat ot down easily." The man huffs and he slips me down hastily on the concrete. "God damn Lucien! Worthless bastard. You follow orders, or follow your mother and brother to the grave. I won't hesitate to kill another son. I have too many already." Lucien pales and retreats. I merely gape. He killed his family?
"Wht did you kill me, only to bring me back?" I blurt.
"I never killed you. I only severely injured you. I had intended to take you with me, but I stopped short. I wanted Noxodius to suffer. After all, he didn't keep up his end of the deal. But, your father certainly did." Before I can catch myself I fling myself into the bars of the door and claw at his face. He catches my arm and yanks me roughly into the door. He soon opens the door and forces my arm back through as he drags me out and into the hall. His grip is unlike the humans I let touch me. I cannot fade through him or get away as I struggle.
"Be easy. Or I'll seriously hurt you. You do want to be among the living once again don't you?"
"No. I just want to be left alone!"
"Well, that's simply too bad. I need you back in that body. You're worth more that way. Noxodius will negotiate better when you're both on the table."
"Both!?" I don't understand.
"You didn't know, did you? Unsurprising, really. You don't know and cant do anything. Of course you wouldn't understand you were pregnant. Afterall, it doesn't follow the typical human signs." My head is spinning. I'm pregnant? I'm dead! I can't be...is my baby?
"Is-is my ba-"
"Yes. It is not martal, it still lives. Your body is its host. Whoever, if you are not restored to your body soon it will perish. It can't absorb nutrients and grow without those nutrients being replenished. That's why even in death you are thinning away."
"I bled out! I was bleeding...there's no way..."
"Your blood stopped after so long. You are a shower bleeder. The loss of blood is not why you died, is it? It was at your own lover's hands. I injured you just enough to force his hand to do the homors." His laugh is deep, but creaky as an antique rocking chair.
I go limp and stop struggling. I can't even cry anymore. I'm pregnant. I let my mom down, myself, Axar. I can't even do anything with what I am! How will I protect this child? How will I teach it? Will it just be another pawn of Nox's to manipulate me? What if it's too late? Dread and doubts fill me. I love children, but I'm scared. I'm shocked and confused. I hardly even look at Yeomorah's giant body as he and others gather and prepare their rituals. I don't want to see them. I want them to vanish.
Yeomorah chants and grabs me. He holds me over my body and he slides his wrist. Thick, dark burgundy droplets splatter my face and find my mouth. I watch them drop onto the face of my own corpse. I feel energies surge and weird sparks throughout my being. He shoves me face first against my body and I realize that I am sinking. It burns. I shriek and try to push up but I go right through myself.
It's black now. There's nothing. No sounds. It's cold and barren. A heartbeat grows louder, and another along side it, close in pace and they become louder. My chest burns and on old instinct I open my mouth a greedily gulp air. My eyes fly open and I shut them tight, even the dim light hurts. I slowly open and try to focus. I finally make out Yeomorah and Lucien before me, crouching. Another face catches my eye. Farther back, in the small crowd of men, I spot my father. I glare coldly at him.
"Seraphine-"
"Never speak me again. I managed to find out all about you. You are even sorrier than I ever imagined."
"I could say the same about you. Fortunately now, you'll actually be worth something. I can see it's went to your head."
"Mother was right, you really are a coward. You've never been able to pull off anything on your own. You had to contact Yeomorah to even get this far." I've trumped him. He can't argue because he's in Yeomorah's presence.
"You spoke with your mother?" His voice isn't smug like usual, it's almost uncertain.
"I did. Thanks to you, I will never get to again. She's...dead." It hurts to say it out loud, but he needs to know what he has done. Whatever his role, whatever his part, he killed my mother. He might as well have broken her with his own hands. He looks down and simply walks away. His emotion unreadable. Yeomorah yanks me back down the hall and shoves me into the cell, calling for someone to refill the sad cup of water.