CHAPTER 96: A FOX

***Author’s Note: Thank you for your patience. It’s been a very busy week. The inspiration in this Chapter comes from my personal feelings tonight. I dropped my best friend back off at the airport to fly back home. I am so sad and miss her so much already. The song for this Chapter is Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer. For my bestie Anna. Also peep the comments for pictures of us both at our Kpop concert ***

~ODETTE’S POV~

My mind was reeling all of the information I just heard. It was overwhelming, the words she said played over and over again in my mind like a broken record, it’s my past? My fate? What does that even mean? How is a past also a future, anyways?

The loss I saw, or rather remember, made my soul.

My soul. It’s been here before?

Vampires live so long, we don’t believe in reincarnation, as far as I know. The immortality thing kinda makes it hard to validate the idea for us.

But now I’m being told this?

Being told my soul once belonged to someone else.

Am I even me? Or am I past me? Is everything that makes me, me, someone else entirely?

I was so confused and frustrated. Nothing made sense anymore and everything was a lie. The world I knew couldn’t have been more untrue.

Could I trust myself, my feelings? Where do we draw the line? Where does she end and I begin.

And my parents knew...

Oh god my fucking parents.

They knew this all time.

They probably know more.

And they kept it from me. They kept one of the most important truths of my life a secret from me.

The betrayal in my heart was profound, I could barely breathe. It ached and an emptiness crept inside that making me feel hollow. My chest felt constricted. I wasn’t just suffocating; no I was drowning. And my tears just kept pooling in my eyes.

I couldn’t stop them. From the dream to the betrayal, it was a crushing weight on my chest. I wanted to rip my heart out while it was still beating.

It was like my entire body was combusting from within.

It was too much I couldn’t take it.

I trembled as I ran.

I ran out of Artemasia’s room, and then just as fast, out of her house. I needed to get away.

Maybe out run this pain? This truth? This reality? I just needed to run.

So I did. The ground was pale and brown from the cold winter air. It crunched under my feet with every step I took. The air nipped at my nose and ears, making them sting and my head to hurt.

I just ran.

Harder.

Harder than I’ve ever ran. And then I pushed myself harder.

Pushed myself further.

I felt like if I could get fast enough, I could get away. Escape this, all of this.

Things can never go back to the way they were before. They can be the same.

I don’t know if I ever want to see my parents again.

The people I trusted most in this world, lied to me my whole life.

I kept running.

My ears thundered from my rapid heartbeat.

I couldn’t see, tears blurred my vision.

I kept running even still. Even though it started getting light out.

Even though my feet were starting to hurt.

I couldn’t find it in me to stop.

I was screaming internally. The physical pain from exhaustion couldn’t block out or override the emotional pain reeking habit inside me.

Chaos, it flowed through me like a coursing river. A current so strong it could drag rocks across the floor.

I kept running. I’d run through the castle, into the forest and I was now heading up the bitter cold mountain.

The wind howled the higher up I got. Nipping at my cheeks and nose. I felt like ice was ripping at my lungs.

I was panting now. The altitude was taking it’s on me. I was getting lightheaded and dizzy. Nauseousness was over coming me. I know, I should turn around and head back. I should return to the palace.

To Ambrose.

And the thought of him halted my steps.

I realized the sun had rose, but the clouds in the mountains were covering its warm light.

Just like the cold layer of ice covering my heart.

I need to turn around, to head back. I had a class with Ursula tomorrow. But something about this mountain, it called to me. Not in the soothing kind of way, but a sickening sense of familiarity. It was haunting and dark.

Yet I kept walking toward it.

I don’t know what I’m looking for, here, but something was holding me hostage on this mountain.

And then I reached a spot, a darkness gathered there.

Fear settled in my body like an old friend.

The air around me stilled. The sounds of the mountain quieted. The wind even ceased to blow.

"Omara..."

A voice whispered.

I looked around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.

"Omarraa" The voice whispered again.

My bones trembled.

I recognized the voice.

It was the voice in my dream.

But this one was weak and desperate, unlike the other voice which was filled with unrivaled confidence and mockery.

"Omara, you will never defeat me... I will rise again, and it will be you that free’s me. Most gentle Omara."

His words sent a shiver down my spine and the hairs on my body rose, standing straight and tall.

The atmosphere had shifted to something darker and terrifying. Like something in depths wanted to swallow me.

I looked around, still unable to find the source of the voice, still unable to leave this spot on the mountain.

A deep sinister chuckle erupted from the mountain.

I wanted to leave but the pressure of whatever horror sat in this mountain.

I started shiver, the cold was seeping into my bones, chilling me.

And just as the cold was becoming unbearable, a light appeared from above me, winding down the mountain. I was awe struck. The glow brought the warmth to this chilly mountain side.

As the light approached, a sense of calm rolled over me, chasing the fear away.

From the light appeared a small figure.

The closer it got, the clearer it was.

A small little thing on four legs emerged from the light.

It was a beautiful little white fox.

And it just sat looking at me curiously.

I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

It tilted his head to the side, and I swear I saw a sparkled in its eyes before it started to charge me. I should have been afraid, a strange animal charging at me, after I just heard a terrifying voice.

But I wasn’t.

Not even in the slightest.

And when it reached me, it sat down again, just in front of me, almost wagging its tail at me.

"What are you doing out here all alone?" I ask it, kneeling down to its level.

It looked at me, and titled its head again, before giving me a little yip.

It started hopping up and down and running in a circle.

It was so cute, cute enough it almost made me forget the dark dangerous feeling this spot on the mountain provided.

I started smiling, and when I did, it turned tail and ran away, running down the path.

"Hey! Wait up!" I yelled chasing after it.

I don’t know why I was chasing a small fox down a mountain, but I was.

I was exhausted and out of breath as I reached the bottom of the mountain path.

"Odette!" I heard a familiar male voice yelling through the howling wind that had since come back after leaving that spot on the mountain.

The little fox stopped and looked up at me with big, innocent, gray eyes.

I knelt down and reached out my hand.

It put its head in my hand and rubbed itself there.

I scratched behind its ears, and it curled into my lap. Making itself at home, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

A warmth filled my heart.

"Odette?" It was Ambrose, was he looking for me?

Of course he was, I’ve been gone since last night.

And now I reappear with a fox in my lap and a memory of a horror lying deep inside the mountain.

The sound of snow crunching under footsteps echoed in the wind.

"Odette? Where are you, please, come home." Ambrose yelled again.

Finally, he looked in my direction, saw me kneeling on the ground and ran over to me as fast as he could.

"Odette, where the fuck have you been all night? Do you have any idea how scared I’ve been? How worried?" he sounded anxious and desperate.

"I went for a run." I answered casually. Like it was the obvious answer.

"That’s all you have to say for yourself, seriously?" Ambrose frowned and his brows.

"I met a fox too."