EVE

It felt like a dream each time I drove by the Royal residential area. I would never have imagined that my life would be like it was now. Even when I had dreamed of a better life, I still hadn’t envisioned anything like this. I guess your dreams are limited to what you consider possible.

    The 8^th royal family had given me a permission card to show at the gates. With it, I didn’t have to go through the normal intrusive check. All I had to do was show it to the guards, and I would be allowed to drive through easily. You could say my life was pretty good.

    I was here for the tea party I had been invited to by Princess Vivian. I declined at first, but when the twins informed me that the party was going to be for VIPs, I cancelled all other plans. Very important people were supposed to be present, and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to market myself.

    I was privileged enough to be invited, and it was because of my association with the family. It would be a loss on my part if I were absent.

    “Eve darling,” Princess Vivian called when she sighted me being led in by a maid. “You are late. We’ve been expecting you for a while. Come, let me introduce you to my friends.”

    “Sorry, I was held up with something.”

That wasn’t a lie. I was held up by indecision. She calls me darling now. I dare say I was her everything. I held the life of her son in my hands, who was much better by the way.

   He had fully regained consciousness last week and was quickly gaining back his strength. Even I was amazed at how quickly he was recovering. Life was gradually returning to his eyes.

   The pride I felt for my little accomplishment knew no bounds. Maybe I wasn’t bad at this healing thing after all.

    Princess Vivian feared having him attend this party would affect his recovery so he wasn’t present, but it definitely wasn’t a secret that he had gotten much better. Hopefully, that was the reason for the stares I was getting this time.

    Stares were nothing new to me, but for the first time, I welcomed them and stared right back. I hoped they had a good look. I had gone through great pains to look this good today.

    “How do you like the party?” Isabella asked. She was prince Luke’s younger sister. I should call her Princess Isabella but she insisted on just Isabella.

    She was a sweet soul. One of the nicest ones I have met ever since I became a healer. It was hard marrying the idea I had of royals, to the people I have come to know.

    “Not bad at all. The wine tastes exquisite,” I replied.

Earlier on, I had escaped from Vivian’s clutches and ran to the bar. I wanted some time alone. As someone who was once assigned to labour on a Royal’s farm, I had a first-hand experience of how condescending they could be. My opinion of them hadn’t changed, but I could at least admit to myself that they weren’t all bad.

    She pulled me away from the bar and took me for another round of introductions. Hopefully, I get my request cards filled up after this. The goal was to get sort after clients. I might not like them, but I didn’t mind taking their money. A few overpriced treatments wouldn’t do them any harm.

       ***       

     It’s been a series of celebrations for the past couple of weeks. Ever since Princess Vivian made a public announcement about her son’s recovery, there hasn’t been a weekend I wasn’t at a celebration party hosted by her. She was an excellent hostess, but I wasn’t in the mood to party this weekend. I was hanging out with the twins. They are one of the few friends I made at the Healing school, Claire and Clara.

    We planned to drive out to the woods for a couple of days and enjoy some peace and quiet. They had sent a text asking where I was. I had been at the supermarket but I quickly rounded up my shopping and drove to our camping site.

    They were seating by the fire when I arrived. I pulled out my camping bag from the back seat of my car and walked over to them.

    “This place feels creepy.  Why did you pick this location?” I asked, snuggling in between them

This wasn’t our first time camping, but we had always chosen places within the capital. This was the furthest I had been away from the capital.

    “Scared?” they teased.    

    I snorted. “I’m not scared of the woods.” Who was I fooling? I was definitely scared of the woods.

    It turned out to be a fun evening. We played around the fire, roasted meat, sang songs and drank. The girls set up the tent, and I laid down inside. Shortly after, they joined me and laid by each side of me. I was so lost in thought that I didn’t realise Claire was speaking to me until she pinched my side.

   “Ouch, that hurts,” I chided.

   “Stop zoning out when I’m trying to talk to you.”

    Slowly, I turned to her. She had a worried expression on her face.

    “What is it?” I asked.

    She remained silent for a while before she spoke.

    “We haven’t been able to afford the pill for a while.”

    I could tell from her expression that it had taken her a lot to admit that. The only problem was I did not know what pill she was referring to.

    “It’s been a month since we last took it. I fear am already deteriorating. I don’t know how much longer we can last this way.”

    She must be talking about the Zeluxe pill.

    “What do you mean, why can’t you can’t afford it?”

    She glared at me and then looked up at the sky.

    “I’m sorry, I just don’t understand.” I apologised because she seemed offended.

    “What don’t you understand? Don’t you take the pill? You know how expensive it is, and the price keeps increasing regularly. Coupled with monthly dues to our family head, we barely have enough for ourselves. It’s …”

    She stopped her rant abruptly and sighed.

    It really dawned on me how lucky I was while she spoke. I knew the pills were expensive, but I hadn’t expected a healer with regular clients not to be able to afford it. I also didn’t know we were expected to pay monthly dues to the family head. But as I thought about it, I understand the need for it. I knew Archie paid yearly taxes to the sect council. Family heads must be making up for the money the paid by tasking the family members.

“Can you help link us to some high paying clients?” she asked.

I nodded in understanding. I could help with that. I knew a lot of prominent people thanks to Princess Vivian.

“Sure, why not?” I replied.

She beamed at me. “Really?”

     “I can’t guarantee anything, but I promise to recommend you to some people. The rest is up to your skills.” I replied.

She heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much.” Wrapping her hands around me, she snuggled closer.

Clara soft snore indicated that she had already been asleep for a while. Thankfully, she hadn’t heard our conversation. I knew how proud they both were, and I was sure it had taken a lot from Claire to ask for help. But I was glad she did. What are friends for?

     When I was a parasite, I envied the people who belonged to families because I thought they had it easy. But I realise how wrong I had been. Belonging to a family wasn’t the end of one’s problem, it came with its own problems. If Archie hadn’t taken me in and I ended up in any other family, I would most likely be in the same predicament. With a background record like mine, I wouldn’t have been able to get any clients at all, more so, high paying ones. How would I have survived financially? While they paid their family heads monthly, mine paid me bountifully monthly. I have never had to worry about money not even when I had no client. I needed to be more grateful for Archie.

    As Claire drifted off to sleep beside me, I remained wide awake, sleep, completely eluding me. I was scared my endless tossing and turning would wake them up, so I got up to take a walk.

    Wrapping my shawl around me, I walked down a narrow path by the side of the tenth. The cold of the night sent a shiver down my spine. For a brief second, I contemplated walking back to the tent, but decided otherwise.

    The further down I walked, the more convinced I was that I was being followed. I looked around but saw nothing except trees. Was I being too paranoid? Ignoring my instincts, I walked on.

   Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned back immediately, but there was no one in sight. Cursing myself for being stupid enough to take a walk alone in the woods in the middle of the night, I pick up a broken branch that laid along the path and gripped it tightly with both hands. There was no harm in being cautious.

    “Who is there? Stop hiding like a coward and show yourself.” I might’ve been shaking in fear but whatever was out there didn’t have to know that. Please, let this just be me being paranoid.

    “Stop scaring me you bastard” I whispered clasping the branch tighter. If I were religious, I would at least have a god to pray to at a moment like this. For the first time, I understand why people wanted to believe in   being’s they couldn’t even see. I wouldn’t feel this terrified if I believed there was someone out there that would protect me if I prayed.

    Right before my eyes, something materialised out of thin air. I watched in horror as it slowly took shape. It had the form of a human, but the moonlight wasn’t offering light to help me see more clearly. With trembling hands, I turned on my flashlight to see what stood before me. I wasn’t a screamer, that did no one any good except draw attention to oneself, so I clasped my mouth with my hand as I fell back terrified.

   It was the most hideous thing I have ever seen. There were averaged sized horns on its head. Its teeth were so long, that they protruded out of its jaw. Scales covered its entire body except for its legs. Those were covered with hair.

    These woods must be playing some tricks on me. There is no way something like this could possibly exist. I must have drank too much wine with the girls.

    It took a step towards me and I lost it. I ran for my dear life. I didn’t want to lead it back to the girls so I took the pathway by my left. I could hear its footsteps close behind me. My life flew before my eyes. Was I about to be this monster's dinner? I ran so fast, that my feet barely touched the ground. When had I become so athletic? Nothing else mattered, the most important thing was getting away from that thing. I ran faster and faster. I had certainly gained some distance away from it because its footsteps were no longer as loud but I didn’t care, I ran faster.

    Halting in front of a ditch that laid along the path, I turned back to see if my pursuer was anywhere in sight. I sighted it miles away, running at full speed towards me. I had two choices, be its dinner or jump. I choose the latter. Since I was going to die regardless, jumping was the more honourable choice.

    I moved a few feet backwards so I could gain some momentum to jump. I wasn’t about to give a half-assed jump. I was giving it my best shot. Surprisingly, I made the jump. On normal circumstances, I would be perplexed at the possibility of jumping across a ditch at least 5 meters wide but this wasn’t a normal circumstance. I landed on my two feet and continued running, I wasn’t able to run as fast anymore because it want a clear path like before, I just manoeuvred myself around the trees as fast as I could until I was certain I had lost the monster. I stopped by a tree to catch my breath but could barely stand on my two feet so I sat by the trunk of the tree.

    It felt like forever, but I finally got my breath under control. My nerves were nowhere close to being calm but I was feeling a lot better.

    “What the hell was that?!” I exclaimed to myself.  

I felt something dripping down my leg. I assumed it was sweat so I casually wiped it down but it stung like crazy. I looked down immediately and that was when I saw it. There was a deep cut across my leg. I must have cut myself while I ran. I hadn’t even realized I had been injured. I needed to apply pressure to the wound so I reached down to tear my shirt. Suddenly, I felt my wound gradually close back up. I touched the place the wound had been earlier just to be sure I wasn’t seeing things. There was a measurable amount of blood but no wound.

   What the hell. I screamed out my lungs. This was too much craziness for one night. I must say I was wrong about not being a screamer. I was pretty sure the entire forest heard my scream before I passed out.                   

* * *

    “What happened to you last night? We woke up, and you were nowhere to be found”

    I listened to Clara’s voice over the phone. She sounded so excited. Claire must have told her about my offer to help.

   How was I supposed to answer her question? How would she respond if I told her a monster chased the life out of me last night and that my wound magically closed up? How would I tell her that after I passed out, I woke up in an incomplete building somewhere in the forest with no recollection of how I had gotten there? She wound think I was messing with her. Who wouldn’t? If I hadn’t experienced it personally, I would think I was messing with me too.

    “Am sorry. Something came up, and I had to leave really quickly,” I replied.

    “I guessed as much. We should go camping again. I had fun last night.”

   “Hmm” that was all I had to say. There was no way I was going any were near a forest anytime soon but she didn’t need to know that.

   She went on and on about how grateful she was for my offer to help, but I barely listened. I hadn’t yet recovered from the traumatising experience I just had. I needed some time to regroup.