The Sixth Day

-Oria-

I made a mistake. This whole time, I thought that Artemisia simply didn’t remember me. I thought that since it’d been sixteen years, she’d moved on and that I meant so little to her that she didn’t know who I was.

I wanted her to remember by herself, so I never told her my name. I never told her anything. I thought she didn’t care, but instead…this whole time, she’s been blaming herself for my death. All because I never told her who I am. I thought she had forgotten about the little girl she played with in the woods. Instead, she’s been living for my revenge. This whole time, I’ve been playing her, lying to her. I just…

Sixteen years, I’ve loved her. The day she stumbled into my shop, asking for a poison, my heart stopped. She looked so utterly different to the pampered little girl I’d fell for, but now…she was exquisite. 

But she didn’t remember me. She did’t remember me when I called her by her name, and she didn’t remember me when I kissed her. I could never, ever forget her. Not when her name is etched into my skin, forever a physical reminder. Of both her, and that day.

The day she thought I died.

Gods, she thinks I’m dead. This whole time, whilst I’ve been selfishly keeping things from her, hoping that she would miraculously remember me, or even better, fall in love with me…all this time, she has been focused on avenging me. So focused that she couldn’t see that I was right in front of her.

And now she’s gone.

I tried to follow after her, but by the time I got downstairs with a pair of trousers on, she was nowhere to be found. And I know where she’s going, but not even Temi could make me go back there. Just the thought of that man, that place, and his foul other daughter makes me shiver.

Instead, I retreat back to my room after making sure that my dogs are cared for. I’m not opening the shop in the morning, I…I can’t. Staring at myself in the mirror, I slip the black shirt from my arms, and then pull my black tank top over my head, leaving myself exposed. After sixteen years, I’m used to the sight, but…it’s still so revolting to look at…”you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen, scars and all.”

I miss her already. Hugging my arms around myself, I slip down to the floor, leaning against the cold bed. All these years, wasted. All these years when I thought she didn’t care, all these years while she thought I was dead. All those years she continued to hear my screaming…the thought makes me sick. I didn’t know she heard that, any of that. 

Unable to sleep, I toss and turn all night long. The bed is too cold, too big without Temi here. My arms are too empty without her form perfectly nestled against me. Everything is so wrong without her here. And I never even finished her poison. After all this time, I couldn’t do a single thing for her. Every time I touched or kissed her, every time I looked at her, it was because I love her. But she…she just saw the contract.

Fuck.

I can’t lose her again, not after I finally know the truth. 

“I’d better hurry,” I murmur, pulling my boots on and grabbing my knife.

—————

-Artemisia-

After stealing a horse from a man travelling late at night, I ride past dawn and well into the midst of the day. I don’t have the poison, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll make it work. I’ll kill my father regardless. Every time the thought of Oria or the shopkeeper tries to slip into my head, I shove it away. Finally, the day has come where this can all end. A voice at the back of my mind tells me that I don’t really want to die, that I could still turn around. That I could leave the past in the past and move on, but…

I can’t. I just can’t. Just the thought of moving on is…too painful. I can’t.

Taking a deep breath, I dismount at the huge, impending gates. They look decrepit…in fact, this whole place does. It’s a far cry from the former glory of the noble air this place used to have - even the guards are all gone. Kicking the gate open, I tether the horse to the bars, my grip on the bow tightening. He should still be here…but what if he isn’t? I don’t entertain the thought. Moving around towards the rear of the estate, I easily slip in through an already broken window in the kitchen. This isn’t a good sign…the place looks thoroughly abandoned. But it isn’t. I can tell it isn’t. He’s here, I can feel it. Heading straight for his office, I change my mind and climb the stairs, looking for the master bedroom. I was never allowed inside, no matter the occasion. I’ve only ever seen inside the room a handful of times. Taking a deep breath as I stand in front of it, I rest my hand on the door knob. And I open the door.

“I wondered…when you’d come…for me,” my father says slowly. He looks dead already. Harrowed, haggard, and hollow, his bones all jut out angrily beneath his thin skin, his complexion a pasty grey.

“You look like shit,” I shut the door behind me, shocked by how fast his illness progressed. I knew he struggled with some constitutional difficulties, but this…he looks like he could be my grandfather with how the illness has aged him. He lies on the grand bed, his thin arms and skeletal hands resting above the duvet.

“Where is everyone else? Are you here alone?” I ask, needing to know if there will be any witnesses for my father’s death. He slowly shakes his head, letting out a long sigh.

“I sent them all away. Even Apella. I…” he blinks slowly, his eyes vacant as he looks in my direction. “I don’t have long left…obviously…I didn’t want…my precious daughter to see me like this.”

Scoffing, I cross my arms. “Apella is a little monster, I don’t know what you ever saw in her. Well, then again, you taught her to be that way, so maybe it makes perfect sense.” Taking a step closer to him, I drop my bow by the door. I didn’t need anything like that to kill him, after all. “I’m glad you’re nearly dead. I can’t wait for you to die. You’re pure evil, I don’t know how you can stand to look at yourself,” I spit, looming over him. I want to watch as the life fades out of his eyes, even if I have to encourage the process along a little.

My father just laughs, the sound slow and thick. “A failure like you would…never understand,” he murmurs before abruptly grabbing my wrist and pulling me down to face him, his grip shockingly strong. “You are useless,” he leers, his grip on me somehow increasing to a painful degree. “I wished I only had one child, I wished I could mould you into a perfect child like Apella was, but you just had to befriend a dirty commoner, didn’t you,” his breath is foul, like pure death and decay. Struggling against his grip on my wrist, I smack him hard in the chest until he releases his grip on me, a red welt remaining where his nails had pressed into my skin.

“You deserve to die a thousand painful deaths for what you did to her,” I wrap my hands around his neck, as my father just closes his eyes and smiles. “It’s not my fault if that cockroach died, I let her escape with her life…just about,” he grins, snapping his eyes open as he reaches up, attempting to snake his fingers around my neck in return. 

“What do you mean?” I demand, retrieving my bow from the door after all. This old devil has too many tricks left up his sleeves for me to just strangle him to death. 

“Apella held her down for me, but all I did was cut her a little,” he chuckles, his eyes wide and rabid. My chest clenches and I grip the arrow tightly, slowly walking back towards the bed. “That, and write your name on her skin with a knife. If she died after I released her, that’s hardly my fault. She deserved-“ I plunge the arrow into his neck. 

“Be silent, you pathetic little man,” I hiss, leaving the arrow there for him to gargle on his own blood.

He won’t die immediately - no, he’ll slowly suffocate before bleeding to death. It will be painful, and he deserves every single second of anguish.