Page 6 of Beautiful Nightmare

Her words sting like venom.

My moms were master witches in Hollows Grove and taught at the local university. Until that day sixty-six weeks ago, when I rushed into their home lab, interrupting one of the million experiments they would conduct. I needed to show them the cool trick my familiar could do, but it has now become my biggest regret. The spell was broken, potions smashed, and they immediately perished, first turning to stone, then to dust.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

My familiar scurried away immediately, then Agatha appeared and my powers vanished.

“I’d discipline you, but it looks like you are capable of that yourself.” Her eyes shift to my exposed arm before pushing my head back against the pillow.

I don’t blink. I don’t cry.

Moving my eyes off her, I focus on the once-empty doorway Prince is now occupying, wearing black pants and a white button-up. A smug look is etched on his face, and it’s in this moment I know I’m fucked.

He will never be an ally, only my enemy.

5

ROYCE

CURRENT DAY: 1990S - HOLLOWS GROVE, PA

The day is done, and the night is dark.

My feet crunch on top of dried fall leaves clustered on the old dirt path through the woods.

The air is chilled, but I don’t wear a cardigan. As someone who hates feeling, this is how I torture myself, by feeling everything.

I feelhim, his eyes and presence.Heis always lurking.

It started years ago, the fascination, the fixation. No efforts are ever made to hide it, as Prince has no shame and respects no boundaries. A feeling that once brought me extreme anxiety and stress now leaves me feeling exhausted.Heisn’t hurting me; if that’s his goal, I hurt myself enough every fucking day for the both of us.

Long strides bring me to an all-too-familiar place, my bare leg exposed through the slit in my thin silk nightdress, and goosebumps form as I get closer.

I deserve everything I put myself through.

Because I killed them.

They should be here, living freely at my childhood home.

It’s an old log cabin surrounded by beautiful, lush trees; in the spring and summer it’s the most beautiful spot in all of Hollows Grove, as that’s when our home would truly blossom. I would play in the large garden where they would grow and collect flowers and herbs for their projects; they built our home when they found out I was coming.

And now, as I stand before it, its life is gone. The wood is rotten, windows smashed in, and the garden is overgrown and dead. I walk to the front door, gently pushing it open. As I do, the hinges creak, followed by owls hooting. It spooks me, and my breath hitches as I continue to step inside.

The smells that once comforted me are gone, the eclectic decor is now rotted, and parts of the floor caved in from the explosion in their lab below.

A heel clicks behind me, but I don’t turn.

It’s Prince.

Ignoring him, I step closer to the gaping hole. I peer down, then squeeze my eyes shut. Everything floods back to me, even the smells from that day, including the smoke.

A scream erupts from my throat, and my body feels like I am being sucked backward, with images of days and years from the past flying swiftly by.

Then it stops, the screaming, the moving, and my body sways as I find my balance.

As I open my eyes, they shift slowly, and I am no longer looking down through the floor. My head tilts up and the hole is closed. A stark white ceiling looks back at me with bright fluorescent lighting.

It’s all so sterile, the tile floor cold against my bare feet.