Trifecta: Ice [Complete]

Ch 19: Bereft Relief

Author's Note:

🎄 Merry Christmas! To celebrate the holiday, I bring you a double update of a completely unChristmasy story!

Perhaps, try picturing Serge and Matthias in Santa hats.  They would definitely be glaring at each other. Serge's hazel eyes would be narrowed as he tried to hold on to his temper, and Matthias's teeth would be clenched while he resisted the urge to punch Serge square in the jaw.

So, basically, holiday cheer all around. ;)

Thanks for reading!!!

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I slept fitfully after Matthias left, but in truth it was little different than the rest of the nights since I had been cursed other than I woke several times, fear clutching my heart and my breathing ragged and uneven.

Poor Lizzy had been knocked onto the floor during my night time flailing.

Was the curse increasing its harassment on me because I had declared war on it when I was talking to Matthias, or was it getting harder the longer I was a thrall?

Although it really had not been that long.

Only six days and five nights had passed since Serge had bit me with the magic of the curse.  Could it really have been less than a week?  It felt longer, so much longer, as if a lifetime of fear had been crushed into such a short period of time.

But I was not going to let this crippling fear keep me down.  I was going to fight my own fears and the curse's fears every day.  Like I told Matthias, I was going to keep moving my toe until I could move my whole damn leg.

I shivered.  The curse had other plans.

I forced myself to leave my bed for the anxiety inducing light of the morning streaming in through my window.  Was light not supposed to be comforting?

It felt like the harsh light of exposure to me, as if the sun were glaring in the window and exposing all my trespasses and misdeeds.  I swallowed hard and walked into the adjoining bathroom to get ready to face the day.

When I left my room, I found Serge in the kitchen.  I could smell coffee and I heard the clunk of a mug as I walked towards him with my eyes averted.

"Good morning," he said.  He sounded tired.  I wondered if he had not slept well either, but there was no way I dared to ask.

"Good morning," I echoed.

"Hungry?" he asked.

Not really, but...  "I-is there cereal?"  I did not want him to cook specially for me again.

"Yeah.  Corn flakes or puffed wheat."

Both sounded like cardboard to me.  "Could I have corn flakes?"

"Of course," he said.

I could see him moving around the kitchen from the corner of my eye.  I wanted to protest and do it myself, but my lips would not move.

Good job fighting that curse, Elise, I thought to myself.  The cold flushed through me and I shivered again.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sounding somewhere between concerned and weary.

"Y-yeah," I lied.  The ache of the curse infused my bones.  I sat down on one of the bar stools, as far as I could get from Serge.

Was it getting worse, or did it just seem so now that Matthias was not here to distract me?

I saw the box of cereal come towards me, along with a jug of milk and a bowl and spoon.  I sprinkled a bit of cereal into the bottom of the bowl.  I noted my shaking hands helped dislodge the cereal from the box.