LAMIAE

CHAPTER FORTY TWO: ENTRY

Dagmara looked at the flowers and noticed that exactly under them there was an inscription written in italics. She moved the flowers to the side and with her left hand brushed away the snow-covered quote:

"It is possible to leave forever to be constantly close"

Jan Twardowski

She stared at the sign for a few minutes until she heard someone approach her from behind. It was Casper, who, instead of looking at the grave and the slope, looked at the girl in silence.

"Casper, what kind of grave is this? Why isn't it signed?"

The boy was still silent. It seemed to her that the statue near them would speak sooner than he would make any sound.

In fact, she knew who was buried in the grave. Beneath the slab, flowers and a sea of ​​shed tears lay a girl not much older than her. A girl who died in terrible circumstances by people sick with revenge.

"It's Victoria's grave, isn't it?" her words and voice, even though they resembled a question, didn't demand a response. No matter what he answered, she was sure of that fact. But the boy didn't deny it. He looked from her to the tombstone.

"We had to bury her somewhere. Cremation would have been more reasonable, but I didn't want it at the time. Today I would do things differently," he said, not knowing why, but she got the impression that he was afraid of something. As if the damage done to Victoria during her life could be nothing compared to what could have happened after her death. And suddenly it hit her, no photo, no monument, no name...

"You're afraid that they might desecrate her grave," she said more to herself than to him, although he nodded at her anyway. It was logical that when Victoria died, no one could find out in which cemetery and when she would be buried.

"We did it at night, it wasn't easy because Arleta argued that she deserved a decent burial. We paid a large sum of money to a priest to come to say prayers at midnight two days after her death," he sighed, probably remembering those fateful experiences. "Aunt talked to him, I don't know how she convinced him to help us, but she had to use all the tricks she knew and it worked," he smiled a little, as if it had occurred to him that Genevieve had abilities that many women would envy.

"And Victoria's family? They couldn't even light a candle for her or lay a bouquet for her," it seemed unthinkable to Dagmara that she wouldn't know where her mother was buried, a place where she could come and just feel a little bit of it, as if she were standing next to her.

"They're dead. Victoria's father and mother died a few hours before her", Casper explained to her.

She opened her eyes wide.

"What?" she asked.

It couldn't have been a coincidence, she thought.

Casper grabbed his forehead. His nervous behavior told her that she was right and it wasn't an ordinary physiological death.

"When Victoria died, we had to inform her parents. I called her father, then her mother, but we had no signal. I didn't know anyone apart from the two of them, no extended family members, and I didn't find anything in Victoria's cell phone. On the day of her funeral, I went to their village. Unfortunately, there I learned about a tragic car accident that occurred when Victoria's parents were going to the hall where the New Year's Eve party was to be held.

"Didn't you find out about it right after their accident?" she asked quietly. Because of the place she was in, it occurred to her that Casper had mentioned the girl's death as taking place at the cemetery. The knowledge that somewhere nearby the Council might have murdered Victoria gave her goosebumps.

"No, neither Victoria nor I had our cell phones with us that day. You ask who doesn't carry a phone with them these days? Well, we didn't want and couldn't have them with us. Fortunately, we didn't have them. Victoria may have died tragically, but at least she died peacefully, not knowing about her parents."

She understood what he had brought the conversation to. If Victoria found out about her parents' death, it wouldn't change anything, it would only add unnecessary worries to her.

They returned to the car in silence and didn't speak to each other the entire evening. Each of them wanted to be alone, so Dagmara locked herself in the room immediately after returning. She didn't know if Casper had done the same, but knowing him, a furry creature called Tie might have slipped into his room. She didn't want to take care of the animal, she didn't want to do anything at all, her thoughts kept coming back to Victoria.

Due to these constant thoughts, she remembered that she had not finished the entry for today, interrupted by Casper, who wanted to take her to the cinema.

She sat down at her desk and took her diary out of the cabinet. She opened it, scanning the latest information she had read:

And I don't wish that for him. I do not wish this to everyone, because the process in which the Council destroys people is irreversible. Once a mind is poisoned, it will remain polluted forever. Once hailed as a member, you will always be one of THEM...

There was a different topic mark in the text and another one after four paragraphs, as if the author was jumping from one thought to another.

~ ~ ~

It was May 18, 2008. I will remember this day until the end of my days. Genevieve took me to her estate. To a place you cannot enter unless you know how, because it is not easy to find. It is located in the darkest part of the mansion, one hundred meters underground, and the entrance itself is protected by dozens of tunnels, each similar to another. The first of them begins with the sight of Venus, from which we can recognize the beginning, while Mars, on the contrary, indicates their end. I would like to say that such things do not exist, but in Genevieve's house nothing is impossible.

Genevieve laughs that this is why she is not afraid of robbers, all the treasures she has are in that place. I am not at all surprised by her optimism, even if the unfortunate person did not starve to death while searching for mammon, he would die of a heart attack staying more than a day in these dark tunnels.

I was incredibly surprised when Genevieve showed me our destination. I was surprised, for purely human reasons. When you see a door, your natural instinct is to pull the handle. The massive oak door in front of me had no handle, what's more, there weren't even any holes left by the handle only these carved motifs.

I was overwhelmed with fear, not knowing how I was about to enter the stirred up negative emotions. What was there on the other side? Were the precautions an old lady's whim, or maybe the room behind the door hid mystical objects?

Genevieve whispers words, I hear a creak and the door opens.

~ ~ ~

Some people wait their whole lives for love that will remain unfulfilled. Others, get to know it when they shouldn't and lose it. They are not ready to receive it.

Finally, there are those lucky people who are the ones of their dreams. This is the kind of love you want, you read about this kind of love. However, in real life it is not perfect, because perfect love does not exist.

However, when I see two old people holding hands tenderly, I know that after so many years together, one of them still means the world to the other; that their love is even more magical than any described in the novel. Their love is real.