1

“Oh I get it!” I exclaim after a few minutes of silence passes. I get up from the wooden chair that she helped me sit on when I lost my balance when seeing her face. I start walking around the room , trying my best to make sense of this sudden appearance of her.

“This is all a dream…I am still unconscious and having a dream of you…” I earn a sigh from her .

“Rose-“ I cut her off.

“Or!” I continue.

“…or…I am dead. The mysterious woman has handed me back to Alexander and he has killed us all in our sleep , which makes sense as to why I am seeing my dead mother….” I look to the wolf who licks it’s paw , while sitting by my mother’s feet.

“…who has a wolf as a pet…only in heaven will that be possible!” I exclaim after telling her my theory. Her emerald eyes soften.

“Come sit down dear…” she tells me , gesturing me to the wooden chair I once sat on. I slowly make my way there , and when I sit down I just take in the sight of my mother. She is as beautiful as the day I last saw her.

“Rose…this is not a dream and you are not dead…I am here and I am alive..” she says softly , guilt chokes her.

“I am so sorry that you had to live your life believing I was dead – I will never forgive myself for leaving you and your father the way that I had did…I truly regret not watching you grow up from my precious little girl to the extraordinarily beautiful woman you have become” her eyes start filling up with tears. Though I am upset that I was lied to about her death , something in me softens when I see her apologising to me.

“It’s okay…” I say gently to her , offering her a small smile which she gladly returns.

“But…why? I want to know why did you leave?” I ask her a question my heart is longing to hear the answer to. I watch her straighten herself on her chair , lean back and gently pet the wolf's head. She looks away from me , clearly does not want me to see the guilt in her eyes.

" Remember the story I told you as a little child – the story of how I met your father?” she asks me , making think back to when I was cuddled up in my bed as my mother held me close to her while she resided the best prince and princess story – the love story of my father and her. I nod my head , knowing every single word of that story as it has been written in my heart.

“Well…that’s not really how we met…In fact , I was not even a royal when he met me…” I gasp. All my life I was told that my mother was a princess and that is why their marriage was accepted. I push away my thoughts and listen intently as she continues.

“ A troop of your father’s father , who was king at the time , found me when passing a village that had been destroyed by enemy kingdoms. I was around 4 to 5 years old at the time , so my memory about my parents and what had happened has been lost forever.” My heart sinks knowing that she does not know what her parents look like , or what those 4 years of her life with them was like.

“ They brought me back to the castle , and I had been given to the head maiden to looked after as she was barren and wanted a child. Life was amazing – everyday I would go out back and play with the many children. The only thing that made my life miserable at the time was your father” I hear her lightly chuckle as she recalls all her memories. The wolf gets tired and lays his head upon his paws and drifts off to sleep.

“ Your father , as you know , is 3 years older than me. Your father was not generally a bully , but there was just something about me that ticked him off. Everyday , he would find new ways to annoy me – “ I hear her giggle.

“There was once , where he took a hand full of spiders and sneaked it into my picnic basket so when I opened it I would get a freight. Your father was….he was a nuisance to me” her chuckles turn into painful ones , as a single tear leaks from her eyes. She quickly wipes her tears and continues with her story.

“ However , as we grew older , that constant bickering and fighting became something more. We fell in love and I do not think I will never forget the way I felt about him. Now…your father was a very handsome prince when he was younger , which meant that princesses and women would fall in love with him and were willing to do anything to be his princess and future queen.” Her sad smile drops.

“So you could imagine how infuriated the princesses as well as other women had become when the truth was revealed that the prince was in love with an orphan who had no royal blood or any relating blood to the women in the kingdom” I bite my lip , knowing that was to create a lot of problems for my mom.

“ Your grandfather , he loved me but it was your grandmother who hated me – thought I was not fit to wear her crown…But your father , he stood by me through all trails that were thrown my way…” she remains silent for a while.

“ Sadly , your grandfather had passed on and after much convincing your grandmother accepted me and let us get married – but what she did not know was we both had secretly been married for two years before our royal wedding” her eyes show me that she is long gone back to the past.

“ A month after we had gotten married , your grandmother had passed on as well and we had taken our place as king and queen. That is when we received the best news we had ever gotten…” she looks at me and smile.

“I had fallen pregnant…Your father and I was over the moon , so excited to have a babe come into our lives.” I can not help but smile as I listen to her.

“However , one day due to the jealousy of some women in the castle , a maiden tripped me and I had fell down the stairs. I can not remember what happened next as I had blacked out , however when I woke up I felt different. I felt hollow and empty , like something had left me. When I looked at my stomach , I could tell that the baby in me was no longer. I remember screaming for your father , which had him running into the room – he calmed me down and told me that I had lost the baby” I felt my heart ache for her.

“ I will never forget that immense sorrow and pain I felt that day…but that night , while everyone lay asleep I limped to our balcony and began to cry. I think it was the pain or the strong emotions that I had that awoken something in me.” I find myself sitting upright , listening intently to what was beginning to unfold.

“ As I cried , I felt this magnificent power shoot through me. It was scary as I saw a flower shooting up from the pot plant of soil that laid barren on our balcony for so many days. I remember rushing to your father , waking him from his sleep to tell him what happened. As days went by , your father and I stayed busy at the library , finding any information that could explain what had been happening. Eventually , we stumbled on to the truth – I am a witch Rosemary , my parents must have been a witch and wizard.” I listen to her , flabbergasted. Witches are said to be evil and vile creatures , but here she is in front of me looking as beautiful and as loving as she was before.

“My power began to grow stronger and stronger , and we hid it very well. Eventually , I became pregnant with you and we were so happy when you were born – you were so beautiful. As you grew , so did my powers. One day , as you slept , I kissed you goodnight but then something had happened – a vision , I saw what the future holds for you. I saw your husband , your enemy , I saw everything. My first thought was to hide you away from the world , especially Alexander but…after reading about witches limitations , I knew that I would only be causing more harm if I had did that. So that night , your father and I had to make a tough decision which was to let me leave – all these years , I’ve creating ways to which you can escape or even hide away from Alexander forever.” She ends. I watch her eyes search for a reaction from me.

“ Why…why couldn’t you just stop Alexander with your powers?” I question her after taking it all in.

“ I am a good witch – good witches do not use their powers against humans , if we do each day we will grow to be more evil” she answers me.

“Do you know dad is dead?” I burst out , though not having to see his dead body I know in my heart that he is dead.

“ I do…” she says softly , her voice cracking at the end of the sentence.

“Why did you not save him?” I ask her , tears are now falling down my face. Her eyes soften , and she gets off her chair. She stands beside me and let my head lay against her hip while she gently stroked my hair.

“ I can not intervene in the major factors of peoples lives – your father was destined to die that way and on that day , I could not change his fate even though I really wanted to” she explains. I begin to cry even harder , my tears now staining her dress.

“It’s because of me….his dead because of me..” I cry to her. I begin to cry even harder after hearing what leaves her mouth next.

“That is true…” like rubbing salt on my wound , her words make the wound of my heart bleed more profoundly.

“But…” my ears latched on her every word.

“…I know for sure that he would not choose any other way to leave this world – your father loved you so much , and he died to protect you” like a band aid , her new spoken words wrap around my heart trying to subdue the pain….it works for a bit but then the pain seems to seep through it.

“Wha – what do I do now?” this question rolls off my tongue in a whisper , yet she hears it. She pulls away and then kneels down in front of me , her soft yet cold hands grasp my own.

“ Run…Run Rosemary…don’t look back and don’t stop running…” a cold shiver passes through my body , as her instructions bring me back to the severity of the situation.

“But –“ I am cut off by the wolf , as it growls lowly. He slowly gets up , his teeth shows as he snarls at something or someone that is behind my mother and I.

“Let her go…” I hear my husbands voice, to which I turn to look at him. He gets up from the bed after untangling himself from Andrew and Britney. He tries his best to walk over to me but he seems to be a bit drowsy. Behing him , I watch as Andrew begins to stir and awaken due to Xavier’s movement.

“I do not know who you are woman , or what you have done to us – but I assure you that if you stand in the way of us leaving , or tell your mutt to attack I will kill you and that damn thing!” He exclaims loudly , his voice echoing this well decorated cave.