There was a story that Artemisia's father told her, it was a short story, but it made the girl a little scared. Sometimes Georgino didn't quite know how to calm down a child, even though he had two more daughters. But anyway, even if the little girl was very scared and afraid of the corners of the mansion, she still loved hearing that story. She didn't care if it was the fiftieth time she heard it. The story was about a woman, an extremely beautiful woman, who lived in a city in the interior of the country. What country was it? The little girl always asked, but her father never answered. The woman was like an outcast in town, had no one to talk to or to love. "Actually" her father always said, every time. "She had those people, but she couldn't see." "Why, Dad?" the little one asked, but he didn't answer, just continued the story. The woman was tired of feeling alone. She lived in such a big house, close to the Astros' light and with all nature protecting her, but what good woul
The twilight had arrived in a sneaky manner, bringing with it the weight of all the misfortune that had happened in the afternoon. He also brought silence and discomfort, no one could be comfortable in their own skin at that moment. There was no loud enough noise to make the mental bruits shut up.Artemisia looked at the demon as she combed her hair. The hair was starting to grow quickly, a cut that was just below the ear was now reaching up to the girl's shoulders. But honestly, she wasn't really caring about that.A few hours after the young woman returned from the city, bizarre news came right behind her. The messenger said a family of bears had entered the city's dress shop and attacked everyone who was there. But everyone knew very well that at that time the bears did not tread to get close to the city, barely via them in the northern end of Gaul, where Lutetia was. Of course, Artemisia understood that the cops weren't entirely sure what had happened in the store, let alone as
It took artemisia a while to process all the shock that was placed on a table alone with Geon brought to her. Was that decision of Mrs. Montenegro a little expected? It was, but Artemisia still had that pea of hope at the bottom of her chest that the woman would simply ignore the fact that she had come with her.Already the devil was enjoying this situation very well, obviously laughing at the girl's misfortune. It was to expect Geon to do that, after all he was a demon, good thing never was.It wasn't long before two glasses of red wine got to their table, it worried Artemisia a little. The young woman knew how Lady Montenegro's dinners worked; first came the white drinks to give a cleaner welcome message, then came the glasses of rosé wine, during the dinner entrees, then red wine to accompany the main course and finally gin and burgundy wine.She never understood why that order of drinks, but at least Artemisia was always prestigious for the wines of that whole event. Lutetia was
If there was one thing the young woman would more than receive all the attention she could get, it was to be pampering. Not that being a little spoiled was bad, in fact she loved it, so much so that whenever it was possible she spoiled herself.But the situation was different, one thing was she wanted to express to everyone at a party that she was engaged and wish ed the support and celebration of all. That was totally different from her just not being engaged and not wanting all that "affection" they were offering.Being in the midst of those women was beginning to become suffocating, Artemisia desired with the depth of her heart so that, mysteriously and heroically, Geon would take her out of that nest of snakes.From the corner of her eye the girl could see the young lady who had announced the pregnancy in the last afternoon tea in which Artemísia was present. She felt a little sorry for the woman being alone at the table, as apparently her husband was one of the gossips who pull
Geon couldn't take his eyes off the girl who was sitting in front of him. Artemisia was so dazzling that the demon risked saying that the young woman was a reincarnation of the stars, or even the Moon itself. The dress she wore only made her even more beautiful, her pale skin was even more prominent and the blue eyes the young woman had were now totally left out.The demon had also made an illusion in her eyes, so no one who looked at that ice blue immensity would see a normal iris and pupil. But Geon didn't believe they'd notice that, at least not just that.When the men had pulled him into the demon to tell them how and why he had asked her to marry him, Geon understood perfectly why Artemisia hated being around those people."You know her story, right?" one of the men had asked as he held a glass of whiskey in Geon's direction, which shook his head negatively. "I knew it! Just so that for that woman to get a husband!"Geon raised an eyebrow and was bombarded with mistold gossip a
There was something wrong in the room. Again.The smell of nature almost intoxicated her, she could hear the sound of plants climbing through the walls, the bed and even her. Artemysia felt everything, every movement and grip. The young woman had that same nightmare before, she remembered that.Artemisia had spent the first weeks of spring being plagued by ivy and belladonna. Remembering vaguely that made the nightmare worse.There were no windows, at least none in complete that prevented the icy air from reaching her. The ivies did a great job covering every inch of the walls, where the plants did not touch Artemisia could see worn and broken pillars, plus pieces of iron and a rusty door.The belladonna appeared staining that green carpet, they were also there so that the young woman would not think straight. With every breeze, that the girl wasn't sure where she was coming from, the smell intoxicated her like it was cyanide. She tried to stay awake inside that nightmare, but the gir
Artemisia woke up and stood up quickly. There was a strangled scream, desperate to get out, but it wouldn't come out. The girl didn't understand why, but she was desperate to think.That scream hurt, it made her flesh, skin and chest bones hurt, her throat was worse off and there was no solution to it.She didn't want to wait any longer for the scream to just come out, when the girl realized she was scratching her own neck as she let out painful, tearful noises. Tears rolled down her cheeks as if they had just come out of a kettle, they were warm and left a damn mark as they passed.Artemisia tried to find in the pain something that would release that wretched scream, but there was nothing to make him fall. The despair didn't wait either, she didn't wait for the tears to stop or for the noises to cease and then the young woman could breathe. No, obviously it wouldn't wait.Despair began to run through her veins, rising through each fiber, through the layers of skin, flesh, fat. He
When the young woman's eyes opened, there was an old feeling stuck next to her on the bed. The strange feeling of living something new, but it seemed that she was not prepared to find out, on her own, what it was. Anyway, Artemisia realized as soon as the body woke up that she had slept more than expected. The clock was already ticking twelve times and there was a wonderful smell of food. It was strange to be standing so late, even if the young woman were to do nothing but paint in the mornings, it was good to enjoy the first few morning hours. Not that the young woman was someone from the mornings, quite the opposite. When she was still living with her mother in the Noctavia's mansion, the girl made a point of getting up as late as she could. Often the mother would take Artemisia's older sisters out to lunch, obviously before the two of them got married. The girl was left in the mansion. She once asked Francesca why they did not take her to lunch too, but her mother kept rambling a
Artemisia leaned her body against the chair entirely, the truth hurting more than she could have imagined. She could tell that the stages of grief hit her too fast, so the young woman was already in anger. An outsized hatred of herself. Artemisia knew it was deadly, she saw her father die, the nannies die, the plants, the animals. It was clear as the day that it was her curse, but knowing it was so painful that it made the young woman want to vomit up all the sweets she had eaten. Suddenly something hit her too, a memory that involved stories. It was almost like a blur, but if Artemisia tried hard, she could understand that it had been a dream, a strange and a little disjointed dream. In it were three books, each of which bore a strange memory of the young woman. The first was a debt, of this she remembered better than the others, the second was pure pain, the same pain she had felt when Leonore opened that book of leather red as blood. The young woman raised her face looking towa
To the young woman's surprise, that point of darkness at the botanical fair was not a stall, in fact it was the façade of a flower shop. It didn't look like a flower shop, the dark colors and faded designs gave the impression that this shop was abandoned or that it was an old tallow, which was shattering over time. Artemisia stood for a good few minutes admiring that black blur in the midst of so much light and color. The storefront somehow reminded the young woman of herself, perhaps for the colors and the more old-fashioned style. "Maybe because you don't belong there." Again, those voices spoke deep in the young woman's mind, teasing her to make something happen. Something she had no idea what it might be, but given the illusions, or events, that had intensified morbidly over the past two days. Either way, she decided to ignore that voice, just as she had been doing since the second time she heard it — or at least trying to ignore it. "Don't be offended by witches," a female
The rest of the day Artemisia remained only immersed in her own thoughts, especially after discovering that one of the culprits of her current state is dead. The young woman really wanted to feel guilty for killing someone. Well, she felt guilty, but for that particular someone, Artemisia couldn't feel any twinges of kindness or empathy. An old subject? Yes, but the pain did not age, it renewed itself again and again, remaining fresh. It was only because the young woman couldn't feel guilty for killing the woman, she was still trying to figure out how the hell she had done that, since it was supposed to be for Hyacinth to be immortal, from earth to earth, being in a vicious circle of life.As she pulled the covers so she could warm herself from the cold that was beginning to stick to Artemisia's bones, she could feel that there was so much more to it. How would she kill such an old being, when even Death herself couldn't do that? Artemisia didn't know much of that world she had been
"I was hoping this time it would work." Geon said as the shadows danced around the fireplace. Artemisia looked at the demon with a raised eyebrow, it was not impressive to the young woman that it had happened more times than she would have liked—that at the moment, within the will of the young woman, the amount of times her soul could possess people and kill the owners of the bodies was faithfully clinging to zero—but it was still a little curious to think that perhaps that possession had been the one that had worked out the best. Even if it was a slightly vague definition of what "getting it right" is. If Helleborus hoped to have one more chance at life, run through green fields in the spring, and remain reclusive in the arms of a loving family during the winter, Artemisia felt a little sad to give her the bad answer about the woman's choices. "What happened to the other times?" Artemisia asked as she shrunk her legs until she could hug them. The cold was beginning to affect the
She stood staring at the countertop, for several minutes her mind had begun to get unbearably high. Part of the young woman was trying to believe that Geon had never really said whether or not he knew about what happened to Artemisia, even before she was "born," it had said only a small omission, nothing that was important enough that it could hurt or give that nagging feeling of being deceived. On the other hand, the other voice that screamed in Artemisia's mind said how much she would have been spared from all that misfortune, would not have freed her from more than twenty years of such agony, but would have saved her long enough for the young woman to understand everything that had happened and had happened. She could taste the bitter taste of betrayal, that pungent thing that stuck to her taste buds and stayed there until the young woman went mad with so much bitterness. She wanted to believe that it would give the final card of her insanity, finally letting what was supposed to
“Oh, you are here.” The demon spoke when he finally saw the young man in the middle of the living room. "I went to let Leonore know we're here, I wouldn't want to have an angry witch running after me." He turned away from the window, heading towards the couch.There were a few suitcases occupying the piece of furniture, Artemisia was quick to recognize them as they were the same ones she had used when moving into the mansion, theoretically several weeks earlier, in what would have been the beginning of spring.The young woman wanted to laugh about it, minutes after listening to the creature's whole lecture about the weather, she would be seeing the suitcases she had used to store some things before leaving her mother's house, it would be winter again, as it had been a season before.“I'll prepare lunch for you, apparently your body can't go too long without food. Try to find something warm to wear, Leonore's clan is looking for what could have caused this regretful winter.” Geon said
Maybe having followed that entity was a bad idea, but giving up in the middle of that situation seemed a bit extreme to do. Artemisia looked at the white immensity as she walked with that being, each step made her regret her decision even more, it was a bad choice.And then there was the fact that she was the one who wanted to find out more about the family curse, abandoning that would be an extremely shameful sign of cowardice. The only one to blame for being in that situation was Artemisia, the creature being there or not was just a curious part of the consequence.“You've heard his whole story, haven't you?” a creature asked as they stopped in front of a flower bed full of tulips."Yes." The young woman smiled, looking closely at the small flowers that grew amidst the blanket of snow. She had heard of these things before, flowers that bloomed during the winter, growing through the snow and into the dim sunlight. Artemisia didn't know how to explain it very well, but that vision ma
The moment Artemisia left that eye-filled place, the cold of the sudden winter hit her like an arrow. The whole green field that the young woman had seen through the window was now a white immensity. The story Tinea told her the day before sounded again, all over again, it was already starting to irritate Artemisia. She just wanted to live miserably well, she didn't want to have to go through it all and know that when she finally got rid of that life, the young woman's soul would still beg for death for the last life. She could be absolutely sure that everything would be repeated again, from the days in the snow to begging an immortal woman for the gift of being reborn. The young woman looked for somewhere to sit, some corner that wasn't fully covered in snow, which was a somewhat impossible request. The white robe doubled in size with each passing minute, Artemisia could feel the skirt start to get hard and icy, no longer able to have the same movements as a normal skirt. But she w
If someone told Artemisia that one day she would wake up in the middle of winter, she would believe it. Which might be surprising, but even then, the young woman would trust the words of the person she told her that. It didn't need to explain in more detail, to say how one day the sun burned and the next day it was cold as a curse, the young woman would believe it. It was funnier that way. What's more, so many things had happened to the young woman that this would be just another normal day. Artemisia was willing to ask Geon again if he was hiding anything from her, it was clear as a crystal, at the moment the night before she had asked the demon, his expression could not be the best. Something inside the young woman said he was lying. She could call it something over-suspicious, perhaps. Artemisia went to sleep with Tinea's voice explaining to her about the flower that insisted on keeping in her life, but carrying an extensive secret like an apron, the young woman also woke up he