Like staring through a tunnel of only white, a pathway with no left or right, and it narrows with no point of return. An effect that rolls down my skin erecting the hairs in its wake as I trembled in the silence. The look of her eyes brought a wave of fear to pulse deep into my nerves. She holds me with a single glance, light enough to see my reflection, but sinister enough to have a dark cloud loom above me.

White. Her orbs are pure white. Not even the line of the pupil could be traced.

"It is you." She exhales, "It is you that seek me." I gulped the burning bile, the larynx stretching painfully. At the edge of guilt, I hide my eyes from Nasir who would surely turn to me.

"However, you are quite familiar." she lulls, the soothing tranquility of her voice was enough to put me at ease. "Well, don't just stand there. Have a seat. I don't bite."

We watched intently as she rounds towards the table perching herself on the opposite side and waving her hand to the empty seat in front.

"You all look at me like I am some witch."

My eyes awkwardly clashing with Nasir and Charlotte, before she ceases the glares with a sharp snap of her fingers. "Sit, sit." She wags, the jewels around her wrists jingling violently as she ushers for me to sit.

I clear my throat, brushing passed Nasir as I head to towards the chair.

"Aht, taht, taht." She calls. "Where's my down payment?"

"D-down payment."

"Now you didn't think you would come to my house empty handed and expect something from me now did you?" She says, her clean-cut brows knitting with an appalling manner.

Confused I twist to Charlotte and Nasir, who also sported that look of confusion the same way I did. I Don't normally carry cash around especially when Patrick would always handle the accommodations. But now, he is no longer here, fuck. Just fuck.

"How much is the session?" Charlotte asks, stepping aside me with her hand under her garter belt. "All I have is a hundre-"

The woman tsked before Charlotte could complete her words. "Money is of no use to me." she says. "Though I cannot see, I have never been blinded by the truth. I request a substance that will fit this need."

Charlotte turns to her, "Uh-what substance?"

We stilled in time to hear the rumbles of a lowly growl. "I'm hungry."

I knit my brows and throw a gaze to the boiling pot on the stove.

"No, no! that is to keep the place warm." She waves dismissively.

"U-um. what is it that I could get for you?" Charlotte asks.

She stares distantly in deep thought and her white orbs beam miraculously, "Ah! there is a new donut shop that just opened at the down center hall." She snaps a finger to Charlotte, "sweety with the bill in your garments, fetch me a dozen of the new berry glazes, and a pint of butter pecan." She listed.

Charlotte could only look to us with a winding chain of questions, questions I am sure we are all wondering about and is silently hoping the eye contact would give the answer, when the woman's stomach rumbles again.

She groans to the tight pinch gnawing deep in the gut and she soothed it with her hands. "Well go on now. She heard my request and now she'll nag me."

Nasir nods with approval.

"I would say send the man, but a skilled warrior, many rightfully fear you. And frankly I don't think anything is strong enough to tear him away from his queen."

"I'll be right back sir. And I will be back my queen."

I watch as Charlotte bows, her eyes holding no fear as she brushed past our figures. Only Nasir keeping stoic behind me as I watched Charlotte disappear into the darkness of the hallway, even when I know no-one with proper common sense would try and harm her, I observed until the very end holding her in every thought of my prayers until the door creaks to a close.

I slowly inhaled the air around me, an indescribable scent wafts into my nasal streams along with wet fur and arrow my attention back to the old woman, who never blinked.

"Now than." she says with a smile.

"Forgive us, or forgive me, I didn't know we were to show up with an early offering." I speak with a soft undertone, cautiously slipping back myself into the metal seat across from her. Silently exhaling in relief when Nasir stepped in a bit closer from behind.

Abena puts, resting her chin into her palms. "Of course you wouldn't, of all the rumors that spread about me, they could at least have told this one."

"Rumors?"

"Hmmm? oh yes, sweety. Many to even recall." She laughs. "But they are amusing to hear."

I knit my brows. Seemingly taken off guard how nonchalant she is. The rumors spoken by the faceless mouths painted her to be a force to be reckoned with but so far, this isn't what I imagined.

"You think too deeply on irrelevant matters." she drawls, her soothing tone pulling me from my deepest thoughts. "Why burden yourself with meaningless words, fathomed by those who fear things they do not understand?"

"Many have said you are a witch." I spoke.

"And many have called you an unfit queen. Did you not wake up the next day, and adjusted your crown?"

I feel my lips parting slowly, mulling over every word.

"See." She huffs. "I'm sure you would know the saying of sticks and stones. The only thing that is of my guilty conscious is helping the fools, that believe they can handle such remedy. Now, you have something for me to, see?"

I hear the clicks of Nasir's shoes stepping in close, I still simmer silently in the distance, watching as he pulls the mini jar from his pockets -- muscled forearm extending to the center between us two.

"You can set it down there. I don't like being too close to fire breathers."

He only smirked to the comment, gently placed the glass down before clasping a hand around his wrist and returned to my side.

Lady Abena knitted her brows for a short moment and leans in to give the table a slight sniff, and scrunched her nose and hissed like a cat, as if it were a putrid sight before her. "Pentoxide, Anion and ... Rodent?"

She got all that, blind? I thought in silence.

"I may be blind, but I can smell, two different senses." She says, and my blood ran cold.

She could hear thoughts.

Cautiously lifting the jar in between her fingers she says, "I am not a mind reminder, but I could feel the tension, and the way you shift in your seat."

I swallowed.

"This here," she studies. "Is poison."

I tread cautiously to not face palm myself, listening to Nasir, slightly chuckling behind my back, and how he tightens his hand around the wrist to keep it to a minimal.

"But this ... had every intention of murder."

Suspense begins to swell into my nerves, she now had my full attention.

"This remedy, would have the victims blood thinning, veins and nerves swelling until it bursts from the sockets." Like an unseen object before, she twirls the jar around her fingers, bringing it closely to observe every angle. "This remedy is for sure something I would have sold." She says lastly, looking up to me, her void eyes holding me still, knowing there was more that needed to be said.

I shifted, keeping my eyes low and from Nasir.

"However," she vocalized. "The intentions should have been quick."

I align my back. "W-what do you mean?"

Meticulously Abena rose from her seat, her long red Mumu hides her ankles, fabricating the illusion as if she floated on air to back end of her home. I turn my gaze up to Nasir, in need of a more refreshing image, his stoic features melt to give me a smirk of reassurance, and in that small moment, my heart slightly thumps.

Abena returns, holding two Ziploc bags, each containing powders of white and a mini plate. "Let me elaborate."

The plate is set before us with a mild clink to the wood. "This is Anion." she scoops a teaspoon and flops it on a corner. And repeats the same with the other. "And this is Pentoxide."

As if I was glaring at sugar and salt. There was almost not a difference, with the exception of one being thicker than the other. Abena lifts a glass of water and pours a drop at the center.

"When these two substances collide," she says bringing the powders together, at the center of the water where I witnessed it dissolve. "They leave no trace. But when another substance is added, it will turn it to green paste. But it will not dissolve, rather mold it until thickens to yellow."

The bell of realization resounds ever so loudly in the canals of my ears. I tread carefully not to show signs of guilt, nor shift in a way where it gave a vibe as if I knew something. Yet, this was clarity I needed to hear, to help clear the fog of my brain.

"Anyone who consumes this, is for sure a memory in the most gruesome way. It would have tasted like any other drink, easily miss able, but once consumed it will melt everything in its wake. The one who consumed this, felt every agony and suffered quietly."

"Do you remember who it was?" Nasir's usual thunderous voice shook the small space between us, even rolling down the table before us.

Abena and I glare up to him in utter knowing silence.

"I mean, did you speak with anyone that you could remember asking of these?" he clarifies.

"I speak with dozens of imbecilic buffoons on a daily basis. Naming them out would be too difficult to recall."

Sounds of feet patter from the outside than, Nasir positions himself before me with a hand around the gun.

"Wait!" Abena ushers, lifting a finger to still the suspense, our attention draws in, we await with anticipation to the sounds nearing. "I smell baked blueberry."

I cocked my head to her answer. Nasir slips a hand around my waist pulling me closer as he walked towards the door, the gun drawn from his straps and the safety clicks off. I cling to the thin texture of his compression shirt that cut into his muscled physique. Tucked safely behind his frame, and rolling my eyes discreetly to the scent of his old spice deodorant.

Even when I am afraid, or in possible danger, I found time to drool over him? either I needed more help than I though, or I allowed him to have a strong grip over me.

"Sir, it's me." I hear the familiar muffle of a voice, straining.

"Charlotte." I beamed. And the door is flung open. Her hand holds a box of assorted donuts, and a large brown plastic bag of a tub of ice cream. Nasir reached forward but Abena appears from no where, dashing beside him to retrieve her items.

"Oh ..." She sings merrily. "Come to mama."

Her mere presence startling me, having no clue when she was even walking behind us with such haste. Charlotte reunites with us, and the three of us observes the elder woman as she munched into the pastries. Long pearly white teeth sinking into the bread as the blue jelly splurge out onto the sides. I have had enough. And noted to do better in the future practices. In the moment, I had kept Nasir close to me, my fingers clenched around his shirt, until I trailed it down to his wrist, with a gentle tug.

"Were grateful for the moment. We need to be going now." He speaks.

With her mouth stuffed of donuts she paused her chewing and raised a hand in the air. "Hold on." she muffles.

We stand in silence. Listening to the sounds of moist chewing and swallowing.

"I would like to speak to the queen some more." She says, angling her head to Nasir. "If you don't mind?"

He gazed to me, giving me the moment to speak on my own terms.

"I have some things I would like to ask of you. And I am sure you might want to hear them."

With the cold breath in my lungs, I steadily exhaled, and nodded, rounding towards the end of my seat when she paused someone behind me. "Alone."

A guttural sound grinded in Nasir's chest, "I told you, that is not an option." His voice cold. Sinking to a depth so deep I feared it could rumble the center of the earth.

"It will take a second." she assures.

"Read my mind witch. Or listen to my rage. If I am not beside her, consider your request denied."

The room is riddled with malice, never ending flames burn the room as the two clash their eyes together, seeping the atmosphere with a sour feel. Unwavering eyes and the promise of violent death. My hand reached forwards, fearlessly touching his muscled forearm, and at my touch he softens.

"I'll be ok." I tell him.

He turns to me, and I watch the ink slowly disperse from his orbs, "I don't want to leave you alone here." he says.

The line of my lips wiggle, but I force them still. Smiling like this before him, and everyone else wouldn't be a smart play. "Listen to your queen." I reply sternly. "I will be ok. And I know if I need you, I won't ever have to wait long."

I fight to speak through the drums that beat in my chest. The feel of my skin burns to an unbearable degree, molting its way into every bit of me. I have always looked at him and saw the outside. Handsome. Strong. Intelligent. With his own imperfections. But after the moment yesterday, I can finally see him, all of him. And I adored every bit of it silently.

"Very well." he says, the very gruff of his tone rumbles my palm and I withdrew my hand.

As if we were a puzzle piece kicked to ruins and scattered, our eyes hold a glance to each other. A draft leaves me numb somewhere in my chest, like a vital part of myself being torn from my very grasp. Nasir and I separate for the small moment along with Charlotte, by I know they were never far.

"A true spawn of a demon wouldn't you think?" Lady Abena muses. Her voice carried from the kitchen until it follows by the drain of the faucet. "I believe the stories when they say women was created by the rib of a man. What separates you is only a feeble door, and you wail deep inside when you two are separated."

"He is my bodyguard." I quickly defend, watching as she floated back to the seat before me with swift elegance as she wiped her hands dry on a rag. Upon a closer glance I hinted brown and red coloring.

"Hmmm, then it should be easy to tell him to wait for you for only a mere moment. It should be simple for him to comply. But that isn't what I sense in the two of you." I see my reflection at the black lens of her sunglasses, the dim glow of the flicking candle capturing the effects of her words and I tear away.

Silence. Nothing but utter silence, so silence I fear my thoughts were loud or the drums of my heart beating with fear.

"I see Patrick." she suddenly spoke.

Electric chills jolt the very ends of my fingertips. "W-what?"

Leaned back, and quiet, her head angled at me and only me, unmoving and still. As if she gapes at me calculatingly.

"Yo-you know Patrick?"

"Now, don't play coy with me my Queen? you know as much as I, I do business with those that have nothing to lose, and have plenty to offer. Who else do you think would have access to such exquisite chalk?" She smiles. "Indeed. I know Patrick, in fact we still speak even until this day."

"That's impossible." I croaked. "He passed three years ago."

"You don't think I know that? the day he passed I watched his ghost slip into a dark void."

Something cold in me beings to slither down my gut, leaving me perpetually disturbed. And whatever it was, the candle danced before us.

"Patrick had dues to pay. He had his own debts that needed to be paid a long time ago, but to buy himself time, he offered a valuable life that held his end of the bargain for another 50+ years."

"Bargain?" I speak through the cold chills. "What bargain?"

She tsked, "My client's information is one hundred percent confidential, however it is a shame. Offering you, would have allowed him to live until he was perhaps a century."

Every organ and bone plummeted down to the soles of my feet. Fear crawls all over my body like a thousand hands of insects, A cold breath fans down my nape as I felt something curl its hand around my throat. The flame of the candle dimming to an eerie shade. Paralyzed. Held down.

"A small little princess. So young, fruitful, and a virgin." Her voice carries the chilling eloquence, as if reciting a dark chant of a ritual. "Offering up a being like you, would have for sure been a praise for sure ... In hell."

My throat tightens, the cold hand clenching so tight It would be crushed. I can't yell, I want to scream his name, I want to call out my only shield, when it all vanished. The cold hand. The eerie tone. And that slithering feel in my body as if snakes living inside of me.

It was all just a figment of my imagination.

Thunderous claps and a cackling laugh, Abena nearly dies in amusement. "Ohh." she drawls before releasing another pocket of laughs. "Sweetheart. You should have seen your face."

Trails of goosebumps still live on the surface of my skin.

"He must really mean a lot to you."

"Wh-who?"

"Patrick. A father figure to you was he not? yes, indeed, my soul still visits his when I am not in need of my physical corpse."

"Your soul?"

"One of my many abilities." She whispered.

"Where is he?"

"Neither in heaven nor in hell. He just sits in darkness, choosing to spend the remainder of his eternity in black solitude."

"Does he roam the castle?"

She drew in her shoulders slowly, with her bottom lip pouting.

"But his rumors due proceed him as wise. For he told me in due time, I would be receiving a visit from the Queen herself."

"Y-you were expecting me?"

"I'm surprised you came so early, wasn't expecting you until another 10+ years."

It was all too mind boggling to comprehend. But she found my evident confusion mildly funny.

"Now you didn't think that liquid was an accident now ... did you?"

"But why would he -"

"You have your own darkness that thrums inside of you. And this one is driven by all the right things. That elder man committed something forbidden against you when you were only a child. You had no choice in denying or accepting, but you lived with the trauma deeply. Neither your father nor anyone would have given you the time to explain. You were silenced for years, until this very moment. You plotted the revenge, even slipped into the room you knew he would be residing in exactly 5 hours before his arrival, you entered his chambers and prepared a room temperature water for him, thus giving the powders enough time to dissolve. All while he was taking insulin. And another medication just an hour before the coronation.

My chest roars violently.

"The perfect plan, to finally satiate the hate that brewed in you for so long. Yet, you fumbled this with one. And you knew you did, when you simply forgot the amount of Anion you added and substituted it for rat poison. It did the trick, but now you left evidence behind ... traceable evidence."

She listed my sins and now stood quietly to hear my repent.

"Now tell me my Queen. What is it that fumbled you? Or perhaps who is it?" the accusatory drizzling in her words and they sink into my brain, I could feel whatever gaze she holds drifts towards the door.

"You accuse me of murder?" I simply say, curling my lips at the ends, and reaching for the upper hand in the sticks.

"Not accuse, my queen? if it's one thing I cannot stand is having a lie made of someone you never met before."

"And yet here you are, acquitting me for something so vile."

"Then where was it that I spoke a lie my queen?" she leaned forwards, interlacing her fingers to rest her chin.

The metaphoric stick I tried to hold onto snaps right into my face, and I cleared my throat.

"It's funny." she huffs. "The mouth will lie, but the eyes will always be the truth. Your rage is validated, and I will never blame you. However, choose the path you want. Do you wish revenge? or do you wish to fall in love?"

"I do not love my husband." The thought of that alone churned my blood.

"I said nothing about a husband."

I peek up at her with furrowed brows.

"It is evidently clear to many. Even without my eyes, I see you do not love him. I speak of the man that waits for you outside."

My heart begun to pick up a faster beat. "He is only my bodyguard. There can never be anything between us."

"Look at me and say that."

It is than I drifted my eyes from the flicking candle to my reflection in your sunglasses.

"Look at yourself within the lens and say it with your chest."

It turns to foam. Bubbling from the base of my throat.

"Exactly. Do not lie to yourself. And frankly I do not blame you." she shrugged apathetically. "Tall, the physique of Hercules himself, curly hair, and handsome. Mmm. Mmm. Mm. Many forbidden things will soon be spiraling, i just hope you can handle all he has to give you."

Something in that just sounded so sweet to me, and it leaves a succulent taste to my lips, desiring to have that taste she spoke of.

"He will run the mightiest man to the ground, if one so happens even look at you with a glint of darkness. Or a promise of wrongdoing."

Subtly I nodded, keeping my smile to minimal.

"For now, my queen. This is a farewell. Will we ever see each other again, that part to even me is grainy. You are unpredictable."

"I guess I am." I smiled. "I guess I need to stop minding rumors then."

"You of all people must know the images painted of women like us. And the names we are given, when they fear our power. But I must ask you now, are you afraid of me?"

I could fool myself and say I am not. But my eyes would give it away.

"Not anymore." I nodded. "But are you afraid of me? after finding out my dark secrets?"

She laughs, but I don't flinch. "There is not a soul alive in this world that could ever even make a dent onto this wuthering skin, why fear? However, I can't say much for the others. Though you have proven to stand on your own, I am afraid that there is someone in your corner that will see to it a hefty price is paid if someone were to ever lay a finger on you. I do not fear you, but for the first time in my lifespan, I am afraid to even lay so much as a finger on anyone, solely for the fact that I would soon meet my end, in the most untasteful way. But you my queen, you know the penalty for treason, tread cautiously in your affairs, or both of your heads will be mounted on the stones."