Sleepless: Chapter Twenty-Four

The Brain is an Ocean: [Enough Waves to Drown Yourself With]

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The entire room was still, the innumerable eyes of nobles, dignitaries, guards, servants, and demigods all resting squarely, expectantly, upon Margo’s shoulders.

Her heart beating out of her chest, the experience was surreal. She began to hear a faint knocking from somewhere nearby, and despite her feet being planted, she could feel her mattress below her back. A voice spoke loudly, but she couldn’t make it out.

The Sunwalker’s hand upon her shoulder brought her surroundings back into focus, though she almost wished it hadn’t.

A blade in her hand. Sunwalker at her side. A terrified girl kneeling before her.

“We don’t need to drag this out, Margo,” Sunwalker murmured, placing a hand over hers to correct her grip on the weapon. “Strike swift, and strike true. You can do this.”

But all Margo could do was stare at the girl, just as she stared back. Their eyes, each wide as dinner plates, never left each other.

This couldn’t be a nightmare. This was a girl. Trapped. Being used for other’s entertainment, just like the mermaid before her.

Though, she was willing to admit there was something different about her. She radiated with light, unlike most of the other guests here. Unlike Apakairis. Whatever that energy represented, it too strained against whatever spell the Golden Eyes had placed on her.

In her mind’s eye, Margo pictured it like a lattice — a framework of thousands and thousands of little squares that surrounded the girl, too small to let any piece of her filter through. She imagined it growing, the space it contained not getting any larger, but the squares themselves becoming big enough to see through, then to even stick a hand through. Though her body didn’t move, she pictured herself reaching through one of these squares, gently making contact with the light.