Ghosts in the Mind

Footsteps sound behind me, my mother struggling to keep up with me as I all but run through the courtyard.

"Evangeline, please!" she calls, her voice hoarse from yelling at me prior,"Wait! Listen to me!"

"I have listened, mother, for an entire hour as you berated me and called me everything except insane!" I snap, unsure if she can even hear me from the distance between us,"I'll listen no longer."

Suddenly, her slender hand wraps around my wrist and yanks me backwards. I stumble, almost completely losing my footing on the cobblestone path. My head snaps up, my eyes coming directly to hers.

"Look at you! Your eyes! You're not yourself, Evangeline! A beast is all I see in your eyes, an obsessive beast- not my dearest daughter!" she shrieks, bringing her hands up to my face, her grip causing me to wince.

"I am still your daughter." I say, pulling myself away from her,"But I can no longer- will no longer ignore this. I'm not crazy, mother. I've seen her. In my sleep, even in my waking hours! She points the way in everything I do. She's how I progressed so far in the college, mother! She's taught me everything, helping me though every struggle I've ever faced." I pause, taking a moment to breathe and compose myself.

"Now, she points me somewhere else..."

"To forbidden lands!" my mother cries,"This...thing, we don't know what it is, dear. I know it looks like Lady Genevieve, but there is absolutely no way we can be sure of that! And she died before even I was born. There is no way she could know of you, Evangeline."

"Maybe if you hadn't made me keep this secret all these years, we could've gone to a priest or a wizard or something! But no! You never believed me." I snarl at her,"But now it does not matter. I do not care what you think. I am leaving, and you will not be stopping me." I stride away, conjuring flames in the tips of my fingers and flinging them onto the path behind me, blocking her from coming after me.

"Please!" I hear her yell,"There is a fire in you that was never there before! Please come back!"

I clench my fists as I leave the property and head out of town.

A ghostly hand descends on my shoulder,"You're doing well, dear. Soon we will be together."