Twisted Memories and Thankfulness.

“ANGEL! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!” the voice belonging to her father Thomas Wilde, “COME ON, DAUGHTER! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR GAMES!”

Deep in the bowels of the compound that hosted the Darkest Carnival, the teenaged Angel is seen hiding in one of the many nooks and crannies that she has found since they have arrived. 2 years have now passed since her father and her arrived and her father claimed his allegiance to Synn.

But inside the compound she has been kept from some personal items that were confiscated when they were brought in but lately she had taken to sneaking around and finding all the hidden rooms. She had come close one time before she was snatched up by one of the freaks and tossed back into her room.

Her father warned her not to go sneaking around again but she was on a mission. It was Thanksgiving, she thinks. The weather had gotten colder, the leaves on the trees were all gone and this time of year made her think of her mother.

It had felt like everything that she was going through with the Carnival was making her forget. But her dreams...well more like her nightmares would come screaming through and her memories of her mother or at least she thought it was her, with long flowing red hair would sit with her younger self in front of the beautiful vanity humming a song she couldn’t quite hear. But in these memories, she remembers her kind smile and then suddenly the scene of her death that also took her brother. His fault. But while she would be in front of the vanity her eyes would always see a box that looked like it was made of jade. Every time she’d reach for it, it would pull her into the hellish part.

She had seen it so often that she had herself convinced that the box actually existed.

She hated doing this to her father. He truly did what he had to to make sure that she wanted for nothing but this box would hopefully ebb the nightmares.

“Where is she?” her father called out and the freaks just stood there shrugging and finally he sighed, “If she shows up, throw her ass in her room and keep her there til we return.”

And finally he left and it didn’t take long for the freaks to lose interest in looking for her. So she unfolded herself with a slight groan because she had been hiding for so long. She rounded a corner and came across a room that she hadn’t been able to reach. She turned the handle, found it unlocked and as quietly as she could, opened it. It made noise but she was able to sneak in and close the door quickly before she would be spotted.

When she turned around, her eyes grew large to a pile of boxes. Some are labeled neatly. Some are so broken down that the writing is intelligible. But as she looks around her last name ‘WILDE’ is in big bold black letters on a few boxes including a beautiful chest that she recognized from her home before. She was told that it was a wedding present for her mother.

She carefully kneeled in front of it and tried to not get lost in the faded gold detail before she reached for the latch. Busted a long time ago, for what reason she didn’t know but she propped it open and right before her was the jade box from her dreams.

“Momma.” she whispered as she reached for it. Her fingers gingerly brushed the top but before she could open it she was suddenly grabbed by the hair and hurled backwards.

Just as she went to get up to protest she heard her father’s voice, “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!?”

Her eyes grow wide as she sees her father standing there, angrier than he had ever been at her. “Daddy...I...”

“I TOLD YOU to stop snooping around.”

“But, that’s...That’s mom’s! I’ve been having dreams about it for over a month since Halloween. You told me, he told me that I need to trust my dreams and something has been calling me.”

“No, that box does not belong to you.”

“No, it belonged to MOM! I have nothing to remember her by and when I saw it in my nightmares, I thought maybe if I could just find it then maybe...”

“What? That you’d steal it? Hide it from me? That chest is ALL I have left of her and it is in here for a reason. I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS NO LONGER! Now I suggest that you pick yourself up off the ground and get to your room before I finally give you what you truly deserve for deliberately disobeying me!”

Angel sniffs only for a moment, refusing to let her father see her crying, before she scrambles to her feet and takes off running from her father but she doesn’t go into her room. Instead she takes off through the closest entrance and through the woods that encircles the compound. She runs for what feels like ever before a root trips her up and she falls.

She yells out in pain and the emotion of it all and the pain she is in, she sobs loudly into the darkness and the cold. The steam of her breath rising up. Finally she calms down but when she tries to stand the pain from her ankle only makes her crumble. She cries out only for a moment before she pulls herself along the ground and settles against a tree. She’s not sure how long she is out there but she sits, hopes and prays that the cold takes her before she is found.

“You are an insolent child.”

Apparently she’s not that lucky. Through her haze she feels herself being picked up and carried back through the woods. The pain that she is in eventually makes her pass out.

And dream about that jade box.

“That box is your future, my dear. It will be yours someday. It is our past, my present and your future.”

That voice echoes still to this day.

Since her loss, she had been put through the ringer. Her vigorous training...torture...and she took it all. She missed the mark and he was displeased with her. Locking her in her room and then pulling her from her slumber in the middle of the night. She had promised him that she would bring it home but instead she found herself welcoming the pain.

She failed after all.

But today, she didn’t know what would happen. She could smell something coming from deep inside the compound. What was today?

She waited for someone to retrieve her for her daily training but instead she was brought out of her trace but knocking at her door and it opening to only see her father on the other end. Dressed up in a suit. He hadn’t seen him in a suit since....well...the funeral.

That didn’t help her thoughts.

“Come on, Angel. Your presence has been requested.”

“For?”

“Thanksgiving dinner.” She gave her father a look like she didn’t quite believe him, before he went into her makeshift closet and produced a green dress and laid it on the bed. “Be quick.” he left her room leaving her to prepare.

Not too much longer she dressed as requested and walked through the hall into the dining area. She would see her father, chatting quietly with the man sitting at the head of the table, Rev. Synister. She wouldn’t bring herself to look at his eyes. She had seen enough disappointment since her failure but he stood from his chair and held out her own, “Sit my child.”

She knew better so as quickly as she could she would sit to his left and her father to his right. Only after a little while, she would raise her eyes to see her father looking amused at her, “You look spectacular, my dear.”

“Indeed she does. After everything she has been through this week, it’s amazing how beautiful you look, my treasure.” her master spoke. It caught her by surprise because she heard no malice in his voice, she darted her eyes to him quickly and noticed that she didn’t imagine things.

“Thank you.” she spoke quietly, dropping her eyes to the plate in front of her.

“Now I know you have had a rough few weeks but that has passed now. I am so sorry that we had to put you through that but understand that we have to set examples for others.” Syn said, reaching for his napkin, “But you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about. If anything you really caught everyone’s attention and that deserves to be rewarded.”

That lifts her head with a look of confusion, “Rewarded?”

“Indeed. And going into Pittsburgh, you have a tough road ahead of you but with everything that we have had you go through recently we believe that you are more than capable of handling this.” Syn nods towards Thomas, “Thomas, I believe she should have the one thing that will silence those nightmares.”

“Agreed.” Angel’s father simply nods and pulls a bag up from his lap and reaches inside pulling the jade box out, “I know I was against you having this years ago but you have grown so much. You have truly reached the potential that is even above what your mother could have imagined and you are more than ready for this. Treat it well.”

He slides it over to her and she doesn’t reach for it at first, in fact she shakes with the memory of what happened the last time she did, “Go on, my dear. It is your legacy after all.”

She looks at them both for a moment before reaching out and taking it in her small hand. She opens it for a moment and a wicked smile crosses her face, “Now I understand.” she looks up at her father, “I am so sorry for not listening before.”

Her father nods, “All is forgiven.”

“Now, about your match.” he motions to the freaks to begin serving.

“TJ has absolutely nothing, sir. He’s weak minded and ill tempered. Almost like a certain Brit he is almost a dead ringer for.” she says placing the box at her to her left, “The poor guy has more muscles than brains. Easily a perfect sacrifice for what we have in mind. Poor fool probably hasn’t learned anything from that match.”

“You won’t be distract by...”

“No sir. While Miles was indeed a fun toy to play with, I am on the prowl for a new toy. Who knows, maybe he would bend to my will. OR perhaps that pretty little thing in Xaria. I would hate to destroy such a beautiful piece of art but alas it seems like I’m not given much of a choice. Either way, they are simply just in my way of my real goal.” she smirks with a very evil glint in her eye, “Especially if I have anything to say about it.”

“Poor souls. They’ll never know what is coming.”

“And they wish they had destroyed me when they had the chance, master.” she touches the box, “Especially now that I have this wonderful present.”

With that Synn reaches for his goblet and raises it to her, “Here is to your victory.”

And her father raises his, “And many to come.”

Angel raises her crystal glass, eying them both for a moment before taking a sip with her green eyes shining brightly and the evil smirk growing even broader.