“Let me go! Let me go letmegoletmego!” I screamed loudly as Mary wrung out a wet cloth above my head. A bit too much water flowed out of it in my opinion. She didn’t even touch me, and neither did she hold me down or anything, but I was still freaking out and scrambled away from her into a corner.
“Lucinda, your hair is full of blood, we need to get it out somehow.” She said concerned about me.
“Then let me do it myself.” I said after I calmed down a bit and snatched the cloth out of her hands. It was better if I did it as I felt as if I had at least a bit of control over this damn water, but it was still a chore. Still, washing with a cloth was doable, especially because I already did it multiple times. Mary was still curious about my fear of water and thus wanted to come with me into the bathroom.
At least I was completely clean after she kept nagging about all the places which were still a bit dirty. After we cleaned up all the blood in the bathroom, we left the house again and headed for the only place in the garden which wasn’t touched by me in any way. This was the place where the maid was executed by me, perfectly in front of the mansion that was currently being reconstructed.
We sat down on a bench and I leaned my head against her shoulder. I already wore my sunglasses, although they hindered my ability to see quite a bit. Even for my tastes, it was incredibly dark, although the sky was completely devoid of any clouds. And so we waited, cuddling against each other in our thick, warm clothing, enjoying the comfortable silence between us. For hours, we just sat there, while she patted my head from time to time and I comfortably kept my eyes closed.
The cold autumn wind occasionally blasted into our faces, but Mary didn’t complain at all. She had a thick scarf around her neck and a cute hat covering everything until it reached her ears. She kept drifting in and out of sleep, but even when I told her it was alright to go to bed, she didn’t want to move.
We were naturally not waiting for nothing. We were waiting for the first sunrise I could see. I read about its beauty on multiple occasions and I was honestly excited to see it with my own two eyes. The source of all life, my arch enemy, the sun, call it whatever you want, showed itself eventually. I poked Mary´s side and she woke up from her sleep, only to see me standing up and staring east.
There was it. The orange hue that always signalled my time to go into hiding and I … I could see it. For minutes, I just stared at it, watched how an orange ball rose over the horizon, painting the whole sky orange.
“Do you see that?” I turned around to Mary, still pointing towards the sunrise with a huge smile on my face.
“I can and so do you.” She smiled back at me and stood up. I turned around, back towards the sun and genuinely thanked Aska for giving me this amazing sunglass. Even when I looked over the frame or past the edges, I could still see perfectly fine, as if something magical stopped most of the sun rays from hitting my eyes.
Excited, I watched how the sky turned blue as the sun rose further, a phenomenon I read about, but couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes. The rest, well it didn’t change much. My surroundings brightened up to the levels I usually had at night, but otherwise, it was as if it was night.
Still, seeing this ball of flame in the sky was already amazing enough for me, being able to walk under the sun was what I always dreamt about. I twirled around happily, even though I nearly tripped over multiple times. I couldn’t see well during the day, even with these sunglasses, but that I could see was glorious. Happily, I jumped in Mary´s arms and hugged her tightly. She struggled to catch me properly, but as she regained her balance, she lifted me up. She gently pressed her own forehead on mine and closed her eyes.
“I´m so happy!” I exclaimed and leaned back to look over her shoulder. A bird was hopping on the stones. It was from a species I never saw before as if it came from a completely new world altogether. I left her embrace as she put me back onto the ground and twirled around my own axis once more, taking in all the different sensations. It was mostly the same as during the night, but also completely different altogether. I laid down on the grass once more, looked at the sun and simply laughed in happiness.
Mary sat down right next to me, tired, but still excited for my sake. She yawned loudly and laid down so that her head was touching mine.
“Hey, can we go shopping? Or eat in a restaurant? Or go to the library? What abou-“ I was so excited to do the stuff I couldn’t do until now. I seriously needed to find new interesting recipes, books and a few dresses I liked.
“Tomorrow, my darling, tomorrow. I just want to sleep right now.” Although she couldn’t see it, I nodded happily. It didn’t take long for Mary to fall asleep again while I still watched the unusual sky, at least from my perspective. Beautiful.
Even the gardener who found us around midday couldn’t ruin my happiness as she stood to my side and talked quietly to me.
“Young miss, aren´t your eyes sensitive because of the sunlight?” I hummed in approval. This was the excuse until now, but I wouldn’t need that anymore.
“They are! But these glasses mum gifted me help me to see again!” I answered quietly.
“I am glad to hear that.” And so was I. Talking to the gardener, who was probably also a murder just because he was the gardener, was the first step in entering society for real. Just like the bird, I could now live in this new, exciting world that was teeming with life. Not as a monster though, I had enough time to be that during the night, but rather as Lucy White, the daughter of a duchess.
