SHARED MEMORIES

Raven placed both of her hands on the scarred leather cover, and then she closed her eyes. As Natalia and Brooke set their hands on top of Raven’s, the world appeared to slip away. They soon found themselves in a stark room with a desk and a metal table, and though the girls knew they weren’t there physically, everything seemed so real.

Natalia was overwhelmed by the smell of rubbing alcohol and kerosene as a girl about her age came into focus. She was sitting on the table wearing a nightgown with the right sleeve pushed up. It looked as if the sun hadn’t touched her skin for months, and she was frighteningly thin.

A tall man in a white lab coat was standing next to her. His silver hair was pulled back over his forehead, and he was holding a syringe with a long needle.

“That’s Von Strife,” Natalia said, though she wasn’t sure if anyone could hear her.

“Just watch,” Raven said.

“All right, Sophia,” Von Strife said. “I know you’ve been stuck with needles more times than you can count, but we need to make sure that everything is progressing as it should be.”

“I know,” Sophia said. She smiled at her father.

He pushed back her corn-silk hair before kissing her forehead. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

Sophia nodded. The smile never left her lips, even as he plunged the needle into her flesh. Von Strife waited until the syringe was filled with her blood before pulling it back out. When he went to dab the wound, it had already disappeared.

“You’re healing exponentially faster than a normal human,” Von Strife said. “It’s an extraordinary side effect of the serum that helped us get rid of your cancer.”

“When can I go back to school?”

“Hopefully soon,” he said before standing to his full height. Von Strife walked over to his desk, where he filled a vial with the blood sample. As he did, his eyes drifted to a picture that hung on the wall. It was Von Strife, with a striking woman holding a much younger Sophia on her lap.

“You have your mother’s eyes,” he said.

Sophia walked over to her father and placed her hand in his. He looked down at her, his eyes red.

“She was so beautiful,” Sophia said.

“As are you, my dear. Now run along so I can finish my notes. If you’re feeling up to it, perhaps we’ll take a stroll when I finish.”

Sophia started toward the door, but Von Strife called her back. “I almost forgot,” he said. Then he opened a drawer and pulled out a package wrapped with a golden bow.

“Is that for me?” she asked, her blue eyes wide with excitement.

“As a matter of fact, it is,” Von Strife said.

He smiled as Sophia carefully untied the bow. Inside was a wooden box with brass accents and a cherry finish. She looked to her father, who nodded. Then she unhooked the latch and opened the lid. A soft melody started to play as a porcelain ballerina inside the box spun in pirouettes.

“It’s amazing,” Sophia said.

“I thought you might enjoy it. Now run along, and I’ll be with you shortly.”

Sophia took her music box and left the room. Von Strife stared at the door long after his daughter was gone. Then he sat down at his desk, slumped over with his head in his hand as he wrote in his medical journal.

“The infusion of changeling blood into the test subject was successful; however, her conversion process from human to faerie continues to accelerate exponentially,” he muttered as he wrote. “All tests to stunt the transformation have failed. If I am unable to stabilize her soon, the subject will lose every shred of her humanity within a month.”

“Hold on,” Raven said. “I’m going to flash forward.”

The image went out of focus before it resumed. Von Strife was now standing in front of an iron door that was bolted shut. “Sophia, dear,” he said, “I promise I will fix this.”

There was a crash on the other side. Then the wailing began. “Father… please. Help me!” Sophia managed amid the snarling.

Von Strife stood with his back against the door. He held the music box in his hands, and the melody played as Sophia battered the door from the other side. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

The scene shifted once more.

Von Strife was standing in an observatory with a glass ceiling as flashes of lightning tore through the sky. Medical clockworks moved about the room, checking the conduits and readying the condensing rods.

Sophia lay on a gurney, unconscious. Her body was covered in soft green fur that looked like moss. Long feather-like tufts swept over her forehead. It was obvious why Von Strife had to sedate her. Her mouth was a beak, talons had replaced Sophia’s feet, and her hands ended in sharp nails that looked like they could cut through rock.

At the end of the gurney, near her feet, stood an iron ring filled with shimmering light. Inside the base, gears turned as the machine hummed.

“I hope you can forgive me, but this is the only way,” Von Strife said through trembling lips. “I’ll come for you as soon as I can.”

He looked over to a table where Sophia’s music box sat open as the melody played. Von Strife closed his eyes before breathing deeply. Then he gave the order.

A pair of clockworks pulled on chains to raise lightning catchers that jutted into the angry sky outside. Another clockwork connected the wires from the lightning catchers to the machine at the base of the iron ring. Lightning flashed before shooting down the copper wires. It wound around the coils. The light inside the ring flared before it swirled into a vortex.

Von Strife looked down to realize he was clutching his daughter’s hand. Her claws cut into his skin, but he didn’t care. Sophia’s body began to move toward the ring. Her feet were the first to pass through. Then, as the machine swallowed the rest of her body, she started convulsing.

“What have I done?” Von Strife wailed. He tightened his grip, trying to hold on, but the machine wouldn’t let go. His hand slipped, and she was lost. He turned to stare at the porcelain ballerina as it twirled inside Sophia’s music box.

Raven removed her hands from the journal, and the girls found themselves back in the dorm room.

“What just happened?” Natalia asked.

“As far as I can tell,” Raven said, “Von Strife sent his daughter into the Shadowlands.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Natalia said. “Von Strife was going to break into the Shadowlands to bring her back. Why would he send her there?”