Beginning of acceptance

She decided to look at the situation calmly. She stopped the "whys" in her head and readied herself to accept things as they came. "The questions will come later, first I need to do anything to get my son back," she told herself, and followed Howard in the other room.

The scent in the new room was different from the other room. It was muskier and seemed fresher. She guessed it was in another wing of the house, as the air was different, so surely the windows were directed to another scenery.

She started getting used with the scent of the room and the sounds surrounding it. There were clearly more trees near the windows, and little animals and insects could be heard everywhere, so a forest should be behind the windows. But the smells coming from the forest were not those from a usual forest, rather a murky, humid and sweet scent like a…jungle. Yes, she was sure it was a jungle as she discerned more sounds and scents in the air.

"Where are we? Are we near a jungle?", she asked to confirm what she guessed.

"Correct!" Howard burst out loud. "You are not a lost cause after all, your majesty," he added. "You will be staying in this room for now. If you feel you're ready for the next step without destroying another room, call my name."

"Where's Eric?", she asked a little confused as she supposed the other man will take care of her.

"Duty called, so he had to leave for a while. Don't worry, he'll be back soon. I'm sure he won't be able to stay away for long since you returned."

"Returned? What do you mean by returned?", Raina became more confused.

"Relax, your majesty, you will find out everything eventually. Don't start another violent rampage just because you're confused. Patience must be a word missing from your vocabulary, isn't it?", Howard teased.

"Shut up! My patience goes where it is needed, not to everyone or everything because it's limited! Besides, isn't it normal to be curious in the situation I'm in? I'm not a lamb that goes to the slaughterhouse without any comment."

"Nice comparison!", Howard said chuckling. "Yes, your majesty, you're perfectly normal…not! There is nothing normal about you, so accept that! Fine, your curiosity is normal, but your reactions are not! The more you know, the more violent you become, is this normal from your point of view?" Howard finished his speech with a loud snort.

"Fine, fine, I'm a violent woman, and vengeful to boot, happy now?", she replied annoyed.

"Perfectly happy, it's what to be expected from your majesty. I'm perfectly content with you from this point of view. At your service, you violent and vengeful majesty," Howard chuckled again.

In fact, he really started to like this woman. At first, he was afraid she would be a weakling who will drag them down, but it seemed not to be the case. A woman that was a weakling wouldn't survive for long. And if she won't survive… he shrugged not wanting to think about the consequences.

"I'm off now, please don't destroy the room. If the thirst intensifies, call me. Just shout my name, and I will hear you, I won't be far."

She nodded without saying another word. She was distracted by everything that she heard and smelled around her. She didn't want to touch anything, afraid that another burst of violence will surface from within her. She took some deep breaths from her mouth and then decided to explore her new surroundings. She moved carefully, afraid she would hit something, but then she realized that, as she approached an object, she could sense it from afar. The air around the object changed, influenced by the object's composition. She could also smell the materials the object was made of, and she started feeling a bit puzzled as she realized this fact. How could she smell the materials? She could even identify the different kinds of paint used, although she didn't know their names.

She continued focusing on her smell and soon it was like an image of the room formed itself in her head. She was amazed at how she could discern the location of every object by her smell alone. There seemed to be a bed pinned against one of the walls in the middle of it with two nightstands by each side. What she identified as a desk stood in the far corner by the window. There was a chair at the desk. A dressing table was in the corner beside the desk. A simple setting, but she was curious to know why a dressing table was in the room. Was this a woman's room? Was a woman living in this house?

She stopped thinking about such a trivial matter. She realized she could become distracted by her thoughts, yet her senses still functioned at their maximum. As the thoughts ran through her head, she could still register the scent of fear coming probably for a small animal as the beating of its little heart was registered by her ears. A snake, judging from the sound, was approaching its victim and that victim couldn't move. She made this mental picture in her head only through hearing and smelling and she was sure she was right in her assumptions.

At some point, curiosity got the best of her, and she decided to take the blindfold off her eyes. She hesitated a minute, but she became determined in her decision. She gently removed her blindfold. But she kept her eyes closed as if afraid she would be hit by something the moment she saw the light.

And she was right. The moment she decided to open her eyes, it was as if the whole world attacked her. She immediately took a defensive position, ready to attack. Although her body reacted instinctively, her mind was still working at a fast speed. She registered everything around her and mocked her own attitude. "You're like a Neanderthal in front of civilization," she thought about herself and a chuckle escaped her lips.

She was soon too fascinated by all that her eyes registered to forget her defensive stance. It was like every particle in the air was mercilessly scrutinized by her. Although she used to see these particles before as a short glimmer in the light, now she was able to see their shape, the shape of dust particles. She looked at them as if she discovered a brand-new world. It was like watching every atom in those particles, like looking through the most powerful microscope in the world. It took her 30 minutes to stop starring at all those dust particles. The concentration was broken only after a loud noise was registered by her sharp hearing.

She realized it was coming from outside and it was an animal roaring. A couple of felines fighting for territory. Her vision turned to the sound and she realized she could distinguish the two black panthers fighting amongst themselves.

And they were surely far away from her, at abound 25 kilometers she supposed. But she could still see them very clearly. The smell of fresh blood suddenly hit her nostrils and the thirst in her throat started growing. She looked at the two felines tearing each other apart and was about to lounge at them to join in the fight. The only thought in her mind now was to kill them both, tear them apart in little pieces. A sadistic smile appeared on her lips as she prepared to jump out of the window to run towards her prey.

As she was about to do that, she inadvertently turned to the door as if to check no one was coming after her. And in this motion, her eyes caught her own reflection on the mirror from the dressing table. She stopped stunned by the image looking back at her. It was like a demoness from hell was looking back at her. Her dark green eyes were replaced by a vivid red. Her medium-long and dark red hair was now reaching her waist, it became a bit curly, with a healthy luster and a shade lighter. She was really looking like a succubus, beautiful, sexy and deadly. Her curves were better refined, her bosom not too full, but full enough to entice any man, her waist as thin as when she was still a teenager, her bottom perfectly round and perky. Just like her voice, her body was that of a femme fatale, a seductress through and through.

She couldn't believe the image in the mirror was truly her. She stared without even breathing, trying to cope with her own image. And while staring back at herself, realization finally came dawning on her. She was not who she used to be anymore. She was not her old self anymore. She was completely changed, at least physically. The woman staring back at her through the mirror was a stranger to her. Her mind was trying its hardest to wrap itself around this new image. But it just couldn't.

Suddenly, all the questions she pushed back started to resurface. The "whys" returned fiercer than before and she started feeling confused again. She crouched holding her head, trying her best to calm herself down and focus on something to hold as an anchor. She thought the anchor should be her son and tried to imagine his face. But it seemed all of her mind was in chaos and she couldn't stop on one thought, one image, one memory. The flood of thoughts, questions, information, memories and images in her mind, coming all at once, was making her agitated again.