Page 178 of Soulmateless
Grandmother stares at us, squinting with a big smile. She doesn't approach.
Something about her makes me shudder, and I start to wonder what Mother has been through. She's never been so panicked.
What had Grandmother done to Mother?
I look back to the crowd as they start to chatter again. I know Grandmother’s intentions are to help our kingdom and protect us from dreamscreechers. She’s the Gift of Love after all. Of course she would do anything to protect who she loves. But this is all wrong. She's taking this too far.
I’ll never convince her of that, but maybe I can convince the rest of the kingdom.
I storm towards the edge of the stage and hold my goblet up. “Amara is wrong! Dreamscreechers are just like the rest of us!”
The crowd falls silent.
My heart pounds in my throat as I look over my shoulder to Grandmother.
My chest tightens, half expecting Grandmother to choke me immediately to get me to cooperate.
She's angry. She’ll kill me for doing this in front of the kingdom.
My legs wobble, bracing for her flowers wrap around me, only for Grandmother to stand still with her arms folded. “Speak then,” she projects her voice, glaring at me. “Show the kingdom how delusional you've become.”
I try to catch my breath, attempting to keep my legs steady. She thinks this is working against me, but she's wrong. The people will know the truth. “Ignatia is the name of thedreamscreecher that loved me,” I start again as I turn back to the crowd. “She's saved me three times. When there was that attack at Dove Lake Mall, she saved me. When the orphanage was attacked, she saved me then too. Then finally, when the castle was set on fire on my birthday, she saved me. In fact, about ten dreamscreechers had saved me from just a single dreamscreecher that night.”
The murmurs start up again. “There are bad dreamscreechers, of course. I hope the few that are violent killers get their due justice,butmost of them are not like that. We humans fight each other all the time. We have serial killers, and rapists locked up in our prisons right now and yet we don't say we're all evil, right? It's the same for dreamscreechers. We only see their soldiers that are more than likely forced into being killing machines, but we've never even seen most of them. Fuck, most ofushave never been outside of this kingdom! We don't know what’s out there! We don't even know what Somnia is like! The dreamscreecher that loved me is proof that there are at least some with only love in their hearts.”
People start to shout and throw insults. I faintly hear the accusations.
“Fucking dictator!”
“Monster fetishist!”
“Dude's gonna destroy the kingdom! I know it!”
I turn back to Grandmother again. She keeps her dark eyes narrowed at me. She doesn't defend me, not even against the rumors they spew. She stands there, with her arms crossed, as if nothing is happening.
If this doesn't convince her, nothing I do will.
I continue over the voices and look back over the crowd. “Ignatia is the most beautiful woman I know. She's used her abilities to save me. She stuck by my side when everyone turned against me. Believe me, every bit of intimacy was wantedmutually and there wasn't a moment of doubt or uncertainty that made me feel violated. I enjoyed every moment and so did she.” It's embarrassing that I even have to explain this. “The amare flowers glowed when we touched them. It glowed as bright as it would with soulmates. If that isn't a sign that our love was true, I don't know what is.”
I squeeze my eyes shut before looking back to the crowd. “I can't convince Amara. I can't even convince most of you. Most of you are here spewing lies that have no evidence. Ask every person yelling. They have no evidence that I'd do something so violent. Every person yelling needs to look within themselves and reflect on why they want to believe such disgusting lies about me destroying the kingdom.”
The yelling only gets louder, but I smile at the crowd. “But to those who don't believe such baseless lies. To those who are willing to listen. To those of you who want to challenge your beliefs, I encourage you to look into this. Dig into every piece of evidence we have. Listen to people of different experiences. Listen to dreamscreechers. Once you find that dreamscreechers are as moral as we are, then I want you to let everyone hear it. I want you to resist and protest. Do all you can to bring the truth and wake up everyone's minds to the misunderstandings that haveruinedthis kingdom. Change the Amara kingdom. Change Amara herself.”
I sigh, as the people’s voices drown mine and turn to Grandmother. “I'll go through this cleansing, not because I was abused by a dreamscreecher. I'm doing this, because I was loved by her, and I'm forced to do this to protect her.”
She sighs and rolls her eyes. I can almost swear her eyes twinkle with laughter.
But she wouldn't laugh at me. Not right now.
Would she?
Grandmother steps towards the crowd. “That was the voice of a manipulated sexual assault victim. It's sad to see a victim justify their rapist's actions. Some type of psychosis unfortunately.” She glares at me before continuing. “It hurts to see how deep his delusions are.”
I scowl and scoff at her. She isn't listening at all. She just draws conclusions.
I glance back at Mother, whose eyes are watering as a sob escapes her mouth. It breaks me to see Mother like that.
It seems like no matter how many years I live, my very existence only brings Mother more tears.
