The Deck of Destiny - A Caraval Oneshot Collection

darling girl of the stars III

     Scarlett marched through the lonely streets of Valenda trying to put as much distance between her and Gavriel as possible. She knew he would be hot on her tail but all she wanted was to be alone. Scarlett thought of the inn near Lee's she had first noticed years and years ago; it seemed like a cozy place.

     The stars twinkled down on Scarlett as hurt shades of navy and broken charcoal swirled around her. The chilled night air nipped at her arms, and only then did Scarlett realize how unprepared she was. She wore a thin strapped red dress with no coat, and only had her satchel with enough coins to get through the night with.

     It took her a while, but she had finally reached the inn around the corner of Lee's. Scarlett's heart sank as she passed the restaurant, thoughts of her father flooding her head. All of the birthdays they had spent in that restaurant, and all the other meals in between. Scarlett turned her head away.

     She couldn't think about Gavriel.

     She stepped inside the warm inn, hoping they'd have a room available last minute. Scarlett cleared her throat to wake up the clerk that had appeared to have dozed off.

     "I was wondering if you had a room available?" Scarlett asked a little awkwardly as the woman blinked her eyes a few times.

     "Oh yes!" The clerk paused to ruffle through some keys hanging on the wall behind her, and handed one with the number 18 on it.

     What a cruel joke.

     "Here you are, darling. Room eighteen. That'll be ten gold coins."

     Scarlett dug her hand through her satchel, dropping the required amount of coins onto the desk. The clerk smiled at her as she took the key, and Scarlett tried to smile back at her.

     She shoved the door to her room open, and practically flopped forward onto her bed. It was soft, but not as soft as her mattress back home. The tears hit Scarlett once more.

     She was so confused.

     She grabbed a pillow and threw it at a wall, careful not to break anything. Why couldn't things just be simple? Scarlett grabbed another pillow, held it to her face, and screamed in it.

     After about five minutes of repeating this process, Scarlett's eyes were too tired to keep open. She turned on her side and blew a quick breath to blow out the candle on her bedside before curling into the covers.

     She missed her bed. Her soft bed with the silk sheets and the small stuffed bear her father had given to her when she was a baby because he didn't know what babies liked. She missed Gavriel being able to extinguish all of the candles in her room with just a thought, or him making small figures with the flames to put her to sleep.

    Scarlett tried not to think about Gavriel or home as she fell asleep, but it was the only comfort she had.

~~~

     The lobby of the inn was quite nice. There was a breakfast included with the room, and Scarlett was taking advantage of it. She chewed on a piece of toast as her mind swirled over everything. Scarlett tried to drown everything out, instead observing the people around her. Their emotions made a rainbow of colours, and Scarlett almost wished she couldn't see their feelings.

     Why had she become a Fate just to see her mother? Why had she been that foolish?

     When she was a child, it was easy to tune out emotions. It was almost like a switch she could turn on and off. But now, every emotion around her was a thousand times brighter than before.