“Well…I was running away from…I don’t know. Something. I don’t know,” Leena blushed. The lady gently filled the teapot with steaming water, her hands graceful like a pair of swans.

A lovely herbal smell broke through the strange bad smell. Leena felt her fingers unclench.

“I suppose we all don’t know what we are running from.” The lady stared at her, lips curling slightly.

“What’s your name?” Leena ventured, sensing her own emotions start to spin in cycles of fear, calm, anxiety, and confusion. Ask questions, focus on something else.

“Of course. My name. You must know it, though, don’t you?” the lady replied, smiling, sitting with her leg crossed seductively.

Leena searched her brain, picking up pieces that seemed to scramble when she touched them. Memories? She remembered nothing. She had never met the lady before.

“I’m afraid I can’t recall anything,” she admitted, “Are you famous around here?”

The lady looked mildly annoyed. Her fingers wrapped around the handle of the teapot, and Leena noticed her bright red nail polish clashing with the green. She poured tea into the cups, gently draining the dark liquid from the teapot.

The herbal smell grew stronger, and Leena cupped the tea in her hands, feeling the warmth on her cold fingers. The steam wafted up to her nostrils; it was a welcome heat. She closed her eyes briefly.

No.

Leena blinked a bit, pushing the tea away from her.

The lady was watching her with searching eyes.

“Surely you have heard of the Lady of the Lighthouse? Are you not from the town of Orget?”

Leena blushed a bit, “It sounds like you are very important.” The lady preened a bit, her blond curls twirling between her fingers.

“Of course, I am. Are you important?” she asked, leaning forward, the teacup forgotten.

“I suppose not,” Leena replied, “I don’t have any such impressive title like ‘Lady.’”

The Lady leaned back in her chair.

“It is less a title and more of an observation,” she replied, “Surely you have heard of me. Why don’t you take a drink? Before the tea gets cold.”

“It still feels rather hot, so I better wait,” Leena said, her words slipping over her tongue, soft and liquid, “Why…Orget?”

“That’s the town by the lighthouse, child. Where are you from?” the Lady inquired, leaning towards her.

“I’m from…Oh. Icherrun? We came from there.”

“We?”

“Um. Bo and I,” said Leena, forgetting to disguise his name, “He is taking me across the ocean.”

The Lady scoffed.

“Really? You trust a man with that task?”

“Well,” Leena hesitated, “There’s nowhere else I can go…” The Lady waved her hand at Leena, snorting.

“No, you can go wherever you want, girl. You don’t have to follow a man, of all things, around like a puppy.” She took a deep drink of her own tea, her red lips caressing the teacup like a pair of red cats.

“If I could leave him, I would, I think,” Leena said, furrowing her brow, “He’s strange, and he’s hiding things. I don’t understand him at all.”

“Ahah! Just like a man to hide his wiles,” the Lady exclaimed, clapping, “Why, is it another woman, you suspect? Maybe someone much prettier than you, someone who entices him with her darker features, her darker eyes under long lashes with the grace of a swan in moonlight? My, what a cad!”

“Oh, no. I don’t think he’s a cad,” Leena protested, “But definitely…something is off. We aren’t…we aren’t together.”

“Of course, you’re not,” the Lady sneered, “He’s just dragging you along on his own whim. Keeping a hussy on the side!”

“I think you misunderstand-“

“Tell me, girl, did he ever shout at you? Speak harshly with words that bite harder than a snake?”

“Well-“

“Did he ever harm you? Hit, beat, otherwise bruise you? Oh, did he abandon you? After all of it? Is that why you are here? You are abandoned!” the Lady huffed, her eyes glowing harshly.

“Why, girl, you’ve been abandoned!” she repeated, standing, “And yet you defend him?”

Leena felt the fog of confusion around her muffle the Lady’s exclamations, dulling them at her ears. The movements blurred around her, the Lady’s arms more like feathers than lengthy branches.

“He left me,” Leena mumbled, putting her head in her hands.

“Of course, he did!” the Lady screeched, “They always leave! They always leave in the end!”

“I just wanted someone else to talk to, you know. I didn’t really have any friends, just Grandfather.”

“He took advantage of you!”

“He knocked me out.”

“Better a dead, silent woman than alive and resisting!”

“And he promised he wouldn’t leave me again. He promised,” Leena sniffed, tears welling in her eyes.

“They always promise the world, but do they deliver?” the Lady demanded, “Did he stay?”

“No,” Leena burst into tears, sobbing. The edges of her dissolved into fog, and she felt like she was just watery tears and noises, floating on the air. Was she walking? Was anything around her? All she heard was noise, chaos and screaming.

“No! He didn’t stay! He didn’t stay at all! He left you! Abandoned you! A poor girl out on her own, far away from her home!” The Lady was suddenly close to her, right in front of her face, and framed in an eerie red light.

Leena backed up in her chair. Was there a chair? No, she was standing.

“Come with me, girl!” the Lady thundered, “Let us see what kind of harm we can inflict upon his wretched soul!”

Leena felt her feet move, but she couldn’t hear the sound of her own feet, only the sound of the Lady speaking and a crackling and smashing like that of wind against trees and loose rubble. The kitchen was darkened and red; the tea no longer steaming and hot, but cold and spilled.

The bad smell was stronger now, overtaking the lavender, the tea, the dirt even on Leena’s own clothing.

She tried to speak, to move away, to do anything, but all she felt was water at her cheeks and wracking sobs from her throat. Her hands weren’t working. Her crying was louder.

“The nerve! The nerve of men!” the Lady lamented, escorting Leena towards the lighthouse stairs, “They come, thinking the world of themselves, forgetting you are, also, a human being, with thoughts! Feelings! Ideas of your own! And they promise, ohhhh, they promise so much! But those promises are lies!”

They started up the winding metal stairs, curling up like smoke to the top of the lighthouse. It seemed to take forever to go up, in circles, around and around. Leena watched as the Lady seemed to transform from a well-dressed woman to a horrid ghast, her clothing tattered, dripping with something akin to blood, the drops spattering dark against the metal stairs. Her face started to hollow, eye sockets deepened, her teeth were visible inside of her cheeks. The lovely golden curls on her head disappeared, turning into straggly, sandy strands barely clinging to her skull.

Leena wanted to scream.

But she could only watch as her body marched on.