Before I even reached the edge of the graveyard, a sharp thought pierced my mind, carried by the caretaker of the grounds. “Riana, someone disturbs your daughter’s resting place!”
The words struck me like a bolt of silver lightning, shattering my heart. My breath came in ragged gasps as I turned and ran through the cold mist toward Aeliana’s grave, all else forgotten.
Aeliana had always been a sunlit spirit. She adored daisies, those flowers that turned ever toward the sun. She once dreamed aloud that she would carpet the entire backyard with them.
Her dream had ended before she could realize it. After her passing, I had planted daisies upon her grave instead. No tombstone marked the place, only countless blooms, each one carrying my ceaseless longing for her.
“Roderic, see how many daisies bloom here. Danny would love this!” I thought, my mind aching with her memory.
But when I arrived, my chest tightened with fury. Katelyn had already placed an urn into the soil, two guards refilling the grave, shattering the daisies I had so tenderly sown. Aeliana’s small urn was cast aside upon a mound of dirt, desecrated.
“What are you doing?!” I shrieked, running forward, shoving the guards aside with all the strength of grief and fury, my claws—hands trembling with rage—barely controlled. “Who gave you leave to touch her grave?!”
Katelyn shrank back into Roderic’s side, weaving her thoughts into mine like honey and venom. “It seemed abandoned, with no marker. Beautiful flowers covered the place, so I thought Danny could rest in peace here. I had the caretaker contact the family, offer them compensation. Why do you scream? You frighten me.”
She wore the guise of delicacy, but every nerve in me recoiled. I wasted no words. Snatching the shovel from a guard’s hands, I clawed at the disturbed soil, desperate to reclaim the sanctuary I had prepared for Aeliana with all my heart.
“Riana, stop this!” Roderic’s voice thundered, his form looming over me as he wrested the shovel from my grasp.
“Roderic, you are a monster!” I spat, sinking to my knees and tearing at the soil with my bare hands, the chill biting into my fevered skin.
Katelyn’s panic flared, her mindlink shrieking across the distance. “Stop her! Do not let her touch Danny!”
Two guards seized me, dragging me back. “Let me go!” I howled, thrashing against their grip, wild and untamed, every heartbeat a drum of anguish.
Roderic approached, his eyes hard as frozen moonstone. “Katelyn is already grieving Danny’s passing, and now you desecrate his resting place. You have gone too far. Apologize to Katelyn at once.”
