Page 5 of Guarded By the Phantom

I sat up straighter, covering my mouth to hold back the urge to vomit.

“This has played in three major news stations this morning,” she said, her voice cool and mechanical, like it always got when she was furious. “It’s all over the internet. Viral, I believe, is the word. Apparently, no piece of media has spread this fast ever in the history of this country. You broke a record.”

When I looked up, her face was distorted in a sneer. She pursed her lips and gritted out, “Eyes on the screen, Barbara. Have the decency to face the consequences of your actions.”

I considered pulling my hand away from my lips to tell her I didn’t remember any of it, but the contents of my stomach roiled unpleasantly, and I didn’t want to risk it.

“Everything I worked for, everything your father worked for, is now hanging by a thread because of your little stunt,” she said, her voice gaining a vicious edge.

I flinched. My mother perfected the tone of cold wrath over the years of my life, but never before did she sound like this. I shivered, my face growing hot as the me on screen belched heartily and laughed.

Had I ever belched in my life before? Or moaned, for the matter? I didn’t think so. This wasn’t me. The woman in the video had completely different mannerisms, a different way of speaking and interacting with the camera. I didn’t send coy little glances like her. I didn’t smile like her, showing all my teeth with obvious cheer, because I wasn’t allowed to. My mother and Madame Alicia had trained me to smile and move just the right way.

I was supposed to be elegant. Silent. Always controlled.

The person in the video didn’t behave like me. And yet… she was me. She wore the exact same clothes I wore last night, darkpants and a dusty rose silk shirt, her hair coiffed into a low chignon. She was in a nondescript room, sitting on a couch, a plain wall behind her.

Now that I was a bit more awake, I tried to remember what happened last night and how it was possible for the video to exist. Raw panic churned in my belly when I realized I didn’t remember how or when I got home. A huge chunk of my memories was missing.

The video ended and started again. My mother put it on a loop.

“Please,” I said through my palm, my voice shaky and pitiful. “I don’t understand.”

“You were supposed to stay at home!” she hissed, shouting without raising her voice. She was good at scolding me quietly like this. “You’re not some commoner, Barbara, to go out as you please. You were supposed to clear that outing with me and bring an escort! None of this would have happened then.”

I blinked, my eyes growing hot as I watched myself wave my hands freely on the screen, speaking with vivacity I was never allowed to show in real life. Guilt crashed into me, but anger followed on its wings.

I was twenty-three. It was high time I started living like an adult, and that was the reason why I went out without telling anyone. I didn’t do anything reckless, just visited an art gallery opening with one of my ballerina friends. We drank fake champagne and viewed the blown-up photographs, talking, and no one paid us any attention. There weren’t any paparazzi on site, which helped me relax and really enjoy it.

And then… I didn’t remember. The last thing that stuck out clearly in my mind was a large, blurry photo of a messy bedroom, and then… This morning.

“I don’t understand,” I said again, fighting against the nausea rising in my stomach like a wave.

“Oh, please!” Mother snapped. “Will you stop saying that? It’s simple! You went out without permission and got yourself snatched by a mind manipulator! Now your father’s career is threatened. What do you not understand?”

“A… a mind manipulator?” I asked, my heart beating faster and faster until dark spots danced in front of my eyes. I felt faint.

“Yes!” she hissed. “That’s why your eyes keep twitching in there. It’s a subtle sign, but it’s there, and thank God! At least this will give the PR team a way out of this mess you made.”

“I… I made?” I asked, clenching my fists to keep myself upright. Hot and cold waves crashed down my spine, and the room seemed to spin.

Mind manipulator. Snatched. Mess I made.

“Yes, you!” she screamed, no longer bothering to keep her voice down. “You were out without an escort, Barbara! Don’t you get it? You let them do this! You gave them the opportunity to take over full control and make this disgusting video!”

“What…” I began, swallowing convulsively to keep back the contents of my stomach that threatened to spill. “What else? What else… did they do? I don’t remember.”

She reared back, confused, and finally took her phone away, shutting up my voice that sounded way cheekier than I’d ever allowed myself to sound when I was myself.

“Nothing that we know of,” she said stiffly, eyeing me with a frown. “You came back home after midnight. Norma was still up, she talked to you. Your clothes were stained, but apart from that, you seemed normal.”

She broke off, her posture growing rigid as she watched me. Her face did a strange thing, morphing through a sequence of expressions from worry, through annoyance, to impatience.

“Well, do you think anything is wrong with you?” she asked brusquely, clutching her phone.

I shook my head. My body felt normal apart from being bloated. I didn’t hurt anywhere. I didn’t even have a headache. The only thing that was wrong with me was the nausea, but that was caused by everything I just learned.

My mother huffed, rolling her eyes. “So you’re fine. Good. Pull yourself together. You’re going riding, I already let Maria in the stables know. When anyone asks you questions, you know what to say.”

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