A glimpse in the past

Astrid's Point of View

Everything is so surreal. I’ve seen a glimpse of Melanie’s childhood with Margaux. I don’t know if that’s possible. I could be hallucinating again, but this time around, it was like I was transported into a different universe.

When Margaux touched my hand, it felt as if I was Melanie for a second, and the warm feeling of childhood returned. It was such a different feeling compared to the hatred that she felt towards her sister.

"Hey, Astrid, you’ve been staring at me for a minute." Is it because of Melanie’s eyes? Did you see something odd? "

"Nothing, anyway, I’m starving. I want to drink some fresh milk. I might need it for my aching bones. "

"Sure, let me go ahead and ask our helpers to prepare it."

The food that was prepared was good, as I expected. I observed every helper, and I made sure to remember their faces. It could be difficult for me if they turned their backs on me. I should be able to get their trust.

"Thank you so much for the meal. I appreciate it!"

"I’m glad you love it, Madam."

"No worries,"

I greeted each one of them in the hallway or even if they were busy cleaning in the backyard. Also, check if they’re gossiping about me. I haven’t heard anything from them. It was unusual, as I was expecting to hear gossip. But I recently discovered that they were not only not born and raised in the Crimson Moon Pack, but also came from various parts of the world that the Crimson Moon had conquered.

Astrid, I’m going to attend a sewing class. Are you okay staying here in this room?"

"You’re attending a sewing class? Is that what your father wanted you to do? "

"No, my father has nothing to do with it."

"Is it like a tradition that you need to keep, so you need to learn to sew? I don’t understand why a daughter of a Beta of the Crimson Moon Pack is studying sewing. That doesn’t make sense at all."

"Astrid, this is my hobby." It’s very embarrassing to say, but I want to be a tailor."

"You’re kidding me right now?"

"I wish I was joking, but it’s true. It was my dream to be a well-known tailor of beautiful dresses. I would like my creation to be worn by a beautiful person like you."

"You almost had me at the beginning, Margaux, but the last statement is false. I’m the one and only beautiful."

"And your sister, since you’re twins."

"Don’t piss me off, Margaux."

I rolled my eyes at her, which made her chuckle. She then packed her things before she left the room. I quickly cut her off.

"I wanted to come with you to that class, if you don’t mind."

"Sure, but that would be boring for you."

"I, myself, do love stitching. I actually made a lot of scarves, some patchwork, a few crochet bonnets. I’m good at those. If you have time and if you have the materials, then I can show you my work."

"Astrid, that’s so interesting to hear. I’m glad to hear that. "

"Absolutely, so I would like to go with you. Alright?"

"Sure, let’s go now."

I was left speechless when we moved to different parts of the room. It was such a huge room, it was like the size of our house. full of books about tailoring, stitching, and creating dresses.

"You made this room dedicated only to your class? I thought your class would be in a different place."

"That’s right. Astrid, I made this room just for my classes. I hired the greatest teachers around in terms of tailoring and sewing. Of course, designing the dresses as well. They’ll be here in a few minutes."

"This is a bit over the top, Margaux. It’s weird that you wealthy people can easily do whatever you want to do without any hesitation. It works very easily on you. Your father didn’t even care if you succeeded or not. Because you’re rich and this was just a hobby for you. "

She was taken aback by what I just said. I then realized that I failed to carefully craft my words and spoke ill of her. I then quickly apologized to her, which she later accepted, but I knew she would remember it for the rest of her life.

"May I know if you have a sample of your work?"

"Come over here, Astrid. Here was one of my creations."

Margaux was a beautiful woman. I swear to the Moon Goddess, her works are hideous.The stitching was bad; there were a lot of untrimmed threads, and the worst of it was the fabric.

Everything felt so cheap. Even the quality of the fabric was good, but because of the bad stitching, the dress was just an eyesore overall.

"So how do you find it, Astrid? Is it great? I truly understand that it might not be as beautiful as we see in the shops, but I tried my best to come up with this one. "

I scratched the back of my head and also smiled at her.

"It’s good. I like the overall style. The dress was perfectly crafted. You have talent and you’re a natural on this Margaux. "

She was so happy when I said that and hugged me after. I faked my smile and I was laughing in the back of my mind. Margaux, you can’t have it all. You've got the looks and the charm, but not the talent. You don’t have it.

Her teacher went inside the room, and she began checking the dress that Margaux wore last time. It was probably her assignment. The face of her teacher is kind of suspicious. She’s not showing any emotion, but I bet she shouldn’t point out her mistakes because she was being paid to teach her not to break her feelings.

"It was good. You’re improving Margaux, compared to the last time."

"Oh really? Thank you, Teacher Penelope. I didn’t know if I had made progress, but I’m glad that I was able to hear that from you. "

"However, Margaux, your stitching needs to be clean. Look at this. You need to fix this. "

Her teacher then demonstrated it to her, and then they went to the machine and fixed it. I then observed how it was used. When the teacher was done, I approached them and asked if I could do it by myself.

"She’s my assistant. Her name is Astrid."

"Sure, you can go ahead and try,"

The professor gave me a go signal, and from there, I did the fixing of the stitches in the sewing machine. I saw the shock on Margaux's face and also on her teacher's.

"I’m impressed. Did you use these types of machines before? It is only a select few that have this type of machine. Are you from a different country?"

I looked at Margaux, and I wasn’t sure how to answer her.

"She’s my new assistant from a small village. She’s really smart, so she can do all of these things."

"Really? Even in textbooks, they don’t teach it."

"Well, I observed how you did it. So, I guess I was a fast learner."

"Wow, that was impressive, Astrid." I’m glad you picked it up so fast."

I then saw Margaux's sad face. My initial reaction needed to divert the conversation back to Margaux.

"But I couldn’t still top Margaux; she’d already created a dress. It’s very inspirational. I hope I can reach that level."

I gave that quick response and she also noticed that Margaux was a bit unhappy on hearing her state she was impressed with me so much about the techniques she taught Margaux that I picked up so easily.

"This is such a beautiful wedding dress that you made," Margaux exclaimed when she saw what I made. I lost count of the days that I was here in the mansion with Margaux attending her class. I perfectly created a wedding dress. Margaux wanted to have it as a souvenir from me.

"Hopefully, I can wear this someday on my wedding day. I’m hoping it will be with Elijah." She holds the dress like she is carrying a baby. For the first time in my life, I smiled at her, as if I had received a genuine reaction from a stranger to something I had created.

"That’s for sure Margaux. You can count on me. I’ll make sure that you..." My eyes started hurting in mid-sentence and my head started throbbing in pain.

"Let me call the pack doctor. Please hang on, Astrid,"

"No need Margaux, I’m fine." My eyes were just hurting. Nothing to be worried about, this is normal. "

"Would you like to take a break? We’ve been sewing for a full eight hours now. I guess we enjoyed it so much that we forgot that our stomachs are now empty. "

"Yes, I guess we should take a break now, Margaux."

I wasn’t sure that it was eight hours since we began working on the dress. I was so preoccupied and my mind went into laser focus on finishing that dress. I exhaled deeply when we left the workshop. The realization came into my mind that I truly love doing these types of things.

My old love for stitching scarves grows into more. I am now interested in sewing machines and creating beautiful dresses. Back in the days, I used to see it in the books when I was studying for my exams, but now, ever since I stepped inside the Crimson Moon Pack, the expensive things that I saw only in books are now a reality.

My mind was at peace during the day when I joined Margaux in her private class with her teacher. But every night I kept having bad dreams and hallucinations that tortured me to pieces. I asked Margaux to get some information about Atasha to see how she was doing.

She might be living a terrible life right now as a slave to Elijah Montreal, but hearing of Elijah’s statement that he found his mate and it was Atasha, it kind of pisses me off.

I was torn between being relieved that my plan for Atasha to be linked to Montreal was working so far and being disappointed that Margaux wouldn't end up with him. She deserves Elijah more than my stupid sister.

I massaged the temple of my nose, thinking of these thoughts every night. I'm stuck because of uncertainty; what if my sister is the Luna and everything works out well for her? She’s good at getting the sympathy of other people even though she’s useless and doesn’t have any contribution to the pack.

If Atasha also finds out that I’m here, it would be complicated to explain what happened back in the Silver Moon Pack in the time when I was at the church dealing with the witch.

"I needed to continue this for my mate Alex, to get my eyes back, and finally take over this pack," I kept telling myself this to remind myself why I was here. I shouldn’t feel bad about Margaux.

The next day, I didn’t feel like going to Margaux's workshop. However, Margaux insisted I go with her. So I did. Every time I went inside, I always felt I was in a different dimension. Then something triggers me to grab the scissors and strike Margaux in her throat.

"Astrid, you want to cut this fabric for me?"

"What?"

I came back to my senses and checked my hand. I was holding the scissors in a way that I was holding a knife. My heartbeat went fast, then I suddenly realized that everything was different.

My visions turned red once more. It’s like the demon inside of me was awakened. The hatred towards Margaux was not coming from me, but from Melanie’s eyes. For a second, I wanted to kill her, not because I hated her, but because for a second I saw a different face.