Mirrors & Shadows

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝐗𝐕𝐈

յօ 𝔪𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔥𝔰 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔬𝔯~𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔟𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔰 𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱

As the light turned red for pedestrians, Henry stepped straight into the traffic. Honking broke out.
"Hey!Are you blind?"
"Yes." Henry replied patiently as he gained the other side of the street.
He continued, taking two rights then a left, counting his steps. Although, he had become blind in his childhood, his mind had never really stopped seeing things. In the dark fog that fell like a veil around him, he could make out with precision, whenever he heard a heartbeat of a passerby, a white luminescent substance contract, forming a floating ball of light before bursting like a star in the night sky and then contracting again, imitating the heartbeat.

He arrived in front of the building. He knew it was there despite the dark void he was only capable of seeing. Everything was a void whose only barrier was his mind. He stepped forward. Indeed, his hands met the wooden door. He composed the code on the pad and it opened. His hands traveled up a spiralling staircase ramp. So familiar yet all the while as unknown as the rest of the world appeared to him. On the 20th floor, he drew a set of keys and unlocked the first door to the left. A flood of sound overwhelmed him and with it came a swirl of vivid colors. From golden tinges to royal blue, sumptuous emerald and the darkest of reds. They billowed gracefully like smoke plumes around the dancing lights, that is to say, the guests' hearts as they swayed along to the music.
"Would you like to dance?" A feminine voice asked.
"It would be my pleasure."
He took a step into nothingness, abandoning himself to the light of her heart. His hands found her waist.
"Let me lead." He instructed.
"I thought you were blind." She teased.
He said nothing. There was just them. Their heartbeats. Those of the other guests. The music.
"A handsome man like you must be married." The woman initiated.
"Alas... I've been single for 5 centuries. What about you?"
"All my previous husbands were sighted and jerks."
He chuckled.
"May I?" she asked. He could feel her breath on his shoulder.
"You won't see much." he shrugged.
Then suddenly, sharp pain split on the left side of his neck. His senses were disoriented. Smells, sounds and tactile feelings changed all at once as she traveled through his memories. Yet he could still sense the present feeling of his own blood dripping down his neck. Then, she stopped, probably deciding his life wasn't as interesting as she'd hoped. Their feet were mechanically shuffling into position as they continued to dance but her hand moved up his back and to his neck, leaning his head close to her shoulder.
"Let me give you a taste of sight." she cooed. In turn, his canines unsheathed, peeking through his lips, at the mere thought of tasting rich vampire blood. He bit her. She moaned in delight. Although he realized that most of her memories he was seeing were the memories she had seen in other vampires. He let go of her with disgust. She only jeered at his reaction. Meanwhile, he could sense that someone was staring at him across the room.

He stopped dancing and walked over to Edmond. Henry waited for him to say something but he remained silent.
"I know you too well, Edmond. This meeting wasn't organized by simple courtesy. What are you going to tell them? Surely you wouldn't be so audacious as to speak of the shifter."
"Osiris is back."
There was a pause between them.
"The Osiris?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. He's here. In Paris. I saw him last night."
"It was evident he would come back someday... his disappearance was too odd. Why Paris though?"
"He saw Luna."
"You can't possibly think about keeping that girl then. You will have to kill her or he will."
There was another pause.
"Blimey, Edmond. You're thinking of protecting her aren't you? Do you realize what that decision implicates? No one has ever questioned Osiris. The clan would go to war and we would have no allies. We wouldn't stand a chance. All for what, Edmond, I ask?"
"They're afraid, Henry. Tell them you can end their life. They'll strongly maintain that they don't believe you but by fear they will."

They stopped talking at the approach of a vampire servant holding a bottle of unlabeled wine.
"A drink messieurs?"
"Avec plaisir." Edmond replied.
The server poured red liquid into two glasses.
"Thank you, Adrien." Edmond expressed his gratitude, taking the two glasses and handing one to his friend.
"You're most welcome my sire." The server performed a curtsy before leaving the two of them to their conversation. Edmond took a sip out of his glass. Henry sniffed the content. Not wine. Blood. Human blood.
"But you haven't found it. You haven't found the blood moon's secret."
"Not yet."
Henry chuckled nervously.
"I'm blind and yet even I see that although every person in this room holds you in high esteem, they would betray you in an instant to get to that secret before you do. Any person with the knowledge of how to end immortal life would have power over all vampires."
"That is precisely why my plan will work. All our enemies will be at my mercy. Considering this, do you think they'll want to be against me or with me when I discover the secret?"
However, Henry did not have the chance to reply. The music had ceased. All guests having vampire hearing, it would be impossible for his response to go unheard. Edmond turned away from him and approached the pedestal at the end of the room. Everyone went silent.
"Greetings dear guests," he began," we are gathered today..."
"Ohh bloody hell..." Henry muttered to himself. They would all be locked alive in their graves by Monday... or worse.

EXPLANATION of STORY TITLE:
I didn't really want to reveal the title's meaning until the end but now that I've started entering awards and the title's coherence is part of the judging criteria, I'll give my explanation. Mirrors represent reality as we see it. Whereas I chose shadows to represent deceitfulness. Have you ever heard of Plato's cave? It is said that we are like trapped in a cave watching shadows projected on the wall. We think that the shadows are reality but only a true philosopher can free themself from the cave and realize that the shadows aren't an accurate representation of the world. Throughout the story, Luna will try distinguishing reality from what's deceitful. For example, the rose in her dream seems so beautiful and alluring but in reality it's treacherous.
I won't reveal more not to spoil ;)

Word count: 987

Autumn Leaves by Ed Sheeran -Bonus Soundtrack from the + Album 🍂 (He wrote it when he was 17!!)