The Secret Door (#Wattys2016)

Chapter XIII The Glass Heads

"Can't you see Van that I'm cursed," said Cara after seeing the disbelief in Van's face.

"But it's hard to prove Cara," Van replied. He stowed the mirror back to his pocket, and it continues to glow.

"Van, the moment I saw her, I felt unnaturally weak. And when you're not looking, she muttered something incomprehensible, and I fell ill!"

Van meant to say he didn't saw her do that, but he holds his tongue. Since he and the rest are simply too sleepy to be observant to their surroundings, he can't disprove that either. And Cara is not the type of person that will just accuse someone straightaway. And his dream comes to mind. You can never go back to your world. That's what the voice keeps saying. What if it's not a dream but a vision? A warning he must take heed. The mirror in his pocket is again making a non-verbal reminder in his mind and it says listen to your friend.

"The best thing we could do now is to get away from here. Let's wake the others," Cara suggested.

Van still has troubles believing Cara but he can't help trusting her. They take turns waking the others but they won't budge, even after Van resorted to shaking and slapping. Based on what's happening now, Van is starting to be suspicious of the woman.

"Van, I think they are cursed too," Cara suggested as their sleeping friends snores. If that's the case, Van has something that should do the trick!

Van instantly knows what to do. He pulls out the mirror from his pocket and points it at his sleeping friends. The moment the glowing mirror illuminates their faces, they spring awake looking dazed and confused.

"What happened," Don asked before yawning dreamily.

"How's your sleep," Cara asked.

"Sleep, err..."

Don's face contorted into a grimace as if struggling to recall something.

"I don't think we slept," Alice said, "our minds simply shut itself..."

"It was relaxing though," Kirsten added. Her eyes are still puffy and her hair is partly dishevelled.

"Idiot, do you know what just happened to you?" Cara whispered, "You are cursed!"

"You are non-responsive when we're trying to wake you up. We are basically trying all sorts of stuff to rouse you," Van added.

And Cara explains to their startled companions everything they need to know, including how she struggles to wake up herself.

"That nameless woman is causing this to us," Cara concluded

"Cara, you must be mistaken?" Asked Alice, her eyebrows raised as if she never heard something as unbelievable as this.

"Kirsten, your hand..."

"What's wrong with my hand Van...? Goodness!"

A part of Kirsten's right hand, her palm to be exact had turned to glass. It was a good thing that she managed to keep her voice down or else the woman might hear them. And she isn't the only one. Alice is now eyeing her glass thumb with blank horror in her eyes. Don checks his own hands, and to his relief they are still fleshy and normal.

"Don is the first to wake up, so the curse is yet to affect him," Van said to himself. And what if they stayed asleep and didn't wake up? Would the curse spread and turn them into glass sculptures? Van simply doesn't want to think about it.

"Now what," Alice muttered, and there is no denying now that they must leave this place before they turn into full crystal statues.

"We could sneak out right now, the woman may be sleeping at this time," Van said as he opens the door. But a nasty surprise awaits them outside their bedchamber.

Everything changed. Gone is the decorated and handsome hallway they are expecting to see. They are now looking at a bleak corridor with bare stone walls and brackets where torches are placed.

"Which way is out," the now worried Alice said nervously.

"Turn left," Kirsten suggested.

"Oh no not again..."

"Any suggestion missy," Kirsten said sarcastically to Alice.

"Someone is coming," Van mouthed urgently. And since the sound of footsteps is coming to their right, they then turn left like what Kirsten said.

And they run, like they never run before until they reach a dead end.

"Here," Alice pointed to a room behind them. The entrance is draped with dark curtains and they couldn't see what's inside. Faced with little choice, they rush inside the room not minding the dangers that awaits them there.

The room is dimly lit, and it has an unexplained air of evil, in fact it looks like a miniature torture chamber. Assortments of lethal looking instruments are displayed in their respectable racks while bladed implements adorn the wall. There are jars containing dead animals and body parts floating in foul coloured liquid in a shelf above the desk.

"This woman had likings for crystal sculptures," Don pointed at a cabinet-full of glass heads. These heads have curious features; they are human-like but they sport strange appendages like horns, pointy ears and extra eyes.

"These glass heads are so lifelike," said Alice as the others search for a place to hide.

"Because we're once alive," said one to Alice. All of them have to slap their hands into their mouth so they won't scream.

"That woman did this," another glass head muttered.

"She wants our hearts, but she discarded the body and kept our heads for her collection," another one growled.

"And she will do the same to you," a head near Alice said darkly.

Alice and Kirsten look mortified after hearing these and their glass hands seems to prickle.

"Look, we have new companions," another head jeered.

"You will join us soon," a particularly nasty looking one chuckled madly at them.

"Why are you out of bed?"

Their hearts does a somersault when they heard the voice. There she is blocking the curtained entrance of the room. The woman must have heard her glass heads drawl.