Shimmer |✓|

//Always// Part 2

I awoke in someone else's guest room, lying on their bed, being warmed by their fire.

I sat up, looking hard at the fireplace. Orange and red flames ate at the darkness, safely confined behind their glass prison. I waited for the flames to go blue with Claudia's mischievousness. When they didn't, I got to my feet, wincing at the headache my savior left behind. I'd been knocked out plenty of times, but never so gently.

Since there were no pictures on the red-papered walls, no smiling photographs on the mahogany nightstands, and no windows, I decided to track down the owner. The thick mist curling about my ankles indicated this was Vampire territory. If he was the same Vampire who had saved my life, then maybe I wouldn't greet him with the pocketknife in my boot.

On my way across the room, I stopped at the mirror–a large piece of oval glass surrounded by thin rays of sun. Not just a mirror, a piece of art.

Catching sight of my reflection, I drew a sharp breath at the girl in the mirror. I, was wearing jeans with a blood-spattered hoodie, my curls in bed-headed disarray. But the girl in the mirror was a vision. Her midnight gown sparkled to the floor in beautiful, dark waves, her slender, brown shoulders bare but for the curls that had worked loose from her tiara.

I looked down, saw the gown, and started–because I could actually feel the silk–cool and slight against my skin. "No-o-o-o." The whisper was one of astonishment; I spread my fingers across the fabric in wonder. Another dose of magic–maybe deadly, but oh so beautiful. I grabbed my skirts, and walked the rest of the room, smiling at the heels on my feet.

I opened the door as softly as I could, sticking my head into the hallway–a large, stone passage lined with a strip of red carpeting, occupied by nothing more than mist and torchlight. I stepped timidly into the hallway, took a right–and landed flat on my stomach.

I jumped up with embarrassment, half-expecting to hear a giggle at my expense. I started forward, felt the rug bunch at my feet–and bit the dust. Growling with irritation, I got to my feet and tried again with the same result.

"This isn't funny! It's childish! I should know!" The ceiling failed to answer. Resigned to give up and go the other way, I took a hesitant step, sighing in relief when the rug didn't send me falling.

<<It's a path. Follow.>>

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" I threw up my hands in annoyance.

This was how I made my way, tripping from passage to passage, until I happened upon a waterfall staircase. It ended in hinged, patio doors so high they reached the ceiling hundreds of feet above. I made my slow way down, holding onto the railing like an idiot, afraid of the red carpet beneath my feet. A few steps in, I relaxed enough to take in my surroundings–a massive stone hall, echoing with the drips of runoff, smelling like moss and rainfall. Overhead, bats screeched as they flitted to and fro, disturbing the webs that swayed from a peaked, torchlit ceiling.

There was so much beauty in ugliness. I never knew.

At the bottom of the stairs, I took a shaky breath, my heart awakening at the thought of what lay beyond this point. Mouth dry, I approached the doors, one hand pressed against the ornately sculpted wood, the other gripping a golden handle. All I had to do was twist...

The doors swung stiffly open; I stepped beyond, into a ballroom as grand as the Fairway. Grander. Its white, marble floors stretched ahead, immaculate and glossy. BØRNS' Holy Ghost played unseen, filling the hall with a dreamy combination of falsetto and violins. I followed the sound, my gaze travelling up the marble walls, to the glass ceiling... I gasped.