The Mutari

The Mutari Ch. 6

Letti shook her head. Abruptly, her dear unconscious friend pushed to the front of her mind. “Is Avey okay?”

“Yeah. Just knocked out.”

“Okay.”

A vague outline began forming out of the darkness. Letti’s eyes squinted warily. She involuntarily took a step back. Relli held her ground, actually leaning forward. The object slowly crept forward, becoming more and more defined.

            And then, Letti realized that the man had been truthful. Despite her friend’s words and the lack of burnt bones̶, she had not truly believed she wasn’t condemned to hell for murder quite yet. Now as the tomb approached them, relief overwhelmed her. This was all going according to his instructions. Apprehension still struck her. It was time to figure out what had been hidden away so protectively.

            Coming into view was a wooden coffin. Smackdab in the center was a crescent. As it approached the single lit flame, Letti had a sense of its color. Just as deeply red as the crescent was in the painting was the entire coffin. Complicated vine-like ridges and swirls were adorned into the wood. Without a doubt, Letti knew the man had made this in addition to the door and painting.

            The strident sound of rock on rock ceased. The coffin was fully protruding out of the wall now. After a couple seconds of inactivity, the front of the coffin puffed out a little with a sigh, as if happy to relinquish its burden after so long.

            “Move out of the way,” Letti said quickly as she sidestepped away. Relli quickly followed suit.

            Not a second later, the front of the coffin fell to the ground like an exhausted man who’d finally reached the end of his journey. Letti’s eyes were rooted to what was inside.

            There she was. Here was the woman of the door, the painting, and even the illusion. Except she looked nothing like the illusion.

            Anyone discovering a body in a coffin would have expected them to be laid flat out in a regal manner. Instead, the woman was happily resting on her side as if she was in a bed. Letti could tell that she wore the same dress as the illusion. However, this one was clean as the other’s was filthy. The dark blue dress even glittered brightly with every shine of flame. A small smile was on her beautiful, serene face. Letti had to admit this woman was beyond pretty. The man’s painstaking artwork did her justice.

The hair was the exact shade as in the painting. Letti finally got an exact measurement of the length, though. With her legs only slightly bent at an angel, her hair easily reached to her thighs. Fire and ice met in a clash with the hair and dress while light and darkness competed with her pale skin and the darkness of her outfit.

Her hands were snuggled under her head as a pillow. To anyone, it just looked as if she’d happen to take a nap in a coffin. She slept, but Letti doubted if it was of her choice. She shifted around to get a look as her closed eyes. Were they really that surreal, light gray as the illusion’s had been?

It was then that she noticed. Something seemed a little bit off about the coffin and the woman… Almost as if they weren’t touching. But that’s impossible right?

Apparently not because she was right. There was barely an inch or two of space between them, but the woman was indeed defying gravity. Nothing seemed to hold her in place as she levitated in a fixed position. This was a woman bound by magic. A woman who was probably a vampire as the illusion suggested.

“Who is she?” Relli murmured, awestruck. Before Letti realized it, her friend’s arm was stretching out for a touch. Letti’s hand wrapped around Relli’s arm and yanked back.