Shards of darkness (watty awards 2012)

The wrong relfection

The cavern holding her captive was a little larger than a fair sized room, shaped roughly like a bowl, with sloping walls and a hollow on the far side that was filled with water. The shallow pool took up almost half the floor space but, from what she could see, would barely reach her knees in depth. The rock above her head had a slight blue tint and was shiny with moisture. Brightness was provided by holes, big enough to light the room, too small to escape from, that punctured the ceiling of her cell. The ground beneath her was pale mud that sunk under the weight of her bare feet. It was saturated and slightly spongy, like walking on cake. Where it ended, there was a small outcrop of smooth dry rock. Gratefully, Ana moved on to it. The sinking sand did more to head the gnawing sense of unreality. Her bones craved solid ground on which to rest. She rested her back against a side of the wall and allowed herself to slip down to her knees.  The sides of the cave were not all smooth and water slick. One side, the side she was nearest, had been split by some terrible force and a massive crack yawned across, vertically almost, from floor to ceiling. If she craned her neck, she could just about make out a speck of light far down the narrow passage. Even so, if would be difficult, nigh impossible to escape through it, for the sides of the crevasse were sharp and spiked. If she did try to go far in to the tunnel, she would leave half her skin behind her! She wondered how on Earth she could have walked to this cave, let alone while being been dragged when unconscious, for there seemed to be no other way in or out.

The cave was bare apart from the crack and the single pool of water that was directly in front of where she knelt. She reached out a hand and allowed it to side into the depths. The water was tepid at the surface but as her fingers scraped the bottom, it became steadily colder and some current played with her fingers, shallow though it was. It looked safe enough. She drank large drafts from her cupped hands, for she hadn’t realised how thirsty she truly was. It was only as she swallowed her last sip of that lovely water did she spy eyes upon her reflection. A stranger stared back, eyes widening in fear. Ana didn’t see her beauty, a pale oval face trimmed with long gold-blond hair, centred with huge green flecked grey eyes of an unbelievable depth, a perfect nose and warm rosebud lips, little pearl like teeth. She didn’t see her willowy limbs clothed in a simple dress that fell past her knees in rolls of sable fabric, all she saw was that she was not her.

Instinctively, she leaped up and pressed her self deep into the crevice, deep within the rock. Defensive. The sharp rock dug into her flesh and scraped her skin, but she didn’t care. This was not her body. She clutched her rolling head into her hands and wept, but she could find no comfort in this stranger’s arms. How long she stayed there, she was not clear. Time seemed to have to relevance. All she could think about was that awful girl with that terrible beauty. The stranger that seemed uncannily familiar…

She spent the day drifting between consciousness and dreams each tainted by fear. Still he did not return. Before long she was thirsty but dare she not drink from the pool, for fear she would set eyes upon her reflection. It was better to wait, and wait she did. She guessed she had slipped into sleep for when she next opened her eyes, it was dark. That was not the only thing that had changed. Something had happened, she felt sure of it. As it was dark, she would not be able to spy she who she was not in the shadowed cave pool. Besides it wasn’t as if she didn’t know what had happened, she was simply trying to hide the truth…

Cautiously, she pulled her body, stiff and painful from being cramped in such a position in the crevasse, out and into the main bit of the cave. To her surprise, she caught a whiff of… food? Looking down, she saw a bowl filled with dark lumps. Lifting it to her nose, she took a sniff. Meat stew? Tentatively, she took a tiny mouthful. It had been years since she had tasted something that good. Warm gooey gravy, slightly nutty and… And before she knew why, slurps of flavour slipped down her throat that was raw from weeping. It wasn’t until she downed the last mouthful did she pause to wonder how on Earth could some one have brought in the food, (which had still been pleasantly warm) to her when her sleeping body blocked the only entrance? It suddenly became all too much for her and her pretty eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed onto the soft sand.

From high above her head he watched her through the holes in the roof. He allowed the roof the dissolve under him with a wish and he landed stealthily upon the pale ground, the hole above him closed and there was no trace it had ever been opened. He crept forward on all fours until he reached her unconscious form. With one hand, he pushed her sandy hair back so it revealed her face, white and angelic in the moon light. She was so beautiful. He did not know why he allowed her to live. He ought to kill her. And yet… And yet there was something about the sleeping woman-child before him that refrained death blow he normally longed to strike… He pressed his head close to hers and inhaled a breath of sent. Yes, she was perfect. A pure body, one that had never witnessed smoke, fumes, poison, hatred, she was as fresh as if she had just been born, with no harm to her fragile body apart from a few tiny scrapes. With a blink of his shadowed eyes, they were healed, her skin was clear once more. Not like the poor, true form, the broken wench that had been Ana. He had been unable to heal her when she strayed far in his mind. He had been too late getting her soul back into her physical body. So, he had to find her another… 

She turned over in the unnatural sleep he had cast upon her. So, to avoid waking her, he left, leaping up to the wall from whence he came. It parted to let him through, the midnight sky; black and moonless, was visible for a second before the cave closed up and all was well…