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* The concept for this story was based off of a strange dream I had a while back. Dont get me wrong, it wasn't a nightmare, atleast not in my opinion ~my mother thought it was a bit unsettling~ and the story is very different from the actual dream since I had to stitch together a random jumble of scenes that made no sense. But I hope you enjoy! ^^ *
The Girl
The candlelight flickered about the room, illuminating the girls sharp features; making them appear darker, before she pursed her lips and blew out the candles flame. The room was immediately shrouded in a pitch black so immense that not even a creature of the night would be able to see her as she slipped her legs onto her bed, turning her haggard body this way and that until she finally managed to get comfortable. She glanced in the direction of her open bedroom door one last time, peering into the dark towards the room opposite of the hall from her own, before falling into a light and fluttery slumber.
* * *
She couldn't quite recall how, but there she found herself, staring at a pair of knickers in the lassies section of a modern-day market. The name of which, seemed to slip her mind every time she thought she had a firm grasp upon it.
Looking to her left she spotted her family. Her mother, father, her brother... and even her grandmother? Now that wasn't right. Her family had died in a carriage accident over a year ago, her grandmother from choking on her,- what they had believed to have been, her own saliva. It happened in her sleep, just two years prior to the rest of her families unfortunate demise. Her grandmother had been old and weary and her memory had begun to falter. There were even moments when she would forget how to breathe. Her death was timely and both she and the rest of her family had already been prepared.
The girl stared at them, not a word passing her lips, not a noise to fill the silence, instead, the silence seemed to consume her as a buzzing in her ears began to grow louder by the second.
She felt something brush against her hand, pulling her from her momentary stupor, only to find her mother sliding the pully-lever of their small dingy wooden cart into her grip. She accepted with a curt nod as she stared down at the dawdly thing. With one of its wheels falling off and one half of the cart dragging along the ground as she pulled it along, it was less of a cart and more just extra weight for her to lug along with her.
She looked back up to her mother with an unreadable expression as her wide eyes stared emotionless, before she turned back to her task.
As she walked, her dowdy clothes dragged along the floor. They were so ragged and torn that they distracted from the cuts and bruising that covered her body. But they did nothing for the layers of dirt and grime smudged all along what little could be seen of her arms, legs, and face. Her clouds of fluffy orange hair tied down on either side of her head in two large braids. She had no ties for her hair, so she had used two thin slivers of browning fabric from the bottom of her dress in their stead.
Her brother was looking at small trinkets not far from her, accompanied by her father, but her grandmother was nowhere to be found. She didn't question this though, instead she turned away and began looking around at the different items to be had in the market, losing herself to her imagination as she pictured what life would be like were she to have all of those items for herself.
Shortly after, she turned around to find her family had vanished. She had only looked away for mere moments, so they mustn't have gone far. She pulled the cart behind her, feet dragging as she lumbered around the markets diverse set-ups, when suddenly, she faltered. Her feet seemed to fly out from beneathe her as she barely managed to catch herself on the thin planks below. She was now suspended above the market, trapped between the beams keeping the roofing from collapsing. Without a clue as to how she had gotten up there, she silently grabbed ahold of the carts pulley-lever, using it to tug herself back onto the most stable ground available, then began her precarious dance on the shuddering wobbly planks beneathe her feet. She soon spotted her family once more, but her grandmother was still nowhere to be seen.
As she approached the edge of the wooden beams making up a large portion of the markets roofing, she began to feel as though she was falling all over again. Slowly turning her head about, she could see nothing but pitch black. Yet there was a familiarity to this empty void of blackness and she could finally feel that strange buzzing from before slowly leaving her head. It was a familiarity that she new quite well as she pulled the old wheat bags she used as blankets off of her legs and swept them over the edge of the pile of shredded cloths in which she called her bed, stepping down lightly upon the splinterred wooden floor. She made her way to the still open bedroom door, following a path that she knew by heart, growing closer to the room across the hallway from her bedroom.
Her fingers skimmed the peeling paint of the door as she searched for the knob, quietly twisting it open with a small, click, before pushing the door ajar. Inside was her latrine, or rather, inside was a toilet that didn't flush, water that didn't run, and toiletries which she had no use for. Walking towards the toilet she admired the swirling strands varying in colors of red, brown, orange, and grey flitting around the water. She looked to the large wooden bath, silently staring at the now decomposed corpses of her family with empty eyes and an unmoved heart.
She felt no grief, no regret, no sorrow, no pain, and most of all, ... She felt no guilt.
Her grandmother never choked on saliva, she had been suffocated with a pillow. And her family didn't die from a carriage accident, they had died from the salty ocean water she had been giving them, the same water she had mixed into every meal she had prepared. They all grew sick, and eventually, died from dehydration. But no doctor could possibly come up with such a strange diagnosis for a whole family who had plenty of water. So it was said that they died in an accident to avoid stressing the other townspeople over a possible plague.
She closed her eyes, wishing she could place them in the ocean and watch them sink to the bottom where they would remain for all eternity. She wished for them to sleep in silent comfort just as she had every single night since their deaths. But that wasn't possible. So in the latrine they would remain.
Along with her collection of jars of seawater, awaiting anyone whom she deemed to be too disruptive of her peaceful silence.
* Let me know in the replies if you want me to make a second chapter of this where I describe the original dream since this is a highly modified version of my actual dream.
I wrote this in third person point of view but in the dream it was first person point of view and I was the girl, but sadly I had to change the ending quite a bit so that it would actually make sense. No, I did not murder anyone in my dream for those of you wondering XD * |
