Dark Winter (14 page)

At that moment, Nan held her head in her hands, her elbows buried into her lap. I wanted to say she could stop, that all this must be very tiring for her, but I really needed to know the deal with the Mirror.

“Dana didn’t stay in the house a second longer, and in her confusion, ran deeper into the forest, instead of heading for home. I could run fast, in normal circumstances, Dana could easily outpace me, but now, given the frightened state she was in, she ended up running even faster. Fear has a way of doing that to you, my girl.”

Nan stopped talking, and stared out into space. Her blank look scared me so much, that I had to dig her in the ribs to shake her out of it.

“Oh…right…” said Nan. “Well, anyway, I chased as far as I could, and shouted Dana’s name at the top of my voice. Then, in the distance, I don’t know how far away it was, but I could hear her screaming. I ran and ran and ran, into parts of the forest that I didn’t know, and bet few others did either. Weeds grabbed at my legs as I ran. The foilage hadn't been trimmed in years, if ever. I stopped abruptly. Above my head, darkness folded in. My heart sank as I saw part of her dress had been caught on tree, ripped away by a protruding branch. I was scared, so scared, but still I kept on running in the direction of her screams. I just had to get her back safely.

“Then, every hair on my head stood up as I heard one long, unbroken scream. I ran still further, tears streaming down my face, with the thought of anything happening to Dana, simply too much for me to bear.”

Nan turned to me. I can’t, even to this day, describe the look on her face. Imagine how you would feel if you believed that your friend had been killed.

“I managed to stop just in time, don’t ask me how. There was a huge drop right in front of me, Milly. It just came out of nowhere, like that cursed wood-cabin. Anyway, I stepped back to safety, thinking Dana had fallen to her death.”

“I was scared of heights, you see. Still, I strained my neck to look down. If Dana had fallen, there was simply no way she could have survived. I had lost my best friend, and worse than that, I had been the cause of it.”

But it turned out to be far worse than that.”

How could it be worse than that
? danced the thoughts in my head.

“I’ll tell you, if you’ll be patient, Milly. I have a lot to get through.”

“I could make out a bloodied, blonde heap far below. I knew it could only be Dana. But there was something else. A hooded figure was crouching over her and well, the next thing I knew, she was gone.”

“I screamed at the hooded figure, and it rose up, from the ground to face me. I could see no face beyond the cowl of its hood. I fell over as it towered above me. I felt something underneath me, and the figure’s body position seemed to change.”

“I grasped whatever it was, and realised it was that hateful Mirror that Dana had picked up.”

“I brandished it viciously in the figure’s direction, and to my surprise, it backed off, and made no attempt to take the Mirror from me.”

“I took my chance to get out of there, and ran all the way home without stopping, clasping the Mirror in my hand. It may have taken Dana, but it saved me from that…whatever it was.”

I tried, in vain, to process this in my head. I just couldn’t do it.

“Nan-”, I ventured.

“You weren’t there Milly, so you don’t know. I can’t explain it, except to say that eleven year old Dana Cullen just disappeared. But she’s not dead. She’s destined to live out an existence for which no-one born in this life deserves.”

“Have you ever tried to release her?”

“I’m not able to do that Milly. I can catch souls with the Mirror. But release them, I’m not sure how to do that. If the Mirror was ever broken, it would release all the souls, good, bad, and indifferent. So you can see the problem. It might be possible to get Dana out of there, but everything else would be released too. She’s probably changed out of all recognition. So you see Milly, the Mirror must be protected at all costs. At
all
costs.”

I wondered why the Mirror couldn’t just be buried deep in the ground somewhere. It was like some doorway to Hell itself. Nan seemed to read my thoughts again, or maybe just the puzzled look on my face.

“Milly, it just can’t.” She seemed very sad for a moment. I realised how long she had carried the burden of Dana, who was destined to be a young, tormented demon-girl forever. She would never grow up. Nan had lived with this pretty much all of her life.

“However, the Mirror might reveal itself to you, Milly. You might gain – or already have, a power to release Dana, and only the good souls that are trapped in there. Though, it is hard to know what state the good ones would be in, after so long in there. I know that even if I had learned how to release Dana, it wouldn’t have been a good idea, because of how much she had changed. How
he
changed her
.
I wish I had more advice for you.”

“If you know my future,” I said, “you could give me a lot of pointers.”

“That’s true. But I won’t do that. It might have the opposite effect of what I want to achieve for you.”

Which begged the question -  What does she want me to achieve? To free Dana and get her back to normal? Why have I got these wretched markings on my hands? Why isn’t Nan any fun anymore…the conversations just got too serious since I was given the damned thing.

“Nan, would it be so bad if….if you just had the Mirror back? I mean, I’ll be alright.”

“Remember that night, when I told you I had seen the future?”

Oh yes. Vividly.

“Well, your future depends on you looking after the Mirror, Milly. You will achieve something great, but at great cost too. To put your mind at rest, this isn’t about me, Dana, or your parents. It’s about you, about all of you in this town. So please, do as I say.”

It seemed there was no more to say.

“Okay Nan.”

“You’re a good girl, Milly. I’ve always thought that. You’ve been fun to be around.”

Nan went to her room. In the night, I was awoken by a shadowy figure, sitting at the end of my bed. He sat forward, with his fist propping his chin up, and his hooves – yes, he had hooves for feet, clunking on the floor. He didn’t say anything, but I could hear his voice in my head.

Your Nan told you not to sleep with your knees bent, otherwise I would pay you a visit. She told you that. You didn’t listen, you just don’t ever listen, do you? In your heart, you know you’re going to fail, don’t you?

I closed my eyes, prayed to God, even though my faith is a bit non-existent, but in that moment, I believed in a higher authority that could protect me. When I opened my eyes again, the figure had gone. I just had to check on Nan.

I got up, perspiring heavily, and tiptoed into her room. She was snoring lightly. Satisfied, I went back to my bedroom. But on my return, there was no mistaking what was in front of me.

A girl, maybe ten or twelve, wearing a white dress, splattered with blood. She had a red apple in one hand, and as she bit into it, blood poured from her mouth. I dived towards my dresser and pulled out the Mirror. A ‘D’ pendant hung from a chain around her slender neck. The ghost of that girl disappeared before I managed to point it in her direction, but I could hear her laughing.

Hahahahah…. Hahahahah…. Hahahahah.

It was ringing in my ears. I don’t even recall falling to sleep.

I awoke to much commotion in the house. I could hear my mother crying, and my father pacing up and down.

My Nan, who had given me this Mirror of Souls for reasons only she knew, had passed away. I felt numb, but not in a way you’d expect.
This is just typical of you, Nan, leaving me like this.

I should have felt mournful and sad in that moment. Instead, the one I most wanted to talk to about the night in question was Nan herself. What would she have made of the demonic figure on the bed, or the girl ghost? From the description Nan gave me, it had to be Dana, and if it was her, I didn’t want her released. Ever.

Nan wouldn’t have had that from me though. She’d have laughed, of course, and ticked me off for not believing in ghosts.

I damn sure believed in them now.

I was on my own. I kept the Mirror locked up in my dresser, the middle drawer of three on the left hand side. I deliberately put it there because I’m naturally right handed. I didn’t want there even to be a small chance I could pick it up by accident. I was deliberately making it hard for myself to get to the Mirror. I would check that it was still there from time to time, and that was all I was prepared to do.

Looking back, if I had been just a bit faster, I might have been able to get that demon on the bed into it, or maybe even Dana, the girl ghost with the blood splattered dress.

It didn’t matter though. Nan was gone, and I would have to deal with things on my own from now on. My mother had gone into an introspective phase, and clearly wasn’t dealing with Nan’s passing all too well.

My father…well, was my father. He’s very much your archetypal strong, silent type, and brooded quietly on his own. He sometimes said to me that he really missed Nan, and yet, knew she had been failing in good health for a while.

I could only relate it to the time before she gave me the Mirror, with the time after she gave me the Mirror. A hundred and five years old. It was obvious that the Mirror gave her a long, healthy life. At least, that is what I convinced myself was the truth. So while I humoured Dad’s feelings on this, I disagreed with him entirely. As I saw it, that Mirror was the key to her health.

I sat down at my dressing table. I brushed my hair, which by now was due for a cut. If I didn’t have one soon, I’d end up looking like Toril Withers, whose hair was so long she could sit on it by now.

Glancing to the left side of my dressing table, I shot an accusing glare at the middle drawer. It was locked, of course, but I tugged at it anyway to make sure.

I was certain that it couldn’t stayed locked up forever. But Nan had left me with no way of knowing how to use it, even if I wanted to. Saying that it was ‘different for everyone’ wasn’t of much help.

The story she told me had really un-nerved me, but I decided that being afraid of things had gotten me nowhere in the past, and so maybe, I would just have to face this head-on.

I took out the key to the dresser, which was hiding in one of my old coats in my wardrobe.

I thought I would change my mind once I heard the lock click, but I didn’t.

Inside the drawer, as if I expected to see anything else, lay the simple mirror inside a simple brown box. I had changed it from the one that Nan had kept it in. Somehow, it didn’t seem right to keep her box, so I got rid of it. I surprised myself at just how unsentimental I was about the whole process.

It never crossed my mind that I should be scared. As far as I knew, Nan could have taken the Mirror out at any one time, and used it herself.

I would have to discover its uses for myself.

Uncomfortable emotions welled up inside of me. First, there was just total helplessness. Then came uncertainty. Third, and last, an extreme feeling of anger. Anger at being left something that may or may not help me, or others. I could do nothing, and the thing I am supposed to prevent happening to me or others could still happen. Or, I could do something, and cause it anyway. What a mess.

With that, I pulled the lid aside, and held the Mirror in my hands, and…

And nothing.

I continued to hold it, and though I looked at it with great concentration, there was absolutely nothing to see. Also, just like the first time I held it, there was no reflection of me. The marks on my hands got no deeper or longer. Perhaps, like was the case with Nan, the marks got deeper with age. Perhaps so, I still could not know for sure.

The Mirror catches souls.

So that probably means that ghosts cannot be caught by it. Or maybe it does. The whole thing is driving me crazy.

I put it back in its box, and then, into the drawer. I locked it up and put the key back in its hiding place.

The Mirror might reveal itself to you. All in good time.

That was the trouble, because ‘might’ could also mean that it might not reveal anything. Perhaps the best thing to do was just leave it be, and hope that I never had cause to look at it again.

I would have to sleep this off, so I buried my head in my pillow until sleep took me.

                                          *                            *                            *

The next day, I went to the library. I didn’t really know what I was looking for, because the Mirror and its supposed powers defied classification. Also, I didn’t really know what classifications I was looking for.

“Hey, Romilly, fancy seeing you here.”

A sort of familiar voice reached my ears. Facing away from the owner, I turned around to face her.

Toril Withers sat in front of me, in front of a table which was creaking under the weight of the books she had chosen. I could see titles on the spines, such as
The Occult of Eastern Europe, The Thule Society, The Origins of Wicca, Satanism and the Modern World.
Yes, Toril read widely. She was rather famous at school for having read more than anyone else. When she had finished the books in the school library, she went to the main library and went through that. She must have still been working her way through this one.

“Hi, Toril,” I offered rather blankly. I had to find something out about the Mirror. I didn’t have time for whatever Toril wanted. I turned back to face the bookshelves.

“What are you looking for? Maybe I can help,” said Toril brightly.

I rather doubt it, but I really hope so Toril,
I thought.

“I’m…I’m looking for…well I don’t know really. My Nan passed away recently. She used to read tea leaves.”

“Tasseography.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Tasseography,” repeated Toril. “That’s the name for the art of reading tea leaves. Your Nan must have been pretty special.”

I was taken aback by Toril. This was rather too nice of her. I wanted to keep my guard up, and not tell her anything, but this was difficult. This is how she got people on-side, and in any case, I  needed help.

“Yes, she was,” I confirmed. “I don’t have any such gift, but she got me intrigued. Maybe that’s why I’m here. I don’t really know what kind of book I’m looking for.”

“Well, I have lots to go on here,” said Toril. “Would you like to see?”

I had nothing to lose, so I agreed. Maybe I would even learn something. I tried to find out something about the Mirror without actually telling her anything about it.

“Toril, do you know anything about special artefacts, or objects that might contain special powers? Anything in your books that might help me?”

“Wow. That’s pretty deep, Romilly,” said Toril. “There’s many artefacts in history that I could talk about. Care to enlighten me a little?”

Hmm. I didn’t want to involve Toril, or anyone, in something that I didn’t understand. I was worried that I would be doomed to repeat what happened to Nan. She’d lived her whole life dealing with the aftermath of Dana’s demise.

I could not, would not let that happen to me.

“Well, it could be something or nothing, really. My Nan left me an heirloom, and according to her, it might have some special powers.”

“Oh really?” said Toril, inquisitively. “Anything that could help your hands heal up?”

Shoot. I’d forgotten all about that. Well, it was easy to. When I had the lace gloves on, the marks all but disappeared. This morning, I had rushed out of the house, completely forgetting to put them on, and bookworm Toril wouldn’t miss a trick like that.

“My hands are fine,” I lied. I dug around in my pockets until I found the gloves, and put them on.

“Maybe if you gave me some more details, I could help.”

I could see that Toril was well meaning, and I had come to the library with a certain sense of purpose in that I would find….something. I decided to trust her.

“Toril, what do your books say about something which maybe you shouldn’t be told about? I mean…by not telling you, I’d be keeping you safe, I suppose.”

Oh dear. That didn’t come out how I meant at all. Talk about a putting foot sandwich in my mouth.

“Well then, I would definitely want to know!” said Toril, excitedly. “This is what I’m all about, Romilly. No-one ever talks to me about this stuff. Now come on, ‘fess up. What have you got?”

Toril could see the pained look on my face.

“I really do want to know, so I can help. Honestly!”

“Are you just excited that someone wants to talk to you about things that interest you, or that you really believe you can help?”

“I believe I just answered the question,” said Toril. “It’s okay if you don’t want to share. I just thought you did, that’s all.”

I decided to be honest.

“Toril, I do need help, I think. But I need to know that those I involve would be safe - ”

“Or take responsibility for their own actions, which I can and I do,”  affirmed Toril, with all the confidence in the world.

Okay then. Maybe this is how it was meant to be. Nan never said I could not seek help. She did say that the Mirror would reveal itself in some way. Perhaps Toril’s involvement would help the Mirror reveal something, anything, to me.

“Alright then,” I said, not knowing for sure if I was doing the right thing. “You’ll have to come to my house.”

Toril chatted to me on the walk back from the library. I was listening, but I was also rather distracted. I suppose, if I so decided that I didn’t want to show Toril the Mirror after all, that was my choice. I just wish that Nan had revealed something to me about the future, because she might not want someone like Toril having any part in it.