Light

No matter how inviting the scene is, those claw marks serve as warning. You step behind the door and must push hard to move it back in place. It’s a relief when you hear it click shut.

“You nearly closed that on me.”

You whirl around to see a lady in a diaphanous gown of pale lilac. Reflexively you curtsy and realize you are still holding the ripped tablecloth. You keep that hand tucked behind your skirts.

“I’m sorry ma’am…my lady. I-I… Did you come from there?”

“One of many entrances to Leadmere,” she says as she smiles and inclines her head graciously.

You keep your eyes respectfully lowered, as you were trained, however you cannot help but stare when she moves her head. It looks as if her features blur for an instant before snapping back into focus. It must be a trick of the dim light down here yet it unnerves you all the same.

“Shall I show you upstairs, my lady?” you ask, taking a step towards the door, eager to return to a more normal scene.

Her eyes narrow and slide towards the hall door while her smile turns mischievous.

“I should like to visit my dear friends, the Leadmeres, yet this place is so dreary. Let us go where it is more congenial,” she says. An elegant hand indicates the door you have just closed.

“I mustn’t, I have my work to do.”

She sighs wistfully. “Very well, then here.”

She moves the same hand yet suddenly it holds a small metal cross, but oddly proportioned with a too short top. You watch many small, twinkling lights appear at the top and move upwards in two lines, which meet in the form of a curved blade. You cringe back and tell yourself it cannot hurt you, it is only light, but when you look again you see you were mistaken. It now appears to be a dagger of glass, glittering along its honed edges.

When she lunges forward her assumed face can no longer keep pace and you catch an impression of an elongated face with sharpened, dull grey teeth. You scream and run for the door, throwing the only thing you have at hand, the ripped tablecloth. Her weapon slices easily through it and she is pressed against you, holding you close.

At first you think nothing has happened. Your midsection is numb. But then you feel something warm sliding down your legs and pooling at your feet.

“Your service here is fulfilled,” she says as you collapse against her and everything goes black.

THE END

Restart

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This is part of the story Beneath Leadmere Manor, written for @calluna’s 9th Tell a Story to Me Contest, based on the prompt, “Deep below ground, a portal opens…,” as well as the #freewrite prompt by @mariannewest: light.

Image by Hans Braxmeier