V.I.T.R.I.O.L. Part Five

 V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

Part 5/7

I felt my breath catch in my chest as I heard the snap of twigs under feet. The footsteps grew louder, until they were just outside the cabin. I wanted to stand. I wanted to strike, but the crone pointed her bony finger to the ground. Bidding me to sit. 

“He is not here.” She hissed. “Not yet at least… But as the dawn approaches he will be. Take a seat… this is where the story gets good”

Reluctantly, I settled in.  But the back of my mind, and the corner of my eye, remained fixed on the cabin door. I was angry. Angry at my aunt, at the sheriff, at the town.  I wasn’t going down without a fight. 

Just as I felt my hands clench into a fists, the door flew open. Wind and rain gushed over the dirt floor and through my hair. It was then a silhouette appeared in the entryway.

A young girl, no older than twelve years old, stood in a white dress. I felt my breath lodge between my rib cage once more.  This was no ordinary child, I observed her with both caution and curiosity. She advanced into the cabin, dust clinging to her bare feet with every step she took. Closer to the circle. Closer to the crone. Closer to me. 

Passively, she sat down beside the old woman. As I acclimated to her presence I noticed the blackness of her hair and eyes. Eyes which locked with mine. I felt an electric chill zap up my arms and down my spine. I was staring into the void, and she was staring right back at me… until she wasn’t. In an instant. The child vanished into a cloud of black smoke.  The cabin door slammed shut… I remained steady, eerie was my new normal.  The crone smirked, the crescent moons in her eyes flickered with approval. 

“You are your mother’s child after all… you know the difference between reality and Spector.  Yes, that was all just a conjuring from long ago. From when the little girl came to my door.” 

“She, like you, found herself lost in these woods. And like you, I gave her shelter. And like you I told her a secret.”  

“You see my dear, deep within the earth… right below this very cabin… are tunnels… Tunnels which twist and wind and go every which way. It is easy to get lost. The air is thick and filled with lead debris. To remain in them even a little too long spells certain death. But… at the very end of the journey downward, is a room filled with gold.” 

“It was a rainy night, just like this one, when I told the girl with the ebony hair and onyx eyes about the golden room. But I didn’t just give her secrets… I gave her this…” 

The crone slowly circled her finger over the old floor. And from it emerged a compass. It wasn’t worn and black like mine. No, this one glimmered with golden rays. Its needle casted off a brilliant yellow hue, lighting the room. It was then I noticed a twisty staircase hidden in the corner, its rails hummed and shimmered under the influence of the compass. I felt drawn to it… but the crone snapped her fingers before my eyes. She snatched the compass away, and continued her story;

“Yes. I gave her a compass. It was crafted with the essence of the sun, of the moon, and of the stars. It was created so no matter how deep one journeys into the earth, it will only point towards the true north. Towards the golden room.” 

“At daybreak the child left with the compass tucked into her skirt pocket. This girl with ebony hair and onyx eyes was not born in Silver Falls, she was from a family of brave travelers. She knew she was destined to cross the river, she knew a heroine’s blood coursed through her veins.” 

“She had seen the melancholy in the eyes of the residents of Silver Falls. She knew no one was meant to remain in a place filled with lead.   She thought that maybe if they discovered their own gold, in their own hills, maybe their countenance would lighten. Maybe Silver Falls would finally become a place of peace and prosperity. Not of hope unrealised.  Her gold was across the river… but maybe theirs was here.” 

“The child arrived in the town. There she found the sheriff.  She told him all about the cabin, and the compass, and the gold.” 

“Silver Fall's sheriff had been poisoned by lead his whole life. But it was not the dark matter in the hills which putrefied his insides, it was the lead of his heart which corrupted his soul. So many people believe everyone moves from lead, to silver, to gold as a natural byproduct of a life lived. But lead, the dark night of the soul, it's a tar pit. And the longer one remains in the sludge… the more they grow to loathe the very sight of gold. 

“Which is precisely what happened to the sheriff, the very moment he saw both the child and the compass… hatred and fear tarnished his othwerwise good judgment.  He saw the young girl as an infernal messenger, and the compass as a tool of the devil.  This was the land of lead, gold had no use here.  It would only corrupt the townsfolk, it would infect them with lofty goals and ambitions.  The people of Silver Falls were meant to live simple, safe, and quiet lives.  They were settlers after all.”

“And so, the sheriff took it upon himself to cast the devil out of Silver Falls, and to make certain it never returned.”  

“He bound and gagged the young girl. Then in the dead of night, he carried her across the town and through the forest. The golden compass lit his way through the abysmal darkness, until he came upon a small cabin in a meadow. A cabin with no door or tenant. All he found was a spiraling staircase which twisted down to the center of the earth.”  

“It was there they descended. Down the stairs. Down the tunnels. Down to the golden room.”

 

“Both the man and the child were faint of breath by the time they reached it.  Once again, his leaden soul recoiled at the sight of gold. He had lost his humanity to fear, to complacency. He lauded himself for his nobility, for his unyielding love of the simple life in the falls.  He congratulated his willingness to preserve tradition, to protect his town. His high self appraisal continued as he left the young girl to starve and decay all alone at the center of the earth.”   

“Unfortunately for him, his secret had not remained there. Like your mother… and yes, like you as well… this child was gifted with magic. With bravery. With her final breaths she created two mirrors, each as black as her eyes.  She also crafted a single key as black as her hair. These mirrors appeared on the wall of my cabin, as well as the tippy top bedroom of a little White House. Both the mirrors and the key were locked. They could only be moved by those who possessed true magic, and who were also brave enough to have crossed the river atleast once. Which is why only you were able to locate the key. It is also why I have watched after you from this very cabin your whole life, through the mirrors. I have been waiting for this night to come.”

I curled my knees into my chest as I processed a reality I was not fully ready to absorb.  I thought of the little girl with the black hair and eyes, about her fate in the golden room.  Was this also my mother’s fate? I could see the beginnings of daybreak through the cabin windows. My time was up. I could not ask the old woman whose bones I would discover in the gold room. All I knew was it was my turn to descend, would this also be the place I perished?  Was this my destiny all along? To die an unknown painter in an unknown place?  The crone gently placed her hand in mine, handing me the compass… but she did not stop there...

Just as gently as she had held my hands… She snapped hers away.  It was then she ruthlessly plunged her fingers into her crescent eyes. I screamed and crawled away on the heels of my hands.  I gasped as I watched the old woman wither before my eyes in the morning sunlight. No blood trickled from her decaying hands as she pulled a white dove from her left eye… and a white key from her right. The cresent moons were gone.

“It takes death to make a key.” She whispered, “Use mine wisely.”

And with her last words, she vanished into a pile of silver dust. I hurried to the white key, shoving it inside my pocket beside the black one.  It was then I saw another silhouette appear at the cabin door, and this time it was the sheriff’s.

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