Crystal Stair

From his violence in breaking random objects I could sense that he had never received love, but also that he carried evil within: having been abused, he now enjoyed abusing. It was a kind of evil that spread by touch like an illness without chance of survival, that would chase you down relentlessly and destroy you slowly, in the end. It was as dreadful as it was persistent.

I knew I shouldn’t keep on running away, but react sooner or later, yet I still didn’t feel sufficiently strong myself to make such a decision.

I had to prevent the boy from harming me, and the girl from harming herself. I needed a plan, a strategy to subdue the monster and save her.

Meanwhile, my shoulders hurt too: it was my usual reaction to stress. For instance, anxiety before exams had always led me to contract my shoulders inadvertently, with negative repercussions on my shoulder blades and cervical muscles.

Still, I had to act now.

I moved so that the little girl wouldn’t collide with the wall but with me; I hoped that the push would soon decrease. The rope that bound her was torn but very resistant. I tried to grab it, but the child – still covered in a thick layer of oil – slipped away from my hands each time. It was a dark substance, like tar, and it cost me further exertion.

I felt dissected by my pursuer’s eyes, and feared death coming any instant, with each single breath. The little boy was my conscience, and as such he gave me no peace.

Conscience is what keeps you awake at night, looking endlessly at an unchanging ceiling. It makes you go through your whole life – past and future – in an instant; then you have to choose.

I chose to save the child. I might die, I might be torn to pieces, but I had to pass this test.

I hoped I would gain strength on my way and learn not to flee any more, unless it was strictly necessary. Something within me was changing, and maybe it was for the best. What encouraged me in my fight was – paradoxically – a wish for peace and justice, that innate conjunction of goodness and dignity of the heroes in the stories they told me as a child.

On my part, it meant never accepting evil, without any compromise, because previous compromises had led to fleeing, to humiliation and low self-esteem. I couldn’t stand depression any more, I needed to fight it. In fact, I wanted to save the girl also because I saw myself in her uncertain sway, torn between one decision and another, confused and insecure.

I had to act on impulse when she was in my proximity. I would try to cut the rope, but by what means? Maybe the penknife I used to slice my reserve of dried meat, as well as the berries I was so fond of. It was small and rather ruined, but it would serve its purpose, since the monster wasn’t far from me.

I launched myself head first, thinking that she could be my daughter and that it was my moral duty to save her – or to try at least. The knife easily cut through the first part of the torn rope, then got stuck.

The more I tried, the less I could move it.

When I heard laughter behind me I felt a sudden chill inside my chest, a shiver running down my back and making my arms tremble – not my will though. At that moment, my little pursuer appeared in front of me, his eyes green and terrible.

He had hidden small tacks inside the rope.

Livid with anger I set to removing them, while trying to counterbalance the rope’s motion with my weight. I desperately tried again and again, pricking my fingers and cursing at the sharp pain.

And finally the rope broke. The girl could only fall to the ground, but at least her incessant sway had stopped.

Looking at those horrible green eyes for what I hoped was the last time, I mustered up courage and pointed at the child lying on the ground. Then I yelled at the monster, since I had nothing but my voice: “That’s your doing, now I have nothing left, nothing! We were meant to share a bond in the future, so you took her away from me! Now kill me if you wish... What else do you want, my blood?”

I challenged him fiercely, but in the meanwhile he had changed. Clasping my hands, he told me I had done the right thing: I had passed the test; I was getting stronger.

My strength I had forged and sharpened with patience, as a blacksmith hammers iron and shapes it into swords and pieces of rare value. But even hard workers make mistakes, and that is perhaps humanity’s common ground: that shuddering breath of insecurity which compels us to flee or to fight, capitulate or win.

This time I had won, but the journey continued and other challenges would arise. On the one hand I looked forward to it, yet on the other I still feared the unknown.

Nevertheless I went on in my worn boots, to other challenges and other places.

__________

Behind me lay barren lands typical of the Arctic tundra, with a pungent birch smell and tall spruce haunted by winter snow. The evergreens – which were previously all around me – now receded and gave way to a curious labyrinth.

I approached some elaborate ruins that bore the weight of as many years as the layers of lichen covering them. Although collapsed, their contours still stood out against the background. If I was to go into the labyrinth, I would have to follow them; so with patience, tenacity and spirit of sacrifice I bent my will to fate.

In fact, fate hadn’t been very generous so far given the sequence of challenges I had had to endure, which had hardened my spirit and my skin, strengthening my body but tiring me out completely.

Struggle I knew well, my everyday friend and companion, like a woman who never deceives: awesome yet merciless.

Still, not as enticing were the writings I read on the walls, unholy signs and pentacles that seemed to have been drawn in blood.

They were ever more frightening, warning not to enter, not to venture further, not to try the awful path ahead. They commanded to leave my desires behind as they wouldn’t come true: only death lay in wait.

All alone I was crossing a new, hostile land made of sand, small cobbled areas and moss growing in the cracks of the ancient ruins. Anything, any possible thing could happen at that moment.

Not too far from me lay remains of tortured bodies and discarded skulls, some with hair still on them, yellowed by time. I also had the distinct sensation of not being alone.

__________

Suddenly came an alarming creak, then a crash.

A revolving panel appeared in front of me. I pushed it open, and what I found left me speechless.

It was myself. Myself, but in a somewhat different way.

It was myself I saw, yet I couldn’t believe it.

I would finally have someone to talk to and ask for advice. She could maybe tell me where she came from, what she had done and would do.

She looked like me down to the smallest detail, except for her finer clothes. She had had many adventures, albeit not as challenging as mine. From a beautiful garden in a faraway world she had stumbled and fallen through the dimensional door I had just opened. She had then been thrown from one world to the other, and was thus completely shocked.

Now there were two of us in this parallel dimension, two heroines in the chill of the night and among dreadful ruins. Two different people, yet twins; two little souls in the night; two lit candles that could rekindle each other or die competing for the brighter flame.

And I know female competition is devastating. It leads women to come to blows for the love of a cheat or lose their job when failing to gain favour with the boss. This sort of competition is usually as powerful and deadly as poison. I could only fear it.

I carefully studied my clone’s – my twin’s – attitude but she proved to be very friendly and understanding. She followed my lead and was open and kind to me. As we ventured further and further into the ruins, our mutual harmony only deepened.

That brief moment of serenity, however – the moment I realised that I was no longer alone and may hope for a brighter future – was soon perturbed.

THE CAVE MONSTERS

His body was horrifically red from burns, veins clearly visible under his skin. He was very tall – more than a dozen feet – and had big, sturdy limbs that moved with the sound of shattering boulders. His eyes were a bright yellow; he could see and scent every sign of life in the dark. He fed on fear, but his mouth was full of sharp teeth, the better to bite human flesh with.

He had been living hidden for centuries – preying on both young and old – in the heart of the ruins where the paths grew more tangled. He was there now as he had been when the ruins were still a magnificent castle.

An unwanted child born out of violence, he had been cursed seven times from the very first moment of his life. He had survived only through a deal with another demonic creature, a monster that abhorred innocence.

Their names were Damnation – the cursed one – and Revenge – his equal.

Revenge was a refined, intelligent hunter who had chosen a deal with Damnation over a death at the stake. Damnation had brought Revenge back to life, and the latter had returned among the living with an ever-growing thirst for blood. He wore a tattered shirt on which his name was still readable, written in white chalk and outlined in the red blood of his victims.

The two hunters immediately sensed the presence of the humans and hid in the dark with neither a word nor hesitation. They knew that two good souls were wandering nearby, having lost their bearings: they perceived our fear and could detect our insecurities by smell alone.

__________

The two of us were so glad to be together that it was almost our demise: at first we nervously scouted the area and its crumbling remains, but then, perhaps, we got carried away and just went on without a clear direction. Several times we reached dead ends and, after going in circles, we realised we were lost.

We couldn’t find our way back, so we moved forwards. The ruins were in better condition the further we walked, as if we had entered a rather newer wing of the castle. The walls were greyish and thick, damp; water dripped from the ceiling and collected in pools on the ground.

There were also large dark rooms, damp as well, and almost bare. When not on the walls, condensation formed a fine mist in the distance. Intrigued, we tried to understand the nature of everything around us, as well as our feeling of being spied on.

In that arcane maze, our souls were full of two contrasting emotions: fear of the unknown and need to explore it. This desire belongs especially to early youth, and in a certain sense we were adolescents again, confronted – regrettably, in the present case – with new explorations.

Inner emotions and outer dangers notwithstanding, as human beings we required food. These were lean times but we still had supplies, since my other self had hunted and picked berries earlier on.

We retreated to a corner to dine on that little meal, which could only be delicious in my eyes; our teeth were cutting blades making short work of the food. We cleaned up after ourselves and were once again on our way, hoping not to have unpleasant encounters from now on.

While walking we paid particular attention to the appalling images and the warning signs on the walls; but where could we escape? Where could we find a shelter? How could we leave the labyrinth altogether?

We unexpectedly chanced upon weapons and bullets and took them with us; they could prove useful in the immediate future.

We also found a collapsed encampment. It seemed to be the aftermath of an attack, the corpses dragged away, if the smears of blood on the ground were any indication; yet we found nothing left of the victims.

Again we took anything useful, including a small first-aid kit: we didn’t know what was waiting for us but still wanted to be prepared. If they wanted to kill these two women on their own... well, they would have to work hard for it.

Now armed, we advanced following the blood on our way, in the hope of helping whoever had been so brutally attacked. We feared the worst though: they must have lost enough blood to be already dead, or very close.

Abandoning the large room, we then entered a darker and narrower hallway. Only a few torches lit up the road but we went on, inciting each other.

The narrow corridor opened to a wider room with very high ceilings; at its centre was a large walled-off chamber. At first sight we couldn’t see any way in, and it was rather sheer luck because – drawn by our smell – the monsters were soon alert and coming after us. We had only enough time to hide behind a rock.

__________

They were hideous and dirty, covered in blood. Simply ghastly.

And, unexpectedly, at once they were fighting, as peculiar beams and fireballs sprang from their hands and hit each other’s bodies. When struck, they complained with loud baritone screams.

What they were saying was incomprehensible to us, but I assumed their fights were frequent and usually born out of loneliness and boredom – now, though, they fought over food.

However, little by little their focus seemed to be shifting from our smell to the sole fight. They had perhaps lost interest in us, and only hurt each other: now was the perfect time to attack and eventually look for survivors. Hopefully there was still someone alive here, and if we weren’t too late, maybe the first-aid kit could save some lives.

So we decided to approach the monsters from behind and shoot aiming at their wounds, in order to weaken them, if not to kill them. In my mind I could clearly see our silent advance; our commitment.

We opened fire a moment before they noticed us. Despite their gigantic size, our bullets were still painful for them, so we fired all our weapons; but too soon, it all ended too badly.

I saw death; I saw it in the dark eyes of the woman who looked exactly like me and who had just been fatally wounded; I could see through her eyes and feel life slowly leaving her.

But I needed to leave. She understood immediately and looked at me with forgiveness. My escape was accepted and justified.

In the days to come I would dream of her and feel her pain once more; the creature who came from far away that I would never see again, my own image from a parallel dimension. On my skin I would feel the shock of the fire vortex swallowing her up, the cold of the raw floor; I would look upwards with her eyes, knowing that there was no hope left in this world.

Since the monsters were still alive and could still hurt me despite their numerous wounds, my newly found companion then blew herself up in order to kill them in one fell swoop. It was very painful for the monsters, who were now screaming and roaring with rage. Out of the corner of my eye I saw them on their knees, and part of me hoped to be finally rid of them.

I crossed the wide room and found myself in the chamber where Damnation and Revenge tortured their prisoners and sacrificed them to some underworld god. Several bodies had been skinned and hanged by their feet, so that the blood – and life with it – could drip away. It was horrific and tragic, the worst scene I had ever seen.

The sight made my skin break out in goosebumps and tears cloud my eyes; I felt an unknown terror licking at my body. I shook at the slightest sound, and every trick of the light sent a shiver down my spine. I kept telling myself that I had a moral duty to assist people in need, that it was my nature and I should follow it.

At that moment I heard a moan coming from a large sack nearby, and tried to deduce what it could be. It was risky: it could be an innocent prisoner or even a creature like Damnation and Revenge.

I followed the quiet moaning. It was probably the voice of a man asking for help, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying or who he was talking to.

As soon as I opened the sack, out came a handsome man. His eyes were blue-green and his hair blond; he showed the typical Nordic features that had always driven me crazy; his powerful arms seemed to be meant for me and my protection only.

He smiled at me gratefully and tried to talk to me, but I still didn’t understand what he was saying.

However we soon realised that we had to escape quickly, since Revenge and Damnation were howling in our direction and looking for their payback. They were already very close to us.

__________

We ran straight away.

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