Another nightmare from Talla.
Her body shuddered. Each and every step careful and calculated in how much weight it would press against the ground beneath. Ears pressed firmly against her skull, brown eyes wild.
A crack beneath her hoof, a wave of guilt and fear washed over her. Pulling the keratin foot away, looking down and knowing that the action was already being regretted. The glow was faint, enough to allow the surface she walked upon to be visible easily, especially when fragments were missing. A single void, alone amidst a glow that had been a source of comfort so often in the past. Once more, they had been twisted against their purpose. She didn’t know whose pictogram she had shattered, however the glance down had revealed many of those she knew. Halted, frozen in place she was. Trembling. Then the cracking, it came. Too long had she spent in one place now and the fragility of the floor refused to hold her any longer. Fear drove the doe forward, moving quickly and as lightly as she could. This time, the cracking and shattering did not halt.
It became louder. She galloped now, knowing that before long she would fall through, knowing she was shattering the pictograms of so many she knew and did not know. There was nothing that could be done; as it was a miracle the ground had not already claimed her. The red wall was closer now – of course it was. Her pace had quickened remarkably now.
A foolish glance behind her, only to witness rows upon rows of pictograms shattering into pieces, like a wave. She witnessed Darcy’s moments before it was lost, too. Head thrown forward once more, breathing coming shakily. The middle of the red wall approached, and something was definitely amiss about it. It appeared to be a continuation of the same landscape, but it was better than falling. Not again.
She couldn’t fall again. Gathering herself, she did not wonder why the ground had not already broken upon her heavier steps. There wasn’t enough rationality within her mind to do such thinking whist frightened.
Catapulted through the air, desperation fuelling the jump.
Slow motion for but a moment appeared to transpire as the doe crashed through glass – a window, not that she was aware of the name. A tumble ensued, crashing to the ground heavily and amid so much broken glass. She lay for a moment, just a moment before fear sent her upward to run once more. Forward she went, ignoring the deep cuts obtained from the glass shard’s razor edges.
This was different. Oh, the ground did not flee from her footfalls, but neither did her surroundings make any form of sense. It took but a moment for the doe to nearly crash into a mirror, saved only by her own reflection. Off she went again, unable to find her way. Fooled by the way her eyes had naturally developed. Hardly able to tell between a mirror’s reflection and reality. Perhaps if she calmed – but no. Once more the doe was halted by a crash. An attempt to leap over the deer she saw only hazily rushing toward her, head and heart pounding too hard and too much fear within her system to recognise it as herself.
It was not only the mirror that was broken now. From her face fell a mask crafted by Amadahy, one of the possessions she cherished most in the Forest. Sorrow wracked her; however her thoughts did not get past this initial emotion when mirrors began to shatter all around her. As if an unknown force had taken to them with a heavy bat.
Once more she fled, running straight and true. Another doe was rushing at her from every possible direction. Relentlessly chasing the roe doe, who was only able to tell if it was a reflection when a mirror shattered.
Now exhaustion slithered dominantly up her legs, reaching into muscles and slowly squeezing the energy from them. A stumble, two stumbles. Yet the blue blur did not halt quite yet. How could she when the other doe was al around? Before her, beside her, and if she should look back, surely the other would be there too.
No matter how many glances she did throw about her, no way to escape opened up and invited her down it. Not until she could see something red and white. Its bottom and top red like roses, rested against the floor, reflected in the mirrors beside it. Erupting from the sides, shard-like shapes that appeared dangerous to touch and coloured a white so pure it matched with even the Gods’ pelt.
Hauling herself forward, bloodied, terrified and exhausted, she summoned a leap in one final attempt to escape from the relentlessly chasing doe. Her landing was not graceful, and hind legs had grazed those remarkably knife-like structures.
Panting, breathing with effort and shaking upon tired limbs, she took a glance at the mirror-filled hall that now lay behind her. The doe was gone.
Finding this curious, she slowly and cautiously stumbled to the entrance of her shelter, across its spongy and slightly wet surface. With a heaving chest, a now maskless face gazed at the mirrors with obvious apprehension until she spotted the other doe. Sudden fear once more, a nervous flick of the ear. Yet moments of staring at the other brought sense back to her mind.
It was no foe who had chased her through those mirrored halls. Merely her own reflection forced to follow her flight.
A great sigh escaped her chest, and finally trembling legs gave way, cut and bloodied. Not to mention the pounding of her head from various crashes. Emotions other than fear trickled into the doe now, mainly regret for destroying the pictograms of so many. Loved ones and not.
Slowly, her own view of herself was drawn back so that she could see her own body resting upon her unusual shelter.
A shelter which began to move.
It pulled away, her curious lifeboat did. More of it revealed now. The roof revealed further to have a curious white nose and a band of white around it. Still moving away from the dreadful mirrors, a feeling of nervousness once again surfaced.
A second later and it all became apparent. The spongy floor was a tongue, the white shards, teeth. She knew this only in the few seconds it took for roof and lid to come down upon her body, forced to watch it swallow her whole.
Satisfied, it seemed. Pulling out its tongue to roll slowly across those dangerously red lips as if contemplating whether she should have been torn apart first. No, it smirked. Happy with its actions. All around it, things faded to white, including that confident sneer.
Sleep tight
♥
Sanguine, OH YOU. Way to be
Way to be really creepy 8D
Dannii, ♥~ C: