Salut! I'm sorry this comes a little later than I had hope it would. This is a short chapter, too, which does nothing by way of atonement for my tardiness. Alas, I have no other offering of penance, so this small chapter must do.
My precious, wonderful reviewers- Do not abandon me yet! Your reviews do very much to inspire me to write, and so I beg you not to stop.
Your obedient servant,
S. R.
Silence pervaded Erik's tomblike lair, and it was nearly driving Cecily mad. She was used to crowds of loud drunken people. While it seemed that enough whiskey had been dosed out the night before to make both she and Erik drunk, it was the uncanny hush that unnerved her. She had avoided the instrument room after her run in with Erik, and found herself sitting by the edge of the lake, doing her very best at amusing herself. She had done it before, long cold hours spent without light of any kind until her eyes practically screamed in agony when the light finally did hit them. She had learned to put herself deep within her mind, far away from whatever reality was at the moment. It had been a necessary knowledge then, and she was certainly glad she possessed it now.
She found herself drifting into herself, ignoring the outside world. Time disappeared to her, and she moved as freely through time as she could through the room. An umbrella fell from a woman's hand as she entered, and Cecily watched as it hit the ground, the noise clattering eerily through the house. "Cecily…" She turned, the familiar feminine voice a comfort and an omen all at once. "Why Cecily? What have you done?"
She saw the black cloths draped over every mirror and the old grandfather clock in the bedroom as it was stopped. Even though the winter was full and cold, the neighbors insisted that the windows be opened "to prevent misfortune." Cecily believed none of it, but did it to humor them. Even when she caught pneumonia and was sent away to be cared for, she wanted to humor them. Damn them, she thought now. Damn them and their damned superstitions and accusations!
Time stretched again, and she saw the desolate gray of the building as she approached. It was a gray that in the coming months would seep into her soul so deeply she was sure it had stained her. But even the wretched gray was beter than the blackness, the horrible darkness without a hint of light. She was trapped in the blackness for so long. So long, in fact, that the light lost its attractiveness to her, becoming a garish demonstration by the world she no longer belonged to of its supposed goodness.
"Damn you, you bastard! It could have been different!" She didn't realize she had said it out loud until he replied.
"What could have been different?" Erik had watched silently as she stared distantly over the lake. She had begun to shake more and more violently until she finally cried out.
"Nothing, I just…I was just dreaming, I suppose." She stood hastily and retreated to the bedroom, slipping under the covers and trying to fill her mind with thoughts that wouldn't bring her nightmares of the past. As she drifted into sleep, visions of a white mask and a man in the shadows overcame her.
Erik stood by the lake thinking. She had obviously been imagining the past. Remembering can be a dangerous occupation. He wondered now what she was remembering.