When she awoke the next morning, Crystal was as tired and drained as she had been the night before. She forced herself out of the bed and into clothes. She made herself sit and eat an apple for breakfast before gathering her dance clothes, her bag and her keys. She carefully locked the door behind her and started down the four flights of stairs to the ground floor. The stairs helped to keep her in shape. She smiled at Mr. Helgeson as she passed him in the lobby and walked out the door. She put a pair of headphones on and turned on her mp3 player as she walked towards the dance studio. She let herself in with her key, seeing her partner and her teacher waiting for her. She nodded to them before changing quickly and hearing the music for her number, hurried back to the dance floor.
Between the music and the dancing, she could go mindless. Her focus was on the music and on the dance, with no chance to stray towards the thoughts of the night before. Her mind was focused solely on the practiced movements and precise steps of each dance and leap. Her partner, Joaquin, caught her, lowering her to the floor before turning for his next steps. Crystal took two steps, turned away from him, and turned back before leaping forward into his arms. She saw his horror as she realized that he was off balance and missed her. She landed in a heap on the floor, muscles aching and her knees and elbows throbbing where they had absorbed the fall.
Suddenly there was a flurry of movement around her as the teacher, Joaquin and several other students flocked to her. They shouted questions at her and accusations at Joaquin. She waved them all away, stinging from the wooden floor as she climbed to her feet. She carefully made her way to a chair, Joaquin begging her forgiveness. The teacher ran to get the emergency kit as Crystal cradled her elbows against her chest, finally noticing the spots of blood on them and on her knees.
She had fallen many times before as a dancer, but she honestly couldn't remember the last time, let alone the last time she'd landed so hard that there had been blood. She could more easily remember the one and only time Emma had come to practice with her and had tried one of the leaps. She'd been too heavy for Crystal to catch and they'd both fallen, Emma had landed hard, her chin cracking hard on the wooden floor. She'd gotten a bad cut on her chin that had left a scar, though it was almost invisible unless you were really looking for it.
Joaquin helped her strip out of her clothes-as he was homosexual, he certainly wasn't interested in her-and to clean the scrapes as well as they could. He wrapped bandages over them after swabbing them with anti-bacterial cream. He lent her a pair of sweatpants and she pulled her tshirt on. Madame Alonzo, the teacher wouldn't allow her to dance anymore today and sent her home.
Instead of heading home to her empty, quiet apartment, Crystal headed to a local outdoor market. She browsed the stalls, looking through stacks of books, oohing and ahhing over some jewelry (none of it as good as Mr. Helgeson's), and gathering a few fresh pieces of fruit for her lunch. She watched as the young man behind the makeshift counter sliced the pineapple she'd chosen, mixing it with a variety of other fresh fruits: peaches, cherries, watermelon, strawberries and grapefruit sections. She blushed as she thought he had a very nice smile. "Please, come back. Anytime." He said, handing her the plastic lidded bowl with her fruit salad. She handed him some money and smiled back. He handed her back her change and a small card with the name of the stall and his name underline. "Very nice to meet you, Finn." She said looking at the card and smiling back at him.
She turned and walked away, making her way to an empty table at a small open area where shoppers could sit and enjoy their purchases and watch the market's bustling activity. A small band- a guitarist, a fiddler, and a drummer- was standing nearby playing a variety of songs, mostly folk tunes. Several couples were up and dancing. Crystal sat and watched them, having no idea that she too was being watched. She finished her fruit salad and threw the plastic container into a recycling bin that was set up along the large fence that enclosed the market.
As she walked home, she caught brief flashes of white at the edges of her vision, sending her mind spiraling back to the night before and the large white owl that had flown at her window before disappearing. She remembered seeing white barn owls at her aunt's home in the country, where her aunt ran an owl sanctuary. But she honestly couldn't remember any of them being as big as the one that had flown at her window the night before and scared her nearly to death.
When she arrived back at the apartment building she checked her mail box, relieved to find no bills, no letters from her mother to accuse her, to remind her that she wasn't the only one suffering the grief of a lost loved one. She climbed the stars to her apartment, feeling strange because of the fact that she was actually home before dark. She opened the door and locked it behind her, heading straight for the bathroom. She stripped out of her clothes, noticing the small spots of blood at her elbows and knees where it had seeped through the bandages. She threw them in the sink, pushing the plug deeply into the bottom so that it wouldn't leak and turned the cold water on to cover the clothes so that the bloodstains wouldn't set. She sat on the toilet seat and waited for the sink to fill before turning it off.
She turned the water on in the bathtub, letting it fill with steaming water before she sank into it, hissing at the burn. She laid her head back and closed her eyes, going over and over the routine she and Joaquin had been performing in her mind. Every step, every pointed toe, every lift. It should have been perfect. Why wasn't it perfect? She felt anger move through her and groaned, sitting up in the tub. She grabbed a bar of soap and a washcloth and ruthlessly began scrubbing herself, making sure to push the soapy cloth deeply into the scrapes on her knees and elbows. Clean, she flicked the stopper from the tub with her toe. She let out a sigh then stood up and turned the shower on for a just a moment to rinse off and wash her hair.
She walked into the living room, unaware of the eyes that followed her. She brushed her wet hair out slowly detangling it. The fading sunset bled into the room, blazing the walls with orange, pink and fiery red-gold. It glinted over her hair, gilding it with color. She was happy to see the end of another day. Since Emma's death, Crystal no longer knew what to do to get through the day. Dancing kept her mind focused, because she could injure or kill herself if she wasn't careful. But once the classes were over, everything was just empty. Time to fill until Crystal could lose herself in dreams.
Television was boring and her mind would wander. The same was true for reading, she'd read a single sentence over and over again. Life felt meaningless. Tonight, just like every night since her twin's death, Crystal cried herself to sleep. But this night was different in one way.
Jareth stood over her, watching the tears dry on her cheeks as she slumbered.