Illusions

Breaca was more than willing to vow on her dolly's life that the column was moving.

The creatures molded into the marble stone, slowly began to reveal themselves in raised fists and faint flutter of their wings. Gasping and gurgling, the creatures squirmed and pushed against the stone membrane, like things ready to be born.

She wanted to scream but when she opened her mouth to do so, she found that she could not. Silently, she clenched her dolly closer to her chest, crushing its pretty dress.

One of the creatures, a dryad with long hair weaved together with pretty blooming petals, turned her direction and smiled at her with its long jagged teeth. Breaca jerked away from it with a shudder, the hardened bottoms of her shoes rung out loudly throughout the empty halls. The dryad cocked its head to the side, listening. It continued to watch her with its large, inhuman eyes.

Breaca felt as if she had swallowed a handful of snow as her belly turned over on itself freezing her into place, and her throat burned, as the colors distorted into a shapeless haze. Watching on spellbound she could not move and she was forced to watch as the dryad clawed against its filmy prison.

With a strange sort of snapping sound the creature broke free from the column and slid onto the ground. A syrupy hiss of pleasure escaped through its lips and echoed in the hall. It staggered towards her, unbalanced like a newborn deer, its discolored hair floating in the air. Breaca flinched as the dryad's hand caressed her wrist, and with a gasp she slapped the creature away. It moved its face closer and hissed in her face. Had Mammy been there she would have it a rude creature.

"They come," it hissed. "The old ones, they come."

The dryad then released her and fell into the floor becoming one with the unmark marble. Breaca looked at her wrist. It had left behind colored scales on her skin, a bejeweled handprint, as she looked at it the scaled melted and slid down her skin like water. Slowly the golden liquid thickened and turned to burgundy, the color of blood, and it touched her skin it burned away her skin revealing blackened bones.

Breaca screamed, the scream echoed throughout the halls, dropping her dolly. She wiped unthinkingly at the burning liquid but it would not come off. There was the sound of scraping of boots on the floor, and she looked up in panic but nothing was there. Her loud breaths and her pounding heart echoed loudly in the empty room.

Not a soul was there expect for her and her dolly. She was safe. What she saw did not really happen, it was a dream, like the dream she had had of the monster flying-fish. Yet, she was so sure that what she saw was real. Breaca looked down at her hand, her skin was still reddened from where the dryad had touched her, and picked up her dolly before rushing out of the room.