Torn Fragility

Nevermind the girl who hides behind the mask
Nevermind the memories haunting her past
That solely affect her present
And quicken her descent ~ The Masquerade of Deceit by findmeinthelabrynth.deviantart.com

I don’t know how much later it was but I found myself being shaken gently awake by a cool hand.

“If you escape from here will you take me with you?” Snow White whispered looking around fearfully as if she was frightened someone would hear.

I considered her request for a moment and nodded my head before laying my head back down on dewy grass signalling her to leave me alone. But she persisted.

“Then I’ll explain how you can. Whenever you touch the glass again make sure you understand the reality of your situation.” I heard her move sit down next to me and lie down but try as I might I couldn’t go back to sleep. What had she meant by that?

I was close enough to the glass to reach out and touch if from where I lay so I crept closer to it. Magic...It’s all too real, I thought.

Just as I thought that and placed my hot cheek against the cool glass, I sank through it, as if I was sinking into icy water that held me for a few moments before my weight pushed against its force. My one hand scrabbled around and managed to grab a silken sleeve.

I came out gasping on the other end, soaked and shivering. On my left was meadow land stirring in the warm summer breeze and on my right was the valley itself. The snow globe was gone; and I was free. The sleeve in my grasp became limp and when I looked down there was no sign of the lady except for her cast off dress. But beneath the silk material something struggled and reaching down I lifted the dress from the ground.

A pure white swan stretched its enormous wing span to its full length and I stepped out of the way as it took a few hesitant steps and took to the sky. A sense of pathos was stirred by the image of the ice white lady but I shrugged her from my mind; she had been trapped as I had and was now free.

I spotted the roof of Smith's home and began walking down, my arms folded against my chest waiting for the welcome sun above to dry me.

How did I escape from the globe? I wondered startling a flock of small brown birds hiding in the long grass. Did I pass some sort of test or did that hag from before forget about me and unconsciously release me? I held my hand to my hair in confusion, feeling at the same time something which shouldn't have been there. When my hand came away and I put it beneath my gaze I swallowed a scream.

Feathers.

Brown down that was snatched by the breeze as soon as my hand loosened slightly. I began patting my entire head with my hands feeling, feeling but touching nothing except damp curls. I sighed in relief thinking that somehow I must have got feathers on my head.

I looked ahead of me, seeing I had neared one of the houses that had seemed so far away before. I could now reach out and touch the short hedge that surrounded it and beyond it a dog began barking at me. I must have left the meadow far behind now but when I looked back the familiar meadow was gone replaced by brownish scraggly grass interjected with weeds and wild poppy.

I began to walk faster nearly flying headlong into a small child on his bicycle. A head of dark curls swerved in my direction, dark brows furrowed over even darker eyes and then he was gone, cycling down the road, not even sparing me a remark or retort.

Was that...?

I began to run, my flip flops slapping against the tarmac as I continued down the road. Gardeners mowing the lawn or housewives walking their dogs paid me no heed, as if they didn't know I had just flown past them.

What's going on? Was I under yet another spell? Would I never be released? I caught sight of the gravel driveway that led up to the Smith household and my heart rate quickened. I run up it, and when I spotted Hannah's beat up beetle my heart soared.

Hannah! She's probably been back for days by now! She'll be waiting for me, in the kitchen with a cup of Rooibos ready to disperse my fears and prove them wrong. I knew there was something about her, something magical that I only realised now and I couldn't have been more relieved. I sprang up the porch steps and flung the door open.

"Hannah!" I shouted but stopped dead still. In front of me was a slightly younger and thinner version of her, her back to me, a suitcase clutched in her hands having a discussion with a tall serious looking man with a sullen pre teenager at his side.

"Smith?" I said walking towards them. But they took no notice of me and when I put my hand out towards Hannah's shoulder it sank right through but I'm certain I saw her shoulder give a slight jump.

I tuned into what they were discussing not wanting to dwell on what had just happened.

"I'm sure you can handle him well Miss Anderson..." the tall man was saying. He had an imposing cruel face with caterpilla eyebrows and thin lips. His smooth voice, aquiline nose and large dark eyes were his only good features.

"Call me Hannah, please sir," Hannah said sounding bubbly.

"I don't work on first name terms Miss Anderson," he said coolly. "Now as I was saying, my son has been sickly for the past few months and you were recommended by my brother for your resourcefulness and for your integrity..."

"Yes sir," Hannah said.

"That's what I'll be paying you for. Not to be his friend or his mother, or a gossiper either, but a nurse with a strictly professional relationship with my son. I have no idea why he's been this way, I've spoilt him too much and he doesn't work hard enough."

I cast a glance at the sullen boy, with dark rings under his eyes. His was unhealthily pale and he seemed to be breathing too heavily for someone standing so still.

"His mother and I will be boarding a flight next fortnight and I want him to go with us, not looking like this. Well," the man said bending down to lift up his briefcase and not giving the boy a second glance, "I have an appointment in an hour, excuse me."

"C'mon Mr Smith," Hannah said smiling at the boy when the man left. "Let's go make you one of my legendary milkshakes."

The boy, dark curls plastered to his head, sickly pale, looked up at her and followed her to the kitchen.

I began to follow them hearing Hannah saying, "All you need is some good food to fatten you up, some sunshine and exercise. There's absolutely nothing wrong with you, you've just been worked to the bone."

The boy mumbled something and Hannah laughed. "Nonsense! Practicing an instrument isn't work! At least not the work your body needs to keep healthy."

I entered the kitchen wondering at the gloominess of the house. But just as I set foot in the kitchen, Smith looked up.

"Who's there?" he asked taking a step towards me.

Hannah whipped around from where she had been standing at the counter fixing something. Our eyes locked and she said something before a thick mist swept up around me blinding everything from sight.

Too late, she had mouthed.

I shut my eyes and screamed as the mist thickened and formed hundreds of small white birds that settled onto every available surface of my body. And when I opened my eyes again the birds were gone and I was standing alone in the kitchen. But the kitchen of the present. I had the sense that I was where I was supposed to be.