In A Burning Room by TS Ward

Author:TS Ward [Ward, TS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tristyn Ward
Published: 2021-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

———

My fists cracked the shining surface of a frozen lake. A web of lines stretched outward from the hole that I created.

I kicked against the cold depths that gripped me tight, angled my body to drag myself on blue hands against the mirror that this lake had become. Gasping for breath, I slithered on my numb limbs to safety, and glanced back as the hole froze over and the scars from my fists healed.

The air was crisp, dark, tinted blue by a blue moon and blue stars—millions of them that looked much closer than they had before. Reachable, rather than distant. Touchable.

I stood in the middle of the lake as the water dripped off me in ice sheets. It turned me to a reflection of the mountain that I stared up at. A dress made of ice and snow, a crown of icicles that pierced the curls of my hair, and a body that was made of unmoving stone. A Beckett, through and through.

Empress, a voice whispered.

It was the wind over the rock set before me and the halo glow that was cast over its peak from a glimmering silver star at the pinnacle. A being of light curled around the sharp point.

Tendrils of wind carried snow down the cliffs and across the frozen lake to wrap around my shoulders.

The sharp snowflakes touched my cheeks and caught in my hair, landing heavy on my eyelashes. I was frozen where I stood, pinned to the lake by icicles that shot through my bones and nailed me to the spot. My heart thundered.

Empress. The voice was a scratch against the ceiling of the world. Empress, do you breathe? Do you breathe with us?

I struggled for words that lost their grip and fell back down my throat. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t say anything—I didn’t even know what to say, no more than I could figure out how to unhinge my jaw to let the cold air fill my collapsing lungs.

The only response I could come up with was, I’m not an Empress.

Everything as it should be. Everything according to plan.

Weren’t those the words that Pilot had said? What did he say, about letting this god in?

Fill your lungs, Empress, swallow the world whole.

I cracked my rusted jaw open.

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