The Unbearable Heaviness of Remembering by L. Jagi Lamplighter

Author:L. Jagi Lamplighter [Lamplighter, L. Jagi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Children's Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, Fantasy, Teen & Young Adult, Sword & Sorcery, Children's eBooks, Science Fiction, Fantasy & Scary Stories
ISBN: 9781922376145
Amazon: b086gkm896
Publisher: Wisecraft Publishing
Published: 2020-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One:

The Door and the Mask

Them?

With the slowness of a dream, Rachel opened her eyes. The girls stood in a semi-circle around Amber, motionless, like a tableau of shock. All the blood had drained from Kitten’s face, and she looked close to tears. Amalthea was clutching her friend’s shoulder. Hildy, who knew little of the way of fey, was glancing around, frowning, but her friend Rowan’s face had turned a faint green. She looked as if she might be ill. Wendy stood with both hands pressed against her mouth. Sakura clutched her chest in horror. Salome looked uncharacteristically frightened. Only Valerie did not seem shocked, but she looked angry, very angry.

Joy, her bottom lip trembling, turned to Nastasia as if expecting her to take the lead, but the princess did nothing. Nastasia looked even more like a rabbit before the jaws of a wolf than the rest, or like a little mouse who had discovered that the new friend she had invited to tea was a cat. They are lost, Rachel thought, almost as lost as I am.

She waited for one of them to take the lead, but no one did. Unless someone did something, at least two of the girls would burst into tears. Yet no one moved. Panic rose in her chest. Surely Leander could not expect her, the most disoriented of them all, to take the lead? How could she do such a thing? She could barely stand.

Poised before the doors in her mind’s eye—which now looked like an open gateway into memory on the right and, on the left, a gaping drop into absolute darkness—Rachel beheld a lone lost star hanging just above the precipice of darkness. It was a porcelain mask resembling a China doll with shoulder-length, straight black hair.

The face was her face.

It was her mental image of her Mask of Calm. Wisdom told her that using her mother’s dissembling techniques to avoid emotional pain was a bad idea. But what else could she do? Surely, Leander did not expect her to be able to handle this on her own?

She could not falter now. Too much was at stake.

In her imagination, Rachel seized the mask and placed it over her face. Immediately, an outward calm descended. She stepped forward into the semi-circle of girls, slipping her arm through Nastasia’s.

“That was unwise,” she stated coolly to Amber. “It will cause trouble for the Master Warder. Someone had better report this to the proctors.” She looked around. Amber showed no response, but the other girls were looking to her. “Valerie, you’re good at making full reports. Would you go?”

Valerie shrugged. “Um… sure. Come on, Salome.”

The spell was broken. The tears remained unshed. Valerie and Salome headed off for Roanoke Hall. Led by Amber, the other girls turned towards Dare Hall and struck out across the snowy lawns. Then, they were chatting cheerfully, as if nothing had occurred.

Rachel was not entirely sure that putting aside the horror that they had just experienced was the best outcome, but it was better than having them dissolve into tears and anguish in the middle of the commons.

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