Mistress of Geese by Antonija Meznaric

Author:Antonija Meznaric [Antonija Mežnarić]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shtriga
Published: 2022-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

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Ema woke up abruptly, from a nightmare she couldn’t really remember. The cold breeze licked at her uncovered face, while her sleeping bag had managed to keep her mostly warm. The rocky beach underneath made for a hard bed, her body now sore as if she’d turned into a wooden plank just by lying on it. But it wasn’t discomfort nor the chilly air that brought her to consciousness. It were the needles in her arms and legs, that feeling of complete paralysis brought only by pure dread. She blinked the last of the sleepy oblivion from her eyes, for the first time noticing a strange orange light, illuminating the spot where Laura and she slept. It was the old kerosene street lamp, raised on the island, the flame in the glass polyhedron the only source of light, since the sky was completely dark gray, without stars or the moon to shine above them.

“Hey, Laura,” Ema quietly said, her gaze glued to the impossibly lit-up lamp. It was the sort someone had to light up for it to work, with a flame on a huge stick that could reach the wick in the glass box. “Hey, Laura, are you awake?” Silence answered her.

Her gaze finally peeling away from the lamp, she turned to Laura to wake her up. Only to be met with an empty red sleeping bag.

Ema jumped, her whole body on alert. She’d just probably had to pee, Ema told her own, beating heart and screaming mind, don’t overreact. But if that were true, Laura would’ve just gone to the nearest bush, and when Ema looked around, she couldn’t see her girlfriend anywhere. She was alone, under the inviting light, beaming through the opaque darkness that slowly fell on the island. Half of the mainland visible from her spot was also drenched in black, the other half littered with small, yellow lights which were slowly twinkling out, one by one.

Ema stood up, only now noticing the sea—calm on the surface, so dark it almost looked like the sky had fallen into the ground. And yet, under the orange glow of the lamp, she could glimpse at the shadows beneath. The tumultuous forms forming, growing, twitching, swimming, coming near the surface, then disappearing in the depths again. Ema took a step back, putting some distance between herself and the water, acutely aware that she was surrounded on all sides. That there was no way for Laura and her to cross to the mainland except the kayak, which could easily be overthrown by a hit from below.

Digging out the twig from holly oak from the bag, she put it in her pocket, glad she was wearing pajama pants, expecting for it to get colder outside on a night in late August. Just touching the wood calmed her a little already, but the fact that she couldn’t really see the mountain peak under the condensed darkness—like the sky itself was seeping a squid’s ink, overwhelming the stars and the moon—was vomit-inducing.

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