The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold

Author:Jessica Arnold
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Month 9 Books
Published: 2014-01-07T08:00:00+00:00

***

May 16, 1883

I found the knife in the kitchen—stole it right out from under the cook’s nose when she wasn’t watching. For now, it is hidden under my pillow. Lillian mustn’t know that I have it.

She hasn’t come to see me today. Perhaps she is frightened. She should be frightened.

While I wait for nighttime, I write my curse. It has never been done before. The witch herself did not discover the secret of binding soul to object, but I have. Many hours have I pondered this, and I believe that I have the answer.

No human being lives forever, and, just like a human, a bound soul fades with time. The curse that an object carries becomes weaker every minute, just from the burden of existing. A curse’s power, the soul, must be replenished.

The witch wrote that the bound soul must help to execute the curse. I believe that she was wrong. Must wood consent to be burned in a fire? No. A soul is nothing more than living fuel. The curse is the rider, the soul is the horse—more physically powerful, but tied up and forced to do the rider’s bidding.

The only question is how to replace the old souls with the new.

The answer is in the curse.

If I am correct, and I believe that I am, I can cast a self-renewing curse—a curse that kills to satisfy its own need for survival. This house will carry a curse forever—a curse on all women who hope for love. Not all will pay the price, but some will be sacrificed to keep the curse alive. A few deaths alone can remind the world of the fragile balance on which it turns.

Lillian will be the first to serve the curse; she will become part of this place, just as the witch became part of her mirror.

Of course, every curse must be carefully crafted. Curses are like artwork, you see—they must be balanced. If the curse is to survive, there must be a way to destroy it; invincibility is against nature. I have not yet decided what the escape will be. Perhaps the witch will help.

The four elements, of course, I must include. Lillian must burn and hang, drown and be buried. Burial, of course, is simple. Hanging will be simply a matter of finding the rope. Fire will be more difficult, but this attic will do for wood. I shall burn the floorboards, I think. Water is challenging as well, but there is a pond outside my window. I shall lay the body there after it has been touched with fire.

I mentioned before that I discovered the secret of magic—three and four. The witch included four in her curse, but not three. I believe that this is the reason it was unstable. I shall remedy that in my own experiment. Three chances—that is what I will provide. The victims will each escape three times from their doom. Three times in seven—thrice in a week. This will balance the power of the curse with the victim’s ability to destroy it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.