Crystal Stair - Alessandra Grosso

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of not being alone.

      __________

      Suddenly came an alarming creak, then a crash.

      A revolving panel appeared in front of me. I pushed it open, and what I found left me speechless.

      It was myself. Myself, but in a somewhat different way.

      It was myself I saw, yet I couldn’t believe it.

      I would finally have someone to talk to and ask for advice. She could maybe tell me where she came from, what she had done and would do.

      She looked like me down to the smallest detail, except for her finer clothes. She had had many adventures, albeit not as challenging as mine. From a beautiful garden in a faraway world she had stumbled and fallen through the dimensional door I had just opened. She had then been thrown from one world to the other, and was thus completely shocked.

      Now there were two of us in this parallel dimension, two heroines in the chill of the night and among dreadful ruins. Two different people, yet twins; two little souls in the night; two lit candles that could rekindle each other or die competing for the brighter flame.

      And I know female competition is devastating. It leads women to come to blows for the love of a cheat or lose their job when failing to gain favour with the boss. This sort of competition is usually as powerful and deadly as poison. I could only fear it.

      I carefully studied my clone’s – my twin’s – attitude but she proved to be very friendly and understanding. She followed my lead and was open and kind to me. As we ventured further and further into the ruins, our mutual harmony only deepened.

      That brief moment of serenity, however – the moment I realised that I was no longer alone and may hope for a brighter future – was soon perturbed.

      His body was horrifically red from burns, veins clearly visible under his skin. He was very tall – more than a dozen feet – and had big, sturdy limbs that moved with the sound of shattering boulders. His eyes were a bright yellow; he could see and scent every sign of life in the dark. He fed on fear, but his mouth was full of sharp teeth, the better to bite human flesh with.

      He had been living hidden for centuries – preying on both young and old – in the heart of the ruins where the paths grew more tangled. He was there now as he had been when the ruins were still a magnificent castle.

      An unwanted child born out of violence, he had been cursed seven times from the very first moment of his life. He had survived only through a deal with another demonic creature, a monster that abhorred innocence.

      Their names were Damnation – the cursed one – and Revenge – his equal.

      Revenge was a refined, intelligent hunter who had chosen a deal with Damnation over a death at the stake. Damnation had brought Revenge back to life, and the latter had returned among the living with an ever-growing thirst for blood. He wore a tattered shirt on which his name was still readable, written in white chalk and outlined in the red blood of his victims.

      The two hunters immediately sensed the presence of the humans and hid in the dark with neither a word nor hesitation. They knew that two good souls were wandering nearby, having lost their bearings: they perceived our fear and could detect our insecurities by smell alone.

      __________

      The two of us were so glad to be together that it was almost our demise: at first we nervously scouted the area and its crumbling remains, but then, perhaps, we got carried away and just went on without a clear direction. Several times we reached dead ends and, after going in circles, we realised we were lost.

      We couldn’t find our way back, so we moved forwards. The ruins were in better condition the further we walked, as if we had entered a rather newer wing of the castle. The walls were greyish and thick, damp; water dripped from the ceiling and collected in pools on the ground.

      There were also large dark rooms, damp as well, and almost bare. When not on the walls, condensation formed a fine mist in the distance. Intrigued, we tried to understand the nature of everything around us, as well as our feeling of being spied on.

      In that arcane maze, our souls were full of two contrasting emotions: fear of the unknown and need to explore it. This desire belongs especially to early youth, and in a certain sense we were adolescents again, confronted – regrettably, in the present case – with new explorations.

      Inner emotions and outer dangers notwithstanding, as human beings we required food. These were lean times but we still had supplies, since my other self had hunted and picked berries earlier on.

      We retreated to a corner to dine on that little meal, which could only be delicious in my eyes; our teeth were cutting blades making short work of the food. We cleaned up after ourselves and were once again on our way, hoping not to have unpleasant encounters from now on.

      While walking we paid particular attention to the appalling images and the warning signs on the walls; but where could we escape? Where could we find a shelter? How could we leave the labyrinth altogether?

      We unexpectedly chanced upon weapons and bullets and took them with us; they could prove useful in the immediate future.

      We also found a collapsed encampment. It seemed to be the aftermath of an attack, the corpses dragged away, if the smears of blood on the ground were any indication; yet we found nothing left of the victims.

      Again we took anything useful, including a small first-aid kit: we didn’t know what was waiting for us but still wanted to be prepared. If they wanted to kill these two women on their own... well, they would have to work hard for it.

      Now armed, we advanced following the blood on our way, in the hope of helping whoever had been so brutally attacked. We feared the worst though: they must have lost enough blood to be already dead, or very close.

      Abandoning the large room, we then entered a darker and narrower hallway. Only a few torches lit up the road but we went on, inciting each other.

      The narrow corridor opened to a wider room with very high ceilings; at its centre was a large walled-off chamber. At first sight we couldn’t see any way in, and it was rather sheer luck because – drawn by our smell – the monsters were soon alert and coming after us. We had only enough time to hide behind a rock.

      __________

      They were hideous and dirty, covered in blood. Simply ghastly.

      And, unexpectedly, at once they were fighting, as peculiar beams and fireballs sprang from their hands and hit each other’s bodies. When struck, they complained with loud baritone screams.

      What they were saying was incomprehensible to us, but I assumed their fights were frequent and usually born out of loneliness and boredom – now, though, they fought over food.

      However, little by little their focus seemed to be shifting from our smell to the sole fight. They had perhaps lost interest in us, and only hurt each other: now was the perfect time to attack and eventually look for survivors. Hopefully there was still someone alive here, and if we weren’t too late, maybe the first-aid kit could save some lives.

      So we decided to approach the monsters from behind and shoot aiming at their wounds, in order to weaken them, if not to kill them. In my mind I could clearly see our silent advance; our commitment.

      We opened fire a moment before they noticed us. Despite their gigantic size, our bullets were still painful for them, so we fired all our weapons; but too soon, it all ended too badly.

      I saw death; I saw it in the dark eyes of the woman who looked exactly like me and who had just been fatally wounded; I could see through her eyes and feel life slowly leaving her.

      But I needed to leave. She understood immediately and looked at me with forgiveness. My escape was accepted and justified.

      In the days to come I would dream of her and feel her pain once more; the creature who came from far away that I would never see again, my own image from a parallel dimension. On my skin

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