Chapter #6Saving the Spirit by: Ëtalfni   “Jack?” your mom said as she pushed a steaming stack of pancakes in your face. “Are you alright?”
You jolt in your chair, snapping back to reality before clasping the locket hidden beneath your shirt. Can’t let your mom or your sister know you’re wearing jewelry. Of course, your mind is also elsewhere in the moment.
You kept playing back the memory of your dream and how real it felt. You had never had an experience like that before while asleep. The body you had been in...It felt like your own. Every bouncy step. Every layer of makeup. Every gasp of air wearing the tight corset. And when you had seen your reflection in the mirror, that left you with a cold chill that stuck with you all the way down to breakfast.
“Jack?” your mother’s warm touch shook back to the present again.
“Da?” you answered in a thick voice that almost didn’t sound like your own.
Your mom blinked a few times. “Honey, are you okay?”
“Da. Izvinite za neudobstva.”
Everyone at the table stared at you like you had carrots growing out of your ears. Evidently, instead of saying “yeah, I’m sorry for the inconvenience” you had uttered a language you had never heard before, let alone spoken. Though, by how confidently you had said the strange words, you spoke it as clearly as you did English. But that was just the thing too. You had thought you had spoken English.
Without another word, you rose from the table and booked it to the upstairs bathroom. Your mom was either too stunned or too confused to stop you.
You found yourself having wandered to the bathroom sink and locking the door behind you.
Cold water ran from the faucet and splash on your face over and over again as you commanded yourself to wake up. Clearly you were still dreaming and you got your wires crossed. Hell, even when you looked up, there was the Duchess staring back at you in the mirror, wearing the same pajamas you were wearing.
It wasn’t until she started talking in your own voice that you paid the odd reflection much mind.
“Jack Richmond,” she said to you. “I don’t have much time, so listen carefully to me. I was able to swap our voices, but I lack the power to do anything else. I lack the power to do much of anything, in fact. And it was by pure luck that I was able to tap into your latent magical abilities while you were asleep.”
“Kto ty…?”
“Don’t talk,” she snapped with a fierce and angry tone. “Just listen to me. You were given this locket for a reason. It’s a conduit to my trapped soul. But the connection is...Wrong.”
You watched as the Duchess’ face distorted and morphed between hers and your own. It was almost like she was fading from existence.
“There’s a connection between us. It can’t be severed...I need you to find a way to make it stronger...If you don’t…Start with a battery...Look for…”
It was like she was breaking out, like your phone call between each other was passing through a tunnel. You watched with an odd mixture of horror and entrigue as the visage of the Duchess contorted and folded in on itself. Slowly, the elements of your old self appeared in the mirror and there was no trace of her left. You patted your own cheek in disbelief and were relieved to see your reflection do the same, now back under your control.
“Jack?” your mom had finally tracked you down and knocked on the door. “Seriously, you’re starting to worry me speaking in tongues. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” you replied, surprised at first that you had spoken in English again. “I’m...Fine.”
You were just massively confused. Bad dreams were one thing, but this was a full on possession, if you had ever heard of one. Yet the Duchess, whoever or whatever she was, sounded more spooked than you did. She seemed pretty desperate and was in a bad way by how she begged with you. Pleaded even for you to do something...But you couldn’t exactly determine what by her broken speech. Something about a battery? Was she talking about the locket?
Then again, why was any of this your problem?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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