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Shorts
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| The Magic of the Maze | |
| By lovelysarah1984 | ||||||
| 26 June 2008 | ||||||
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My second attempt at a short inspired by a trip to Leeds Castle. If anyone has any better ideas for a title it would be much appreciated. There was an eerie silence. I could hear no voices nor the sound of footsteps, except for my own. Where were the half dozen other people I had followed into the maze? Had they all chosen different paths to me? They must have done for on I walked and came across not one living soul. It was as if they had entered the maze and disappeared and I wondered what would happen to me and I wondered what lay at the heart of the maze. My curiosity carried me on. I had been walking for a while when a strange feeling came over me. It was the same feeling that I used to get in the middle of the night when I realised that I was being watched even though I was asleep. I felt instantly alert, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling in tense anticipation. The sensation was powerful enough to stop me. I rolled my shoulders and stretched my arms above me to try to shake the impression off, anything to rid myself of the feeling that was so unnerving. Clouds drifted across the sun, covering it and the sudden change made me shiver. The air around me felt heavy, felt close, as it does before a storm. A noise, a quiet rustling, caught my attention and I continued forward in haste. My feet shuffled clumsily and skidded through the gravel underfoot. My fingertips brushed against the hedged walls. Hedged walls that were surprisingly soft, not sharp and thorny as one might expect. Suddenly I came upon a small clearing from which two paths led, one bearing right, the other left. Everything around me brightened for a split second as a bolt of lightening forked through the sky. A movement, a sense of it, or a sense of something, to my right. Was it the hem of a ladies skirt or merely my imagination? I took the step that would show me and set down my foot to a rumble of thunder so loud that I had to cover my ears! I moved on, lowering my hands, and listened as the light peal of a woman’s laughter, in such stark contrast to the bang of thunder, captivated me. Growing increasingly uneasy at my solitude and at the state of my own mind I hurried towards the happy sound. Such a happy sound in such a haunting place. No rain was falling but still the thunder and the lightening continued its battle overhead and I, growing weary and becoming worried, travelled even faster through the maze, chasing the swish of a heavy gown, hankering after that addictive voice that laughed and began to sing melodiously, taunting me through the twists and turns that I had no choice but to take! My feet moved, one in front of the other, quicker and quicker and yet they dragged and I stumbled and struggled as if my shoes had leaded soles and my ankles were bound together. Faster still but never quite fast enough to catch a glimpse of whoever went before me. I tripped and fell. Pain sang out over my body as my palms were grated against the gravel, and my chest, removed so rapidly or any air, burnt, inside and out. I laid still for a long time, my eyes tightly closed. A scent of something bewitched me as I inhaled deeply, a scent of something that did not belong amidst the dust of gravel or the woodiness of leaves. The fragrance was soft and luscious, a perfume full of flowers. I was still prone upon the ground when my name was called, in that same silvery tone, but I raised my head and opened my eyes and then, eventually, I stood. Once more I continued with my journey, this time however, at a calmer pace. The dark clouds parted slowly and the sun, warm and bright, could be felt on my face. I could still hear that honeyed voice as it sang to me and called my name and laughed at me, mocking gently as I searched for its owner in vain. Music played, the magical echoing twang of a lyres strings being plucked. It was a tender and melancholy tune and I was helplessly and hopelessly drawn to it. I followed the music, as if every chord struck left me a visible trail. It led me straight into the light. A vibrant, all consuming, yellow, glowing light that enveloped me and as it did so the sorrowful melody became louder but now I was not so fearful and I stepped into it and let it take me. There was my lady, standing in the heart, the heart of my maze. My heart. And I could see her face, oh, I could see her face! I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, eyes that had barely seen in nearly twenty years. Oh my, she was so beautiful. She skipped towards me, her steps light and so full of life. She stood on her dainty little tip toes, her warm body just a whisper from mine and she murmured in my ear, “What took you so long?” I could see her perfectly and she was perfect, so full of colour and I yearned to hold her tightly but daren’t so I held her with my eyes and studied her and found her just as I remembered her to be. Blue eyes, so, so blue, so bright and shining like stars, and her cheeks rosy and flushed like a summer apple and her mouth, so perfect, so red and full and curved into a smile. A smile that was for my eyes only. Her laugh again, it made my heart flutter to hear it and her smell, that scent of flowers, oh, how it filled me! “Oh Ben,” she breathed and went from me but still she glanced over her shoulder at me, those beautiful blue eyes never leaving mine and her long, chestnut coloured hair dancing behind her and her dress, oh that red dress! It swayed at her hips and oh God she was so perfect. “Aren’t you coming?” she asked and waited for me and held out her hand and I went to her then and I took it and as I touched her I realised that I had found heaven.
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