CHAPTER V – Disquieting feelings

One thing was certain, packing and unpacking exercises were extremely tiresome, time consuming, and usually caused a considerable rise in the level of stress of every living being. At least, that was how Kristie viewed it.

After settling Megan in a bedroom of her own choosing – since Kristie had no wish to trigger some sort of unbearable teenage angst – she decided to enjoy a couple of moments of peace and quiet before going to bed.

Lazily, Kristie climbed down the stairs and headed to the kitchen. She went to the cupboard, grabbed a wine glass, and unwrapped a bottle of red wine.

“Here’s to you, Alice…” She quietly whispered raising her glass after having poured some wine into it.” Wherever you are…” She concluded while having a sip.

Observing the surrounding kitchen, she wished she'd had a chance to get to know Alice better. But then, things seemed to have a natural tendency of not going according to her wishes.  

Of the few little memories she had, regarding the summer she had spent there, she was able to remember that she had a good time. She remembered the feeling of joy, and of happiness, but the actual memories were vague. Some parts of it, she was unable to tell if they were real or just plain fantasy.

As everyone knows, ten year-olds tend to have a very vivid imagination, and from what she could remember, Aunt Alice fully supported and enthusiastically encouraged creative thinking.

Kristie bent over the counter to take a better look at the moon, glowing beautifully outside, through the kitchen window. It looked so different from the view they had in the city. Her thoughts drifted back to that summer, twenty years ago, and she smiled to herself. Perhaps she had gotten too much creative back then, and her mom didn’t like it. Kristie considered it as a possible reason for never having returned to Emerald bay, then again she had never really asked.  

She remembered though, that Aunt Alice had this fantastic view of the world. Full of princes and princesses, kings and queens, wizards and sorcerers, and - not to mention - that she always added an endless array of mystical and magical creatures to her tales. Kristie loved listening to her Aunt’s storytelling in those hot summer afternoons spent in the garden. But what child doesn’t dream of being a knight in shining armor on a quest to fight evil dragons, or of being a princess… ready to be rescued by a knight, also, in a shining armor?

Smiling, Kristie sighed and took a bigger sip of wine. Unfortunately, the world today was too high on princesses and very short on knights in a shining armor… Actually, the world was short on knights. They didn’t even need to wear a shining, or otherwise, armor.  

Lost in her thoughts, Kristie suddenly came to realize that she hadn’t seen Jezebel in quite a while.

“Jez…” She called. “Here kitty…”

Nothing happened.

She placed the wine glass on the top of the kitchen counter and walked to the living room.

“Jezzy…” She called again while looking behind the sofa, and under the tables, and everywhere she could think to be a nice spot for a cat to hide.

“Damned cat…” she cursed a whispered complain. “Where the hell are you?” She stood in the middle of the living room while trying to think of where else to look. Her brown eyes turned to the staircase that led to the upper floor.

Her shoulders fell forward and her eyes rolled up. “You’re making me go look for you everywhere, aren’t you?” She asked into the air. “Evil cat.” She said climbing upstairs.

Once in the upper floor, Kristie first checked the bathroom, then checked every possible spot in her bedroom, then quietly checked Megan’s bedroom and finally moved to check the main bedroom of the house, Aunt Alice’s bedroom.

The door made a soft screeching sound as she opened it.

“Jez…” She whispered gently, as if afraid to awake an invisible someone. Then she felt slightly stupid. There was really no one there to awake. She reached for the light switch, but the light failed. “Great…” She mumbled. “Just what I needed…”

As she stepped into the dark room, she felt a certain discomfort. For a brief moment Kristie felt like she was trespassing on someone else’s property, as if she was violating her Aunt’s privacy.

Logical reasoning claimed she was being silly, and yet she felt somewhat uncomfortable. Carefully, she tried to feel her way through to the next switch, searching for a lamp on the nightstand and once she found it, she turned on the light.

A soft yellow light illuminated the old style bedroom, unveiling a black cat stretching lazily on the top of the dressing table.  

“How the hell did you get in here?” Kristie asked Jezebel.

Listening to the sound of Kristie’s voice, the cat sat on the top of the table while gracefully waving her tail from one side to the other. If Kristie wasn't certain that was, indeed, a cat she could almost swear that cat was mocking her.

“Come on…” She motioned towards the cat. “You have no business here…”

Jezebel's opinion, on the other hand, seemed to differ and as soon as Kristie approached her, the cat jumped to the left making her jerk back.

“Jez…” Kristie warned her. “Now is not the time to be playing around.” She warned, as she tried to grab her.

Once again Jezebel dodged Kristie and quickly ran inside the dressing room.

“You have to be kidding me…” Kristie complained, frustrated at the cat. She inhaled, exhaled and then pulled down the string that lit up the light bulb inside Aunt Alice’s dressing room.

Jezebel sat in front of a full, body-sized, mirror placed over the front wall of that room. Kristie was about to scold the cat but, for some reason, the mirror caught her attention.

The mirror was shaped in an arched like door, and adorned with a beautifully crafted wooden frame from top to bottom. Briefly, Kristie thought that she had seen it before. Twenty years ago, in the gazebo of Aunt Alice’s garden. But she could not begin to imagine why on earth Aunt Alice had it put in here.

Jezebel purred and gently rubbed her head against Kristie’s legs as she approached the mirror. There was something disquieting about it and still she was mesmerized by it.

“Remember… “    

A soft whisper echoed in her mind as the tips of her fingers gently brushed the wooden frame. Inside her chest, her heart started pounding quicker. She could hear the mirror singing to her, encasing her in a spell she was unable, or unwilling, to break.  

The moment Kristie’s palm fully touched the mirror, her body quivered and a bright light blinded her eyes. The air was violently sucked out of her lungs and several image fragments assaulted her mind.

In the silent darkness of Megan’s bedroom, the crystal pendant shone bright on the top of her nightstand.