The girl in the room

First impressions. Darkness. Space. Emptiness yet… filled with a presence. Almost a sense of expectation. A hush.

“Upstairs! Move!”

Morag was in charge, her eyes adjusting to the dimness inside as she spun me around and sent me flying towards a wooden staircase to the left of the door. She moved forward through the entrance hall, disappearing into what looked like a large, empty living room.

I skillfully used a combination of my back and the wall to break my momentum, then sprinted up the stairs. Trying to move quietly in the dark, in a strange house, while wearing size ten boots and taking three steps at a time. Try it sometime. It makes a great game at parties.

At the top of the stairs was another entrance area, narrowing to a hallway at the far end. I could make this out because this floor was lit by candles mounted in brackets on the walls.

Half a dozen rooms led off either side of the hallway. The first two were empty and dark. I popped my head round the doorways, feeling for a light switch, then moved on when I had no luck. The second pair were locked. Solid wooden doors, which didn’t even rattle when I threw my weight against them. This was not going well.

Then I reached the last room on the left. From up close, I could see the flicker of light under the door. And I could hear a gentle humming sound, a slow, meditative melody, like a lullaby. The scent of cinnamon seemed to accompany the humming, making my mouth water as it remembered drinking gluhwein during the last cold spell we’d had.

Forgetting the social niceties, I turned the handle and pushed the door with my other hand. It flew open, and for a moment I was blinded by the blaze of illumination that lay on the other side. The hairs along my arms stood to attention.

After blinking for a couple of seconds, my eyes took in the scene. Medium sized room. Bed in one corner. Cupboard next to it. Circle of candles filling the rest of the space. Girl kneeling in the centre of the candles. Clothes on the bed. My head swung to the left to confirm, then back to the middle of the room. Girl kneeling. Clothes on the bed.

Hair like midnight cascaded down her back, stopping just short of her waist. Candlelight glittered on a delicate silver chain which connected one side of her nose to an ear. Her arms were held out at her sides, palms up, while her head was bowed in supplication. This left her facing me with nothing to obscure my view of the pentagram tattoo just above her left breast. It was a circle of thorns, some of them seeming to dig into the skin, with the familiar five-pointed star straddling them. Another design circled her upper right arm. Again thorns, this time with roses blossoming between them. From the angle she was kneeling, and with the flickering light of the candles, it looked as if the flowers were on fire.

Then she opened her eyes and looked up at me, and I was lost.

Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick. Available from www.amazon.com/author/burning

Till next time. Cheers.