The Light Within

Prompt #2: Dark and Light

The mark in the center of my palm aches. Shooting pain travels up my arm and weaves its way to the tendons in my neck. Adjusting the pillow, I snake my hand beneath it.

He warned me once to keep my birthmark hidden. To renounce my past, but it’s all I have left.

Who am I if not my past?

Homesick, I slide my hand from its hiding place and sigh with longing as it glows crimson through my clenched fingers. It throbs on days when I am weary.

I fling the satin sheets off me with a flourish and gasp at how small I have become. I am like a speck lost in the midst of time. Surrounded by luxury and the ornate trappings of wealth, I still feel empty inside.

The heat in my palm reminds me of a simpler time and warms my heart. I am part of something that cannot be denied. I clasp my hands against my chest, and a knowingness infuses my soul with light, even while darkness surrounds me.

Shuffling across the room, I sit perched on the windowsill, like a sparrow whose wings have been clipped. My cheek rests gently against the window pane, numb to the chill that wracks my bones, while snowflakes tumble through the greyed sky, haphazardly floating to the earth, morphing from their delicate beauty, to lay anonymous among all the others in a desert of white.

Pinpricks pierce my scalp, jolting me from my respite. My heart beats erratically. A rhythmic song of death rings in my ears. I try to clear my thoughts, but a foreboding sense of dread clutches my chest. I am not alone. His presence is near. Beating down my resolve.

The frost on the window crystallizes with jagged designs, mirroring my fractured spirit. Hovering mere inches from the pane, I unfold my fingers one by one, and place them hesitantly against the glass.

Heavy footfalls climb the stairs. I gaze behind my shoulder and my heart quickens. I wait, listening for the creak of the floorboard just outside the door. The familiar echo sounds and fear swirls like a torrent of devastation. My lungs constrict, burning with every inhalation.

I am frozen in place. Reaching for the one that beckons, the one with the markings of my ancestors, beyond what is real. I call to the spirit while the door swings open. Another palm covers mine from the other side of the window. Red eyes peer through the darkness, and I am not afraid. To be so near and not embrace my soul’s spirit saddens me.

Don’t go. Stay with me.

But the being on the other side of the glass floats away, and in its place I see my master’s reflection as he lowers his head and fixates on my hands. I close my fists but it’s too late.

A sinister smile lights his eyes, and I am drawn to him, like an addict to her next hit.

Every exhale frosts the windowpane, clouding his chiseled features. I am trapped within these walls. Chained by his charm. Chained by his command. His lithe fingers caress the base of my neck, and a shiver consumes me.

I choke back tears, and bow to his will, as an insatiable need surfaces.

Encasing the indelible mark in my fist, I hide my light. Tears fall unbidden, not for the punishment that is sure to come, but for my spirit mate lost in the ether. Waiting for me. Waiting for me to know my worth. For nirvana is beyond the stars. Perhaps in death there will be peace.

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