Songlines 3 - Short stories inspired from songs.
Previous stories in the series
HEART'S A MESS
Pick apart
The pieces of your heart
And let me peer inside
Let me in
Where only your thoughts have been
Let me occupy your mind
As you do mine.
Heart's a Mess – Gotye
The shadow spread out from the droplet of fear that had burst upon the floor. Angled and swirling out towards the edges of the room. Towards the four walls that circled Rosie, like wagons at dawn, pegging her into a cage that had become her life.
The foreboding presence slithered its way up the walls, slowly enveloping the room in darkness.
Rosie lay unmoved, on a rusty metal framed bed, placed in the room's centre. The shadow had spread out from her core, like black wings that rose high peering down on the lifeless body below. Watching Rosie as she lay trapped within the pieces of her broken, mangled heart.
“You look so confused and alone.” The voice resonated through the room's stale air. A presence brushed past the side of Rosie's face, causing her eyes to flutter. They closed once more, her breathing deep and rhythmic. “You don't have to be alone. Just let me in. Let me in.”
The shadow turned to vines stretching up the walls in long weeping strands. Black leaves fell in circular patterns until they rested upon Rosie's chest. Her beating heart receiving their decaying matter as an offering, calling out to the scattered pieces that lay within. Rosie sighed.
Come in.
Rosie heard a noise like a revving engine, a beast of magnitude she could barely imagine. It echoed at her from every direction, it's boom crashing down on her tiny frame. She lay on the barren earth, a loosely fitting hospital gown all that covered her.
Where am I?
A sound like ten thousand squawking birds hung in the air, just out of reach. Rosie looked but all she saw was a ring of trees. A faint light in the distance left the tree tops silhouetted. Elsewhere darkness reigned.
What is that noise?
She stood, needing several attempts to make her body lift itself. A fluid like energy coursed through her, turning her muscles to jelly. The noise continued to distract, Rosie's attention spinning her around. The trees stood like sentinels guarding all exit points. Only darkness could be seen below their leaves, deep into the forests beyond.
Where do I go now?
The echoing noise ceased.
“You don't have to be alone.” Rosie heard the voice clearly. There was no engine like chaos now. No squawking mayhem. A deep voice came through, creeping into Rosie's cage.
“Who are you?” Rosie asked.
“You don't have to be alone,” the voice repeated. “Just let me in. Let me in.”
Rosie looked at the sky, at the circle of faint light left between the trees. The stars barely visible yet vibrating in tune with the voice. The words boomed out, and the stars danced like marionettes. She watched as a shadow drifted across, and the dancing puppets were no more.
Rosie lay motionless on the old rickety bed. The mattress barely masking the faulty springs that lay beneath. She let out a sigh. The shadow stepped out from the corners of the room. A hand gently stroked her forehead. “Let me in,” the voice repeated. The same hand opened her eyes, one at a time. Rosie's eye lids where pulled apart, in search of life. “The stars say they have found you.”
Beneath her flickering eyelids shadows danced. A girl stood encircled by a guardian of trees. A heart lay broken, the pieces torn and held aloft. The blackness of the night ripped in two by the dripping blood that poured from her hands. Hands that held pieces of the girl's heart. Pieces of Rosie's heart.
Are you looking for me?
Rosie coughed. The bed squeaked and squealed in torment. The shadow hovered over, staring at her from above. Rosie's eyes shot open. She stared into the shadow's eyes. “Are you looking for me?”
“I have seen your broken heart,” the shadow said. “Let me fix it. Let me in.”
Rosie saw inside, the girl standing in the earthy centre. Ringed by the forest lords. She held the heart high, the red blood snaking its way down her arms, dripping from her elbows. The earth received her offerings - Rosie's offerings.
“My heart is not broken,” Rosie said. It is as it's meant to be.” She sat upright, throwing her arms around the shadowy presence above her. “It's my shadow that's broken.”
Rosie's mouth opened, wide enough to spew out the depths of hell. A being crawled out, her arms dripping with blood. In one hand she held a bloodied piece of heart. “Are you looking for me?” she asked the shadow. “You want in? You want to fix me?” The girl lashed out grasping the shadow from within its core. Her fingers wrapped tightly around the shadow's heart, dragging it back with her into the depths from which she came. Back into her core, into her centre. Ringed by the guardians of the night, where shadows belong.
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@naquoya
Short Fiction:
Bang Bang You're Dead
I Have No Name and I Must Scream
The Last Book Store
The Judge
The Man In The Mirror
The End of the World [Part 1] [Part 2]
The Locked Room
The Gods of Love and War [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
Crossroads