Written for the game Snap Shot–Writing Prompt #9. It is also the first draft of a scene for Sonora’s 2018 NaNoWriMo novel.

 

I think I fell asleep whilst sitting in the blue room by the fire.
I remember scanning the pages for some clue of what she might be–searching all the species, every class for “humanoid”, “perfect”, and “can disappear”.
I found nothing, or nothing I remember. All I know is one moment I was looking, and the next, there she was.
It was out the tall, glass balcony doors. The curtains had been parted, and the sun was trying to bleed out into the sky in the background. But there she was, her long blonde hair dark against the light of the sky, and her perfect face tilted upwards to an orb of light in her hands.
I sat there, too scared to move, in case she disappeared again.
She was wearing nothing but a thin fabric shift, or a tunic of some kind. The wind made it billow outwards around her legs and her hair stir itself into a twisting cloud.
The light in her hands trickled down her wrists, curled over her arms and down her shoulders.
They looked like fireflies, blinking and glowing all around her.
When she turned, the red caught in her pale hair and set it glowing too, like it had been touched by fire. When she saw me, she smiled, her face lit up by the light in her hands.
She was smiling at me.
The lights curled and twinkled around her body as she took a step towards me, and then another.
My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest and my cheeks felt too hot. I was terrified for so many different reasons.
I had no idea what she was–she could have killed me right there with her mind–I was afraid she was a dream, and I was afraid that this was really her, and that she’d come up to me, and then leave forever.
She pushed the glass doors open, letting in a gust of sharp November air. Her bare feet made no sound on the old wooden floorboards.
She came so close to me I could smell her–all lavender and spring air, and snow. The liquid emerald in her eyes watched all of me as she reached out a slender, white hand and tucked a stray strand of my dark hair back behind my ear.
“You won’t find me in there,” is all she said.
I glanced down at the encyclopedia in my arms and just like before, she was gone before I could look up again.
All that was left was the smell of lavender and rose petals.