We hope you’re enjoying your Saturday!
This week’s prompt was:
Write a story about a magic mirror—what it can do, how it’s used, and who it’s used by (Prompt courtesy of @writingprompts)
We have just one story today: Cheryl Mahoney gave us a glimpse of a moment between two characters in her upcoming novel.
*****
“Rose? Rose, I know you can hear me.”
Rose didn’t lift her head from her pillow. “Go away.”
“Don’t you think it might be helpful to talk to me?”
That didn’t even merit a response.
“I’m sorry about Terrence.”
Rose pushed herself up to sit on the bed then, to glare at the woman looking out of the mirror on her wall. “Don’t talk about him. Don’t even say his name. And you know you’re not sorry.”
Xevrix merely shrugged. “That’s true, but it seemed the polite thing to say.” The mirror showed the enchantress reclining on a lounge chair, mountains visible through the window behind her. As usual the woman looked immaculate, black and gold streaked hair perfectly coiffed above her flowing red gown.
Rose used the back of her hand to wipe away the tears on her cheek, and then was immediately annoyed with herself for caring what she looked like in front of the enchantress. “You always hated him.”
“Hardly. He wasn’t that important.”
Rose’s hands clenched into fists. “Don’t you dare—”
“He was holding you back,” Xevrix cut in. “Your attachment to him was holding you back. And now you’ve been freed.”
Freedom. Is that what this feeling was supposed to be called? This empty void in the center of her chest, the churning fear in the pit of her stomach. But of course, Xevrix didn’t know, she didn’t understand. She thought she knew what had happened—but she was wrong.
“I’m still attached,” Rose whispered.
“And you wouldn’t be in pain right now if you weren’t.” Xevrix tapped her fingertips together, steepled below her chin, and looked hard at Rose. Hundreds of miles away, and it felt so much as though she could see inside her that Rose couldn’t help fearing for the secret she was hiding. “You know he was holding you back,” Xevrix continued. “Or why did you never tell him about my little trick with your mirror?”
“He knew,” Rose said immediately.
Xevrix just sighed. “And now you’re just lying to me. I thought we were above that.”
Reluctantly, Rose amended to, “He would have worried. If he knew.”
“He would have smashed the mirror,” Xevrix said, leaned forward and smiled, a slow, enticing smile. “But you didn’t want that. Because you know I have power. Power you want. Power you need to protect yourself.”
Stonehenge Circle Writers 