Fiction Factory: Cilla Ambrose (Part 3)

Cilla felt around under Ray’s bed, she couldn’t feel anything. She laid on her stomach and crawled right under and finally found what must be his secret. It was a box. She grabbed it and squirmed her way backwards out from under the bed. It was a wooden box, about the size of a shoe box but crafted from a light wood and a dark wood. It was very pretty. It had a brass hinge, and a dull brass latch on the front. Of course, through the latch was a lock which could prove a problem. There were symbols on the outside of the box, scratches roughly made with something sharp, of different shapes and letters. Well. If they were letters Cilla couldn’t read them. Some of the symbols were the same as the tattoos on Ray’s wrist.

She shook the box, there was rattling inside. A loose rattling like marbles or a lot of small somethings inside. She put it down and tried to think of a solution to get inside.

A spark of light flickered on the wall. A pinkish light.

Cilla noticed it out of the corner of her eye. She looked but the flickering stopped. A couple seconds later it started again, faster.

Cilla looked and saw the light dancing around the wall. It stopped as a point of light. She raised her palm against it and the spot shone on her palm. She turned and looked behind her to the source of the light coming from under Ray’s bed. Cilla crouched down and peered beneath into the darkness. A small spot flashed. She crawled on her stomach under the bed. She reached her hand out to touch the light. Under her fingers she felt a tiny glass object. It shone with a bright pink light. She reversed out from under the bed and cupped the object in her palm. It was a crystal, not a smooth shaped crystal but a rough crystal from the ground. It a light pink and as she turned it in her fingers it sparkled in many points of light. It was slightly warm too.

Cilla sat and stared at it for a while. She glanced from the box to the crystal and suddenly panic gripped her. She’d been too long in Ray’s bedroom, she forgot the time and he would be returning soon.

The crystal began to spin. It spun slowly at first. Cilla picked it up in her fingers and felt the gentle vibrations through her skin. It vibrated so forcefully she dropped it on the floor and it bounced across the carpet. Cilla grabbed it and stared at it closely. It began to heat up and shake worse. She dropped it but it hung in the air in front of her. It slowly rotated in its suspended animation. Then it shot forward and hit Cilla oin the chest, it began to vibrate again to drill its way through her shirt and into her chest. It started to burn and Cilla began to cry out. It hurt. Hurt like a doctors needle hurt. She swatted at it, trying to get it off her. She had to run, to get away but just as she stood up to run and get help it slipped in. She stopped and hitched her breath. The crystal entered her chest and a burst of heat spread through her body and out through her fingers. She was frozen, couldn’t move. For a moment her thoughts were stopped and Cilla was trapped in her body. She couldn’t feel the floor, the carpet on her feet. For a moment life paused.

With a small sigh she crumpled to the floor and life restarted.

Cilla lifted the front of her shirt and saw a small red spot fading from the centre of her chest.  She couldn’t believe what was happening to her. Panic began to rise again.

Ray!

She scrambled to get out of his room, she grabbed the box with the intentions of replacing it under his bed but as she grabbed the outside of it, it began to glow. She saw through it like an xray, at the many crystals inside the box. Ray had a collection of them. She looked down at the warm spot on her chest and saw a muted light coming out from her skin. The lock on the latch popped open and all the crystals came flooding out of the box and collided with Cilla.  Time stopped, each crystal entered her in many areas, each a spot of heat and pain. Each brought new feelings and exhilaration. She loved this. The crystals brought something to her life she hadn’t felt before: love.