Tainted

The stale air sat upon the room like a cloud of exhaustion, nearly palpable as those who walked through might as well have walked through molasses. Stuffy, the wooden walls compressed. They were tight in their build, not allowing the slightest winter chill to cross their bounds. It didn’t help that the four beds, thin and light, were cramped together with no breathing room. Pressure hugged the children in the room, the eldest turning and twisting, groaning away as the fire burned from the commons, setting the whole house to a steady haze of heat.

Winter was fast upon the family of seven. Risk was ever so grave, ever so real.

The room’s walls were illuminated by a single candle, beeswax of a crisp cream slowly melting as the flickering flame danced about the room in a searching glow. It licked the support beams that hung thickly above. Shadows hiding in the corners fleeing at its warmth.

Upwards of each bed placed a single cross. Sanded smooth and with care by their father, they sat upon nail protrusions to be firmly placed for protection.

The flame brightened their dark wood. They loomed above their heads like watchful eyes, carefully observant.

A solid window planted firm into the wall held sights of a dark and distant world. Open fields of northern chills skipped gleefully as daisies and the fickle grass swayed like waves of the ocean.

Too dark, the candle averted its light, keeping those lands hidden in shadow, best to hide a world that prefers to be hidden.

A young lady, not even fourteen years of age, twisted asleep in a heated sweat. A glistening drip slipped down her pale face so smooth and youthful its soft delicacy alit the room. Her head of thick strands of black spooled in long paths with dead ends.

She awoke with a start, wide eyes upon the room like a sudden burst of desperation hit her in the gut. She gasped a handful of that stale air, going down hard in a sickly manner.

Sitting up, she looked about the small room, her siblings still fast asleep. Quick breaths filled the empty sounds of the room.

Deep and rushed, an eerie stillness filled the room. She glanced from wall to wall, watching the flame flicker off the surfaces as she regained her senses. A fleeting disorientation dizzied her head.

Her wool blanket lay on the ground, faint traces of dust and dirt latching onto its stitched surface, fraying at the ends. Bare, her bed now was, opening herself to the stale air to cling to her palmy skin.

Her nightgown felt soaked. The humidity in the air and the sweat from her skin seeped into the cloth, basic in its white appearance.

She felt constricted, a slow building of irritation bubbling inside as the heat threatened to consume her. She glanced at her siblings, still calm in their sleep. Confused at their peaceful dreams she fanned at her face.

Too hot….

Her heart had a steady beat, shaking her core, uncertainty filling her mind.

She couldn’t sleep like this. She couldn’t remain in a room like this.

A chip by the window attracted her attention. So soft the noise was, gentle in its knock.

An idea struck her. So simple for her desperate desires. A little air to free the constraints of the heated air, holding her down. The thought wouldn’t leave once it hit. Pleasureful she knew the air to be, yet a warning pang tugged on her heart. She glanced her eyes toward the bedroom door, motionless but ever so observant with a judgmental stare.

The door followed her, waiting for her to make the first move like a presence stood before ready to snatch her into the night. The flame failed to reach the concavity of the door frame, allowing the shadows to grow tall.

A shaky breath escaped her lips as a bead of sweat slipped down her back in a cold arch, pressing deep, the

panic rose as her confines begged for a cool release.

The window sparkled in the moonlight, hypnotic in its reflection casting back a ghostly vision of the girl.

Must it be such an issue to crack it open slightly? Such a beautiful night…

She moved her feet off the bed, a waft of air cold a jarring shock on her skin as her legs dangled weightlessly from the bed.

Ephemeral the chill was as the heat replaced with a greater intensity. Pricking at her skin like bugs set jolts of fever deep into her bones.

Agitation rocked her head with a bilious cloud, darkening her sight upon the room. That orange flame was nothing but an afterthought to the crystal glow that beckoned from the window.

She pushed herself from the bed, solid it held her steps with a passive thud.

Upon the window, she stood. It towered above the short statue, reaching the roof in a curved arch. A decorative frame held it tightly to the room, painting the outside world in such an eloquent setting. A latch connected the window into two doors. A simple flick was all it took to separate them. As she lifted her hand up to the window, a cool impression held it softly, like a motherly guide in the dark of night.

Flick!

The metal unclipped from the latch with a single cling, a bell that echoed to the outside for all who waited and listened.

She pulled back one of the panes to her, slowly. She knew one of the hinges creaked, loud enough to wake the whole house. The crack wasn’t very big, only enough to let the air sweep in.

A cold wind grasped her cheek, light air flooding her mind as a chill sparked her spine. So blissful, she breathed in deep. The frigid presence grabbed at her skin, but she was lost in the relief from the compressive humidity strangling the room.

Sickly her stomach felt, as the icy cold entered her skin and snuck into her core. Invasive and overwhelming, she began to shiver intensely, hands vibrating in a convulsive manner. She stumbled from the wave of air rushing from the window, so strong they blew open allowing the darkness of the night to flood the room. The wind knocked about the room in a sharp streak. The orange flame was soon but a whisk of smoke, desolate the warmth now was.

The walls shook in faint motions, hardly but a brush as the two met and the wind changed directions. The crosses titled slightly, swaying from their nail holdings yet remained in place.

The girl fell back on her bed, shielding her face from the wind that filled her ears and nose with a frightening chill.

So cold was their grip, tight and unrelenting.

She stood back up as a jolt of panic sent her to the window, regret and fear ever so apparent on her face.

Arm wide they struggled to reach both panes as they shook in the wind. She managed to just barely cling onto the two sides, desperately pushing them together.

The wind didn’t want to leave.

The presence wasn’t letting her go.

“Mercy! What are you doing?” Her mother gasped.

The wind was dead, a sudden and off-putting realization. All was silent and still.

Mercy turned around, hands still stuck on the icy panes, to face her mother standing in shock. Lanky the woman was, age wearing her face with faded wrinkles. She usually looked quite youthful in the daylight, but with shadows of the room cast her face into one consumed by weariness. She wore a simple night gown with a heavier shawl around her shoulders as she crossed her arms shivering the cold Mercy had let run rampant in the room.

Her siblings had begun to stir.

“Close that window, child!” She snapped in a hushed but direct tone.

Mercy pushed together the panes, now so much easier than before. They felt light and devoid of the fridged life that had brought so much fear to Mercy.

Her mother seemed not to have noticed anything.

“I’m sorry Momma…” Mercy stuttered, wringing her fingers against one another as she avoided eye contact at the disapproving glare her mother held.

“The cold is no good for a child… no… no good at all.” She struggled to say. “Now, back to bed with you. I don’t want to catch you there again.”

Mercy fluttered over to her bed and lifted the blanket from the ground. The pressure that had woken her before was now a distant feeling. Such a stark contrast to the calmness, that warmth irrepressible in her mind.

Now, she began to even doubt its existence.

Maybe a nightmare that had her so turned around and distorted.

She lay in bed underneath the blanket, closing her eyes for sleep to take her away again. A sense of peace filled her mind and the sensations from the surrounding world faded away.

A steady breath escaped her lips as she drifted asleep.

Her mother soon left the room, closing the door that allowed the orange glow from the commons to leave with her, casting everything into darkness.