Excerpt: Beyond the Parallel Door

A year…

It had been a year since Alouette has seen his face. His smile is what gave her the strength to believe in wondrous things beyond that of the real world. He had such an imagination, one that even she was not able to comprehend. He spoke of towering hills as far as the eye could see, rivers that ran past winding roads, and open valleys that stretched on until you reached Forevermore. There were different names for different places that he would describe to her such as Flumen’s Bed where the fish flew across the streams and Nemorosus Wood where the trees stretched below the earth. These fantastical things she would never have imagined, yet he thrived in it as if he lived a life amongst such wonders.

His name was Creed Winters.

He was a young boy when they met, no taller than she at three foot five. With his scraggy mousy hair and his unkempt and dirty clothes, he would often provide a smile through their youthful days. He was an optimist of sorts much to Alouette’s dislike to him at first. Still, he persevered about the girl through the clean open window. He would constantly talk for hours on end just for one word from her lips, yet she would not speak to a stranger she grew to know. The boy spoke of stories – tales that even she wasn’t aware of. He spoke with captivating words that tickled the mind and soothed the savage soul inside. He told her many things of a world filled with colour and of amazing things she had never heard or dreamed of before.

It was that day she began to trust him.

From days turned to weeks, and weeks to years, both Alouette and Creed grew to confide in each other for they could never be seen apart. Every day, she would wait for him to appear through the parallel window in her room, wanting to hear more tales of the Grand Dynast King, the Marauders of the Faith, and of the unchained melodies of a wandering soul. She watched as he grew up to become a fine young man, no longer clothed in dirty rags, but in clean and crisp apparel. There had been times he would arrive stained from the elements beyond that of the window, yet Alouette was happy to see his bright smile. Many a day, she’d wonder about his life through the glass pane that separated them for he never spoke of himself, but of other things instead. Did he have family? Did he have a home to return to? To her, he was everything that she could not possibly have imagined. He was her confidante, her stone pillar, and her dearest friend.

He grew to love her through the sadness of her eyes… and she grew to love him for the joy in his voice. A year had passed since she had seen his face, and Alouette knew she would never see him again. She knew, for it was he who made it so.

His name was Creed Winters… and he was ‘the boy in the mirror’.