try at least. The knife easily cut through the first part of the torn rope, then got stuck.
The more I tried, the less I could move it.
When I heard laughter behind me I felt a sudden chill inside my chest, a shiver running down my back and making my arms tremble – not my will though. At that moment, my little pursuer appeared in front of me, his eyes green and terrible.
He had hidden small tacks inside the rope.
Livid with anger I set to removing them, while trying to counterbalance the rope’s motion with my weight. I desperately tried again and again, pricking my fingers and cursing at the sharp pain.
And finally the rope broke. The girl could only fall to the ground, but at least her incessant sway had stopped.
Looking at those horrible green eyes for what I hoped was the last time, I mustered up courage and pointed at the child lying on the ground. Then I yelled at the monster, since I had nothing but my voice: “That’s your doing, now I have nothing left, nothing! We were meant to share a bond in the future, so you took her away from me! Now kill me if you wish... What else do you want, my blood?”
I challenged him fiercely, but in the meanwhile he had changed. Clasping my hands, he told me I had done the right thing: I had passed the test; I was getting stronger.
My strength I had forged and sharpened with patience, as a blacksmith hammers iron and shapes it into swords and pieces of rare value. But even hard workers make mistakes, and that is perhaps humanity’s common ground: that shuddering breath of insecurity which compels us to flee or to fight, capitulate or win.
This time I had won, but the journey continued and other challenges would arise. On the one hand I looked forward to it, yet on the other I still feared the unknown.
Nevertheless I went on in my worn boots, to other challenges and other places.
__________
Behind me lay barren lands typical of the Arctic tundra, with a pungent birch smell and tall spruce haunted by winter snow. The evergreens – which were previously all around me – now receded and gave way to a curious labyrinth.
I approached some elaborate ruins that bore the weight of as many years as the layers of lichen covering them. Although collapsed, their contours still stood out against the background. If I was to go into the labyrinth, I would have to follow them; so with patience, tenacity and spirit of sacrifice I bent my will to fate.
In fact, fate hadn’t been very generous so far given the sequence of challenges I had had to endure, which had hardened my spirit and my skin, strengthening my body but tiring me out completely.
Struggle I knew well, my everyday friend and companion, like a woman who never deceives: awesome yet merciless.
Still, not as enticing were the writings I read on the walls, unholy signs and pentacles that seemed to have been drawn in blood.
They were ever more frightening, warning not to enter, not to venture further, not to try the awful path ahead. They commanded to leave my desires behind as they wouldn’t come true: only death lay in wait.
All alone I was crossing a new, hostile land made of sand, small cobbled areas and moss growing in the cracks of the ancient ruins. Anything, any possible thing could happen at that moment.
Not too far from me lay remains of tortured bodies and discarded skulls, some with hair still on them, yellowed by time. I also had the distinct sensation of not being alone.
__________
Suddenly came an alarming creak, then a crash.
A revolving panel appeared in front of me. I pushed it open, and what I found left me speechless.
It was myself. Myself, but in a somewhat different way.
It was myself I saw, yet I couldn’t believe it.
I would finally have someone to talk to and ask for advice. She could maybe tell me where she came from, what she had done and would do.
She looked like me down to the smallest detail, except for her finer clothes. She had had many adventures, albeit not as challenging as mine. From a beautiful garden in a faraway world she had stumbled and fallen through the dimensional door I had just opened. She had then been thrown from one world to the other, and was thus completely shocked.
Now there were two of us in this parallel dimension, two heroines in the chill of the night and among dreadful ruins. Two different people, yet twins; two little souls in the night; two lit candles that could rekindle each other or die competing for the brighter flame.
And I know female competition is devastating. It leads women to come to blows for the love of a cheat or lose their job when failing to gain favour with the boss. This sort of competition is usually as powerful and deadly as poison. I could only fear it.
I carefully studied my clone’s – my twin’s – attitude but she proved to be very friendly and understanding. She followed my lead and was open and kind to me. As we ventured further and further into the ruins, our mutual harmony only deepened.
That brief moment of serenity, however – the moment I realised that I was no longer alone and may hope for a brighter future – was soon perturbed.
THE CAVE MONSTERS
His body was horrifically red from burns, veins clearly visible under his skin. He was very tall – more than a dozen feet – and had big, sturdy limbs that moved with the sound of shattering boulders. His eyes were a bright yellow; he could see and scent every sign of life in the dark. He fed on fear, but his mouth was full of sharp teeth, the better to bite human flesh with.
He had been living hidden for centuries – preying on both young and old – in the heart of the ruins where the paths grew more tangled. He was there now as he had been when the ruins were still a magnificent castle.
An unwanted child born out of violence, he had been cursed seven times from the very first moment of his life. He had survived only through a deal with another demonic creature, a monster that abhorred innocence.
Their names were Damnation – the cursed one – and Revenge – his equal.
Revenge was a refined, intelligent hunter who had chosen a deal with Damnation over a death at the stake. Damnation had brought Revenge back to life, and the latter had returned among the living with an ever-growing thirst for blood. He wore a tattered shirt on which his name was still readable, written in white chalk and outlined in the red blood of his victims.
The two hunters immediately sensed the presence of the humans and hid in the dark with neither a word nor hesitation. They knew that two good souls were wandering nearby, having lost their bearings: they perceived our fear and could detect our insecurities by smell alone.
__________
The two of us were so glad to be together that it was almost our demise: at first we nervously scouted the area and its crumbling remains, but then, perhaps, we got carried away and just went on without a clear direction. Several times we reached dead ends and, after going in circles, we realised we were lost.
We couldn’t find our way back, so we moved forwards. The ruins were in better condition the further we walked, as if we had entered
