Gothicana

CHAPTER 9

Corvina

The girl with long, dark hair lay face down in the water, her tresses floating over the surface ethereally, her skin ghostly pale in the moonlight. Corvina looked around, not knowing the place or the time, just that she needed to get to the girl. She took a step forward, her ankle dipping in the icy water, disappearing under the blackness.

Heart pounding, she took another step, just as something cold, slimy gripped her ankles, locking her in place. Corvina struggled trying to get to her, but the movements caused ripples that made the girl float further away. She struggled harder, but the slimy fingers around her feet gave no room.

The girl reached the middle of wherever they were, and slowly began to sink into the murky water, inch by inch, until only her hair remained floating on the surface. 

Corvina opened her mouth to call out to her but nothing came out, her voice muted, her throat locked in place like her ankles.

“Corvina,” a voice called from behind her, a voice she knew and loved in her soul. Her mama’s voice.

She turned to see her mama standing a few feet away on the shore, dressed in her black cotton gown and braid, smiling. But her eyes were blown up with black covering everything until she couldn’t see the violet eyes full of love. She was shuffling a deck of cards, watching Corvina with those eerie fully black eyes.

“Mama,” she called out, her voice working this time.

One card fell out from the deck, and another, and another. Her mama smiled up at her, throwing the deck to the side and picking up the cards that had come during her shuffle, turning them to show her.

The Devil. The Lovers. The Tower.

All major arcana. All powerful omens.

“You know what’s coming, baby,” her mother said, still smiling. “A storm. The only safe place is the eye. He is the storm. He will keep you safe.”

“Who, mama?” Corvina asked, trying to free her legs from whatever was holding her in place.

“The devil,” her mama answered.

“The one in the card?” she outstretched her hands, trying to reach her.

“The one in your heart,” her mother chuckled. “Once you taste the forbidden fruit, you belong to the devil.”

Corvina cried out as the hands holding her ankles began to tug her into the water, away from her mother.

“Mama,” she uttered in horror just as her mother began to disappear simultaneously. She struggled harder to get to the shore but to no avail, her body moving frantically deeper into the depths.

“Mama!” she screamed, her hands outstretched, trying to reach a mother who wasn’t there.

Something shook her hard.

“Corvina!”

Her eyes flew open to see Jade’s worried face looming over her, her hands holding her down by her shoulders. Corvina panted, her chest heaving, her entire body drenched in sweat, her eyes looking around the room wildly as her mind processed what had happened.

A nightmare. She’d had a nightmare.

Breathing through her mouth, she sat up, her hands trembling.

“You were screaming for your mom,” Jade told her softly, handing her a glass of water from the side. Corvina accepted it gratefully, gulping the whole thing down in seconds, letting her racing heart slow down.

A nightmare. Just a nightmare.

“Thank you,” she told her worried roommate, handing her the glass back.

“Are you okay?” Jade asked, taking a seat on her bed.

Corvina nodded. “It was a bad dream.” And that worried her. She’d never been prone to nightmares but the very few she’d had in her life weren’t good signs. Her mother had told her they were ominous, especially with her. The doctor had said they were damaging. She needed to get a grip of herself.

Swinging her legs out of the bed, she rubbed a weary hand over her face. “I’m going for a walk.”

“It’s the middle of the night,” Jade told her, her eyes cautious. “Are you sure?”

Corvina nodded. “I need some air. I need to walk it off. Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.”

Pushing her feet in her boots, still clad in her blue nightgown, Corvina pulled her hair over a shoulder and took a candle from the drawer beside her. Her eyes fell on the tarot deck sitting beside it. Picking it up as well, sticking the candle on a holder, she lit it up and gave Jade what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Seriously, go to bed. I just need to walk it off.”

Jade bit her lip, eyed her flickering candle. “I’d suggest a lantern if you’re going out the walls. The wind is sharp tonight.”

Corvina glanced outside the window. The grotesque gargoyle outside the window loomed like an ominous monster screaming at the moon. An almost full moon. She’d be fine. Nevertheless, she nodded to her friend, wrapped a shawl around herself, and walked out.

The corridors were empty at this time of the night, the candle providing enough light for her to make her way down the stairs. There was no piano being played, it hadn’t been for a few days. She needed to go to her place, the quiet place where it was only her and no one else to interrupt.

Emerging into the foyer, she pushed open the entrance door of the tower with the hand holding her deck, and looked outside, to check any guards patrolling the grounds. Seeing her path clear, she slipped outside.

The wind cut on her face, cold and biting and enlivening. The flame on her candle danced with the wind for one wild second like a paramour, flickering and resisting its passion, before surrendering and extinguishing itself under his demand. The scent of the forest beckoned to her, the scent of rich soil and sleeping foliage, the scent of trees unknown and flowers unseen.

Still keeping the candle holder with her, she made her way to the forest and turned left towards the ruins. She’d never been to the woods at night here, but as she made her way to her destination, with the sounds of the forest and its creatures to keep her company, she felt herself relaxing. The woods at night were the same as they had been in her hometown. Nocturnal insects chirped, reminding her she wasn’t alone in the dark. Bats flew overhead going places at their hour. A bird cooed on every count of three.

One. Two. Coo.

Corvina matched her steps to the coo, touching the barks of the trees on her way in greeting, silently thanking them for sheltering her as she made her way under the muted light of the moon.

After a few minutes, the ruins came into view, her place of peace, and she felt herself smile.

And then she froze.

Because in her space of solitude sat a large man on one of the broken benches, with tarp thrown on the ground beside him. He looked up as a branch crunched under her boot, his silver eyes searing her, arresting her on her spot a few feet away.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered, his voice carrying over in the open space between them as he turned fully towards her. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Corvina swallowed, her fingers tightening around the candlestick. “I come here all the time.”

“I meant,” he clarified, putting something metallic in his hand on the bench beside him, “what are you doing here at this time of the night?”

She didn’t want to tell him about her nightmare. She hadn’t even processed it herself. So, she gave him the truth, as much as she could. “I couldn’t sleep.”