For so long it had sat in her subspace pocket, found only recently when she had been out running around as a senshi again and had remembered that she even had a place to store things.
Of course the initial sight of the dress had caused a flood of tears that she had been unable to stop for a good hour, and after she was done hugging the dress and crying out her grief for the wonderful queen that her court had utterly destroyed, the memories of everything else that had happened in that strange crystal cursed world came flooding back.
It hadn’t really been a good night now that she was looking back on it, but on her way home from school today she had found the locket that was held loosely in her hand.
An old toothbrush, some hot water and a mixture of dish soap and toothpaste as well as some of her mother’s strong and expensive jewelry cleaner were used to help clean up the locket.
It took the better part of two hours, but finally the locket sat in her palm, gleaming faintly in the bathroom light. As Kelly looked at it, she felt a grim sense of pride and sighed, rubbing her thumb over it gently before fascinating it around her neck, preening for a moment in the bathroom mirror and deciding that—yes. She did look as good as she had hoped. When she got the dress on and fixed up her hair, she swallowed hard as she again preened in the mirror.
…She looked just like a princess. And felt like one too.
But…
But the thought suddenly made tears fill her eyes and she looked away from the mirror quickly, swallowing hard and walking back to her bedroom, drawing in a shaking breath and trying to get the all too familiar thoughts to leave her mind.
I think you’re my prince.
What a stupid thing to say to someone. Someone who had been her best friend. Her rock since forever. What a stupid mistake that did nothing but leave her here, alone. In a dress gifted to her by a dead queen, someone else she cared for beyond belief.
The tears were falling in spite of her best efforts to chase them away and Kelly was trying so hard to just…force them away. To force them all away. Her hands fumbled for something to cling to, and for a moment she fingered the soft fabric of the dress but there was a worry that she’d tear it, and so when she felt the cool metal of the locket, she clutched at it, working hard to catch her breath and keep her sobs to a quiet minimum.
As she opened the small heart shaped object, she looked down, almost hoping to find something inside—some picture. Some…anything to just distract her from what was going on…and when she found it empty, her lip began to tremble again and with a soft, strangled cry Kelly threw herself down onto her bed and began weeping without restraint into her pillow, her perfectly placed hair coming undone from the force of it all and cascading down around her shoulders again.
She wasn’t sure how long she had been crying, it might have been minutes or hours, but suddenly she was aware of a slight chill in the room and the soft touch of…of something on her hair. Quickly the girl sat up, brushing at her colorful locks, thinking perhaps it was a spider or some other unwanted critter or…
The girl stared at the transparent apparition and her face went white, eyes dilating in shock and confusion as she took in the ghostly appearance of…of…
“Q-queen Altea…?”
The ghostly figure looked like Kibirev’s queen and friend, though she looked sad. And seemed worried, reaching out to once again stroke a transparent hand over the girl’s hair. “You still look wonderful in that dress, Kibirev. I was right to give it to you.”
Her voice sounded strangely hollow, but the words made tears again spring to Kelly’s eyes even as her brain tried to process what was happening.
Altea was dead.
But…
There was another echo of memory from that time. One that she had struggled with, wanting to forget.
Best friends ‘til death do us part, right?
Oh God.
What if she herself had been dead this whole time? What if that was the reason that Bea no longer spoke to her or sought her out or…did anything to acknowledge that they were even on the same planet let alone in the same city. In the same court.
Former besties. ‘Til death and after…
Kelly swallowed hard and covered her mouth with both hands, trying to push back the fresh wave of sobbing that she could feel building. Her chest hurt. But…there shouldn’t be pain after death…right? And if she had been dead…Bea would have gone out of her way to find her. She would have done anything. Gone to the graveyard. Hunted her ghost…
Oh God…
For a long moment, Kelly felt as though she were falling. The sounds of the room, the soft sound of the air being moved by her fan, the sounds from the street outside seemed to vanish as though a pair of soundproof headphones had been put over her ears, and her vision swam as she struggled with thoughts too confusion to truly deal with. And the ghost…Altea…she looked every bit as concerned as any sane person would and reached out a hand in an attempt to steady the girl, but a moment later the sight of her former mentor vanished as unconsciousness claimed her.
When she woke, she didn’t know how long she had been out, but it was long enough for Altea to be sitting beside her, stroking her hair with that too light to be natural pressure that…well.
That she supposed ghosts had.
“Oh! Kibirev, you gave me such a fright. I didn’t mean to startle you, honestly I had figured that you might even be happy to see me…” Altea sounded almost unsure for a moment, though there was the slight edge of hope lingering in the back of her voice, enough of it that even grief stricken and confused, Kelly could hear.
She could hear it and she felt utterly honor bound to…to give it some life. Any life. Making her Queen happy was the very least that she could do.
“Oh…no, Your Majesty, I…I was just surprised but…but of course I’m happy to see you…I…” Kelly gulped and struggled against the fresh onslaught of tears. “I’ve missed you…I’ve thought about you so often…”
And she had…and suddenly more memories pelted her and her lip trembled when she realized something else…perhaps…this had been her fault after all…
I swear, if you attack Altea, we won’t be friends anymore, Lovejoy.
Could that be the answer? The reason that everything had fallen apart? But…it wasn’t even a real threat…and Lovejoy hadn’t attacked her beloved Queen so…but…
She hadn’t pledged her loyalty either but that wasn’t something that Kelly was going to spend much time thinking on…clearly she was already going mad regardless so…why work harder to bring the madness on faster?
“I’m…I’m so sorry for what we did…did you find happiness? Did you…did you rejoin your people, Altea? Are you…are you a…a r-restless ghost?”
Because obviously that’s what she was…a ghost. Or a hallucination. But given the fact that it was Halloween…well.
God. Bea would have loved this…
The figure of Altea only gave a sad smile and continued to softly stroke Kelly’s hair. “It is good to see you.” Her voice sounded more reassured, though she said nothing else. Gave nothing away.
“What grieves you, Kibirev? You weren’t this unhappy before. You were the only one who had any joy when you visited. The only one who ever bothered to try to befriend me. The only one who never saw me as anything but a queen.”
Kelly was quiet, swallowing hard a few times before she could even think about answering. Though she didn’t know what it was that she even wanted to answer, and finally she shrugged.
The apparition seemed a little sad by the lack of response from the young woman and sighed softly, eyes roaming around the bedoom and lighting on Charlie, the Alpacacorn.
“So, is this one of the stuffed animals that your friend Lovejoy makes you?”
At the sound of the name, Kelly looked stricken and the tears began falling again. She gave a mute nod and bit down hard on her lip to force back a wail of despair.
Altea looked utterly concerned by this reaction and paused in her attempt to comfort the girl. “Kibirev? What is the matter? Is Lovejoy all right?”
Again Kelly nodded, though after a long moment, she shrugged. “I…I hope so.”
Her voice was soft and almost confused. A little frightened.
“…We don’t talk anymore…”
Altea’s eyes flashed at this statement and she looked…sad…and of course Kelly felt guilty for making her Queen look like that…and of course that caused even more tears.
But there was no reproof. There was only a gentle pressure as the ghost sat down and pillowed Kelly’s head in her lap. It was a strangely cool feeling and if this was nothing more than a hallucination…it was a good one.
“Tell me everything, Kibirev. Hold nothing back. Tell me what is troubling you and I will do what I can.”
The words were so soft. So soothing that Kelly found herself pouring out everything. Her love for Lovejoy, the terrible occasion after they had gotten home when Bea had been so different. The way her parents had been treating her as though she was a stranger in their house.
She told her about her brother and how he was such an outcast, and about her sister who her parents treated as though she was their only child. About December, and her growing feelings for her friend…and the fear she had with expressing those feelings after she had lost Bea when she had asked if they were dating.
How her heart seemed to be constantly in a state of shattering, and reforming, and shattering into smaller pieces. She gave a grim laugh as she spoke about how she was sure that she was slipping into madness because of this moment, and how happy she had been to put on the dress that Altea had given her…and how she felt just like a princess.
Kelly talked until her throat was dry and a little scratchy. She cried until her eyes burned dully, and without meaning to, she slipped into a surprisingly peaceful sleep, pillowed in the lap of the woman she would have given up everything to protect.
When the girl woke the next morning, her head was resting on a simple pillow, and her hand was wrapped tightly around the locket she had found. Confused, she looked quickly around the room, hoping to find Altea there, giving another one of those soft, kind smiles but…
But she was gone and though Kelly had been feeling a sense of…calm. A sense of relief last night when she was unburdening herself to the ghost of her Queen…now she just felt another wave of crushing loneliness.
Altea was gone again. Or perhaps…she hadn’t been here to begin with but…but it had all felt so…so real. And Kelly now felt so much more lost and alone than she had before. But. Halloween was over.
There wasn’t any going back but…
She fingered the locket again and swallowed hard.
She would do her best to remember.
Always.
The Space Cauldron
Using Rusty Locket from Halloween Raffle
