The Eclipse

“I can’t sleep.” Courtney lies awake, resting in her modest house and modest life. A perfectly normal state of existence, no flash in the pan for her. She’d always been set up for success, but it couldn’t taste more bland. That hunger always returns in the darkest hour, the ghosts of her gifts hovering around her bed, in black clothes with grim faces, looking down at her as if she were being slowly lowered into a coffin. 

She couldn’t stand the room. She threw the covers off and sprang out the window.

Jumping off onto the ground, the tenacious, determined adventurer seeks to ease that hunger.

She went into the town, the bars and casinos still shining. 

Off in the distance, a hazel light seizes her attention.

“I can see you have ventured over to my store. I should warn you these items are quite addictive. Once you start a collection, all you’ll want is to buy more and more.” The man offers his hand, full of rings and finery, his robes tightly bound around the waist with many different amulets hanging around his neck, a golden cross, a silver crescent charm, and a lotus flower made of white clay. “Oh, I forgot, my name is Cassius Renwick. I subscribe to many different beliefs, though I do have to be careful.”

“Now my dear, what do you seek?”

Courtney glances around the room. It is a chaotic mess from floor to ceiling.

“Where does it begin and where does it end?”

“Ah, yes, you see my style is very organic, being druidic is very on brand at the moment.”

“So, that’s your reason for not giving this room a clean?”

“Well, one needs to be armed with a good reason, especially when questions are thrown your way.” Cassius reveals more of his religious jewels as he sweeps his arms around the room. Wherever her eyes went, the wildness of it continued, with tapestries and paintings like scales of a lizard on the wall, she could swear that a tapping noise was occurring behind it, but she couldn’t be sure. Cassius clicks his shoes, “This way. Don’t worry, I have plenty of options for you.”

At the end of the room, there were glass display cases, with weird novelties from all over the world. It felt as if whatever lay inside had eyes. “Feeling nervous? Don’t worry, this is reinforced glass, they won’t be getting out.”

“Getting out? What kind of store is this?”

“One of a kind.”

The mirrors with embroidery and finery woven in silver and gold along its frame, Courtney looking more and more beautiful. It causes her to squint into the glass, revealing moments that went by years ago, a prom dance during her last year of formal education, her addictions to antidepressants for a while after when she went through the world trying to find her place.

Courtney blushes fiercely.

“You don’t have to worry. It always does that.”

“It does? How is that even possible? Is this thing reaching into my mind?”

“Not exactly, it reflects your greatest dreams, also your strongest nightmares. I tend to guide people away from these things, they’re very strong.”

“How did you end up here? Doing all of these sales and trickery?”

“Trickery? My, my, how quick you are to change your tune. I never intended to go down this path, but things started happening, the world started to turn on itself, you begin to see things, hear things that shouldn’t be where they are.”

“I’d say that you’ve gone mad.” Courtney snaps back. “That’s what I see.”

“How right you are. You know the worst thing about interacting with a different reality? It’s that you have to organise everything, because everyone leaves an emotion behind when dealing with an item, and mirrors are often portals, set one against another and they can manifest the thoughts of an individual.” Cassius laughs softly, “I want to determine something with you.”

Courtney is slowly retreating backwards towards the entrance, “What would that be?”

“I can see it in your eyes. A hunger. Yes, yes that makes sense, tied down by the wishes of those who wanted only the best for you. Quite a tricky thing.” Cassius assures her. “You’re going to ask how do I know, right? Well, people only end up here if they’re searching for something. I think you want answers, and I, well I, run a business that answers questions.”

He directs her towards a door standing off to the left of the countertop. “Go on. Nothing here is physical, it cannot affect you in that way.”

Courtney can hear her nails grinding against her skin. “I don’t care. I am leaving, right now.”

“Here’s the thing, if you walk from your fear, if you don’t challenge it, overcome it, then you will always be ruled by it. The same with hunger. You know what you want. I say, take it. You live life once, which means, all the more reason to not die inside staring at emptiness. Before I went down this path, I asked myself, ‘What is my purpose?’, much like you I could feel things, sense them, you knew that something resided in the world that was working against you.”

“That sounds like a bunch of nonsense. Clearly, you’ve fooled plenty of people in your time.”

Cassius scoffs, “That depends. If you’re here, are you a fool? I don’t say so.”

Courtney looks around the room. 

“If I’m a fool, what does that make you?”

Cassius laughs. “Oh, well, it makes me a slave to those that seek what could never be.”

Vases and pithos make aisles for the curious to walk through. There were books that were written in code, a mess of numbers and letters done up in convoluted riddles. 

Once they were through the door, they emerged into a maze of mirrors. He closes the door behind them. “Now, I’m showing you a place where your search begins. Think of it as this, you’re awake within your dream, we call this the eclipse. Seize the night, seize what you want and make it yours.”

“There was something tapping here before, what was that?”

Cassius shrugs easily, “Don’t worry, it takes time for the emotions in a room to settle.”

“You’re saying that other people have walked through this maze?”

“As long as adventurers still live,” Cassius responds, “A story will not end.”

“This one that I have now will end. What happens next is the first page.”

“Then go for it. I won’t be far behind you.”

Almost at once, she fell into her dreams, a chaotic tunnel of lights and sounds, memories flashing from her youth, playing in the park with her brothers, roughhousing and building up speed on the monkeybars, always laughing and splashing through the mud. She couldn’t believe how drastic the change would be later in life, everyone in the family had dreams of their own to fulfil, and in time her dream of being an explorer that would seek the beating heart of secrecy in mother earth would fade away. Her parents couldn’t see it, they felt it was ill-fitting for her. They wanted her to succeed. But being a high ranking official in an office somewhere in the middle of nowhere left her feeling hollow, waiting around for the excitement of other people. She could not live with that, why could they have what she always wanted.

She could feel it building, that familiar burning anger. 

Her mothers’ voice broke through.

We only want the best for you, dear. 

Then why does it feel like your dream and not mine?