1903
Clara could feel it, caught in a state between reality and the dreamworld. She was still focused on the dream, but that world was beginning to fade away while her senses bled through. She heard her sister's slow and deliberate breathing, which meant the sun had yet to rise. In the background, she heard the grandfather clock's counterweight swing back and forth. Alas it was that growing urge to pee that was chasing her dreams away.
She rather enjoyed prolonging her existence between realms. Clara could look upon her world, mould it as she saw fit, while her every wish was obeyed. That is until she turned around in bed, in the hopes of delaying the inevitable, but collided with Ada's elbow.
Her eyes opened wide and forced the waking world to come into focus. Clara could barely see her sister's elbow through the streaks of purple brought on by the impact. With her vision restored, she looked above and saw the familiar yellowed ceiling, and the fog from her breath.
Clara dreaded these moments, the early morning before her mother lit the stove. That moment in time where the hot stones placed in bed at night had grown cold. The ground outside was sure to be covered in frost this morning and judging by the view from their window, the sun would not make an appearance for a while yet.
While the urge was slowly migrating from the back of her mind to the forefront, she looked at her two sisters who were sleeping peacefully and for a moment, felt deeply envious of their situation. Alas, what was a girl to do?
Clara lifted the warm layers of linen from her body, instantly feeling the chilled morning air made contact with her bare skin. Her legs became covered in gooseflesh, and her muscles tensed before she threw herself out of bed and onto the cold floor.
"Cold!" Clara yelped.
Clara felt around for a moment to find a pair of woollen slippers. They were too big, but that was the burden borne by the youngest child, condemned to suffer the humiliation of wearing her sisters' hand-me-downs. Nonetheless, the need to pee would not subside, cold or not, so down the stairs she went.
She crept down the stairs, careful to skip the second to last step. It had a tendency to creak and the last thing she wanted to do was wake up her father earlier than necessary. That would surely make him cranky, which had a tendency to trickle down to his children via their mother.
Clara made it to the door and noticed the sky was turning purple and red. She also discovered that the door was not latched, something that was profoundly peculiar in her mind.
"Odd," Clara murmured. "Someone went out to the outhouse?"
The last thing Clara needed was to wait for her turn. Just thinking about freezing longer than necessary made her teeth chatter!
Clara slowly opened the door and attached screen to avoid making a racket. Then with all due haste, she ran along the frosted patch of weeds, hearing them crinkle with every step. It was a shame that she needed relief. This might have been a pleasant experience had she been appropriately dressed!
A moment of inattention caused Clara to slip on a sheet of ice. For a moment she managed to keep her balance, but gravity ultimately proved the victor and sent her down onto her rump.
"Ow," Clara complained.
She looked down and saw her reflection in the ice. She was momentarily mesmerised. Her hair was short and light brown, just like her mother wanted.
"Any longer and those dreaded curls will make an appearance and turn your hair into a rat's nest," her mother often said.
She had the near-rounded face of a child with a cute button nose. Her cheeks were a bit sunken, wages had been lean this year, and that translated to smaller meals. Of course, nothing could shake the light from her steel-grey eyes.
YOU ARE READING
The Van Helsing Paradox
Fantasy"A gal has to look after herself after all." Clara Grey's parents once said that the world was a dark and dangerous place. There was more truth than fiction to those words. There were things that lurked in the shadows which defied the laws of nature...
