The Woman

A tall, gaunt figure stood silent at the end of the dark corridor, dust settling all around her as if she had run to be there. A dim light pierced its way through the windows, browned and filthy from years of neglect, illuminating her face. Her paling snow-white skin clinging to her bones like wet sheets to flesh, tight and rigid yet flexible. Her cold, dead eyes staring into the abyss which lay before her. Once blue, now barely grey. Her nose may at one time have been called pretty, but these days it was overshadowed by the folds and wrinkles of her forehead which was framed by the wisps of dark grey hair. Above her chin sat her crease of a mouth, pursed tightly, maintaining its long-kept secrets between her thin, pale lips. Her dress was as dusty as the walls and windows around her, its harsh dark shades faded and softened. Behind her was a wall, its paper peeling and rotten, the perfect metaphor for her whitered character. 

     Alone, unwanted. At one point, they had both been the height of splendour, her and the house. But now? Now they stood together, darkened and weary. Forgotten by those who had once loved and cared for them. She continued staring into the darkness ahead of her. The windows growing darker where the curtains remained drawn, years after the last sunset. Haunted shadows of the once grand collection of portraits, now taken and sold. A final glimmer of the past. The most undiluted green and gold wallpaper, still shimmering behind the dust. It was scuffed. And beneath these empty reminders of her old life sat the floor, rotting. Mites and rodents had taken their toll since the carpets had been lifted, the bare wood hadn’t a chance. 

     A chilling sigh echoed through the hallways from some door or window left unclosed elsewhere in the house. The curtains and torn wallpaper fluttered slightly as the dust was once again lifted and began to fall around her. The darkness, however, remained unchanged both in her and the distance of the unreachable rooms. She yearned to move forwards, but knew it was no use. This house was her tomb as it had been since its construction. A mausoleum for her life and those who she had once considered dear to her. But where were they now. She didn’t care. There was no need for them. There never had been. They left her here and she had been pleased. In the dank, stinking pit which she called home. 

     Through the grime ridden panes of glass, she could make out the silhouette of a tree. Leafless amongst the wilds of the garden. She couldn’t remember a time it had actually been alive, much like herself. This year she was certain that the autumn’s leaves would finally make their intrusion beyond the oaken doors at the front and back of the house. Were they even still standing? Keeping the passing world away from her eternal purgatory.  A stronger gust of wind blew outside. She saw the skeletal tree bow in the breeze before the swirls of dust began to emerge from the bleakness at the other end of the hall. The walls and roof creaked, as if to signal that they too had given up. Beneath the hem of her sleeve, she clasped a silken handkerchief, yellowed and torn. It rubbed between her bony fingers harshly, its softness long lost. 

     She continued staring. No-one came. They never did. She wasn’t angry. She never was. What was the point, it wouldn’t change anything. The emptiness of her heart, shining through in her vacant stare. The darkness remained forever unchanged. Another bellow of dust began to make its way towards her again. Dead dreams and memories carried with it. It began to settle around her once again, this time making its home on the broken and chipped frame around her. It had been long since destroyed by woodworm and its colour had slowly been taken by time. Had she ever really existed or was she a mere fantasy? Perhaps it was the world she was seeing that was the image. A stolen moment gradually peeling from its mouldy canvas. An foretelling of itself. She continued staring into the darkness as she always had done and always would do. The darkness stared back.