Chapter 17

The basement was pitch black,she was as blind as if her eyes had been gouged. Her body washed cold. She brought her fingers to her eye sockets, they were still there. She turned back to the stairs and tried to run up, but her foot fell through each one like it was a mere projection. So how had she walked down them? She leant forwards to touch the stair and felt a fabric fall down her arm, soft and velvety.

Cold metal touched her forehead, one grope told her it was a pointed hat, like a fairy tale crown. She grabbed it and a mirror appeared in front of her, glowing like a television screen. It was her, broken face and all, dressed like some picture book queen. 

She swallowed. 

“The queen must die,” isn't that what the ghost said?.

Without sight of any knife in the mirror the image began to bleed from the neck. She raised her hand to feel the sticky warm fluid about her throat. She screamed; the image