Claudia D. Christian

Estimated reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

The raucous noise of his clattering shoes served as a warning to his defiant playmate. Narcissus hoped she heard him with a guilty mind. When he topped the last stair, he swung off the banister post and yelled, “Lisette!”

He gagged before the last syllable burst from his lips. Decay ripened inside his chest. Narcissus covered his nose and mouth with a richly-embroidered sleeve. He blinked back the tears forming in defense against the stench suffocating the sprawling attic.

“Lisette?”

The room swallowed the tiny and unnoticed querulous sound passing as speech. Narcissus froze in terror. His hand swung clumsily by his side, fingers instinctively searching the small hand that had been by his side forever. He wanted to run away. He wanted to close the room up and never, ever look for what he was sure to find.

‘NO! She’s not here. She can’t be. Lisette CANNOT be in this room.’

Narcissus looked to his side. His elegant brows drew close in drugged surprise. A doll lay discarded on the dusty floor. His feet whispered over to the toy. He crouched down and touched it with a fingertip. Narcissus remembered this doll. It was the one he had given her when they had first moved into the present house assigned to them by Nephilim.

It had been her favorite—much to his delight. For years Lisette would never be seen without her doll. When had that changed? When had Lisette discarded her faithful companion? Why didn’t he ever notice? How did he forget such an important part of his darling?

Narcissus dropped the arm covering his mouth in order to pick up the forgotten toy. He breathed shallowly in a vain effort to stave off the poisoned air. His incensed thoughts rambled while his fingers stroked the doll’s blank face.

‘What could be that stench? I can’t believe no one comes up here daily to ensure nothing dies here by accident. It could be a cat for all I know and I love cats so! I swear if Lane has been derelict in his duties by allowing some poor creature to die in here…well, I will definitely have that butler’s head for this!’

Some distant part of him wondered if he was only delaying the inevitable, however, Narcissus refused to even contemplate such a thought. The smell had to belong to an animal. It wasn’t Lisette.

‘She couldn’t have died because if she did so would I. It’s an impossibility for me to continue to live in world without Lisette. I’m still breathing so must she.’

Fixated on his implacable will, Narcissus continued to study the present puzzle of Lisette’s doll. A few moments could be forgiven because his quick mind would solve it with minimal effort. Then Lisette could forget her rage with him after he returned her beloved toy.

He considered it, seeing Lisette in its lovely countenance. Narcissus blew out a long rush of air. His nose prickled. The ghastly smell wanted to undue him. The haze of the past cleared and he remembered. Lisette had last carried it when they came up into this very attic as children and left it as adults.