Pricked

2

I rise as I hear the door unlatch and I move to the stairs to see a maid with a large basket blocking her view as she starts descending the stairs. I squish myself against the wall hoping not to be seen and she walks right past me. I watch her continue on, silently thanking her for opening the door, and with a smirk I walk up a few steps. I think I know her, or knew her... Melanie maybe? But I have no time to catch up now I have to get out of this awful place. As I go up the steps I hear her hum a tune as she disappears just beyond the wall. I only pause going up the steps when I hear her scream. It is an ear pinching scream. A guard passing pushes past me and runs down the stairs at the noise.

"Oh, so she screams once and you come to her rescue," I scold at the guard, "but when I was pounding on the door for the past..." I count on my fingers trying to figure out how long I was held hostage in this place. "I've been down here for a long while you jerk!" I'm ready to keep yelling at him, but I hear a gasp come out of his mouth when he reaches her and can't help myself, I turn back down the stairs, and follow their screams to my body.

"Is she dead?" the maid asks. The basket she held is now flipped on the ground her hands shaking and jaw dropped with horror. I look to the body, my body, they see her, they see me. The guard looks hesitant to touch me, his hand moving from the hilt of his sword to the air in front of him. Slowly he gets down to his knees and places a finger on my neck. I can't help but stand and stare at them. They see me too, I mean my body. It isn't all in my head. But if they see her, what does that make me?

"Hey," I say loudly, reaching out to them. "That is me. Can you see me too?" The question feels stupid and strange but I have to ask.

"I feel a pulse," he says ignoring me, "it's weak, but it's there," he gets down and pats my shoulder, "excuse me, miss?"

"I'm here," I say, "I'm not there, I'm here, can't you see me?" My voice sounds foreign and strange, one dimensional and stiff. "Please" I beg, looking to the maid now. Her soft brown skin causes her to blend in with the walls. Her wide scared eyes stand out in the darkness.

"Miss?" He says again, louder this time and gives me a small shake but the body remains still and unmoving after his touch. She is real, her, I mean me but not me. But if that is me, my flesh and blood, then what am I?

"Let's get her to the medical wing and see if anyone can identify her," the guard seems to know what he is doing, or at least he is acting like he knows what he is doing. The maid runs up the stairs and I hear her footsteps lead the way down the hall. I follow the guard that carries my body. I don't know what to say or what to do. Apparently, I am not really here. Apparently, I am just a spirit of myself. So many questions churn through my mind and I don't know what to believe. As I follow the guard down the hallway, people pass and give strange glances at the guard and me but keep to their own business. It's strange but as they pass us they walk directly through me as they go.

"Hey! I'm walking here!" I yell turning back to them, but they don't pay any attention to me, except for the small shiver they produce as they passed through me. As we walk I see the golden melted candles and it comes to me, that's right, it was Aurora's birthday. I was in the cellar getting rags, to clean a room before her party. I think back to the cellar as we near the medical wing. The spinning wheel! I try and warn the guard not to touch the spinning wheel, but he still can't hear me.

"It pricked me, the spinning wheel pricked me."

Once in the medical wing the guard places me down and tells the nurse what he knows, which is basically nothing and leaves. He has better things to do than take care of an unknown girl, obviously.

"Thanks" I mutter as I examine myself. This can't be real, I pinch myself but don't feel the pinch. "This can't be real... please don't be real."

****************

The doctor said I was alive, which I know because I am watching everyone poke and jab me trying to figure out what happened. Aurora's birthday was almost 2 days ago now and apparently the entire basement cellar is being examined with a fine tip comb. Every nook and cranny cleaned and cleared again and again because it is that dirty. Finally after a set of servants cleaned for a day did they finally test the spinning wheel. That is one day of being stuck in the cellar apparently and one day sitting in the hospital wing, waiting while everyone pokes at me and ignores my subtle complaints while the cellar is being cleaned. One day in the cellar and one day of cleaning, that's two days wasted, two days stuck.

Once the wheel was finally tested, the palaces poison tester found it to have some sort of exotic potion on it. I couldn't hear what it was for sure. My spirit and my body can't be separated to far. I can only leave my body for so long until I bounce back. I can wander the majority of the palace but then it's like an invisible wall is put up and I'm barricaded in.

"Hey can you repeat that again? A little bit closer though, I couldn't hear that!" I slam a hand against my invisible fence as they walk away "What was on the spinning wheel?" I'm ignored, which normally I love being invisible it helps with thievery if you go unseen, but now it's just making me angry. I pound on the boarder of my invisible prison. I move back to my body, unsuccessful of stopping the doctors from leaving and as I hear a group of people enter the medical wing.

"I don't know what you can do for her," they say.

"She is barely alive," they say.

"Who even is this girl?" they all wonder.

They place me in a small bed close enough to the medical wing but also near the entrance so that new doctors coming to examine me won't have far to search. I roll my eyes as I'm being transferred, this whole situation sucks.

"Here will do," the nurse says and a new guard places my body down on the bed. He looks up to the nurse as if to ask 'what now?' but she just thanks him and heads out herself.

"Great, so..." I watch them leave and an agonizing groan takes over me. They won't be wasting another moment of time on me. "I'm just gonna... stay here I guess" I call down the hall but they are already gone and out of sight. I turn back to the dinky room and suck in a sharp breath seeing my pale, motionless body. There is nothing I can do like this so I do the only I think to do and try and hop back into my body.

All day I've been following around the palace staff in hopes to figure out something, anything that will fix me but, they are all more clueless then I. So, I have to save myself.

Okay, I think moving towards myself, you can do this.

"You can fix this" I say softly as I pick at my dirty covered finger nails. I straighten up and shake out my arms and legs. If I am to get back into my body I am going to need my strength, and flexibility. I stare hesitantly down at my hands but as my eyes drift up to my lifeless body my hope dissipates slightly. Yeah this will work, I don't believe myself as I walk up to my body and think back to the basement cellar. I was stuck down there for a whole day before I was found. I spent basically a full day tying to wake myself up, to jump back into reality. From banging on the stupid cellar door begging for someone, anyone to come to my rescue to trying to slap myself awake.

But now that I am found... I turn away from the bed and try to find the strength to keep trying but the window catches my eye and draws me to it. The sky is a brilliant blue, but the clouds are fluffy and grey. A storm is coming and the dreary weather is not making my mood any better. I turn only slightly to see myself out of the corner of my eye. If I could have jumped back into my body I would have been able to do it by now, but still I have to have hope, after all it's only been 2 days.

"Okay, here I come." I say getting myself ready for my probable failure and turn quickly to face the bed and take a jump pouncing on me hoping, that just one more time would do it. As I fly to the bed, I only sink into the surface slightly matching my body's depth before I am now lying next to myself. "You. Are. Ruining. My. Life." I state and remove myself from the room. I can't stay here and watch her, I mean watch myself slowly die.