Lavender Mist

The Painter

As she was climbing down the stairs, Maggie's footsteps were muffled by dark red, gentle velvet, which she had never noticed before, but she assumed that the flood made that carpet damp and ugly, so it didn't have that softness and colour earlier. When she distanced from the circling chirps and calls of the birds, there was an already well familiar silence, which, at least as she thought, healed her fever. After the nausea and dizziness, like an echo, only a headache stayed behind, pulsing in the rhythm of her heart - slowly, sleepily and heavily. She thought that she saw a few puddles of water left, wobbling on the stairs, so, sometimes, sloshing could be heard along with her footsteps, but she continued without insecurity, since Pablo clearly told her that the ballroom was no longer flooded, and she was able to confirm that herself when she reached the bottom.

She expected the large hall for dancing to open before her immediately, at the end of the stairs, but, instead of that, another short hallway stretched out in front of her, with illumination struggling to keep up, flickering and occasionally turning off. The ceiling was low, and some parts of the floor were swollen, so she had to bend her back from time to time, despite her short height. She wondered if the hallway had somehow shrunken through time, since she couldn't imagine tall and noble guests in festive, wide dresses, like those from fairytales, and ironed, dark suits, as they hunched, frowned and grumbled, while passing through the humble passage. To the thought, she wanted to slightly giggle, but she let the silence continue ruling the place and only released a harsh exhale, covering her mouth with her hand.

The door was once at the end of the hallway, just like before the staircase, down which she climbed, with just the opening being left behind, only this one was built as a rounded arch, painted in angelicly light, blue colour, yet it looked quite rough and uneven. The girl traced her palm over that surface and her fingers tripped over the hardened bumps of paint for a few times.

Only at that entrance of the ballroom, she noticed that some sounds were entering her ears. She started hearing constant music on the piano, tones that resonated longer than any piano string could create, and there was conversation, laughter and murmur. All of that seemed unreal and uncatchable, because Maggie hadn't heard noises from a big crowd of people for a long time. The light swallowed her the second she entered, still used to the darkness from the corridor. Her eyes uncontrollably squinted, although, inside of her, there was a strong, flaming wish to find out what was in this new place, that she had just discovered.

The ballroom was an enormous, round room - Maggie was confident about that when she realized that she couldn't find any corners or edges of the walls. Actually, it seemed as if there was only one wall, poured out in entirety and curled into a circle. Over it, like a lid, was a ceiling in a shape of a dome, covered in painted nature scenes. Maggie could see the shining of a river, that was burbling by a small tree line and, from some little houses made of roots, tiny rabbits were peeking, while timidly staring at a distanced meadow. Their small heads were born from quick strokes of the brush, so their faces weren't visible, yet, to Maggie, it seemed as though it wasn't necessary. She knew what they were feeling and thinking, only judging by them carefully hiding their fragile, little bodies and by their curious, long ears. The images lowered from the dome, along the walls, becoming foggy and blended the lower they went, like a waterfall of colours. The cold floor was covered with the same soft, red carpet, that Maggie saw on the stairs. It gave her an urge to take off her shoes and walk around the hall barefeet, yet she knew that she would, for sure, get a cold, since she could, through the soles of her shoes, sense the coldness. Through the whole room, icey air was roaming, like the flow of wind, but Maggie couldn't feel its touch on her skin. She could, just occasionally, feel chills deep in her bones, yet she knew that they weren't caused by fever this time, but the hall was actually stuck in winter.