Incandescence

31: Lullaby

"Can you see it?"

Lena's staring straight ahead, waves of blonde swishing at her back as she dances into the light. White dress floating round her knees. Arms loose at her sides. She moves with the timeless grace that even the most well-practiced of ballerinas would envy, bare feet trampling nothing in her swiftness.

"See what?" I try to follow in her footsteps but branches snag at my ankles, drawing blood. Lena pauses by the edge of a clearing and turns around, beckoning me closer, her eyes urging me to see what she sees. She lifts her face toward the sky and the corners of her mouth tip upwards in undiluted joy. Radiance emits from every pore. She's a light that can't be touched, a melody that's lost before you can hum it out loud.

"It's all around us." Her mouth twists into a knowing smile. "Mesmerising."

I squint but nothing becomes clearer. I can't see what she does. I can't move in the path she creates. I can't be touched by the light she exudes.

A calm breeze flaps at her hair, the pale strands white in the dimming light, and as the clouds roll in behind her she closes her eyes and begins to sing. The words don't reach me. I'm trailing through the dirty bracken, leaves crunching beneath my sneakers, every step only seeming to take me further from my sister. The ground trembles, roaring like wild lions trapped in captivity, almost knocking me off balance. Shadows move across the tree barks. I snap my head round but they're gone before I can find them.

"Lena."

"Stay awake, don't rest your head –"

"Lena!"

"Don't lie down upon your bed."

Behind her, they descend. Drifting in from all directions, eyes glued to my sister with unwavering intensity. She's the source of light at the end of each dank tunnel. A siren, luring them in with her entrancing call.

"Lena, stop it!" I raise my voice to get her attention. One pale purple eyelid flutters open, soon followed by another. She smiles at me, lightning flashing from her eyes like diamonds.

"While the moon drifts in the skies."

She advances, her followers trailing in her wake like rats at the Pied Piper's heels. They stride as one, bloodless arms open wide, ready to embrace all that is living. I backtrack, breath catching, the air I'm inhaling refusing to go down.

A little girl pops up out of nowhere, claw-like nails digging into the flesh on my arm. She smiles, teeth blackened, dribbles of blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, and I shove her off, kicking out and then turning to sprint. But they're everywhere, an army of corpses on a morbid death parade. A hand-holding couple stumbles out the bushes, clothes tattered and bloody, the woman's leg trailing behind her like a limp dog's tail. The man makes a sudden reach for me, freezing fingers clamping around my waist and hauling me back. I scream, kicking, thrashing, throwing blind punches as I'm dragged down, my terror bordering on incapacitating.

"Lena!" Pudgy fingers press down on my neck, threatening to plunge through the skin. "Lena!"

Her bell-chime laughter can't be placed. It comes from all directions, flashes of fair-hair filling my blurring vision. Freeing my leg, I bring my knee up to the zombie's chest and he buckles, weight flattening me. I roll sideways, throwing him off, but all too soon more arms are reaching out from the darkness. Touching. Feeling. Grazing my flesh.

Then I see her. Arms outstretched. Dress flowing in the breeze. Her brilliance is blinding. Burning.

Incandescent.

Two more shadows flank her. Mason and Alice. They step forward simultaneously, crushing the bones of the dead at their feet. Vomit makes its way up my throat when I see the girl's hollowed face, her broken fingers, her blood-splattered windpipe visible through the severed flesh. No. God no.