It’s almost like a rich person’s taste.
Lion statues are everywhere; beside the sweeping stairs. On the way to the entrance. Near the tall French windows.
Everywhere.
I shudder at the image.
No matter how much I blink, the red doesn’t disappear. With careful steps, I approach one of the tall windows from which the red light comes inside.
I freeze in front of it. It smells of something… burning? Flesh burning?
When I glimpse through the window, a large garden with unkempt trees and withering flowers comes into view.
It’s also red — if not redder than the inside of the house. Even the sun is projecting red light.
A lake glints in the distance. It’s dark and inky. Even the red light doesn’t reduce from its pitch-black darkness.
A shudder goes through my spine and I avert my gaze elsewhere.
I don’t want to look at that lake.
Across from me, a blonde-haired woman sits on a swing. Her frail pale arms are wrapped around a child who’s sitting on her lap as she rocks back and forth. The child is giving me its back and is completely hidden in the woman’s lap, so I can’t make them out.
The woman, however, is in complete view. She’s wearing a white dress that stops under her knees. Her pale skin and white-blonde hair make her appear like an angel.
A heartbreakingly beautiful angel.
She stares in the distance with a vacant expression. It’s like she isn’t seeing anything at all.
A sob catches in my throat and I block the sound with a hand to my mouth.
Ma.
It’s my ma.
I resemble her so much, it’s haunting.
“M-ma…” My voice catches no matter how much I want to call her name.
But that’s not all of it.
I also want her to call my name back.
My eyes stray to the child sitting on her lap, carefully tucked into her chest.
Her polka-dot dress reaches her knees. Her blonde hair is gathered in neat braids that fall down her back.
My heart beats louder as Ma strokes her hair and says something I can’t hear.
Is that… me?
Am I seeing a memory?
I open the window with trembling fingers. My heart beats so fast, it’s threatening to cripple me.
Thump.
T-thump.