Peeking

You keep your grandma company as she crafts your present. Her limited sight doesn’t seem to slow her down one bit. With touch and smell, taste and feel, and even sometimes crinkling an ingredient to listen to it, her deft hands process and combine the various herbs, oils, and what have you into a greasy looking smoke gray liquid. At three points during the process she pauses to cast her magic. Though there were no super flashy effects the spells were still a marvel to behold. How she summoned energy out of nothing to mold and use defied everything you knew about the physical world.

“It’s going to be really good, yeah?” You ask at one point. “As good as Devany’s?”

She cackles and waves your concerns away. “Yes, yes. As good as your sister’s, better than your brother’s. The best dark sight you can get with drops. I told you Jacob. I am one of the best at what I do. Don’t worry.”

“Sorry.”

The pair of you keep up a good chat punctuated by bouts of silence when she really needed to concentrate. Without going into too much detail you update her with what had happened to Lucian and how you and Bron dealt with it. While concerned she didn’t seem surprised by any of it, though she does warn you about meddling into the affairs of your siblings. And when you tell her about seeing your first goblin she pauses her work to look up at you.

“You saw a goblin?”

“Yeah. With Trixie’s help.”

“Huh.” She returns to her work seeming mildly impressed by that revelation. After a few minutes of stirring she adds. “Well, be sure to be polite Jacob. Monsters don’t appreciate being stared at any more than humans, some much less so. Just be smart.”

“Of course.” You can’t help but recall how that goblin glared back at you once it realized you could see it.

What she had described as “in no time” was actually now stretching on past an hour. You knew you were being unreasonable, she was literally working a miracle here, yet you couldn’t wait to get your present. The longer she worked the more impatient you become. You felt like a kid trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve, you just wanted it finished already! But you keep your cool and enjoy the visit as best you can. Outside the sun was getting lower in the sky, this made you happy.

At long last she pronounces the concoction finished. With a funnel she pours the substance into a small bottle with an eyedropper top to it. She presents it to you with a great warm grin.

“Give it a shake, two drops in each eye, and it should last a couple of hours.” She says. “You might notice some dryness after the magic fades.”

“Thank you!” You give her a huge hug. “Thank you so much!”

She chuckles as she hugs you back. “I’ve never seen anyone so happy for eye drops before. Well, I hope you enjoy them dear.”

“I will!” After a big kiss to her cheek you bolt from the room and make straight for the wine cellar, the darkest place you knew.

Along the way you pass by Ciara. “Master, may I…”

“No thanks!” You say without even slowing down. Back down the stairs you go and back to the very same chair you sat at this morning. Even as you shake the gift you are whispering. “Can you hear me Ves? Are you watching?” With a bit of difficulty finding the perfect angle and after wasting a few stray drops you manage to get two good drops in each eye. The sensation was strange. The liquid coated your eyeballs as you blinked and you could feel an oily slickness set in then solidify like cooling wax. Your vision goes pure gray as you are struck blind, not even being able to see the darkness around you, for much longer than you were comfortable with causing you to worry for a time that something had gone wrong.

But then…the darkness of the cellar returns…and slowly details begin to emerge. First you see your hands, then the table and the ashtray upon it, then the other chairs, and finally out to the walls and cabinets. You let out a breath of relief and blink a few times. The sight was all gray scale, no color at all, but the detail is perfect. Looking down one of the hallways you note that the vision had a limited range but it would be plenty far enough for your purposes.

You start to look around, looking for…anything out of the ordinary. Devany had told you that she could make out Ves “peeking” in on your world and you hoped you could do the same. All seemed as it should be though.

“Vespera?” You say into the quiet, your voice echoing off the brick and tile. “Ves?”

You look. You listen. You push every sense to the limit. Nothing.

Concentrating on that feeling of disconnection, that missing piece, that hollow bit of your twined soul, you sit up taller. “Sister. Vespera. I need you.”

You sense it before you see it. Turning your head you watch in the far corner up toward the ceiling as a something rends through the darkness revealing a deeper blackness within. It is a vertical tear through this reality, jagged and flickering at the edges, perhaps a foot and a half tall and half as wide. Taking your chair with you, you move the corner and stand upon it to look into the rift. And there you see the six eyes and pale face of your twin staring back.

“Ves!” You reach out and your hand hits a barrier that you could not feel yet was as solid as steel. “Ves, I see you!”

A tentacle comes up to touch where your hand was but she too could not reach through the tear. If she was talking you couldn’t hear her. The cellar remained absolutely silent except for the sounds you were making.

Your fingers trace over the shape of her black limb. You could now see detail in your sister! You could make out her neck and shoulders. Over her torso you could now make out contours, her flesh not simply flat inert matter but moving living tissue. Though unlike any you had ever seen. Her skin shows shifting and swirling variegated patterns of black on black on black on black impossible to describe, had she possessed color it might be described as psychedelic in its patterns. Her flowing hair, composed of smaller tendrils than her main tentacles, swayed and moved to their own rhythm as if she were underwater. Seeing her at last her unearthly beauty transcended anything you’d ever seen before.

“I can see you!” You say with joy bursting in your heart. “I see you Ves!”

Your sister reaches up with another tentacle and another, each of you pushing against this cursed barrier between you. While she seemed only inches away you could not feel that special connection. For now this is all you could have of her.

You smile. “I’m here.” You bring your other hand up to hold against her. “I’m here. I miss you.”

Her limbs caress the barrier between you, just as she had when she knelt over this morning after you. You could still remember that unique feel of her skin against yours. You pet your finger tips along the curve of her white face, again remembering the soft supple filaments of her pale cheek tickling you. For a long wonderful moment you simply savor the sight of each other. An inch away yet worlds apart.

“The tower.” You whisper. “Meet me at the tower tonight. I have so much to tell you about, I've had quite a day.”

Her face suddenly shimmers and dims. Her head snaps to the left then back to you. Her tentacles coil and press, desperately trying to take your hands. Though there is no sound you could somehow tell she was trying to speak to you, calling out to you. Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong.

“Vespera? What is it?” Your eyes dart around the rift as if there you might find something you could do from your side. You pull at the sides of it but the tear was not a thing of conventional physics, your efforts don’t effect it in anyway. You weren’t sure why but panic was growing inside of you. You scratch and claw helplessly against the barrier as your twin wraps more tentacles around it from her side. “Ves? Can you get through? Ves, come through. Come to me.”

And then you sense…something terrible. Oh so terrible. Some terror as ancient as time. A deep memory, a rekindled instinct, older than life itself. Fear didn’t even come close to describing what you felt.

Your sister’s face flickers. She leans closer trying to find to any way through to you. She didn’t want to leave you…but IT was getting closer.

You frantically slam your fists against the rift. “VES! Hide! Get away! Run! NO! NOOOO!”

The last thing you see is your sister open her mouth for the first time since you’d met her. You lose a few seconds as the next thing you knew you were swinging your arms wildly as the chair had tipped out from under you and you were already half way down as you fell onto the unforgiving cold hard tile floor.