Altars of ashes
534 Words
THE CHAPEL RUINS, SICILY
Midnight wind howled through charred arches where Lena Moretti’s bones lay buried. Staria stood at the epicenter, diamond eyes casting fractured light across the graveyard. Her voice echoed with the weight of infinite futures:
"He’s here, Jason. In the confessional where you killed him the first time."
Jason racked his shotgun, blood seeping through the bandage on his shoulder. Five-year-old Elara clutched his leg, her storm-gray eyes wide but dry.
"Mommy sees the bad paths too," she whispered. "The ones where we die screaming."
Carson’s laughter slithered from the shadows:
"She sees everything, cousin. Even the future where you pull the trigger..."
A spectral hand materialized, pointing at Staria.
"...and blow her diamond brains out."
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THE BATTLE OF PROPHECIES
Staria didn’t flinch. She dipped her fingers in Jason’s blood till wet from his wounded shoulder and smeared a mural onto the chapel’s last standing wall:
The Vision:
- Jason’s bullet passing through Carson’s spirit.
- Elara catching the bullet with crystallized tears.
- The bullet transforming into a diamond key.
"Lies!" Carson shrieked, but the ground trembled as the mural pulled his spirit toward the wall.
Staria’s diamond eyes blazed:
"You forgot, Carson. I control what’s real now."
THE GHOST’S GAMBIT
Carson lunged not at Staria, but at Elara. His icy fingers closed around her throat.
"If I burn, she burns with me! Our souls are stitched, remember?"
Elara gasped as diamond shards pierced her skin Carson’s corruption fighting her dormant gift. Jason froze, shotgun aimed at Carson’s head.
"Let. Her. Go."
"Shoot me!" Carson taunted. "Kill your daughter to kill me!"
Staria stepped forward, tears of liquid diamond carving paths down her cheeks.
"You want a body, Carson? Take mine."
She grabbed his spectral wrist and diamond light erupted.
THE SACRIFICE
Reality split:
- In the physical world:*Carson’s spirit vanished into Staria’s diamond eyes. She collapsed, convulsing as black veins spread from her temples.
- *In the psychic plane: Staria stood with Carson in a mirrored void.
"Foolish girl," he hissed. "I’ll wear your skin forever!"
"No,"* Staria smiled. "You’ll burn in it. "
She plunged her hands into her own chest ripping out her diamond heart.
"This is yours now, Carson. A gilded cage... forever."
Back in the ruins:
Staria’s body went still. Her diamond eyes turned obsidian-black Carson’s new prison.
THE KEY & THE LOCK
Elara crawled to her mother’s body, sobbing. Her tears hardened into a diamond key the one from Staria’s prophecy.
"The lock is in the altar, Daddy! Hurry!"
Jason smashed the chapel’s charred altar with his boot. Inside: Sofia’s paintbrush coiled with golden wire.
He jammed Elara’s diamond key into the brush.
The chapel exploded in light.
Staria’s body arched off the ground. Carson’s scream tore from her lips as black smoke poured from her eyes, mouth, and fingertips sucked into Sofia’s paintbrush.
THE LAST WHISPER
Silence.
Rain washed the ashes from Staria’s face. Her eyes fluttered open soft green again, but exhausted.
"Jason...?"
He cradled her, shaking."Always, stellina."
Elara pressed Sofia’s paintbrush into her mother’s hand. The wood was warm.
"Aunt Sofia says... ‘thank you’."
In the distance, sirens wailed. Jason lifted Staria into his arms.
"Time to go home."
- Writer
