https://talesfromglasgow137065088.wordpress.com/2024/04/04/the-unicorn-challenge-05-04-24/

Image: © Ayr/Gray

She’d been warned over and over, “do NOT go in there”.  People were kind, protective, knowing her sensitive nature.  But she almost had to walk by the intriguing structure often when she was out doing errands…the route was familiar, and she wasn’t comfortable deviating from her habits.

Sometimes the door was closed, sometimes ajar.  One day when it was closed she glanced around quickly, then tried the handle, curious whether it was locked or not.  It was not, and she debated for a moment–should she open it?

People were consumed by unseemly myths and mystery…their lives apparently so dulled and empty that they’d cast the door as a cinematic point in a horror flick unwritten.

Every night she went to bed contemplating the door…she was drawn to it, believed that must mean there was a connection, perhaps on a spiritual level, between herself and it.

Thus, after having the most intense and strangest dream one night, she ventured out at dawn on a Sunday.  The door was ajar again, and pressing it gently with her hand, she took a step inside.  She felt the strength of a living Presence, the air held weight and wore a fragrance not unpleasant…she heard a whisper.

“I’ve waited so long for you, please don’t be afraid–you must have known in your heart that I’ve loved you since childhood.  And then she saw him revealed–perhaps a beast transformed, the prince of her dream.

©V.Sparrow, 2024

(238 words, per wordcounter.net)