Haunting Reflections… (Ava Autumn Special) (Patreon)

Writing Prompts 

- A moonlit lake

- Freckles like scars

- The echo of footsteps

--

Ava is old, and she knows it.

Whilst the town is in the throes of Halloween and the candy-fuelled activities that comes with it, Ava can remember a time before this was the custom.

A time when other beliefs, although already burnt out by the ideas of stronger story-tellers, were still around.

A time when it was believed the barriers between worlds were the thinnest on this night. A time that some still put stock in.

A time for the dead.

‘Ava, my girl, you will have us all forget our sorrows with such mirth…”

‘Ava, lift me up! You know I'm smallest…”

‘Ava, do not forget who you are…”

The voices echo on the wind like the circling of footsteps. Scars of the dead are dotted across her memories like freckles over skin.

“Ava…”

Suddenly there’s a voice not made of painful memory.

Ava spins on the spot, a haze of tears she hadn’t realise had been building making her vision blurry. She quickly blinks them away as the Detective approaches.

The Detective comes to stand at her side, clasping their coat tighter about themself, and biting at their lower lip to stop it shivering. “What are you doing out here?”

“It’s quieter than there,” Ava says, nodding back towards the festive town which is hidden behind the barrier of towering evergreen trees.

“The midges will eat you alive if you stay here.” They smile. “Though I suppose you have a bigger bite than them.”

Ava wishes she doesn’t, but she smiles too. She can’t help it. She can’t help a lot of things when around the Detective, it would appear.

“Are you all right?” they ask after a silent moment of them both staring out over the waters. Moonlight washes the lake in a glow of silver, a gentle ripple cast across its surface like the reflection of a mirror.

The weight of memories drags Ava’s head lower. “No.”

“Do you want me to go?”

“No…”

With a heavy breath, the Detective tugs their hand out of the warmth of their pocket and wraps it around Ava.

And she doesn’t even tense at the touch.