Shadows Gray (33 page)

Sadly for me, I was born to parents who didn’t love me enough to survive the war, and as a result somehow I was left here in desolate London, a place as nearly gray and dreary as Dickens painted it to be with his depressing pen.  Of course, not all is bad; I do have Mina, and I do have my health.

And I do have Miss Helmes.

Lord help me.

Eventually, my hands are full, and my arms are performing an insubstantial acrobatic dance of ridiculous proportions as I wield my loot towards the stairs. A stack of precariously placed surgical instruments with dull edges nearly fall and with terror for my feet and toes, I yelp and stagger back, and down they go. They clatter with an ungodly crash below, and the echoes seem ludicrous in their volume. I expect Miss Helmes to come rounding the bed at any second, shouting at me to behave, to act like a lady, to do what I’m told, but all is silent, eerily so. I pick up the rascally instruments, shivering as I do so because now I’ve gone and allowed my imagination to run wild again: picturing these things being used. So dull that excessive force must have been used to slice through any type of skin and bone… I quickly blink and order my thoughts to behave.

I feel the diary in my pocket, and some premonition of tragedy causes my skin to prickle.

“Goosebumps,” said an old beggar woman to me once. “Someone’s just walked on your grave, little girl. On your grave.”

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About the author

Melyssa Williams is a mom, sister, daughter, wife, friend, ballet teacher, ex-contemporary dancer, writer, and blogger, who resides in Southern Oregon. She was homeschooled back in the day when it was slightly odd and eccentric, which came in handy when she decided to be a writer. She drinks coffee too often and reads fiction at inopportune times. She has parented inner city teens and wants to sky dive, but that’s the extent of her excitement. Other than that, she finds baking bread and sipping wine to be the most thrilling parts of life.

She can be reached at
www.shadowsgray.com