Ellada Kralli 

  She stood alone in her tower thinking the acts in the world of the past. The war had ceased for many years.  She always grieved the issue of war. She remembered the loss of the man she loved. The news of his death came forward a cold winter morning. She realized now that it was winter. She sat on the bed that he once slept there and tenderly caressed the pillow. Her tears flowed down with the image of his face in her mind.  She could not bear with that memory anymore.  She left the room locking the door behind her.  There is no voice sounded from the tower. She shouted loudly:

 

“No one is here?”

 

But she knew the truth, which she avoided a long time ago. She lowered her gaze to the stone steps of the tower.

 

“How many more will be lost to find peace?”

 

After a while she came down the stairs holding a lantern. The interior of the tower was decayed. There were cracks and some parts of the wall were missing, which had collapsed over the years. She arrived to a dance hall, where she had heard the most perfect and sweet melodies in the past and notable people were spinning around, along with rosy and delicate ladies.  The hall was dark now and no music was echoing anymore. Only her melancholy prevailed and her soul was trapped in time by those people who left her behind, alone. She gently touched the chairs and sofas with golden details around them. Then she saw that the dining room was decorated with only one candlestick. It was dusty and she cleaned it up with her black lace dress. She extinguished the lantern and lit the little black candle. Opposite her there was a mirror. Human reflection was hardly seen, since it has been buried with dust and spider webs. 

She raised again one side of her dress and wiped the dust off, on a small part of the mirror . The candlestick fell from her hand.

 

“Who am I? This is not my face. “

 

She touched her face thoroughly and realized that she was wearing a mask. It’s been a long time since she had to face herself in the mirror. She took  the mask off, which had cracked. She threw it on the floor. With some light coming from the discarded candle, she saw herself again in the mirror but this time with her real face. Then the mirror cracked and thousands of pieces fell on the floor. She was weeping, while running to the top of the tower. She didn’t notice that with the fall of the candle the hall burst into flames and the tower was burning.

 

She was on top of the tower with tears still in her eyes. She reached up to the edge and let herself be lost, like those once enchanted and most were dead...