Unicorn Redemption

by Sandy S.

Brought to life by the haunting glow of a streetlight outside her bedroom window, tears glistened in crystalline rivers down her pale cheeks. She was huddled under the icy sheets and blankets with nothing but her thick, tousled hair and face bare to the touch of the shadows. Still, her body was covered with tiny bumps indicative of the chilly winter air outside the minimal comfort of the bedclothes. Her eyes were wide as a child's at something never before seen, and she let the moisture blur and smear the faint light sharing her breach of the night's domain.

The world was quiet except for the occasional hushed whisper of a car rushing across the highway outside, and her new neighbors had long since settled indoors. Earlier today, her parents and friends had helped her move into her own apartment for the first time in her life. The work had been exhausting but exciting, and she had carefully managed to conceal her unhappiness until everyone was gone.

To be sure, she was afraid to be alone, but that was not the reason for crying. She did not care that her reason was more selfish than fear; she wept because she had never been touched. ...No one had ever brought her to life, and from her heart deep into her soul, she felt hollow and isolated.

She was cold.

What if no one would ever want her? She was terrified of being laughed at...of being used.

Surely her fears would become reality if anyone ever knew her secret, so she resolved to hide her feelings away...bury them under her unwavering outer self. Refusing her melancholy had been easy among her family and strangers, but now she was on her own. She had to be herself, and the streaming tears were very much a part of her nature.

* * *

A tiny light was born out of the smothering, confining darkness. The spark pushed its way forward into her field of vision just as the street lamp flickered out.

Alarmed, she hastily pulled herself up and let the blankets fall away, exposing her silk-covered torso and slender, naked arms. Her breath was trapped in her lungs, but she did not dare let herself begin to wish for more oxygen. Her tears had dissipated, and she sat stiff and unmoving, entranced by the steadily brightening light.

A gentle melody disentangled notes from the unyielding silence of the shadows and found and tickled her eardrums. She was unafraid, for her mind was too frozen to think of what the light might mean, and the music was soothingly calming.

The brilliance grew and filled her entire room like the sun at dawn bringing life to land. The volume of the music rose with each passing heartbeat, and she finally had to bring her palms to press against her ears and shut out the strident cacophony. In a sudden flood of energy, the light particles intensified, and she smashed her eyelids together, filling her sight with scarlet red.

Without preamble, light dimmed, and sound calmed to a low trickle. She lowered her tingling arms in hesitation and took a few ragged breaths. Her lids raised themselves in utmost caution.

* * *

Only a small patch illuminated the hall just outside the doorway, and she could vaguely make out a form that was slowly becoming more distinct.

The radiance emanating from the apex of a long golden shaft caught her attention first. Then, her eyes traveled down the slender instrument to touch the large liquid, almond-shaped eyes with her own. The head was delicate and white with softly flaring nostrils and gently flowing tendrils of curling hair that brushed back and forth over the face as the creature stepped with a nervous sidestep into the room.

The neck was as muscular as the rest of the body and was overlaid with a waving, full mane. Though long enough to drag across the floor, the tail was sufficiently alive to fly in the air. Strong legs tapered to slight ankles and golden hooves that blew up the scent of lavender with each footfall. A tuft of hair adorned each foot and the mild chin.

The creature presented the aura of both strength and fragility.

* * *

The unicorn had come to her once when she had been a young child. Her puppy had gotten run over by a car in the street in front of her home and had gone to sleep forever. She had not cried when her father had buried the maimed body under the earth; she had reserved her tears for the night. She had been worried that her puppy might wake up and be frightened...as frightened as she was.

As before, the unicorn brought the deadly spike to pierce the skin of the newly formed droplets that graced her cheeks. The mere heat of the horn evaporated the fluid, and the shaft's glow warmed her face. Sweet, minty breaths caressed her skin and coaxed her lips to cease quivering and her eyes to produce a steady, round gaze that fixed upon the unicorn's unfaltering visage.

She had never felt safer in her life.

In on motion, she slid to the carpet, dragging her bed sheets with one hand and pillow with the other. She sat with crossed, bare legs on the floor, and the unicorn easily folded its legs with its solid body pressed against her side and its head nestled in her lap.

She ran her fingers smoothly through the unicorn's silky mane, marveling that the individual strands were as transparent as a polar bear's fur. The perfume of lavender wafted up to her senses and acted as a balm on her mind. She found a well of peace in her heart that ended her sorrow, and time traveled in another universe as the mythical creature gave her hope...a hope she had never dreamed possible.

When she lost herself in the violet depths of the unicorn's eyes, she fell and fell into the now unthreatening darkness....

* * *

She climbed up from unconsciousness and noted the warmth enfolding her face. She stirred and stretched her stiffened legs and arms and smiled in vague remembrance of an already forgotten dream. Then, she saw the redness behind her eyelids....

The unicorn! Her limbs went on sudden alert, and she was on her feet in an instant. Her eyes were open as if not noticing the refulgence of the sunlight streaming through the glass and over her body as she stood with one foot entombed in the sinking pillow and the other tangled in the sheet that had been covering her.

The unicorn was gone, of course. She recalled what had happened once earlier in her life, and she hurried to the mirror positioned over her dresser, shaking her ensnared foot loose and blowing out of the way the hair that was tumbling athwart the view of her appearance.

A faint trace of lavender lingered on her nightgown, and she raised her slip. As she expected, there on her midsection marked the only evidence that the creature had been a reality and not simply a figment of her imagination. A violet impression of the horn was imprinted exactly where the slender cylinder had rested against her form.

She let the edge of the nightgown glide to its former place and studied her reflection. She looked and felt more refreshed than she had in days. Vigor throbbed through her veins, and since she had no obligations that day, she decided to call a friend for lunch and shopping.

* * *

Many days passed this way. Sparkling conversation and friends during the time when the sun ruled the sky and tears and unending loneliness at night characterized her life. The unicorn returned each night to wash away the gloom and bring her to the verge of undisturbed sleep.

Then, she met him.

She was struggling with the laundry machines at the laundromat nearest her apartment, and somehow in juggling the clothes and detergent and trying to determine what to do first, she dropped her loaded basket on his foot. She took one look at his shiny charcoal swept hair, vivid emerald eyes, and open smile and wanted him.

As events turned out, he lived in the same apartment complex as she did and wanted her just as much. She trembled the initial time he invited her over, but he put her at ease and, in short, made her feel beautiful.

As the weeks went by, he taught her everything he knew, and everything he did helped her hesitantly leave behind any feelings of inadequacy and dread. They shared nothing other than their passion, and she was never cold when she was in his arms. She was even free from her tears, which ceased to flow as if an entire ocean had been drained of its spirit.

The unicorn no longer visited at the time of the moon, and the inscribed violet stamp of the horn faded to a faint purple. Her dreams were placid and even, and a fresh perspective of the world was unveiled to her eyes. She was confident and content and alive.

* * *

One night, he told her he had some serious news. As she lay easily against him, he reported that his company was transferring him to another city far across the country. She made no comment except to smile, say congratulations on his promotion, and wish him luck. They both knew that lasting bonds would never exist between them, and as his friend, she even helped him pack his belongings. The goodbye was not tense or dramatic; they just exchanged addresses and promised perhaps to mail Christmas cards.

* * *

The first evening without him made her body go numb, and she stared into the sunset through her living room window while hugging her thighs to her chest, balancing her chin in the groove formed between her knees, and swaying rhythmically back and forth in her rocking chair with her hair trapped against the cushion.

The twilight was unlike any she had ever witnessed. The Earth's provider was covered by a shroud of clouds; yet, the sun still possessed the power to shine through in an imbrued circle framed by an ominous grayness. Stray splashes of oranges and burgundies fanned out beyond the picture, but she was only interested in the strangeness of the sun.

When the sun at last permitted the inkiness of night to preside in the heavens, she commanded herself to change into her nightgown and crawl into bed. She had eaten nothing all day, and she did not bother to brush her teeth. She could not find the strength. She did not even have the will to approach the state of sleeping and instead lay completely wide-awake.

The coolness stole upon her before she could halt it, and as the shivering began, she began to weep mutely, clutching the pillow to diffuse the rawness of the hurt.

There had been no genuine love between them, but she missed him all the same.... She missed the mere presence of him; she still desired him, and that desire made her cry harder because somehow the need seemed evil and wrong. Had she been incredibly sinful to give in to the temptations? Was that why God was letting her hurt so very badly now; was that why He let her feel too much when she knew the situation could not allow for feelings?

* * *

The water continued to be drawn outside her heart until her head began to ache in the center of her forehead and the sharp smell of cinnamon filtered into the room. A wailing boom resonated with the odor, creating an odd pressure in her ears that increased exponentially with the rising roaring of the noise. The force became so prominent that pain tore through her head; a membrane burst and a scalding, rusty liquid poured down her neck, making the hair around her lobes gather in wet clumps. With thundering horror, she realized she could no longer hear.

The unicorn exploded across the doorway in a wild fury. It stamped its front hoof with a magnitude that shook the building's concrete foundation as if the structure were made of straw, rolled its eyes so that the phantasmic opaqueness of the eyeballs ascended from the sockets, and shook its mane like an ancient god attempting to rid the world of all life forms. The heady aroma of cinnamon became overwhelmingly nauseating, and the tip of the unicorn's horn introduced every inch of the room to blazing brilliance.

Her spine was molded of steel and ramrod straight among the swelling mounds of bedclothes, and her hands twisted the sheets in claws of death. Now her tears were whittled from the crumbling tower of desperate fear's haunted silence.

The terrible creature floated forward and brought the long, lustrous cylinder crashing toward her forehead so rapidly that she almost flinched backward into the headboard, but the point tapped her skin so lightly that she scarcely felt the touch. In a second, the acute straining in her skull subsided, the already crusting blood vanished from her hair, and she could perceive sounds once more.

She immediately heard the unicorn snort in contempt of her tears, and the horn came for her again. There was no gentleness in the gesture this time. The glittering instrument rested at the corner of each eye and carved deep pathways, running down each cheek to meet at the small indention at the base of her neck and parting the plump flesh of her face to the pearl of calcium-bleached bone.

Her brain refused to register pain in the shock of the action. ..only a slight stinging as blood that was crayon red with oxygen gushed from the wounds in torrents down her ivory visage and as salty tears flowed into the sanguine riverbeds. Blood saturated the top of her white slip and her freshly cleansed hair.

Her heart almost stopped contracting in surprise, but the beat surged back to the original racing and beyond. The muscle palpitated so harshly in her chest that the sound was audible in the room, and the unicorn's radar sensitive eardrums vibrated violently with the clamor. She could only watch with awful eyes as the horn dipped to her breastbone.

The shaft slashed through the ribs on the left side of her chest like they were melting butter, laying aside tissue, breast, and bone, and like a spear, the horn penetrated the beating muscle with a clean stab. The unicorn pulled the heart out with a swift ripping motion and held it aloft. Scarlet fluid swam down the horn, transforming the creature's calm, violet eyes into raging orbs of hatred.

Her desecrated body fell into her pillow's feathery embrace and the growing pool of blood as the unicorn began to dine on the pulsing, dripping organ by sectioning dainty bites with the natural knife. The intoxicating, metallic taste of cinnamon and gore hung suspended in the atmosphere, and though the air brushed like a glacier over her limbs, she was protected from the icy frostiness by the heat of her coursing life force.

Mercifully free from pain, she began to lose a grip on consciousness as she observed with a contradictory keen awareness the blood coating everything...the walls, the bed, her clothes, her body, the floor,...even the mystical unicorn was bathed in blood....

She prayed she would sleep forever....

* * *

She slept peacefully for every night thereafter; yet, she was less alive than a person who had been dead for all eternity.
(August 27, 1995 through September 2, 1995, 12:38 A.M.)

THE END