( december 6th )

[firegap]

They left her in her chambers for months, she lost count of the days, only knew that at noon the doctor would pay his daily visit. Sister Gertrud, he repeated himself, tend to the girl's dressings - and the nurse had such lovely hands, but every layer of gauze removed was like skin peeled off and when she cried, her smoke-stung eyes would burn.

One day, this ritual could finally be repeated in front of a vermeil mirror, handheld, although not for long. See, they said.

When she screamed, her voice was so raw, it sounded exactly as sore-infested as she looked and the mirror broke upon the parquet floors, every soul within it escaping.