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Skeletons in the Closet..before I stripped the flesh from the bones...

Written by Maria Drummey on Friday the 13th of August 2010
Perhaps if she had read the small print more closely, her sense of dread was growing.   Violet couldn't imagine how long she had been there, trapped behind glass, staring out at her own room.   It had seemed like the answer to all her prayers, on that crisp cold morning a few weeks ago, or was it months now?  Time was passing but, in her prison of wood and glass, Violet struggled to keep track of it.  The clock on her bedroom wall was just out of her eye line, but the creature wasn't.  The chilling likeness was not lost on Violet as she stared helplessly and ever hopelessly from behind the glass.   The only difference between Violet and the clone was that the eyes of the clone were hollow and cold and no heart beat beneath its chest.  Violet's whole family had been fooled, her Mother, her nervous, fussy, over-cautious Mother, always fussing over unseen dangers, "Don't talk to strangers,” and the mortal danger of the common cold, "Oh, do wrap up well Violet, you might catch a terrible chill if you go out like that.”  So fussy, so anxious over nothing and so lovely...so very lovely Violet thought, as a huge salty tear slipped silently down her cheek.   But even her Mother wouldn't have thought that any danger lurked in a brochure, a glossy brochure at that, personally addressed to Violet and embossed in gold lettering, the writing neither too formal or too casual, just the right tone in fact, and the pictures!  Relaxing spas, beautiful mountains and pure blue seas and skies had really caught Violet's attention, but it was the words that resonated most deeply, so insightful, witty and wise and on the grey September day when the brochure dropped through the letterbox, it was almost as if they had been written especially for her.   "Does your life feel too stressful, are you overwhelmed?  Fussy Mother interfering too much in your life?  Does your work grind you down?  Friends too judgemental?  Is your boyfriend becoming a bit too clingy? Don't worry the Kessleton Notice spa is here to help.  You can be whisked away from it all, the stresses and strains, no need to tell your family and friends, we will take care of everything, they wont even realise you've gone.   Adam, strong silent Adam, who had just recently been less silent, surprising Violet with an emotional outburst, "I love you!”  This had felt like too much too soon for Violet at the time, who, relishing her independence, despite still living at home, had shrunk from such strong elemental emotions and fled back home to try to deal with the feelings Adam had accidentally unearthed in her.   "Oh! But I do love him too, " Violet wrapped her arms around herself and tried to recall Adam's scent especially at the nape of his neck when she snuggled into his welcoming arms, and she smiled bitterly when she thought of his beautiful brown eyes and that rogue tuft of hair he could never seem to tame.   Why oh why couldn't she have been satisfied?   The clone had only once addressed Violet directly, it was the evening after she had first signed the form in the brochure and posted it in the letterbox in her small rural village.  How boring and mundane it had seemed then with its chocolate box houses and small village shops, rambling country walks along winding lanes, not exciting and edgy as the city would be.   Violet had settled down to sleep in her old fashioned room and sighed contentedly as she considered how soon she would be relaxing in the Kessleton spa, with no explaining or packing to do, as the company would take care of everything.  Oh, what a relief!   She had barely closed her eyes, when she jolted awake, her heart beating fast and somehow Violet was standing bolt upright in some kind of closet.  Her eyes took some time to adjust to the darkness and then an icy chill crept down her back and her blood ran cold in her veins, as she spied through through the glass of the closet door a clone of herself, the very image of Violet with soft blonde hair, bright green eyes, even down to the freckles on her nose, yet underneath the skin something evil and cold.   The clone pulled wide the closet door and leaned in close to Violet, who was by now, speechless and paralysed by fear.    "No cancellations!” it hissed in Violet's voice, tinged with an icy coldness that was completely chilling, "signing the booking form constitutes a legal and binding agreement, between the individual, who is selfishly dissatisfied with their beautiful life, loving family and loyal friends and the company.” The clone jabbed her finger towards herself as she said this.  "If YOU don't want your life, your wonderful Mother and the ardent and faithful Adam, I do!”   "But..but..”, Violet's voice came in disbelieving gasps...”There was no small print...it was just a break, a place to relax, get away from it all for a little while...I didn't see any small print...” Violet cried out in desperation as the clone, dressed in Violet's favourite pyjamas slowly and forcefully began to close the door of the closet. "No excuses!” the clone declared and shoved the brochure into Violet's hands, already growing colder and weaker, "It's right there in the small print.”   The closet door clicked shut and darkness surrounded Violet.  Soon, all she could hear was her heart frantically thudding in her chest and her breathing shallow with fear and regret.   The Clone flipped on the nightlight in Violet's bedroom and settled down to read a book.   This brought some welcome light into Violet's prison through the mirrored glass of the closet and she opened the brochure and rushed to find the small print that she had not noticed, when she first so excitedly rushed to fill in the booking form.   It was there, right there at the bottom of page one, "no cancellations...” and all the other horrible, bone chilling words the clone had uttered, why had Violet been so seduced by the first few sentences in the brochure, the glossy photos, the idea of dropping out and escaping from it all?  Even the photos, Violet now noticed, had tiny asterisks beside them and there, below the small print...*”photos are for illustration only and are not representative of the Kessleton spa.”   How could she have missed it?  This was the stuff of nightmares, Violet prayed she would awaken soon, but she couldn't wake up as she was never asleep and would never sleep again.   She stood all night, trapped behind the mirrored glass within her wooden prison, shouting and screaming and banging on the walls with no effect whatsoever, even when her darling, beautiful fussing Mother came into the room just before 7 a.m. with a mug of warm cocoa a cosy morning tradition that Violet had always resented but now deeply craved.   As her Mother glanced towards the mirror, Violet screamed her heart out and pounded her fists on the back of the mirrored glass, but her Mother gave no reaction, just turned back to the clone and said, "Oh Violet, is that a new closet?”   "Oh, it's really old Mum,” the clone replied as she sipped the cocoa, "and I've lost the key somewhere, just thought it had a nice mirror.”   "Oh yes,” her Mother replied, "it's a lovely mirror...” she approached the closet and stood so close, Violet felt if she could just stretch her hands out through the glass, she would be able to reach out and touch her.   "Do you think it you will take it with you, you know...when you move in with Adam?”, Violet's pain was increasing, her disbelief growing and her despair complete.  "You know, I will miss you so much when you move out.  My little girl is growing up fast.”   A cruel smile played across the clone's lips as she hugged Violet's mother close and winked at Violet trapped behind the glass.   "Oh don't worry Mum, I'm leaving the closet here and all my furniture.  Adam has all the things we need and that way I'll always have a room here.  When I come to visit, it will be like I've never been away.”   "Oh you are a good girl.”  Violet's Mum smiled more brightly as she left the bedroom and Violet's heart almost broke in two as she realised how final her fate was, how she had been tricked and was now trapped and slowly wasting away inside the closet.  "A good sensible girl, I don't know why I worry so much sometimes.”  As a grey dawn broke over a small village street on the other side of the Country, a young man smiled as a leaflet dropped through the letterbox, a leaflet that could have written especially for him...