A Vision of Things Past

Alex opened his eyes, at least he thought. He saw nothing, just darkness. Without any sense of direction, Alex looked around. Suddenly he heard something. It sounded like laughter.

“What’s going on here?”, he wondered.

The circular opening suddenly gleamed brightly and the scene behind changed. 

The garden was still the same, but the children were a few years older now. They sat beneath a tree and read a book together. Alex could not see what book and he could not understand what the two were talking about, but he felt an emotion emanating from the view. Happiness. The happiness of children.

The scene changed again. 

The tree was still the same but now only the girl was sitting there in a colorful summer dress. She had a book in her hand but was not looking at it. Her eyes were fixed on the boy that trained sword fighting a few meters away with a man. The girl and boy were again a bit older now, maybe thirteen and fifteen. The swords clashed against each other. The eyes of the girl were filled with interest and fascination as she watched the sparring match. 

The scene changed again. 

The boy and girl, now around 15 and 17, were sitting together under the tree. Alex noticed that she resembled now Violet a bit, only that she wore a dress in bright green color and had her hair neatly in a half up style. The boy was still unknown to him. Again, Alex could not understand what was said, he could only feel the emotions emanating from the scene. This time it was fascination, the budding feeling of love, a pinch of lust and a lot of nervousness. The boy scootched a bit closer to the girl and she leaned a bit his way. They were touching shoulder to shoulder now and went silent. Slowly they turned and looked into each other’s eyes. Moments went past were nothing seemed to happen. Alex felt the nervousness and lust rising, the second one in a faster rate. The boy leaned in a bit. The girl closed her eyes and moved her face a bit closer as well. The boy went the rest of the distance and their lips met. An unknown feeling found his way to Alex as he watched them kiss. He turned away. 

The window opening gleamed brightly again and as he looked again, the scene had changed. 

Now they were inside in some kind of bedroom. The girl and boy were again a bit older. She now resembled Violet a lot, only a bit younger. They were kissing each other furiously while fiddling with their clothes. 

To Alex relief the scene changed before they could reach the bed or managed to undress, as he felt weird watching them. 

In the next scene was a huge crowd of people. They were all sitting on benches in a church like hall. The boy, or rather man was standing in front of the altar. Then all turned their head back to the doors. The girl or rather women came in in a white and flowy dress, lead by an older looking gentleman. It was a Wedding. Their Wedding. 

The scene changed again. But this time it took a bit longer. The light got weaker too. 

The next scene had lost a bit of the color saturation and was darker than the ones before. Until now Alex could always feel happiness coming from the window. This feeling was now gone. He saw the big house with the garden again. It was night this time. His vision followed a group of hooded men walking up the path to the house. There were around twenty. All of them had weapons hanging from their belt, some of them carried lanterns. They stopped as they reached the front door. The men drew their weapons and waited. The door slowly opened and the young man from the previous scenes stood there. The sword he was holding was glistening with red liquid. The man looked across the hooded group and began to smile. An evil smile. The kind of smile that awakened the desire in Alex to punch that guy’s face in. The man opened the doors completely and let the others in. Behind him in the entrance hall Alex could see two bodies. They had butler and maid clothes and were lying in a big puddle of blood. The whole group was now inside and the man seemed to give orders to them. Then a scream and they all turned their heads. The young Violet was standing in an archway to the entrance with a purple nightgown. Her eyes wide in shock as she saw the two dead bodies. The man dashed and grabbed her. He shouted something to the men and nodded to the stairs. They fanned out and vanished deeper into the house. The man pushed the flailing and screaming Violet to the ground and sat himself on top of her. He restrained her arms with one hand, the other one he held on top of her mouth. His eyes were gleaming with greed and pleasure, hers with panic and dread. She tried to free herself but the man was too strong. 

The scene changed again. 

Violet was sitting in a black dress in the chair in front of a window. Her eyes were swollen and red. The face and arms were full of bruises. The young Violet flinched as she heard something and the doors opened. The man from the other scenes came in. He ogled Violet with greedy and lustful eyes as he neared and grabbed her. Alex felt anger welling up inside of him, because he could guess where this was going. 

To his relief the scene changed. 

Violet ran through some woods. Her dress was in shambles, she had no shoes, and she was dirty all over. Alex felt fear, hunger, exhaustion but a lot of relief. Then the opening closed, and he was again thrusted into complete darkness.