Campaign Challenge #2 -- The Imago

So here goes for the 2nd Campaign Challenge Rachael Harrie gave us at Rach Writes. The challenge was to write a blog post in 200 words or less, excluding the title, that includes the word "imago" in the title and in the body of the post includes the following 4 random words: "miasma," "lacuna," "oscitate," "synchronicity". For an added challenge make reference to a mirror in the post. For an even greater challenge, make the post 200 words exactly. All criteria are met (after much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair.)

The Imago  (Picture courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

                                                     The Imago

Arms folded, Nyla stares through the beveled glass door into the galería. Somehow, the glass is both mirror and window. Superimposed on the polished floors of the sunlit galeria beyond, her reflection stares back, as if bemused. 

When Nyla was younger, in the miasma of grief that pervaded her home, she sometimes caught mental glimpses of who she might become away from her family’s confused dynamics. These glimpses led her on, in hopes of escaping the pain that oscitated inside her, as one family member after another went down dubious roads to disaster. Now, through some synchronicity, her decision to teach English in Spain has allowed her to catch up the person she hoped to be. 

Or has it? When Nyla raises a hand to brush a wisp of hair back from her face, her reflection remains motionless, arms folded. How can that be? 

Uneasily, Nyla forces a smile—a smile that isn’t returned. Is the woman in the glass not a reflection after all? Is the beveled glass in the door some lacuna opening into another dimension? Nyla’s thoughts whirl and scatter, reaching for an explanation.

The imago beckons, then reaches a hand through the glass, and Nyla screams.


This is linky entry # 128.