A Battle of Minds Ch. 04

The old teacher was still slightly out of breath, as he towered above Laura, looking down on her. A few drops of blood were dripping down from the bat in his hand. They fell onto the ground and mingled with the dark dirt and a few rotten leafs. Laura believed to recognize a familiar sparkle in the teacher's eyes, an expression that scared her. It was not over yet. She turned away from Mr. Seger and took hold of the chain around the neck of Martin's lifeless body. It felt strange to remove the locket. She half expected Martin to suddenly come back to life, to defend his prized possession somehow. However, she could take the little piece of jewelry without any resistance.

She clasped the locket tightly in her hand. Again, it pulsated like a little heart. Warmth radiated from it and spread all throughout her body. Laura tried to ignore how comfortable, how familiar it felt in her hand. She knew what she had to do. When she stood up, Mr. Seger lifted his bloody bat again.

"Give it to me," he said hoarsely, his voice barely concealing his excitement.

Laura shook her head. "We had an agreement," she protested.

"Fuck that agreement. Did you really think I couldn't tell that you were just play-acting? I imagine you would have even kept that up for a while after you got what you wanted. You are one of these honest types, who like to be a martyr for the greater good... But I know that you will never truly want me, Laura. I am not stupid. And without the locket I will end up with nothing. But with the locket, the whole world is mine."

There was no hesitation between those last words and the forceful blow Mr. Seger aimed at Laura's head. To her own surprise, her body reacted before her brain registered the danger. She managed to duck away in the last second -- she was surprised at her own agility, after all she had been imprisoned for a long time, unable to move. It was almost as if someone -- or something -- had warned her. Something that didn't want her to get hurt. Something that had a different plan for the future than being in Mr. Seger's hands.

There was no time to ponder this, however, as Mr. Seger now jumped and threw the whole weight of his body onto her. He pulled her to the ground; his hand closed painfully around her own, pressing her fingers down onto the metal of the locket. The little piece of jewelry seemed to grow even warmer, as if excited about the fight. Laura kept her hand closed, putting the other hand into Mr. Seger's face to push him away. Her legs kicking at any part of him she could reach. He was stronger than her: He could pin her to the ground with his weight. Again, however, a strange instinct in Laura awoke. An instinct she had not known she possessed. It seemed to tell her exactly what to do, when to twitch away, how to gain momentum -- and soon she had wriggled herself out of the teacher's hold. Laura scrambled up to her legs and ran into the forest, without looking where she was going, but with the locket still hidden safely inside her hand.

Mr. Seger did not need long to get back up onto his legs himself and followed Laura in close pursuit. Being smaller and more agile, she had a clear advantage as she broke her way through the undergrowth of the forest. Yet soon she felt the long months without barely any exercise take their toll as her strength started leaving her and a painful sting in her side made breathing difficult. She heard Mr. Seger's heavy breath right behind her. The very next moment he bumped right into her, knocking her over. And in the need to protect herself from the fall, her hand unwillingly opened and the locket fell out of it, onto the ground.

The next moment, the teacher picked up the thing. With a triumphant cry he ran on until he came to a halt at the nearby shore of Lake Leskow. He looked around in apparent confusion -- probably he had not noticed the proximity of the lake while following Laura; in fact, she had not realized what direction she was running in either. Now, however, that she saw the lake, it occurred to her that his was the logical place to be.

Mr. Seger's hesitation as to where to turn gave her the time to catch up with him again. A few moments later she jumped at him, knocking him over just as he had done with her a short time earlier. Soon, the two of them were rolling around in the muddy water of the lake's edge, each trying to conquer the locket once and for all. They remained silent, while they did so, they did not scream -- only their breaths grew heavy.

For a while, it seemed like Mr. Seger might emerge as victor from this silent struggle. The hard physical work Martin had forced him to do -- carrying wood, repairing the house -- had given him strength and stamina he had not possessed ever before. It occurred to Laura, that she was fighting in vain. She stood no chance. And that meant that the whole world stood no chance. After all it wasn't only her own freedom she was fighting for. And that thought: That without her, the whole world was lost, gave her a new burst of strength and courage. She had no idea where inside her exhausted mind and body this new energy was coming from. She did not think about defeating her enemy anymore, but followed a choreography that she had not known she mastered. She fought blindly, instinctively, and somehow, suddenly, she had won, though she never knew how.

She was holding the chain in her hand, the fingers tightly clasped around it, the locket dangling down from it, touching the water. She could not see Mr. Seger anymore, and she could not quite remember how she had managed to fight him off. She noticed that the struggle had apparently carried them much further out into the lake: She was swimming, her feet where not touching the ground. Had Mr. Seger drowned? Had she pushed him down underneath the water? She vaguely remembered him trying to push her head down, and it seemed not unlikely she had returned the favor. And strangely enough, the idea of having murdered Mr. Seger barely touched her now. Had she not been upset by Martin's death, less than an hour ago? Even that seemed remote and unreal to Laura now. Why should she care? Hadn't Martin more than deserved to die?

Laura looked around. The surface of the lake was calm, stretched out like a dark mirror in front of her. Only her own swimming motions sent out a few small ripples. She decided to swim back to the shore to start and find out how to destroy the locket. It seemed that the thing knew what she was thinking. Or was she just imagining that it starting to pulsate more strongly? She lifted her hand with the chain up higher from the water, so the pendant was dangling in front of her eyes. It did look pretty, innocent; almost impossible to believe that such a small thing could have brought so much danger and grief. Maybe if she wore it... Laura quickly pushed the thought back out of her mind. She would hold it in her hand, swim back, find the biggest stone she could and crush the wretched thing. With a deep breath, she turned towards the shore.

Suddenly a strong tug on her left leg impaired Laura's movement. She felt that she was being pulled downward, into the deep darkness of the lake. Kicking her feet and desperately waving her arms, Laura tried to struggle free, but to no avail. Soon enough her head was under water, and now real panic set in. She had her eyes wide open, and the muddy water stung a little bit in them, as she turned down trying to see what was holding on to her.

The lake was too dark, she could not see. As her kicking and struggling grew less and less coordinated, she half believed she saw the pale hand of a dead Mr. Seger holding on to her. Of course it could just as well be some strange slimy water plant that wrapped itself around her leg. The light above her, indicating the surface, and the blurry round shape of the sun in the sky, grew more distant as her breath started running out. Laura felt that her body was about to give up, to stop fighting. Soon, there would be darkness in her again, and this time, for good.

Then, the instinct to survive surged through Laura, giving her new strength and clearing her mind. It felt as if it wasn't her who was drowning there. As if she was just watching and had all the time in the world to assess the situation, weigh her options. She knew what to do, it was the only possibility -- and it certainly was better than dying. And once she was certain of that, she knew she had to act fast -- she could already feel her mouth and nose open against her will, she tasted the muddy water of the lake.

"Now or never!" she thought, before with slightly shaking hands she lifted the chain carrying the pendant and managed to push it over her head, onto her neck.

***

The reeds growing in the shallower regions of the lake bowed in respect. The blades of grass near the shore lay down; even the tallest and firmest trees nodded their heads in adoration, as the Empress left the water. They leaned forward as she stepped onto dry land. The wind ceased to blow, lest the Empress might feel cold. She was, after all, entirely naked and her skin and her hair were wet. In the light of the setting sun, the water drops covering her royal body shone like a thousand diamonds. The evening turned her into a vision of beauty that her surroundings -- a little forest clearing by the lake, bathed into the last rays of the day's sun light -- could only dimly reflect. The Empress' chest was heaving fast, as if she had just run or been through a physically demanding struggle. On her chest, however, rocked by the rhythm of her breath, a locket snuggled tightly in between her breasts. It was a golden locket, brighter and warmer than the sun.

The Empress looked around. The world seemed changed, somehow -- everything was different from before. She was free. After so many years of struggling and fighting and wishing for her freedom, she had finally succeeded. But it was more than she could ever have hoped for. She was freer than she would ever have dreamt possible. She was freer than she had ever been in her life. Finally, she understood. She was not just poor little Laura anymore, a girl hoping to save the world by destroying a magic piece of jewelry. She realized now where her true destiny lay. The locket had shown her what she was destined for. There was a power emanating from it, surging through her body that made her feel anything was possible. And it was true, anything was possible.

She did not have to learn how to use the locket, like those others who had used it so crudely, so without talent. They had to practice, improve, and yet had never come close to exhausting the potential of the locket. They had seen it as a thing, as a means to their ends. The queen knew different. This locket was a part of her. It always had been. All the suffering she had gone through, all the hardships had just been because she had been separated from the locket. And because the locket had searched for a way back to her. Now, that she was wearing it, it became part of her, its powers were part of her mind, a new sense that had lain dormant so far. An ability that had a purpose in her, that only she could use for good.

The world was unfair and sad, but she had the ability to help. Humankind had driven itself deeper and deeper into doom during the last centuries; it was almost too late. But now she, the empress, was here to save it, just in the nick of time. Freedom was not good for most people, she understood that now. The freedom she had so much wanted for herself was a power that could destroy everything, if it was granted to everyone around her. Now, however, she could change it all. She, Laura, the Empress, could make it all better.

Now, with her, a new era was about to begin.