“What happened to you all?” asked Coraline. “How did you come here?”
“She left us here,” said one of the voices. “She stole our hearts, and she stole our souls, and she took our lives away, and she left us here, and she forgot about us in the dark.”
“You poor things,” said Coraline. “How long have you been here?”
“So very long a time,” said a voice.
“Aye. Time beyond reckoning,” said another voice.
“I walked through the scullery door,” said the voice of the one that thought it might be a boy, “and I found myself back in the parlor. But she was waiting for me. She told me she was my other mamma, but I never saw my true mamma again.”
“Flee!” said the very first of the voices-another girl, Coraline fancied. “Flee, while there’s still air in your lungs and blood in your veins and warmth in your heart. Flee while you still have your mind and your soul.”
“I’m not running away,” said Coraline. “She has my parents. I came to get them back.”
“Ah, but she’ll keep you here while the days turn to dust and the leaves fall and the years pass one after the next like the tick-tick-ticking of a clock.”
“No,” said Coraline. “She won’t.”
There was silence then in the room behind the mirror.
“Peradventure,” said a voice in the darkness, “if you could win your mamma and your papa back from the beldam, you could also win free our souls.” “Has she taken them?” asked Coraline, shocked.
“Aye. And hidden them.”
“That is why we could not leave here, when we died. She kept us, and she fed on us, until now we’ve nothing left of ourselves, only snakeskins and spider husks. Find our secret hearts, young mistress.”
“And what will happen to you if I do?” asked Coraline.
The voices said nothing.
“And what is she going to do to me?” she said.
The pale figures pulsed faintly; she could imagine that they were nothing more than afterimages, like the glow left by a bright light in your eyes, after the lights go out.
“It doth not hurt,” whispered one faint voice.
“She will take your life and all you are and all you care’st for, and she will leave you with nothing but mist and fog. She’ll take your joy. And one day you’ll awake and your heart and your soul will have gone. A husk you’ll be, a wisp you’ll be, and a thing no more than a dream on waking, or a memory of something forgotten.”
“Hollow,” whispered the third voice. “Hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow.”
I based the scent on a description of the characters that Neil sent to me in an email:
“Well, I like the idea that it would contain flowers and flame and fairy things… but from so long ago that they’ve almost forgotten who they are. So it would be a ghost perfume….”
In the perfume, I also tried to capture the blue-violet-white of an afterimage and the silence of a snuffed candle. The scent is dry with age, taut with loss, grief, and heartbreak, and sorrowful in the unspeakable desolation of simply being forgotten.
hvillegas2cat –
If you have ever owned the benefit cosmetics rockateur blush, then this is what it smells like! Its so delicious & juicy yet fresh & clean. At first whiff I smelt sweet orange juice (yum!) but as it dries down the other notes come to life. If you are a citrus fan who wants something more on the feminine side, this is a good pick, as this is a grapefruit/ kumquat white floral heaven. I have the imp but am planning on buying a full size soon. It lasts around 4 hours on me but I don’t mind re applying throughout the day.
Claire –
Starts out smelling very strongly of grapefruit then softens to something sweeter. I don’t really smell any florals; it’s a citrus scent all the way to me.
Katie –
A clean, citrus scent with just enough florals in the mix to make it lean towards feminine. Definitely reminds me of a cleaning product, albeit a nice smelling one. If you love citrus- which I do not- definitely consider it.
ranepage11 –
This scent is spectacular! Juicy, tart, & citrus, I can smell the grapefruit & yuzu right at the top. The florals blend nicely, & gives it a soap-like smell, but in a good way!
VetchVespers –
I love Night-Gaunt. It makes me think of eating a kumquat, rind and all. There’s a lovely bright citrus with a woody greeness behind it and a light, sweet, white floral overlay, which I suspect is tuberose. I don’t smell any “snow” or mint in Nightgaunt. I could see how it might go sort of white floral soapy on some, but it works great for me.
It’s an unusual fragrance, and a nice citrus alternative to all the tea/citrus blends. I’d also highly recommend it for Aizen Myoo lovers, as it seems like a less sweet and longer lasting cousin to that fragrance.
woodenmango –
Out of the vial this is interesting. With each sniff I feel like it changes. First sniff was very floral and the second was very citrus. It’s a fresh clean smell. On me, its very soap-like. The florals are more pronounced and I think I get a hint of the kumquat as a faint underlying sweetness but the grapefruit seems to be gone (which is sad ’cause I love grapefruit). It’s not a bad smell I’m just not sure I like it with my body chemistry. In the vial it’s interesting but on me it smells like a rather generic soap. But because it smells so clean I might use the rest of my imp for other things, like as an air freshener or on a sachet.