Noesis

Our lives can always be told as a story with ourselves as the protagonist. People come in and out, situations test our resolve, happiness shines like warmly-remembered beacons, pain strikes us when we least expect it, but the ending is the same for all true narratives, no matter who the main the character is. In the end we all die. That is why our stories are never just our own. Those secondary characters make up their own stories and within them we are no more than support cast. Though this can be hard to fathom for young and, even old minds alike, it is imperative that it is true because otherwise, when our ends are written, then our existences disappear.

 

Chapter 1

Abigail

 

Green, amber and red hues spanned out in front of me, rolling down, up and down even further. They were the waves of tree canopies as they flowed down the uneven mountain-side, stuck in place as a painting may capture the chaotic eruptions of the ocean.

In the distance where the mountain met its base the land initially did flatten off, but not for long as cutting up above the line of the horizon tall blue-tinged structures sprouted. These bestowed contrasting colours like hot crimsons, energetic greens, electric blues and bright whites. These immaculate colours were names no doubt, of the major companies the sky-scrapers belonged to, but its depiction unclear from the place I was perched.

Then beyond all that was where the real sea lurked, however the blue of the water and the blue of the sky could not be delineated so, despite my knowing of its existence there and because of it I could not help feel so very far away to the white-gold sand that lined those shores.

Around me though I could see it all clearly, but this image made for a very strange one as leaves and skinny tree limbs floated up and down in front of the picturesque scene. And though I couldn't smell the salty familiarity of that far-off body of water, I could detect near scents of the earthiness in the dirt, the thick wash of bark and the sweetness of flowers persisting to blossom despite the early autumn season. And the sounds were just as captivating, with the birds tweeting, crickets humming excitedly for the upcoming dusk, the squeaking in my swing's chains and the chatter of my friend who soared back and forth in the swing next to mine. There I felt myself entranced in each of the small comforting sensory perceptions.

"Can you believe that boy!?" Bethanie vented, drawing me out of my reverie. "I mean it was totally provoked, he practically asked me to wrestle him to the ground, but then Miss Montgomery took his side and made me pick up papers for the whole rest of the period, so unfair!"

"Well that sounds pretty lenient," I observed as I swung in my seat likewise, "considering that you attacked another student."

"But he made me do it! He called me a weakling so of course I had to prove how tough I am!"

I giggled. "And tough you are! But Kieran is our friend, I'm sure he was just having a bit of fun with you."

"He wasn't, he was being seriously nasty. I swear the last six months the only time he's spoken to me has to been to torture me! Come on, Abigail, surely you've seen that?"

"Yeah, you two have been getting into more fights than usual these last few months, but you know why that is, right? The boy's just trying to get your attention!" I grinned.

"Pfft! Or maybe he wants an early grave..." She muttered.

We had talked and laughed for over an hour, chatting about our friends at school as we swung towards the resplendent view that darkened through its evening shades. At one point Bethanie commented, "Just so you know, at yours and Eric's wedding I better be your maid of honour."

To this I blushed hotly red despite the growing nip in the air. "Bethanie! How can you say something like that? Eric's our friend!"

"My friend, but between you two there's a hell of a lot more going on!"

"Bethanie!"

"Oh quit acting all shy and embarrassed, it's obvious you two are in love!"

I fell quiet before a cheeky smile crept across my face. "Okay, you can be my maid of honour, but only if you promise that I'll be yours for when you marry Kieran!"

"Oh, gross!" Bethanie lost some height to her swing as it appeared she was about to retch. "You really couldn't have said anything more disgusting! But, Abigail that's not fair! I want to be your maid of honour when you get married and I can't agree to something as horrible as that!"

"Okay, then. How about we both agree to be each other's maid of honour to whoever we marry, how's that?"

As Bethanie turned across to look at me her blonde pigtails were whipped aside and a great smile flashed across her face. "Alright, I can agree to that. And the plus is that I won't have to wait too long. Just under three years until we finish school and straight away you'll marry your high school sweet heart and start having Eric babies!"

"Are we back onto that again?" I groaned, turning my face away to conceal the persistent redness.

"I can see it now, three adorable children, two girls and a boy, the youngest two a set of non-identical twins and mother and father deeply in love..."

Despite myself I giggled. "You're not very creative, you just described my family!"

"Yeah, I know. But that's just how I see it, when you grow up you'll just recreate your perfect family again." She was smiling but I detected a hint of jealously there.

"Bethanie, you can have that too." I tried to soothe but my friend seemed to hear nothing of it, instead she frowned as she stared fixedly towards the impending twilight over the Serene Coast.

"Do you hear that?" She questioned.

"Hear?" I repeated, confused by the sudden change in topic.

"The music, do you hear it?"

I listened then, to the noisy birds squeaking in the late afternoon, to the rustling of trees as the wind brushed through them, taking with it a few loosely held leaves. Then, beneath all that, I heard another sound - long, slow and high-pitched. Sweet like the scent of roses, but chilling just as this breeze was. And empty, as the sky in front reached out into a vast void.

"I think... I think it's someone singing." I ascertained.

"Where do you think it's coming from?"

"I... I'm not sure."

As Bethanie reached the peak of her arc's height she jumped off the swing and began to make a couple of tentative steps away.

"Hey, Bethanie, where are you going?"

As she replied all I saw were two blonde pigtails swaying to the left, her curls stretching to fly off with the wind. "To get closer. I want to hear it better." And she took a few more slow steps away from me.

"Hey, wait!" I called, slowing my swing, scraping my feet along the ground as it dipped down. "Don't leave me!"

She was still walking away, increasing her pace, blonde curls straightening further as the wind rushed harder.

"Wait!" Where it reached a point where the height was very short I jumped from my swing and ran up to Bethanie and clasped her hand firmly. "Don't leave me!"

Bethanie turned suddenly, eyes wide from the alarm in my voice but then smiled gently. "Of course not. Besides, I can hardly leave without my schoolbag." Diverting a few meters off she retrieved both backpacks and handed me mine. "This voice, I want to find out who it belongs to. Will you come with me?"

I looked in the direction that she was, towards a dirt path leading into the forest. Then I looked back at the sky through the clearing that had turned navy blue. The singing was still going, its words indiscernible but still so sweet and yet also, kind of sad.

"I think we should go home now." I replied. "It's getting pretty dark and it'll be totally black soon."

To that Bethanie reached into her bag and pulled out a mobile phone from the front pocket. After clicking an application on it a bright light emerged from the top and illuminated the path ahead. "We won't be long, promise!"

I nodded and walked with her where it dipped slightly downhill and by the time we walked through just a few meters I lost all sight of the road behind.

"I can it can make it out now. I can hear the words but they're not in English. I wish they were so I knew what she was saying...." Bethanie sighed, lost in its rapture.

She was right. As we walked down the path we neared the source of the voice and as a result the volume and enunciation could finally be depicted. It was as I thought, sad, lonely, a foreign tongue but its meaning couldn't have been more clear - it was the longing for companionship. But there was something else there too, a desperation to reach some location. The words flowed into one-another fluidly, as if running towards that goal, but in slow-motion and slowing further. Just like a dream I've had before where I ran as fast as I could but found that I couldn't run any faster on land than I could in water and would only slow down as my energy waned. But unlike my dreams, this song kept trying to reanimate, to race faster and kept reaching for its goal and over and over its spirit died a little again.

"We need to find her. We have to find the singer." Bethanie stated hurrying faster forward.

Instantly I grasped her hand as I realised her speed was making it difficult to keep pace. Then, just like when I grasped her hand before, Bethanie stopped, only this time she did not look at me.

"It... It can't be..." She stuttered.

"Bethanie, what is it?"

"It... It can't be possible." Her voice was breaking.

"What can't?" I looked ahead to where the light was facing but all I saw was the dirt path flowing downhill until darkness swallowed it up.

"Hey, wait - don't go!" Bethanie called out as she ran ahead.

I gasped as I was jerked by the hand I refused to let go of and fumbled awkwardly behind.

"Bethanie!" I yelled. "Stop, there's no one there! I can't keep up. If you keep running like this we'll get separated!"

The song was growing louder, so loud that I failed to hear the swaying of the tree leaves anymore, as well as the tweeting of the birds. Even the pattering of our own footsteps was drowned out by the sorrowful solo.

I could still hear my voice, but Bethanie had become mute to it. Even with me grasping her hand firmly I thought she forgot I was even there. She just kept running down that path, faster and faster, navigating the uneven surface with ease. Me however, I barely managed to keep from falling. All that allowed me to stay upright was really just Bethanie's hand, directing my momentum down along the mountain with her.

"Wait, come back!" Bethanie cried, her hand fallen by her side and no longer illuminating the path ahead. But to my astonishment, I realised that she didn't need to. Somehow, the dirt here shone with its own white glow, just as the tree trunks did, its leaves and the birds snuggling up amongst them also.

"Wait!" Bethanie called and again increased her pace, oblivious to the strange phenomenon surrounding us.

"Bethanie!" I shouted just before my foot failed to rise high enough off the ground. Suddenly its forward momentum stopped, caught by a superficial tree root, but the rest of me kept moving. "Help!" I cried just as Bethanie's fingers tugged free of mine.

As I fell I saw her continue to run forward, faster now that nothing was holding her back, her form faintly illuminated by the surrounding glow, like a ghost following the trail to the other-side. When I collided with the ground I lost sight of her completely.

My arms were first to hit the ground, causing deep scratches along both forearms as I skidded. When I stopped I pulled myself up, trembling from fatigue and just barely managed to reclaim my feet.

I looked at my arms and just like Bethanie's form I was dimly illuminated by the forest's strange ethereal glow. This made the crimson along them stand out all the more.

"Bethanie!" I called over the music which in all this time had yet to cease, its one song looping over and over. "Bethanie!"

I was exhausted, my backpack felt like an anvil strapped to my shoulders, but with little energy that was fading fast I persisted forward. There was only one path after all so as long as I continued to follow that I knew that I would meet up with Bethanie eventually.

I tried to run, but more scuttled ahead to the same effect of a toddler and just like one I found myself falling forwards again. Lying on the white glowing dirt I cried, terrified of this strange place that was once so familiar, terrified that I wouldn't find Bethanie again and terrified that I would never leave the forest.

I tried again to get up, but this time my body did not respond. That was it, somehow I had completely run out of stamina. I wondered if it was because of the cuts on my arms, causing me to lose too much blood. I hadn't thought that much was flowing, but then I was finding I could hardly think much at all. It was all getting very difficult to process.

And just then I noticed the singing had changed. It was slowing down, like the song was finally coming to its sorrowful end.

I was lying on my belly, my head turned to the white trees across. They did look beautiful, but like the vocals, so sad and lonely. This seemed strange, since there were so many trees to keep one another company but then I realised why, they were disappearing, obscuring back into black. One blotted out after the other until finally just one remained. Then, with a breeze, that one's light went out too, but with the wind I was given the sensation that it wasn't really gone, just obscured by something.

Then in the corner of my vision I saw a figure walk along the path. I almost smiled, thinking Bethanie had returned until I realised that this figure was no more than a silhouette. The path's white glow did not reflect from them.

The person kept walking towards me, the sound of their steps hidden beneath the foreign words. The hammering of my heart likewise was muted by the music.

It kept moving forwards, its size increasing until I became sure it was a man but even when he closed the gap and leant down over me I still could not see a face.

"Please, help me. I feel... so weak."

He didn't say anything, just leant closer to me until finally all I could see was the black of his silhouette.

"Please..." I murmured, so devoid of energy that I barely managed the small utterance. "I need to find... Bethanie."

Then it was all gone. The last of my energy finally expelled as I felt my eyelids close and my consciousness float far away.

Chapter 2

 Bethanie

 

It was her. Down the forest's path she walked. Alone, white, like an angel returning from heaven.

"Wait, come back!" I called out, running as fast as I could to catch up to her but neared no closer. Something was dragging, pulling me back, a phantom from a nightmare was stopping me from reaching my dream.

"Wait!" As I cried I took a desperate leap forward, felt that menacing cruel tug again, forced through it until I finally broke away. Then, unhindered, I sprinted with a blinding pace.

Tears filled my eyes, daring to pour free, but I resisted them and forced them to remain in their place.

Never again, I will never cry again.

The problem with that was that all the water made it very difficult to see clearly. It wasn't just the woman ahead that was white, but suddenly all around her too. I figured that the effect was a result from the woman's light glistening along my obscured gaze. Still, it made it appear as if all the trees besides me, the path underneath and the leaves overhead were all white. And as my eyes threatened to leak all that brightness twinkled.

I reached out with my hand, a very blurry and whitish hand and pleaded to the figure who was ill-defined, barely visible in the long distance ahead, but unmistakable in her identity. "Please, stop! Don't leave me again!"

I couldn't see where I was going, the nooks from shallow stones and trees roots undetectable and skinny stretching branches across the path blended into the white and yet, despite all that my dash never slowed. My feet quickly compensated when it landed on poor footing, and my shoulders motioned away to lessen the scrapes from the tree limbs. I dipped down at the last minute when the canopy suddenly lowered and leaped over barely seen broad logs. I didn't know this location but I did know the forest. All my life I had lived here, running its paths, climbing its rock walls and navigating its fast-moving streams. I was adept at moving in bushland, screaming off its snakes and whacking hairy spiders with sticks. So, when it came to this chase, it would take a lot more than lack of sight to slow me down.

Surprisingly that didn't last too long however for soon I found myself entering a clearing that was again bathed in white.

I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds to allow the tears to hide back into where they came from. When I reopened them I made the discovery that my eyes were not deceiving me as much as I had thought. It was still white, and still just a little blurry. Bright and glowing, a dim source of light not too dissimilar to the moon that was just revealed overhead.

Grass lined the floor of the clearing and the blades swayed toward me gently. Above them was what caused their movement, the air filled with lateral moving snow-flakes. I raised my hands to greet the ice and felt their cold prickle at every small touch. And the music was still going, that sad, lonely voice. And she was just up ahead, in the centre of the clearing, waiting for me.

"Mum." I whispered.

My mother, glowing white, couldn't have heard me, but I guessed she must have felt my plea instead because then she turned and smiled.

"Mum!" I yelled, smiling, again with watering eyes and started to sprint forwards, but then abruptly I stopped.

A hand the colour of deepest black was clasped around my wrist.

I couldn't feel it, I could not even see it properly because somehow it appeared both transparent and yet it blocked the white glow entirely. The hand was around me, fading into vision, into darkness, and then disappearing entirely as if I imagined the whole thing. In and out, real and unreal in an unreal world of light.

I looked up at the mother ahead of me, she was closer now, closer than I had been since I had first sight of her. And she stood there, with her head tilted to the side, smiling.

"Damn it." I murmured. My voice couldn't be heard over the vocalist's but by how much my throat stung I knew it must have been very croaky.

I dashed back, flinging my arm away and as the black appendage returned I saw its contact break. Then the rest of it became apparent as a six foot silhouette suddenly materialised.

Despite reality hitting home I gave one last longing look to the white woman. There she smiled, but bitter-sweetly, like she too regretted the truth before she faded away.

The song suddenly changed then. From tragic and sad it transformed into hard and angry. It was much faster and much darker.

Then the world of light vanished, or more accurately was obscured by figures of darkness. In the tens, twenties these black beings stood all around me, sizes of high and low, wide and narrow, all in the form of man and populating the clearing as if it was their own little village.

The snow kept floating laterally through the air, still white and when it hit it was still cold, but it was also something else - soothing, like a lull into an endless dream. Those little spots did not melt straight away like real snow on flesh, but clung there, unshifting in its chill just as the song it was really trying to make me hear.

When I noticed this I thought of that first melody, the one that seemed to reach right into my heart and the black figures around me began to fade away and a white figure in the centre of the clearing seemed to almost re-emerge.

"No!" I yelled. "It's not... it's not real!" Just then I saw the black arms reaching toward me, bare inches before making contact.

"Get away from me!" I screeched as I instantly twirled and propelled myself back the way I had come.

They kept coming for me though, the fact that I had broken their illusion not enough of a deterrent, and as they lunged across I had to dodge left, right and low to escape contact. They grazed me a few times but did not catch me so eventually I manoeuvred free enough away to find the path and ran up it once more.

These guys, or things, whatever they were, were persistent though and not only followed behind but sprung at me through the trees. They grazed me a couple more times, a shoulder to which I lowered and sidestepped, then grazed my arm where I made a complete 360 degree turn from, and then just kept on running.

Fatigue was beginning to hit though and my breaths grew so loud that I managed to hear them over the top of the deafening voice.

Another black being emerged, flying across my vision and blocking the beautiful white forest it once hid behind. The thing arced through the air, not aiming for where I was currently but for where I was about to be in another couple of steps.

I tried to stop but of course my momentum had gained too much speed so, just before the collision, I made to lung away but pivoted my foot too sharply, causing it to roll and my body to fall not sideways but straight into the path of a silhouette.

Flying through the air it had its arms outstretched towards me, as if it was superman catching his Lois Lane fall from a tower, but when it grasped me I felt none of the security and warmth that I imagined that heroine to receive. Instead it was cold, just like the snow, just like death.

"No!" I screamed as I pushed back at the thing and managed to knock it on the ground beneath me. Escaping its confines I rolled over it and slipped back into a run.

Foot after foot launched forward. Heavier now, slower too. My energy was waning faster than I would have anticipated. I was an athlete, used to holding my stamina and with adrenaline coursing through my veins stronger than I had ever felt I thought that I should have been able to keep sprinting at full pace for longer. It was not so very far from the road after all, I thought surely I should have been able to make it there before fatigue had set in. Back to the park, those swings and...

Then I remembered how something was holding me back earlier as I ran down this path for my white dream. Oh, god, what have I done?!

Another one must have made a leap from behind for suddenly I felt a yank from my right ankle. A quick glance confirmed it was one of those, belly flat on the floor, head upturned to look at me with its invisible eyes and hand clasped around my still-white glowing skin.

I lifted my leg but suddenly my energy escaped me, causing my limb to barely shift onto my toes. As it had me trapped I looked into the being's black face and thought I saw something there, something that resembled hunger.

"I see." I analysed, my firm voice rising above the vocalist's. "You want my energy. Well then," I smirked, "then you can have all the energy in my foot!" With my free foot I kicked the dark thing through its face so forcibly that its head snapped back and its hold weakened a fraction - but the only fraction I needed.

I rotated further, completing a full circle and, shifting my weight onto my free foot, broke the silhouette's grasp by performing a back-kick into where a man's throat would have been. Then I ran, as hard as I could which eventuated into a meagre jog, but because I saw her I forced myself on. This time though, I did not run for the foolish illusion of my mother, but for my tangible best friend that I callously left behind.

Abigail laid just ahead on the dirt path, but unlike the area I was treading hers was no longer glowing white for it was obscured by black silhouettes hunching over her.

"No!" I shouted. "Get away from her!" I reached one of them and swung a kick around a black ankle as if ploughing a soccer-ball aside. The figure had all its concentration poured into my friend, its arms stretched out contacting her skull, so when my foot collided it fell without resistance, but I was not done there. Another clutched at her outstretched arm and I punched this in the face. One had her ankle, I kicked up under its torso. Another figure on the other ankle, this one I landed right on top of before delivering a slurry of punches. Then to the being at Abigail's other hand I grabbed both its shoulders and landed a solid head-butt. But even still, it wasn't done. There were others reaching across, new ones latching onto my friend and then onto me also.

"No! You can't have either of us!" I shouted but my voice was really the last thing that retained any strength for when I tried to rush at a solid silhouette grabbing me I fumbled and fell forward. My kind attacker caught me and wrapped its arms tightly around me.

"No! You won't... you won't have us." I declared as I resisted the dark thing's binds with pitiful force. "I swear..." I struggled further, resisting despite a heavy lull ushering me to sleep. "I'll destroy you!"

The thing, whatever it was, had a featureless face, nothing was shown bar an ebony form, and yet when it had its head full on to me I swore I could see a smile within its darkness.

"Meet your doom, shade!" A voice, high pitched yet full of confidence declared as a spear of light, glowing with the force of a midday sun, erupted from the creature's chest. The dark figure writhed, still holding onto me desperately, pulling and sucking energy from me to it, as if at that moment I had become its life-line. But regardless, in no time the thing suddenly shattered into thousands of black crystalline shards. These erupted from the centre spot of the white glow before they arced down and as they fell they first shimmered white before evaporating entirely away. The grass beneath remained undisturbed.

And it kept happening. All around me the black beings were being struck with this light. They writhed, as if in agony but silently, for even if they could wail from some unseen mouths they would have most certainly have been drowned out by the persistent song. Some silhouettes flew out hands in attempt to protect their head and torsos, others crouched low to the ground, but more still ran away, as if they could escape the light that was already burning into their cores. But they all ended in the same way, they all broke apart as if they were no more than ebony porcelain dolls.

I turned back to Abigail where she still laid unconscious on the ground and watched the last malevolent creature clutching at her life form shatter and then fade into oblivion.

Just when I was about to relax however I saw black again from the corner of my gaze. I swung to view it, pointed shaking fists forwards and gulped as I waited for its attack. But like all the others it was destroyed before it even made its move, this time however I saw the arrow that pierced its heart.

Just like the light I saw ripple through those beings, this was violently bright. An arrow, made entirely of this light, pierced through the air so quickly that if I had blinked I would have easily missed it. Then it penetrated the thing's chest, right where a human heart normally lurked. It fell to the ground landing on its hands and as it began to crack it gazed up towards me with its empty face. Then this one too joined its companions and created the dark hail that obscured the white forest beyond.

"Well that sorts out that pocket of darkness!" That same high-pitched voice cheered.

I turned slowly, maybe part out of caution but largely from fatigue. And there, back from the path we first trod down, was a girl who was just as young, with the same light-hearted expression so many high-schoolers wore despite the gravity of the situation.

The girl noticed I had been watching her and smiled in response. "Hey, it's okay now, I got rid of those shades so there really is no reason to look so scared! Oh!" She stated suddenly. "Right, there's one more thing that we need to take care of, isn't there?" The question was obviously rhetorical as she turned, raised a bow from nowhere composed of the same incredible light and pulled a white arrow back towards her cheek. Within seconds of her release the snow slowed then fell limply to the ground and as all the white disappeared from view the song finally ended.

I could barely see anything at first but as my eyes adjusted to the dim glow from the moon I noticed the girl was suddenly right in front of me and holding something out for me. "I found this on the ground, it's yours, right?"

 "Yes." I breathed as I recognised it. "My phone, I completely forgot I even had it."

Retrieving it I set the flash-light application on straight away and took in this girl's appearance clearly for the first time. The girl had platinum blonde hair, fair porcelain skin and eyes that were not grey, but silver.

Then I turned around to the girl collapsed on the path next to me. She was no longer glowing as she returned back to more natural colours, but she was also not moving which loosely alluded to another unsettling circumstance.

I reached over and struck two fingers to the side of her neck just beneath the jaw. When I felt a steady, albeit slow beat, I remembered to breathe.

"Yes, she's still alive but she lost a lot of aura." The girl explained. "Still, I see no reason why she shouldn't wake up soon."

"What..." I murmured, thankful that I could hear my weak voice with the recent silence. "What the hell... is happening?"

That girl was smiling right up until I voiced my question. Here it dropped as sadness flittered across her features. "It's..." She frowned. "Just one of many battlefields."

I looked at Abigail, still alive but so stiff. "A battlefield," I asked, "for what war?"

"For..." The girl with platinum hair and silver eyes broke my contact and gazed at the trees as if she was viewing the city far below. "The war of the worlds."

Chapter 3

 

Abigail

 

"Bethanie," I asked, "what happened back there?"

"I'm... not really sure."

"Did you see it, the light?"

"Yes."

"And then the darkness?"

"Yes, I saw that too."

"No, with that I mean, did you feel it?"

She hesitated. "Yes."

"Do you think that, if that girl didn't turn up then we would have died?"

"... Yes."

"Well, I'm certainly glad we didn't, but if we did at least we would have been together. Death scares me but with you by my side I almost feel tough enough to face it! Bethanie, can you make me a promise? Please, just don't die, don't unless we die together."

When my friend turned her face to me on that lonely road home it showed so much pain. Those tears just as always never fell, but I knew she was sobbing on the inside and yet, despite that she smiled at me. "Okay, Abigail, I promise not to die until you do, a hundred years from now when we both have great grandchildren and hip replacements. And then, after that, I promise we'll enter the afterlife together, best friends forever."

I tossed under my bedcovers, feeling my frown deepen on my face.

I had dreamed some bizarre things that night, unable to rest after the incomprehendable events of the prior evening, but as morning flowed my mind became more accurate and the dreams more detailed, so much so that it was beginning to feel like memory.

In my dream I was lying on one of our mountain's dirt trails and there I looked up at a stranger who was illuminated by the white light of Bethanie's mobile phone.

This girl looked at me too with silver piercing eyes. "You're recovering quicker than I would have given you credit for after all those shades sapped your aura, maybe..." she stated thoughtfully, "you have a bit of potential too."

I was too dumbfounded to respond however and with that lost moment the girl redirected her attention to Bethanie. "Just remember what I said." She winked. "See you around!" She waved before running away up the forest's path.

This is too detailed, this is memory.

"Bethanie?" I asked as my dream travelled to the outside of my house. "That singing, what do you think it was about?"

My friend gazed away, her expression stern. "I don't think it was anything. Just some girl who lived close by, that's all."

"Oh, I see." I stated even though I felt I saw nothing.

"Just forget it, all of it. Unexplained events happen all the time, once or twice someone always experiences it. But really it's nothing, we're just a couple of teenagers with overactive imaginations in response to things we don't understand."

"Oh, um... I guess that makes sense." My response lacked full conviction but my friend accepted it regardless and she simply walked on in the direction of her own home just the next street on.

"Wake... up, sleepy head!" A high-pitched shrill caused my eyes to snap open just in time to view the girl flying over the top of me and then land right onto my sternum. "It's time for school!"

Air escaped my lungs and when I tried to draw in a wheezing noise ensued.

The girl who was belly to belly with me staring into my eyes with raised eyebrows. "Why are you making such a silly noise, Abigail?"

"Because..." I struggled. "I'm... suffocating!"

"You are so not!" She refuted. "That's just plain ridiculous!"

"I... can't... breathe!" A free hand reached to my throat and pulled downward as if to tear away some invisible choking hand.

"I mean..." She stated with growing concern. "You can't suffocate. You need to breathe!" She declared suddenly becoming serious. "Oh, no, Abigail, did I do this to you, did I kill you? I'm so sorry!" She sputtered, her eyes welling and lower lip trembling uncontrollably.

I couldn't hold it back any longer, I burst out laughing.

The look on her face was of hot betrayal. "You lied! I thought you were dying because of me!"

When I finally quietened myself to mere giggles I responded, "Well you deserve it, I am in pain because of you!"

"But you're a big girl, you can handle it!"

"Regardless of size, it's still nasty to jump on top of people while they're sleeping."

"But I was just waking you up!"

Then a voice from the doorway spoke wisdom. "I told you not to do it, told you that sis would be angry."

My sister on top of me shouted across the room. "It was your idea!"

"I said it as a joke!" My brother rolled his eyes. "That's why when you said that you would do it I told you not to!"

"And of course," my mother reached the doorway and placed a hand on top of her son's brunette head. "When you implanted that idea into your twin sister's head and told her not to do it, she just went right ahead and did it. I know how you manipulated her, I saw the whole thing."

My brother blushed as his evil plan was discovered.

"You saw, Mum?!" I shouted. "Then why didn't you stop it from happening?"

My mother barely stifled her giggles. "Because I thought it would be funny."

"Right." I breathed feeling dismally. "The destruction of your eldest child is funny to you."

Then a small giggle did escape my mother's lips. "That's right! But come on now, darling, you're hardly destroyed, you're a big teenager in high school and these two are barely more than toddlers, surely you can handle whatever they dish out."

Pushing off the top of me Cathy erected her torso high. "I am not a toddler! I am five years old, that's literally grown up!"

"That's not how you use the word, literal, sweetie." My mother corrected.

"Hey, Cathy." I smiled up at the sister on top of me before throwing her aside. "Get off!"

"Ouch!" She whined.

"Now, now, Cathy." My mother rationalised. "You landed on the mattress, you're hardly hurt. And really, you shouldn't start a fight if you're not prepared for the consequences."

As my brother giggled I responded flatly. "As always, Mum, your words are sage."

As we sat around the breakfast bar eating our porridge with extra honey and bananas my brother exclaimed. "I can't believe you're getting such a pretty new student at your school! Can you introduce me to her and make her be my girlfriend?"

I blinked about ten times. "Bradley, how do you know about the new girl in my grade and what on earth made you so sure that she's pretty and finally, but most importantly, what makes you think that a teenager will go out with a five year old?!"

"Well," My brother stated pompously. "My friend Mickie told me."

My mouth dropped open. "You mean that girl in your class?"

"Yep!" He nodded proudly. "She said she saw her, a beautiful girl with silver featies..."

"Features." My mother corrected as she packed the two younger one's lunches.

"Features." He stated this as if repeating a very valid point.

Cathy groaned. "You're so lame! Not only are you friends with a weird girl like that but you actually want to date someone - ew!"

My brother didn't even bother to look at her. "I'm just very mature for my age which is why I need a grown up girl as a girlfriend."

"Urgh!" Cathy shouted. "I'm going to be sick!" But despite her tongue thrusting from her mouth and that strained noise she didn't really look too ill.

"Oh, my..." My mother exclaimed as she spread peanut butter to a slice of bread. "That is so sweet."

After I swallowed a gulp of porridge I raised an eyebrow at my parent. "Um... Mum shouldn't you be worried that Bradley is not only already wanting to date girls but also girls triple his age?!"

My mother only gave a knowing smile. "What he is saying is not important, sweetie, but what it means."

"Hey!" My brother refuted. "What I say is important and super true too!"

"Don't you see what this all means yet, Abigail? It means that your little brother idolises you. That's why he wants to date a pretty girl in your year."

"Um..." I responded, "that sounds really gross."

"It's not though, because that pretty girl is really you."

"Yeah... like I said, gross but now that you put it into words seriously-mentally-damaged."

"Bradley wants to date Abby!" Cathy sung.

"Oh, Mum..." Bradley gulped, actually looking like he was about to be sick. "Why do you say such weird things...?"

My mother giggled some more. "It's called psychology, children. It's hard to explain it now but when you grow up you'll understand it then."

"Maybe..." Bradley murmured. "But until then you're traumatising us."

"Bradley!" My mother gasped. "My, how your vocabulary has developed! When did you learn such a big word as traumatising?"

"From the moment I was your son." He answered.

After breakfast we jumped into the car where my sister exclaimed excitedly. "Yes, finally I get to see Bethanie, someone who's not crazy!"

"Like jumping on top of people makes you sane, but actually," I corrected, "We won't be seeing Bethanie. She texted me earlier and said that she was making her own way to school today and that she doesn't need a lift."

"What?!" Cathy whined. "Are you sure that wasn't from someone else?!"

"Oh, alright then." My mother replied as she started the engine. "I suppose her brother has some spare time to take her himself then. That'll be nice for them."

"No!" Cathy protested behind me in the backseat. "That's not nice. Bethanie's meant to go to school with us!"

"Quit being so moody, Cathy." My brother chided. "Her brother is taking her. I think that's good, they get to have more brother and sister time."

Cathy trilled her lips. "It's over-rated."

When I arrived at school I greeted my friends by the same tree as usual. There the girls began to talk about the amazing clothes they saw in a magazine which sounded very expensive, but as the boys arrived the conversation topic suddenly shifted.

"They sound like pretty lame games though!" Eric scoffed. "I mean, Sonic the Hedgehog is so old now! The only games he has are kiddie ones! Nah, give me Doom or Resident Evil any day!"

I gasped as I remembered the horrid details my friend once described about those games. "Those ones are scary, Eric! I mean, you said they're all full of blood and violence and horrible creatures that jump at you from the dark. How can anyone like those games?!"

Bart rolled his eyes as he stepped into the conversation. "They're just games, Abby, it's not like they're real."

"Oh, I like the Pokémon-game!" Amy piped in. "I mean, I never played it but I watched the shows and I know that they're based off a game, right? I think those animals are super-cute!"

"They might be super cute, but they're not animals, they're monsters!" Kieran interred.

"They are not monsters!" Amy refuted.

"Sure they are." Kieran replied waving his hand in the air loftily. "Pokémon, you see," he continued, "is actually short for pocket...monsters, who do moves likes fire, water, wind, earth spells that to a non-monster would be so horrible it would kill them on the spot. Only these look like bunny rabbits and turtles, but imagine, if they used their powers on their trainers how violent it would get!?" His eyes glistened.

"They're not violent at all. That game is actually really kid friendly." Eric amended, smiling profusely beneath dark brown hair and mildly tanned skin. "But if you're concerned there are other PG games you can play. And then, of course, there's all the dancing and singing games that win over any girl." I noticed here that those dark eyes were locked deeply within my own.

"Oh. My. God!" Louise stated tensely right before exploding. "I love those games - do you have them? You must invite me over to play!"

"Me too!" Amy cut in. "I like to sing and dance! I never did it with a video game before but if Louise thinks it's cool it must be... semi-cool!"

"Chick games..." Bart murmured.

"Um... yeah, sure you can all come over. More than happy to oblige." Eric answered with a smirk.

"Actually," I interred, "if it's not too much of an inconvenience, I would like to come too. I think that sounds really fun!"

It may have been my imagination but it seemed that Eric's grin suddenly widened so much that lines almost started around his eyes. "And you know what, it won't just be fun, it'll be epic!"

I smiled too, excited with the thought of all us friends together singing and dancing but that also made me turn my head aside towards the school entrance. Just then the bell rang to usher us into our classes and yet my gaze lingered there a little longer.

"Hey, Abby." Eric prodded. We better get to class, we have drama first up and you know how eccentric Mr. Greer can get if you arrive after him."

I turned back to my friend and smiled. "Yeah, we don't want to be caught up in that cyclone!"

We all walked up the hill to our classrooms but as I turned my gaze back one last time I noticed that Kieran was still standing there, looking in just the same direction that I was and no doubt searching for the same person.

Bethanie, you declined a ride with my mother today and then are late to arrive to school so what, I wonder, is keeping you away right now?

Chapter 4

 

Bethanie

 

"Just remember what I said. See you around!" As I sat on the grass words reverberated themselves in my mind again and again. I was perched in the full sun-light of the day, feeling the heat of the rays nestle into my skin, but my consciousness was far away. Perpetually it remained within the darkness of the prior night as it relived the memory of a discussion that had the power to change my life forever.

Back then, after the silver haired and silver eyed girl destroyed all those horrible creatures and saved me, her bow disintegrated. Then it was left up to my mobile phone to provide the sole source of its meagre light within the forest. As we chatted I was careful to keep it from pointing directly up at her face for consideration to how uncomfortable the brightness would be, but all the while I longed to move up more. Just so I could see her expression more clearly and by extension, her thoughts more clearly. But the only thing that I saw with absolute clarity were her eyes that blazed with the same silver as the moon.

"I gotta say." The girl stated. "For a civilian you fought incredibly well. Not only have you proved that you can sense the darkness remarkably accurately but you also managed to fight against it without any daeva abilities. That's... unheard of."

I was crouched on the ground, Abigail's face fixed in my gaze. It sounds strange when I recite it but back then I dared not look away for I feared that if I did then somehow her life-force would exit her body and she would disappear from me forever. As if I really had the power to keep her from dying. Still, at a time like that, you do whatever irrational things you can think of in order to help someone you love.

I heard the girl move about behind but when I felt a hand rest against my shoulder I  gasped.

"It's okay." She reassured. "It's all okay. You two were victims in a horrible game, but you're saved now. Those shades stole both of your auras, portions of your very souls, but they didn't take the most important pieces. You're still safe, still healthy and both will recover to live normal lives."

"What the hell were those things?" I asked, a frown etched deep into my face.

"Those things are called shades. They linger in the darkness mostly, where they hide, but every so often they come out into the open to feed. Most people can't see them, but young people your age can, when your body is undergoing its greatest change between childhood and adulthood. All people your age are capable of seeing them, but usually no more detailed than vague shadows, but it's enough to give the shades pause and so they hide until the time is right for them to feed."

"Feed?" I repeated. "You mean on energy or... this aura you're talking about?"

"That's right, the shades seek to integrate themselves into this world and to do that they must claim some of its soul energy for themselves, whether it be in the air, the trees, animals, but the greatest prize for them is to siphon off the potent aura found in humans."

I squinted at Abigail, at her pale face that lingered to be white despite the scenery returning to normal.

"Who..." I began to question but quickly corrected my first word. "What are you?"

"I am a being that is not purely of this world anymore, but of both this world of light and also of Noein, the world of darkness. I was just a regular high school girl, just like you but then stumbled onto the same discovery that you have and made a choice, one in which I can never take back. But witnessing the destruction of these shades first hand my decision became clear and I soon took up arms to fight in this war of the worlds."

"Wait!" I interrupted knowing that the girl was about to say more but halting her just to give myself time to process. Stop, a war between worlds!?"

I was still staring at my friend's limp form but I heard from the girl's exhalation that she smiled. "Right, too much too fast. I'm sorry, honestly I didn't mean to overwhelm you. I just remembered the questions I had when I first learned of all this and wanted to spare you from the same burning curiosity. When I joined up no one explained what was going on, I just dived right in, that's why I wanted to explain things to you because you're just like me, a potential and you too can have the same powers I have. And honestly that's what I am hoping you'll decide to do because our side has too few numbers and the darkness increases more each day. However you too have a decision like I had and in the same way once its made you can never go back to your old life. That is why I am bombarding you with this informatin, we need you, you have the potential to help save this world!"

"Potential..." I repeated. "To become a warrior and defend the world."

I was still looking at my friend, at the way she had fallen onto her belly, arms and legs limply about her as if when she fell it was at a time that all her strength was taken from her. And lying there in such a defenceless state it appeared that it really was all gone, her whole life-force. I couldn't even see her body shift to allow for her breathing. But then she suddenly did move, she turned as another set of delicate hands rolled Abigail onto her side, one leg straight and the other bent as an arm was nestled beneath her head to provide a pillow.

I looked above my friend to where the strange girl smiled. "This position will help her recover quicker."

And there it was, the subtle rise and fall of Abigial's chest and listening real closely I even heard her faint breath.

Gaining confidence that my friend was no longer in mortal peril I smiled in return to the girl. "Thank you." I said it only once but it held the weight of a thousand of them.

"Don't mention it, just doing my job!"

"Your job, hey." I mulled over the thought before gasping as realisation hit me - I was demanding so much from this girl, her help, her explanation and her comfort and yet I hadn't even learnt her name, nor offered mine. "My name is Bethanie Starr and I hope..." I was glad for the darkness then before I suddenly blushed. "That we can be friends."

The girl giggled. "Of course we can be, I'd like that very much! My name is Ariel Serador, warrior for this world!"

For a moment I was lost in awe of her, such a pretty girl no older than me, battling terrible things, saving lives and then so light-hearted and happy. There couldn't be a more perfect person.

I was crouched but fell back onto my bottom and my hands clenched the dirt underneath. "Does this happen all time? These attacks, those things. Do people get hurt?"

Ariel's smile faded. "Yes, but not just hurt. What you were attacked by were shades, warriors that spill in from Noein, a desolate world and here they suck the light from this one so that they can widen their entryway, allow more of their kind through but also to strengthen their own power. In their world, they don't have any light, no suns or stars, no source of energy so true existence can never form. That is why they want the light from this world so much, but not just some of it, all of it, so that they may exist here and reclaim it as their own."

"So this light you talk about, that's energy, right? That's why when they contacted me I felt so weak and that's why..." I watched my friend's small chest rises and falls. "My friend is so weak right now, all her energy was taken from her."

"Energy is the broad term, but what this light really is is aura, the outer projections of a being's soul given birth by the energy created by this world's encompassing soul, Gaia. In other words, light is what creates souls. It condenses, solidifies and is attached to every living being. That's what the shades want, not just disorganised energy, but the potent stuff, and the best of the potent stuff - human souls."

I gasped. "But that... that must mean if they take it all, this aura you talk about, then..." My throat closed as I tried to finish what my deductions had brought me to.

No, not that. That's just too horrible!

"Yes, you've guessed it now. What they feed on are human souls and when they're not interrupted they take the whole lot."

"When someone's soul is entirely taken," I swallowed, "they die?"

"Nothing that truly exists can live without a soul. Once it's gone that person's whole being is devoured entirely. A shell remains but in answer to your question, yes, a lifeless one. A corpse."

As I tightened my hands I felt the soil pressing beneath my nails. "But how? How can this be possible? How can no one know about this?!"

"Only potentials can see the darkness..." Ariel began to explain but my rants cut over the top of her.

"How can such evil exist?! This doesn't make sense! If this is real, then there would be people dying for no reason at all, right? Of course, this isn't real!"

"You're wrong." She corrected. "People do die of no reason at all. Science tries to explain these of course, state it was a weak heart, exhaustion, that's a popular one, but sometimes a reason can never really be concluded. It happens all the time but no one wants to hear I-don't-know when someone dies, so people think up all sorts of scenarios. It's happened since the creation of man."

"No, I would have noticed something! I would have heard of more of these cases. I would have!"

"Like the students from your school dying?"

I was so shocked that my tense arms completely gave way and my head landed flat on the dirt path. I didn't feel the landing though, the world spun too confluent to tell such a difference between up and down. Instead I just discovered I was lying when Ariel's head hovered over the top of my view.

"Bethanie, are you okay?! I'm so sorry, I went too far - I shouldn't have told you all that! Please, just forget it and go back to living a happy life, okay?"

The students at the school, I remembered then the deaths. One student every year for the past three years, the first being in year eleven, the next also in year eleven, then the next in year ten. It was becoming such a pattern that it was called The Golden Heights curse and some whispered that it might even have been our grade's turn this year. But most of us stayed optimistic enough to persevere with the school, because, after all, each event was isolated. Tragic, but not at all suspicious, just a row of unfortunate accidents or illnesses.

Never before I had thought there was a legitimate curse until that moment.

"Bethanie!" Ariel shouted again as she began to grab my shoulders and turn me into what I thought was the same recovering position that Abigail was in. But just as she started I waved her off.

"I'm okay, just realising my naivety, that's all. And you know what, I'm sick of it. I don't want to let the people I care about get hurt anymore. I want to get stronger, protect them and protect the light of this world." Rising into a sitting position Ariel backed away. "You said I was a potential so let me realise it then. Please, make me one of you!"

Ariel raised her eyebrows then nodded slowly. "I see, you're exactly like I was back then. Though I knew far less than you do now I had the same reason, to protect the ones I loved." There a bitter-sweet smile broke through. "I'll arrange it if you insist, but before you take the plunge there's a few things that you must absolutely comprehend without going forward. One is that if you enter the contract and become an daeva you won't be purely human anymore but instead a hybrid between the two worlds. That is where your power will come from but also your greatest weakness. Secondly that you will be risking a lot, not just your life but also your very soul and sense of self. Daevas fight a dangerous battlefield and the weak ones do not survive long. And lastly, the transformation is irreversible, become one of us and you'll never fully reintegrate into the world of light again. So think, Bethanie, think very hard before you accept this contract."

I remained silent for a while, balancing the hate from the truths I learned but also my fear. Being a hero is noble and all, but dying is always tragic and losing one's soul, that's a fate beyond contemplation. Suddenly I was not so sure that this destiny was really for me.

"I tell you what." She smirked. "Think it over for a day, then if you decide you want this go to the clearing back there." She pointed down the path in the direction I had fled from. "I promise you won't encounter any more shades, I cleared the area and with him around any newcomers will be running for even higher hills! But don't answer now and you don't even have to answer tomorrow if you don't want. If you don't turn up that's fine, you're a potential so you'll always have the opportunity to enter the contract at a later time. Just think hard and if you do decide that you want to be a protector of this world then I'd be most willing to take you under my wing. If you decide come just before sunset and there you'll witness the world reveal new wonders as your eyes transform into those of a daeva's." She was looking up through the trees here as if remembering a serene moment. This was washed away by a later thought, one I thought she was about to share until a murmur was expressed from my sleeping friend.

"Abigail!" I cried happily.

Ariel hovered back over the top of her and nodded happily. When Abigail opened her eyes Ariel greeted her with excitement. "You're recovering quicker than I would have given you credit for after all those shades sapped your aura, maybe..." She stated thoughtfully, "you have a bit of potential too."

Abigail merely squinted at her, as if she was seeing an illusion which incapacitated my speech since I tried so hard not to laugh at her amusing expression.

Ariel rose and readdressed me. "Just remember what I said." She winked noticing my indulgent expression. "See you around!" Then she waved before running up the path toward the street we had come from.

"Bethanie?" Abigail probed. "What happened back there?"

I opened my mouth to explain the fantastic story of the shades, daevas and soul energy that displayed itself as auras but then found I could not formulate the words. That was because that explanation led to the tragedy that created them. That led to pain and despair as well as a sense of obligation. All those things I did not want my friend to understand, especially as I remembered one of Ariel's last comments where she inferred that Abigail could have been a potential too. With the terrible consequences that Ariel imparted I could not allow Abigail to ever learn what I had because I could not allow her to become a daeva.

Me however, that was another matter entirely. I wasn't sweet and delicate like Abigail. I was tomboyish, coarse and a fighter. Or at least, the latter was what I promised myself. Two years prior I made an internal declaration that I would never allow the ones I loved to suffer ever again, no matter the cost.

Still, I never imagined just how great that cost would be.

I had walked down that same dirt path that very morning and as I did I felt an immense amount of apprehension but true to Ariel's assurances no monsters jumped out to eat me. Still, it was too scary too soon so the whole time I had chills running along every aspect of my body despite not feeling cold in the least.

Before the sun was even in the centre of the sky I found the clearing, surprisingly taking a little longer than I had expected, and with nothing else to do I sat and waited.

Between my revisited episodes of the prior night my mind wandered to other unhappy thoughts, like how my older brother would react if he found out I was truanting and the guilt ensued from there. I didn't really mean to skip school, well, in all reality I did but I had a good reason to, only that I couldn't explain that to anybody else. I needed the time to think and weigh up the situation. I had messaged Abigail's mobile in the morning so that her mother wouldn't come to pick me up and then, after my brothers had left home I just kept on walking from my waiting point. I felt kind of lame wearing my school uniform and insanely embarrassed as I passed people on the street that seemed to bore me knowing looks, but still that was just not what important then. Sure those facts concerned me but their masses were all at once minor in contrast to the behemoth weight of the other thing.

Would I accept the contract?

Contract. I thought. What did that even mean? How on earth did signing a document lead to a transformation?

Then I remembered Ariel shrugging off my thanks with a simple statement: just doing my job.

So in that case, I questioned internally, does that mean we get paid?

I sighed already knowing the answer before I contemplated it, I had seen too many heroic shows and movies to know that monetary gain never came into play.

Still, I thought sullenly, a couple of dollars for risking both one's life and soul wouldn't be too much to ask for when saving lives is considered, surely. I mean, doctors get paid pretty well, don't they?

Then I realised what money really was - the currency of power and power was all that I ever wanted to obtain. In order to help the ones I love.

I had come to this place not out of initial decision, but because I needed to think on my dilemma and since I was skipping school whilst wearing my uniform a secluded place seemed appealing. I had rationalised that I would just come here, think and if I decided no then I would leave before the designated time. But even so, even if I was still here when this contract was going to be proposed, I could still always say no and then walk straight home. Ariel had said that I was free to refuse for as long as I wanted and then accept when it suited me. I had the choice, but that was the one consolation for the fact that once I said yes I could never turn back.

I had been there in the clearing, surprisingly stiff as I received new tan-lines. It had transformed into afternoon, my predicament still unresolved and so I sat there longer still, thinking and reflecting continuously.

The proposition hung there between the emerald blades of glass. As the wind pushed them gently it was as if I sensed them asking, are you ready to sacrifice yourself to save the ones you love?

The hours continued by. I sensed their shifting as the sun overhead moved from east to west and began to disappear back behind deeper mountain land. Then, when the sun was out of sight but twilight was still awhile off I was finally greeted by company.

"I wasn't sure whether you would have come. I had thought that if you did it would have been on the brink of sunset but honestly I thought not at all. But to see you here early, that is quite a surprise."

I turned to the direction of the voice. Walking through the thick part of the forest a young man entered the clearing and as he did he was in the opposite direction to the lowering sun so I saw his features clearly. He was tall, toned but slender. He was dressed casually in faded blue jeans and a black top that made his porcelain unblemished skin stand out triumphantly. But more awing than anything else were his hair and eyes which were both silver, commanding the strange self-sufficient glow that Ariel bore. And, just like Ariel, no one could call this man ugly, he was perfect. And as he neared he became even more perfect as I realised that he must have been either seventeen or eighteen years old and the age gap not too distant. Despite everything I grinned at the sight of him, watching indulgently as he trod the grass to greet just me.

As he neared he looked me up and down and smiled. "Ariel was right, you are quite an attractive girl. But there's one part to that I think she's wrong about, you're obviously not a girl but a young woman."

My cheeks instantly became on fire. What the hell?! This was not what I expected!

"Ah..." I replied with the most adept response I could think of. Then another fumbled thought followed. "Where is Ariel?"

"I'm afraid she is busy, it is not easy being a daeva on top of a high-schooler. You can imagine that she has very little free time."

"Oh, I see." I murmured keeping my surprise quiet. Even though she appeared my age with her abilities I never really thought of her as a high school girl struggling to get good grades along with the rest of us. Stupid on reflection, I realised, even though she had changed she was still a person and probably had a family and bucket-load of other things to deal with.

The young man kept walking until we were just a few feet apart. When he stopped he smirked. "So, Bethanie, your being here, does that mean you've decided to become a daeva?"

A beautiful being proposed a question of such great importance that I had to turn away. His face, his gentle smile, his brilliant eyes, were all just too distracting and before I replied I knew I had to be sure. But even turned away his perfect image still shone in my mind as well as a newfound burning curiosity.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

"My name is Raziel, but that's not the question you're really asking, is it?"

"Are you one of them, are you a daeva?"

"Not quite, but similarly I am a being of both of the worlds of Gaia and Noein, the first in fact which is how I came to claim the ability to gift others with this power. By binding in an agreement with me then you too can have the same amazing strength you saw in Ariel yesterday."

The power, I remembered. Her bow of light and arrows that destroyed each embodiment of darkness with one shot alone. The power that saved Abigail's and my own lives.

"You're still not sure." Raziel analysed. "I know that Ariel has told you all the dangers and she is not wrong there, it is incredibly dangerous, but advantageous to this world. This power cannot be forced on just anyone, only people with potential and then even so they must accept it willingly. It is the only way the transformation seed will sprout. It no easy contract for anyone to enter, so I understand if you need more time to think, but know this, the power of an daeva can save the ones you love and if you command it to its ultimate ability you will be able to save a person from certain death."

I gasped as I turned back to look at him. He was serious, his brilliant eyes twinkling and imparting so many connotations with that last statement. In the end, I realised that my internal debating hinged on such a possibility which meant my answer became crystal clear.

"That's the truth?" I asked. "If I gain the power of a daeva I can stop someone I love from dying, even if all hope is lost?"

Slowly he nodded down and then back up.

I grinned. "Then what are we waiting for, give me the paper to sign my life away on already!"

Raziel smiled. "I'm glad to see your enthusiasm but a written contract is not the way this one works. It is a contract because you must agree and accept the terms, but asides from that it is finalised very differently." Then he brought a pale hand up to his mouth and pressed a finger to an upper canine. When I saw something start to dribble from the point of contact I inhaled sharply.

"What are you doing? You just cut yourself!"

But Raziel was unperturbed, he just shifted his hand out in front of him where that substance rested on his fingertip. But what he exposed was not what I expected at all. The extrusion didn't trickle like blood did but remained raised and circular, unmoving and unswelling and completely firm, like a solid.

Of course, it could have just coagulated very quickly, but another facet showed its unnaturalness, the colour was jet black. A stark contrast to the white skin it was raised on.

"This," he explained, "is a seed from my body. If you accept it then it will begin to sprout and spark the transformation within your core. Then you'll evolve into a greater being, one that is not limited to the laws of this world and allowed the same freedom that is given to darkness. You can mix the possibility of dark, with the reality of light and achieve so much more than you ever dreamed. But again, I warn you, this is not an easy path to tread. To do so you must be certain. You must understand the difficulties you'll face, the pain you'll face." He raised the hand holding the firm black droplet. "This too is difficult for one to bear, the transformation will hurt. You may want to resist it and that will stop the pain but if you do that will destroy the seed and it will end in a failure. To gain this power you must be willing to endure the darkness taking root inside. It's not pleasant I'm afraid, but it is the only way."

I looked at the small dark spot, then gazed all about me and up into the sky. It was darkening now, oranges and deeper blues entered the scene but there was still plenty of light to reflect off the clearing's surroundings, off Raziel's skin and my own. However, that small spot reflected nothing at all. So purely dark and unchanging that it could not even be perceived as the sphere I knew it was, but just a raised splotch on his finger.

I was still scared, still a meek little girl but I had courage enough to grasp his hand then. I continued to look at it, daringly so, as if waiting for it to make its move first. And it seemed it did since the bearer moved across the gap and pointed his hand right up toward my face. As I felt his gravity my low jaw opened automatically where a single finger slipped inside my mouth. I gulped the innocuous seed at once.

After that Raziel pulled away and smiled indulgently. "Well you did that more enthusiastically than I expected."

It took me a few moments but then I realised the horrifying pseudo-meaning behind all that and suddenly felt as if I had been deflowered.

"Hey!" I protested tensely. "What was that all about?!"

Frustratingly it appeared as if Raziel was about to roll his eyes. "It was just a seed, like swallowing a seed from a passionfruit."

"Yeah, I got that part." I replied hotly. "And I've got news for you, forcing a girl to take your seed is not just rude, but also sexual assault! You could go to jail for that buddy!"

"Get your head out of the gutter, it's just the way the contract is presented to your body." He actually did roll his eyes then. "I swear, you're the first girl that's acted this childish."

I blushed bright red, at first from anger then embarrassment - he was right, I was making childish insinuations amidst a situation that was far beyond. I blamed my brothers then for traumatising my youthful mind.

"Um..." I murmured. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess I just don't know how to react to all this."

Raziel closed his eyes as he answered. "Well, I would recommend that you act with the same determination you showed me just before because things are about to hurt."

"What?" I was about to finish with do you mean but just then his silver eyes snapped back open and I was thrust into another world.

-

Down in my lower abdomen I felt the most intense clawing. Something had found its way there and like a blade sliced all through the region. I had felt pain in this area before, I realised, and on numerous occasions, but never so bad, never quite like I was being destroyed from the inside.

No! I screamed internally, let go of me!

And just then I felt that force weaken its hold and the pain instantly diminished.

Then I remembered what Raziel had said, that I needed to accept what was coming in order to transform. That was the way this particular contract was formed.

Fine then, I told the small force that was located in my lower torso, take root and sprout. I won't resist. The pain you dole I'll take, I'll take all of it so long as you fulfil your end of the bargain and give me power.

And it reacted just as I willed it, that seed had floated inside and grasped at the internal walls of my being. With razor hooks it anchored into me, causing me to scream out loud. Then another projection happened and with an emptying invading sensation feeling I gasped. The world was still around me, that beautiful young man still in front of me but it and he all looked so very different. Just then everything was thrown into shades of grey and as I looked down at my abdomen, hands pressed at it desperately, I saw a colour release. Red gas emptied into the grey world as some searing unseen limb penetrated further. Finally this sharpness spread from my core and into every section of my body so that I screamed with the pain. And still, despite all that I managed not to fight it but let the waves of agony wash over me. It was the price of power, the contract that I entered and the pain was my signature.

It was horrid, but in the very least I could say that it was a climax for then the grey in my vision shimmered into white before disintegrating into black. And then I detected that seed had settled its position within me and my agony was over.

It was only when I opened my eyes that I realised that they had closed and I was frowning. But as soon as I saw the world again that frown turned upside down.

"What... is this?" I asked, elated. "What am I seeing!?"

"You're just witnessing the world, Bethanie, for what it truly is. A splendour that can only be seen by a being that does not truly exist amongst it."

"But how?" I almost giggled. "How could I have been blind to this for so long?"

The sun had just reached the horizon there, some way off to the west, veiled by a heavy shroud of trees and land beyond but it wasn't completely hidden for colour poured through the sky over it. Oranges, pinks and blues set the usual backdrop but over it intense reds, greens, yellows and purples rushed through, wiggling and fraying through the sky. It appeared that the setting sun was not just producing rays of light, but rivers of them that moved with tremendous speed. I remembered seeing this on a documentary before where they called this flowing force the Aurora borealis or Aurora australis, each only capable of arising in the north or south poles respectively. But somehow it was happening here, in a sky not yet dark.

"You couldn't sense unfocused auras before so you could never see the soul of sun interact with the soul of the world." Raziel explained. "Both are normally white in appearance but when they collide they produce the most amazing colours. Of course they always interact during the day, but it is at sunrise and sunset that a greater quantity of these can be perceived and so you have this wonderful sky display in the sky with every dawn and every dusk."

The awe did not stop there however, for when I lowered my eyes a fraction I saw these particles that he was talking about, small spots of white light sparkling as they floated through the air. And then the trees and grass as well each carried with it a glow that brought out their natural colours with lustrous potency. Even when I looked down at my own hands I saw my skin shimmer as if my flesh was a fabric woven by tiny diamonds.

"It's like I've stepped into a painting, only everything is so clear and full of detail." I breathed. "It's all real though, I know it is, only I can see it now, like my eyes have suddenly switched to high definition."

"Eyes of light can only allow in light that is brighter than their own, but eyes that have a little bit of darkness inside will absorb more and therefore reveal greater truths to the world you live in. And the rest of your body is now the same way, with greater darkness you can absorb much more of this universe's light, so much so that you can condense it and use it as a weapon."

I remembered that brilliant bow of light Ariel carried then and the arrows that destroyed the dark creatures with ease.

"Well then," I smiled excitedly, "time to get to work."

Chapter 5

Abigail

 

"Did you have any classes with the new girl?" Amy enquired excitedly as she sat to my left on the art bench but then kept rattling on so fast I never had a chance to respond. "I did, she was in my drama class. You should have seen her, she was so good! So emotional and powerful. She just got right into the scene we had to play, not embarrassed at all that she was a warrior princess dying in the midst of battle!"

"I got to kill her!" Bart exclaimed happily, turning around from the art-bench in front to enter the conversation. "We had this epic battle where I told her women need to learn their place in the world of men and then I slew her!"

"And when she died she did it so perfectly sadly!" Amy gushed. "She goes and says: Curse this land, its rules and oppression. And curse all those that abide by such evil." Amy recounted, using her arms and facial expressions to bring the words to life. "I know that I cannot claim to be innocent in all this, my own hands have been sullied and so I... What was it... Oh! I remember! I suppose that it is fitting that I die in the face of such unworthiness. But at least, in these final moments I will have known one thing, that I fought for what I believe in and for a future that will never know such violence. Then she reached out for the audience and with eyes glistening she smiled and said, At least I'll finally be by your side once more, my love." Amy had her hand on her chest as she replayed the act as if she too was feeling the same emotions of the character.

"Wow, she sounds incredible!" I affirmed. "But I gotta say, you did a pretty good re-enactment of it yourself too, Amy!"

My friend grinned. "Thanks, well actually the whole class did the same scene from the end of some samurai story and with the group I was placed in I had to perform the warrior princess role too, that's how I learnt the lines. At the end of the double period we had to perform the scene to the rest of the class but as I watched hers I realised how lame my performance was in comparison. That's how I did the scene, but I didn't did it so well as her." Amy's face showed a hint of sadness.

"Yeah, she was insane!" Bart agreed. "Normally it's Amy that everyone is saying is so good at drama but this chick just took the cake! I think I already know who's going to be the female lead for the school musical this year!"

Amy nodded. "Yeah, I have to agree, with her talent she'll get the part for sure."

I placed a hand on Amy's shoulder. "Hey, you're still in the running you know, you might just get it this year. This girl sounds good but don't forget you're pretty talented too!"

"Nup, not gonna happen!" Bart argued and despite my glare he continued. "This girl was like Hollywood! Amy's good and all and like you, I would have put money on her getting the lead this year with that Jackie chick graduating, but now I think it'll be another support cast for Amy."

Amy was looking down intensely at her sketch but the pencil in her hand wasn't moving, the muscles there were far too tense. Beneath her brunette full fringe she smiled. "Yeah, I think Bart is right, but even so I will try as hard as I can to get the lead."

"That's right, Amy!" I cheered, "You can't give up yet! But even if you don't get it there's still two more whole years of school. You'll get there, I believe in you!"

She turned with glassy brown eyes. "Thanks, Abigail. You're a really good friend."

"I don't know..." Bart said thoughtfully. "If that girl stays at this school then... Ouch!" He suddenly exclaimed to the boy seated next to him angrily. "Now I know that wasn't just an accidental elbow, what's the big deal!? Quit hitting me already!"

"Christ, you're thick!" Eric groaned, turning away from his own sketch back toward us. Pointedly he said, "Yeah I was elbowing you! Anyone else would have taken the hint!"

Bart's expression was both annoyed and dumbfounded. "What are you on about, hint?"

"He just means not to jump to conclusions so early." I tried to explain tactfully but as I bit my lower lip I realised I had no idea how to do tact. "We have two really good drama students in the school and whose better can't be decided by just one performance!"

"Abigail, its fine." Amy's smile was incredibly large. "I'm in awe of her too. She is incredible, pretty and so good at acting, but that doesn't make me jealous, it's the opposite, it makes me want to be her friend because then I could learn so much from her!"

Bart shrugged off Eric's warning and nodded. "Yeah, she's real hot too. It's incredible, she looks like an angel!"

"Oh, yes, Abigail, you should have seen her hair and eyes, they glistened so brightly! And the colour..." But then Amy's words became mute as the entire class hushed at the sight of the new entrant. Without so much as a word every single eye turned and looked at the new girl that entered the classroom, who, upon seeing all the attention, blushed with embarrassment.

"Um..." She stated nervously. "I'm really sorry for arriving so late, it was really hard to find this class, it's not where it says on my map so it took me a little while to work out where it is."

My art teacher, Mr. Merrith, smiled from his front desk. "That's okay, the map is a little deceiving with the renovations going on. I guess no one told you that art is held in these portable classrooms as a temporary location until the works are complete. Well, come on in then." My teacher motioned for her to enter further to the front and centre of the room. "And please tell us all a little about yourself."

 "That's her! That's the new girl from my drama class!" Amy whispered beside me.

"I..." I husked. "I don't believe it."

"Hm?" Amy enquired curiously but as the newcomer spoke her attention was drawn back to the front of the room.

As the girl at the front smiled shyly, she tossed away long platinum strands of hair to reveal bright silver eyes. "Well I guess I'm the new-girl! My name is Ariel Serador and I'm your new art classmate!"

-

"So where do you think she comes from, Abigail?" Amy asked completely ignoring the half drawn picture in front of her.

I frowned as my gaze wandered to the other side of the class where Ariel had taken her seat and was busy imparting graphite to paper. "I don't know. She said she was home-schooled in her introduction, but she seems more familiar than that."

"Well she did say that she's lived up on the mountain her whole life so no doubt you've seen her before. Heck, we probably all have, just didn't realise that she was a local. That's the thing about home-schooled kids, they're very mysterious!"  Amy's eyes darted left and right and her head finished with a nod to say that she knew something was up.

I couldn't disagree with her. "Yeah, I definitely know that I've seen her before." I stated as the image of the silver-haired girl from yesterday shone in my mind again. It was dark, the sole light-source came from Bethanie's mobile phone, but her face was hovered just above mine as she stated some very strange words.

It had to have been her, I knew it, except, could I believe what I knew to be truth? I mean, Ariel didn't even look at me once throughout the entire period, like I was no more than a stranger. A stranger, I felt certain, that she saved.

Leaning back Bart followed our gaze at the girl. "I wonder if she's as talented at art as she is drama. If she is then Abigail will be in danger!"

"Not even possible!" Eric swung around again and gave me a wink. "No one's a better artist than Abby. Just check out her sketch there!"

He had motioned to the drawing I designed for our art major themed paradise. We were only a couple of weeks into the term so many of us were still in the planning stages, which meant drawings and explorative uses of the materials we sought to employ. Some students however were already full gear into their canvases, sculptures, weavings, paper-maches and all sorts. But the bulk of us, myself included, were still were stuck to pencil, paper and contemplation.

What I had sketched just then was one of a dozen different designs, each one never sitting right with me and so I kept reattempting until I was happy. This one however did not lead me to that sentiment.

"It's still not right." I sighed.

"Are you kidding me?! Eric exclaimed. "The waterfall and lagoon filled of mermaids and mermen, I mean you couldn't hit the focus more on the nail! But then the detail you've done with your sketch, man, that could be your major just there!"

When I rose my eyes to Eric's ahead I smiled. "Thanks, but still I don't agree. It's not that I don't like the idea of mermaids, I love them! But when it comes to paradise, I'm not so sure... I still don't think I've grasped the concept."

"You're way over thinking things, Abby!" Amy interred. It doesn't matter what you choose as long as it fits in with the stimulus, from there you just gotta make it look good! That's why I'm doing a beach sunrise, I mean, what's prettier than the sun rising over the water and all those pretty shimmying colours they make!?"

"My paradise is way cooler, mine is about beer!" Bart declared.

"Bart!" I exclaimed. "We're still under-aged!"

"We're not that young." Bart refuted. "It might not be legal yet but I've tried beer and I tell you what, that was where I found my paradise!"

"Hm..." Amy weighed. "I guess each to their own!"

I tried to shrug off my frown. "What about you, Eric? How are you going to show paradise?"

The boy with tanned features and almost black hair smiled. "Actually, like you I haven't decided yet. I have a lot of ideas but none of them seem to be right. It's silly but I feel like I have to get the situation just right. I mean, it is paradise, after all - it has to be perfect."

"Amy's right, you two are definitely over-thinking it!" Bart analysed.

Just then the school bell rang signalling both the end of class and the end of school and with horror I realised I still hadn't come up with the idea to my major yet.

The others packed their things away with the deft skill only a student possessed. When Amy rose to make past me she frowned. "Abigail, you're not coming?"

Leaving my things I rose from my seat also. "Actually, I was about to ask Mr. Merrith if I could stay back to work on my major."

"You know..." She rationalised. "You can always think and sketch at home. You don't need to stay back."

"I know, but I work better at school, away from distractions and all."

"Yeah sure. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

We both left the desk together, only Amy with her backpack and me up to the front desk. Just as Amy exited the class I waved her goodbye before addressing my teacher.

"Excuse me, Mr. Merrith. I was just wondering whether it's possible to stay back this evening to work on my major? It's okay if you want to leave, I don't want to keep you, but I noticed you were staying behind lately so I was wondering whether I could too?"

My teacher's eyes were soft through his glasses. "You're astute. Yes, I have been staying back in the evenings to start the stage-works for the musical. The theme has just been set so I'm getting organised this year and completing all the props ahead of schedule!"

I gasped. "You're doing it all by yourself? But that's so much work!"

My teacher smiled. "Well, after I finish the designing aspect I was going to implore my students for their assistance and actually, I was going to ask you to be one of my main helpers. You would be an excellent asset and since I noticed you in the musical last year I hoped you would be eager to assist."

"I was only in the choir." I admitted. "But yes, I would be very excited to help out!"

"Excellent, I knew I could count on you! I will require a lot of help from you but for the time being you are free. But this is perfect, for now work steadfastly on your major and soon I will be demanding your skills be put towards the musical!" His eyes glistened as his smile stretched from ear to ear. There was even a little chuckle to finish the statement off and the tone did not sound too distant from ominous.

"Um..." I replied after a swallow. "Sure, happy to help..."

I turned to the classroom door and saw Bart there where he noticed me and waved before leaving. Eric had followed him but stopped when he saw me at the front of the classroom. He grabbed his friend, said something before walking across to me.

I had turned from Mr. Merrith, about ready to head back to my desk when Eric had approached me.

"You staying back?"

"Yeah," I answered, "I feel behind since I haven't decided what to do for the stimulus so I want to stay back to work on it."

"You know, I agree with you. I'm at the same point after all. I could do with staying back too, mind if I give you some company?"

"That would be wonderful!" I smiled as we made our way back to the tables. After I slipped back onto my own Eric stood by my bench.

"Hey, Abigail?' He asked, his cheeks filling with colour. "Do you mind if I sit next to you?"

"I would love it if you sat by me!" I stated happily and as I moved across to the far chair to allow Eric a space I froze for a split second as I realised what I had just said. Unfreezing I hurriedly moved my things across and diligently began work at a brand new sketch of paradise.

Eric took a moment himself but then sidled in next to me. Pulling out his art book and pencils and began a new drawing of his own.

After a minute of imprinting graphite to paper in a way that left me dissatisfied I stated abruptly. "So, that new girl sure was pretty, huh?"

"Yeah, she certainly had a different look about her." Eric responded as he gazed at the creation of his own new image.

"Her hair was so pale, a platinum blonde but when it caught the light it kind of looked white. And then there were her eyes, didn't they glisten so brightly? She was so beautiful, but then also sweet, with those pigtails tied with pink ribbons she just looked... well, like a real-life princess. Don't you think?"

"Yeah, she did." Then, after a few moments of pencil scribbling onto paper Eric suddenly corrected himself. "I mean, she didn't! No, she's not a princess! I mean, she's pretty, but not to me! No one's pretty to me! Well, not no one, one person but... ah..."

"Eric?" I asked curiously, my gaze finally deferring from my sketch to the boy beside me. "It's okay to think other people are attractive. After all, I'm a girl and I find Ariel very attractive."

Eric's cheeks blushed redder. "Yeah, I know. I just don't want to say the wrong thing."

I felt heat rise to my cheeks likewise and that forced me to turn away and delve back into the sketch that just wasn't happening.

"Hey, Eric, what are you drawing now?"

"What I'm drawing? Ah, don't worry about it, it's stupid."

"Stupid?" I asked unconvinced as I tried to steal a gaze at his work but his body was shifted aside and wrapped over it so much that I barely viewed an ill-defined corner. "I doubt that. You're so clever so I think that everything you do must be very smart!" I admitted.

Eric's pencil stopped moving. Then, as he replied it was surprisingly sullen. "Thanks, but I'm not smart, not at all. I'm good at school, at most of my subjects but in the real world that means nothing. Being intelligent, being tough, everyone thinks that's what makes someone good but there are other things too. Things that are unique to a person."

Understanding I grasped Eric's right hand, the one with the still pencil. Drawing that hand away the sketch he had been working on was revealed. It showed a boy sitting on the floor as he built a tower from blocks. It didn't depict a scene too awing or special, but the happiness in that child's face was for it bestowed the full embodiment of emotional paradise.

I smiled at Eric. "That's incredible, I love it! You should definitely do that as your major!"

He didn't respond straight away, just smiled as he gazed at his own work. Then he nodded as he turned aside at me. "Yeah, okay then. If you think it's not stupid I'll do it."

"Definitely not stupid!" I affirmed. "If it can be described as anything it is only beautiful!"

With a grin Eric shook his head. "What about yours, care to show me that since you forced me to reveal mine?"

"No, you can't see!" I exclaimed instantly and covered the work with my body.

"Hey!" Eric protested. "You looked at mine without permission so the least you can do is reciprocate!" He lightly grasped at my arm and tried to lift but I was not budging.

"I'm sorry." I apologised. "It's not that I'm hiding it from you it's only that it's a work in progress! I promise I'll show you, just let me finish first, okay?"

Eric released my arm with a sigh. "Fine then, but I'll hold you to that promise."

I nodded my agreement.

"Okay, children." Mr. Merrith addressed his two remaining students and with a yawn continued. "I'm beat for the day and have a family to get home to and I think it's high time you two did the same."

Leaving school so late we had long since missed the buses home which was fine since lately I had taken to walking home, only it was with Bethanie so venturing along that track alone gave me pause. That was, of course until Eric smilingly offered to walk me home.

Along the footpath Eric questioned, "Hey, Abigail. I was wondering about why Bethanie wasn't at school today. The girls at lunch said that she must have been sick but then you said that you doubted that and I've been wondering ever since why you thought that."

My eyes widened to take in the concrete footpath at my feet with even more severity. "Oh, right, I forgot I said that."

"Yeah, okay, but still, why did you?" He prodded.

"I... I don't really know." I answered truthfully. I thought I had known but by the time I finally answered that evening I doubted all of what I thought was reality.

"Hey, Abigail?" Eric asked. "Is everything okay? You just seem like you're a bit distracted today. Actually, that's why I thought maybe something was going on with Bethanie."

"Well honestly, I have no idea if there's something going on with Bethanie but if there was then me being her best friend would know first, that I can say with confidence!"

Eric smiled in response. "Good, but, I was hoping that we could have a similar kind of closeness. You know, that if something goes on you would tell me - and I would of course tell you!"

As we walked through the streets that were being littered with more and more trees curb side I grinned. "Well if anything does go on I'll try to talk to you about it but I just can't make any promises. I guess it all depends on how big the secrets are and if they're too large I don't think I'll be capable of sharing."

"You know, Abigail, you're my friend and I respect you and a lot of that comes from your incredible understanding ability. You just get things, but sometimes you can act so naive too." I noticed here his hands were clenched by his sides. "You do know the answer to things but, I don't know whether you do it consciously or not but sometimes you just don't respond."

I couldn't believe the sudden change of tone in his voice. I couldn't believe the harshness to it. I knew Eric, I knew his pains and I thought I had understood his emotions but how he reacted just then I couldn't understand the meaning at all.  I didn't think I said anything too cruel, just the truth and so I couldn't understand the way he was acting so hurt.

We had just entered a T-intersection after twenty or so minutes of walking. There Eric asked, "Are you okay to make the rest of the way by yourself?"

"Eric..." I breathed as I gazed over him. It was night by the time we reached that location and by the way the street-lamps were I couldn't really see his face properly and that was made all the harder by the way he pointed his chin away.

"Eric, did I just say something to hurt you? Because if I did, you know I didn't mean it. I care about you, I really do!"

"I know, Abigail. I get it." He replied but stiffly. "It's fine." Then, he sort of almost laughed. "You're my friend and a good one at that so I don't blame you. Normally... I would walk you the rest of the way to your place but I just remembered something and need to hurry home."

"But... but, Eric." I stammered not for my sake but for the fact that I had unknowingly hurt him.

"It's not far to yours, you'll be safe from here." Then he turned right and walked down the street that led to his own. I watched him for a few moments and heard his footsteps echo against houses on one side and trees on the other as he followed a road that moved away from me and all the while was continually being swallowed by the darkness of the evening.

"Eric..." I whispered. "I might not say it, but surely you know it's true. You have to know how much I care about you so when you do things like this it really, really hurts me."

But because my chaperone faded away I was left to tread the remainder of my path home alone. Eric was right, it wasn't so very far away and I really had no cause for complaint, really I just despaired at the way Eric departed from my side. If I could have had it any way, I would have had him by me always. Eric wasn't particularly strong, wasn't particularly tall, but nor was he meek. He possessed a strong sense of character that gave him the entire outlook of a warrior. But he was sensitive, I had seen that with his brother and that gentility was what made my emotions sway towards him.

I walked down the street alone suddenly feeling the weight within my backpack. It wasn't immense, but I hadn't noticed its severity until then because before everything seemed to be light and easy.

The scenery was dimmer. Maybe it was just the fact that the sun had fully set then and the street lamps provided a lower wattage to what I would have been comfortable with but still, the world felt darker than it should have. I knew it was as bright as it needed to be and as soon as I arrived home I could waste electricity and embrace the full lighting once more, but for the time I could not settle my disquiet. The darkness just felt too heavy that night.

Then I saw something, a flash but as I walked on no thunder ensued.

Step, step, step, my shoes sounded on the footpath. My ears were primed, my sight too. But though I didn't hear any indication of nearby pronounced action I saw another great flare of light to belie that. I stopped then, waited and very cautiously listened out for the boom coming from the clouds in the distance but just as before the sky made no play.

I looked up between the parting of trees. With living on a mountain you could never see the weather like you could on flat-land. You could hear and even smell it at times, sometimes the scent was so acute it was comforting, like when rain clung to the air and filled it with moisture, or wattle in the midst of a hot summer's day giving you the sweet scent that new adventures were on their way. But those all depended on the wind and that evening it was stagnant. And the sky overhead was purely black, meaning there were clouds covering the sky but not so much as to create rainfall, so in other words I was left with less senses than ever.

I sighed as I began to walk on, realising that I did have a tendency to what Amy and Bart both accused me of, I obviously over-thought things.

Then I saw another flash and this time its source was unmistakable.

I looked up ahead through my street. It was a long one but down it, just up a little from a cul-de-sac was my home, and to the left of where I stood was another road stretching down the hill some way. Further down I knew that it lead to a sport's oval, a cricket pitch and another playground. Then a couple blocks on were a few tennis courts.

I had stopped there as I weighed the two paths. I knew I should have just gone home, a few minutes and I would have been safe and bathed in artificial light, but the silent flash to my left was suddenly just too intriguing.

A flash, I thought, like an arrow piercing the darkness...

I wasn't sure why I thought that but I felt certain it had to with yesterday evening and that girl with the silver eyes. But how, I didn't know. I sensed danger down there and imagined the monsters Eric alluded to going bump in the night, yet, if there was light there that made me feel that she would be there. A girl, smiling over me that I was sure saved me from that very darkness.

So of course I did the foolish thing and, turning left, walked down that hill to the source of the flashes.

-

The streetlamps were fewer here, more widely spaced since the area was frequented less often outside of daylight hours. The sporting centre was busy during summer but that was when the sun remained in the sky longer so that extra lighting was rendered unnecessary. But in Autumn the events were fewer, most on their off-season. A couple still did play but by the time night had fallen all its participants had left for home long before. Up on the mountain no one remained out-doors in the cooler months after dark if they could help it.

I should have done the same, but those flashes ahead proved that someone else was just as reckless and that made me determined to find out who.

I was still some distance off  but as I approached I could finally make out the source and that came from somewhere within the athletics oval.

I halted there as I watched more flashes, but these I noticed no longer faded to dark as some form of light source seemed to always persist.

An arrow as the intermittent source, I thought, but a bow as the consistent one.

With a glance aside and front I decided on a new path ahead and that one involved forging my own. I turned left, shoes crunching fallen leaves by the road-side and then entered into bushland.

My eyesight were not so good to navigate with just the flashing light ahead so I pulled my backpack around and retrieved my mobile phone. Utilising the torch application I lighted the forested floor as I skirted around the oval's extremities.

Keeping low I hid behind one segment of brush to the next, taking easy quiet steps as I moved deeper. I didn't think there was anything to be afraid of because what I expected to find was Ariel using her power. But she could be using it against enemies, monsters perhaps, so that was the reasoning to my veiled approach. But maybe there was another, the fact that I was intruding into someone else's business uninvited, and shamefully the second time that day after rudely witnessing Eric's artwork. I knew I shouldn't have been putting my nose into where it didn't belong, but still, I just couldn't help it. I was just too curious to walk away so instead I walked forward, but quietly.

Soon the persistent source of light became bright enough that I could turn off the application on my phone and tuck it back inside my school bag. And then just a little further on I finally received a glimpse of the sport's oval through the trees and the hurried movement of someone on the other side.

Grunts and groans complemented erratic displays of light, as well as the visage of a pair of legs illuminated well by bright light surrounding them. But these darted quickly so that despite seeing the light that clung to them, I soon lost visual perspective of the body.

"I warned you!" A girl's voice cried out but with its strained volume I knew that even if I knew the person I would not be able to attribute to whom it belonged to. "I warned you to back off. But if you keep getting in my way I'll have no choice but to get rid of you!" A bright light flashed against the trees at the end of that statement.

"You're talking about warnings?! Well that's laughable! I warned you never to show your face around here again or I would kill you. And you know what, I was serious when I said that!"

It was another girl's voice, again from someone that I could not recognise and again another flash ensued from that direction that bounced off the scenery besides me.

I ventured nearer still, ducking low and keeping to the cover of trees as the interplay of light flashes continued. Finally I made it behind a large rock where, through some brush, I received a fairly clear gaze of a battle going on in the midst of my local athletics' field.

When I saw Ariel I wanted to cry out I knew it! As I witnessed the bright white bow in her hand and arrow that she pulled back across her cheek. But then when she fired it was not at what I suspected, but to a girl that bore a long slender and flexible white line. When Ariel released her arrow it struck through the air blindingly fast but with a great flash I realised its travel was impeded. That was because the girl it was aimed for not only blocked but seemed to destroy it with an illuminated whip in her hand. The coil continued down in its arc, snapped against the earth and then swiped back up and raised out in front of her. And I realised what kind of stance that was, a ready stance, one ready for attack.

But... I thought silently with alarm. They're both two girls. Why are they fighting one another!?

I couldn't see her face, but that platinum hair was surely no one else's and when she addressed her adversary her voice softened and finally proved her to be the girl I thought she was. Ariel lowered her bright bow. "We don't need to fight, Vanessa. It does neither of us any good. Just put down your whip and go home or go kill some shades if you need to vent your rage but fighting here, one of your own kind, will get you nowhere!"

Far across the oval the swords of light trembled as red long hair shook furiously. "One our kind? One of our kind?!" The girl repeated hotly. "How can you say something like that! You're nothing like us! You're horrible, you're evil! You don't deserve to breathe!"

"I know what you are saying and I understand how you feel," Ariel responded calmly, her platinum hair swaying about by some wind that seemed to originate only around her, "but still I can't let your emotions interfere any longer." And there she raised the bow again and from nowhere materialised a white shining arrow that drew back and rested across her cheek.

"I've wanted you dead for such a long time, but I was willing to stay my hand so long as you kept away." The other girl admitted, her own crimson hair shifting as if carried by a breeze also. The coil of light in her hand was still held in ready position but it trembled even more as she responded. "But now things are different, you coming back to school can only mean one thing and I cannot allow that to happen again!"

Then the girl on the far side started moving straight ahead, but this wasn't a run or sprint, though her feet did move it was at such an impossible speed that I couldn't even describe what it was. With feet that burned white she went from many meters away, to bare inches from Ariel with a white lash just about to contact my new peer's face.

I was about to scream out, warn the blonde away but there simply was no time. Suddenly they went from talking then Ariel was being attacked without a moment for defence. So instead of calling or better yet, running out to help, I just turned away and buried my face in my hands to blind myself from the final moment of impact.

Despite my eyes being shut, despite them being covered, light still penetrated through and glowed my vision red quickly before returning back to black. But during the red I could not cover my ears from the horrid sound of a girl's acute anguish and nor could I keep out the sound of laughter that followed.

"I warned you, I did warn you." A girl spoke with a voice so harsh that it barely sounded human. "But now I have no choice than to kill you just like her."

"No!" A girl screamed as another flash made the inside of my eyelids turn red.

"Ah!" A girl exclaimed. "Damn you!" Then more flashes, lots more.

"Die!"

"Not before you!"

"Yeah, okay, I'll agree to that. Let my destruction take you down with me!"

"I don't think so, I'll send you to oblivion with her and all the rest!"

Laughter again. "Like I said, so long as you're with me, I'll happily run to my grave!"

"You're insane!"

More flashes, all the time. They were so bright, so red when seen from the back of my eyelids and so consistent.

"Yeah? Maybe, probably! But that's all thanks to you now, isn't it? You and the rest of your phantom scum!"

More laughter, I thought it was from the girl that first laughed but in all honestly I couldn't tell anymore, they were both yelling with such furious unnatural voices that I couldn't tell who possessed the most horrible sounds. And then they kept fighting so violently. I couldn't see it, my eyes were closed so the details were veiled but I saw each strike blaze redly as the light shone through my eyelids. And then there were their grunts, their shrieks, their desperate cries as someone was struck, and then, when it seemed to have all reached some kind of climax desperate pants ensued.

"Vanessa, please stop this." I finally made out Ariel's voice again between her deep breaths. "Fighting each other gets us nowhere, you know that!"

"I..." The other girl replied, even more breathless with a much softer volume but the vindication in her voice was still present, albeit wavering. "I know fighting you is pointless, but still..." The girl began coughing and though it sounded horrid I just had to open my eyes again to find out the state that she was in and when I did I gasped.

Fortunately neither girl heard it and the red-head who had the tip of an arrow pointed at her thought continued. "Still, I hoped I could stop it all if I could just stop you."

Ariel breathed in and out slowly as she weighed the gravity of the situation before finally responding. "You know you can't stop me, I am more powerful than you, but even so, just like you I can be hurt, my flesh weakened as you have done to me now." And I noticed it then, the red stains on Ariel's brand new school uniform. "But even if you could stop me, even if you killed me none of that would change our fates. You know what we are, you know our ultimate purpose. We are here for the world and everything else ceases to matter. You can either accept that fact or allow your emotions to consume you and send you into an early chrysalis. Either way, nothing changes, just the needless fighting that we have with each other. All it is, in the end, is blood spent on nothing."

The red-head was hunched on the ground, her whip still in her hand but hung limply across the grassy oval floor. She was still panting hurriedly and with alarm I realised this was because of all the scarlet staining her own jeans and tank top outfit. Then there was also the tip of the arrowhead perched right at her throat that illuminated her features so brightly that I even made out her hazel eyes.

"Do it, kill me. I'd prefer it." The beaten girl murmured.

"Yeah, I know but I can't do that." Ariel sighed as she lowered her bow and arrow. "I know you don't like it but what you like is of very little importance. I have already started school at Golden Heights High and I am on the path to recruiting new girls for our war..."

"No!" The red-head cried. "You can't! Please, no more girls!"

"I said keep out of it, Vanessa!" Ariel roared so loudly that it made me shiver from my hidden sidelines.

Then laughter again and this came from the bleeding mouth of the girl named Vanessa. "Yeah, I guess I knew you would say that. So then I guess I have to do what you know I must." Then the girl with exaggerated slowness rose to her feet.

"Don't, Vanessa." Ariel warned. "Don't make me kill you."

Vanessa's laughter was quiet, slow and exhausted but it was still there. "Well I guess you'll have to, since if you don't then I'll kill you instead!" Then she launched herself straight at Ariel with a bright long whip that coiled across before reaching straight back in towards the chest of my new classmates' chest.

"No..." I whimpered unheard from the sidelines.

Then Ariel raised her bow laterally out in front of her and using it as a shield blocked the venomous point. From one hand light shone and an arrow was produced and, with one hand bracing the bow, the other pulled the arrow against a faint string.

Vanessa's eyes widened as she realised both the unsuccessfulness of her attack and how open she was.

The next strike came from Ariel as her fingers released and point blank the arrow struck into her enemy.

Vanessa had turned away and managed to evade a direct connection, but despite her incredible speed the projectile sliced through the air far too quickly and connected into her side. The moment of impact was clearly defined by an intense high-pitched scream.

Vanessa had fallen back onto the oval, but despite her obvious pain managed to struggle to her feet. Her face was filled with fury as she watched Ariel walk forwards but with a pained frown she turned and fled.

Injured, grasping her shoulder, she vacated with alarming speed, feet flashing until they disappeared. In no time at all the red-head had escaped leaving behind no more than a pool of blood where she had fallen.

"Idiot." Ariel murmured as she walked past the crimson puddle and away from the athletics' oval herself.

-

It was just then that I remembered to bring my hands up to my eyes to hide the horrible details but after covering them for a minute to no effect I realised that I was too late - I had already witnessed the terrifying display.

"If only," I whimpered with such a quiet voice I doubted that even any nearby possums knew of my presence. "I had kept my eyes closed. Then maybe... I could... pretend that... none of it was real..."

Unfortunately though, I simply could not do that anymore so when my hands released my face the tears only had the forested floor to land on.

"Why? Why were they both doing that? How could anybody hurt another person?"

I felt as though I was swaying on the spot as gravity desperately tried to thrust me down, but a sense of compulsion kept me erect and provided the same source of energy that had me floating forwards onto the oval.

My feet changed from the crunch of underlying brush to the mute padding of grass and kept me on further still. The night-sky became visible overhead, the stars still obscured by clouds, but my way was illuminated by the moon shining fainting through.

Foot step forward, foot step forward, foot step forward, foot step forward.

That was all I could think, all I could do. I didn't even really know why I was doing it, just because I had to I supposed, until a sight finally stopped me. And there it was, the undeniable proof that I had been seeking since yesterday evening.

I collapsed there, falling hard onto my knees and barely braced my arms out in front to keep me from completely crashing to the ground.

"No, I didn't want to see this. Not this..." And as I hunched there, crouched onto all fours my tears fell from an unrestrained face and collided amongst a fresh puddle on the grass that was harshly crimson.

That made me think of all the red streaking Ariel's uniform and Vanessa's outfit, only, the latter girl had far more.

"It is real." I stated as I stared into the dark red puddle. "Only I didn't think it was this real. I just thought that, well, there were good people protecting others, protecting strangers because it was the right thing to do. But this... I don't know what this means..."

The crimson pool continued to be desecrated by round clear droplets.

I was stupid, I knew that seeing as all that had nothing to do with me and yet I couldn't help but feel the wounds of those girls. And it wasn't just the physical ones for I sensed within Vanessa's heart there was a lot pain that had gone unresolved there. So that made me wonder just how dark was this other world that these girls glistened so majestically from?

Chapter 6

 

Bethanie

 

"I heard from one of your teachers. They said you didn't go to school today." Michael, my eldest brother stood by my bedroom door. The one in which he opened despite the door-not-disturb sign I had hanging from a piece of twine on the doorhandle.

After he entered my room I had quickly changed tabs on my internet browser making it look like I was in the midst of delving into social media.

"Why, Bethanie? Why didn't you go to school?" Michael prodded.

As I clicked onto a new page I pretended to read one of my friend's news updates.

"You're doing it again, aren't you? Shutting yourself off, but this time there is no excuse. You will go to school, get good grades and graduate. I won't tolerate any more acting out from you."

I didn't turn to look at my brother, the only place my eyes shifted to was my computer mouse and then straight back up into the screen.

Michael sighed before anger followed into his words. "Damn it, Bethanie. Why do you do this? Can't you see I'm doing my best?!"

I shifted my eyes aside, into the dark carpet of my bedroom floor which was solely illuminated by the light streaming in from the doorway. I hadn't turned any of my bedroom lights on that evening, I didn't need to since I saw the world in a far brighter splendour. However, despite my heightened perception for light, the computer monitor did not glare at me. It remained just as bright as it would have in a well-lit room, where the words and photos, all looked very normal and that suddenly became blasé. I had this new sense to see energies that were once hidden to me, but artificial intelligence was already heightened to its fullest perspective as electricity served its purpose sublimely. So as I sat there I did so confortably, however to my brother it would have appeared that his sister was sitting in the darkness as a harsh virtual glow illuminated her grim features.

"Bethanie..." He murmured the tenseness breaking. "Just don't go down that path again. Please, for Mum."

Thankfully he left it at that and walked from my bedroom door and down the hall. Where he was heading was the master bedroom, the one my mother and he once occupied and the one which Michael assumed as his own. There I knew he would change from his Pet One uniform to an all-black outfit that designated the role of a hospitality worker. On the days that he worked both jobs he usually only had a couple of hours between the changeover and gratefully was usually too tired to interact with us, but today he made the extra effort because of me, because of a stupid school policy that would contact a student's next of kin when an absence without reason was observed.

Michael had received many of these in the past two years, but they had tapered off from their initial climax. Still, regardless of my lowering frequency with the rebellious acts, he always gave me some talking to and every time it was said with such weak authority.

I returned back to the tab that I had been viewing before Michael interrupted me. On it was a definition of the word daeva that described it as a being of shining light. I smiled at that, recalling the light from Ariel's bow and the light of the world I could now see, but when I read on that happiness faded. Apparently a daeva was the name for a supernatural being with disagreeable characteristics. Then words like ghost, demon, giant and monster were even thrown around. It also defined it as a false god.

Deciding that was obviously a stupid definition I gave up on that search and instead placed shade into the search engine and low and behold, it was the noun for a darkened area due to a body intercepting light. It was also the term given to a screen to block out this light. They were pretty obvious explanations, and fitting too I supposed, still it brought me no closer to any answers.

So then I searched for dark monsters and found many fan pages for demonic looking creatures shackled in chains, boasting horns, adorned with long serpentine tails and red eyes shining from their black skulls. Okay, so I supposed I expected that outcome too.

Then I tried one more, aura, and this one hit it right on the nail: a distinctive atmosphere that is attached to or generated by a person, thing or place. In spiritualism this is seen as the visual manifestation of a living body's emotional, mental and spiritual energies. Or, put into other words, the bits that made up a person's soul. And as I looked around the brightly lit room, the twinkling air and my own shining skin that didn't seem to quit fit inside me I could see that to be a reality.

I sighed as I finally relented to my growing fatigue and switched off my computer. I guessed I really had to wait until I saw Ariel again to find my answers only that I wanted them now and did not know how soon I would see her again.

After my plea to be trained as a daeva, Raziel had simply told me to go home and get some rest and promised that Ariel would seek me out and would instruct me in all I desired. I did as he ordered and went home, eventually, but that was not before running through the forest as I drunk in its splendour. Even though night fell quickly and the awing rivers in the sky faded, the world still provided beauty with ample quantity. I had run up the hills, seeing the green leaves sway before the wind hit them; over rocks that had teeming ants dashing under them; past animals hiding within logs and on top of tree branches that kept their bodies very still but not their fretting minds as I saw their thoughts shake, wondering what massive beast passed and whether it would just leave them alone tonight. Then, when I found a stream, I saw water rush through it with such energy that it shone white against the black sky, the drops of water cascading past each other like handfuls of diamonds descending through the air.

It took me some time to remember how late it had gotten and that I should have probably returned home so my eldest brother wouldn't have a conniption. When I came back I said hi and walked straight into my bedroom where my curiosity drew me straight to my computer. It took him a few minutes to come and interrupt me, no doubt he put off that obligation as long as he could.. But by the time I laid in bed I had known he was already gone. He had to work all night at Sax's, a bar that was open every night of the week where my brother made cocktails for successful business people where fine drinking was actually paid for by their corporations. That was my oldest brother's life, to clean up the terd of animals during the day and to serve it to the animals at night. That was his endless cycle, that was how he made enough money to parent his younger siblings.

As soon as I rested my head on my pillow I felt my fatigue grab hold of me, lulling my eyes instantly into a half-closed state, but still I resisted them from fully shutting, there was just too much to see and I was afraid that if I did close my eyes then maybe when I woke up I would never be able to witness all the beauty again. I was still in darkness, even more acute than before with my computer now being switched off and my curtains pulled across, but still the world continued to be illuminated. I still saw the dots of light float happily through the air. Not so intense as at dusk, but they could be seen. So many colours, each seeming to hold their own characters: reasons for happiness, desires for existing but then also tragedies that made their brilliance fade. This dust of the world, I realised, was its soul and just like any other it felt emotion.

But, despite my aversion I did drift off to sleep and when wakefulness came back to claim me I became aware of a grimy coating on my body, perspiration I realised. It was currently autumn so up on the mountain the weather certainly was not hot and neither was I. But these I discerned were cold-sweats, as if I held an infection and my immune system was simply in over-active.

I opened my eyes then, raised a hand up and smiled. I saw my flesh shine as if I was part of an oversaturated photo where my colour even leaked outside the lines and into the surrounding world. I moved my hand left, the colour moved too but in a strange blur part of it seemed to hang back, then rushed across to rejoin with that body part. I moved it quickly to the right and the colour, with a delayed moment seemed to register and then darted so quickly I thought it even looked panicked. I giggled as I did it again to the other side and just as before, the high chroma colour skirted over belatedly, but jagged and disjointed, as if each small portion had its own simple consciousness that detected at different times that it needed to move. I wondered if I honed in further whether I would find adorable minions in an army, simple creatures that followed their commander's every whim, but not all of them were so quick to respond. And I also imagined these to be clad in suits of armour, spears, shields and chest-plates and every single piece glistening. I wondered if the small fragments of energy were what caused the diamond effect on my skin, warriors suited in the most beautiful yet impenetrable armour. A strange thought, but intriguing none-the-less.

I heard a knock on my door before someone opened it and peaked in.

I frowned. "You know, knocking is pointless if you're just gonna come right in anyway."

My brother was at the door, but it wasn't my eldest, but second eldest. Cameron shrugged. "Yeah I know, just letting you know I'm heading to work."

"You know but you still decide to barge in anyway? What if I was naked, you ever think about that?"

Again he shrugged. "Well it's not like there's much to see with you being flat-chested."

"Hey!" I argued. "I'm just a late developer, that's all! And quit checking me out, you incesty pervert!"

Cameron rolled his eyes. "Are you still pissed at me for seeing you in the shower the other day? Get over it, it's not like we haven't seen each other naked before."

"Yeah, when we were kids!"

"Well that seems fine, since you are still one." He smiled. "But hey, if you really are so paranoid then just lock the door next time."

"I did but I guess someone hasn't fixed the lock yet!"

Cameron raised his eyebrows as understanding hit home. "Ah, that's right, the apprentice tradey was meant to do it for a few dollars less than he already makes, for free."

"Yeah, I know, you get paid slave labour and I just sit on my arse skipping school... You know, I just started looking for a casual job seeing as how I just became old enough!"

"Don't." Cameron stated pointedly. "You know how Michael feels about that. He wants you to work hard at school. Get good grades and go to university..."

"I know what he wants." I replied tersely. "And I have enough lectures from one brother without having to deal with the other too."

Cameron sighed. "Listen, I didn't come to lecture, I just came to say that I'm leaving and that I hope you'll be leaving for school soon. I'm not Michael, I'm not your legal guardian, I'm just a teenager like you, but I think you should make some effort. We have some pretty shitty circumstances thrown us and he's trying to do everything to make it right for you so, you know, at least make an effort."

"Yeah..." I murmured. "I know what you're saying."

"Well alright then, I'm off to learn how to build million-dollar homes. I'll see you later." Then Cameron walked away leaving my bedroom door wide open.

"Typical." I murmured as I stared at the unveiled do-not-disturb sign.

Rising out of bed I closed the door and then pulled open the doors to my wardrobe.

Damn those boys. I cursed internally as I reached inside and pulled out my school uniform.

-

"So!" Abigail demanded as I entered her mother's four wheel drive. "Are you feeling better?"

"How am I feeling?" I asked with confusion, great, actually was the obvious response before I realised what fuelled the question. With a guilty smile I winced. "Better. Sorry I told you I was making my own way to school, I was thinking of doing that but I guess I just didn't feel up to it in the end."

Abigail nodded but did not appear convinced. Ah, so she knows that I skipped out. Trust Abigail to lecture with a single look.

It wasn't long until we were dropped off at the high school and soon surrounded by our group of friends by our usual morning meeting tree.

"Bethanie!" Amy cried upon seeing me. "Are you feeling better? We missed you yesterday!"

"I'm fine!" I replied. "Honestly I wasn't that bad, just feeling under the weather and needed some zees to catch up!"

"Course." Louise responded. "Because you've been pushed so hard lately." As always she knew what actually transpired and made that point as obvious as she could without spelling it out. Only in this case, she only knew a small part to it.

"Are you stressing out, Beth?" Amy exhaled. "I have too, the workload is getting so hard! The problems in maths are just over the top! I don't like all these silly quadratic formulas! Where have these letters and things come from?!"

"We've been worrying about you." Eric interred with a tone that was more cautionary than concerned.

"I've been worrying," Bart exclaimed, "that you spent the day trying to beat my Mario gamer-score! Because you know, that if you did, it doesn't count since you'd be cheating!"

"Dude." Kieran responded. "If a chick can beat your gamer-score then what does that say about you?"

"Well this isn't just any chick!" Bart refuted. "She's more like a dude! Not only can she game but she can whoop your arse at tennis!"

Kieran shone his friend a dark look. "That happened once because I was going easy on her, that'll never happen again."

"Quit acting so arrogant, mate!" I argued. "I wiped the floor with you clean! Just accept it, it'll be less embarrassing for you next time!"

Kieran's mouth made an O. "So I'm the one being arrogant?" He shook his head sadly. "Then I'll have no choice but to not hold back next time so that I don't get embarrassed." He smirked.

"You're dreaming if you ever think that you'll save face!"

"Jesus, Bethanie!" Louise interrupted our banter. "How can you just brush off your behaviour like this? Don't you realise how it's affecting your friends?!"

"Louise, I..." I struggled for a brief moment before the school bell rang and signalled my salvation.

As we paused listening to the bell Louise kept her eyes on me, glaring. Then when it finally ended she snapped up her backpack from beside the tree and slung it about her shoulders angrily. "I guess I'll see you in maths." She stated hostilely before trotting away.

"Louise!" Amy called after her. "Hey, wait up, we have history together next!" Then with a quick turn she shrugged as she addressed me. "For some reason she thinks you skipped school yesterday instead of just being sick. I told her that wasn't the case since it's been two years since your mother passed and you're over it now but she just won't listen to reason!"

"Thanks." I responded slowly. "For having my back, Ames."

"Course I do, that's what friends are for!" She stated before trotting off after Louise.

"Eric!" Abigail exclaimed. "We have Geography!"

"Yeah, we do." Eric agreed. "So does Bart."

The boy rolled his eyes. "I hate doing this subject with you, I always feel like such a retard."

Then Kieran leaned right into his ear from behind. "It's because you are, dude."

"Whatever, I've got IT to get to. I'll catch you later." Bart stated before walking away with great speed.

"So we scared them all away. Now it's just us two." Kieran observed.

"Well I guess we ought to make our way to class then." I stated as I reached for my backpack but then suddenly Kieran grasped my wrist and spun me back towards him.

"I was thinking, we skipped out on school before, we should do it again..."

I shifted my eyes across. "That was ages ago. We were just both acting out 'cause of the crap going on with our home lives but we're in year ten now, approaching the end of school and some of us will graduate this year so we really should take it seriously." I made to turn away but his grip was still tight against me.

"I was thinking though, that we could head off again, go to the arcade. Bail on all this bullshit like before."

I tore my hand quickly and secured my freedom. My head directed up towards the school as I answered. "I told you that I think of you as my friend who provided a nice distraction for a time but that I don't feel that way."

"Yeah," Kieran uttered behind me softly, "and like I said, I don't either, that was just a joke! But forget it, you're boring anyway. Why would I want to hang out with you?" When he released my hand he practically threw it before hurrying ahead towards class.

Shrugging off the tense situation I reclaimed my own backpack and began to follow Kieran up the hill but stopped as I heard my name called behind me.

"Hey, Bethanie." She said. "So I hear that your eyes have finally become opened."

I turned around to find Ariel leaning against the tree we were all just congregated around, one I had left out of my sight for a meagre moment.

I appraised her uniform. "I wondered if you might have been the new girl."

She smiled. "That's right, my first day was yesterday, I'm disappointed that you weren't there to greet me. I'm pretty sure I said that you were to meet Raziel around dusk yesterday so you didn't need to wag."

"Great, a lecture from you too. I'm really getting it lately." I responded mirthlessly.

"Hey, I don't care about your school performance. I just wanted to see you and chat about how you were considering the daeva proposal. I really didn't expect that you were so ready for it that you would have been sitting in the clearing the whole day just waiting for him."

I smirked. "Yeah, I didn't really expect to do that myself. I just sort of ended up there."

Ariel raised an interested eyebrow. "I bet. Like a pawn always heads to the end of a chessboard to become a queen, you showed the same warrior desire. Though you may have been weak and meaningless in the grand scheme of things, you chose the fate that all true soldiers aspire to, the transformation into an elite. Meeting you two days ago I thought you would take this path, only I didn't expect you to do it in so few moves."

I shrugged. "I know what I want."

Ariel nodded. "Yes and now you have acquired your flavour of power. So tell me, I'm still curious, how do you like those new eyes?

"Eyes?" I repeated.

Ariel smiled. "Well, yeah. Now you can see the real world through that seed of darkness you took inside. So, what do you think?"

"It's..." I murmured as I watched small white dust particles glisten through the air between us. "It's beautiful but..." I trailed off, frowning.

"But you want the rest of it, don't you? Seeing isn't enough, you want to be able to feel it."

I nodded slowly at first but then its speed and force increased exponentially until I replied, "Yes, yes! Please, tell me what all this is! Teach me how I can use this power!"

"You're awful eager. Are you sure you're not rushing things here, you don't want a few days to get comfortable in your new skin?"

I shook my head violently. "No, this is what I want, all I've ever wanted!"

Ariel closed her eyes. "I see, then we'll launch you straight into it. Meet me at Skyward Cemetery straight after school and don't dawdle." Rising she turned and began to walk up the hill towards a class of her own.

"Hey!" I called as I instantly moved to match step with her. "Um... so why the cemetery? That's a little spooky isn't it?"

"Not at all." She responded. "Actually it makes perfect sense which you should be able to understand with those new eyes of yours."

"It makes sense? But how?"

Ariel's eyes shifted through the land ahead, up towards the buildings and across at the nearby trees, then finally to me. "Remember what you're seeing."

I followed the path her eyes took and then realised exactly what she meant. "The world's aura. That's what I can see, that's the power that I can use, isn't it? And the greatest source of that special type of soul energy is..." I frowned.

"That's right, people. So it stands to reason that the places that are richest in this power is within cemeteries where fragments of the dead's souls still linger."

"Wow... that's so morbid."

Ariel lowered her eyes sadly. "I know, but that is all a part of the cycle of life - the dormant energy within the dead goes on to fuel the bodies of the living."

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense, but..." I bit my lower lip. "Flesh and bodies are one thing, but this is souls we're talking about, right? Doesn't that always belong to a person so when they die isn't that part is taken with them into Heaven?"

"Is that what you really believe happens?" I saw Ariel's profile grimace as a lock of platinum hair veiled her eyes. "Well, I can't tell you that it does or doesn't, only that when a person dies a large amount of their soul returns back to the rivers from which they first sprouted. So if this place in the universe is Heaven then I guess that's right, to an extent. But there is always a part that lingers, like ghosts that hang back because of unresolved emotional distress. So, the greater the turmoil, the more of it left behind. Separated from its physical form within weeks of death, but unyielding to merge back into which it originally came from, it remains near its body, dormant and practically begging to be absorbed."

I frowned, nodded and chewed my lower lip all at once. "I see..."

Ariel laughed lightly. "You can see a lot more than you could, but it is clear that all I have told you you are still blind to, but not for long. Meet me after school and there all will reveal itself to you. Soon you'll learn everything, your power and what it means to be a daeva."

Then suddenly she diverted her path towards a block of buildings that were distant to my own destination.

"Hey, wait!" Stopped at the sort of crossroads I called out again. "Don't go just yet, can't you tell me a little more about what we are? Please, I need to know more! Why are we called daevas and what are these shades? How did they get in our world in the first place and why must they steal souls to survive?!"

When Arial turned her head back to me I thought I saw a moment of wide-eyed anger flash there, but whatever alarmed expression it was soon transformed into one of concern. "Please, not so loud!" She hissed across the gap. "Shades... aren't the only enemies."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Ariel walked back to me and placed her hands on my shoulders, here she gave me a comforting smile. "Listen, there are other dangers out there. This world we live in is tough, but you are so I know you'll be just fine. I promise everything will become clear, just remain strong, okay?" Still smiling her silver eyes glistened. "We're in a war so things aren't black and white but filled with colour and now that you've learnt just how much colour there was unseen you'll start to experience it too. We're in the midst of a war, us girls its warriors, but if you keep fighting, if you remain firm then I know you'll be by my side when we attain victory. We'll win this world, Bethanie, side by side, but for now keep your distance until we arrange our meetings. It's just safest this way. Please trust me on this."

There was so much earnestness to her face, her voice that I found myself nodding in agreement without any more thought.

Ariel sighed as if a massive weight was lifted from her shoulders. "Also, don't tell anyone about all this, okay? It's not just for your own safety, but others close to you."

Again I nodded, but slower.

"Good!" She smiled. "Well I'll be seeing you around school, but we'll talk this afternoon. Have fun in class, study hard!" She cheered as she waved and ran off so quickly that she missed my yeah, right comment.

School, hey? Well I guess I'll put the pretence of integrating into it for now, but as to learning there is only one thing I seek to dedicate myself to in the future. I thought as the Ariel's bright bow shone back into my mind and I saw the arrow of light slice through the darkness. All I care about is learning how to harness the awesome power of a daeva.

Chapter 7

 

Abigail

 

"The cell that is present in more complicated beings, however, is called a eukaryote. See, unlike their prokaryote counter-parts or, counter-cells," Miss Cerney had a little chuckle here, "They are surrounded by a membrane which is permeable to numerous chemicals, water a big one. You see the prokaryotes have a wall which you can imagine to be made of brick, the eukaryotes have more of a... skin, which allows the good things in and funnels the bad things out. Well, most of them, some of them they're not so good at. Alcohol for one, it lets that in any night of the week, too many nights..."

"Hey, Eric?" I asked to the boy seated beside me. "How do cells have to do with alcohol?"

"It's because our teacher is a secret dunk." He whispered back.

"Anyway!" My teacher stated as if remembering that she was just in front of a classroom of students. "The point is that eukaryotic cells are incredibly porous, they are in a constant state of absorption and rejection of the substances that surround it to provide the best conditions inside. And then when you break it down they are again far more intricate. Within are found multiple more structures," Miss Cerney pointed to the image projected on the screen at the front of the class. "At the very most core is the nucleus, then nuclear envelope, then ribosomes, then endoplasmic reticulum..."

"Eric..." I whined. "My head hurts."

"Yeah, she explains simple concepts much more confusingly than they are." He whispered back.

"How on earth could this ever be simple?!" I groaned softly.

"And here is the most important part!" My teacher declared as she pointed to a kidney looking thing. Then the projection changed into a close-up view displaying what looked liked intestines.

"Ew..." A few students chorused.

"This is not ew, but brilliant and essential to life for eukaryotes, to animal and human life!" She declared. "You see, this is a mitochondrion, the almost bacterial cell that lives with all eukaryotes. A special cell that lives in perfect harmony with their grander structures to provide all the energy our beings need!"

"Um... miss?" A student put up his hand and continued with his query after the teacher gave him an accepting nod. "Is this going to be in the exam?"

"Certainly will be!" She exclaimed happily.

The whole class groaned.

"Come on students, I know it's a lot to take in now, but soon it'll all make sense. We've only just started this topic and it isn't a simple one, just give it some time to form a picture in your minds and soon, I promise, it'll all make sense!" My teacher's black bob swayed as she moved her head emphatically.

I smiled as I commented. "I don't get it but I believe Miss Cerney in that once I see the image it'll all make sense. I just have to keep taking it all in until the pieces join together."

"Yeah, well I think you're better off just reading the text book, that puts it out there a lot more clearly than she does." Eric murmured behind his raised, interlocked hands.

I cocked my head to the side slightly and stifled a giggle. "You know, you're smart but you're not my kind of smart!"

Eric gasped dropping his hands instantly. "What do you mean by that?!"

"Eric!" My teacher reprimanded, the entire class becoming mute as they all looked at him. "Please do not cause such a disruption. Honestly, I'm surprised by you..."

"Ah," Eric blushed, "sorry, Miss Cerney."

Our teacher nodded. "That's fine since I know you don't normally act out, just please if you feel the need to talk do it without distracting the class."

Eric hung his head low as my teacher continued her lecture on eukaryotes.

"I mean," I continued, still smiling as if we had never been interrupted, "that we learn in very different ways. You like to read things in order to learn but I need pictures. That's what I mean by you're a different kind of smart."

"Oh..." He stated, still red. "Yeah, I guess we are."

Then the school bell rang.

"So to repeat it to those of you who weren't paying attention," my teacher stated with emphasis, "you're homework is to memorise the structure of a eukaryotic cell because tomorrow we'll be learning what each part functions in."

The class groaned again from the moment the word homework was voiced.

"Wow, you two lovebirds!" Louise cried from behind us. "I'm surprised I didn't see you two snogging with all that flirting!"

"Louise!" I cried with alarm.

Eric rolled his eyes. "We were just talking."

Louise smirked. "Yeah, you were talking, all through class. So what I wanna know is, when are you two going to make it official?"

I gasped. "Louise, that is inappropriate! You know Eric and I are just... just..." Suddenly I felt my cheeks flush. I tried to say friends but for some reason couldn't.

"Louise," Eric stated calmly, "why don't you scuttle off to your next class? For a friend you're really putting yourself in the way."

Louise's eyes widened. "Right!" She exclaimed. "Sorry, I'll leave you two now!" Then she did just as Eric told her and scuttled away, blindingly fast.

In a short moment the whole classroom of students disappeared and I seemed to be left alone with Eric. How did that happen? I wondered.

"I tell you what." Eric stated. "She does make a point."

"Who?" I asked. "Miss Cerney?"

Eric laughed as he reached across the desk, held there a moment before grabbing his pencil case. "No, Louise. That maybe we should..."

"Come on, children, get a move on!" My teacher stated from the front of the class. "I have another room to get to as well, you know, and I can't leave until you do."

"Oh!" I almost squealed. "Right, so sorry, Miss Cerney. We'll be outta your hair in a jiffy!"

And just like I promised I collected my things and quickly sorted them into my bag before hurrying to the classroom entrance, but just before leaving my teacher laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey." She stated softly so that Eric behind me wouldn't hear. "Next time, try not to talk so much. This is a pretty tough syllabus so don't do yourself a disservice by chatting the whole time. I know it was mostly in regards to the topic but if you want to know something ask me, that way you won't miss anything."

I gasped. "You heard?!"

Miss Cerney smiled as Eric came to meet us. "I did, but don't worry, I'm not angry, I was once your age too, and though you might not believe me it wasn't that very long ago. Just keep your chat to a minimum and your romance, out of the class." She winked.

I believed I must have turned beetroot red. Eric himself however didn't seem like he could have been too far off my own hue.

"Go on, get out of here!" My teacher ordered. "I was serious, you know, when I said I need to get to my next room."

"Right!" I replied. "Sorry, miss!"

We both stumbled out of the classroom, then I turned and said, "Well, I'll see you later!" Just as I made my steps towards my next class my hand was grasped, halting me.

"Hey, Abby." Eric said quietly. "Um, do you mind meeting me after school today?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Okay, if that's what you want, Eric."

He smiled, a mirror to my own. "Good. Then at our morning meeting tree, I'll see you there."

"Sure thing!" With content Eric released me and walked in the opposite direction towards his next class.

When I entered English my teacher received me with a frown. "Abigail, you are five minutes late. I hope you have a good excuse."

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Karsle!"  I responded hurriedly. "I... had to go to the bathroom."

"Liar." He instantly declared and then nodded knowingly. "You were loitering, like a delinquent."

"I, ah..." Then I gulped shaking beneath my teacher's hostile glare.

"It's my fault, sir." A girl behind me stated. "I stopped Abigail here on her way to class because I was lost. I was confused by the map I was given seeing as how it didn't entirely correlate with the renovations going on in school. So, since I was having trouble finding my way I thought that English must have been relocated like a couple of my other subjects were. Then, naturally, I sought the help of someone I recognised in my year and asked her where to find this class." When I turned back around with a big O to my mouth I saw the girl smiling bashfully. "It took a couple of confused minutes but finally we managed to work out that we were in the same exact English. Silly, really!" She laughed. "All that trouble for such a simple answer!"

"Is that right?" My teacher weighed, his tone unmoving. "In that case that would make you my new student, Ariel Serador, am I correct?"

Ariel giggled nervously. "Geez, you know my last name and all, you're pretty impressive, sir!"

"Hm." He replied with a stone face. "I like to call it observant, an essential skill for anyone attempting to unravel the multiple conveyances hidden within literature."

"Oh!" Ariel exclaimed excitedly. "You're certainly right there! All the best books I've ever read seem to have a different meaning every time! I mean, there's messages on the surface that everyone is meant to see, but only when you pay close attention or read things twice or thrice through do you get the work's full messages. That totally makes sense! It's like the old proverb, you can't see a tree through the forest, the same goes for writing too - you can't see the hidden meanings until you discover the obvious ones!"

My teacher frowned then surprisingly the corners of his lips pricked up. "Go find a seat, girls."

When I sat down at an empty desk I was surprised to find Ariel right next to me.

"I hope you don't mind if I sit next to you." She smiled.

"No, not at all." I replied before my teacher launched into a synopsis of a novel that was supposedly classic that we had the privilege of studying.  Along with the rest of the class I sighed as I was handed a well-used copy of the book.

"What's wrong?" Ariel enquired to my fallen expression. "You don't like it?"

"Actually, it's the opposite." I admitted. "I read this book once before and really enjoyed it and ever since it's held a place in my heart, but after being forced to study it I know that's going to be all ruined."

"Yeah, I get it." She nodded happily next to me. "The stars don't seem so bright once you learn they're just giant balls of gas!"

"Ah..." I responded.

"What I mean is," her smile reached her eyes, "that looking at thigs from different angles and discovering what makes things tick can take the magic away from them and that's completely understandable. But I'm afraid in this case you just don't have any other choice but break that book down."

"Yeah, I know." I sighed turning open the novel. I waited a few minutes but then finally asked quietly. "Hey, Ariel, two days ago in the forest, that was you, right?"

The girl didn't speak but I watched her closely and didn't miss the subtle nod.

"It's really strange, I feel like I know what happened but when I tried to remember it it feels like it's all just some blurry memory from a dream. But, you know, you remember meeting me so does that mean that all that... magic was real?"

"Magic..." The silver-haired girl possessed a small smile. "It would seem like that to you, wouldn't it? Your eyes don't know how to see the light's true colours and form. But it seems you have a strong sense of identity since your aura is resisting Gaia's influence. So I was right, you are a potential too..."

I gasped before whispering, "So... it was real? The light, the darkness. Tell me!" I ordered with a hushed voice. "Tell me what happened and who you are!"

The girl closed her eyes as she breathed in and out deeply. Then after a long pause she responded softly. "Please don't take this the wrong way, Abigail, but I don't think you really want to know the truths to my world. Right now you see everything as happy, your friends, your family are all kept close in your heart and the evils are far away. But if I was to tell you anything, then that perfect world you live in would cease to be so wonderful and that pretty painting you see of me would turn out to be a collection of ugly disjointed splotches. No, Abigail, I'm sorry, but I will not pull you into my world."

"That's... but that's not true!"

"Yeah?" Ariel countered. "Then why haven't you gotten past the first page of that book yet?"

I looked down at the creased novel in my hands that still displayed the heading, Chapter 1.

"Because," I responded meekly, "I know how the story plays out."

"No." She asserted. "It's because you don't want the story to play out any other way. A book will always contain the same words but what someone infers from it will always depend on the person. Normally that's fine, actually better than fine, that is the sole reason people argue that a book is always better than its movie despite the budgets utilised. Given the freedom, a book can be appreciated any way the reader desires, but if forced to assess it objectively than that freedom ceases. Then all possible angles must be considered, including the ones that some would rather avoid. Everyone interprets data differently, but when forced to be analytical then all of them are taken into account, even the ones the reader first deliberately pretended did not exist. That is why you hesitate with reading that book in your hands just the same way that you don't really want to know what I'm involved in - because neither will appear as glamorous as your mind conjures."

I was trembling, I couldn't believe she actually had me trembling. But why? Because it was true? Yes, because it was entirely true.

And the image of all that red on her school uniform yesterday evening flashed back into my mind. Really I had been dismissing it all day as if I imagined the whole scenario and since the memories were not so accurate today I thought that I could have very possibly confused what I dreamed with reality. And that point seemed affirmed as she sat next me healthy, her uniform flawless. But maybe she was right, I was just reading over an area I didn't really like, one that didn't fit in with how I wanted things to go and if she were to explain things for how they really were I might have come to wish that I never started reading that story.

"Again, I am sorry." She whispered, her face gazing far into the pages of her copy. "I didn't want to sound as harsh as I did just now, but in the long run I think it is better. This place that I'm in is nowhere for a girl as sweet as you."

"Maybe, you are right." I responded as my eyes stared at that Chapter 1 heading. "But you're in it and even though you're doing it to protect people you keep them away. Doesn't that make you feel lonely?"

From the corner of my gaze I saw her mouth prick up grimly. "I'm not alone, there are others like me and we fight together, but then we also fight against one-another too."

After a pause I whispered. "That place... sounds very sad."

A small murmur was her agreement.

As we sat there in silence, me pretending to read my book, I wondered what drove Ariel and people like her to fight against one-another, just like I wondered why she was fighting a girl named Vanessa. I didn't voice these questions however, because Ariel had made her point strike at the core. I didn't really want to think they had experienced all that pain yesterday and that Vanessa's pool of blood still coloured the sports oval near my house. So I said nothing at all right up until the final school bell rang.

After Ariel placed her things in her school backpack so turned to me and cried happily. "Thanks, I really enjoyed sitting next to you!" It was as if she never said those empty words, but instead had a mindless giggle about nothing at all important. Then she rose and exited the class along with the rest of my classmates.

I remained there half a minute longer as I continued to ponder over her words. I knew she didn't mean it that way but I couldn't help receiving the sense that she thought of me as weak. But even if she did think that, I wouldn't have disagreed with her.

The bell had marked the end of the school day and as I followed the stream of students I realised that there was something I was meant to do at this time, or rather, someone I was meant to see.

Whipping out my mobile phone I was about to text Bethanie to explain that I would have to meet up with her late until I remembered how she said that she was going to make her own way home today. This was the first thing my friend had said all lunch, and that wasn't even until I pressed and pressed her that she finally responded. I only had one subject with the girl and then saw her briefly at lunch so couldn't really get a gauge on what was going on with her. She was just spaced out, looking into the sky with what seemed both wonder and despair.

I had asked her if it had something to do with her mother's passing remembering that it had been about two years ago now. To this Bethanie nodded and replied vacantly that she was going to the cemetery to see her so she wanted to be alone. She asked that I understood, right?

Eventually my feet travelled me to the slope that led down the front of our school and towards the fleet of cars and buses picking up children. And there he was, ten or so meters set in from the chaos below him, with his bag resting by our tree and his eyes locked onto mine. He had been watching for my arrival, I realised.

I waved from the distance and he waved back smiling, but it was short and soon his eyes wandered to the tree, then to the far off football field, then to the ground by his feet. There it seemed like there was something troubling him quite a bit.

"Hey, mister!" I sung as I reached him. "Those ants giving you a scare?"

He looked up from the dirt and but since he was a good foot taller he still looked down on me and here he wore a cheeky smirk. "Just one ant. It's bigger than usual, I think it means to hurt me. But it's still just a tiny thing, I reckon I can defend myself against it."

"Is that right? And where exactly is this bigger than usual tiny thing?"

He raised both his eyebrows as he stared at me.

"Oh, you tease! I'm not as small as an ant!" I pushed him as he broke into laughter.

He staggered back slightly but barely lost his balance. "I did say it was bigger than usual, and I was right - it does want to hurt me!"

"Oh, you're just a nasty thing!" I crossed my arms. "I thought you wanted to meet to be all nice and gallant - not remind me of my height."

He laughed some more. "Hey, you were the who kept me waiting, so who's really the nasty one."

"It was hardly long, my English class is at the far side of the school." I defended before assuming a leer. "Oh, I see. So you teasing me is payback!"

"Maybe." He shrugged lightly. "The suspense you put me in has been killing me. I was kinda actually starting to think that you weren't going to show." He finished as he looked back down to the energetic ants on the ground with that same concern.

"Of course I'd come!" I corrected. "But why were you so worried? What' wrong, Eric?"

"Nothing's wrong!" He insisted hastily. "I'm just glad that you're here."

The boy fell quiet so I prodded him. "Eric, what's wrong. You can tell me, anything."

Nervously he nodded. "Well, I... um... You know how Amy made that comment after science..." Then Eric's phone began to call from inside his trouser pocket, however he continued and attempted to speak over the top of it. "You know, the weird one about... about that we should..." But then the theme song to a hit television program just became too distracting for the boy so he tore into his pocket and groaning smashed into the reject call button.

Breathing deeply he tried again, his cheeks incredibly rosy. "Well I... You know. I wanted to say that you're a really amazing person, Abigail. You're so kind and always think the best in others and you're so positive. Smart too, except I know that you don't see it yourself but you are. You can tell when you look at your paintings, they're so deep with emotion and thought, you construct every element of your works so carefully. You're smart because you understand the world the way it should be, the way people aspire and don't judge others for their weaknesses. You're really incredible. So great that I feel lucky just to be around you!"

"Oh, Eric..." I responded meekly as he took a short intermission during his rant.

"Abigail, I... I..."

"I love you, Abigail!" Eric's brother ran into the scene, arms outstretched before they smothered me in his embrace. Upon the impact I gasped as all the air was suddenly squeezed from my lungs.

"Hey, Jordan, careful!" Eric cried out in alarm. "You have to be gentle with Abigail, she's only little!"

"Oh?" Jordan, who, despite being five years younger was as tall as me, looked at me curiously, then when he noticed my pained expression heightened his tone. "Oh!" Finally he loosened his grip but did not release. "Sorry, Abby! I don't mean to hurt you - I love you!"

After I learned how to breathe again I managed a weak smile. "That's okay, Jordy, I love you too."

"There you have it, Jordan." Eric muttered sulkily. "Abigail loves you, now you can just go get married."

Jordan's eyes glistened like it was the most amazing thing he had ever been offered. "I could be Mr. Jordan Darling!"

"Usually it's the girl that takes the guy's name."

"Abigail Darling is my darling!"

I had soon recovered the use of my lungs and so was giggling with mirth during this interplay.

"Oh." A woman with the same dark hair and medium skin tone as Eric stated thoughtfully as she entered the scene. "So that's the friend you messaged me about. Your name is Abigail, am I right there, sweetie?"

I nodded. "Yes, Mrs. Deverall. Eric and I share art and science together."

"I see." Her eyes were filled with amusement. "Looks like Jordan has stolen your thunder, Eric and quite literally whisked the girl off her feet."

Eric shot his brother a frustrated look. "You can let go of her now. You know if you hold a girl for too long it's just creepy."

"Aw." Jordan pouted as he reluctantly pulled his arms away. "Okay then."

"So, Mum, what are you doing here? I told you not to pick me up until quarter to." Eric asked with an expression that didn't fit the gentle tone of his voice.

"Well, I did see that but if I waited you would have been late for your martial arts class."

"We went on a Eric hunt!" Jordan explained so joyfully that my giggles resumed.

"Oh!" Eric replied with alarm. "Damn, I totally forgot I had it today!"

"Yes, son and I'm afraid that if we delay any longer then your instructor will become quite cross. He seems somewhat strict..."

"Yeah, he is." Eric sighed. "Damn."

"Hey, Eric," I moved to the tree, past the cluster of ants and retrieved my friend's bag. Handing it to him I continued, "We can always continue this discussion later. There's always tomorrow and tomorrow is just a day away!"

He smirked as he took his backpack from me. "See, you gotta be smart with how much of a geek you act."

"Hey!" I frowned. "This is no act!"

He laughed. "Yeah, okay, Abigail, I believe you. I'll see you tomorrow then."

I nodded. "Now get to your class already or you'll be stuck doing laps for the first half hour!"

"Yeah, but hey, it's too late for you to catch the bus, will you be alright walking?"

I rolled my eyes. "There's hours of sunlight left in the sky and even though I am only ant size..."

"Bigger than usual." He corrected.

"I think as a tenth grader I can make the thirty minute walk home alone safely."

"Cool, then I'll see you later!"

"See you Mrs. Darling!" Jordan called as he followed his brother and mother down the slope.

"You know," Eric commented to his brother, "that doesn't mean she's your wife, she could be anyone's then, even mine!"

"No, don't steal my wife, big brother!"

I soon lost earshot but continued to giggle even after I ceased to see them.

Then, as I made my own way from school down streets that were already swiftly emptying of children, I thought back to that sketch Eric had drawn in art yesterday, of the ten-year old boy playing with the building blocks. Eric was embarrassed to show me, afraid that the world would laugh at the sight of someone so old displaying the mental acuity of someone far younger, but the image only caused me to smile. That was how he found it, through the eyes of his special younger brother he caught a glimpse of paradise.

"Yeah, I think I spotted her next target. A girl from Golden Heights High, her name is Bethanie Starr."

I stopped dead in my tracks upon hearing my best friend's name. It came from around the bend, the sight of the speaker obscured by trees.

"She's found someone already. I knew that she could move fast but to recruit a girl this quickly..."

"Well the solution is obvious!" Another new voice, but this one seemed familiar. "We kill Ariel now!"

"You're going to kill her?" A fourth voice mocked. "Doesn't seem to be going so well, didn't she wipe the floor with you yesterday?"

"Girls." The first voice cautioned. "Stop talking."

"She got as good as she gave trust me! And the next time I won't go easy, next time I'll destroy her once and for all!"

"Fool, you know you're no match for her, you're the weakest one here."

"I said I will, damn it, but if you like I can take you out first!"

"Girls!" The first voice repeated with fury. "I said shut the hell up!" This hushed the fighting pair instantly, but it wasn't long lived.

The more emotional voice, the one I recognised, shot hotly back. "What, and you just expect me to take this crap Rebecca is spewing?"

"She means." The second voice answered calmly. "That you are making a commotion and attracting undue attention. There's a girl listening to us through those trees and she's very curious as to the meaning our discussion."

"Oh, yeah. I see her now." The fiery one exclaimed slippery.

I gasped and tried to back away and out of sight but I was too late because all of a sudden a girl with flame-red hair and a dark grin suddenly stood in front of me. I gasped as I realised it was the same one I saw yesterday, the one intent on killing Ariel.

"Ah, check out that uniform, she goes to the same school as us. She looks a little small to be in year ten, but I wonder if maybe she's a friend of this chick's..."

I backed away, trembling. "You moved, so fast..."

"Aw, that's precious, the little teeny bopper is scared of me. Maybe you think I'm a big bad monster that will gobble you up and eat your soul!" The red-head roared with laughter.

"Hey, Vanessa?" Another girl suddenly appeared next to her. "You should have shut up when Lara warned you." Then a fist connected with the red-head's face, sending her flying into the trees, leaving behind sprinkles of blood in her place. On the other-side of that punch were long black strands of hair that swayed to cover the girl's face.

"You better beat it now, kid, things are about to get a little dicey here." The girl cautioned as she stared through the trees.

Then bright white light flared and laughter chorused between the trunks.

"Damn, she's an idiot." The girl with black hair murmured but more to herself than anyone. "But if pummelling her is the only way I can get through then I guess that's what I'll have to do."

The light shone brighter, cutting multiple pathways ahead from between the trees' silhouettes. I shivered as a spotlight just missed me, as if the light itself was a blade that would cleave anything it touched.

That's what I thought until true swords originated within the black-haired girl's hands, long white, intense double-edged, dual blades that instantly swallowed the light the distant girl had created.

"That... light..." I uttered.

"Get out of here, girl!" The black haired declared. "Unless you have a death-wish!" And just then she turned her head and bore bright green eyes down on me with severity.

Who, or what, I thought with terrible trepidation, are these girls?!

Then a long coil of light snapped from between those trees and as it collided on the forested ground the whole world shook.

"Go!" Those emerald eyes roared. "Go now or suffer a fate you wish you hadn't!"

I ran, stumbled, almost fell, but then somehow picked up my feet as I continued down a pathway that led back to school. But it was the wrong way, I couldn't get home from here, there was no way I could reach my sanctuary.

But as my feet pattered meekly on the asphalt, as my heart thumped painfully in my chest, I realised that even though I was running in the opposite direction to my home I wasn't necessarily running away from safety for another place laid close to here. Just a few blocks back past the school, in a forested area hidden from the road, was a small quiet garden. From between concrete pillars flowers blossomed and beneath it all the deceased slept, a perfect harmony matching the tranquillity above.

As I ran I thought a small apology for my friend. I'm sorry, Bethanie, I know you wanted your solitude. But, if by some miracle you're still there now, I need you. Please, protect me!

Chapter 8

 

Bethanie

 

I sat there, gazing at the marble tombstone, at the flowing calligraphy and at the dates that spanned across too short a time period. The stone was quite pretty, it was black with interwoven white lines. Though this reticular pattern was jagged and distorted, it was comforting in a way for every single one of them connected. The lines seemed to represent aspects of a type of being, like the energy my mother retained in her final moments. Maybe that was why I liked those intersecting, never ending lines, because it gave her some kind freedom, even if it was only within her enclosed world.

I had held this sentiment before the prior morning's discussion with Ariel. Long ago as I had studied the design and sat on the disturbed soil, I had clung to that idea. It was something that nourished me, a thought that if just a small part of her remained, no matter how minute, maybe it was still there with me, crying by my side.

Then time passed and I realised what a foolish child I had been, so pitiful clinging to a blatant lie that I constructed in response to my weakness. Slowly, in barely more than two years, the world revealed its harsh truths to me. I became the excuse of my eldest brother, to the next one a burden, then to my youngest brother, the one I scarcely saw anymore I became a no more than a stranger, a ghost that faded along with the memory of his mother.

But then when I thought about it that was all I ever really was, a ghost of my former self. The happy bright Bethanie having died in the hospital at her mother's bedside. In a moment I had it all, a mother, a step-father, two older brothers and a younger half brother, but in the next it was all taken away. Then, as my family shattered, so did I, but my body remained and I kept living like a ghost that just couldn't understand why she remained in this world.

There was one person however, just one that helped me see the light of the world again, help me feel the flesh that I was in. My very best friend in her endless and earnest pursuit of spreading happiness somehow managed to bring me back to life, to allow a smile to form back onto my face. And it wasn't just one of those fake ones, the ones you plant so that people finally stop asking if you're okay, even though you know that deep down they don't really care, they just want to alleviate any small burden of concern they're meant to hold. But Abigail was different, her sympathy was real and the fake smiles didn't cut it with her so she worked towards a feat that no one else could have. Even so, I still had an emptiness inside and a desperate desire to battle death, only I just had no way of doing it. Powerless I had no choice but to try and make the most of the life that was left to me and I did try at it, but now things had changed. Now, I could finally fulfil my purpose and destroy death.

I looked into the grass that laid before my cross-legged position. I gazed into green shimmers, I watched the way a subtle breeze swayed the blades and how the vibrant colour lagged behind. A world so bright, so colourful, even more so than any other place I witnessed thus far and all because of a cruel fate that Ariel suggested, that soul fragments lingered here in greater force than anywhere else. All because of the dead that laid beneath me.

Then a certain kind of darkness caught the corner of my gaze. One that didn't sparkle, but blocked the world's splendour entirely. Or, in other words, one that absorbed the light that touched it.

A few meters away one sat in front of a tombstone. It was black, but not opaque. It was more precisely as Ariel named it, a shade, where some light shone through, but what came out was muted, the image beyond it appearing bland and decayed. It still had human form, it still seemed to be bound by simple laws such as gravity as it was in direct contact with the ground but its darkness and lack of self presence made it easy to spot as foreign to this world.

"So..." I stated as I rose to my feet. "That is why Ariel told me to come here, because she knew that you would be here to greet me."

The thing, the shade, was hunched forward, palms planted onto the soil as if it was extracting the aura within it. It seemed completely preoccupied with its prize at first, so much that it seemed to even miss a bystander as it engorged on human remains, but it became evident, as it raised its head, that my voice was enough to arose it.

"So, even though you don't have ears, you can still hear." I deduced.

The shade turned its head, then its feet rose, its torso, the entire body and swivelled around. And in the whole time that head didn't divert from its direct positioning on me.

"And you can see too." I added. "But that one really doesn't surprise me, not when you exist by absorbing light. Whatever you're made from, it might as well be one giant eye, am I right? Since you take the world's energies but give nothing back. You," I stated as the shade started forward, "disgust me."

But this thing moved quickly, far quicker than I had expected, so my little monologue was cut short as the next line was replaced by a desperate gasp. The thing sped a limb at me so fast that I even lost sight of its form and perceived no more than a blur, but right the apex I seemed to see clearly for it was a spear pointing sharply for my torso.

Just barely I managed to evade away, sidestepping to the right, but the thing was not done as it had more limbs to strike with and far more speed than I could contemplate. With its right arm slicing through air, it utilised its left to cut laterally at me. Instantly I dropped low to the ground, perching my face an inch above the blades of grass as a heightened gust of wind frayed my blonde hair back behind my head.

The shade then pivoted off his left foot and with its right arced it towards me. Blindingly fast the limb moved but as it did it ceased to hold discernible form as it stretched and elongated so smoothly that the entire appendage became one long blade. And there, at the point of the toes, was the sharp tip to its sword.

The shadowy limb was coming at me from the side, low to the ground, right where I was poised. Just in time I managed to roll backwards and using my momentum climbed back onto my feet. When I looked back up it was to the dark limb slicing through the air in front of me, maybe an inch away if that.

It was then that the words of my physical education teacher really rang true for me, that PE was an essential life skill. I supposed it was lucky then, that it was my best subject. But as I dodged back away from another black swing I did consider that it would have been nice to have supernatural backup. I had these daeva eyes but besides that I was all relying on athletic ability just to keep from being severed.

The shade went for a jab out ahead but like its legs, this shivered before thinning and lengthening. Within moments it covered the distance I kept trying to put between us and all the while the appendage kept narrowing and elongating.

My eyes widened as I realised that there was no limit to its reaching hand and that if I stayed a second longer just where I was that I would find stake through the centre of my heart.

With no time to for clever footwork, I collapsed to the ground, but still that was not even fast enough for that long narrowing spike sped through the air with blinding darkness and struck into my arm with a searing heat.

I quickly gazed at it, it was not so bad, a centimetre deep clip into my forearm that spanned across it for five. It gaped open, like a mouth just created there for a moment for red began to spill freely.

Damn it! I thought. Where is Ariel? Did she just tell me to meet her here so that I would die waiting!?I can't fight this thing! I don't have any powers yet!

Then I saw it, too impossibly late to do anything about it, that same spear that clipped my arm was moving laterally back towards me. I didn't even have time to raise my arms in defence.

Then with a chime the darkness broke away to light as a golden arrow cleaved the spear just before it connected with my face. Then black, crystalline fragments fell from the broken portion that was so near my face that I had to go cross-eyed to focus on the closest portion.

My eyes were wide, my throat exhausted for when I silenced it seemed I had been screaming.

"Quit being such a coward!" It was Ariel's voice. Of course it was since it was her arrow that saved me, a suddenly golden arrow. But her words, they seemed to cruel to be hers. "If you don't fight you can't evolve!"

I clambered back to my feet as I watched the shade retract the rest of its broken limb before it shivered again and produced a new arm that was equal in its original length but much skinnier.

"Evolve?" I cried out, searching all around me but finding no trace of the girl I was directing the question to. "What does that mean?"

"It means," Her voice spoke from somewhere but nowhere I could locate. "That you're not a daeva yet, not a true one. The seed gives you the eyes but unless it sprouts then you cannot have the darkness flow into your diamond core. Without it you'll never be able to control aura. You need to fight, Bethanie, it's the only way to awaken your true power!"

"Fight..." I murmured as that dark shadowing being was launching another arm-speared strike at me. "But how can I attain power if I must first demonstrate it?"

The spear shot over the top of my crouched form then I instantly rolled to the side where a moment later I felt the ground quake as the thin spike sliced through the earth. I also heard stone shatter, it seemed that a tombstone had also just been desecrated.

"Ariel, help me! I can't fight this! I don't have any power!" I screamed out as I continued to run away from another relentless attack.

But as the shade came to strike a pointed jab at my face there was no arrow to intercede its path so it kept nearing undeterred. As I dashed across, missing the strike by centimetres, I finally realised exactly what was going on.

"So, this is your idea of giving me the answers, is it, Ariel?" I stated hostilely as I dropped below the shade's next sideways slice.

"Yeah, it is." I heard her voice answer behind me calmly. "I gave you one lifeline but that's all you get. From here it's either survive and destroy or be killed. How it pans out however, is entirely up to you."

"Geez, thanks." I responded hostilely. "That's so sweet of you to give me a choice, you know, about how I get to choose between life and death!" I shouted but more because I evaded an additional down-slicing arm that the shade must have deemed appropriate for its limb's newly reduced width.

"Even though I told you this would happen, I knew that you would still be angry at me..." And somehow she had the audacity to sound sad.

With the shade's newly de-proved form it seemed to throw in an extra couple of moves to compensate for its weakened arm. Here it jabbed with a slice-slice-slice, where I shifted left, right, and back left in the opposite directions to the creature's movements.

Then the shade shot out its thin bladed foot straight ahead for which I dodged before the creature spun around and procured a new blade pointed, once again, for my heart.

"Act quick, Bethanie because like I said, I can't help you with this one anymore." Ariel cautioned me from some unseen location.

"And why the hell not?!" I screamed as the black lead shot through. I pivoted but not fast enough and so the blade caught my shoulder. Crying, my flesh forming my red tears, I shouted out to my recruiter. "Damn it, Ariel, as you can see, my hands are kind of tied up here so, unless you're fine with watching me die, help me!"

"If you keep acting like a baby, then your death will be acceptable." Ariel stated too coolly. "Disappointing, but if you fail here then you are useless to our cause."

"You..." I breathed after ducking below a hook to my head. "Only care about that?"

"Precisely." I heard her respond a thin moment before my left shoulder was again grazed by the shade's sword arm.

A world of pain. That was what I had felt, within my hands, in both shoulders, in my fatiguing legs, it was all through my body. But then, even though I was willing to keep pushing all through that, there was Ariel, watching and allowing me to die. That was what stung the most.

As another sharp appendage caught at the side of my torso I believed I finally understood what was happening here and my own value as an extension. In the end, it was all about this war. No one, not Ariel, not Raziel cared if I lived, all they cared about was a new solider to their ranks, but then, if I could not defeat this adversary here, then I would be just as useful dead. So that was what this was, my training, as well as my test for if I did not succeed I would not be allowed into their special powerful world, I would simply be their failure.

I was given one last chance, I realised, but there were no more coming, this was it, I had to fight or be killed.

Shifting away from another attack I thought on what Ariel had said, how she belittled me and yet urged me to push on. There was something in that, I knew, I just had to discover its meaning.

I screamed again as a wide gash was made into my thigh causing me to stumble meekly forwards with hands raised in a weak attempt to gain balance.

The shade loomed over me, its head raised proudly, two arms reshaped into long spears pointing down to my torso but all the while I couldn't take my concentration off that skinny arm. A tiny defeated limb for which my enemy still managed to utilise the remainder of whatever being it still had there and put it to use.

This being could do it because it wasn't human. But apparently, if I used this seed correctly, then neither was I. If I really believed that, if I truly placed my faith in that then...

The shade kept thrusting forward, pointing straight for me and this time I didn't move. Right there and then, I knew, that I simply couldn't deny this any longer.

I hated Ariel in that moment for I knew that she wasn't going to save me. She said she gave me one extra life, maybe for the sole purpose of guiding me to this moment, but, once I arrived here, she would remain uninvolved, even if she was capable of helping me. It made me angry, bloody angry, but I got it - right now I was entirely on my own. If I wanted to continue living I couldn't wish for miracles, beg the help of others, it was all up to me. Fight or die.

Two blades soared through the air in front of me, they neared, each positioned for either side of my torso. One to cut a lung in two, the other to cleave my heart but free to do whatever collateral damage whilst there. I saw that in those black hands as they reached out for me, I saw it for a long moment before I closed my eyes.

I knew that in that moment I was sure to die, but with red hot fury I rejected that notion. No, never, even if was cut into a thousand pieces I would never give up!

That was when I saw a brilliant light shine from inside my consciousness. It glowed ethereally, but was solid, like it had sides and seemed to bend white in such a way that a multitude of colour spilled forth. It was... the most resplendent diamond.

I reached towards it and at the touch I pulled something free. Something large, something sharp and something very, very powerful.

I smiled.

And that smile continued as, with a sword seven feet in length, I sliced the shade's two arms apart. This materialised blade fell quickly to the ground, tearing into the earth with a cut a foot wide as dark shards rained onto the adjacent grass.

As the shade backed away it seemed to look at its arms that showed jagged and disordered finishes despite the clean strike I had given it.

"Yeah." My grin deepened as I grasped the black hilt of my fallen blade tighter. "My sword is bigger than yours."

The shade gazed at its empty hands, then after a look both left and right its arms stretched to replace the missing lengths but at the cost of their prior widths.

"You can manipulate your form all you will," I commented smugly, "but it will not save you from my claymore!"

All fear vanished as another sensation took its place within me. A type of glory poured through me, outside of me, but all at once it was me. I had opened myself up, the metaphysical doors to my lifeline, my soul and as I did I felt a part of me escaped, but then so much more rushed inside. It was like opening the windows inside a home, once stagnant before a breeze created allowed the fresh pure air inside. And this air was all power.

As I sensed this incredible surge I began to gain an understanding of its character: it was the force held within the sweet scent of flowers, the wind as it carried molecules that made breathing possible and the clouds up high that held so much energy that it could be both calm or thunderous. It also came from below, from the chlorophyll in the blades of grass, from the fauna wriggling within the ground, from rich minerals, dense stones and then also, leaking through their wooden beds, from the hearts of the deceased. Ariel was right, there was quite a bit of this energy here, all free for the taking and invigorating as it entered my form.

I felt a whiteness sing as it danced through all aspects of me, nursing my injuries and giving me strength enough to raise my sword into the air and high above my head. As I did I saw light fill the voids in my wounds that was so potent that it even replaced my lost torn form.

"Whoa." I heard Ariel murmur. "Now that's a sword!"

"Hey, Ariel." I called to wherever she was hiding. "So to survive I need to destroy this thing, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. Show us your will to live."

"Fine," I smirked, "then I'll cut it to ribbons!" I roared as my feet galloped over the grass with speed that became suddenly impossibly fast.

Sensing white flash from the soles of my shoes I was projected forwards and closed the distance to the shade so quickly that it never had a chance to evade. The shade chose to through two arms out in front, shaped into spears and made a perfect position to block my attack.

Once the shade was in a range of two meters I swung down, connected with its two bladed arms and cut right through. The heavy momentum continued down and with the ease of cutting into butter the monster was sliced into two perfectly symmetrical halves. When the tip of my claymore fallen to the ground it was amidst a rain of black crystals.

"Whoa!" I heard Ariel repeat, only that it wasn't actually her voice, but another's.

I turned then, dragging my sword on the ground behind me and viewed three girls standing six or seven meters away, a safe distance from the length of my blade. At first I thought I was seeing Ariel's twins as all three possessed platinum blonde hair and silver eyes, but then I noticed the differences. They had different statures, both the other two were taller than Ariel, one had a round face with wavy hair that reached her waste and the other had a long, slender face and figure, with medium length hair pulled back into a ponytail and eyes that resembled the upturned shape of a cat's. But all three were young, all just teenagers like me.

"How the hell can you even lift that thing!?" The girl with the round face exclaimed, pretty pale eyes glistening with excitement. "That's incredible!"

"So, I take it that you're all daevas." I glared. "And that all this time the three of you have been hiding as you watched me suffer?"

"Oh, look at her!" The round-faced one cried cheerily. "She's pissed!"

"That's right." The cat-eyed girl affirmed. "And you did very well, I'm glad I got to see it."

"See it?" My hands trembled around the blade's hilt. "See what, my blood?!"

"Bethanie!" Ariel pleaded. "Please calm down, look, you're not even bleeding anymore."

"I don't care if it's stopped. Why did you have to put me through that pain?!"

"Well what the little temper-tantrum we have here." The round-faced girl said with a tone that was far too giddy.

"Listen, precious." The cat-eyed one opened out her hands as if to show that she was no threat. "It's not like we were just watching you for kicks. We took a step back so that you could find your erosreaver..."

"Hold on!" I leered. "Did you just call me precious, is that a joke?!"

"Bethanie, please try to understand!" Ariel cried passionately. "We were doing this for you! You can't find the form of your light unless you really think that you're going to die! That's why we held back!"

The round-faced one licked her smiling lips. "And what a show that was! You know the part where you say, Ariel, that if she keeps whining like a baby then she deserves to die - that was hilarious! My God I struggled not to laugh at that one!"

"For Christ's sake, Dorothy, shut up!" The cat-eyed girl screeched. "You're not helping here! We're trying to win Bethanie to our side, if you remember? Jesus, keep acting like this and she won't hesitate to stick that sword up your arse!"

"Oh? Is that right?" Dorothy refuted. "Well I'd like to see her try. You know," her silver eyes flashed back to me, "I really would like to hear the music of that battlefield."

"You're hopeless, Dorothy." Cat-eyed exclaimed. "This is why we told you not to come but you just showed up anyway..."

Dorothy rolled her eyes. "I'm just having a little fun, but if the long-sword chick here doesn't get my jokes I'm sure Shirley Temple will explain I mean nothing by it, isn't that right, Ariel?" And here Dorothy reached across and pinched Ariel's cheeks so that their rosiness increased.

Ariel slapped her hand away. "Quit it, Dorothy! Jacqueline," Ariel pleaded toward her other companion, "can you please take her away and babysit her for a bit. She's ruining everything! Like always."

"Yeah," Jacqueline nodded, "she is." Then she turned to me and smiled apologetically. "I wish I could get to know you better but it looks like I'm gonna have my hands full so I'll just leave you with Ariel. And, I know that all this looks pretty... overwhelming but I promise, we care about you greatly. You did well today, you proved your value as a daeva and soon, I have no doubt, that we'll be fighting side by side for this world."

Then she grabbed Dorothy's wrist and began to pull her away along with the round-faced girl's ouches and whines.

"Are you serious?" Dorothy moaned as she was being led away. "But I was well-behaved! I was just trying to have a little fun. I wasn't going to start anything, honest!"

"Sorry about her." Ariel apologised frowning. "Seeing as to what we were planning I wanted to have Jacqueline here to back me up, just in case I wasn't quick enough but of course as soon as Dorothy caught wind of it she just had-to-tag-along..."

My hands were still stiff around my sword's hilt. "Backup hey? So that girl Jacqueline could pass you the popcorn right at the climax of my death-scene!?"

"No! Of course not!" She shouted. "To save you!"

"Humph, that's pretty funny, considering you said that if I couldn't even defeat a single shade than I would have been useless to you. That my life would cease to have any meaning." I repeated evenly.

"No, Bethanie! Can't you see, I had to say those things, so that the seed would sprout and you could find your erosreaver! It was the only way that it would materialise, it could only come if your soul accepted this fate and loosened its hold on your body. It was the only way you could complete your transformation as a daeva!"

"The only way, huh?" My hands still gripped the sword that hung heavily on the ground behind me, its tip driving into the soil of some unknown person's grave. "This was the only way you could use me as your warrior, your pawn in this war you have."

"Oh, Bethanie..." Ariel sighed. "Yes, yes it's true. I forced you into that position to make you a warrior in a battle that you needn't have fought. I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't want to bring you into this world, I didn't want to bring anyone else, but the unseen war still wages and we desperately need more fighters on our side so, when you said you wanted in I... let you." There she crumpled to the grass and stared into its emerald leaves with melancholy.

Even though it was resting on the ground I was really starting to feel the weight of the weapon in my hands. This caused my grasp to slip but as I felt the white blaze within them I managed to quickly reset and harden my hold. "You said you had that girl, Jacqueline, for backup. Well, if you and her were in my corner then why did I get so beat up? Why was I made to suffer so much?"

Ariel sighed heavily. "I know the pain that you are feeling, I know because I was once in your position too. I felt all the lashes, the stabs, but now, that's all over for you. Don't you see, you're an awakened daeva now! That means that you're so powerful that physical injury ceases to have effect over you, anything that harms you you'll simply heal from!"

The sun was lowering in the sky and again I saw strange wonderful rivers of light begin overhead. I looked back across the distance where Ariel sat and stared at a black tombstone. I gazed aside at my arms and legs that, whilst besmirched with blood, showed no wounds at all. To someone who didn't know what had just transpired it would have merely appeared like someone threw red paint onto me. Nor did I feel any lingering burn there, I was completely recovered.

"So that was it? That was my trial for power?" I asked, my hand still refusing to let go of the heavy heavy sword.

"I'm afraid..." The girl hesitated. "Yes. But you must know that even though I said those things back there I never would have allowed you to die! I like you, Bethanie, I really do! I already think of you as a friend so there's no way, even if it meant you failed in your evolution, that I would have allowed that thing to really harm you!"

"So... you were really protecting me the whole time, but to allow my... erosreaver, was it? To come," I questioned as I turned a brief glance at the ebony and red-lined blade whose hilt I still held within my hands "Then I needed to believe that I was doomed. I needed to feel... absolute desperation."

"You needed a powerful emotional stimulus to draw the light out and the only way to do that was to make you believe, make you terrified of your impending doom. And you had to fight that overwhelming emotion all at the same time."

I smirked as I stared at a broken tombstone ahead of me. "Yeah, okay. That makes sense, pain is the currency of this world after all. You lose and you pay but at least here I finally receive some goods."

"Only now a daeva, but you've led a hard life, haven't you, Bethanie?" Abigail enquired gently.

"What does it matter? That life's over now." I responded dryly as the sword hilt slipped from my grasp but before it flattened to the grass it disappeared in a shimmer of white dust.

The girl smiled at me, silver eyes glistening that I realised were holding onto thick tears. "Thank you, Bethanie, thank you, thank you for believing in me. I promise, that we'll be friends forever. You'll see."

"Yeah, alright, friends."

Eventually Ariel asked the question as she gazed at a black marble tombstone. "Catherine Starr, it says here that she died two years ago at the age of forty-two. Would that make her your mother then?"

I closed my eyes, the one thing I had energy left to clench. "Yes."

"Oh, I see. Then she's probably your reason to wanna fight so hard. Because of her death you want to battle the darkness that claimed her."

It wasn't a question so I didn't answer. Instead I sighed as I breathed the floral air in through my nose.

"Bethanie, Bethanie!" A voice screamed behind me and as I turned a girl with golden brown hair pummelled me to the ground.

"Oh, Bethanie, please help me!"

I grabbed the girl's shoulders and pulled her far enough away so that I could see her tear-streaked face.

"Abigail, what's wrong?" I asked with alarm. "What happened to you?"

"Bethanie," She struggled, "they attacked me! They are trying to hurt..."

"Who, Abby? Who are these people?"

"The bad girls. They chased me and I think they want to hurt you, Bethanie!"

Chapter 9

 

Abigail

 

"I don't understand." Bethanie murmured. "What do you mean the bad girls are after me?"

"They..." I whimpered still clinging tightly to her. "Were talking about you and when I heard I think they must have realised that I knew you so they attacked me. But I don't know why they did, I don't understand! Bethanie, why are people hurting each other like this?!"

"I know why." I just realised that Ariel was at Bethanie's side as she interred. Rising she began to lay out some facts. "They want Bethanie because of what she is and also... because of what I am."

Instantly I released Bethanie and rose to my feet. Though I had come to like Ariel at school the things the girls said couldn't be ignored, they talked about Bethanie as a pawn in some kind of recruitment and Ariel at the helm of it.

"You have done something to her, haven't you? And don't!" I exclaimed as I saw both of their mouths open in surprise. "Don't tell me I'm wrong when I know I'm not! So tell me already, what is going on!?"

Bethanie stared at me wide-eyed but it was Ariel that began to comply with my directive. "I warned you, Abigail, that this world is not as bright as a child sees it, but it is far darker..."

"Don't think of me as a child!" I screeched louder than I knew I could produce. "I'm not a child. I might be small and not very strong, but in my heart I'm strong, so please, don't shut me out of yours!"

Bethanie knew this was directed at her so after a moment her stiffness faded. "Abigail, I wanted to tell you all of this, everything, but I didn't because I was afraid of how it all would affect you..."

"Well," I replied. "I don't know how the truth of how your secret will affect me, but I know that being left out and witnessing your solitude again hurts more than any truth could!"

Bethanie recoiled suddenly, as if my words held a real lash to them. Then Ariel moved in and attempted to explain the scenario.

"It's too late to keep you away now, I'm afraid." Ariel sighed sadly. "Though I wished to keep you far away from all the hostility it seems our enemies have grown aware of not only out movements, but of those we meant to keep safe. Now it appears that we cannot hide any longer, we are at the point where we must confront our adversaries and tackle them head on. So then I need you, Abigail, tell me all that you have learnt. Don't leave anything out, Bethanie's fate depends on it."

"Bethanie's fate?" I repeated shakily. "So they are your enemies, they really do mean to hurt you, don't they?"

"They do." Ariel replied solemnly.

"Hold on!" Bethanie interrupted. "What is this about enemies? You mean those shades, right?"

"Like I told you, Bethanie." Ariel answered. "We are in the midst of a war and not all our enemies are so easy to spot. There are daevas out there who are fighting for the other side, for the world of darkness."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Bethanie argued. "You can't seriously mean girls like us? That's crazy!"

"I do and I agree, it is insane, we should all be working together but things just have not turned out that way."

"No!" Bethanie cried. "I don't believe it! There's no way that girls like us could be on those monsters' side!"

"It is true and if Abigail did see the same people that I am talking about then she is now in grave danger." Ariel and Bethanie both turned to me with concern. "But I think the main thing is to see if these girls really are dark daevas. Abigail, you must tell me everything you learnt about these girls."

"I don't really know that much." I looked away and spotted a black marble tombstone with white cracks running through it. Recognising the name inscribed I sighed. "I just know they're trying to stop you, Ariel, from some kind of recruiting. They know about Bethanie too, but it seems like they only think you're considering her, that you haven't done it yet. But you have already, haven't you?"

"That's correct." She affirmed. "So then, it really is them, they're really coming after us. Abigail, tell me did you see anything unusual about these girls?

I nodded. "Yeah, I did. I saw that they're super strong, and fast and that they have some sort of weapons made from... light, but hard, solid."

"My sword..." Bethanie breathed as realisation hit her. "It wasn't made from light, it had form! A black hilt and a silver blade!" She turned aside to empty grass and two deep cuts into the ground.

"It's gone!" She cried, rising to her feet. "What happened, where did it go!?"

"Calm down, Bethanie, it's not gone! It's just returned to your core. That's what happens when you drop your erosreaver, the energy releases into the world but the shape will always be held within the depths of your soul."

"What sword?" I asked. "What are you talking about, erosreaver?"

"It is the ultimate power of a daeva, what I am and what Bethanie has now become." Ariel explained. "I know this is a lot for you to take in, Abigail, but it is of the upmost importance that you try to accept it and tell us all you can. Those girls you saw, did they follow you?"

I had to blink a couple of times to allow all the information to sink in, when I finally realised that I was asked a question I shook my head. "I don't think so. They threatened me, told me to leave or they would kill me and because I did I think... they let me go."

Ariel nodded. "Good, now, tell me was there anything else that you saw or heard. Even anything small."

"Two of them were fighting, it seemed like they didn't get along very well. One girl's name was Vanessa and the other's was Rebecca. The other two I didn't get a glimpse of. But actually, now that you mention it I've seen them both before, they're seniors at our school, grade eleven..." I murmured as the school uniforms they were suddenly connected a few dots within my mind.

"Girls at our school?" Bethanie repeated. "More daevas so close, I had no idea..."

Ariel showed no surprise. "Yes, I know those two, Rebecca and Vanessa don't get along very well but they wouldn't actually kill one-another, I am certain, seeing as they're both on the same side."

"And you?" I asked. "Would they actually kill you?"

Ariel's silver eyes flashed with understanding. "Was there something else that you saw, Abigail?"

In my mind I saw that red-head girl lash a whip of light as she earnestly sought to harm a very pretty girl with platinum blonde hair which ended up giving her red dripping streaks along a new uniform she had just acquired.

I looked at Ariel's uniform and murmured, "It's all clean..."

"Abigail?" Ariel prodded. "You can tell me. You need to tell me what you saw!"

I nodded as I stared into the grass that had its leaves swaying gently with the breeze. "Yesterday, I saw you with that girl Vanessa. You were fighting and she was trying to kill you."

"No way!" Bethanie shouted, breaking her strained silence. "No way a daeva would want to kill another, that's just inhuman!"

"It is," Ariel agreed, "but we are not truly human anymore so cold acts like that become more common-place."

"What!?" Bethanie cried. "But why? That just doesn't make sense! Why would they choose the other side and fight for the dark?!"

"Because, giving into the Noein's energy gives you the possibility of obtaining so much more power. It's darkness is the driving force in all daevas, to reach new heights in ability, but the only way to allow more light in is to become darker on the inside."

"That's..." I whispered. "Crazy. People would hurt others just so that they can get stronger?"

"It's true and you may think it crude, evil, and they may even think so too. But the lure of power is so great it can over-ride any compassion and empathy. It can be invigorating, but toxic and the more you give into it the further down that dark path you travel."

"All for power..." Bethanie uttered as she clenched a fist. "But we already have so much, how selfish can they be to sacrifice the world for it?"

"What would happen to the world?" I asked over the top of Bethanie. "What happens if the darkness wins this war?"

"Then shades would spill onto the earth in such massive numbers and consume Gaia, the world's soul. Plants would wither, the air would become thicker, the sun's rays would no longer be felt or seen, food would lose its flavour, it nourishment and then babies would cease to be born, people would get sick more often and die before their time. The world would be thrown into one of death and despair but the daevas that remain would be granted near limitless power, they would become... gods."

"And these shades," I murmured quietly as I remembered the white forest that was quickly being obscured by black bodies, "I've seen them before, haven't I?"

"Yes, two nights ago atop the peak of Skyward Mountain you were both attacked by a horde of shades where they drew your aura from your body."

"So that's why I suddenly lost all my energy. Then you came and saved me, it was you, wasn't it?!"

"It was." Bethanie answered in Ariel's place. "She saved both of us that day."

"So these shades that are spilling into the world, they take a person's aura, in other words, their soul?"

"That is true, however," Ariel corrected, "there is quite a lot of soul energy in a person, so great that at its very centre it condenses into the hardest substance possible in living creatures - a diamond. A part of it leaks out and interacts with the world and this is aura. This is always kept at a small percentage of the total soul, but when the aura is siphoned away the diamond core breaks down so that the ratio may be maintained. It does this in order to keep livings connected with one-another and so that they may feel the world that they live in. So, since this is such immense power, a single shade would be incapable of draining away enough aura to break the diamond down completely, no matter how much of an appetite it has. However, when a swarm of them attacks a person then that threshold can be overcome. Imagine a drop of water falling onto a rock, there is very little change felt to it, but the sea however, that can break down stones so finely that there is nothing left but sand. When this state is achieved, the diamond core of your soul is dispersed entirely into aura and that the shades can consume. So, in the case that you found yourselves in two days ago, yes, you would have been killed if those shades had not been stopped."

"That means." I assessed after a quiet moment of contemplation. "That you didn't just save our lives that day, but also our souls. You put yourself in danger, fought so many of those monsters all at once... for us."

Humbly Ariel lowered her head. "I was just doing my job."

"Our job now." Bethanie smiled at the platinum blonde.

"And mine too!" I declared. "Please, let me help! I want to fight, you said I had potential right? Let me use it!"

"Abigail, no!" Bethanie refuted.

"You do have potential." Ariel admitted. "You can naturally see aura and retain its memory. A skill that only teenage girls possess and even then few of them at that. That means you have the quality of soul that may accept the transformation seed, but still, you are so innocent. I don't want to bring you into this dark..."

"Quit treating me like a little kid!" I yelled over the top. "I'm a young woman and I care about this world! I know that if you give me the chance then I can do it, I can fight!"

"No, Abigail!" Bethanie retorted. "It's too dangerous! Those shades mean business and if you try to attack them they will kill you!"

"But Ariel said that they can only kill us in numbers, so even if I'm not very strong if I start by just fighting one at a time..."

"They don't need to eat your soul to kill you!" Bethanie shouted, tensing her fists tight.

"She's right." Ariel agreed. "If threatened a shade will cut you to pieces to protect itself. It would be a waste for it normally, since once dead your diamond core would be instantly absorbed by Gaia leaving only traces of aura behind, but still it would not hesitate if it meant protecting itself."

I exhaled deeply. "Fine then, they're still dangerous. But that doesn't mean I can't fight! You could give me that power!" I pleaded to Ariel. "You could turn me into a daeva and then I wouldn't be so weak, then I could protect the ones I love!"

"No, Abigail!" Bethanie yelled again. "It just isn't going to happen, I can't let you put yourself in that kind of danger!"

"And you think it's okay that you have!?" I argued my face beginning to become wet with tears once more. "No, that just isn't fair, Bethanie! How can you be that selfish? Put yourself in harm's way, risk your life and tell me to simply watch!"

"Because, Abigail, I couldn't bear it if you got hurt!"

"And you think I could?! No, I couldn't, I couldn't ever! I couldn't live with myself if something was to happen to you and I wasn't there!"

"Abigail... this is just too..."

"Stop it, Bethanie! Just stop! We're meant to be best friends so please, stop pushing me away! I just want to be by your side, best friends forever. However dark that path might take us down, it doesn't matter so long as we're together!"

Tears were leaking from me profusely then just as little sobs hiccupped my words but I didn't stop looking at Bethanie, I wasn't going to let this one go.

Finally Bethanie turned her gaze aside and watched the black tombstone mutely.

"You can protect me." My voice softened. "If we're side by side, then you'll be there if something happens but if you push me away then you'll never have that chance."

"She does have a point." Ariel murmured thoughtfully. "Now that she has been associated with us she will be a target and either those dark daevas or the shades they're in league with will likely make a move on her and left human she will be vulnerable, incapable of defending herself."

"I'll..." Bethanie whispered meekly. "Protect her."

"You can't be around me all the time." I rationalised. "I have to go home, where I have my own family that need to be kept safe also. Given this power then maybe I can protect both myself and them. But mostly we'll be together and you can make sure that nothing happens to me."

Bethanie's frown deepened.

"I don't like it," Ariel admitted, "but we may not have any choice. It seems that your latent ability has already made you a target to the shades, your aura a heightened magnitude and character. The very thing that made those things attack you two nights ago is the reason that you have the potential to become a daeva, but even so there will be other dangers and a life that you can never leave. Once you transform you can never return to just being a human anymore. Your soul will change forever."

"I've already changed," I stated resolutely, "since the night we were attacked I've sensed the darkness lurking, my eyes have been opened and so I just can't look the other way. I simply can't walk away from this, not after everything I've learnt and especially not since people I care about are involved."

"It's painful." Bethanie interred.

I recoiled but maintained my stance. "If it's so bad then why did you join up?"

Bethanie continued to stare at the black marble tombstone. "So that I could protect the people I love."

"Well then," I smirked, "that's enough for me too!"

Ariel smiled wanly. "If you're sure about this, then I will arrange it. Tomorrow meet me at a certain clearing past that park at the summit of this mountain. Be there just before sunset, Bethanie will show you how to get there. But, if you choose not to, then you are free to decline this invitation and simply refrain from showing up. It is your choice since it is your fate in your hands."

I grinned triumphantly. "I'll be there, you can count on it!"

Bethanie never smiled however and even as we walked away it seemed like she was still staring into that stone slab, the one that bequeathed the life of a woman that spanned for too short a time period.

Chapter 10

 

Abigail

 

"So, Abigail, do you like your milkshake?" Eric asked me nervously from the other side of the cafe table.

"It's the best!" I exclaimed after a large sip through my straw. "Strawberry is my favourite flavour, thank you so much for getting it for me! But you know, Eric you didn't have to buy it for me, I do have money! My allowance is solely for the purpose of things like this, going out and spending time with friends."

"Yeah, but I wanted to. I want do all kinds of things for you, if you would let me." He turned his head away coyly but the full force of the outdoor sun unveiled the deep blush to his cheeks.

My own face felt like his. "You're a perfect gentleman, Eric, so I know that all those things would be good things!"

He smiled as his fingertips patted his chocolate milkshake. "Hey, Abigail, there's something that I've been meaning to ask you for a while now. It's really important but, well, every time I go to say it I never get it out. I wanna tell you, I wanna. I mean..."

Again he floundered over his words and when nearby birds screeched in some trees they immediately took his attention as he frowned at them.

"You know, Eric, there's something I've been meaning to tell you too. Well, actually I guess it's really show..." I reached into my oversized handbag then and pulled out my visual art diary. Opening it up to the latest sketch I laid it out in front of him. "You told me yesterday what you think of me and I've been really wanting to do the same to you, only I'm more of a visual person than a speaking or writing one." I smiled nervously. "I'm sorry for not letting you see it in class on Thursday, that was very rude of me, sneaking a peak at your sketch and refusing to show you mine. But I hope, as you see from this, why I did it. It's because I wanted to tell you something very important but it had to be just right. That's why I didn't let you see it then, because it wasn't finished yet."

"Abigail..." Eric breathed. "But this wasn't the drawing you did of paradise?"

My face deepened red as I answered. "It was, and... it is."

He stared at it a for an excruciatingly long moment with raised eyebrows and a mouth shaped into an O. He observed every aspect of it, the grass and intermittent flowers by the edge of the road, the street-side bench, but his eyes dwelled heaviest on the two figures at its focal point. Sitting down on the long wooden chair were two teenagers, a boy and girl, holding hands and smiling at one another.

"These two people," Eric observed, "they look terribly familiar." It was more of a statement, as if he knew exactly who the two in the sketch represented.

"Yeah, I guess they do." I bit my bottom lip nervously.

"And like always, it's beautiful." He grinned.

"Really?!" I exclaimed happily. "You like it?!"

"Well..." He reviewed the work with some more thought then. "I'm not so sure the boy in this drawing is all that great, but the girl is the prettiest thing I've ever seen!"

'Do you..." I almost exploded with cheer. "Do you mean it!?"

"I do. She's so stunning and this guy here, even though he's not that good, he looks very lucky to have such a beautiful... girlfriend?" Then Eric bored frightened large eyes on me.

"You're right. In this drawing the two are boyfriend and girlfriend and like each other a hell of a lot."

"Well then, so how 'bout we make... your paradise a... reality?"

"Yes! Yes! Oh, yes!" I all but screamed where people from their own tables turned around and stared at me where every single one of them had an alarmed eyebrow raised.

Feeling incredibly embarrassed I made an attempt at dissolving into my seat, my eyes staring at the condensation of my milkshake glass.

"So that means you will, you'll be my girlfriend?"

I drew my eyes back upward and saw his excited, almost exploding expression and despite all the looks I received I exploded in reality. "Yes!"

Eric laughed as he reached across the table and grasped a wet hand from my glass. "Very cool."

I left him soon after, with a smile and a hug, before making my way up the mountain. It took only twenty minutes to reach my destination, the peak of Skyward mountain where a familiar playground was situated. There I slunk onto a swing and began to shift my weight backwards and forwards as a girl on the next swing addressed me.

"So, did you get up to much during your Saturday?"

"I met up with Eric. I showed him this drawing I did of us together. In it we were holding hands."

"Did he like it?" Bethanie asked thoughtfully.

"He did."

My friend smiled. "So then, I take it you're an item now."

"Yeah, we are." I grinned.

"I'm happy for you, Abby, I'm really happy." And yet I didn't hear it in her voice.

We swung a couple of times, the creaking of the chains filling the few seconds of silence.

"Are you still sure you want to do this?" Bethanie asked, her face assuming that outward appearance of stone. "You heard what Ariel said, there's no turning back and there's no telling how things will change. All this, it could get in the way with your relationship with Eric."

"Yeah, I know that there's risks and I know that this is going to complicate things. I am a little scared that this will make things difficult between Eric and I. I don't even know how to begin explaining this but I have faith in him, just as I do my family, just as I do with you. I heard what Ariel and you said, I understand that this is a tough path to walk down, but I believe that this can all work. It will. No matter the danger I know that keeping the people we love close will get us through it and at the same help protect the ones we love from those monsters."

She smirked without zeal. "But to fight them you need to change, you need to take in darkness, the very thing that they're made from and in doing so you cease to be human anymore. Or at least, not fully human. It's a lot to sacrifice and you don't know how bad things can get there. I don't even, I mean... it was only two days ago that I did all this myself."

"Yeah, I figured that's when you did it. The day you wagged."

Bethanie didn't reply to that, just leaned forward as she swung so that her blonde hair covered her face.

"Listen Bethanie, I get it, I do, but I can't let this go, not when I know what's out there! I need to do something about the shades, I need to stop this darkness from taking hold of the world and I need to help you, Bethanie. I simply can't let you do this all alone!"

"I'm not alone, you know. There's other daevas out there and not just the dark ones, there's other girls like Ariel fighting to protect the light. So you don't have to do this for me."

The swing creaked as I swayed it subtly back and forth. "Yeah, you mightn't be, but what about me?! Won't I be alone? Knowing what I do, having this potential, I would not be a daeva but I can't just pretend like nothing is happening! In that circumstance, I would be alone!"

Bethanie had her eyes closed as she responded. "Yeah, I get it. I really do. For the longest time I wanted to protect you without giving any regard to how you felt about it. You're right though, I have been selfish. I have been trying to protect you so that I feel like I have some kind of peace and stability, but that was at the sacrifice of your own freedom. I care about you so I don't want to see you hurt, but you are a young woman and must be allowed to take the risks that you choose and for me to stop you is cowardly, because I would only be stopping myself from the prospect of future hurt."

The creaks in the adjacent chains increased in volume as I realised that Bethanie was giving more zeal to her swing.

"It's noble to want to protect people and I'm sorry, I don't really mean that I think you're selfish." I told her softly. "I know how much you look out for me and truly, I do appreciate it."

"Yeah, I look out for you, except when it matters I'm just not enough. Not now anyhow." She stated with melancholy, blonde strands covering her features.

 "You're always enough." I smiled. "You being by my side fills me with so much confidence that I almost feel as strong and tough as you!"

Her grip tightened on the swing's chains. "Whatever path you decide, I promise I'll be there for you. You can run into danger if you like, I won't stop you but you can count on me being at your flank."

"Thanks, Bethanie." I grinned.

We sat there for a while, just swinging our legs back in forth, in uneasy silence. Finally, as the sun began to lower in the sky, Bethanie slipped off her swing. The seat maintained its momentum without her, the chains creaking with a newly disorganised rhythm.

With her back to me she began to walk away. "It's this way."

Once I slowed down enough I too slipped from my swing and landed with fumbled footing before jostling to be by her side. When I saw the path she was leading us down I gasped. "That's where those shades attacked us!"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't worry about them coming back, last time I came here it seemed that Ariel had cleaned them out."

"And even if they did come back, you could fight them off now, couldn't you, Bethanie?"

"Yeah, I think I can."

"And the next time you fight them I'll be by your side!" I cheered but this only seemed to cause Bethanie to harden.

We walked down the path that once shone with a glowing white brilliance that today was thankfully an ordinary brown and green pigmentation. There was no music either this time, none bar the chiming of birds in their trees and the wind whistling gently between the canopies overhead. It was very peaceful and felt very safe as I crunched atop of dead leaves on our path. It was incredible how different it was to just a few evenings prior.

That world I walked down was terrifying, it almost killed me before, but I was saved. So, as I tried to calm my trembling arms, I rationalised that this path I was treading was only fair. A life saved had a debt to repay and I could not allow Bethanie to be burdened with my share.

It took a surprisingly short time until the trail widened and opened up to a clearing laden with thick emerald grass at its floor. At the centre of it were two people, both with platinum blond hair, a girl that I recognised as Ariel and a young man that I knew not of.

They both turned to us as they noticed our arrival, the young man opening his arms and smiling.

Chapter 11

 

Bethanie

 

I stood rigidly as I watched it, Abigail accepting an unnecessary dark fate and the one that motioned to give it to her as he put his index finger to the sharp point of his upper canine tooth.

I thought again to cry out no and intercept the unholy transaction taking place but I didn't, I couldn't without being the hypocrite I knew I was. I hated seeing her standing there, with Ariel's eyes glistening excitedly and Raziel cutting a finger on an unnaturally sharp tooth where black essence began to spill forth. My hands were clenched by my sides but they made no move to stop this convenent into darkness.

"Here," Raziel indicated to the solidified black drop on his fingertip, "is the power that will transform you into a being that is neither truly of the world of light but also one that is not of the dark. You'll be thrown into a sort of limbo, a being of great light but with darkness settling into your core. You'll have power, a great and also terrible amount. You'll grow, evolve and with it you'll have the ability to perform feats that defy the forces of nature, but how much power you attain all depends on how deep you're willing to dive."

I remembered then a comment he had made when I accepted the black seed, the promise of the power to save the ones I loved from certain death. As I watched the interplay I wondered how much of myself I would have to sacrifice in order to achieve such power.

"This, Abigail Darling." Raziel raised his hand out towards her, "Is the seed that will allow that potential you have to sprout and then blossom, giving you the ability to direct this world whichever way you desire. Take it, accept it, but do not do so lightly for I promise that this contract is one with a sting. But a pain necessary in order to combat the other sources of pain that exist out there."

My clenched fists trembled. I remembered all this, his words were different and yet when I heard it this time it seemed worse somehow, like this fate was sure to be doomed. Like this transformation that used the soul at its heart, destroyed it in the end.

"Abigail," Raziel continued, "do you accept this contract with me?"

The hand completed the distance so that it was barely a foot away from Abigail's mouth as she responded, "I do. I'll accept it all so long as," and here she shone a frail smile towards me, "I'm there fighting by my friend's side."

"Good." Raziel appraised with what seemed for a moment to be an indulgent grin before instantly softening. "Then take this seed into your body and though it may hurt initially, do not resist as it attaches to you. That is how you connect with the darkness and the awesome power of light. This pain you feel will be fleeting, but the power will be with you to the moment you die. Fight this and it will fail, accept and you will enter into a realm of possibility."

There was something there that heightened my apprehension. His smile, his persuasive words, the sly tone. It made it look like he really wanted Abigail to take this seed and turn, like he wanted it so badly he was manipulating her so cleverly that she never even saw it. Like those flashing silver eyes and crooked grin wanted nothing more than to see another daeva born.

Then, as Abigail's mouth opened and that finger reached towards it, I did nothing to stop its progress. It neared so close that the black seed touched Abigail's lower lip until suddenly an amber line intercepted with a loud snap to Raziel's hand. There it coiled around his arm and like a snake tightened its hold of its prey. With an angered cry Razial tore his hand downward, ripping the thin rope-like structure into many pieces. As the amber shreds fell they glowed white for a moment, then disintegrated before they could rest atop the green grass beneath. The black seed floated down amongst these and whether it was swallowed to the floor or separated back into the energies of the earth it was clear that this particular dark contract was lost.

"Venessa, always looking to party..." Ariel leered back across the mouth of the clearing where a red-headed girl smirked in return, pulling back a shortened amber whip. "But this party," Ariel snarled as a bow suddenly materialised in her hand, "you're not invited to!"

I was surprised to find that the bow was not constructed from the same brilliant light that I had seen previously back along the pathway, but of a black curved material with emerald at its centre curving out in an intricate and rigid design. The arrow she pulled back along its string was a glistening green also and as it was released the shining spear appeared as though it cleaved through the very fabric of space.

The redhead on the far end had her whip damaged and seemed incapable of attack from this distance so it was not surprising that she made no move with it, however she made no move at all, not even to evade. She just remained standing there, smiling as the blindingly fast arrow shot towards her with critical accuracy.

Then it stopped dead a mere foot from the red-head's chest, shone white then, as it fell limply towards the ground, it disintegrated and disappeared completely.

A moment before that another girl had emerged onto the clearing and with lightning quick footing stepped to Venessa's side and pointed a hand just a foot in front of her companion to the point where the arrow ceased its movement. At first it seemed the girl was just holding a rigid hand out, until at the point of impact white shone from five lines, each attached to a finger.

Ariel's silver eyes seemed to burn in their brilliance. "And Lara is gate-crashing too, bringing her silly-strings along." Ariel exclaimed dryly.

"Back off, Ariel." Lara, with deep brown hair and hostile brown eyes, warned coolly. "You're not having this one. We found out what you are up to and will not let you have her."

Ariel growled through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to interfere in this? Don't you see this helps your cause!?"

"Sure, it helps give us company as you line us up for the slaughterhouse." Lara stated as she pulled her hands away and assumed a side-on battle stance, fingers remaining taut and poised. "But I really can't see that as a big win for my side so the real plus for me is in herding the cattle away from your treachery. Seeing you squirm and rant is only second to killing you."

Ariel instantly materialised another arrow and was just about to fire when an amber coiled line snapped at her hand so violently that the emerald arrow dropped and again disappeared before hitting the ground.

Ariel recoiled her hand with a desperate shout as she turned to her side and glared back at Vanessa.

"You think one little tear is enough to stop my Crimson Tongue?" The redhead laughed as if she knew the response was ludicrous before sobering with a sideways smirk. "Well think again, Shirley Temple, because this baby can regenerate just as fast as those measling little sticks you throw!"

Ariel scoffed. "Is that right? You think my arrows don't pack any punch? Well then, how about I show you how foolish you are?"

"You can try," Vanessa incited boisterously, "but this time you will fail and I will wipe you and the rest of you dirty daeva-nox scum from the face of the earth!"

"Hm, big words for someone that's had her arse kicked countless times." Ariel teased.

"You're right," A new girl with long straight ebony hair ran into the clearing. "Vanessa won't do the deed, but I will." But this girl did not hold back like the other two, this one ran full speed forward and brandished two long swords, both deep sapphire in colour, and in a flash of a moment swiped them from left and right to cut right through Ariel's torso.

Ariel gasped and turning to her other side raised her bow but with wide-eyed horror realised that she was too late for the surprise attack.

That was when my blade intercepted.

My claymore materialised with surprising ease as I ran in front of Ariel, deflecting the attacker's two smaller blades with just one of my own. Albeit, my very big one.

This other girl, gritting her teeth as she forced her swords against mine, interred, "So we were too late for you, damn it! But you should know that right now, you're fighting for the wrong side. If you swallowed her bull about gaining this power to protect the world then right now you're doing exactly the opposite of it!"

"Ha!" Ariel cheered. "That's right girls, I might not have the rest of my crew here but I'm not alone, I have Bethanie to back me up! Bet you never even realised that I had her turned! But you know, she's a damn quick study at this job. You shouldn't be so fast to deny people of their potential when they're this good released!"

Ariel fired another arrow towards Lara who easily blocked it with her glistening strings. Then this strange girl's fingers reached out and in the faintest of moments I saw light reflect from five straight strands just before they sliced through right where Ariel was standing.

I called out to her, desperately too little too late, but fortunately Ariel was already gone by the time the impact happened and was suddenly many meters away.

"Ariel!" Abigail cried painfully.

"Raziel, get her out of here!" Ariel shouted hurriedly. "You can't let those girls get to her!"

"You think I'm gonna let you make off with another lamb?" The redhead declared emphatically. "Well then you've obviously lost your sanity with that soul of yours!" Then another coil of light split the air and directed for right where Raziel and Abigail were standing.

"No, Abigail!" I yelled as I broke the lock with the girl pressed to me but as I began to turn a blade snaked back towards me.

I shifted my sword around to block this weapon a shy four inches from my throat.

"Don't interfere." The black haired girl warned stiffly. "You don't realise it yet, but you're not on their side, but ours."

"Oh, yeah?" I refuted as I shoved her blade away. "And why the hell would I want to team up with power-hungry scum like you?"

The black-haired girl recovered quickly and settled into a ready stance. "Because you have been played by an expert actress whose actions will lead the world into darkness."

My blade had fallen heavily to the ground after my last thrust but then I raised it again and holding the long blade behind me, arms trembling from the weight I replied, "Evil will always lie if it thinks it can gain the upper-hand in a situation. I know what you're doing, you're just trying to make me feel uncertain about everything going on so I'll lower my guard and then that's when you'll come in with those two... little knives, and try to finish me off!"

The black haired girl's eyes narrowed. "Don't do this, Bethanie, don't be so blindly ignorant. Ariel is a daeva-nox intent on opening the world to the shades so that her and the rest of her phantoms can siphon the world's power into themselves. Don't you see what she is? Can't you see that all she desires is power. Nothing less. That's all they want, phantoms don't care about anything else. They just want to be strong and they'll destroy the world in the process. Don't listen to her, Bethanie, don't believe her lies."

"Shut up! I roared. "I don't know who the hell you are, but I know enough to know what you are. You're the dark daeva and you are my enemy!"

Behind me I heard Aerial screech as she fired more arrows as well as the patters of two sets of steps off into the distance. I hoped they were of Abigail's and Raziel's. I almost turned to affirm that thought but the black-haired girl's gaze in front of me was too hostile to turn from. There was anger in her eyes, a green anger pointed at me and I knew that if I shifted my sight for even a moment I would fall prey to their cruel master.

"Raziel has taken off with that girl, I think that you understand the implications of that already." She stated pointedly.

"Yeah, her life is being saved." I replied belligerently.

"Humph. I suppose there really is no reasoning with you. Well, I guess that means I have no other choice but to eliminate you now for her sake." The girl repositioned her blades.

The muscles holding my sword tensed tighter. "There is just no reasoning with crazy!"

"Exactly," the girl shouted as she came at me, "the point I was making!"

A blade fell down but this I blocked with my claymore. Another blade fell from the other direction but with a simple turn and shift in footing I both maintained the initial block and stopped the new attack with a dozen centimetres before calamity.

"I think you probably already realise that I'm new to this game." I admitted as our swords were locked in their unfriendly embrace. "But you should know that I'm no push-over. In fact," I smirked over the top of the ebony of my sword's massive black girth, "I have been commonly considered the underdog, the girl that came out of nowhere and suddenly became good at all sports, so much so that I'm better than most guys too. Two years ago, no one would have thought that I could have won any kind of contest. Sure, I was fitter than most girls, well-versed in sporting ability, but not anything stand out. But that changed when I proved that physical ability was a mere by-product of strength of will!"

I shoved both her blades away as if I was swatting mosquitoes, turned my blade to the left then sliced back across.

The girl blocked it with an alarmed gasp that seemed unnatural to her steady features and as she poured all of herself into her two deflective blades I continued my story.

"You see," I continued, "things all changed when pain stopped being a deterrent but instead became a motivating factor. My pain was all that kept me living, all that kept me feeling and it drove me on to greater heights. I broke through thresholds I never thought I could have, I became faster, stronger and more skilled at every sport than I could have ever dreamed and it was all because of one thing - that I invited the pain inside."

The girl held her arms up valiantly and wincing replied. "I don't know much about you, but I understand a thing or two of pain, so I get it. The determination to overcome it can give you great strength but..." She cried as her muscle gave way for a moment and her own blades were forced back towards her face. "I know, it can also destroy you inside. The darkness leads to power but it also leads to the destruction of your soul."

"Shut up!" I pushed forward harder. "You know nothing about me! What the hell do you know? What the hell do you know of pain!?" Our interlocked swords narrowed so close to the girl that the sharp edges became scant centimetres from her flesh.

"I know..." The black haired girl stated with her usual calm before anger leaked in violently. "Its destruction!"

Then, with a power arising from seemingly nowhere her two skinny blades forced my massive one back and like a game of tug-a-war, it went from me almost driving her swords back into her to her almost slicing me with my own.

I gasped as I looked down at my own sword, heavy and formidable, pointed at my throat.

"Yield!" The girl roared at me. "Yield! So we can explain!"

Pushing against hers but managing no further distance I yelled, "I will never yield! I will never give up!"

She narrowed her eyes and with a settling resolve responded calmly. "Fine, then I will deliver you the fate far kinder than has been set in motion for you." Then her blades fell down on me harder and so heavily that I could no longer fend them off. I tried, but my failure was proved when I felt a sharp sting to my neck and liquid fall down.

From my own sword.

Then I saw something, golden, pure and ethereal float out in front me. Light gentle feathers fell before my eyes so densely that they filled my vision for a time. In my moment of doom, I wondered what these meant, were they the wings of an angel to carry me up to heaven and return me back to my mother?

But the feathers settled down, rested on our weapons and as they did they glowed white as silver dust floated through the air around us. Suddenly, through a golden snow-storm, I was left standing face on to this black-haired girl, hands poised in the air with tension but holding nothing.

Our swords had disappeared. No, not disappeared, but evaporated into the energy forms we once took from the world.

"Girls..." A girl to my distant right stated calmly with a hint of sadness. Bewildered I turned to watch this newcomer who walked lightly and possessed porcelain skin and hair that shined almost as golden as the feathers that just fell.

"Do not fight, that would be futile to our cause." She cautioned with a maternal air despite being only around sixteen years of age and a meagre grade above me in the same school. "And it is pointless for you to even attempt now that I am here, for you see, feathers hold a far greater power. Traditionally, they were used with ink to create words of wisdom that would last for eternity - intellect inscribed so profoundly that the masses were capable of feeling. It is for this reason, girls, that you have no more power here anymore, for the pen is far greater, and much stronger, than the sword."

We both leered at the golden-blonde girl.

"Pearl," The black-haired girl stated evenly, "this one has not only been transformed but indoctrinated by Ariel. She is a lost cause to us, fighting against the thing she should be protecting. That leaves us with no other choice but to eliminate her so please, no more interfering."

Pearl sighed sadly, tossing her wavy golden hair over her shoulder. "Rebecca, you really need to learn that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar..." Then she turned to address me with a smile. "Don't worry, sweetheart, no harm will come to you. You are one of us, after all and with that comes a promise that we will protect each other until the end. That is the way of a daeva-lux, one who is still connected with the light."

I looked furtively between the two, stepped back away and tried to call upon my weapon again but it failed to emerge.

"It's Pearl's feathers." The black-haired girl responded with disdain. "Since they keep falling in the area we cannot use our erosreavers. They disable the co-ordination of aura in the area they float through."

Pearl nodded. "Rebecca explained sublimely, as always she's straight to the point, clear and concise. I'm sorry for using my power on you, Bethanie, but we need to communicate and letting Rebecca kill you..." She shifted uneasily. "Isn't the best communicating method."

I eyed her warily but then a grunt from the other-side of the clearing brought my gaze across to Ariel as she fought the two other dark daevas simultaneously. From what I could see Ariel's arrows were fast and her footing faster, but her opponents were two and so she could only really manage deflective moves.

I made to run across to her aid but then a flurry of gold feathers created a wind so strong in front of me that I stumbled back from the force.

"Bethanie, just leave her for a bit." Pearl pleaded. "I promise, Ariel is too strong to be possibly overcome by those two."

The feathers fluttered away enough so I could see my surroundings more clearly again.

"What's your game?" I asked the blonde cautiously then pointed a finger to Rebecca. "Isn't she on your side? Why stop her? Don't you mean to kill us?!"

Pearl shut her eyes tightly and winced like I had caused her some kind of blow. When she recovered sadness leaked into her voice. "No. No, Bethanie, it's not anything like that! We're not here to kill you, but to save you!"

"Yeah? Then how do you explain her!" I cried pointing a rigid finger at Rebecca.

The black-haired girl, arms crossed, scoffed. "She was trying to kill me." She explained to her companion. "I was just defending myself. Besides, she was so deluded by Ariel she would just work against us until her own chrysalis."

"Killing her is not appropriate, Rebecca!" Pearl reprimanded. Softening she turned to me. "She is our ally, whether she knows it yet or not!"

"I'm not your ally!" I cried hotly. "I'll never ally myself to evil, to you dark daevas!"

Rebecca's eyes shot knives, Pearl however gasped in alarmed.

"Dark daevas?" Pearl breathed. "Oh, no, Bethanie, you have been told some terrible lies!"

"See." Rebecca imparted evenly. "She's brain-washed, no more a pawn to them as one of their shades."

"But far more important to us." Pearl refuted. "She is a daeva-lux and with that she has strength and that can be used for good, so long as she knows where good and evil really lie. Bethanie," Pearl turned to me, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but Rebecca is right. Everything you have learnt about us has been a lie. Ariel there," she pointed across the clearing where a two versus one battle continued, "The rest of her Daeva-nox and Raziel are the enemy. They, in conjunction with the shades, are what we call phantoms, beings that possess only darkness in their diamond cores. They pretend to be your friend, pretend to care for your well-being, even warn you against this dark path, but never once do they tell you of your ultimate fate. You see they want daevas for one reason, to recruit girls from the world of light to become their warriors in the dark."

"No." I uttered meekly, my words losing conviction. "Ariel and Raziel, they fight the dark. They fight the shades!"

Pearl shook her head. "Ariel and the other daeva-noxes have embraced the dark and in doing so have become much more powerful, so powerful that even when fighting two of our kind someone like her could never be defeated. And then as to Raziel, well he hasn't just embraced the dark, he is darkness, incarnated into our world. That's why his blood is black, that's why he has the power to change light to dark and to transform a girl into a daeva."

I stepped back, eyes shifting between Pearl and Rebecca, legs trembling as I did so. "No..." I whispered. "That... that just can't be true..."

Then from across the grass I heard Ariel's voice call across. "Shut up, Pearl! Stop trying to manipulate her, she's too clever for your lies! She'll never turn to the darkness, never!" Ariel ceased talking with a gasp as it seemed like she just evaded another attack.

My face hardened. "Evil lies, it's what it does, a well known fact!"

Pearl blinked slowly then raised her arms as great golden wings sprouted. The next moment the feathers broke away and all swarmed to create a wall between Ariel and the other two daevas and us. Surprisingly, all battle-cries and colliding clashes of weapons became mute. All sound it seemed was shut out, or perhaps dissembled by the golden feathers separating us.

"I know it is hard to understand all this, you must have only taken the seed very recently, but it is imperative that you do not side with them - your very soul is at stake here!" Pearl cried passionately. "I am truly sorry we didn't get to you in time, the fact that you have to bear this fate saddens me immensely..." Here she said it convincingly, where it seemed that pain for my regard was even etched onto her face.

She's lying. I rationalised to myself. And she must be very, very good at it.

"But you're here now, a daeva-lux," she smiled with melancholy. "Entering a realm that is not fair for a young girl like you. This is our fault." She lowered her head, shedding her blue gaze to the darkening grass below us. "If only... if only we acted sooner..." Her voice even broke, like she was about to cry. Then suddenly she yelped as her knees lowered to the ground and, holding her arm, fell further still.

"Pearl!" Rebecca shouted as she ran across and caught the blonde in her arms before she could fall all the way. "Damn it, Pearl! You and your sentimentality! You're going to kill yourself this way!"

The golden feather border shuttered between existence and non-existence, allowing scant flashes of the twilight war waged beyond, until it firmed up again just as Pearl retracted her eyelids.

"I'm fine, Rebecca." Pearl muttered weakly. "Don't you worry, I'm not there yet." Then Pearl pulled herself back up so she was sitting and turned to look back towards me. "You have been fed sweet lies, but cruel ones. Cruel, because you don't understand the despair that is ahead of you." A tear illuminated by the brilliant golden feather border trailed down her cheek. "I'm afraid that your whole perception is warped. Ariel is a daeva-nox, one that desires no more than power and with it she and the other phantoms will herald the destruction of this world. Ariel, is sweet, kind-hearted, and also, the best actress I have ever seen."

I didn't want to remember it, the world made sense, broken but I thought I understood it. But with those last words information began to suddenly flood towards me. A couple of ill-placed glares by Ariel and also, most prominently was Amy's melancholy at the thought of the new girl taking the lead role in the musical for which she aspired to. Amy had admitted that she was a great actress, one that even her talent could not surpass.

I stepped back, one, two, then fell onto my bottom with a thump. The beautiful world that shone in the skies overhead suddenly seemed to lack their lustre. The colours illustrated life, but from excitement it seemed to transform into the display of blood vessels, the circulatory system of the world. These all now seemed to shine red and every time I wanted to pull energy from it I thought I may as well have delved my fangs into someone's throat, since that was all my power was, a vampire to the world.

"No!" I screamed desperately. "You're wrong, you have to be! You're just..." My voice turned vacant. "Evil. And Ariel is my friend. That's it, you're lying!"

"If you don't believe my words, believe what you see." Pearl rationalised. "Ariel, Raziel and the others, have diamond cores so dark that they cannot even hold all the light they absorb from the world. Overfilled the light leaks out of them, from their skin, their hair so they appear porcelain white with silver features. This makes them look angelic, but in reality they are the exact opposite."

Light displayed outwardly to balance the darkness within...

Pearl seemed to whisper something to Rebecca after which the black-haired girl rolled her eyes and reluctantly made her way towards me. Once she stopped she seemed to make an attempt at a smile that failed horribly. "Pearl is right, but not just about the fact that you were lied to, but also that you are one of us. We are not enemies and I will not..." She looked aside here, "hurt you. We're on the same team in trying to protect the world so that means we have no reason to fight."

"You have to be." I uttered to the girl standing over me. "You have to be lying."

Rebecca turned her hostile green gaze back at me. "You're a fool. Protecting creatures that have lost their human souls. I will protect this world, kill the shades, daeva-noxes and I will eliminate all trace of Raziel from this planet. You are a daeva-lux, so you are a natural ally despite your idiocy, but get in my way and I will not hesitate to put you down too."

"Rebecca!" Pearl cried.

And then my thoughts made their way back to the unease I felt as Raziel's eyes glistened with excitement as he handed a black seed to Ariel. He wanted more daevas, that was plain to see, but he didn't want ones to destroy the beings from the dark world for that would be attacking his own. He wanted daevas so he could steer them to the darkness and to achieve that he utilised the help of a very good manipulator. There were only three daeva-noxes at present and though they were sure to be strong, they were too few to herald the world's transformation. He needed more and given the right pushes they would dive towards the dark. And once there they could never again return to the light.

I slammed a fist on the ground. "It couldn't be any more clear, could it?" I exclaimed with a shaky voice. "I didn't want to see it, but it all makes sense, it's... the missing link to the puzzle. It was why we were created in the first place!" I gave an erratic short laugh. "We were made always to turn dark. We're connected to it, it grows. We have evil spouting inside us!"

Rebecca raised an eyebrow at Pearl. "She's going loony."

"Bethanie!" Pearl was up on her feet, arm clutching her side as she narrowed the distance to me. "Don't blame yourself for the deceit; it's not your fault that you were taken in by it!"

"That's how you get strong, the darkness leads to strength." I nodded as I continued to make sense of things. "Ariel will not die here, because you cannot kill her. She is daeva-nox which means she is far too powerful."

Then bright white shone from back in the direction of the barrier and with a turn across a hundred or more white spots shone within the gold and was so closely compacted that it almost swallowed it all. Even though it didn't, it seemed like it was enough though for, after a delayed moment, the wall came crashing down and disintegrated before hitting the grassy floor. Beyond the shimmering a girl emerged with silver hair, smiling as if entertained.

"Well, now that those two are taken care of!" She exclaimed happily but after seeing all our shocked expressions she rolled her eyes and corrected herself as if it was a bother. "They're not dead! You know that would be of no use to us! They're just... near-dead." She amended with a pleased nod. "Nothing fatal, I'm sure their terrific daeva abilities gifted by the world of Noein will put them as good as new in no time!"

"Damn you." Rebecca's growl was so low it sounded almost like a lion's roar. "I'll kill you!"

Rebecca ran forwards brandishing two new swords now that the feather-dispersing field was eradicated and sliced both across from left and right just where Ariel was standing. Only that Ariel ceased to be standing there any longer. It was incredible, she was there, smiling, watching Rebecca's attack even, then she disappeared without a trace right when the two blades cut through.

"You coward." Rebecca snarled. "Using your phantom technique, that's so underhanded!"

I viewed beyond the interplay and though the light had grown so dim that it was barely more than a deep blue overhead, my daeva eyes showed soul energy with intricate perception. Further on I saw the two girls, brunette and red-head, slumbering on the floor with red coating almost every aspect of them.

I gasped and whispered to Pearl, "They're hurt, you're friends, there's so much blood!"

Pearl nodded sadly. "I know, but their wounds aren't fatal, not for one of our kind. They will heal and their bodies will be returned to perfect health but they will not be unable to avoid the scars that will result from this battle, I'm afraid."

"Can't you do something?" I pleaded of her. "Can't you stop this fighting!? That's your power, right!? To stop daevas using their weapons against each other!?"

Pearl smiled bitter sweetly. "Yeah, that's what my power can do." Then she rose to her feet and with a wince outstretched her arms. There brilliant golden wings appeared on her form and again broke away to fly towards the two girls fighting one-another. Only here Ariel noted the incoming feathers and, choosing a quick break in Rebecca's attacks, turned and fired.

It looked like Ariel only pulled back one arrow but amazingly no fewer than a hundred were released and like homing darts each one fell upon a golden feather, annihilating the whole lot in one blow.

Pearl dropped back down to her knees, grasping her arm.

Ariel smirked right before her attention was taken back to Rebecca who attempted another slice at her throat for which she evaded and countered with a quick arrow in her place. Rebecca avoided this and moved with a flash-step towards where Ariel had run off to.

"Pearl!" I cried to the fallen girl beside me. "What's wrong? What's happening to you?!"

The blonde shone me a frail, yet warm smile. "I am fine, don't worry about me."

"This..." I murmured my eyes darting between her kind blue ones and her held pained shoulder. "This is all because you used your power? Your power that I told you to use?"

Her smile widened fractionally but enough to be perceptible. "I was going to do it anyway, so don't you feel responsible, Bethanie."

I frowned as I viewed her and then turned my gaze to Ariel and Rebecca fighting and wondered what I was feeling there. Everything was so confused, I believed Pearl but I didn't disbelieve Ariel, she just couldn't be bad.

Then, all of a sudden Ariel was sitting atop Rebecca and despite the platinum blonde being smaller she had the older girl pinned down. An arrow was pointed straight towards Rebecca's chest, right where the heart was supposed to lie.

Ariel smirked. "So, can you play nice and give me a reason to let you live?"

"My reason to live," Rebecca spat, "is so that I can kill you."

"Hm..." Ariel responded thoughtfully. "Yes, it looks like that's the popular sentiment. Well, I suppose you leave me with no choice then."

"No!" I screamed just as I saw Ariel's hand begin to loosen but another cry sounded at the exact same time, drowning out my own plea.

"Enough!" It was Raziel's voice, cool and resolute as always, but one that seemed to be of great command to Ariel for her fingers all but disconnected from the arrow it pulled back along a faint bowstring.

Raziel continued as he walked through the clearing. "We've completed our task, we're done here. There's no more need for the pretence with..." His gaze turned to me with an awry grimace, "These susceptible teenagers. Fighting with them now will only disservice our cause." Frowning he added pointedly, "Leave them be, Ariel. You know they serve us best alive. Don't disappoint me like you did before."

Retracting her arrow Ariel responded obediently. "No, I won't, master. There is no need now that our purpose is completed." Then she rose to her feet leaving a panting Rebecca lying sprawled on the grass.

"What now, Raziel?" Ariel turned to the white-blond boy. "Any more recruits for me to gather?"

Raziel gazed over all of us and smirked indulgently as he appraised my wide-mouthed shock. "No, not now, potentials don't come too commonly that we can seek them all the time. For now, we'll just watch and make sure these girls fulfil their destinies."

Ariel gazed over us also, her own silver eyes twinkling. "Sure, waiting is boring but for an eternity of power, well I guess I can tolerate it for now." Then Ariel gave one last smile and one last wink directed straight at me before she and her counterpart quickly faded into nothing.

"What the hell!?" I exclaimed hurriedly. "Where'd they go!?"

Rebecca still laid on the ground some meters away but with the still night the distance provided no barrier to the sound. As she gazed up into the newly forming stars she responded, "They're phantoms, beings of darkness, so they have the ability to blend within the dark. When it comes to a game of hide and seek, they will always win, no matter how good you can sense aura, you can never see within the deepest dark."

I still had a hand thrust to the ground that at this point grasped the blades of the grass and squeezed them tightly. "It really is all true, we are all a part of their battle?"

Rebecca turned her gaze away but Pearl responded. "We are warriors, ones that, should we embrace the darkness growing inside, become valuable to them then."

Pearl winced as she grabbed her shoulder and there Rebecca followed on with the explanation for her.

"Because of what Ariel is, and the rest of her kind are, we are also fated to follow if our hearts prove weak. Should we survive through our ultimate darkness we change from a daeva-lux to a daeva-nox and awaken to great power but also to absolute emptiness." Rebecca stated as she crossed the grass and leaned over her companion. There she closed her eyes and placed a hand over the centre of her chest where a white glow ensued. After a few moments there was a murmur emitted from the brunette girl beneath.

"Hold on..." I struggled through erratic breaths. "What... what was Raziel talking about back there?" I gulped before giving way to a desperate gasp. "What did he mean that.... they completed their task!?"

Pearl shone sad blues on me. "Oh, Bethanie..."

"What? Tell me! What did he mean?!"

Rebecca bored her unforgiving emerald eyes on me. "You know already. Our own fate, one where we are destined to turn dark or die is not only yours but now, your friend's as well."

"No..." I whimpered. "No, it can't be true. It just... it just can't. It can't!" I screamed loudly as I rose to my feet. "No! No!" Then through my despair my claymore erected itself within my hands and with a sudden downward slash I pierced the earth.

"No." I panted. "No, no, no! Not Abigail! Not Abigail!"

Rebecca shed a knowing calm look to Pearl. "And just like before Ariel knows exactly what's she's doing. The way this one is worked up, she'll be lucky to last a week."

"No!" I screamed so loud that my throat stung and my voice turned mute. Collapsing onto the ground I ploughed my fists down and even though I did it forcibly I never felt the sting from the impact.

He had her, stole her away from the rest of us so he could complete his deal and with his return announced its closure. That meant only one thing - Abigail was transformed into a daeva, one destined to a fate of either darkness or death.

I crunched the grass and dirt within my grasp and tore frail foliage from its roots.

No... I thought. Not Abigail, not her. She's the one person that brings light, she can't venture into dark....

"No!" I screamed once more, searing my lungs and somehow emptying my being with my anguished cry. "No!" I continued after a breath but then suddenly I fell silent as a potent force took hold of me. Immobilised, my head stared up towards a black ceiling coloured by intermittent stars as some things unseen reached across around me and held on tightly. Then there was a thrust to my chest, like a person had stood right on top of it despite the vertical inclination I was in. Then a searing pain ensued in my right leg and when I became free of my hold I reached down and grasped at it fervently. Oddly, atop my upper thigh where the pain was the greatest was a strange black discolouration that even seemed rigid to the touch.

I shut my eyes forcibly before reopening but still my sight remained constant as that strange colour continued to pervade my vision as it overlaid my form.

Confused I turned to Pearl. "What's wrong with my eyes?"

Pearl's blue orbs glistened as she stared at my leg. "It's not your eyes, darling. I'm so sorry that this has happened to you so soon, but that is what Ariel has designed for you, great emotional pain to initiate the final form of your transformation."

"Transformation?" I repeated with a quiver.

Pearl gave a slow sad nod as she pulled a sleeve to her shirt and unveiled a shoulder exposing a raised and intricate pattern of beautiful flowers, ones composed of deep black rock. "The black diamond chrysalis has started within you."

Chapter 12

 

Abigail

 

I stared forwards, locked into a sitting position I had assumed since dusk. Not long before I had stumbled upon this place, dazed, confused but full of awe after accepting Raziel's contract and upon passing this place I had to turn and run full speed until my vision was no longer obscured by trees. There I collapsed onto my bottom, eyes wide with wonder as I gazed towards the neighbouring city, the soles of my feet scant millimetres from the cliff's edge.

Rivers of light was what drew me into my rapture, all different colours, different speeds and different forms as they flowed over the top of the city. But as twilight shifted into night this wonderful display transformed also. I had seen the city lights from vantages like this so many times. Every time I had it was beautiful, the golds and whites from skyscrapers contrasting against the night-sky serenely, but this time those memories may as well have been viewed through thick fog. This time the chroma was more distinctive and though the building lights were just as bright, they did not drown out unlit parts to the scenery for they all glowed as if fuelled by their own power-source. Then overhead, that too remained light, the stars not only as common over the city as in deeper bushland, but also in far greater number. There were so many white twinkles in the air that it resembled the way I always imagined falling snow would appear during a snow-storm. It was a visual wonderland, only with colour and light.

"Honey? Are you okay?"

A voice from behind stirred me from my reverie and when I turned I saw a golden goddess smile sweetly.

"Yes." I giggled. "I am perfect. No, better than perfect - I'm finally awake!"

The goddess, who looked to be about seventeen and somewhat familiar nodded. Then she slipped up next to me and sat at the edge of the cliff. "Yes, it is quite a sight to behold. This world that we live in is full of so much potential, full of an incredible amount of energy laid dormant beneath the spectrum of normal light. It's life, in all its faces and it is truly wonderful."

"The world has always been wonderful, but this..." I breathed. "It's almost sad."

I sensed the goddess cock her head side-on. "Now why do you think that?"

"Because," I murmured as I reached a hand towards the shining stillness. "I can see it, but I can't feel it. I wanna know what it feels like to have that tingle touch my own skin."

"But it does, it always has. Just as it touches that city down there so too does it fill your own flesh. You just don't realise that your eyes have been deceiving you all this time."

My smile remained firm on my face. "You're right, I have always felt it. This energy, its friendship, family, nautre and nurture. It's love and we've always felt it, it's only now that I can see how amazing it is. But still... I wonder if that's why I feel a little sad to see it, because I know of it now but others still don't. Some people can't even feel it and yet here I am experiencing its light. I guess I just think that it's not fair."

"But even if normal people had the ability to see this, some still wouldn't. Some people are too lost in their own worlds to see the beauty this one holds. And for a good portion of the others they'll see it at first, but then it will become normal to them, they'll adapt and they'll forget there was ever anything different. You're right, this light you see, it's love, emotions, the outward expression of the world's soul. A beautiful thing but even that in time can be forgotten by people who by nature cannot thrive on just those things alone."

I looked to the point of the city's tallest tower where a coarse red light flashed. "Yeah, I guess that's what makes me sad." And here my smile even dropped a bit so that it was only held with wan muscle memory.

"I think you're different, aren't you, Abigail? You won't forget this light and you won't let others forget it either, even if it is only the feel."

I frowned. "You know who I am. That must mean that you're a daeva too, right?"

"I am, my name is Pearl. I go to the same school as you but as a year twelve student so I don't think you would know of me too well."

"I... I remember seeing you in school. You sung in that all-girl band, Blue Petals. There's drums, a lead guitar, a singer but then there was a second guitar - that was you!"

"Is that what you think? That I was some girl in a band?" Staring ahead Pearl answered evenly. "You have a very active imagination. No, there was no such thing. Maybe you simply dreamed it all which would explain your lapse in memory now."

I frowned, ready to protest but found the more I concentrated on the thought the more it faded from my mind. It was just as she stated, it was like I was grasping at a dissolving memory from a dream.

"Oh..." I murmured. "I guess you're right. I don't know why I thought that just now. But one thing I know is that I have seen you before. You said you go to my school, Golden Heights High? Well that makes sense, it's the only high school up on the mountain. But there's something else that's interesting about you, you used this word daeva, so does that mean you're one too? Are you someone who fights the darkness?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Right." I stated. "But... Even though I've seen you before and I know what you are I don't know who you are. It's all crazy, I only just stepped into this world, even though my feet as still resting atop of the once familiar one of my own... I've learnt a lot in a short time, the world's amazing beauty, but also that there's bad things here, things that want to hurt this incredible place. And then there's also bad people or, bad daevas that want to help the darkness. So, that leads to my question about who are you? Are you good, Pearl? Or are you one of these bad daevas that I'm warned to stay away from?"

"Sadly everything you have said is true, but as for your question you can know that I am good, I am light and in no way a threat to you."

I watched her then, the blue in her eyes fade in vibrancy as her voice lost its lustre and her mannerisms shut down. She was genuine, I knew that all along but it was comforting to see that then.

The light was still beautiful ahead of me but a sense of sobriety returned as I asked, "The fighting, is it still going on?"

"No. That ended about a half hour ago, the time it took for me to find you here."

"Bethanie?" I asked uneasily. "Is she okay?"

"She is. She is evolving into her power with great speed."

"And Ariel, she's fine too, right?"

This took Pearl a moment longer to respond to. "She is. Nothing I know of can really harm that girl."

"Good." I breathed. "Then it sounds like everyone is okay."

"We should get back to them." Pearl stated as she rose to her feet. "I know that Bethanie would want to see you safe."

I nodded, moved my hands out to my sides but then held them there. Pearl had disappeared behind me as I spoke. "Bethanie, is she very angry with me?"

Pearl replied thoughtfully. "You think she is angry with you?"

"I know she is. She wouldn't ever say so, but I can tell. I get where she's coming from, she just wants to protect the people she cares about and stop them from not only dying, but moving away from her. I get it and so I know why she wants to protect me so much but in a way it makes it feel like she won't let me live my own life. I love her and know the pain this stems from so instead of getting upset with her I do the opposite in the hope that I prove to her that I will never leave her. But this time I went against her. I had to though, I think this is the only way that she'll stop seeing me as a little sibling to protect but as her friend and equal!"

From behind me Pearl spoke stiff words. "It can be hard to appreciate the sacrifices others make when you've never had to make your own so I'll forgive you for that comment, but don't make the mistake of making life-changing choices based on flippant ideals, because in the real world, you can never return back to that place of indecision and your path is set forever."

I broke my idyllic perception then and turned with confusion to the angel walking away from me.

Picking up my feet I left the near edge of that cliff and skirted alongside the golden-haired girl. Together we walked in silence for many minutes before the clearing made itself apparent ahead right before we tread onto its grassy plain.

There I saw a group of three girls. One was Bethanie, staring dazed into the distance and I would have come up to comfort her but the other two girls caused me to halt in my path for these were the very ones that terrified me just the previous evening.

"What... what is this?" I stammered to Pearl who continued ahead of me but stopped at my alarm. "Those girls... They, they are the ones who attacked me! Why are they here? What's going on?!"

"Abigail!" Pearl cried as she quickly reclosed the space and rubbed my shoulders. "It's okay, we're all friends here."

I shook my head shortly but quickly. "No, they're not. They... she!" I pointed a finger to a black haired girl that just then turned her hostile green eyes on me. "She said she would kill me!" Then I pointed to the other girl, a redhead with thick curly hair who was tending to a long amber whip as she sat on the ground. "And she, she does too! But then..." I bit my lower lip. "She wanted to hurt that girl too..."

Pearl gave my shoulders a squeeze, redirecting me back into her kind blue eyes. With a lofty smirk she explained. "Rebecca and Vanessa are notorious for wanting to kill each other, along with anything else that pisses them off, but don't worry, they're... mostly bark and being who you are they wouldn't actually harm you. That goes for Bethanie here too." Pearl gave a shoulder glance to my hazel blonde friend who was locked in some deep thought. "Even though those two crazies will growl, they won't actually cause any real harm, not unless that someone deserved it."

I still clutched onto her as I asked. "But, aren't they bad? Ariel said that they were dark!"

Pearl exhaled. "No, they're not. Abigail, I'm sorry to tell you this but you were not told the truth of this melding of worlds before entering it. Still, despite that you could be safe so long as you don't call your erosreaver. Then you can live."

"You didn't just say that nastily so I don't believe you mean me harm," I stated cautiously as my hands remained clutched at her clothing. "But please explain that to me, it sounds...  scary."

"She means," The red-head who kept brushing an amber line interred loudly across the clearing, "that if you don't call your erosreaver then you won't fully awaken as a daeva. That means that darkness will never enter your core and ultimately your life will be spared. Perhaps at the risk of the world." She added light-heartedly, then nodded with conviction. "But you'll be safe, happy, healthy and free to live to the age of a bitter old woman."

"Don't mind Vanessa." Pearl sighed as she rolled her eyes. "That's just her way of working through... things."

Here Vanessa laughed before sobering into a smirk. "Pearl's right. The way I work through my hatred is not with silly little words, but with violence and bloodshed." She nodded matter-of-factly. "And I'll finally resolve my issues with the death of Ariel."

The black-haired girl had been standing silently all this time, facing towards the lush brown and green trees but responded here with a steady sideways glance. "Like I said, Vanessa, you can't kill her. Only I can."

Vanessa thumped a fist to the grass. "Like hell I can't! You're the one who can't! You let her live - you! And then, what happened?! Another daeva died because of it! That insignificant life you spared, you stole from the one that she took it from!"

"Vanessa, enough!" Pearl cried. "I know it still hurts you, but it hurts all of us and its finally time that you let it go otherwise you know you'll invite the darkness inside you to grow!"

Vanessa smirked here. "Sure, the darkness grows, but so long as I slaughter shades that keeps it at bay, right? I'm fine with that."

Rebecca shone her emerald eyes narrowly back at the redhead. "And you'll just die quicker in another way."

"Better dead, than nox." Vanessa refuted.

"Wait!" I yelled impassionedly. "What is going on here?!"

"What's going on?" Vanessa smirked darkly. "Is that you and your little friend here were tricked and fooled by none other than Ariel, manipulated to take that bastard's seed into you despite its god-awful sting, oh and by the way, I think that technically counts as you being deflowered, and then you lost your innocence forever as you walk the path of darkness. Welcome, friend, to the road to hell!"

I released Pearl and stumbled back a couple of steps but because the world was so weirdly spinning I somehow landed onto my side quickly with a hard thud.

"That was not tactful, Vanessa!" I heard a scowl to Pearl's voice.

"There's no tactful way to say it!" Vanessa argued. "Just check out Barbie over there, she's in some retarded trance ever since your gentle explanation hit home."

"There's a lot of shock involved, you understand this!" Pearl pressed.

Vanessa scoffed. "I knew something was dodgy from the get-go."

"Then why'd you join?"

"Why do you think?!" Vanessa roared. "For power of course!"

I gasped as I recoiled backwards on the ground.

"I knew it." Rebecca interred from her own distant position. "That's what you're really about. You don't care about who you dish it out to, you just want to create pain."

Vanessa rolled her eyes with a renewed smirk. "You know nothing about me, Rebecca. And I tell you what, I wouldn't be surprised if you went dark-side. And you know..." Here she put a hand to her face as if indicating she was about to share a one on one secret that we all ended up hearing with ease. "I know that's what you want, it's only a matter of time before you'll become a nox, but you know, I'm looking forward to it because that's when I finally get to kill you!"

"Pearl..." I whimpered.

The golden goddess shone sympathetic eyes towards me before turning to her counterparts booming, "That's enough! Okay, if you two are so adamant about fighting one-another wait until the other person surely goes to the dark-side since it's such a certainty!" Her tone suggested a very high degree of sarcasm. "But back the hell off until then! Your feud based in the past is only getting in the way of what's important in the present. And I'm sorry for how insensitive this sounds but get over it and move forward! There's a world of darkness out there, on our doorstep and your actions do nothing but allow its entry!" Pearl looked so amazing, so passionate, so vindicated, but that all suddenly dissipated as she suddenly fell to the grass and clutched at her right leg.

"What... what happened to you, Pearl?" I asked, crawling to her side.

As she grasped her thigh through her jeans, she only smiled in response. "I am fine, really, Abigail. Just getting tired."

Vanessa tsked but didn't follow up verbally.

"Pearl, please tell me. I'm scared, what's happening here?"

Then another voice cut through from beyond the trees and out of the brush a girl with deep brown hair emerged. "I can't sense them at all anymore, which doesn't say very much with all these trees around, but after my perimeter search I'm still convinced that they've fled completely. We should be safe here for the time being."

Pearl nodded. "If that is what you think then I believe you, you have the greatest sensing ability of us all."

The brunette looked aside as if angry with herself as she closed the clearing's distance. "That might be true in some circumstances but in areas like this one my ability is terribly limited. Straight lines don't do well with obstacles in their way. The more divergents I created the more difficult it is for me to sense with any accuracy."

"Even so," Pearl consoled gently, "our own abilities are limited by a range that would normally be unaffected by such things as distant trees so you are still the best scout and the best warrior that we have."

"Psst!" Vanessa sounded sullenly. "Speak for yourself, I'm easily as strong, if not stronger than Lara!"

"Shut the hell up, Vanessa" Rebecca called. "Lara is stronger than me and I kick your arse each time."

"I backed down last time because Pearl asked me!" Vanessa explained.

"Yeah?" Rebecca challenged, even voiced with a cocked brow. "And it wasn't for the fact that my blade was at your throat?"

"Stop it, both of you!" Lara stated with emphasis. "Your squabbles need to take a back-stage now that we have two much more important tasks to deal with." Sighing this girl lowered herself before me. "Abigail, you have been through a lot very quickly so I'll start slow. Firstly, are you following what I'm saying?"

"Ah?" I raised my eyes to the brunette before affirming. "Uh-huh." Then when all the red splotches filling my vision began to make sense I cried, "Blood? You're bleeding!"

Lara turned side on to hide the majority of those crimson spots but a couple still stood out on her arm and leg proudly. "It's fine, my body has healed, what I am concerned about is you."

"She didn't..." My voice trembled. "She couldn't have done that to you!"

"What you are thinking is correct, every single one of these blood soaked spots was created by an arrow, Ariel's arrows. But all of these attacks hit non-vital areas, places targeted away from my heart's core. You see she wasn't trying to kill me, but to keep Vanessa and myself occupied."

"Vanessa..."I murmured as I gazed at the red-head. I didn't notice it before because of the distance but found this time as I looked small red spots defiled her clothing also.

"Whereas Bethanie kept Pearl and Rebecca distracted."

My eyes next gazed at my friend and finding a crimson line on her neck I frowned.

"This was part of their plan," Rebecca sighed. "The daeva-noxes were merely keeping us busy so that Raziel could complete his contract with you uninterrupted and now that he has they have no need for the pretence with you two."

"Abigail," Lara followed up.  "Ariel, is not your friend, but evil incarnate. If you don't like darkness, don't like bad things, well then Ariel is your girl to hate and when the full blow of her deceit hits you I don't doubt that you won't share at least a part of Rebecca's and Vanessa's hatred towards the daeva-nox."

My eyes widened so much I almost thought I was about to lose them. "No, that can't be true. She's so nice!"

Then I heard another voice from across the clearing, a familiar one that I trusted beyond just about every other, Pearl's. "It's true, Abigail. She played us, she played us good."

"Bethanie..." I husked as my friend rose from her distant spot and walked towards me. "There's just no way that she's evil. She's just a girl, just like us."

"I don't know what she is, but I do know one thing and that's that Ariel is no longer my friend." As Bethanie came closer I saw the sapphire in her eyes twinkle coolly. Then she broke our locked gaze and turned towards the dirt trail. "Let's go, Abigail. I can't take anymore of them."

"Hey, Bethanie, wait up!" I called as I fumbled to my feet and just started to run after her when I stopped and looked around with concern.

"Bethanie is right, Abigail." Pearl said gently. "You have been through a lot this evening. Go home and get some rest, we'll talk some more later."

With a hesitant nod I did as the golden girl directed and scuttled by Bethanie's side. Reaching the narrow walkway I asked, "Do you really think that's all true? Do you think Ariel was just acting the whole time?"

"I do." Bethanie responded stiffly.

"But how do we know they're not just pretending now? How can we tell who really are the dark daevas? I mean those girls themselves said they want Ariel dead but that Ariel wouldn't kill them."

"Rebecca and Vanessa seem a bit dicier, but there's no way Pearl's not the real deal."

"You're right." I admitted. "With these eyes I can see things and people differently now and I think that reflects their souls. There's this aura about Pearl that just seems so passionate, I think she cares about others a lot."

"Hm..." Bethanie murmured. "Yeah it does shine brighter, sort of like yours does."

We walked along that path in silence for a couple of minutes before my musings caused me to break it. "Bethanie, we did do the right thing, didn't we?" When she didn't respond I pressed, "We are going to stay good, we're not going to turn evil like those nox girls, right!?"

Then Bethanie stopped. "We were played but we are still good. There is darkness in this world, a consuming sort that, had a daeva not stepped in a few days back, would have killed both of us. The monsters aren't going to sort themselves out so there are always going to need to be people to fight them and protect the world we care about. What we did wasn't the right thing for ourselves, but it was for the world." Here she turned a wan smile to me. "I don't know what my fate will be but I know that it'll remain in the light by my best friend's side."

I smiled myself. "I'm scared, Bethanie. What happens from here?"

Bethanie took my hand and gave it a squeeze. "We survive."

I laughed meekly. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

As we exited the dirt trail we found a familiar road at the top of the bluff and walking along it I turned my head across. The playground was there, shining brightly in the night despite the lack of streetlamps in the area. I imagined, however, that I saw more than just the structure and colour but also perceived children running over the worn bark, flying arms up into the air as they flew down a yellow slide, bouncing their legs off the ground and high overhead as they shifted up and down on a see-saw and then two young girls pointing their legs forwards and back as they soared through the air on a set of swings. A world of laughter and fun, talking about boys and the silly subjects at school and discussing their aspirations for the future that seemed so far away. So much energy coursed through that playground and it all lit up spectacularly.

Then I looked to my other side, out over the top of the declining mountain towards the buzzing coastal city and still I revelled in its majestic splendour.

Bethanie had followed my gaze and commented, "It's so beautiful it's weird, hey?"

"Weird, I was thinking amazing!"

"Yeah, that too." Bethanie smirked. "You know these eyes are connected to that seed Raziel gave you, that's how you suddenly can see this other sort of light, but even so that doesn't mean your soul is connected to it yet. That seed needs to sprout, that's when it grows around your soul or core or diamond, whatever it is, for you to fully awaken as a daeva and obtain your own powers. This happens by finding your erosreaver and for that to happen you must need to think that you are going to die."

"Oh... that sounds fun."

"That's not going to happen to you." Bethanie stated pointedly. "I want you to promise me that no matter what you don't ever believe that. There's no need to because I will never anything happen to you, got it?"

I recolied from the intensity in her blue eyes. "But Bethanie, don't you want me to fight with you?"

Noticing my reaction Bethanie softened her gaze. "You will be fighting with me. You have daeva eyes now so you'll be able to see and sense trouble just as well as I. That's how you'll be helping, you can scout and when you find something bad you just call me."

"But, that seems like I'll still be leaving all the fighting to you..."

Bethanie shook her head. "You're still a warrior, and scouts are important in any battle regiment. I'm not saying for you to back-off, Abigail, just don't put yourself in unnecessary harm. You can always awaken at a later time, but you can never go back to how you are now."

 I sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. A lot has happened and I think I need a bit of time to process all of it and then, when it comes to the fighting I'm sure I would only get in the way." I giggled. "I have hopeless co-ordination!"

"Thanks, Abigail. You backing my corner means a lot to me."

I nodded as I reprimanded. "I'll take a step back but you have to promise no more secrets!"

Bethanie gasped, taken back by the frustration that leaked into my voice but then just nodded understandably. "Sure, no more secrets. And, Abigail, thanks for being there for me and not letting me take all this on on my own."

I winked. "You better believe that I'm not letting you go nowhere without me!"

Soon after we parted ways and I hurried up to my front door. Then, at the precise moment I crossed my home's threshold I was barrelled into by a small child.

"Sissy's got a date! Sissy's got a date!" A blonde female bowling ball chorused.

Gasping I replied, "You scared me half to death, Cathy! That wouldn't be very good if you had me breaking my promise to Bethanie straight after making it!"

"You're not dying, you're dating!" Cathy's eyes beamed up at me.

"And what on earth makes you think that?"

"Because..." the girl pointed a finger into the air."That's what it says. More or less."

"Hold on!" I grasped Cathy's shoulders and pulled her away from me. "What says that?"

"Oh, it's just so adorable!" My mother emerged from the corner of the hallway, gushing at a piece of paper and torn envelope in her hand. "High school love..."

"Mum!" My eyes almost shot out of my head. "That letter there, that didn't happen to be addressed to me?"

"Oh, this?" As if surprised she even held something my mother stared at her hands with bewilderment but was quickly replaced by a cheeky grin. "Well it appears now that it was."

"And just who opened that letter addressed to me?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Ouch! Abigail, quit squeezing my shoulders so tightly!" Cathy exclaimed as she wriggled back down the hall towards our mother. "It wasn't even me, Mum did it!"

"Mum! What's the deal!?"

"I'm sorry, darling, honestly I didn't mean to. It was just in the mailbox and automatically I just opened it up with the rest..."

"Don't lie, Mum!" Bradley called from the kitchen. "I told you not to! I told you Abigail would be angry!"

"And you know what," I growled, "I am!"

"Oh, but sweet-pea," My mother explained, "It was just too tempting to resist. A letter with your name scrawled on it by what was obviously a boy's penmanship..."

"We knew it was a boy because of the messy writing!" Cathy added with a few proud nods.

"It's a poem, Abigail, such a sweet poem! It's about how you do your art!"

"Mum!" I yelled as I ran up to her to catch the paper but she just backed away and ran into the kitchen. "Mum, get back here!" I ordered as I ran after her.

Turning the corner I saw her reading a line out loud. "A tongue to the side and eyes flicking at a fast pace..." She giggled. "He really got you spot on!"

"Mum! Give it to me!" I called as I ran to her but she just dashed around the breakfast bar so that when I moved left, she moved right, then when I moved right she moved left, maintaining a steady distance that I was hopeless at closing.

"Comon, Abigail, let me have it a little bit longer! I love the title of the poem - the master-piece! My, how this boy must be precious!" Then suddenly she yelped as the contents of her hands were stripped from her possession.

"Thomas!" My mother cried, aghast. "You're meant to be on my team here!"

"Quit antagonising the girl, Charlotte. You remember how embarrassing our own high school romance was." My father rationalised as he handed the papers to me with a knowing smile. "Besides, you'll just make it harder to organise a meeting with this boy if you keep teasing her this way."

As I grabbed the two sheets and envelope I froze. "Meet...ting? Um... I'll get back to you on that!"

"See." My father stated pointedly to my mother. "You've already scared the boy off before we even had a chance to check him out. We gotta make sure he's the right sort for our Abigail and that he's worthy of mixing his genes with ours!" He barked with laughter.

"Dad!" I protested. "Ew! It's nothing like that!"

"I know that, but of course that's why I need to meet with him." Then there was a dark glare that erupted from his eyes that caused me to retreat many feet with my letter.

"Oh, Dad!" Cathy complained. "You're no fun! Mum was just about to read the whole poem to us!"

"Give it up, Cathy!" Bradley groaned. "You're always so rude!"

Then, with a slam to my bedroom door, all sound behind was shut away.

"My word." I muttered. "They need to respect my space. Mum and Cathy especially!"

Then I collapsed onto my bed and pulled the letter before my eyes with an excited grin.

 

Hey Abigail,

I really had fun today and I'm really excited that we're going out now.

But there was something I actually wanted to show you too but I was too embarrassed before with all those people looking at us and well, I didn't want you to read it in front of me so that's why I'm putting it in a letter for you to just have a look at if you get a chance. I know it's pretty corny and stuff, but I wrote this poem a little while ago and have been really wanting to show you so... here it is.

If you don't like it you can just throw it out and pretend it never existed. I don't mind.

Anyway, here goes...

 

The Master-piece

 

Little fingers dance over a blank page

They itch and twitch then a line is made

Concentration is etched hard on your face

A tongue to the side and eyes flicking at a fast pace

But as the paper fills with graphite

It is plain that you are revealing your inner sight

For in the depths of your mind is a great beauty

Which you transform into reality

Soon what you have in front is a master-piece

And with your last stroke I see that strain cease

You appraise your work with a smile

Never realising that all the while

That all the creations that you view

Will never be as beautiful as what I see in you

 

Then my smile deepened as I brought the pages to my chest and hugged them fervently. I realised my mother was right about one thing, that this boy was very precious indeed.

Chapter 13

 

Bethanie

"I want these ones!" A young boy of only three years of age, cried excitely as he pointed a stubby finger up at one of the many tubs of lollies in the store.

"You can't have teeth, Kyle, they're bad for your real teeth!" I reprimanded gently.

Kyle flashed a pout before a wide-eyed zeal erased it. "How 'bout these!?"

"Bananas?" I gasped as I stared at the yellow curved lollies. "But they'll make you go bananas!"

This time his pout was more pronounced and lasted longer before pointing at another lot. "These!?"

"But you can't have worms in your stomach, those will make you awful sick!"

Then as he pointed to another container it was with fierce determination in his eyes.

"Oh, no, Kyle! I'm afraid I just don't think you could bear those bears!"

"Sissy, you're not being fair - you won't let me have any lollies!" My half-brother whined. "You promised you'd buy me some, you're a liar!"

Laughing I tousled fair blonde hair that mirrored my own.  "You can have them, you little sook! I was just teasing!"

Then as if I said magic words his blues eyes lit up. "Really, I can have the worms, they won't make my bully hurt!?"

"Well eat enough of them and they will, but... meh!" I shrugged. "That's what being a kid is about so go nuts!"

"Urgh!" He exclaimed sticking his tongue out of his mouth. "I don't like nuts, they're gross!"

"Alright! You can just have lollies then."

"And chocolates!?" My brother added hopefully. "I want those ones there!"

Following where his finger pointed I couldn't help but bark with laughter. "Those are picnics, they have hazel... oh never mind, get what you like!"

After my brother filled an almost spilling bag and I managed to negotiate the size down a little we headed to teller where I paid an exuberant amount of money. Then we skirted outside and crossed the road to a small park filled with wooden tables and chairs and a couple of barbeques. There we selected a bench and merrily stuffed our faces full of the sugery delights.

"Bethie?" Kyle asked curiously. "Why don't we live together? My friends at play group have brothers and sisters and they all live with their mummies and daddies, but you and Cameron and Michael all live away. How come?"

"Because, Kyle." I explained as I fiddled with the wrapper to the chocolate in my hands. "We're not full brother and sister. We have the same mum but different dads so when Mum passed away your dad took you with him, since the rest of us aren't related to him."

"Ohh! But where's your daddy? Is he up in Heaven like Mummy?" He questioned innocently.

"No, he's not in Heaven. He's just... away."

"Away where?"

"With another family." I answered him steadily but the chocolate exploded through the wrapping from my firm squeeze of it.

Kyle saw this and laughed. "Bethie, it's all over your hands!"

"Yeah," I smirked, "but not for long!" I threw my hand aside and wiped a smear of it on his cheek.

Laughing he jumped from the bench and started to run away from me, dropping and spilling the packet of lollies onto the ground.

"Don't think you can get away from me that easily! I still have all this chocolate that I need to wipe off with your face!" I threatened as I ran after him slowly so his little stubby legs could maintain a lead.

"No, Bethie!" He giggled as he turned back and then ran all the harder forward. "Don't get me dirty!"

"I'm gonna get you and you'll be covered in chocolate!"

"You can't get me!"

"Oh, is that a challenge!?"

My brother only giggled as he ran faster until finally I picked him up with one arm and with my other hand spread dark brown matter all across his mouth.

"Mwhahaha!" I roared with my best evil laugh. "I've got you now and I'm never gonna let go!"

"No!" He protested, laughing. "Let me go!"

"Bethanie, what are you doing to him? Put him down!" A man jogged across the park to us with concern written plainly on his features.

"It's okay, Paul, we're just playing around!" I said with a giggle.

Though Paul's voice diminished in volume his frown however did not lessen. "What on earth is on his face, it's all over him!" Here the man walked up and, pulling a hanky from his pocket, began to rub fervently at Kyle's skin.

"Daddy! It's okay, I can lick it off!"

"It's just chocolate." I explained showing him my hand and grazed my tongue against it. "See? No harm done!"

Paul only rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay, but still I don't want Kyle getting all dirty like this, we're off to see his grandmother now and I want him looking at least a little presentable."

"Yay, Grandma's!" Kyle threw both hands into the air happily.

"Already?" I asked timidly. "But I thought we had a little longer together..."

Paul sighed. "I'm sorry, Bethanie, but we need to get back down the mountain now. Kyle's grandmother is getting old and can't entertain guests too late any longer so now really is the time to leave. But you two had fun catching up, didn't you, Kyle?" His tone softened at the end as he placed a gentle hand around his son.

Looking up into his father's eyes Kyle answered, "I love Bethie! Daddy, can Bethie come and live with us, she could be my mummy!"

Paul laughed. "Bethanie's a bit young to fill that role, don't you think? And what about Simone? I know that she thinks of you as her son."

"Simone?" Kyle parroted quizzically. "Yeah, I guess she's okay."

Paul seemed at least encouraged by that response and maintained his smile as he turned to me. "Well, thanks for spending time with Kyle, I know that you must be very busy with school and all those friends that you have but it means the world to him. He really does like playing with you."

"It was no trouble at all." I smiled. "I love Kyle too, we always have lots of fun together, don't we, pip-squeak." I winked at the boy.

Kyle however blew out his cheeks like a blow-fish before retorting. "I'm no pip-squeak, I'm a big boy and one day I'll be taller than you and Cameron and even Michael, Dad says so!"

"Yeah, I don't doubt it, but right now you're still a pip-squeak!"

A hostile tongue out and a courteous nod from son and father and then the two were gone to leave me returning back to the bench. There I picked up all the uneaten lollies, gave them a brush and returned them back to the bag. They may have been a tiny bit dirty but they were still sweet.

-

The rest of the day passed without too much mishap, mostly because my other two brothers were out of the house: Michael was at work for a Sunday session at the club and Cameron was probably drinking and crashing at a friend's so that left me alone to fend for my dinner and sort out my washing for the week ahead. I didn't mind it though, I enjoyed the occasional isolation and distance from my eldest brother was never a bad thing.

Once I was done I sat watching mindless television as my thoughts involuntarily wandered to all the craziness of the previous evening, Ariel's betrayal and the concept of daeva-noxes ushering in a world of darkness, and then of course, the black rock that formed on my thigh.

It wasn't very large, just a small shard of a thing really and though it stung as it developed there it seemed to make its presence since unfelt. Besides the rigid bump under my clothing it was just as perceptible, or imperceptible really, as a small cyst and seemingly just as innocuous.

I tried to pry it off since it looked like it was merely glued to my skin but failed miserably, though really I wasn't surprised. Seeing it there and the way it came forth reminded me of a leaf stretching out from a young plant, one that only very recently sprouted its green stem.

I sighed as I changed the channel, looking for something more compelling to take my mind away from the blemish but as I saw an advertisement for an angelic pop sensation coming to the Serene Coast for a tour the golden-haired girl just drew me back to advice I couldn't care less about.

"Those crystals are going to keep spreading on your body." Pearl had warned. "But there is a way to stop its progression, destroy the darkness outside to destroy the darkness growing within yourself."

I didn't say anything, just stared at that spot on my thigh that was surrounded by the twinkling beauty of the green grass of the forest clearing.

"Bethanie, we can help you." She tried again to rouse a reaction but I gave her none. I couldn't, this was all just too much: the violence, betrayal, evil and responsibility. I wanted power but it was suddenly stacking up at too great a cost. People were being put in danger for this power, their souls siphoned away by shades and my best friend doomed to the same painful place I was in. It just was too much, so much that I couldn't even speak.

"Give it a rest, Pearl." Vanessa sneered as she finally managed to sit back upright, her wounds almost completely healed yet blood still covered most of her clothing. "Just look at her, she's going cuckoo with all this."

"Vanessa! Don't be negative! She just needs to understand what happening, then she'll be okay."

"No, Pearl, Vanessa's right." Rebecca interred as she struggled to her feet, besmirched by red drooping spheres herself. "She's had enough for now, just leave her be."

Pearl winced but relented. "Fine, Bethanie have a little breather then and when you're ready come talk to me. I'm just at your school after all so it's easy for you to find me." She forced a smile before finally giving up and walking away.

Later Abigail came to the scene, beaming with excitement with her new sight which almost made me sick. It was all I could do to keep from screaming as the other girls talked with her, then finally I cleared my head enough to lead her away from poisonous daeva words.

I didn't want to lie to her, tell her that we did the right thing, but she was just so frightened and I could see how hard she was trying. So I did lie, told her sweet non-truths that never touched my heart. I hoped with that it would satisfy her for the time-being and stop her seeking more trouble or worse, realise just how dark things were and succumb to despair like me.

Eventually that Sunday night I went to bed and awoke the next morning to a silent household. There I cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast, made up a simple lunch consisting of a peanut butter sandwich, apple and juice popper, then with my school backpack slung about my shoulders met Abigail's warm and cheery family as they drove me to school in their SUV. Besides Abigail gushing and blushing with her family's teasing of her new boyfriend not too much happened. It was all precisely usual actually, only now they all had new material to tease Abigail with for which she responded, Please, that is so inappropriate! I had a good laugh too but could not partake in the usual morning ritual since my mind was thrown into so much turmoil I felt I hardly even knew what I was thinking anymore. All I wanted was for my mind to erase and to achieve that I had to escape.

I saw the other daevas around the school when we arrived there, the four lux variety and also one of nox. Besides Ariel none of the others were in my year so it was easy to give them a wide berth, which meant pretty much pretending that they never existed. But then there was Ariel who, though shared none of my subjects, made her presence known within my cohort. There was no direct communication, just the occasional sideways smirk as she passed me through halls and all the other boys and girls in my grade saying how amazing she was. I wanted to shut them up and tell them all that she was a back-stabbing (something rude) but instead held my tongue. I decided I didn't want to involve myself with their crazy daeva-dark-shade world so I wouldn't. It and her and them, didn't exist as far as I was concerned, just like that black stone stuck onto my thigh.

When physical education came it couldn't have come soon enough and I eagerly launched myself into my tennis match intent on destroying my adversary. Only problem with that was that my opponent was no push-over so I had to concentrate all the harder.

It was a perfect game.

-

"Deuce!" the teenage umpire declared from the high stool of the school tennis court.

"This is such a close game!" I heard one of my peers cry excitedly.

"These two are the best at every sport, it's amazing!" Another student was heard from the sidelines.

"Yeah, but now they're one on one. This time there's no team to help or hinder their performance. It's all about the one!"

"I reckon Kieran will win it!" A boy from the group stated. "Men always out-sport women, it's just biology!"

"I think Bethanie will win," a supporter refuted, unsurprisingly a female. "She's always held her own against even the best of male athletes. And just look at her eyes, there's a type of determination there that will never get tired!"

Kieran caught the ball from a student on the sidelines, bounced it twice, threw it into the air and then swung his body over it deftly. Blindingly fast the ball soared through the air, I heard it land, but where exactly I could not discern. It was very near the corner of the server's box though. I swung as it came past but the ball arced away from me and my racquet only just managed to clip it on its frame. From there the tennis ball pinged away to the fence and became stuck between metal wire webbing.

I narrowed my eyes, reflecting on my performance. I knew the ball was going to arc the way it did, I knew it from all the previous games I had played with Kieran. That was his serve, that was what made him tough to return against, but it was consistent and as long as the wind was taken into account, it was readable. The fact that I missed this shot did not make sense.

Then, turning downward, I narrowed my eyes at the top end of the court. There I saw the multiple faint coloured glows of high intensity circular hits to the synthetic floor, but one stood out greatest of all, a bright violet that was swiftly fading to blue bestowed its beauty just outside the server's box.

I smirked.

"Advantage server!" the fifteen year old umpire called out.

"I contest!" I declared confidently.

This received laughter and sniggers.

"Huh?" I exclaimed, baffled as I pointed to the bluing circle. "But that was so clearly out! You can see! It never clipped the line!"

"Bethanie..." my PE teacher raised her head from a bunch of papers she was grading, the senior's test papers I had surmised since their finals were just coming underway. "There's no bird's eye view in school tennis, alright? I put Jessica in charge of umpiring the match. Whatever she says, goes."

"But, Miss Montgomery, it was obviously out! C'mon, Jessica, use your eyes!"

"Um..." Jessica murmured timidly. "It looked in... I think?"

My teacher grunted manishly. "I don't care what you think you saw, Bethanie, but in the non-elite level, you take what the umpire calls or you're disqualified!"

I turned away from her sullenly and as I readied my racquet I muttered under my breath, "The injustice of school sport..."

But apparently Miss Montgomery heard something for she called out, "Bethanie, no pouting or I promise I will disqualify you!"

"Miss, I'm trying to get ready for Kieran's next serve, please don't distract me!"

I heard my teacher groan but said nothing more.

Then once Kieran had gained control of his silenced laughter he made his serve.

The ball hit the tape of the net, looked like it was almost about to snake over, but then fell dismally to the ground.

"Fault!" Jessica called.

Kieran threw another ball back into the air again, raised his racquet, then stopped and instead caught the ball.

"There's a lot of pressure with this next serve." A commentator from the sidelines informed our peers. "If Kieran gets this shot that will put the set to seven-five, that will mean he will win the set. But if he loses the game it will be six all and a tie-breaker will take place. They have both fought very hard and now pressure and fatigue will start taking their toll. This is when mistakes happen, when minds crumble. This is the hardest part of the match."

I did a brief glance across and noticed it was Matthew who was giving the diction, of course, I should not have been surprised really. He was not much of a sportsman himself, just loved to watch and be in the action of it all. It was obvious what his ideal career choice was.

Then the ball soared through the air again and I had to quickly turn my attention away from the commentator and back towards where the action was taking place. The ball fell down into the server's box, almost in the centre of it and much slower than the first hit. Despite my distraction the weak second serve was a delivery akin to child's play and I smashed it back with dazzling velocity. Kieran skirted across and swung but it was no match for the violent attack I had given him, that shot had defeated him.

"Deuce, sudden death!" Jessica called out after the ball bounced in the court, missed Kieran's return and then bounced out.

"This is it, set point." Matthew pointed out from the side.

Kieran threw the ball up and just at the peak of its height fell his racquet down upon it.

The ball hit just on the inside of the vertical server line. I dashed left, lowered my racquet and backhanded the ball into the centre of his court. He moved across and forehanded back towards me to the right. I received it easily, connected and curled over the top of the ball. It lifted high before landing short in his court. He saw this of course, so he anticipated the top-spin and sliced with his backhand into the middle of my court but far to the left.

I raced quickly, calling on all of my speed to reach the designated place and arrived there so swiftly that I barely had time to raise my racquet. But I did somehow, and I did brilliantly, for the ball that was shot off fired straight down the line so quickly that it took many seconds for the verdict to be announced.

"G... Game!" Jessica cried loudly but as if she was a little confused. "Bethanie... wins!"

"Whoa!" I heard from staggered voices on the sidelines.

"Did you see how fast she moved?"

"How did she do that? She became a bona-fied blur!"

"Shit, dude!"

"And Bethanie speeds across the court so quickly one would think she was supernatural right before slamming a powerful racquet and torpedoing the ball cruelly into her opponent's court!" Matthew cried excitedly. "Most of the onlookers do not doubt that this girl is superhuman with the unnatural and amazing display that she just gave and I don't doubt that her adversary, Kieran, is feeling that he has been cheated by the devil himself! Or in this case - herself!"

My whole body was so stiff that I couldn't understand how my tennis racquet fell to the ground.

"Oh... hum?" Miss Montgomery murmured as she pulled her eyes away from the papers she was grading. "The match is over, great! Um..." She furtively turned to her watch her students with unease but upon discerning the time she calmed. "Excellent, well you can all go to lunch now!"

"Yay!" was the common response however one student decided not to be so cool.

"But, miss!" Matthew almost screamed with his alarm. "The school bell hasn't rung yet! We want to see more of these two play and of Bethanie's supernatural speed!"

Then the school bell rung.

Our teacher cocked an annoyed eyebrow at the boy. "I can see you now, Matthew, as one of those males that do nothing but watch sport." She tsked. "Go have lunch, the lot of you, I'm done baby-sitting here!"

Though Matthew protested, the rest of her students were only too eager to comply with her directive, though as they left I did not miss the continued whispers at my blurred movement.

I jostled myself across the court to where I had laid my school bag but before I could sling it to my shoulders a boy grasped my arm.

"How did you do that back there?" Kieran asked wide eyed. "Don't get me wrong, it was epically cool, but damn, that was fast!"

I shrugged my arm free. "Don't, just please don't Kieran. I have enough B.S. going on in my head."

I placed the backpack on my shoulders and turned to leave but again Kieran grasped my wrist.

"Don't!" he called. "Don't go just yet!"

With an exhale I turned. "And why should I stay?"

"Because..." he murmured shyly. "I want to talk to you. Not about that stunt, but, about other things..."

I raised my eyebrows. "Talk? And why would that be? You hate me."

Kieran gaped before hurriedly divulging. "No. I don't!"

"Then why?" I asked with a frown fixed to my face. "Why do you always tease, belittle, antagonise or try to destroy me any way you can when you see me?"

Kieran grunted, turning his head with frustration but not did not relinquish his hold of my hand. "Because... I don't know. Maybe I'm angry but... I mean you just... still..."

"What?" I asked sardonically. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Damn it, Beth, you're such a cow!" He yelled. "But still..." He added with a quieter voice turned aside to the now empty tennis court. Then he gave a short laugh. "Despite that, I still think you get me better than anyone else. I can tell other people, but they just don't know what it's like, to feel alone. To feel unloved."

I almost made to leave but the baring of his soul halted me.

Kieran continued after a twitching pause. "It's getting really hard, you know, with my mum. And I kinda miss those times we wagged school together. It was good to get away from it all, pretend that nothing else mattered but the sport we played together."

"I know..." I responded quietly to Kieran. "But I promised too many people that I would try, you know, to make something of myself. To go to class, get good grades and all that stuff." I smirked weakly but inwardly wincing at the cruel effect I knew I was about to make. "That's why we can't hang out anymore. We're both on that self-destructive road and put together we only accelerate down that faster. I am sorry, Kieran, I thought you hated me before but no doubt this will make that a reality. Still, I like you." I laughed dryly here. "Even if you piss me off to tears sometimes. But, like I told you six months ago, I can't be your friend anymore."

I still felt his hand grasping mine as I said it and the warmth seemed to burn, then tremble.

"Damn it, Bethanie." His low voice quivered to a similar pattern to his hand. "Can't you see me reaching out here? I can't deal with this alone anymore. My mother, she's just... she's too much for me to deal with alone anymore. I swear, it's driving me insane."

Kieran paused, panting hurriedly as if he was still in that tennis match with me. "I know you said you wanted your distance, so you could try a go at a real life again, but Beth, I can't do this anymore, I can't act like it doesn't affect me if I have no one to fake it with." He winced. "C'mon, Beth, we've been through the same. Please, just don't pretend that we don't have a connection!"

Finally I tore my hand from his ruthlessly. "You're either a jerk, or a bitch. But I'll repeat myself from six months ago since you're obviously stupid all the time: I-don't-want-anything-to-do-with-you-anymore. I have too much of my own crap to deal with and handling yours, Kieran, only pulls me deeper."

I turned away and started walking but halted as the boy made another desperate cry.

"But what about us? We were good, weren't we? Sure we were delinquents skipping school, doing graffiti, but we connected, right?"

I didn't turn as I responded. "Sure, I got you, but you never got me. You have a mum, who, despite what she does, loves you. Me, I have a brother that gave up on his dream because of me. A younger one that's already forgotten his mother and through his arsehole father is about to be adopted by a floozy stranger. And then, to put the icing on the cake, I have no mother of my own! So, no, I do not have compassion for you because you don't know real hardship. I understand you, but you have no concept of what I am growing through because you have not felt that level of pain. So, I'm not going to apologise in saying that I don't want you in my life anymore. You're either nasty or depressing and I... am walking away from all that."

As I recommenced my steps it was to silence behind and when I closed the tennis court gate I caught a quick glimpse of the boy. There he remained still in just the same place, with his hand outstretched as if grabbing something still, but with head downturned and mute.

With a final squeak the gate closed shut. I then fastened the latch to keep the breeze from flying it open, then turned and left the boy alone to his melancholy.

Chapter 14

 

Abigail

The weekend passed for me pleasantly calm and mediocre just as Monday was setting out to be.

Though I did enjoy the peace, this surprised me after the declaration Bethanie had given. I had been sure there was an imminent war ensuing and that we would be battling our way to the daeva-luxes' side. However that hadn't come to pass thus far. Nor had anything spectacular at all, people just went on with their lives unaffected by all the strangeness I was learning.

School functioned like normal too, only it was better because there was where I was allowed to see my boyfriend.

During lunch on Monday Eric and I ran off from the group and walked around the school grounds, talking as we held hands. This received a lot of looks from other students and a few wolf-whistles. I blushed heavily upon hearing the latter as did Eric, but neither one of us let go of our hands, it just felt too nice to be interlocked like we were.

"It's embarrassing." Eric giggled. "But still it's worth it, being near you is the greatest thing of all. But you might not feel the same way, I understand if you want to let go since all those whistles are for you really, about how beautiful you are."

"Oh, Eric..." I gushed as I placed my free hand to my cheek. "Don't say such things, it's only making me go red! But even with all that, I don't wanna let go!"

"And I will never let you go, Abigail, not even if you asked me to. You mean the world to me, I really do like you very much!"

"I like you very much too, Eric!" I parroted breathily, but then frowned as memory triggered.

"What's wrong, Abigail?"

"I... I am just feeling a little confused by things, that's all."

"Not about us!?" He asked with alarm.

"No!" I smiled, "That's the one thing I'm sure about!" I gave his hand a squeeze to illustrate my point before letting my smile drop. "It's just that I've been wondering about something. Do you think that evil really exists? Like are there monsters out there that want nothing but power and are willing to hurt innocent people in the process?"

"You've been watching too many scary movies with your mother!" Eric smirked but followed up when my expression did not lessen. "Hey, what you said just there, that's all nonsense! Sure there are bad things in this world and people who do bad things to bring them about, but I don't believe there is such a thing as a bad person or a bad animal for that matter. We all do things that we are think are right at the time, but sometimes what's right for one person is bad or even considered evil for others, but that person never intentionally set out to be evil - it just doesn't exist."

"But how can you say that when there's all those horrible crimes being committed out there? Abuse, rape, murder. In some parts of the world, I know that they even give children weapons to fire on others, kids younger than us! I know a lot of people think I'm naive, but I'm not, I know the bad that goes on in this world and then, I guess, there's bad in other worlds too..."

"Shh..." Eric hushed to stop my rambling. "Hey, I hear what you're saying and I don't disagree, there's a lot of bad things happening, but it's not evil that causes these things."

"It's... not evil?"

Eric shook his head. "No, there is no such thing. What causes all these bad actions is not evil but hate, anger, despair and fear. They all play a role in destroying a person's soul."

"I don't understand, Eric," I admitted, "even with those emotions why would people choose to harm others?"

"It's not really that complicated when you think about it. Things happen to people, terrible horrible things that they have no control over and that leads to people feeling vulnerable, violated and weak. When it occurs they're usually too young to react and vent, or these feelings are too great that any reaction would never be enough, so it bubbles inside them and strengthens. Left inside these emotions change the way they think and feel about others until finally it releases towards an outlet that they can over power. Trouble is, by that point the release only vents the emotions at the surface but what causes the hate is still within them, buried deep down."

"So you're saying that people aren't evil, they can just act like it sometimes because it helps them deal with... their pasts?"

"Yeah, exactly. No one is truly evil, people are just by-products of the circumstances that raised them. But in saying that, if a person hasn't been able to move on from the bad things that has happened to them in life then it will eventually leak out and attack others weaker than them. It's just their way of dealing with the pain."

"But..." I murmured. "If they're hurting others to get over their own hurt doesn't that hurt them again? Surely these people have some empathy and feel other people's pain, right?!"

"I reckon they do, but a lot of these kind of people choose to shut it out. Which probably makes it even worse in a way, because then the pain inside them increases and so they seek to release again by the only means they know how...."

"By hurting others they let go of their own pain, but it is only temporary, soon it comes back stronger than ever but because they don't understand where the new additional pain comes from they think it's still all from their past and so they wish to release again and..." I gasped. "The cycle continues!"

"That's right and so long as they think they can get away with doling out their own hurt onto others they'll keep doing it until some drastic intervention happens."

"So you really think that there is no evil, it's just circumstance to how a person acts?"

"Not just circumstance," he smiled wryly, "but genes too, nature and nurture always have an equal hand. But still, I don't believe that nature could ever be evil, just as someone never intended to do cruel things. I'm sorry," he added with a lighter voice. "This really isn't the nicest of boyfriend-girlfriend conversations, is it? I'll shut up now."

"No, it's fine!" I bit my bottom lip. "I never really believed in evil myself so it's nice to hear someone back me up. I feel relieved actually, like the world almost turned onto a different axis but you were there to hold it up!" I grinned.

His deep brown eyes beamed. "If it means holding up the world to keep you standing, then I'd do it any day of the week!"

I giggled as I turned away bashfully but quickly sobered. "Eric, what makes you so passionate about this topic?"

"Because, I guess I couldn't understand why people did bad things so I made an attempt to find that out."

"But why? Why did you have that need? It's not like you were ever victimised."

Eric still held my hand as we walked but turned his gaze far aside. "Just because I wasn't a victim of this anger, doesn't mean that I wasn't affected by it. I wasn't directly, but other people are and that made me angry also."

Though the hand he held in mine remained the same I noticed his other clench tightly.

"Who, Eric? Who do you know that has been made a victim?"

Eric raised his eyebrows in a way to say, well, here we go. "John and Chloe in our grade for a couple. They've been teased since we started high-school, but there's also other kids in other grades, other schools and other playgrounds. But it doesn't have to be just kids, it could be anyone made an outcast from their peers: adults in their offices, members of family and then the social groups from the larger society. Everyone does it, bullies, everywhere, but understandable so you just... can't... react. Or else, you would be just as bad."

Silence hung as we walked and for many moments I processed this information. It seemed profound, wise, experienced and still far too much for a fifteen year old boy.

Again I asked the question, "Eric, what has led you to feel this way?"

That was when I felt his grip around mine tighten. "You know how Jordan is special? Well, we didn't all know that at first, my parents and I. I knew that he was different to me, shy but he was younger so I thought that was normal. But his condition didn't become apparent until he started play group. I remember when my mum and I went to pick him up from there and saw the other kids tease him. Mum didn't actually see it, it was just me because I ran straight to the playground to pick my little brother up where I expected to find him but when I did I wasn't happy as I saw him being picked on by the other kids. Jordan was falling behind but it didn't seem to be such a big deal. He was already so smart and so a stumble here and there was expected, only... This turned out to be a much larger stumble than anyone expected. Maybe we knew the signs, I think I did even though I was barely into my double figures, but I knew something was up with my little brother. Still, I pretended that there wasn't because I didn't want to believe. I pretended so much that months went by before my parents cottoned on where precious time to Jordan's treatment was lost. But I thought I was protecting him just as whenever someone made a snide comment about Jordan I remembered either defending him or coming up with my own comment back."

"Bad people..." I analysed. "They're bullies, just some with more power than others, right?"

Eric nodded as he continued his story. "I was still in primary school when Jordan was placed into a special school so that he could be separated from our world, so that he wouldn't be teased." Eric shook his head as if frustrated. "He's not that disabled! Yeah he's not as smart as us, apparently he's only at the intellect of a five year old even though he's ten, but he's not stupid! He's not so dumb that he doesn't realise when he's being teased or when he's being talked over the top of like a toddler! Ever since the disease took him people think he's inferior, just because he can't communicate and work through problems like he used to! When they're kind they act like he doesn't exist, but sometimes they're angry and they see Jordan as that weak outlet to pour their hatred into!"

"Oh gosh, Eric!" I exclaimed as my other hand grasped his, my whole body turning around and ceasing our walk. "I didn't know, Jordan has always been such a happy boy and I love him to pieces!"

Eric raised a hand, brushed a free brunette lock from my face to behind my ear.  "That's it, Abigail. That's why I like you so much! You don't see those horrible things and most importantly, you don't see anyone as prey. You see them as friends and that's why I'll never let you go."

I smiled wanly before it fell. "So those kids who hurt your brother, did they do it bad?"

Eric slipped his hands away. "They did, they, just at four years of age teased him, made nicknames, then at five made gestures and shut him out of friendship circles. That's when we knew, that's when we made the change. At the special school the kids were behind just the same but with Jordan he was put into the top class with all the smarter autistic type and was soon made the dumbest amongst them. Things got worse from there, from name calling, to kids following him around the playground until one decided to attack him without provocation. I saw many bruises before I walked into a situation where it happened. That was when I became angry.

"I was only a kid myself then, but a whole five years older than Jordan and his cohort, but I couldn't stand by their bullying any longer so I made the Deverell name known. Mess with us, I told them and you feel the consequences!

"It sounded like a cool thing to say when you're just a kid defending what you believe in. But of course the other kids didn't listen to a word of what I had said and came and attacked me. There were three of them, all were younger, but one was actually my size, but still none landed a single punch or kick on me. It's unsurprising really because when you think about it since I was attacking the ones that couldn't fight back and all of a sudden I had become the bully beating those weaker than me."

"Was your brother there?" I asked.

"Yeah." Eric lowered his head. "My brother saw it all, ran up to me and started flying punches into me! I couldn't understand it, I went there to protect him! To save him from his bullies and teach them a lesson and you know what he said to me? He said, no fighting, brother. It hurts both ways."

"Violence begets violence." I murmured thoughtfully as I recalled words from a film with its title long forgotten.

Eric pricked the corner of his mouth skyward. "Exactly. I was in year seven when it happened, Jordan in year two at his special school. I was a stupid kid, trying to act tough to protect his brother but in the meanwhile I attacked three boys that stood no chance against me. There's... really no excuse for what I did."

"Hold on!" I protested. "But you said these kids were teasing Jordan, that's not cool!"

"But violence isn't the way to fix those issues, you just said it yourself, Abigail."

Nodding slowing I understood. "There were a lot of people hurting there. Jordan who never lashed out at anyone, then those kids who thought they were above him so they harmed him because they thought they could get away with it, then you stepped in to defend Jordan and attacked them because, even though you were outnumbered, you knew you could over power them with your wit and skill. And you did."

Eric nodded. "You see now, how violence can escalate? You see how good intentions can turn bad and ultimately turn to evil actions?"

I nodded myself. "Yeah, if the cycle didn't end there then more powerful people would try their own vengeance and hurt others. And then those others would try to gain power just so they could reach a position to harm the ones that harmed them and it would go on and on until it became a worldwide issue..."

"Like world war one and world war two. The issues they had didn't have to divide the planet, but there was so much hate, anger, despair and sadness that the people just couldn't let it go and the nations waged their terrible wars."

"You can't blame the people!" I refuted. "They didn't start the wars, it was their governments!"

Eric nodded. "True, but many governments form by popular persuasion. Sure, some people didn't understand who they were really voting for, but some did and I don't think they'll admit it, but I bet it will be a large majority of those voters who wanted the reforms that happened."

I nodded slowly, not liking the words despite liking the boy, but respecting them all the same. "So those boys who attacked your brother, that you fought in return, no one is to account for their own actions?"

Eric squeezed my hand but it seemed more a twitch than a voluntary movement. "No," He frowned, "People are responsible, we still have choice, but what I'm saying is that circumstances lead people to crossroads where bad choices are made." He sighed here. "I was only a young kid when I started that fight, but I can say to this day that I regret it because of those words that Jordan told me. I should have tried talking and if that failed, walk away, but instead I led to the chain of violence plaguing the world."

I fiddled with the fabric of my school skirt in my free hand. I didn't know why, I just did it because I supposed it felt comfortable.

"Eric!" I cried. "I have something really important to ask you now. It's this!" I whipped a long pale pink ribbon from my pocket. "Mum wants me to start tying my hair with it instead of a hair band. I told her that ribbons are too loose and fall out and otherwise just makes my hair look drab but then she says it's the family way for the girls to tie their hair in ribbons. She's been trying this all my life and I keep saying no but she never stops pestering me with the darned ribbon so I gotta ask for your advice here! How do I tell her that I don't like these ribbons!?"

Eric took the ribbon from my hands and with a sneaky smirk moved behind me.

"I totally agree with you, but, you look so cute with this in your hair!"

"Did you just put that thing on me, Eric?!" And as I fought my hands back behind to tear at my new entourage Eric's hands held mine steady.

"Please." The boy begged. "You don't have to wear it all the time if you don't like, but just leave it for the day! You look so adorable with it on!"

"You sound just like my mother when she tries playing dress up with her teenage daughter." I responded monotonically.

"Hey, I bared my soul to you, didn't I? Just give me one day of you looking like the girlfriend from heaven, please?"

I frowned and laughed at the same time. "Gosh, you're all loony. Fine, I'll wear the darned ribbon!"

-

In art I started my major that day. An oil on canvass of the teenage couple on a park bench, but managed to execute no more than a few ill-fitting brush strokes. It was her eyes that stopped me from concentrating, ones that lingered on me but as I turned to catch them they were already away.

I frowned. "I wish she would stop looking at me, it's really giving me the creeps."

"Who?" Amy murmured as she followed my hostile line of sight. "You mean Ariel? But she's not looking at you at all and why would that be so threatening? Ariel is a lovely girl!"

"Don't judge a book by its cover." I warned.

Amy laughed at this. "Isn't that what visual arts is all about? Here it's nothing but first appearances!"

It wasn't just Ariel I saw, but also the daeva-lux girls, but only briefly and at a distance as I hurried between classes. And though I wanted to I never found an opportunity to approach one of them. When I saw them though, I could not help noticing that during school all four of the girls kept far apart. In years eleven and twelve they hung around in different groups. I heard gossiping from afar and even witnessed Pearl and Rebecca walking past one-another but they never shed a glance to the other, as if they were strangers.

Then school ended and just like a regular Monday afternoon Bethanie and I were walking home from school.

"Bethanie, this is all so weird!" I cried suddenly unable to contain the thoughts and emotions that had been broiling inside during the last two days. "I feel like nothing has happened and yet it has, hasn't it?"

Bethanie smiled as she rubbed my shoulder. "It has, but that doesn't mean that you can't still have your normal life."

"But there's bad things out there, aren't we meant to protect people from them!?"

"Hey," she soothed, "sure there's bad things, but there's no need to go looking for them. If you do you'll only put yourself in danger. Just keep on living the way you are now. If things are going to happen, they're going to happen but we're not going to look for it, okay? All that business is too dangerous and we're too new to all this so just take a step back."

"I guess so." I replied. "Don't get me wrong, I like normal boring life, it's just, it feels odd to have learnt all this and do nothing. But then I guess, I don't even know what we're supposed to do."

"I don't really know either." Bethanie admitted.

"We should find those daeva-luxes and find out more about what's going on!"

Bethanie winced. "Yeah, maybe, but then also maybe we're better off not. It's all so confusing with one side pointing the finger at the other and calling them evil. I don't think that those lux girls are lying, I mean it's become pretty obvious that Ariel and Raziel just want to turn as many daevas as they can, but we don't really know what either side's game is. For all we know those daeva-lux girls could be vying for their own power."

I frowned. "Maybe you're right, two of those girls did really scare me. Vanessa seems hell bent on destruction and then there's the black-haired girl, Rebecca, she frightens me most of all. She talks about violence and death so calmly. There's definitely something not right about those two, but then Lara and Pearl don't seem so bad. And Pearl I really like!"

"Hm, I got the same vibe, but then two of them were overpowered by Ariel. And the way Ariel lied to us so easily, that just can't be forgiven." I noticed that Bethanie had her hands clenched.

"Still, despite that I kinda feel sorry for Ariel. It's just her and Raziel against those other four. They might be strong enough to overcome the others, but I think it must be pretty lonely for them..."

Bethanie scoffed. "Lonely? Not a chance. There's two more girls in that crew, no doubt daeva-noxes too and if you think Vanessa and Rebecca are scary then you should see this Dorothy chick, she seems to me like she's positively insane."

"Oh!?" I gasped. "More daevas?"

"And then of course there are those shades. I have no idea whose side their on!"

"The monsters that attacked us last week..?" I husked.

We walked in silence for a few minutes as unease crept heavily into our hearts but then suddenly Bethanie asked, "Hey, Abigail, I was wondering why you're not walking home with Eric today. You two are dating now and he doesn't live too far from our streets, so why are you with me instead of him? Didn't he offer?"

I smiled shyly. "He did actually, but I turned him down. Walking home together after school is our thing and besides, Eric and I spent all lunch together!"

"And probably many more lunches to come!" Bethanie prophesised. "Well I don't mind the afternoons but don't ditch me in the mornings, that would mean I'd actually have to catch the bus!"

"Oh no!" I cried passionately. "Then you'd lose your beauty sleep! We can't have that now, that extra half an hour makes the world of difference to your complexion!"

Bethanie scoffed. "You know I don't care about that stuff, three brothers remember? That makes me as adept as a boy in those things. But, sleep any way its sliced is something I covet."

"Yeah, you lazy bones!" I bumped her shoulder. "Half the time when we come to pick you up you're still in bed!"

"Well, not lately!" Bethanie defended. "That sunrise is just too bright!"

"I know!" I gushed. "And the sunset too, aren't they just the prettiest! It's like the aurora borealis!"

"Aurora australis!" Bethanie interred.

"Huh?"

"Aurora borealis is the northern hemisphere but we're in Australia so that makes it Aurora australis."

"Oh... but they're meant to occur at the poles!"

"They do..." Bethanie replied thoughtfully. "But that's because of the earth's magnetic field there, but with the aura we see I think it has more to do with natural light hitting this other kind of soul light and how they interact."

"Wow, Bethanie...  You've been hitting the net for all this haven't you?"

"Hey, I could know these things myself!" She refuted without much effort.

"Sure, but then if location isn't important then it shouldn't matter whether I call it Aurora borealis or australis!"

Bethanie leered playfully. "Fine, that makes sense, I suppose."

I giggled. "You shouldn't try to beat people with verbal arguments, you're much better at the physical!"

"You're one to talk, your mum and little sister annihilate you!"

"Yeah, that's true." I agreed. "But you see, it's because I let them."

"Oh, what bull!"

"No, it's true! They're all having so much fun and I can't deny that I don't enjoy it myself so I don't really try too hard to fight back because that will just kill it all! But... on the topic of arguments, you've been fighting with someone lately, haven't you?"

"Someone?" Bethanie replied dryly.

I took a deep breath before broaching the subject. "Kieran was very upset in maths today. Matthew said that you humiliated Kieran in tennis before lunch with your supernatural powers..."

"That boy is blabbing that all over the school!?" She cried incredulously.

"I know how Matthew can embellish things but it sounds like you really upset Kieran. He's the grade's top male athlete and you beat him with the whole class watching, you gotta think how about how he's feeling. Boys aren't like girls, you know, their strength is their masculinity and it sounds like you just destroyed that!"

Bethanie laughed dryly. "So you think I should have let him win so his ego wasn't hurt?"

"No, not let him win, just don't, I dunno, make such a big deal about it..."

"I didn't make a big deal about it." Bethanie interrupted me. "I didn't because I was in too much shock at how I... moved really quickly across the court. I... just showed the whole grade that I was a freak."

I breathed in deeply. "So you did use your powers! Bethanie, you shouldn't have pulled your sword out in front of everyone!"

"What!?" She exclaimed. "Sword? No! I just ran really quickly."

Laughing I waved that away. "Well that's fine then! No one saw anything! Matthew said the same thing himself."

"But they all saw!"

"Bethanie, when does the school not stop and stare at your athletic prowess. Trust me, there's been rumours long before now that you have super-human speed so as long as you keep it to that..."

"Hold on!" She interrupted hurriedly. "There's been rumours that I wasn't human... before I wasn't human!?"

"Yes, yes, but quit going off on a tangent, the important issue here is Kieran! What happened there?"

Bethanie shook her head. "I dunno know. So much was going on and as you can see I'm pretty confused, then Kieran was trying to get me to..." She trailed off.

"To what?" I prodded ruthlessly.

"He wanted me to hang out with him."

"And what's so bad with that?"

"Like we used to."

"Oh." I responded as memory dawned on me.

"Yeah," Bethanie repeated. "Oh."

"I guess that means he's having trouble with his mum again."

"Exactly. He told me he was having problems with his mum but I just told him to leave me alone. Actually no, it was worse, I told him that his issues were insignificant compared to my own. I shut him down completely."

"Just after you beat him in tennis..."

Bethanie laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah, just after I broke his manhood to boot. I guess that officially qualifies me as a terrible person."

"But why push him away now? It's not like you have to go back to how you two were acting. You're past all that truanting and graffitiing and that. You can hang out without it going back the same way."

"Maybe... but I'm not as over it as you think and if I get too involved with Kieran I think I will end up going down that road again."

Then I remembered that night we were attacked near Skyward mountain's lookout. As that strange snow fell and the voice sung I recalled Bethanie running off towards some phantom which I since had come to think was her mother. And then there was all this happening also, so much to process and so much that someone might want to run from. And when it came to Bethanie she was the best runner I knew.

"I see. You're worried that by hanging with him you'll both fall back to your old ways but, Bethanie, when you reject him, try not to hurt him. His issues may not be like yours but that doesn't mean that they're not important." I counselled.

"Yeah." Bethanie murmured. "You're right."

We were only a few blocks away from our neighbourhood, walking through a stretch of slope with no homes in sight, when a quiet high-pitched noise caught my attention.

"What was that?" I called with consternation creeping within my chest.

"What was what?" Bethanie asked perplexed.

"The noise, ah, there it is again!" I cried as I heard the high frequency carry for longer this time as it penetrated from the trees down the slope by the road.

Bethanie heard it this time as she tried to decipher its cause. "It's like a squealing. An animal, maybe."

With that notion I was soon fumbling down the hill.

"Abigail!" Bethanie called after me. "It's probably just some bird-cry. Don't run down there, it's too steep, you'll lose your footing!"

But because I heard it again, more clearly this time, I persevered. It was a long call, one that trailed off at the end, as if losing strength to its desperate plea. That made me even more certain that an animal was in trouble.

Miraculously I managed to keep my feet until I reached a kind of flat land.

Bethanie arrived beside me a second later. "Like I said, there's no one here, sounds like it's just some animal."

I shot her a warning look. "Animals are people too, you know!"

"Well, people and animals..." She started before I grunted and cut her off.

"They're still important, okay? And I can hear that there's one up ahead that's in pain!"

After a few more footsteps where the forest became silent Bethanie interred, "Well it doesn't sound like it's in so much pain anymore."

Determinedly I grabbed Bethanie's hand and drew her through the forest at a run towards the direction from the where the cries had come. Despite the irony of me leading Bethanie in such a highly difficult area to navigate with its brush knee-high, branches and twigs poking out every-which-way and sudden spider webs that caused me to squeal a meagre moment before ploughing into them, my friend followed me without complaint. So we ran, or at least I did, Bethanie's pace was probably more akin to a power-walk, until a clearing became evident ahead where the sun broke through the canopy of leaves.

It was upon seeing this that I stopped, Bethanie colliding into my back and gasping just as I caught the sight of a dark human shaped silhouette placing its hands onto an unconscious rabbit.

"All this, for a rabbit!?" Bethanie exclaimed as we peered through the trees.

"It's a living animal, just like we are!" I reminded. "And those things are hurting it, we have to save it!"

Bethanie smirked. "Yeah, I'll get the shade bastard stealing the bunny's aura, only, well, I never expected to encounter something like this."

"You'll... you'll save it?" I asked timidly to which Bethanie shone me a confident smile.

"That's right, just you watch me save the little cry-baby!" She roared so loudly that it seemed to attract the attention of the black being where it raised its head.

But Bethanie was already in there, running so dazzlingly quickly into the clearing and then suddenly, out of nowhere a gigantic black blade with red webbing on its steel formed within her hands.

The sword was incredibly long, seven feet total in length, far greater than Bethanie's height and dwarfed me, but she somehow managed to pull its weight up off the forested floor. Only barely though, for it the tip was just a few inches from the grass beneath, but still pulled it across with earnest zeal.

"These eyes," I analysed softly to myself. "They make it all look different. That shade... I can see its outline."

And that shade had barely a moment between lifting its head and trying to dodge away. But Bethanie was too fast and despite my reassurances, she could have only been described as a super-human blur. Then she stopped just a metre from the shade but her momentum continued and with a roar she slashed her massive blade sideways through the air, over the top of the sleeping rabbit, then straight through the torso of the fleeing aggressor.

A sound like breaking glass ensued as the shade form collapsed with a rain of black crystals before falling towards the grass but disintegrating into nothing before ever touching.

"Wow!" I called as I raced towards her. "You're really incredible, Bethanie!"

My friend dropped her weapon which fell with gravity's pull before likewise disappearing into a mist of white. Then she picked up the rabbit, one that was white in colour and smiled at me. "It's just sleeping. Its aura has been diminished but it'll live to see another day."

Then when I finally caught up I threw myself around Bethanie, careful not to crush the animal in her arms. "Thank you, Bethanie, you just saved its life!"

Bethanie's smile widened before a curious look entered her features. Handing me the animal which I accepted only too zealously she stepped back and lifted her school skirt to reveal the skin of her thigh.

"Bethanie?" I asked.

"It's... gone." She stammered, then repeated with excitement. "It's gone!"

"Um... Bethanie? Do you mean the shade or your dignity?"

Bethanie quickly dropped her skirt with a cheeky grin. "Maybe both, but what does it matter, it's only you here!?"

"And the bunny!" I reminded loudly which seemed to stir the animal from its slumber where quickly it leapt from my cradelling arms and deep into the forest.

"Aw..." I complained.

Bethanie giggled. "Well there you have it, just us two again!"

"Maybe not..." I murmured as a distant female voice broke through the trees, softly and bittersweet.

"Bethanie?" I breathed nervously just as blue particles moved through the air.

Bethanie's face hardened. "The horizontal snow, just like before, only this time its blue."

I took a couple of steps through it, catching a few soft ambient flakes on my hands. "The colour, it's because we can see the light in its true form now, isn't it?"

"And just like before there's singing." Here Bethanie materialised her long blade back into her hands.

"Bethanie, why did you bring your sword back?" I asked, apprehension giving a tremor to my voice.

"Because." She turned back around to me with blue eyes so deep it caused me to shiver. "I'm not done fighting."

Chapter 15

 

Bethanie

 

The voice led through the trees, a high-pitched splendour that seemed to always finish on a pitch just a little too sharp. Blue snow fell onto the trees, the brush underfoot and onto Abigail, the cat and I, highlighting everything in a cool blue and silvery colouration. Despite that eeriness however my feet walked through the forest, determinedly seeking its source.

The sword felt heavy in my hands and heavier as ever moment passed. It was starting to become apparent that the longer I had it drawn the more difficult it became to wield, however I could not drop it now. It took too long a moment to materialise and in this setting I did not want to lose that moment. It was because this was exactly the situation Abigail and I had found ourselves in the previous week, right before being attacked by a swarm of shades.

"Bethanie?" Abigail asked, the fear plain in her voice. "What do you think this all means? Is the snow connected to the singing?"

With dread I responded, "Yes."

Then suddenly I felt something pull at the edges of my school blouse. With alarm I turned around and saw Abigail clutching at me with desperation.

"Don't go running off this time and leave me! You promised that you'd protect me, right?"

My tense expression softened. "Yes, don't worry, I'm not going to run off, not for anything."

But that figure of my mother walking through the bush, always too far to reach but never too far to catch sight of returned to my mind. An illusion no doubt and possibly one connected to this horizontal snow. That meant I had to keep my guard up and my sword from falling.

Again the density of the snow increased, casting the entire scenery into strange shades of cool blue, just as the volume of the singing increased and different to last time, here I could actually make out the words as now they seemed to be in English.

 

Tears fall when I see your face

These black streaks trail with grace

Mascara smudged, never to be repaired

Because the loss of you will never be fair

 

We walked further through, the difficult path seemingly endless and just as before the song increased in its zeal but also in its sorrow.

 

Skin so white you could be a doll

With a perfect image and nought a soul

You are still my man even though you're gone

But I hold out for when the sun will be shone

 

As we walked my hands began to tremble as my blade threatened to fall. But I couldn't let go yet, I had to be ready.

 

It is death that claims you now

And though you have taken your last bow

I will never give you up

 

It was getting very loud again, so loud that I ceased to hear Abigail's and my own feet crunching on the imbroglio beneath. I panned my eyes about, critical of every aspect of the terrain to find the strange song's source, but failed to make out anything through the blue.

 

In my heart you will stay

Just as these tears keep it a rainy day

But I will never give you up

 

The words had hit the pinnacle of the volume I was sure, so loud that I could no longer hear my own uneasy pants but still I crunched mutely through, my destination hidden from view. Then I felt a firm jerk on my blouse. Turning around I saw Abigail's mouth widen and close over and over, as if she was shouting something.

"I can't hear you!" I shouted back but my own words were just as unheard.

Abigail shook her head and pointed sideways to a spot where blue glowed so acutely it was almost white and at the centre was a girl, singing.

 

Someway, somehow, you'll return to me

That is my endless decree

For I will never give you up

 

I motioned for Abigail to stay back and walked through the remaining trees between us and when I reached the girl I waited, seven foot sword held directly behind me and ready.

 

Even if the world must break

Even if destruction lies in its wake

I will never give up

 

She lingered on the last note awhile, seemingly at the climax of the song. When she finished her eyelids raised and flashed smiling silver eyes my way.

"You came to hear me sing!" She beamed. "Why thank you, Bethanie, I haven't had an audience in a very long time..."

I clutched my sword tightly as I viewed the glowing girl, the blue world still fixed about her. "Not so long ago I'm thinking, since I heard your voice just last week, Dorothy."

Giddily the silver-haired girl placed her hands together in a clap. "So you did hear me? You really did!?"

"Is that really such a surprise?" I asked sarcastically.

She nodded vehemently. "Oh yes, no one of this world ever hears me sing, only the phantoms and the ghosts..."

"You mean those shades of yours." I surmised.

"Huh?" She looked at me quizzically. "Shades? But that's what the bad side calls them. Our friends are no shades, but noes!" She added with a determined nod.

I smirked "No, I do think you're insane."

Dorothy's smile fell. "You're a phantom, but you don't seem to know your place yet. You don't realise that it's within the darkness you lie." She said it as if it was an accusation.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess I don't."

The girl smiled, then started to laugh, then increased her zeal to manic before finally settling into a small chuckle. "Ah, so you're not my only audience but she came to hear me too, splendid!"

Here she shot a silver look straight through the trees to my friend behind. Instantly however I intercepted her hostile glare.

"Stay away from her, if there's anyone you're going to act bitchy towards, well," I shrugged, then, with hands still clenched on my hilt, I raised the sword over my shoulder. "Then you have me. Bring it!"

The girl resumed her crazed laughter quickly and just as soon settled it to another wild glare. "Oh, you're sassy! You don't take crap from no one, don't cha, Bethanie?" Her smile stretched wide as she lingered on my name. "You know, I'm not meant to kill you..." She gazed aside like a tempted child then turned back as if overruled by those naughty desires. "But you just look like so much fun to play with!"

With her shout everything quaked and like shards of glass breaking and falling apart so too did the blue world shatter around me.

Crystalline panes fell carrying images of trees, of the ground, of leaves overhead. Of the maniacal silver-eyed girl in front of me and with a desperate turn so too did the area holding Abigail fall away from existence. It was all falling apart, all of my senses suddenly overwhelmed by destruction.

But with the shattering reality came something else, a new place filled with hotdog stands, fairy floss machines, show-bags with recognisable characters headlining them, long dirt trails that were more wet than dry and distant rides where excited screams travelled from.

"This is dumb," My brother Cameron fabricated along with this scene, but he was four years younger and just entering the terrible teens. "It's crowded and smells like crap."

He wasn't wrong, people materialised within the scene in every direction, appearing down the lengths of the paths and pressed up to every stall, all making just as much commotion as their nearby neighbours. And he was also right about the smell, it was certainly carrying a degree of sulphur in the air.

"Quit being such a sook, Cam!" An eighteen year old Michael punched his brother in the shoulder playfully, yet not entirely gently. "It's just families out to enjoy the show and as to the smell... that's kind of expected with all the farm animals!"

"Yeah, dude!" Paul nudged Cameron himself with a smirk. "Just try to do the family thing, hey? It would mean the world to your mother!"

"It would, Cameron, please try for me?" A familiar voice and a familiar face pleaded, two of which I never thought I would experience again. Then the woman who said these things turned to me as she rubbed her large belly tenderly. "Bethanie's enjoying herself. Just try to relish the moment like your sister, won't you darling?"

"Mum..." I uttered, sword clenched behind me.

As Cameron rolled his eyes my mother turned to me with a smile so warm that it almost made my tear ducts unfreeze. "Is there something you'd like to say, Bethanie?"

"Mum..." I repeated, almost about to reach out for her but that would mean dropping the blade. "You're... not real."

The woman rose her eyebrows as she giggled, then made a bashful look as she brought her shoulder up to her blonde short cropped hair framing a face that resembled Marilyn Monroe acutely. "Yes, well, I am just too fantastic to be real, aren't I!?"

"Geez, Mum." Cameron groaned. "Could you be anymore in love with yourself!?"

Then Paul made his claim. "No matter how much Catherine loves herself, it is not only justified, but still far less than I feel for her. No one could have as much love for this woman, as I do." There he closed the gap between them and hugging her placed an affectionate hand onto her swollen belly.

I heard my own words then though I never moved my mouth. "Aw... you two are the perfect couple! Mum is the bestest of them all and you are too, Dad."

Both smiled happily as Paul pulled his hand away from his unborn child to squeeze my shoulder. "Every time you say it makes me so happy, Bethanie. I am so looking forward to all the years ahead being your father."

I heard Cameron scoff right before Michael made his interplay. "We are all glad to invite you into the family, Paul. I have never seen Mum so happy."

Then my mother gasped and all eyes turned to her belly with alarm but with her outstretched hand we next followed that instead. "Camels! Oh we must ride on a camel! Bethanie, you'll ride one with me, won't you?" My mother laid out her other hand as she looked with excited desperation into my eyes.

I knew how it played out, Paul's concern about the effect of how all the movement could affect her near term pregnancy. At how Mum decided to anyway, stating that she did much crazier things with her other three anyway, then jumping aboard that lumpy animal with me and us both squealing as we thought we were about to fall when it wonkily rose to its feet. We had seen the world at such a different perspective up there on that animal's unsteady back and we had giggled all the way. Mum had pointed to the big slides in the distance, where I pointed to all the lost tennis balls on a nearby tin roof to one of the shelters. Then my mother pointed down to all the people we were carried past and stated with marvel, "This is what it feels like to be on top on the world, with a bloated stomach and as if we're about to fall off at any moment!"

I had laughed, I had enjoyed that day so much. As well as the later fireworks, as well as my stepfather buying me a show-bag, as well as feeling my unborn brother kick in my mother's stomach. It was everything I wanted desperately to relive again.

My mother's hand was still outstretched for me to take, inviting me to that camel ride. And I started to reach for it but felt something begin to fall from my grasp.

"Don't do it!" I heard a distant muffled cry. "Don't take its hand, Bethanie! It only wants to hurt you!"

Then I remembered how the story of Catherine Starr ended.

It's all an illusion...

I drew that hand back and regripped it tightly with the other on my hilt. "You're not..." I told the inviting figure hesitantly. "You're not my mum."

The woman giggled. "Oh c'mon darling, I can't be that embarrassing, surely! I mean, I know I'm fat! But that's no reason not to love a person!" She exclaimed loftily.

"Bethanie..." That same distant voice called. "Don't..."

"Darling, are you sure you don't want a ride on the camel? It could be a once in a life-time experience!" She enticed.

"You should do it." Michael added. "Mother-daughter time, hey? Us boys can do a bit of shooting, that should help burn through some of the adolescent testosterone from Cameron's system!"

Cameron raised an eyebrow. "How 'bout a real gun?"

To this Paul guffawed. "Not a chance, buddy! To do that you need to be eighteen and besides, I don't think there's any facilities for that here. But hey, when you're of age how about we go to a shooting range and check it out, yeah?"

"Eighteen..." Cameron groaned. "But that's ages away!"

"It'll happen." Paul responded sagely. "Before you even want it to."

"C'mon, Bethanie!" My mother pleaded. "I so wanna do this with my only daughter! You know I can't do mother-daughter stuff with anyone else since this little one is yet another boy!"

"Mum..." I murmured.

"Please! I need someone to hang onto up there!"

Just as my grip began to slip again I heard that same distant voice. "It's coming for you, Bethanie! Don't let it touch you!"

There my mother reached out to grab my hand.

With a sudden strike I cut down with a vertical arc through the woman that looked like my mother. She frowned after the blow and shone blue eyes on me that seemed to ask, why? Before splitting in two. Then with a waver the bright sunshine of the festival grounds returned to the eerie blue hue of the forest and before me I watched a shade split vertically in two, its hand outstretched as if reaching for mine.

Then I felt a force slam from behind me so hard I almost lost my footing. "Oh, Bethanie!" I heard Abigail's strained and high-pitched voice. "Don't ever scare me like that again!"

My knees slumped hard down onto the ground. Abigail tried to hold me up, but she was just too small and no match for my dead weight. I felt myself fall, uncaring if the earth decided to swallow me whole, but then I stopped, my face just a couple of feet from the messy forest floor. The jarring in my wrists told me that I had pressed my hands out, something that occurred no doubt because of reflex. There brown decaying leaves crunched within my grasp.

"Bethanie?" Abigail prodded. "Bethanie!"

"She is... much stronger than I thought." Dismally I heard Dorothy's voice analyse. "She managed to cut through my song, but... it seems her blade is not enough to remove the pain from her heart."

"You stay away from her!" Abigail' roar was more akin to a cub's. "Just leave us alone!"

This caused Dorothy's eerie high-pitched cackle to return. "Don't worry, little lamb, I won't lay a finger on either of you, only... I can't promise they won't."

I heard Abigail's feet crunching backwards.

Slowly I raised my eyes and saw beings I too easily forgot, shades that had came by their attraction to the music. There were six of them in total, a small gang, standing tall around us, their invisible mouths drooling. They situated themselves in an arc between Dorothy and us and slowly, almost unseen to the eye, edged closer towards us never taking a step. Interestingly the background had changed, the blue fluorescent scene returned back to its original aura colours. As if the spell of her song was broken, but the effect clearly still remained.

Feebly I returned to my feet, the effort costing me many seconds.

"Hahahahaha!" Dorothy sung. "That's it! You can't give up yet! So long as you are living you will fight! Noes, my friends, take their auras but leave me their precious diamond cores!" Here Dorothy licked her lips indulgently.

I didn't even mutter gross, just stared ahead with shaky empty hands as black beings rushed towards us.

I heard Abigail's terrified gasp, her scream something about my sword, but I couldn't react, I couldn't move, not after what I had done to my mother. And there in the face of darkness I watched my doom approach me without fight.

Chapter 16

 

Abigail

 

The shades were coming for us, moving unbelievably fast. I barely had time to look at Bethanie and see her empty hands before I knew it would be too late. I screamed, shutting my eyes but from behind my eyelids I thought I could see a light, one beckoning to me, one promising it could grant me the power to save my life. I was just about to reach out a figurative hand towards it when a voice had me snap my eyes open.

"Not today, Dorothy. You're not going to unleash any more of your crazy on these two poor girls!"

"Pearl!" I yelled happily as hundreds of golden feathers slammed into the shades, pushing back their limbs and forcing them down. A couple of shades managed to snake around the sparkling air-mines but were at once punched through with five narrow holes a piece, the strings just catching the golden light and shimmering.

"That's a dirty way to fight, Dorothy." Lara snarled, her long straight brown hair flowing away from the fluttering of feathers. "You're ordered not to harm any of us, but you figure if it's not actually you then you can get away with it, right?"

Dorothy rolled her eyes. "So what if I used a little word play, it's not like the others didn't expect it, it explains why you're here."

"Words, hey? You always liked your poetic little words, but me, I much prefer to play with strings!" Lara declared right before flicking her wrists and the captive shades shattered into pieces.  As the lines relaxed they fell through the falling black crystals with an arc, the golden light reflecting off these lines, then straightened once more as they retracted back into the tips of Lara's outstretched fingers.

"Whoa..." I breathed. "You two are incredible!"

"Just you watch this, honey." Pearl gave me a quick smirk before she ran forwards into the golden swarm and remaining four shades. Then she leapt up and suddenly some feathers homed towards Pearl and took the form of wings behind her shoulders and higher still she rose. She was flying, literally flying over the top of them.

But as I noticed her up there, gleaming like a goddess, there was something wrong, something black and raised framed her eyes.

The shades' restraints were weaker and tried to elongate their arms into the air to hit her but ten thin almost invisible lines severed their pointed limbs. Then Pearl rose her hands and flicked downward as a rain of feathers poured down, pelting like hail and quill-end first. The dazed shades had not even a chance to react before they were pierced at least a dozen times each.

With clear gaping holes through the black they appeared petrified and it was left to Lara to finish the job. There she swung one arm from the left, the other from the right as two columns five strings high sliced through the air. At the end of the movement Lara's fingers were interlocked, the rigid lines criss-crossed.

Pearl, no longer winged, landed amidst the black falling stones.

"Whatever, this is music is boring.  I'm bailing!" Dorothy pouted.

"What? You don't want to do the vocals? That's gotta be a first!" Lara quipped.

The silver-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Well haven't you heard, girls? I've gone solo now!"

"If you're on your own, then why hang around Raziel and the daeva-noxes?"

"Because." She smirked as she began to turn away. "They're gonna give me the power to make all my wishes come true."

"No wait, Dorothy!" Pearl urged. "Don't go back to them. You still might be able to come back to us..."

Lara, having approached her side, placed a hand out in front of Pearl to stop her. "You know not to bother with trying anymore, Pearl. She's lost to us, forever. She's just another phantom now."

"Lara's right, Pearl. There's no way I'm going back to your side. The darkness holds so much power, but not enough, not yet. Soon though, soon we'll have all we need to recreate this world and bring our desires into reality!" Her silver eyes glimmered with wild glee.

"It won't work, you know." Lara warned. "What you're planning, it won't bring him back, it'll just destroy everything!"

"Oh, I don't expect you to understand, you can't when you still cling to the lifeline of this world. But you will, that is - if you survive long enough!" She giggled. "I'm leaving, you can..." She gazed first at me, then to Bethanie's vacant expression. "Clean up these little rug-rats."

And just like that she vanished into thin-air, as if she was never even there.

Suddenly Pearl collapsed on the ground holding her head.

"Pearl!" I cried as I ran over to her and frowned as I noticed her raised hand had a floral pattern of black diamonds, raised, as if glued there.

"Pearl?" I asked, my voice wavering. "What is that on your hand?"

The girl forced a pained smile. "It's not just on my hand." And as she removed it she unveiled a matching design pointing towards her left eye.

"What is it? Why is it hurting you?"

"There must be more shades in this world now," Lara analysed as she turned back to us. "So many that even after we expelled these the markings aren't disappearing anymore."

I gasped as I noticed the black diamonds on Lara's right arm and neck and also on one calf. It was creeping all over each of their bodies, I realised, in beautiful raised flower designs.

"That," Pearl winced, "but also, our time is running out."

"Hold on!" I cut in."What are you two talking about? What do you mean your time is running out!?"

"They mean." Bethanie stated evenly as she walked to our small gathering. "That they are running out of time before their whole bodies are taken over by the diamonds and they fall into chrysalis."

"Chrysalis?" I echoed. "Like a butterfly?"

Pearl smiled sadly. "Not quite, sweet-heart."

"Well what do you mean then? What happens when the chrysalis ends?"

"We disappear." Bethanie replied bluntly. "Dead, gone. But what does it matter, I'm a ghost anyway..."

The slap across Bethanie's cheek ricocheted off the trees.

"You're a ghost already, is that it, Bethanie!?" Lara spat. "Well then go run off and have your chrysalis then! We don't need you, we can fight the noxes, shades and Raziel on our own, we have enough of us!"

"Are you so sure?" Bethanie sniped back. "The two of you look like you could be disappearing any day now."

Lara grabbed her by the collar and gritted her teeth, hand out to the side with fingers rigid and clawed. Bethanie just stared back into her eyes without emotion, as if daring Lara to unleash what transpired within her mind.

"Stop it, both of you!" Pearl yelled as she unleashed golden feathers in the area. "Now..."

"She doesn't have the balls to anyway." Bethanie provoked. "Even back there, I could see how much you hated Dorothy and even though she's one of the bad guys you just couldn't take her out. So scared that you didn't even try..."

"Bethanie!" I screamed as after Lara's punch to her face she soared backwards and skidded against the crunchy leaved floor.

"Lara, stop this!" Pearl called as Lara walked after Bethanie, hatred flaring in her chocolate eyes.

But when Lara approached her she did not attack again, just loomed over the top as she shouted. "If you have a death wish then I won't stop that from becoming a reality, but I will not allow that girl," here she pointed to me, "to be drawn into this path of destruction you seem so set on going down. I won't let you take anyone else with you, even if she is your best friend, no especially since she is. Do you know what would have happened there if we didn't intervene? Do you have any idea? You wouldn't have died then because she was on the edge of finding her erosreaver! And then, once the seed had sprouted, this diamond cascade would have started inside her! Do you really care so little about your friend that you'd be willing to let her disappear so easily!?"

Bethanie was mute, blue eyes wide.

Lara tsked. "You're disgusting." Then she turned, walked in the direction back to the road and stopped. She glanced at Pearl as if to say time to go.

Pearl patted me on the shoulder. "Don't take this all too harshly, Lara doesn't mean to be cruel. We just have... an unsettling past."

I glanced over at Bethanie who was frowning deeply as she stared at nothing.

"You two, you both knew her before she became a... daeva-nox, right? You were all in that band together!"

"What makes you think that?" Pearl asked softly.

"I don't know, not really, it all seems kind of hazy, but I just seem to have this strange recollection. And that song, especially that song, it seems so familiar and yet... different."

Pearl winced. "I did know Dorothy, once, but not any longer for she is no one now. Before though, we had nothing to do with one another, we were never friends and neither did we play in a band together. She is just a phantom, nothing more." Her tone was lost and sad but changed dramatically as it returned to her usual light-hearted and kind self. "But never mind her now, you two have been through enough for one night. How about we meet up tomorrow after school. I can tell you everything that's going on. Bethanie and Lara can come too, well..." She laughed. "That's if they cool down by then. You know, those two girls are a little bit similar, I just think Lara sees someone else in her."

"I'd like that. To talk with you tomorrow, I mean."

"Good," She smiled as she rose and started to walk away. "Then I'll see you then, Abigail."

-

As we made our way back home under the moonless night, the way was easily navigated by the light of the world's brilliant aura and through it we talked very little. I tried a couple of times to ask about what vision Dorothy had shown Bethanie or about how amazing the two daeva-lux girls were but that had just rendered her even more mute. But as we reached the crossroads between our two streets Bethanie finally spoke something of substance, remorse thick in her words.

"Hey, Abigail, about before, when the shades were attacking us, I'm really sorry. I knew you were there and I knew what would happen but I was just too caught up in myself to care. I'm so selfish, I can't believe I almost let you get hurt!"

I smiled. "That's okay, Bethanie, I know that it was your mother you saw and I think... that shade that was reaching out to you must have looked like her..." Her distressed expression confirmed my suspicion. "I understand, I really do, I can't imagine how painful that must have been for you. So no apology necessary! And besides, Pearl and Lara came to save the day so no harm done!"

"No harm done," She agreed melancholically. "But there could have been."

"Hey!" I called cheerily as I rubbed her shoulder but the texture under her school blouse was off, it was hard.

"Ouch!" Bethanie recoiled instantly at the touch and grasped her shoulder.

"Bethanie?" I didn't need to finish the rest for the question to be understood.

Sighing Bethanie pulled the sleeve of her shirt up. "It doesn't hurt really, not to touch and things, just when it grows. Only, it hurts when I think of the things that caused it to grow there and I guess when you touched it then it reminded me of how I failed you, so it stung a little." She explained lightly as if the black diamond flower on her shoulder was no big deal.

"No, Bethanie, but does that mean...?"

"Don't worry." Her grin was weak. "I think it takes a long time to grow and spread. And besides, I learnt that by killing shades I can get rid of them."

"But why? Why does it have to grow on you?"

"That just seems to be the pact we make with that Raziel guy, for this power we accept the darkness inside us and it grows until it consumes us." Still she was saying it as if it was no big deal.

"That's why you were so adamant about me not finding my erosreaver." I realised. "Because that causes the seed to sprout..." Even though I had just heard this information before I didn't really understand it with all the commotion, but now it all made sense.

"Hey, Abigail, don't cry." Bethanie soothed as she watched my tears fall down my cheeks. "Listen, those two girls are seniors, right? And besides Ariel and Dorothy we're the two youngest daevas so chances are I have at least a year before it starts to fully blossom. And who knows, it could be a hell of a lot longer, I could be an old woman before it does the full chrysalis!"

But that gave me no reassurance, it only reminded me of our promise to die as old ladies together. A promise that looked like Bethanie was not going to be able to pull through with on her end.

"Destroy them." I ordered. "Destroy all the shades. If you do, then the diamonds will go away right? So destroy them all and you'll be safe."

Bethanie gasped before nodding with a smirk. "Yeah, you're right! We eliminate those bastards, every last one then maybe that will stop these black diamonds from growing. Pretty clever, Abigail! But," she sighed. "I think that's gonna take a lot of effort, too much for me alone."

"Exactly!" I cheered. "We work together with the other luxes and we can defeat them all and everyone will be safe!"

"But to do that I think I'm going to have to apologise..."

"Huh? But why? You were the one that was slapped and punched!"

"I was, but I was also asking for it." Bethanie explained solemnly. "I said some pretty nasty things back there, things that I knew would push her buttons."

"You were fighting." I defended. "And Lara was the one that slapped you before you even started calling her any nasty names."

Bethanie smirked. "You're always on my side, aren't you, Abigail? Even when you know I'm in the wrong."

I smiled back. "Of course, what are best friends for?"

"Exactly, but something tells me that those three we were with today were all best friends too, at some point. Then, somehow they found themselves on the other side of a war."

"They were in a band." I stated, confident by the way it sounded despite Pearl's rejection of the notion and the more I thought on it the more I could almost recall. "I think... I can remember them playing when we were in year seven, but when I try to focus on the details it becomes all hazy, like it's been deleted from my memory."

"I see." She responded thoughtfully.

"Bethanie, do you remember them, it was an all-girl band, I'm sure!"

"There have been a few bands made up in our school and from time to time they have played concerts but..." She shook her head. "No, I simply can't remember a band with only female members."

"Oh..." I replied, despondent at the affirmation that my memories were proving false.

"Quit looking so stressed, Abigail, you'll get wrinkles and you know that Eric will never go out with a girl with wrinkles!"

"He will too!" I argued, then realising the first part I added. "And I don't have wrinkles yet!"

Bethanie laughed before it quickly sobered. "In any case, try to get some rest now, I have a feeling we're going to have another afternoon full of extra-circular activities tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess we can't shake things up too much now, can we?" I replied sarcastically before we waved our farewells and each walked the remainder block to our houses.

I arrived home just in time for dinner where upon my arrival my mother clobbered me on the head with a wooden spoon. It was only a gentle reprimand for my late arrival, but the next one wasn't as I received another wooden spoon wielded more like a cane straight into my shin.

"Ow! Cathy, don't be such a pest all the time!"

"Well, well!" My mother weighed. "Isn't someone little miss grumpy skirt today? Did things not go well with your boyfriend?"

I blushed. "No, not that..."

"Abby got dumped! Abby got dumped!" Cathy cried cheerfully.

I winced. "Cathy, please, just go away."

My mother gasped. "Oh dear, you've been crying. Cathy," She turned to her youngest daughter, "scram. It's grown up business now."

"But I wanna see what you're talking about, besides isn't dinner ready?"

"Not for another few minutes and as to what we're about to discuss is one, none of your bee's wax and secondly, you're not exactly the most sensitive girl so your presence would be inappropriate."

"Aw, but I can be sensitive! I'm sorry you got dumped, sis!"

Then I felt a hug around my waist and when I looked down saw Bradley giving me his warmth. When he released he simply grabbed Cathy's hand and led her away stating, "We need to give sissy her space now..."

My mother was left there shaking her head as she watched them leave. "Bradley is exactly like you were, you know. Cathy however, I have no idea where she gets her aloofness!"

"Hey, Mum, everything's okay with me, really. It's just some of my friends I'm worried about. I'm sorry if I was acting rude when I came in."

My mother smiled. "That's okay, darling, we can all act a little nasty when we're upset and your nasty is hardly anything to apologise for. But come," She ushered me into the kitchen where steam was erupting from boiling pots of vegetables. "Tell me, what is happening with your friends? Is it that boy Eric you're dating or something to do with Bethanie?"

"No, Eric is great! But Bethanie..."

"She's having a hard time with her mother's passing again?"

I was about to explain it all but suddenly it seemed all too much so I just responded with, "Yeah."

"Oh, darling! I know just how you feel. I had a little friend when I was in school that lost a father in a car accident. It was the saddest thing, the girl just seemed to disappear with it. She used to be so lively, energetic, sporty like Bethanie actually, but when it happened she stopped playing sport, stopped trying at school, eventually the family moved and I never saw her again. I felt terrible because my friend was going through all this pain but it seemed there was nothing I could do for her so in the end, that's what I did, nothing."

"That is a sad story." I agreed.

"And a selfish one. She kept saying that she wanted to be left alone so, even though I tried to be near her at first, eventually I did and then she was lost to me as a friend forever."

"Hold on." I interrupted. "I remember this story, you told me this right when Bethanie's mum died two years ago."

"I did and do you remember what I said then? That though my story was tragic it meant that others didn't have to be for I learnt one crucial lesson - when someone is in pain, no matter they say, or what they do, never let them be alone. Just stay there, by their side, like an annoying fly!" She added cheerily. "But never let them cry alone."

"But Bethanie never cries." I reflected. "Sometimes she looks as if she's about to but she always stops herself."

"She will, eventually she will and when those dams break she'll need someone more than ever, but until then your tears are enough to siphon out some of that water. You showing how much you care may hurt her at first, so she may want to push you away, but if you stay you'll heal her."

I smiled. "Yeah, that's my plan, only I just wish I could heal her now."

"Like I said, Abigail, just stay by her side and I promise you the time will arise when you can save her soul."

A tinging from the oven cut through our conversation.

"Well," My mother sighed as she moved back into the thick of the kitchen. "I guess that means this talk's time is up, but darling if you ever wanna talk some more you know where I live."

"Yes, Mum, I know where you live." I smirked.

As we dug into our meals, Dad and Cathy grabbing the chicken drumsticks with their hands and tearing into it like cavemen; Bradley, Mum and I electing to use our knives and forks, my mind lingered over my mother's words as they gave me hope. So long as I was there, feeling every blow with Bethanie, crying her unshed tears a time would come where I could save her. And not just her but all the daeva-lux girls. I had to be there, fighting, giving them my heart and someway, somehow I would save their souls.

Chapter 17

 

Bethanie

I watched them giggle and whisper into each other's ear at lunchtime. Though all seven of us were all seated in a circle under the shade of a tree it was only us five who entered the common conversation as Abigail and Eric were having a much more in depth one of their own. One that Amy kept leaning in to hear and repeating embarrassing comments like I think your art is the best in the world... you're so sweet... wow, that's so smart... and then there was one that Amy did not need to repeat for we all heard this clearly.

"We're going for a walk so we can get some privacy." Eric stated.

This was responded with a chorused, aah.

"It's just a walk so we don't have you lot making fun of us the whole time!"

"We have to make fun of you, dating is a whole new ball park for the rest of us so we need to get our kicks from you!" Louise explained, eyes blazing.

I stole a quick glance at Kieran who was looking away and appeared very bored.

"Well, whatever," Eric grumbled. "Then we're going somewhere where we can't hear you then."

"Aw..." Amy complained as the couple rose to their feet and began to walk away. "But I wanna hear Eric propose!"

"I wanna hear them making babies!" Bart exclaimed.

"Gross, Bart!" Louise complained. "Besides, I don't think that'll be happening for a long time yet, those two haven't even kissed yet!"

"What!?" Amy shouted, jaw dropping so low I thought surely it was about to fall off its hinges. "But they've been practically dating for years! Now that its official I was sure they'd have kissed by now!"

"Just give it some time, Amy." I interred. "Those two really care about each other so they don't want to rush anything."

"Hm..." Amy analysed thoughtfully. "Why are you so blasé about it, Bethanie? I mean Abigail is your bestie, right? You should be frothing with this gossip! Maybe it's because... you've got a secret boyfriend yourself!"

"Um... no." I corrected.

"It's true, isn't it? That's why you've been so distant lately, because you've been day-dreaming about him!"

"Hey, she has a point." Louise added.

"No shit!" Bart yelled. "Bethanie's getting some action? Man, I want a girlfriend! Amy, how 'bout..."

"Not a chance." She quickly interrupted before resuming the thread. "So, Bethanie who is it? Does he go to this school, oh wait, no! I know! He's not even in school, is he! He's probably graduated already - you're going out with a proper adult!"

"No, Amy, stop jumping to conclusions!" I emplored.

"You can't fool me! But don't worry, all you have to do is give me all the gossip and I promise not to tell a soul!" There she clapped me on my shoulder, skin contacting the hard stone beneath my blouse.

"Oh... I bet Amy's right!" Louise inputted. "Bethanie's always seemed to go for the mysterious type!"

Amy had pulled her hand away and continued on giddily. "I know, I reckon he's a foreigner, European definitely!"

"Or maybe American, blond hair and a square jaw!"

"Or a movie star, that's why she's so secretive!"

"So, Bethanie." Bart prodded. "Which is it?"

I unfroze then as I realised that Amy had not picked up on my oddly firm shoulder and remembered to breath. "Well, none of the above because I'm not dating anyone! Hey, where's Kieran gone?" I asked as I noticed his place vacant.

Bart shrugged. "He's been dickheadedy since yesterday and you try to ask him about it and just tells you to piss off. What an arse."

Right, I thought as I remembered my nasty outcry yesterday after tennis, someone else I need to apologise to.

"You know," I said, rising to my feet, "I might just see if I can go find him."

Then as I walked away I heard Amy say, "Maybe those two are going out..."

"No way." Bart explained, his voice fading behind me. "He hates her. Thinks she's a bitch..."

Well what did I expect? I asked myself. I have been acting like a bitch towards him.

I walked to a couple of places, the basketball courts, the soccer oval before thinking of the tennis court. Sporting grounds was where I expected to find him because I knew that Kieran was a lot like me, when we were upset we wanted to take out our pain physically. Whether it be the burn in our legs as we sprinted or the heat from a fresh punch to the face, it was the physical pain we longed for to dull out the emotional sort. So when I arrived to the courts to find it empty I became instantly dismayed. However, just on the other side of the fence, I saw a student sitting at the edge of the school grounds that was marked by a slender stream and tall trees.

I ventured over there but it was not until I was five metres away that I could make out who it was. I stopped instantly and began to turn back around.

"Why do you walk away?" Ariel asked, her silver hair swaying in the wind as she faced  the gentle trickling water. "Are you afraid of me?"

I turned my head back in her direction. "Of course I'm not afraid of you, I'm not afraid of anything."

"Not even... death?"

"No, not even that."

"What about the deaths of your family members? What about the deaths of your friends? What if death claimed Abigail?"

I remained silent.

"I thought so, but you are still partly human, after all. Life and death is not yet under your control."

"But I thought!" I stated remembering the promise Raziel had made me. "That daevas had the power to stop someone who was sure to die?"

"That is true, but that is not the same as total control of life and death. A daeva, nox or lux, has the power to save someone from grievous injury in the last moments of their life. This is possible even after the heart has ceased beating so long as there is still some brain function. The harm may be reversed and full health may be restored, for a price of course and this is a large one. However, this is very different to total control of life death, where someone may be killed at will, or someone else brought back from the dead regardless of the years since they had died, and here the toll is nought."

"It's possible to bring someone back years later?" I asked, heart thrumming with hope.

"It's possible, for noxes, but we aren't there yet. We still need more of Gaia's power."

"I see." I responded bitterly. "And to get that power the world must fall into darkness, am I right?"

This time it was Ariel's turn not to say anything as she stared ahead.

I lowered my gaze likewise to the stream where blue and white danced over the top of rocks and back down, tried to force their way under but easily set a new course for over the top again, unfazed by the new path the water had to take. The emerald blades glistened either side of the stream, swaying their soft knives and though they overlapped took care never to cut one another.

"I always liked this place." Ariel stated after a few moments. "It was always so peaceful, I felt like I could always connect with the world and it would give me strength. It was a great place for calming my nerves."

I frowned. "Geez you nox girls say the weirdest things, you've only just been here a week and you're acting so attached to the school."

"Yes," She agreed, her voice strangely sad. "Ariel Serador has been here for almost a whole week."

"Yeah and I'm sick of you already." I made to leave again but then her voice stopped me.

"I really do hope that Amy gets the lead role in the musical this year, she really is very talented."

"Yeah, I hope so too, but everyone is banking on you getting it. That is if you and your friends haven't destroyed the world yet." With the last word claimed I hurried away from there and continued my search for Kieran but dismally, a scant five minutes later,  the class bell rang and my search was put at a cease.

When I made it back to my bag Abigail and Eric were there holding hands. Everyone else and their bags were gone including Kieran's.

"Hey, Abigail?" I asked. "Did you see Kieran come get his stuff?"

Abigail shone me a knowing smile. "I did and he left already, but if there's something you wanted to talk to him about you share PE in last period today, don't you?"

"Yeah," I responded. "I'll just catch him there, I guess."

And I did. In basketball we were pitted against each other in opposing teams. He purposefully tried to block every one of my shots and knocked me every chance he had when I wasn't in possession of the ball. One time however I held it and just after catching the ball Kieran pummelled me to the ground.

No whistle was blown but a team mate called out, "Foul! Miss Montgomery, Kieran totally slammed into Bethanie, that's a penalty shot!"

"Matthew!" Miss Montgomery grumbled. "I'm the umpire here and I didn't..."

"It's true! Bethanie had the ball in her hands when he knocked her over!" Jessica added to the chorus of agreeing students.

To overwhelming pressure our teacher turned to us with uncertainty. "Ah, kids, what do you think happened?"

Kieran looked down on me lying on the ground before spinning the ball he knocked from my grasp on his finger. "I intercepted the ball. She just tripped after."

"Bethanie?" My teacher enquired. "Is that what happened?"

Pulling myself up to my feet I nodded. "Yeah, I was just shocked when he intercepted so I fell over. There was no foul."

"Oh, I see. Well then, Kieran you can start on the edge with a side-pass."

Then the game resumed and fifteen minutes later my side suffered a narrow yet miserable defeat. As the students poured out however, I did not miss the accusing stares of my team mates.

Kieran approached me. "Why'd you do that?"

"What? Let you win?" I smirked at his dark look. "No, I didn't let you win, but I did let you off with the foul."

"Okay, why?" He leered.

"Because I was hoping it would even things up a little between us."

"I don't need your charity." He spat but as he turned away I grasped his hand, halting him.

"It wasn't charity and neither was it a foul, I deserved to be knocked on my arse."

Kieran inspected our locked hold with a frown but did not fight it.

I took a deep breath. "I was a bitch yesterday, I'm sorry. I... I don't actually mean what I said. Well, I did then but I don't now."

"Really?" He asked sceptically. "And what's changed in twenty-four hours?"

"A lot actually!" I almost laughed but managed to restrain it. "I... I just realised how selfish I was being. I have a lot of pain that I'm dealing with but have been acting like a bitch and pretending that no one else has their own crap and worse, I've been using my pain as an excuse for letting others get hurt and... for deliberately hurting them."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Kieran! Can't you see, I'm reaching out here." I reminded.

"You need to do better than that." He directed before pulling his hand roughly free.

"Wait!" I called as I grabbed his hand again, this time with both of mine. "Really, I mean it, I'm sorry! Hey, I want to hear about your mum, maybe we can help her. Please, I'm telling you I want to be your friend again!"

He stared at it long and hard, frown deeply etched on his face before he finally rose his eyes into mine. "Wanna come over tonight, take a look for yourself?"

"Ah... tonight?" I hesitated. "I... kinda have plans tonight..."

"I thought so." He murmured as I felt his hand tug free.

"No!" I shouted, retightening my grasp. "Tonight's fine. I... I just need to cancel my plans with Abigail, that's all. We usually walk home and hang out and stuff."

"Okay, I'll come with you to tell her..."

"No! Ah..."

"What's with you, Bethanie, you're acting strange-er than usual."

I sighed. "Yeah okay, let's go. She'll be by the front gate."

When Abigail saw us approach she first smiled then cocked a curious eyebrow.

"I'm going to hang out with Kieran this afternoon, Abigail, so I'm really sorry but I'm going to have to cancel our plans." I explained.

"Oh." Her mouth rounded. "But I thought you wanted to talk to our friends. I know that I really want to."

Inwardly I groaned, the detailed response could only lead to follow-up cryptic responses. The girl needed to learn how to lie. "Yeah, I know." I said with a shrug. "But we can always catch up tomorrow. You'll send them my regards, right?"

Abigail looked uncertain but finally murmured, "Okay."

"New friends, hey?" Kieran asked after we left the school grounds and walked down the path. "Is one of them your boyfriend?"

"W-What!?" I stammered. "No! No of course not, they're all girls! And besides that I'm not really so sure they are my friends. Abigail seems to like them but I still don't trust them."

Kieran frowned. "Why don't you trust them?"

"Because... I know they're keeping secrets from us."

"Sounds a little like you."

I gasped, alarmed at the accusation but said nothing in my defence since we both knew it was true.

"So Abigail's going to meet with people that you don't trust now." Kieran continued to analyse.

"Yeah, that's why I was reluctant to cancel our plans but it's okay, I know they won't hurt her or anything. Actually they're probably better at protecting her than I am."

"Abigail's very important to you, isn't she?"

"She is." I agreed. "She's always been there for me, whenever I needed her and especially when I didn't want her. And after my mother died it was her who brought me back to life. But back then I didn't want it, I just didn't care about anything but distracting myself from the pain, so I threw myself into sport, pushing myself beyond my limits and relished the new burn there, and other things too like skipping school, graffiti and..."

"And like hanging out with delinquents like me."

"Kieran, no..."

"It's fine, Beth, I got the message loud and clear long before yesterday. I don't blame you really, you have a chance to move on, actually start a new life free from all that and Abigail helped pull you from your slum. I get it, I mean Eric tries to the same with me, tries to get me to hang out with the group."

"So why not let him help you? I know it can seem annoying at first but really there's a lot of love behind their actions."

"Because I can't move on, not when she's like this." He stared at the ground, scuffing shoes along the footpath tiles, shoes that I realised were so worn that holes were forming holes at the big toes.

Of course, his pain will never lessen because the source can never fade from his memory, I realised.

"But you're different to Eric." Kieran elaborated. "You know what it's like to have your family broken. I'm... I'm not looking for help, or some stupid shoulder to cry on, I just want someone else to just get it."

Here we approached Kieran's house. It was outlined by a stained wooden fence and behind was grass and weeds growing so long that they would brush against your calves to walk through. But we didn't need to wade through that imbroglio however for the concrete tiled path provided direct access from the gate to the front door. When he opened it the scent of pizza engulfed me.

Upon entering Kieran walked down a dark hall, not bothering to take off his runners and just the same I followed his lead. The entrance soon led to the kitchen lit up by the scant light filtering through closed window blinds and there on the counter was an empty pizza carton laid next to a dozen empty cans labelled bourbon and cola. From around the corner I heard a violin playing smoothly and American voices speaking over the top. There was a male's with a deep clear baritone and female's that was lilted, as if her words were just vocals to the song.

Kieran sighed as he picked up the cans and placed them in a box by the bin that was already heavily filled other cans and bottles all depicting one form of liquor or another. Snuck up between the box and the bin were a two pizza boxes to which Kieran added a third.

"She... likes pizza." He explained with a wan smile.

"Oh, Kieran, darling, is that you?" This voice was not too different to the female one I had just heard, however the Australian accent did not fit the rest of the accompanying sounds.

"Yeah, Mum, I'm home." Kieran shot me a cautionary look before rounding a wall to enter towards the source of the voice.

Following him I found the lounge room with its curtains shut tightly where the sole source of light was being emitted from the television set. On it was displayed a black and white scene where it appeared a man and woman flirted on a tennis court, champagne held in their hands.

In front of the television sat a woman with messy hair and dark eyes where the mascara had flaked down onto the tops of her cheeks. In one hand she motioned for Kieran to come sit by her as the other held a can that appeared very similar to the ones Kieran had just placed in the recycling box.

"My son." She smiled. "Come sit with me and watch, this is one of my favourite parts."

Kieran's eyes flicked to the television just as the beautiful slender woman laughed coyly. "It's alright, I've seen enough parts to know the whole movie."

"Suit yourself, darl... Oh! You have a little friend there, a little girl-friend. Well now..." His mother smiled at me right before taking a sip of her drink.

"This is Bethanie, she's just my friend. She's over to study." Kieran invented.

"Oh..." His mother licked her smiling lips where it seemed a drop of her beverage had lingered. "Well now, I trust you to be safe. And you," She turned to me. "Be kind to my son, alright?"

I couldn't miss the body odour the woman was giving off, like she hadn't showered for days. "Of course." I replied. "Kieran is a good guy."

"He is." She agreed. "And very strong, he does very well to take care of himself."

"C'mon." Kieran ushered me away. "Let's go do some study in my room."

Once we reached there Kieran gave me his computer desk chair to sit on where he sat on the bed opposite. "So, Beth, what do you make of it?"

"It's only four pm." I murmured. "Doesn't she have a job?"

Kieran gave a half-hearted laugh. "Not for a very long time."

"Then how do you live? How can you afford the rent, food, school fees?"

"Well, she did used to work, as well as my dad, and with what they made they managed to pay off the house. And then, as to all the other expenses, we live off benefits now."

"Oh..." I responded as my eyes gazed around his room, surprisingly it was rather neat, or at least, in comparison to the rest of the house. There were a couple shirts thrown on the floor by his unmade bed and a glass and plate placed on his computer desk, but besides that it was pretty good really. There wasn't so much dust as the rest of the house and here the window was open, finally giving way to fresh air.

"Kieran, your dad, he left your mum, right?"

He shook his head. "No, he died actually. Five years ago, long enough so that I'm past it but..."

"But your mum isn't." I finished.

His brown eyes locked into mine. "That's right."

"How often does she drink?" I asked.

"The better question is, when doesn't she?" He turned his gaze out the window where the sun was still bright on the long grassy slope outside. "She sometimes tries to stop but whenever she does she becomes really depressed and just turns straight back to the grog. I can't tell her to go off it because when she's drinking and watching those stupid old movies that's the only time I see her happy. But I also know that she's killing herself and the terrible part about it is that I want her to. That way if she's dead then she won't keep doing this, that way I can finally move on!"

He was standing up, hands clenched where I grabbed one of them and began to rub it softly. "Her pain hurts you."

Under my grasp he relaxed a little. "You know, Beth, in the past five years I've never brought anyone here, not even Eric or Bart. I didn't want to show them how pathetically I live."

"So why show me, and why now too? We hung out for over a year but you never said a word about any of this, so why now?"

"I always wanted to show you because I knew that we were the same, effed up families both looking to self-destruct, but you never said anything about your home life so I never said anything about mine. It's weird, even though we never talked about the crap going on at home just hanging out with you seemed to make it all better. But in the last year you pulled away, then the last six months you hardly said a word to me. The only way I could get you to talk to me was to tease you. I get that it's not cool, but I guess I just wanted to have you acknowledge me again. Then yesterday was different, you actually opened up. You were a total bitch about it, but you shared your pain with me and as angry as I was and am still, I wanted to do the same." Here he rose his eyebrows and shook his head as if not even believing his own words. "I dunno, maybe all this is just another contest between us, who has the most screwed up home-life."

I realised then that my hand was still rubbing his soothingly but I did not break the contact. I bit my lower lip. "We're such idiots to compare, our situations are completely different but also exactly the same."

Kieran glanced down at our hands. "So, Beth, now that you know what is going on what do you think I should do? Can I jump back into normal life like you, try hard at school so I can get into some stupid degree at uni and talk about nothing with my friends at lunchtime? Can I do all that and pretend that none of this bothers me?"

"No," I murmured, "I don't think you can."

"So then, Beth, what do I do?"

Squeezing his hand I responded. "I don't know."

Chapter 18

 

Abigail

 

During the day as I passed between classes Pearl had suddenly appeared next to me and whispered in my ear to meet her at the soccer oval after school. I was shocked to find that not only was the flower design still next to her eye but that it was also unconcealed, her golden hair doing nothing to cover the raised dark pattern. She had walked away too quickly for me to enquire about it but as she turned to talk to another school-mate I became aware that no one seemed to detect anything off about her - they can't see the crystals.

Then later, after Bethanie dismissed me by the school gate that afternoon I headed straight for the school oval where I found all four of the daeva-luxes in deep conversation. Pearl and Lara still touched by their dark markings.

I heard Vanessa's voice first. "That proves it! She's going just the same way as Ariel, Lara we have to stop her before it's too late!"

"Hold on, Vanessa!" Pearl shouted. "Even if that is the case there's no way to stop the process except for killing her!"

"And what's so wrong with that when we know what they're capable of as phantoms?"

"What's wrong with that?" Pearl asked incredulously. "Killing is wrong under any circumstance! Besides, there's no reason to believe she'll become one of them, most of us don't become nox, after all!"

"I don't like to agree with Vanessa, but in this case I think I have to." Rebecca stated with her usual detached voice. "The girl is definitely a daeva but not our sort of daeva. There's something more to her, an unyielding determination in her eyes that tells me she'll reach her goal regardless of the cost."

"You too, Rebecca?" Pearl cried. "Please, girls, think about what you are suggesting!"

"They have thought about it." Lara weighed. "And their suspicions are well-grounded, but like you say, Pearl, we cannot act so prematurely. The girl is still free to make a choice, just the same as the rest of us is and when the time comes we have to put faith that she will make the right one."

Vanessa scoffed. "Or else we regret we didn't act when we had the chance..."

As I neared closer across the field Lara's eyes met mine and the group fell silent.

Pearl, turning, smiled at me. "Abigail, welcome. Thanks for coming."

"And why is Polly Pocket here!?" Vanessa shouted. "Pearl, don't tell me you invited her just so she could eavesdrop on our conversation? We don't even know which side those girls are on, for all we know they could go and report to Shirley Temple!"

"They're not on their side, they're on ours. They just need a little explaining!" Pearl refuted.

"That's what you reckon but you don't know Ariel like I do, I'm telling you she'll have them both brain washed. That's why there's just the one here, am I right?" Vanessa directed this at me. "Send in the lamb where behind the bushes the lion sits ready to make her pounce!"

"Vanessa - shut up!" Lara reprimanded. "Abigail is welcome to join us, she hasn't found her erosreaver yet but she is still a daeva and by her kindness I can see that she can only be of the lux quality."

All eyes were on me then as they appraised me. I turned to Pearl and asked hesitantly, "Why is everyone so upset? What were you just talking about?"

Pearl tilted her head down to me. "Don't worry, sweet-heart. It is nothing against you, I promise. We're just worried about the nox girls' actions."

"They've almost completed the gateway." Vanessa cut across to explain with a dark smirk. "They just need one more girl, one more daeva to provide them with the opening to the final dimension and then boom!" Vanessa exclaimed as her arms stretched out wide. "The whole world ends!"

"Shut up, jack-arse." Rebecca groaned. "You're scaring her."

"That's rich," Vanessa snarled, "coming from you!"

"So it's true, those girls really want to destroy the world?" I cowered towards Pearl where she rubbed my shoulder warmly.

"That's what they want but they won't succeed." Pearl soothed, "Not with us standing in their way."

"I don't understand." I whimpered. "Why do the other girls want to destroy the world? How could anybody want such a thing?"

"They don't see it as destroying the world." Lara explained. "They see it as a kind of remodelling. They want to change the shape of the world to fit in with their new laws and through them their desires may manifest into reality."

"But like I said," Vanessa cut in as if she simply could not help herself. "For that to happen the world must end."

Lara sighed at the interruption. "If the noxes have their way then yes, the world as we know it will end. Slowly at first, then it will speed up until the recreation occurs."

"How!?" I demanded. "How can they achieve this, aren't they just high school girls like us?"

Vanessa smirked and Rebecca rolled her eyes.

"Daeva-noxes aren't the same as daeva-luxes." Pearl next to me explained. "Those girls, they're not human anymore which means they have no compassion and no love. They are as empty as ghosts."

"But Dorothy's song!" I stated. "She's in pain because she knows love! She is human and to know love makes you a person! She's not a ghost, she's real and she's in real pain!"

"A ghost can remember love and can remember pain." Pearl said sadly. "But that does not mean that they feel either of those emotions. In fact they feel none of those but for the emptiness left by their absence upon their disappearance."

"No!" I refuted. "That's not true! How can you say that when you're her friend!?" I glanced between Pearl and Lara. "You were in a band together, I know it! I remember, Lara, you played the guitar and, Pearl, you played guitar too but also you used to sing back-up. And then Dorothy, she was lead vocals, yes - she was! And then there was one more girl, she was on drums but she... she..."

"Abigail, settle-down, you're straining your aura." Pearl cautioned.

"There was another girl! I know, I know it, but... but I can't remember who she was!" Then desperately I turned to Pearl and clutched to her blouse sleeves. "Who was she!? Why can't I remember?"

"Whoa, this one is about to blow!" Vanessa shouted excitedly.

Then Pearl placed a hand on my forehead that made my sight glimmer golden. "You're right, Abigail, there was one other person in our band but she's disappeared now so quieten it from your mind..." And a warm fuzziness entered me, causing me to instantly forget the reason to my rants and had me being guided from there docilely.

A few minutes later it was just the two of us walking past the school grounds.

"Pearl," I asked feeling strangely calm, "what did you just do to me?"

"I'm sorry, Abigail, but I didn't have a choice. I had to subdue your aura or else your agitated state may have awoken your erosreaver."

"Oh..." I murmured feeling content with that as my little legs took five for her every four. "Where are we going?"

"Home, Abigail. I'm afraid I put you under too much strain too soon. It seems you have a hard time processing things without Bethanie's lead to follow."

"I'm not strong like Bethanie..." I admitted.

Pearl sighed. "You are, more than you understand, but your strength lies in a different place to Bethanie's, whilst she has will-power, athleticism and a fierce determination, you have kindness, love and gentility. That's what makes you a perfect match for Bethanie, a perfect complement as both a daeva and a friend."

"Our powers..." I stated thoughtfully as the comfortable tingling sensation was beginning to ebb away. "Do they have anything to do with our personalities?"

Pearl smiled at me. "Sounds like you've noticed something, Abigail, that's very clever."

I frowned as I focused on the thought. "Bethanie, she's very strong, physically but especially mentally. I know this because even after everything she has been through I've never seen her cry. That's why she can lift such a heavy blade, isn't it? Because her willpower is so strong?"

After Pearl's nod I continued. "And it's a sword because she's aggressive, but also straight to the point, but then it's also very long because... she keeps people at a distance most of the time..."

"It sounds like you know your friend very well." Pearl analysed. "But there's one exception to that last rule, isn't there?"

I grinned. "Yeah, she lets me in! She never used to but after persistent niggling into her affairs I finally broke in!"

"Well done." Pearl congratulated. "I can't imagine that was an easy feat."

"No... It was hard because I sort of forced her to stop hanging out with a friend of hers. I know it was for both of their own goods, but still, I feel pretty guilty about it, they were so close."

"I think she understands, otherwise she wouldn't be your best friend now, would she?"

"Yeah, she's really grown up a lot, a heck of a lot more than me! That's why I think she can handle being friends with him again, now that she's in a better place. I want them to be, it just wouldn't be fair otherwise!"

"Ah, a boy, yes they can lead us astray, even with the best of intentions terrible things can be done in the name of love."

I frowned as I looked up at her where Pearl seemed to be lost in a memory of her own.

"Tell me about your band." I demanded sweetly.

Pearl raised her eyebrows but with a shake of head finally relented. "I can see that this point is troubling you so I'll explain it all then. Yes, Lara, Dorothy and I were all in a band, an all-girl band and we used to play gigs at the school from time to time. We didn't play anything fantastic at first as all we could do were just covers of other songs but soon we gained experience and began creating our own music.

"We all collaborated to make the songs, though I wrote the basic skeleton and lyrics, by the time each of us had a play with it it transformed into an entirely new piece. Everyone was so talented that it made writing a breeze because each person had their own little interpretation they wanted to add. Lara was excellent as lead guitarist, you should have seen the way her long fingers controlled those strings, it was as if they were a part of her. And Dorothy's voice was so captivating that it could transform you into another reality. And then of course there were Shannon's percussions, her beat drummed right into your soul. In the end I was really the odd one out, the one who knew all the music theory, a little with each instrument but never truly great like any of the other three.

"Our band formed right at the start of high school after we first met each other in music class where we became fast friends. And we played day and night, whether it be sneaking into the studios at lunch or over to Dorothy's estate in the evenings, but we never stopped. Right up until year ten we never changed our routine. Except that year proved to be a very different one for us as that was the grade that all four of us were made into daevas. Still, we kept on doing our music concerts for the school and jamming at Dorothy's home when we could.

"We had always envied Dorothy for her wealth, her house being one of the largest on the mountain with a view of the Serene Coast comparable to the lookout. It was from her father that her wealth came as he was meant to come from some aristocratic northern European family and though he denied his place in his homeland, he still managed to take away a small portion of his inheritance, which is not small by any measure. And there Dorothy lived alone with father where he happily accommodated our rehearsals.

"One night we played a gig at one of the local restaurants where a group of, then year ten students sat at a table. There was one boy in particular who was very attractive and we were all eyeing him off, but it was Dorothy who claimed that prize. At the end of our show Jason Hunter took her hand for a dance to a pop-hit playing on the juke-box and before anyone could blink they were dating and in love. But that was where Dorothy's happiness ended.

"Her father died suddenly midway that year, a heart attack after his usual morning jog. Ironic, isn't it? Something that's meant to keep you healthy is the thing that kills you?

"Dorothy of course was devastated after losing her only known family member but soon discovered others as her aristocratic family came calling. They wanted her to relocate to Northern Europe, to her rightful place as heir to the family, but of course Dorothy knew nothing of her heritage until then and was frightened by the strangers. They promised wealth beyond her belief and fashion that was up there with the rich and famous but she turned them down, declared that she wanted to stay in Australia on her mountain near the boy she loves. The family were furious with this and pulled out all sorts of custody rights to demand her arrival into Europe. Fortunately however, Jason was the son of a very powerful solicitor who came to her salvation.

"At this time Dorothy had just turned sixteen and under certain circumstances could be considered an adult under law and so Jason's father arranged this and seeing how there were no next of kin in Australia it was a slam dunk for the lawyer. This freed Dorothy legally from having to abide her family's wishes in relocating to Europe and allowed her romance to blossom with her boyfriend, the last person she had left to love in this world. But of course, if you recall the song you heard last night then you can imagine how that part of the story unfolds.

"A couple of months later Jason had just received his motorbike licence and was enjoying almost nothing more than to ride on the back of his very pricy Harley-Davidson. The trouble was that Skyward Mountain's roads are perilous at the best of times, but during wet weather, they're murderous.

"And of course this was all amongst the drama of being a Daeva which, in case you haven't learnt by now, isn't kind to souls when their hearts are in pain. So, when Dorothy learnt of the news of Jason, she just couldn't handle it anymore, she lost her connection to this world and was consumed by darkness. Since then she has become a phantom, a daeva-nox, and became lost to us forever."

"A phantom... a ghost..." I whispered after hearing the story. "That's what you meant when you said she didn't exist anymore, because all her tragedy changed her. It..." I stated, not wanting to but realise it but knew it must have been the truth with every time I thought of the girl's crazed laughter. "It made her hollow."

"Yes, that massive void left by the love and sorrow that once lingered in her heart distorted her personality, made it crazed and irrational. So much so that even her own daeva-nox kind cannot handle her."

"Jason..." I murmured thoughtfully. "She's doing it all for Jason. She wants to bring him back to life, but then... that means that she's not hollow. If she misses him it must mean that she still loves him!"

Pearl's blue eyes glistened sadly, the black flower rocks by them seeming to darken. "I used to think so too and many times I tried to appeal to that but in every instance I failed. Even now I still try calling out to her even though I know that what she is is no more than a broken representation of what she was. She is a phantom, nothing but information within a form that appears human but without a soul to govern reason or compassion."

"So, when you girls talk about killing, if it's a daeva-nox you think it's okay because you don't consider them human?" I said it as an accusation.

"It's..." Pearl responded reluctantly. "More complicated than that, but yes, killing her would not be the same as killing one of us or another human. Tell me, I have told you Dorothy's history but that took place almost two years ago, so I wonder, is there any discrepancies you find with my story?"

Looking down at the grey path I noticed it was darker than usual, like the world did not rise to its true aura glory in the presence of this conversation.

"Dorothy looks like she's still sixteen. Year ten or maybe eleven, but not year twelve, she seems too young for your year." I answered.

"Exactly. Dorothy has accepted the darkness into her fully, she has cut off her connection to our world which means that she no longer ages whilst she is in it. The same goes for all nox girls and you know why that is? Because they are nothing but mirages in our existence, a presence that cannot age because they no longer interact with the Earth's elements. They have the power to draw its aura, but it is against its will which is why they will never be able to command the power they seek. To be able to reshape the world, they need to form a new connection and that can only be done with the dark particles that they synergise with."

"Stop it." I whispered. "Stop saying people are so evil, they're not, they're just misunderstood."

"Is that what you really believe, Abigail? That people are innocent of their crimes regardless of their actions so long as they have reason?"  I head Pearl sigh. "Then tell me, what do you think of the shades, those beings that steal our world's aura? Do you also believe that they're innocent because they only do what their circumstances dictate? Do you also think that maybe our destroying them is just another act of evil?"

I gasped here and turned to her, confusion riddled across me. "But... but... they're not human, not even from this world so killing them isn't the same! It's not the same as hurting the daeva-noxes!"

"But it is, Abigail." Pearl stated sadly. "For the noxes and the shades are all one and the same, all fused entirely of dark particles and all are phantoms."

I started breathing heavily to which Pearl placed a hand on my head. From under a subtle golden light I reclaimed my composure.

"How do you do that?" I asked. "How are you able to calm me?"

Pearl smirked. "I never used to be able to, only in the last few months or so could I do this. You see our power continues to develop as these do..." Here she raised a hand and shifting a silver bangle unveiled yet another raised black crystal, only this was in the shape of a solitary tear-drop. "Killing the shades repels the darkness from this world and in a strange symbolic way, it repels the darkness from our very bodies, but it also suppresses our own power into coming into full fruition. Eventually though, we cannot escape our fate and the flower takes us over entirely and the chrysalis forms."

"What if..." I whispered, feeling less vindicated by the argument I was about to make. "What if you... repel all the shades, will that stop you from chrysalising?"

"Theoretically yes, but that can never be possible, not so long as Raziel lingers in our world creating tears for them to flood through from."

"Tears?" I repeated. "You mean like portals to another world?"

"That's right, rips to our world in which the darkness may travel through."

I fell silent for a couple of minutes as she guided me home. I wanted to learn more but at the same time it terrified me and worse, the more I learned the more I discovered Bethanie's cruel fate that laid ahead of her. Mine too, if I was not careful in resisting the call of my erosreaver. Eventually I did interrupt the silence, though this was of a more innocent enquiry.

"Your power, that's because you're a writer - you write music!"

Pearl shone me an impressed look. "And what led you to that conclusion?"

"The feathers, they're quills, like what they used to write with in the olden days! And you said yourself once, that the pen is mightier than the sword - I remember! Your power has to do with your ability to write!"

Pearl gave a soft giggle. "You're pretty switched on, I'll give you that! Yeah, I wrote the music but I don't know if I was really even necessary with the other girls being so talented. I did like to write poetry though so the lyrics were usually all of my own but every so often Dorothy would like to tweak them."

"And Rebecca, she played lead guitar so she's skilled with strings! That's why she can shoot strings from her fingertips!"

"You're catching on quickly!"

"Then Dorothy, her power has to do with her voice, you said it could transport you into another reality, well then that's what it does, doesn't it!? She can transport you into whatever world she creates!"

Pearl narrowed her eyes. "You're on the mark about our natural skills being linked to our powers but really it's more the other way around. Our innate powers are what give us our talents, it is only our personalities that govern their expressons. When it comes to Dorothy, her power doesn't show you a world that she sings like when she was human, but transforms you into another world that already exists. It could be one very similar to ours but a future form, or one that's very similar to ours past, or one that has diverged unrecognisable in any point of time, and then it could be anything in between. Dorothy has a unique gift where she can perceive other worlds but she cannot interact with them, only invite guests to their viewing."

"Other worlds?" I repeated. "You mean, there are other worlds besides ours and the world of dark?"

Pearl nodded. "That's right, there are an infinite number of worlds out there that we can barely contemplate, however at this time there are only two that matter, our world and the very different and opposite world of the darkness called noein. That's all we need to know of and that's what we must focus on."

"Right..." I uttered. "Only two out of infinity..."

"Hey!" Pearl squeezed my shoulder. "Don't look so down, you're hardly alone in all this, even if your friend isn't here you do have me by your side!" She winked.

"Thanks, Pearl." I patted the hand that rested on my shoulder. "That means a lot to me."

Pearl smiled but eventually drew her hand away. "Abigail, I know the other daeva-lux girls can seem a bit full on but they're good people really. They're all on your side, even if they can act like bitches at times. And as to Bethanie, you two are really good for each other, I can see that, but remember that as much as you rely on her she relies on you even more. She needs you, Abigail, I have a feeling that without you she will lose her connection to this world. Just make sure that you stay by her side, hey? Regardless of anybody else, just stay by your friend's side."

To this I giggled. "You sound like my mum! But that's exactly what I plan to do! Bethanie is my best friend so no matter what I will pester her until we're little old ladies receiving hip-replacements!"

Pearl nodded as if relieved. "Good and Abigail, why don't you have a little break from all this daeva stuff. You haven't found your erosreaver yet and don't have any crystals to worry about so just try having a go at being a normal tenth grader."

"But I can't do that!" I protested, not with Bethanie and you and Lara getting all those flowers on you!"

"You can still stay by Bethanie's and help her out, like I said she really relies on you." Then she added a sideways smirk. "And as to the rest of us I wouldn't worry so much, we're a lot tougher than we look!"

At a couple of blocks from my home Pearl said her farewells before hurrying off in the other direction. And as I walked the remainder of the distance I returned my thoughts to the powers daevas held and wondered what Rebecca's swords, Vanessa's whip and Ariel's arrows meant for them. Then I thought about what my own power would be expressed as. I held a great curiosity to discover this however, knowing about the black chrysalis, I decided that I didn't need to find its physical manifestation. Pearl had said that love was my gift and I agreed with and such a power could only be at its strongest through its less-tangible actions.

Chapter 19

 

Bethanie

 

The next day passed smoothly. The teasing about Eric and Abigail's relationship still there but already losing its lustre and then in last period Kieran was actually amicable during sport. It helped since we were put in the same basketball team that day, but pleasingly I did notice him favouring his passes to me.

The end of physical education meant the end of the day and there Kieran approached me.

"So, wanna head to the arcade so I can kick your arse in Daytona?"

I smirked back. "You know I'd be wiping the floor with you! But, since I cancelled on those friends yesterday I think I should probably make it up to them this afternoon."

Kieran was crestfallen. "Oh, right. That makes sense."

"But hey!" I enthused. "It's only hump-day, there's still plenty of time in the week for me to destroy you!"

Kieran gave a wan smile. "Yeah, I guess so. Well I'll catch you later then, Beth."

After running from the sports hall I caught up with Abigail by the school's front gate and just like yesterday she was there first.

"Your classes are conveniently located to leave school early aren't they?" I observed.

Abigail giggled. "Um... Yeah I just had Art and the class isn't too far from here so I guess you're right. And since I have Art as last period both Tuesday and Wednesday, I never noticed how easy it was to get out before!"

I couldn't help laughing at Abigail's occasional 'crunchie' behaviour. "Well cool, since I ran all the way here it should mean that we won't be too late to meet up with the daeva girls!"

"Um..." Abigail murmured. "I didn't get a chance to talk to Pearl today so she didn't tell me where we could meet them but... I'm sure they'll be where they were yesterday!" She cheered but did not look wholly certain.

"Oh... well I guess it's still worth a try to see if they're there. I do really want to speak with them. Everything's been so hectic so it'll be good to clear the air."

"I agree." Abigail murmured as we started walking. "I think they need to hear from you."

"Huh?" I asked. "Abigail, just what happened in that meeting yesterday?"

The pale brunette lowered her head. "I don't really know, all I know is that besides Pearl the other three don't seem to trust us. Well, it sounded like Vanessa in particular, she sounded very nasty. I didn't know who she was directing these words towards but to whoever they were intended it was... far from nice..."

I frowned. "Were they talking about us, Abigail? Do they have a problem with either of us?"

Abigail screwed up her face before shaking vehemently. "No, no that can't be right." Then she turned and smiled to me innocently. "My mind is just playing tricks, that's all!"

I nodded but was far from convinced. I did not doubt that Abigail was a smart girl but when it came to understanding underhanded behaviour she was clueless. If they had said something against us then she would be oblivious to it which would only put us at a disadvantage if they had suspected she heard anything that she shouldn't have. In any case, whether they were friend or foe we still needed to convene with them so I did not alter our course from the soccer oval. However when we reached there it was dismally vacant.

"Oh, I guess they're not meeting up this afternoon." Abigail ascertained.

With a groan I began to walk away. "Come on, there's no point hanging around here."

"Um... okay." Abigail meekly responded. Then after a few minutes of leaving the school grounds she asked, "Hey, Bethanie, so what's the goss between you and Kieran? You all made up and friends now?"

I smirked. "I should be asking the same for you and Eric, except instead of making up I should say, have you made out?"

"Oh, Bethanie!" She pushed me weakly. "Of course we haven't! We're taking it slowly. We don't want to ruin our friendship by jumping into this relationship too quickly."

I laughed. "I've heard that before! What? With my brothers, I mean!" I explained to her confused yet horrified expression. "They always talk about dating some girl and taking it slow before wham! I hear way too much..."

"Oh, dear!" Abigail exclaimed. "Well rest assured, we'll be keeping it steady and slow!"

"Like I said," I grinned, "I've heard that before..." Just then I received an impressive thump to my shoulder blade, only this fist skidded up to the top of my shoulder and grazed the raised flower design embossed under my sleeve.

"Oh! I'm... I'm sorry!" Abigail stammered apologetically.

"It's... okay." I murmured as I realised that this time her blow did not hurt the raised lesion. "You only hit me physically, not emotionally so it doesn't hurt..."

"Really?" Abigail frowned. "That's really bizarre, but I guess, so long as you can control your emotions, that kind of makes you invulnerable then, doesn't it?"

"Yeah..." I responded pensively. "I guess it kind of does..."

Still Abigail's frown had yet to cease. "I don't know whether that's cool or sad."

"Neither do I." I admitted.

Then with alarm Abigail surveyed her surroundings before turning to me as we walked. "Bethanie, this isn't the way home, we're going in the opposite direction!"

"I know." I responded stiffly. "It's because there's things I need to check out. You don't have to come if you don't want, actually it's probably better that you don't, but I need to learn a few things about what it means to be a daeva and if I can't meet up with those girls then I guess that just leaves one other route to find my answers."

"Bethanie..." She murmured. "You sound like you're about to do something dangerous!"

"I laugh in the face of danger..." I quipped before Abigail suddenly ran out in front of me with her arms outstretched.

"No!" She declared. "I forbid you from doing anything reckless!"

"Abigail," I sighed. "It's not reckless..."

"Yes it is!" She interrupted. "I can see that look in your eye which says your about to get up to mischief, am I right!?"

I grabbed Abigail's shoulders. "Hey, maybe it's not the safest thing but I think the most dangerous thing is doing nothing. This is what I need to do, Abigail. It's up to you whether or not you come but I will be going. You just need to trust that I'm doing the right thing here."

Abigail's scowl fitted her so poorly that it looked comical but eventually she let it dissolve as she lowered her arms.

"Okay." She relented. "I won't stop you but I'm not going to leave your side, not for anything!"

I smirked. "Why thanks, I always wanted a girlfriend."

Abigail placed two fists on her hips. "This isn't a joke, Bethanie, I'm serious! I care about you so I don't want you doing anything dangerous by yourself!"

"Yeah, I know you don't, Abigail. And thank you, for understanding."

As we continued walking the mood had changed from light-hearted and teasing to stiff and quiet. Abigail was upset but I wasn't sure whether it was entirely my fault for it seemed like there was something else plaguing her mind. But I did know one thing, that if I pushed her away now she would be even more distressed. So I didn't and we walked down that path in silence.

"I've just noticed something." Abigail murmured after a while. "The world's auras doesn't look so pretty when we're upset."

I looked down at the footpath that seemed greyer than usual, as did the flanking grass, just as the blue overhead did not seem to twinkle so brightly.

"Yeah, I noticed that too." I responded.

"Why do you think that is?"

"I guess..." I answered thoughtfully, "When we're upset we don't allow as much light in. Maybe there's times where all we want to see is darkness. In a way that can be more soothing than all the light and colour in the world."

"Sadness begets sadness." Abigail analysed. "I wonder then, all that light, the brightness, the rivers of colour we see in the sky at dusk, do we only see them because we want to? And then, does that mean that that beautiful display of life doesn't really exist?"

I smirked. "You're over-thinking things, Abigail. We can't affect the world by our thoughts, only perceive them in different ways because of them. The world is the same for everyone and a little bit of negativity does it no harm."

Abigail gave a wan smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right, Bethanie."

A few minutes later we reached our destination and as we passed under the archway scribing Skyward Mountain Cemetery in a woven metal design Abigail gave me an apprehensive look but said nothing.

We walked inside the grounds and panned the many hundreds of tombstones headlining the resting places of the loved deceased. And then, from deep within the graveyard, we saw a girl who sat alone in front of one tombstone that appeared no more than an ill-cut slab of rock pressed into the ground. It was smaller than its counterparts and seemed to be nestled in so tightly that it almost seemed inconceivable that a person could be buried beneath its dirt. And as I approached I made out the faint, shallow scrawl that declared that this person died a little under a year ago at the age of fifteen.

"Bethanie..." Abigail whispered in my ear as she tugged on my blouse in attempt from stopping me venture any further forward. "Are you sure about this?"

I patted the hand caught on my school's shirt's fabric. "It's fine, Abigail, it's not her we have to fear."

Pulling my friend's hand away I walked up to the girl and sat by her on the emerald grass. Abigail however lingered behind a few meters away.

"You've come." Ariel next to me observed. "I knew you would, after learning the potential of this place."

"I have learned a few things about potential but not so much about how to explore that yet. That's why I came here, to fully grasp on what it means to be a daeva."

The silver haired girl continued to stare ahead at the sloppy tombstone. "Is that all? You came to explore your power only? You don't desire to remove the crystal flower from your shoulder?"

"Who says that I can't kill two birds with one stone?"

Ariel smirked. "No one. Your abilities are limited by what your mind can create and what this world can accommodate. It's not enough in my eyes but that still leaves vast possibilities to be explored."

I was staring ahead also but chose just then to read aloud what my eyes had long lingered on. "Nathan Rhodes, that name rings a bell..."

Actually it rang more than a bell for it was the name of the boy that died last year who attended Skyward High.

Ariel lowered her gaze from the uneven rock to the healthy grass she was perched on. "Only girls can become daevas but that does not mean that the men in our lives cannot be harmed, in fact it makes them incredibly susceptible to it." Then she turned away and raised quizzical silver eyes towards me. "You're here to fight, aren't you? But it's not me you want to fight, no, I haven't given you enough of a reason to hate me enough yet. You're here for the shades. You want to kill them so that your body may be healed of those dense flowers."

"Do you have a problem with that? I know the shades are your puppets and all, but you seemed to hold no qualms with me killing the one you pinned against me last week."

"You're right, I don't care about them, they merely serve as a tool to achieve my desired outcome. But fortunately they desire the same outcome and thus they are loyal to the noxes. It's a shame for them that they are no more than tools for our cause." She stated as she gazed aside, far across the length of the cemetery where it appeared the shadow of a tomb took form and skulked across the grounds. "And when you have a toolbox filled with a hundred screwdrivers, then the loss of a few is hardly something to batter an eyelid over."

"A hundred, hey?" I asked as I reclaimed my feet. "Well allow me to attenuate that down to double figures."

Ariel's eyes watched me with silver intensity for a moment before turning back to the grave and a black bow formed in her hand. Positioning it in front of her she pulled her free hand back along its vertical axis where a narrow bolt formed, its sharp tip nestling against her fair white cheek. She pointed upwards and upon release shot not one but dozens of arrows into the sky. Then once they reached the height of a hundred meters into the air and lost their visibility they exploded in twinkling whites, blues, pinks, oranges, greens, reds and violets, and as they fell limply to the earth I was left with the heart-lifting gratitude that I had just witnessed a fireworks display.

"They're colourful..." I murmured appreciatively despite my enmity towards the performer.

"All white light is made up of colour, and a white aura is no different. Close range it cannot be viewed, but over a distance the interactions between the air's aura to the one I just shot out can be made more clear." Ariel explained as she disintegrated her bow. Turning to the bushland that bordered the cemetary she added, "Some of the answers you seek approach. Remember, so long as you protect your heart nothing can hurt you." And as she began to walk away she entered the shade of a small mausaleum where its darkness swollowed her completely.

"Where did she go!?" Abigail cried as she rushed to my side.

"I'm starting to get the impression that daeva-noxes and shades are more similar than we first thought."

"She scares me, Bethanie. She acts so different to how she used to."

"It's her true self." I ascertained as I continued to stare into the tomb's shade. "Without all the embellishment and facades there's very little of the girl left. Underneath it all she's hollow."

"That's not true," Abigail argued, "there's sadness there too and I now it's real, I can feel it!"

"In any case," I responded as I noticed the foliage beyond darken. "She is not our concern now. All we need to do is fight this other world and then we'll protect ourselves."

"Bethanie, are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Abigail whimpered as shades emerged from the trees and started walking through the rows of gravestones. "Those things are dangerous!"

Clutching the crystal beneath my school blouse I stated, "Yes, I have to. It's the only way to tear these things away." Then I allowed my hand to slip and turning side on I called to the energy of the cemetery and felt the weight of my giant blade materialise within my hands.

"Come on, you bastards." I called to the four shades as they began to rush forwards, never at once taking a step with their two black legs. "Heal me and die!"

Chapter 20

 

Abigail

 

She was more powerful with her sword than ever. She ran straight towards the four shades, blade held out behind her, its long tip just scouring over tombstones. And on top of one of these she jumped, leapt high into the air before swinging her steel down in a vertical arc, the speed and savagery akin to the blow of an executioner's axe.

Leaning forwards dark blonde curls covered her face admist the hail of falling black stones. Then she straightened, throwing back her hair and turning towards another she revealed a hungry smile.

She swung again, arcing laterally but this time her adversary was ready for her viscious blow and rose up into the air above it, distorting its body into somewhat of a blob shape to achieve the move. Then past the arc the shade dropped back down, appearing to land heavy yet causing little disurbance to the ground underfoot.

Then another silhouette rounded the back of her and before Bethanie had time to shift back around the thing struck out with a sharp blow that pierced my friend's shoulder. Bethanie however had not registered this and when she whirled around delivered yet another killing swipe as she split through its torso laterally.

Bethanie locked her eyes back onto the shade that avoided her and in a vertical motion swung her blade from behind to over the top of her head to land right down on top of it. But the being seemed to be faster than the others and just like the last attack made on it evaded this one too.

The fourth shade came from behind with two long black limbs swiping left and right, but this move had already became stale, and reacting with ample time, Bethanie skidded down low and missed the black spears as they soared overhead. There she sliced with her own weapon only centimetres from the ground and as she pulled across her ebony weapon cut cleanly first through two tombstones that laid in its wake, then the creature's ankles. The shade fell to the ground aside and as it appeared to concentrate on morphing new feet, marble and concrete collided to soft earth, quaking the scene with low pitched thuds.

Bethanie refixed her sword above her head and for a moment seemed to linger there, as if relishing on the strike to come that would end the shade's existence. But that seemed to be a crucial error for when it did come to execute that blow the second shade loomed behind her.

"Bethanie, behind you!" I cried out, but either she didn't hear me or I was too late for a split second after the fallen adversary had transformed into black hail Bethanie was sliced in her leg with a bladed hand, then her waist and then, shade spinning off a pivoted foot, pointed air-borne toes slashed across Bethanie's left hand.

Despite wobbly limbs Bethanie turned, tensed the grasp of her sword but then halted. Looking down she seemed only dismally aware of the deep gash in her left arm and yet still oblivious to all the other spots spilling profusely red.

Somehow this did not deter my friend for as the shade spun around to finish with a final piercing strike into Bethanie's heart the girl, roaring, flew her sword across with just her right hand.

The shade again evaded the black and red woven steel as it jumped backwards. It held there, watching Bethanie's panting before quickly turning around and fleeing the graveyard.

"Coward!" Bethanie's voice thundered towards the forest the dark being quickly escaped into. "Come back and finish this! I'll..." She gasped for air. "I'll kill you!"

She took a step forwards but this was onto her left crimson-oozing leg and putting her weight down began to fall, but I as appeared at her waist I did not allow that to happen.

"Abigail?" Bethanie breathed with confusion, as if not even remembering that I was there.

"Bethanie, stop!" I cried.

"I can't stop!" Bethanie yelled determinedly. "He's on the run, I need to finish him off..."

"But, Bethanie!" I interrupted. "Just look at you, you're bleeding really badly!"

Bethanie turned her gaze down first to inspect her arm, then to her leg and torso. As blood was gushing freely Bethanie widened her eyes and allowed her sword to drop limply and within a glowing white dust it disappeared.

"I... I didn't even feel them." Bethanie stammered.

"Is that, like, part of your ability now?"

Bethanie frowned in thought. "I thought things felt different, I guess now I know. I can feel pain but it's strange, since becoming a daeva I was only ever in pain when I was upset, but now I'm not upset at all. It seems that... I'll only sense my injuries on the outside if I'm hurting on the inside."

"But, I don't understand. What does that mean?"

"Maybe... my soul or mind isn't as connected to my body as it was once."

We both watched the red lesions as the troubling thought lingered.

"Hey look! They're healing!" I called cheerily as the three locations hardened and its colour deepened, but as it continued to do so until they turned jet-black and their shapes distorted. In seconds the process had completed and in each of those spots three new flower designs replaced the wounds.

Hurriedly Bethanie raised her shirt sleeve to reveal clean, unbesmirched skin, then she pulled up a red coated sleeve on the other side which, despite a glowing pink line, was almost as clean as her other shoulder.

"Bethanie..." I breathed. "You're crystal is gone! Well, the one that was there..."

"Not just that, but it looks like a spot where one of the other shades must have attacked me didn't form a crystal as it healed, which means..." My friend responded contemplatively. "That in order to fully heal I must kill every shade I fight."

The gravity of what I had done hit me. "Oh, I'm sorry for stopping you, Bethanie! I didn't realise!"

"No, it's okay, you were right to, I was in no shape to going running off after it. Maybe if it had hung around I could have won but with those wounds, running would have drawn too much blood and I would have been incredibly weakened. There's no way I would have won. And I think the shade thought the same thing and took its chance to escape."

"You think the shade thought all that?" I asked surprised.

Bethanie's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I do. I don't know exactly what these things are but it appears they're not purely instinctual, but capable of cognition."

I bit my bottom lip, unsure what to make of the discovery.

"Well at least this little escapade wasn't worthless; we learnt one thing at least."

I didn't say it but the understanding held in the air, but the cost of which was too great...

"C'mon, Abigail," Bethanie called light-heartedly as she made her way to her dropped school bag. "Let's call it a day."

During our way home I explained the things in which I had learnt from Pearl: the disappointing revelation that the progression of the chrysalis cannot be stopped, only slowed; the way people's powers seemed to be linked to their skills and personalities; the band that Pearl, Lara and Dorothy were all a part of; Dorothy's sad story and what led her to joining up with the daeva-noxes; and then finally the chilling assertion that those girls were no longer human, but phantoms.

"They're all empty deep down." Bethanie weighed pensively. "Just as Ariel has shown herself to be today."

"But I still don't believe it, Bethanie!" I refuted. "It can't be true, it just can't be! They're just high school girls, just like us!"

"Ones that don't seem to age." Bethanie recited from my retelling of the age discrepancy.

"I don't care if Dorothy doesn't look her age, she still looks pretty human to me! A phantom just can't be right! You know what that means, that says that she's a ghost but you saw Ariel when she fought the luxes, they bleed just like everybody else!"

"That's true, they certainly do appear to exist in our world." My friend replied pensively before switching to another topic. "Abigail, you said that these powers have to do with a person's talents and personalities, right? Lara and Pearl's make sense now, but have you been able to work out Rebecca and Vanessa's?"

"Um, no, I haven't. I guess I don't know enough about them."

"Dual swords and a whip... Abigail, do me a favour and stay away from these girls for a while. I like Pearl and Lara seems to be truthful enough, but that is only from the small amount that I have seen of them. And then as to Rebecca and Vanessa we really have no idea who they are or what their motivations are. Any of them for that matter. Please, don't put your trust into them yet."

"But, Bethanie, they saved us on Monday!"

"That may be true." Bethanie admitted. "But that was only Lara and Pearl and even still, we don't know if they plan on using us as their own pawns. That Dorothy girl may be mental but it certainly seems like the other two noxes want us to stay alive also and I know what they're intending isn't good."

I remembered then, a comment Vanessa had said about a final dimension opening with one more girl joining the nox fold but chose not to voice it at this time. It was because I didn't really understand what they were talking about, or who. That was what I told myself.

"I think they all have their own agendas in this, their own reasons for fighting which I don't think all match up with each others'." Bethanie continued as Vanessa's snarls directed to Rebecca also entered my mind.

"But Pearl! We can trust her, I know it!"

Then Bethanie asked the hard question. "Sure, I believe that but how long will she be around to be our ally for? Lara too, they're both sure to be goners to this chrysalis soon."

Tears began to trickle silently down my face.

"Hey, don't be so down, Abby! Take this as a good little break! I'm not saying stay away forever but just until we work some things out and hey, this will give you a chance to finally go on a real date with Eric!"

I nodded as after rubbing my cheeks with the back of my hand a whitish aura glow clung there.

-

Both Bethanie and Pearl had advised me to keep my distance from the daevas for a time and I had agreed, but did not comply too well. I wasn't actively seeking any of them, but every time I saw them on the playground my eyes just lingered there a little longer and my body turned as if to head in that direction. For the rest of the week I was successful except for when I passed through the corridors after having just finished maths. Through them I was walking with Louise at my flank where she was gushing about the date I agreed to have with Eric over the weekend despite us agreeing not to tell our nosy friends anything.

"How did you even find out about that?" I grumbled.

"Oh, Amy told me!" Louise responded.

"And how did Amy find out then?"

"Bart did."

"And how did Bart know?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

Louise giggled. "Well you know that sneaky text message you made today during recess, well during English Eric pulled out his phone and Bart stole it right from his hands and discovered your little date where he read it aloud for the whole class to hear! Amy is in their English so she messaged me with the goss straight away. Isn't that thoughtful of her!?"

"We are heading to lunch." I groaned, "I'm sure she just would have told you now..."

Louise appeared aghast by my words. "But then I wouldn't have been able to have this one-on-one time with you where you tell me what you're wearing, how you're going to do your hair, how far you're willing to go when you make out..."

"This is precisely why we were trying to keep it between text messages..."  I spoke over the top of her but she just continued as if I hadn't said anything.

"... How you're gonna do your eyes - you gotta do smoky eyes! That's what all the pretty girls in the movies do and you gotta tell me how you're getting there, oh! I completely forgot to ask what he has planned!"

"Guitar..." I murmured.

"Oh, he's serenading you! That's so sweet!"

"No, I mean, I can hear the guitar. It's coming from the music rooms..." I gestured off to an adjoining hall where a finger-style guitar melody could be heard that possessed occasional strumming. Then, minutely detected, were vocals to accommodate the piece.

I nodded my head in the direction of the studio. "Let's go check it out."

"It does sound very pretty, oh, I wish I could, but I need to get to the library to borrow some books out for this really tough science assignment but if it doesn't take me all lunch then I'll meet you by the tree!" She waved before moving along down the hall.

"Alright, I'll see you later then!" I called but after losing sight of her was actually kind of relieved that Louise's bombardment of questions had finally come to an end.

She doesn't care about the answers, my mind analysed, she just likes to see me squirm. Kids can be so cruel, I added with a wry smile. Then turning I made my way down the music section of the school where it wasn't until I approached the entryway of the classroom that I could finally make out unconfident, albeit smooth vocals over the top of the skilled instrumentation. There, hiding just in from the front of the studio, I listened to the song being played.

 

Flowers grow black atop my pale skin

They do so menacingly, to a poison they are akin

On this foliage there are no thorns

Because all the pain comes with the adorn

 

I reach out to the blue overhead

And to the Heavens I call for salvation to be shed

But from there I just see the twinkle in the sky

That promises it is alright to die

 

Flowers grow black atop my pale skin

They do so menacingly, almost with a grin

On this foliage there are no thorns

It is merely of non-existence that they forewarn

 

I look to the rivers beneath the ground

Where the power of creation stirs without a sound

To it I ask for my life to be returned

But the platinum flows unconcerned

 

Ebony flowers grow atop my dying skin

No relief heard for one who bears my sin

At the full blossom there strike through the thorns

And as I disappear not a soul remembers to mourn

 

"That's about the crystals, isn't it?" I asked after coming in at the end of the solo, unable to restrain myself from the lull of the tragic melody.

Lara gazed up at me from her acoustic guitar. "I thought I was the only person around."

"I heard you from down the hall." I pointed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude, I just wanted to know who was playing - the guitaring sounds very skilful!"

"But the lyrics aren't much good..."

"No, no!" I interjected. "You have a nice acoustic voice, only..."

She finished for me with a grimace. "It's all pretty dark and depressing." Lara sighed. "The whole thing is really. I used to be able to write some more upbeat stuff, fun summer-time kind of songs, but the last couple of years I just haven't been able to remember how I came up with all those sounds. Even now when I play old ones or just do covers it all seems... forced."

I looked to her neck where, from behind brown wavy hair, were those ebony flowers Lara was just singing about.

"No one can see them, can they?" I asked.

Lara shook her head as she strummed between a few chords softly. "You need the daeva eyes to see them. They can be felt, but most people only believe what their eyes tell them so even if they're accidentally brushed no one ever notices."

"Earlier, when you were talking about the crystals with Pearl you said that they cannot come off now, even if you do destroy the shades?"

Lara tried another chord progression. "That's right, eventually the flowers grow too pervasively within your aura and gets to the point that you cannot keep up with the quantity of shades required to be destroyed. So destroying shades becomes redundant for someone like Pearl and I. What we need is to destroy something that's worth a lot more but that kind of game does not come around too often."

"So Bethanie is right, you and Pearl don't have very long, do you?"

Lara paused when she heard Bethanie's name then recommenced her strumming. "Be wary of that one, she may end up making the wrong decision."

"What do you mean by that? Be wary of Bethanie? But she's my best friend, I trust her more than anybody else!"

But Lara didn't answer, I suppose she just realised that there would have been no way of getting her point across, so then I pushed another question.

"How long do you have?"

"That depends..." Lara began to move onto some more finger-style. "On what happens in our lives, in our hearts and on the battlefield. If we're lucky a couple of months, if not it could be tomorrow. Pearl and I are both at that point now where we're both watching the last grains of sand fall."

I trembled. "There has to be, there must be some way of stopping it!"

"There are ways of prolonging the chrysalis, but stopping it? The only way that's possible is death."

"No, no I refuse to believe that!" I argued. "You can't be given the power to save the world just to die, that's just too cruel!"

Lara clapped her hand against the strings firmly, giving the guitar an unsettling ringing drum before muting.

"I have been a daeva for over two years now and I've watched girls chrysalise, friends die and then others turn into phantoms, so, if there was a way, even the smallest possible chance that we could avoid these harsh fates don't you think I would have tried it already!?"

I took a step back towards the music room door. "I... I'm sorry, I just wanted to find some way to help. I mean, there has to be some way, right?" My voice was meek and frightened.

Lara sighed and tried at a smile that failed miserably. "No, I'm sorry. Your enthusiasm wasn't too different to how all the rest of us started out, but we learned... quickly."

"There's nothing, no way for me to help?"

"No, Abigail, there really isn't. All that you can do is keep yourself at a distance from us and the shades as much as you can and also, save yourself from too much heart-ache. If you can remain safe that will at least give me some closure that when I move on, I do so knowing that one girl may remain to remember me."

Chapter 21

 

Bethanie

 

Keeping behind the trees I followed the girl. She walked alone with her backpack on her shoulders, long straight black hair swaying side to side. She made her way down the mountain, selecting roads that became less and less frequented by pedestrians and cars alike. After almost an hour of tailing her from the school she eventually walked along a skinny dirt track that was blocked off from vehicles by a sign stating private property.

I followed her still, thankful for the plentiful trees I used as cover but as the road spiralled downwards I began to curse them for at many times I lost sight of her. Though there were no more roads to travel, there were adjacent paths and I had to jog to reach the bends to ensure that she did not venture down one of these. But at the last tight bend I lost sight of her again and even with a quiet jog to round the corner I discovered no sight of her.

I ran up further and stopped at a junction where a skinny dirt path intersected. I looked down the length of both as far as I could see which did not stretch too great a distance before chewing my bottom lip indecisively.

I turned to continue towards the original track where, within no fewer than ten paces, my backpack slung about a single shoulder was thrown free as I was barrelled into the ground, face-first. I made to get up but a weight was seated on my back and that held my arms in a vice-grip.

"Why are you following me?" Rebecca's calm voice queried over the top of me.

I wriggled my head sideways to free my mouth from the dirt it was pressed against. "Hey, let me go! I didn't mean anything by it, I just wanted to meet up with you girls - to talk!"

"Then why not talk, why stalk me like you're trying to investigate me?"

"Because, I didn't think you'd listen to me! From what I've seen of you, you seem to like to punch first and ask questions later."

I could hear the smirk in her voice. "If you think so highly of me then why not go and try to approach one of the others? I know Pearl would bake you a cake if you claimed you wanted to talk with her."

I tried to shift into a more comfortable position but Rebecca's firm hold made that impossible. "I would have gone up to Pearl if I had seen her, but I didn't, when school ended I only saw you leave."

"And so you thought by following me you could snake your way into our little get-together, did you? But what gave you the notion that we are meeting this afternoon?"

"I didn't." I admitted. "I don't know anything, that's the problem. I've learnt how to fight but I can't track the shades and if I can't kill them then I can't..."

"Erase those black crystals you've developed." Rebecca finished for me. "It appears you've amassed quite a few. It is only early days for you but if you let yourself get this careless then maybe your own chrysalis won't be too far off."

"Exactly..." I struggled again in her hold but gained no freedom. "Why I need to meet with you, all of you!"

I heard Rebecca sigh before she relinquished me. "Fine, come then. But we're not meeting for a little discussion, today we're on a hunt."

Pulling myself to my feet I smiled. "That's perfect, that's just what I want!"

"Whatever, just don't make yourself a nuisance." Rebecca turned and continued her way down the original windy dirt road.

"I won't!" I promised. "I just want to learn from you girls and help protect the world."

Rebecca's expression showed neither distrust nor belief.

I fumbled with my backpack and ran up to Rebecca's side before I asked the question that had been plaguing my mind. "Rebecca, just how long do Pearl and Lara have before their chrysalis?"

"I don't know. At this point it could happen at any time. All that they're waiting on is a trigger."

"And how about the rest of us, how long do we normally last before the chrysalis gets us?"

"If you're lucky - two years."

"And if you're not lucky?"

"Anything in between."

I shivered. "How short can it be?"

"Since awakening a daeva's erosreaver, the shortest has been eight days." Rebecca turned her emerald eyes subtly in my direction. "So I believe that congratulations are in order, you won't be the least developed daeva to chrysalise."

"Eight days..." I repeated in a whisper.

Rebecca didn't say anything more as we walked and neither did I break our mutual silence. It seemed the Autumn air just suddenly became too nippy for idle chit-chat, or maybe the chill was felt within my own heart, I couldn't be sure. Though we still lived in the same world my understanding of it became more foreign every day.

Eventually we reached a valley that held a river five meters wide at its centre. On this side of the bank stood three girls who appeared to have been waiting in stiff silence.

Vanessa was the first to welcome us. "So that's why you're so late, Rebecca, you've brought us Ariel's pawn. Wonderful, perfect timing for her to make her debut!"

"Bethanie, you're here!" Pearl cheered. "You kept us waiting a long time but seeing you here now means that you've decided to join up with us, right? That's great!"

Lara walked across from the group to meet Rebecca and me mid-way. "So you're ready now? You've come to fight by our side?"

I glanced all about the group, from Rebecca's indifference, to Vanessa's leering smirk, to Pearl's elation and back to Lara's speculation. "Yes, I want to do all I can to help the people of this world, everyone but especially protect the ones I love. Lara I... I'm sorry about what I said the other day, that wasn't fair. You all have obviously been through so much before I came along but you still fight, I find that... really admirable. So, if you'll have me, I would like to help against the daeva-noxes and shades. And if you could, help me learn how to... help myself." I added meekly as I glanced at the flower design on Lara's neck that was now creeping up to the lower border of her bottom jaw. "I would greatly appreciate that."

After a long stare Lara turned back to the rest of the group with a smile. "Well there you have it daevas, Bethanie's a lux and she'll be fighting by our side from now on!"

"Great, I always wondered what it'd be like to be stabbed in the back by an seven foot sword." Vanessa muttered before Pearl ran up to me and embraced me in a surprising hug.

"Don't worry about her, Bethanie." Pearl counselled as she pulled away. "You're with us now and I just know that together we'll find a way to save this world!"

"Lara," Rebecca stated. "I can sense a tear down there. Is that where the shades are?"

Lara gazed down the length of the river. "That's right, I felt the strings break around this location a couple of hours ago. Since it was recent that means that any shadows that have passed through should not have recovered from their disorientation yet and would not have been able to travel far. That gives us the perfect opportunity to launch a pre-emptive strike. Let's make the most of it."

Without even giving the signal to move out Lara suddenly dashed the down the river with the soles of her shoes flashing white. This propagated her motion so that she moved with the speed of an elite athlete. Not a moment later Rebecca and Vanessa followed in the same manner.

Pearl gave a little tug to my hand. "Come on, we need to move quickly. When they cross the tear they become dazed and are easy targets, but it only lasts a few hours." And as Pearl took off, just as with the other daevas, every footfall on the Earth burned whitely.

I looked down to my feet where impractical black leather mary-janes were worn before concentrating the same energy that I used to call my blade into them. Then as I sprinted I was literally kicking the world's aura at my heels.

A few minutes later we reached our destination where we all had stopped dead to gaze upon the scene. Keeping care to stay back behind the cover of trees I stared up at a black star shape suspended above the river. It was jaggered, with dozens of points cutting out and back in acutely, resembling an explosion of ebony thorns in the air. And beneath it the water slowed its flow and from a green-brown it turned dull and murky. So too did the grass by the bank lose its emerald lustre, just as the nearby trees appeared skinnier, branches distorted and their leaves scarce and grey. And amongst all this decaying foliage dozens of shades loitered languidly.

"There's gotta be at least fifty of them!" I whispered to Pearl by my side.

"Sure, but shades are weak and since there's five of us now that just leaves ten each - easy!"

"Pearl, I... I can't take on ten! I barely managed to survive against four the other day, and that was in the cemetery with all the extra aura!"

"Yes, but they're all disorientated, barely even capable of recognising their own consciousnesses. That'll make them dopey and slow, you'll see! But if you're still not convinced don't worry, I got your back!" She winked.

I gulped. "Yeah, I guess. No problem..."

Lara turned and after appraising the group gave a small single nod. That was when the girls erupted from their hiding positions and launched into the centre of the grey scene.

Vanessa brandished her whip, flying it around the front of her and instantly sliced a shade into two horizontal pieces before it broke up into crystals.

Rebecca summoned her swords, threw one straight into the chest of a shade, used her other to lop off a black head then spun round back to the first where she grabbed her blade and pulled violently up. At first I thought they were droplets of blood spilling profusely from that lesion until I realised that these creatures didn't bleed, but shatter and evaporate, just as black stones fell down before dissipating into the air.

Lara whipped her fingers back and forth and at the exact moment I caught their gleam, strings diced through two shades at once. A third that was targeted managed to avoid the attack as it morphed itself in order to dodge between the sectioned layers. Then it tried to back away, retreat perhaps, but Lara's strings, first loosening into curves, were pierced strongly back out where two narrow lines intersected with where the shade's eyes should have been. Then Lara streaked her outstretched index and middle finger downwards and the shade's body was sectioned into three almost complete pieces, where only the small portion above the eyes remained connected. Then with a lateral sweep of her other hand this monster was likewise diced before shattering into a crystalline shower.

Then I saw Pearl amongst the girls, never realising that she had left my side, where after erecting two great golden wings, the feathers shot forth and speared into multiple foes, each no fewer than five times.

Summoning my swords I ran from behind the trees and screaming slashed laterally across the belly of a shade where it turned to stone and broke apart immediately.

Finding more shades I destroyed them too and within seconds felt the weights on my arm, waist and leg lessen as quick glances confirmed the disappearance of my crystals.

I couldn't believe how easy it was, the shades were slow and few barely even reacted before I cut them. Most hadn't reacted at all. It was as if they no longer possessed any cognitive thought. Nought but black shells fragmented with ease.

It only took five minutes for the final ebony hail to fall and disintegrate into nothing. I was smiling, about to call out to Pearl to tell her that she was right but then a slow solitary clap interjected before anyone had the chance to speak.

"Well done, girls. You're all getting very strong!" All of us recognising the male voice turned towards the star above the river. Next to it Raziel sat, cross-legged, in the air. "But that's not really so fair, is it? With there being so many of you picking off my Noes before the transdimensional shock wears off. Very sneaky form, the poor things barely even got the chance to feed..."

I kept looking underneath his legs, looking for a platform for him to be sitting on, or cables up above but found nothing. However when I gazed at the other girls they were not searching around with disbelief as I was, they stared straight at him with wide eyes and tense hands readying their erosreavers.

Up in the air the young platinum haired man pulled himself to his feet and began to pace away from the star before circling back towards it. "And with six of you in total now it really is no wonder that you're all surviving so long. Working together you're able to kill the Noes without incurring any damage and thereby managing to repress those flowers struggling to blossom inside of you. It is apparent that it is all just getting a little too easy. I didn't want to push you too hard for possible failures but considering your numbers I think it's time to take the chance of a little collateral damage, what do you say, girls?"

"You know what, Raziel? You're right! We are strong but together, we're impenetrable!" Lara shouted. "If you think it's too easy then go ahead, throw more shades at us, throw a hundred! But they'll all just end up the same way these ones did - no more than ashes in our world!"

"Ohh... So confident!" Dorothy's snarl could be heard behind us and as we whipped around we saw the girl leaning against a tree, playing with a lock of platinum hair as she smirked. "Well that sounds like a challenge, Lara's just dying to put that confidence to the test! Is that the plan, Raziel, is it!? Are you gonna finally let me fight them!?"

Raziel lowered his head remorsefully. "I'm afraid not, Dorothy. If you fight the daevas you would only kill them and then they would never undergo their chrysalis..."

"But just one!" Dorothy interrupted. "Please! Let me kill one! There'll still be five left then!"

"Quit acting so sulky, Dorothy!" Jacqueline appeared behind us as she also leant against a tree. "You know we're forbidden from killing them until one more turns nox."

"But, hey!" Ariel appeared at another tree somewhat to the side and as she spoke I had the chilling realisation that we were surrounded. "Once the last daeva joins our team then we'll have no more use of the chrysalis and you'll be free to kill all the remaining luxes!" Ariel stated this cheerily.

"Quit you looking so happy, Ariel!" Vanessa screamed. "Before you know it I'm going to murder you! And it won't be pretty, I'll make it agony!"

"Then come try it." She challenged.

Vanessa waited no time as she raced towards the girl instantly, flaying her whip around and down directly on top of her, but with a lightning fast arrow the whip was redirected from its target and bolted firmly into the ground. Ariel finished by raising a cocky eyebrow.

"Damn you!" Vanessa roared as she tugged her whip so hard it broke at the pinned point. She drew it aside and was about to relaunch it when a line of fire erupted from the ground between them. With a whirl of heat Jacqueline was found at the helm of the discharge. There she pulled back a large scythe where along its curved and sharp metal were adorned flames with an unnatural red potency.

The red from Jacqueline's erosreaver shined within the silver of her eyes. "You know the game, we don't battle until the world's reform, unless of course, you die first. But for the time being that will not be," Jacqueline gave a pointed stare towards Dorothy, "by a nox's hand."

"There will be no end of the world because we'll stop you!" Lara declared full facing to Raziel.

The young man smirked. "Sure, but before you can stop us you'll have to stop the Noe that's coming, and I tell you, this one has quite the appetite!"

"I told you," Lara repeated with a steady voice, "that no matter how many shades you throw at us we'll defeat them all!"

"Oh, but this one is no shade. Girls!" Raziel tilted his head aside, seeming to signal something to the daeva-noxes.

I turned around and as I glanced at Ariel I gasped, for there, using the point of one of her arrow-heads, she sliced into her left hand. Whirling around I saw Jacqueline run the palm of her hand over her fiery blade and Dorothy press a fluorescent blue fingernail into her hand. All three turned their palms upwards where crimson droplets poured free into the air but instead of descending into the dirt they travelled up, high and across and all converged into Raziel's palm. Grasping the collection of blood Raziel slammed this into the black star where red streaked down the chaotic shape.

Then, as the colour sunk into darkness, the earth began to shake.

All the star's harsh points began to shift, slowing at first before coarsely flying in and out, as if reaching to exceed its borders but confined by a fabric too small. But it kept moving, the spikes becoming more agitated as they hurried out with greater fervency where new spires joined the amalgamation and the diameter began to increase. When it started the star was about the size of a regular house window, but when it was done it swelled and cut through so large that it ended up being as tall as a house, its bottom finally contacting the surface of the water.

As the luxes all gasped and backed away behind me my own apprehension finally kicked in. The star-like shape was no object, no explosion of spires, but a tear. At first it was only a window, providing passage for one no larger than a person to traverse, but with its new increased size a much greater being could pass through its massive girth.

"Bethanie," Pearl whispered beside me, her voice trembling. "Bring your sword back, I have a feeling that there's going to be no room for a lowered guard."

I hadn't even realised that I dropped my sword but by drawing my hands back together I focused my claymore back into existence. When I felt its weight I noticed that this time it was heavier.

Fire and ice built a swift perimeter about us, blocking us from the forest. The only place where it was left open was towards that massive star where a skinny black leg began to amble its way through.

"It's just a shadow." I murmured as arm made its way from the void as well.

"This will be a piece of cake!" Vanessa declared as she began to run forwards. "I'll strike it down as soon as it emerges!"

"No, Vanessa, stop! We don't know what it is yet!" Lara warned but it was too late, Vanessa was already there, flying her whip and then coiling it around the emerged arm. There she yanked ruthlessly and tore the captive limb apart that turned swiftly to crystals. Smirking Vanessa brought her whip back for another attack but before she could land it an arm, a foot in diameter, struck out from the tear and struck Vanessa crudely in the stomach.

She was air borne for five seconds before she crashed into the ice barrier behind us and was silenced instantly.

"Vanessa!" I yelled turning to run back to check on her.

"Stop, Bethanie!" Lara shouted. "We need you to hold your ground here!"

"But she's unconscious, she might not be breathing!"

Pearl, embellished by her golden wings, touched my arm gently. "She's alive. You see those crystals on her legs, well they weren't there a moment ago. So don't worry, you have to be alive to chrysalise."

"Everyone, watch carefully." Lara commanded. "No one makes a move until we see the full scope of what this thing is."

And with a laborious shuffle the thing kept bringing itself out limb by limb so that soon there were dozens of them poking through. But though some were down to the river's surface, others were up at the full height of the opening and everything between - it was like a hundred shades were trying to force themselves out at once. Only, that this thing was apparently no shade.

More of these limbs reached through, arms upon legs they came out as if that was what the body was entirely made up of. All skinny for the big wide one had seemed to settle back in with the imbroglio. Then, with a strange shift, the mass pushed something out through the distant top and a couple of moments later the whole thing had emerged.

As if cold on its entry of this world the thing shivered and limbs jumped in and out. And just as it appeared that the massive house-thing was about to sink, the limbs around its bottom flattened and expanded, creating a type of raft from its own body. Then appendages out in front of it receded back in so that it was left with just twenty skinny arms reaching out as if to feel its surroundings. Arms were still splayed around its top, like those busy hands were searching for a scalp that did not exist. However, when it realised there was none they delved inside itself and pushed up into their place the head they had just found. But its features, whether or not it had any, could not be seen for a white mask was frozen onto its face depicting an emotion that was either surprise or curiosity.

"What... what the hell is that!?" I stammered, blade in my hands shaking.

"I have no idea..." Pearl breathed.

"My guess," Rebecca analysed, "is that it is some kind of meshing of shades, but formed into one being. Its strength and thought processing likely only added together with every shade that was sacrificed in its creation."

"That's right, girls!" Raziel declared excitedly. "This is a Noe that was born through the fusion of hundreds of shades, but it isn't like them anymore, it is far greater for it has ascended higher. This Noe is called an asura, the first of many to soon grace this world!"

"Well, like I said," Lara quipped unperturbed by the behemoth in front of her. "Throw a hundred shades at us and we'll create pebbles out of them."

"Then enjoy your new challenge. Oh, and for a bit of incentive, since this one is so much more powerful than normal, killing it will alleviate any and all crystals you may have, regardless on how matured you are for a daeva, but fail to do so and any flowers blossom that much greater. So then, let's get the game started!"

The asura turned its head in front and only when it failed to sight anything at its own eye level it turned down to behold the five nervous daevas by the river bank. With raised eyebrows it shot out two new arms as thick as the one that barraged Vanessa and made to grasp Rebecca. Fortunately the girl was quick and dashed backwards to evade it. The hands, missing their target, collided atop the dirt where Rebecca chose to counter, whirling her blades around her. First slashing through one arm, then her free sword through the other and as they broke apart they shattered into crystals before dissolving away.

The aura's head was suddenly swallowed by its neck and as it returned a moment later the mask was replaced with one bestowing sorrow.

"Pearl, take the front and blind-sight it, I'll go in around the back!" Lara called as she ran around the perimeter.

Pearl did as commanded and shot a flurry of feathers aiming up towards its white mask, stabbing the being hundreds of times. The asura retaliated with arms erecting near its head, flapping about as if swatting flies but also appearing to concern them as little a nuisance.

Lara meanwhile ran into the river, water at her calves, and fired her strings to pierce into many of those arms and with a sideways flick cut them away. "Bethanie, go, straight ahead!"

Screaming as I ran I trailed my heavy blade behind me and with a roar sliced a new mouth into its black belly. It opened up there, teeth formed by the crystalline break.

Then Rebecca came in behind me and leaping off the ground landed a foot onto that bottom lip. She made to lift off it, seemingly in attempt to attack higher up but her shoe seemed stuck to the rocky surface. Almost about to fall back she hooked a blade down into its gut, reclaiming her balance but also leaving her wide open.

The asura sunk its head back beneath its shoulders and sprouted out one wearing a white mask of anger.

I struck across again, attempting to hit just under my last attack and thereby loosening its hold on Rebecca. But because I had very little accuracy I aimed lower and sliced a whole meter below, doing nothing of what I had intended. I tried to strike again, this one vertically to the side of the mouth, but right for where I targeted another foot wide arm reached out and punched me straight in the torso. As I flew my grasp slipped off my blade and then skidded across the bank's wet grass.

With an exhausted gasp I tried to prop myself up but merely managed to raise my head and no more. In my position I could see everything that transpired, that same enlarged arm reach and grip onto Rebecca tightly, but could do nothing to help.

"Damn it!" Lara cried. "Pearl, go for the arm!"

"Got it!" Pearl responded as feathers soared and struck into the foot-wide limb. From within it Rebecca moaned.

Then strings shot through, wrapped around the black appendage snugly before contracting and severing it completely. Rebecca fell amidst black hail gasping for air on all fours.

Then Pearl, wasting no time, commanded her feathers up towards the head, blind-sighting it once more. But the asura, its face of anger, reacted differently this time. Here it shot out dozens of arms and one for every feather its hands grasped the gold before any made their mark. With multiple clenched fists metallic dust filled the air.

The asura had begun to move down towards the winded black-haired daeva and with a raised fist, this time three feet in diameter, hovered right above her.

Rebecca saw this but as she scrambled to hurry away horror was heavy in her eyes for she realised there was no way she would be able to dodge in time.

Lara ran across and as soon as she was in position expelled ten strings from her fingertips and as the giant limb fell down it collided with the lined roof above Rebecca's head.

Quickly Rebecca clambered from that place and staggered back onto grassy, more distant floor. Within seconds of her scrambled departure the solid hand snapped the wires apart and smashed into slushy dirt.

The asura retracted its head once again and projected a new face, this one another white face but bore no emotion. This was different for another reason though and that was for the colour that marked it. Red, colour exact to dried blood, was painted first to well up in its lower lids then trickle in agony down its cheeks. And it was with these tortured eyes that it turned its empty gaze on Lara.

The asura leaned forward but in a staggered, disjointed motion reflexed back. Forward and back it lunged its body until finally, from the crystal mouth I had created, spilled forth a shade. Then, as it lurched again, another shade emerged. It lurched again, another shade, again, another shade and so on, but quickly, until twenty shades spilled from the belly of the beast. But the asura remained no different in girth for that towering house was not going to move for the world, not even after regurgitating its contents.

The shades, all acting with one mind, circled around Lara. There they held hands and conjoined into a semi-fused black ring.

I could scarcely see Lara, but through the breaks between shade bodies I saw Lara stand tall and flick her wrists from lateral to central. She sliced new gaps in her foes but, unlike with regular shades, they were not defeated with a mere severed body. No, these held together by their counterparts before swiftly rejoining as soon as the insult had ceased.

Lara tried again, this time to stab her way through with pointed fingers and the points of impact this time did shatter and dissolve, but then the team-mates soon gave their own bodies for support and refilled the lost areas. And all the while the shade-circle kept enclosing tighter and tighter around her.

Lara tried again, slicing, more fervently this time, but what was lost was quickly compensated by the communal shades. And to make things harder new shades kept spilling from the asura every second, each ready to jump in and sacrifice itself towards Lara's destruction.

The circle was growing very tight now, between the circling gaps I saw arms reach out to grab her and, in such close confines, Lara was beginning to fail at keeping them at bay with her strings.

Then gold shone from above and within the chaos Pearl drifted down. Blazing she shone feathers all about them so that a gap could no longer be seen and the girls inside were completely protected. Though the black ring kept trying to tighten it appeared to fail against the domed barrier.

"No!" Rebecca screamed as she slayed her blades deep into the open mouth of the asura. She slashed left and right multiple times before the head delved back inside and returned to one of joy, this time fixated on Rebecca. There it seemed to call back its circle of shades and with a heavy arm thrashed down at the black-haired girl, but this time she was only too ready and easily side-stepped the earth-quaking strike.

The asura, leaning its head down with the last attack was left open for only a split second, but one the daeva put to good use. With it in range she threw a sword high into the air that spun for a dozen revolutions before landing deep into the joyful mask.

The asura gave a low rumble that made the small stones atop the ground patter as it raised two broad hands up to its face. Instantly it turned and with a speed beguiling to its sluggish design, sprinted across the surface of the river and sank deep into the forest on the other side.

Panting I raised myself onto my elbows with a smile. "We won, we beat it!"

Rebecca glared green accusing on me but spoke no word.

"Pearl! No... No... Not yet! Pearl!" From behind a fall of golden feathers Lara's strangled cry rang through.

I struggled onto my hands and feet wearily but directed myself in the direction of the falling gold.

"No!" Lara screamed. "It's not time yet - not yet! It's too soon! Noo!"

Walking there was difficult due to my lack of energy, that made seeing clearly challenging also. But when I approached about halfway there was something my eyes seemed to be telling me, but something that made no sense whatsoever. For ahead, beneath the hold of a brunette Golden Heights senior was the most glorious ebony statue. It was one of an angel, one where her hands were outstretched as if to shield the world of its woes. This angel appeared young, a girl of about seventeen with soft features despite the hard black crystal she was composed of. And there was something else about her, something so sad and yet so beautiful. It was a tear, suspended on her smooth cheek, one that appeared frozen there amidst some great tragedy.

"Lara..." I murmured as I approached closer. "What's happening, where's Pearl?"

Lara was still hugging the statue but then turned her deep brown eyes to me. She looked like she was about to say something but as she opened her mouth the stone in her hands shattered. Black crystal flew through the air gently, lingering for long moments as if happy to retain there before some coarse elements of nature reached them and began to eat at all the fragments' edges. In seconds that once perfect replica of an angel transmuted into no more than dust.

I gulped. "Lara, where is she?"

With shaky arms Lara collapsed on the dirt and wept unrestrained.

Then beyond my vision I saw Dorothy smirking as she walked away singing the final verse from her song.

 

Even if the world must break

Even if destruction lies in its wake

I will never give you up

Chapter 22

 

Abigail

 

As soon as I heard the doorbell chime I was off my feet and arrived so quickly to the front door that I almost transported myself there, but as I reached entryway it seemed I was not fast enough as another person opened the door first.

"Flowers, for me? Why, you shouldn't have!" Cathy gushed resembling the perfect image of a young lady before quickly lunging forward to steal the bouquet of daffodils that emerged from the border of the door. These, however, shot up quickly and as the girl lunged up for them she failed to reach the height needed to carry out her diabolical purpose.

"Sorry, little miss, but these are for someone else." A male's voice came from around the door's frame. Circling it I located deep brown eyes that lulled me into their warmth instantly. Below them gentle lips opened wide then morphed into a smile. "Abigail..." He breathed. "You look... stunning!"

I smiled feeling the heat rise to my cheeks. "Thanks, Eric. So do you, you look like a real gentleman!" And though his attire was somewhat casual, it was definitely dressed up smart for over the top of dark jeans and a white T-shirt was a navy blue blazer fitted to his physique exceptionally. He finished it off with beige suede shoes and a lacquered hair-style that culminated in a look so highly polished that it made him appear as if he was a youth pop-star. This had me slinking back as I bit my lip nervously.

"Hey, Abigail, don't go anywhere." He reached out and as he grabbed my hand I felt a tingle at the place of contact. Then he lowered the bouquet bursting with and gold in his other hand and offered them forward. "I still need to give you these, flowers of happiness to match the most joyful girl in the world."

"Well, if you insist!" Squeaked Cathy as she lunged across and snatched away the flowers I had only been just able to touch. She began to skip away but quickly followed into a moan. "Mum, but they're mine!"

Turning behind us I saw my mother with the daffodils in hand as she drew their aroma in deeply. "Hm, so precious. Cathy, off with you! Go have that ice-cream you've been whining about."

"Yay!" Cathy sung as she ran away towards the kitchen to claim her new prize.

"Here." My mother came up to us and presented the flowers back towards me. Grasping them I too took in their scent and brilliant champagne lustre.

"They're gorgeous, Eric. Thank you very much!" Facing my mother I handed her back the flowers. "Mum, do you mind putting these in a vase for me, please? And if you could put them somewhere high so that Cathy can't get to them I'd really appreciate it."

"Of course, honey." My mother answered with a giddy wink before moving away to the kitchen also.

With my mother gone Eric took a step into the threshold where he grasped my other hand as well where again it tingled with the contact. His eyes wandered up and down my body before resting back into my eyes. "I can't believe it, you look like a woman! I mean, I can believe it, of course! You're gorgeous!" He added hurriedly. "I just, I just never realised how much of a lady you've become..."

I blushed and lowered my eyes so that my orange dress filled my view. Putting it on I had felt a little awkward for it was a garment I was not used to. It was a halter-neck dress which hugged my body intimately before loosening at the hips. It stopped just short of the knee, but was not entirely modest for the low dropped V at the front and my exposed shoulder blades at the back. On my feet were beige peep-toe heels and for my hair my mother fixed into an up-style that incorporated a matching beige ribbon. It was all my mother's doing actually, the dress included since it came from her wardrobe. This did indeed seem too womanly for me as I had yet to fill out the front as much as my mother did, but she insisted this would be a splendid dress for my first date with my new boyfriend, the colour suiting my complexion perfectly. I had allowed her to clothe and doll me up without reluctance for I knew that without her help I would likely fail to apply even lip-gloss correctly with how unsteady my nervous hands were.

I was still unsteady, my hands just as nervous within Eric's hold as my face burned red towards the ground.

"Hey," Eric released a hand and raised my chin up so that I focused back into his lovely chocolate eyes. "I'm sorry if I offended you, I didn't mean to. I just meant that, you're beautiful..."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"So, you still excited to catch this movie?"

"Sure am!" I cheered.

"Great! Only," he turned us around to stare at a white four wheel drive parked by the curb, its engine rumbling softly. "Please don't think me lame, I got my Mum to give us a lift and then it gets worse, my brother decided to come along too..."

"That's great! I love your brother!"

Eric narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "You sure? It's not too lame getting a ride with them?"

"Of course not," I gave his hand a little squeeze. "It's never lame around you!"

Eric's face beamed as he led me down my front walkway. "You really are the best."

Just before reaching the car a boy jumped out from the far side and raced around to the curb. There he grasped the door handle and with an exaggerated yank pulled the sliding door wide open. Then he turned around and with a subtle bow declared almost with a shout, "Abigail and Eric, your ride awaits!"

I giggled as Jordan extended a hand out towards me.

"Why, thank you." I responded as I accepted his help where he aided me into the large car. The boy was grinning so wide that I thought at any moment he was about to burst out with laughter but he maintained composure the whole time.

Next Jordan ran back around the other side where he held out the door for Eric.

"Thanks, buddy." Eric said softly before Jordan closed the door and raced to the front passenger seat beside his mother.

"To the movies we go, enjoy your ride!" He called from the front.

Eric leaned across the centre seat. "He wanted to help so he's being a chauffeur."

"Well he's doing a fantastic job!" I said loudly and watched the boy's shoulders in front of me pull forward as if performing a silent chuckle.

It took less than ten minutes before Eric's mother pulled out the front of Skyward Cinemex. There were fifty or more people loitered out the front: eyes gazing upon the shining movie titles headlining the building; sitting about on benches scoffing down popcorn; and a group of toddlers running around apparently playing tag. There were plenty of families about, but by far it was young people that populated the scene. Teenagers mostly, ones too young for busier night-lives but yearning for excitement already. Some were in groups but many were in mixed gender duos and as Jordan opened the car door Eric and I joined those numbers.

Once the car had driven away Eric drew my gaze up at the bright lights on top of the building. "What movie do you want to see? Romance, comedy?" He suggested.

Scanning the titles I pointed a finger up. "How about that one?"

"Butterfly of Hope." Eric read aloud. "You sure, that's an action film? There might be explosions in it."

"I know," I responded, "but I saw the preview and think it looks really good."

"Well, alright then. Anything you want, my darling." Eric husked before drawing me to the box office outside.

As we waited in the line I remarked, "That was so sweet of your brother, chauffeuring us like he was."

"Jordan really likes you. He wants..." Eric trailed off.

"He wants what?"

"He wants you to... become part of our family, so he can see you more often." Eric admitted.

"Well you can tell him that I already consider him a little brother!"

As Eric approached the counter to order our tickets he could not shake the massive grin on his face. After buying the largest box of popcorn and a massive slushy drink to share we made our way into the theatre and selected seats towards the back. Where there was someone in front with a head that partially obscured the screen Eric took the seat with the worst view. "I'm taller than you so I'll be able to see fine here." He explained.

The movie, despite its innocent sounding name, was filled with plenty of explosions and gun-fire. It was a war-movie and though normally that genre was not generally listed among my favourites, this film I showed particular interest in. The story centred around a teenage girl who fell love with a boy right before the country they lived in became the battlefront to World War III. The two were residing in North America at the time but the girl, she was Australian and when her family discovered the war ensuing around them they fled for their homeland where it was hoped that Australia's isolation from the northern hemisphere would provide them refuge. This sadly broke the two apart but before they said their farewells they made a promise to meet back at a local lake that was home to a very special and rare emerald butterfly.

But the journey from the United States to Australia proved to be from the fry pan and into the fire for as soon as they reached there the family soon discovered it to be massively occupied by enemy forces. During the waging battles the girl was soon separated from her family and was lost to despair until she caught sight of a green butterfly, the exact same sort that was native to the American lake. With new resolve she journeyed from country to country as first a stow-away then as a military recruit, all so that she could return back to the United States. Then finally, two years later and as the war drew to its end she arrived back to the lake but the boy, who would be certainly a man at this point, was nowhere in sight. The girl then searched through records of deceased locals and in a heart-breaking ending discovered that his name was listed among them. The movie ended with a scene where the girl was crying by the lake but then suddenly stops as an emerald butterfly once again flies across. This one was remarkably similar to the first butterfly the couple saw that bestowed two black spots on its wings resembling the shape of a heart.

As we walked from the theatre I tried to hide my tears but just couldn't cover them up.

"Hey, Abigail, it's okay, it was only a movie." Eric soothed.

"I know but it just ended so sadly." I whimpered.

"It was a little sad." Eric ushered me outside and down a quiet backstreet. There he guided me to a bench. "Come, sit here so you don't have to cover that beautiful face."

"It's not beautiful, not when I'm all red and snotty!" I complained.

"Well then, I guess I better fix that up for you." Here Eric pulled out a white handkerchief from his blazer front pocket and gently wiped away my tears.

"You have a hanky? Did you expect me to cry?"

Eric smirked. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't think you were a softie so I thought it couldn't hurt, but also my dad's always been saying that it's a gentleman's duty to carry the a lady's burdens. Whether it be a chill in winter where you give her your coat, or sorrow in summer and there you give her a cloth and your shoulder to cry on. No matter how bad a lady feels it is the gentleman's duty to fix it, no matter the cost because her smile is more precious than any gem in the world."

Meekly I smiled. "Your dad sounds really smooth, Eric. I hope I can meet him one day."

"I hope so too. Next time he's back I'll invite you over for dinner."

"Next time he's back?" I echoed. "Why, where is he now?"

Eric sighed. "He's over in America working on this wondrous new technology that's meant to cure brain degeneration. So far it's only in early test phases and though it's proven to slow its progression it still doesn't stop the process."

"Brain degeneration..." I murmured thoughtfully. "You mean like Alzheimer's and Dementia?"

"That, among other things. All autoimmune diseases that attack the brain cells," he said this with such melancholy that realisation finally hit me.

"He's doing it for your brother! But, I thought Jordan has autism?"

Eric shifted awkwardly next to me. "It looks like that, but really autism is just a broad term to describe a group of people with lower intellectual functioning. What Jordan has, it's not just a lower IQ, it's worse, it's a degrading IQ. And the terrible thing is, he knows it too."

"Oh..." I husked. "I'm sorry, you might think this is really rude but if you don't mind could you please explain it to me? I don't quite understand."

Eric leaned back in the chair, his hand was still in mine but his other one was gripping onto the handkerchief tightly. "My dad's a genius, you know. His IQ, it's like a hundred and sixty something. My mum, she's pretty smart too but I don't know what her score is. When they had me they discovered I was only a tad above average, a disappointment I'm sure to such brilliant parents. Then when they had Jordan he seemed to be so much ahead of me. At two years old he could already spell his name with block letters! He probably only just remembered the pattern, but still, that's crazy for a two year old! Then, when he turned four we started noticing changes in him.

"It started with him forgetting things, like the names of the characters in shows that he loved, and then things that we had talked about, like out of bounds areas or plans for the weekend. Then he started speaking less, which was strange because he was always so chatty! Then one day I found him at his blocks. He hadn't played with them since he was three because he said he was too grown-up for them, but there I saw him frowning as he struggled to spell something out. That's when he told he forgot what his name looked like and even when I put them together for him he shook his head and started crying. Later that week he was diagnosed with a rare degenerative condition that stated his brain function would continue to deteriorate from there on until he was nothing but a vegetable. The favourable prognosis he was given said that he would be severely autistic by the time he was ten."

"But he's not!" I interrupted. "He's sociable and well-mannered and he's happy!"

Eric nodded solemnly. "Yeah, that's right, he's a savant among his affliction and that has to do with two reasons, one is because of my dad. He's a neurologist, figures that a brainiac would choose to study the brain as a career, but when all this happened he poured himself into research for Jordan's condition. Trouble is, there's not a lot going on in Australia when it comes to that. I mean, there is, but it's not exactly world-leading and Dad, well he's pretty brilliant and since it's for his son, he threw himself into the best research team there is which means that he's mostly in the U.S. At one point we were all almost going to move there but because of Jordan's condition, familiarity is best, remembering helps to exercise the brain, so my mum, brother and I stayed here as my dad travels back and forth from practically the furtherest place in the world all in the hope of saving my brother."

"Oh, Eric. I'm so sorry, I had no idea what your family are going through. That must be very painful."

"It is, I love my dad, I aspire to be just like him but when he's gone I feel a little lost as to what to do. Then there's my younger brother who I love too and it's hard, really hard to see him fade away, but that's why my dad's working so endlessly to come up with a drug to stop the process, to save him, but at the moment he's only successful in slowly it down. It works, remarkably well when you consider that Jordan's meant to be a vegetable by now, but I don't think it's just that. There's another part to it that's keeping Jordan's mind here with us. It's his soul, he just wants to stay so much and I know that no matter how much he loses of himself that he will continue fighting, he will never give up."

"Wow... I never realised how strong Jordan is." I appraised.

"It hurts my dad, I know, to be away from us for so long and so often. He very well might be missing out on Jordan's entire existence by throwing himself into this research but I'm so thankful to him because he's proven to me that no matter what anyone says it's never over. People can always fight fate and one day, I know, Dad will do it, he'll come up with the cure and save Jordan. He'll never disappear, not ever."

"It must be hard for Jordan. He must remember, at least some of it, of being smarter. That must be... really sad and scary for him."

"I don't think you're wrong. At first, when Jordan noticed something changing in him, he spoke very little. Soon we discovered that it was associated with his increased difficulty with language but I think it was really due to shame. He was a bright kid after all and he knew it! He knew he was smarter than kids in his playgroup! So it would have been... excruciating to let that intelligence go, but since dad made up new trial drugs and that progression slowed I think, in a small way, that made a positive influence on Jordan. I think he himself noticed the change and with it, it gave him hope. Sure he has this horrible disease but that doesn't mean that he can't live and think of dreams for the future. Our dad decided to fight so then I believe Jordan chose to fight too. We all know that Dad may never get there, he'll be lucky to stop the degeneration let alone restore lost function, but still we hold out hope. It's not over yet so none of us are willing to give up until then."

Slowly I nodded but then increased my speed as something dawned on me. "The movie! It's not hopeless yet, there's still a chance that he's alive!"

Eric raised his eyebrows curiously as if to say go-on.

"It was all in the ending, just those last few frames but it means it all! When the girl went down by the lake and cried after learning that her love died she saw it, the butterfly! But it wasn't just any butterfly, it was the same one that the couple saw at the beginning, the same one she saw when she was back in Australia, then when she returned to the states - they all had that strange love-heart shaped splotch!" Grasping both his hands, hanky in tow, I exclaimed excitedly, "I get it now! The butterfly was their love and since it kept following her and despite the two whole years that passed it never died. That meant that their love hadn't died because he hadn't! Those records were wrong! It makes sense, things like that always have errors when it comes to wars so that means that he's still out there, drifting between countries just as the girl had been but one day he'll return - I know it! The butterfly meant the same thing throughout the whole movie - so long as there's a chance - don't give up hope!"

Though we were sitting in a dimly lit corner my daeva sight showed me the great magnitude of the sparkles within Eric's chestnut eyes. There he slipped a hand free from our intertwined grasp and placed it onto the side of my face. With a warm tingle he firmed his hold before ushering my head forward into his.

Like a marionette I had no control of my movements. My face drifted forwards, my eyes closed before my lips met his and parted just slightly. Warm, happy electricity sprouted from the touch and for many long moments I lingered there, lost in a dizzy, pleasant splendour. I could have been there seconds, minutes or hours, I could not tell as time in that reality lost all meaning, all I knew was that it was perfect and that it was right. So right, unfathomably right, something so grand I knew it was something I never wanted to let go of, ever. It was amazing, it was truth, but still that didn't describe it accurately enough. There was another word, something on the tip of my tingling tongue but had yet to make sense of it.

When Eric pulled back subtly he drew in air before expelling in a soft breeze. "I love you, Abigail."

And that was it, the word that described my feelings towards Eric. So small and yet so grand. Like the man in front of me was still young, still just a high schooler, but the biggest thing in the world to me.

I responded without hesitation, "I love you too, Eric."

Chapter 23

 

Bethanie

 

"Bethanie, you can't go spending your whole weekend shut in your room like this. With the curtains shut closed and only the light from that damn blinking computer tower light, you're gonna wreak your eyes if nothing else!" Michael pleaded after he sat himself on the edge of my bed without permission.

"I'm not going to spend all weekend here, I just want to sleep in a little longer." I muttered from beneath my bed sheets.

"Bethanie, what's wrong? You haven't acted like this in... years. Usually when you're upset you just go for a run or something."

"I will go for a run. Later. When I get out of bed."

I could almost see my brother's eyes travel to my curtained bedroom window where rain could be heard pattering against the other side of the glass.

"Well, I guess I should feel comforted that you're saying you'll go later. With this weather the way it is it sure does make for a lazy Sunday."

"You don't have a shift at the club today?" I asked shortly.

Michael breathed deeply. "Yeah, I do. Later."

"Then shouldn't you be getting ready for your precious work?"

"Damn it, Beth!" My brother yelled out of my vision. "You know why I work so much so why do you torture me!?"

"You shouting at me right there, that's the reason."

"Bethanie..." Michael growled. "Stop it, stop giving me these ambiguous responses every time I ask you something important. Just say it already, tell me why you hate me so much!"

Finally I pulled myself up in my bed and stared at him square on. "I don't hate you, Michael, far from it. I actually care about you but... I hate what you have become."

"Bethanie..." Michael gritted his teeth as he stared at my computer tower's flashing light. "Everything I've done, I've done for you and Cameron and Kyle. I'm doing it so that we can remain a family and so that you three have a shot to make your dreams happen."

"Liar." I accused. "You always say that, that you gave up on university so that you could make money, provide us with an income. But you know that's not what it's all about, you know that even with your studies we would have managed. Mum didn't leave a fortune but she left enough behind for that."

"We... we would have struggled. Cameron couldn't finish school and I... I couldn't let that happen to you too..."

"Yeah, I've heard your BS rationale before but you know as well as I do that Cameron was going to drop out regardless of Mum. He wanted to do a trade apprenticeship so that's what he did. He finished at the end of year ten and started that a year and a half ago. And me, I've always had no idea what I wanted to do so I've just kept going on with school until I sort that out but you know that I'm limited, I'm not smart like you! I can't get straight As, I can't wow my teachers with some revolutionary science experiment and I can't get into the same courses you did at uni. I don't have the options you did but you, you had it all! You were studying medicine for crying out loud! And you know what? That made you an inspiration to us younger, stupider ones. But when she died you threw it all away!"

"Damn it, Beth!" Michael yelled, temper flaring. "If I kept up with uni we would have had nothing left for you! What about your tertiary education? What about your dreams?"

"Idiot!" I roared as I flew the covers off me and scrambled out of bed. Hurriedly I grasped clothes from my bedroom cupboard. "For someone so smart you really are a dumb-arse!"

Then I raced out of there and in moments slammed the bathroom door behind me. In under a minute I changed to casual day clothes, ran to the front door where I secured my runners on hurriedly and then sprinted out into the rain. Right before I shut the front door forcibly behind me I heard Michael mutter, "So much for waiting for the weather to clear up."

As soon as I was out I ran down the street, rain pelting against me but this time I felt it. Some instinct told me that, as a daeva, I detected the drops pounding because they were the tears that lingered inside me. Unshed weeping for the lives around me lost, both in death and in life.

It was the same as I ran, the pain could be felt burning in my legs. It was nice, it was distracting, it was peace and it was all that I wanted. I ran for a good hour and a half before I found my way into the thick of the bush. At first I had sprinted down the endless winding tracks with a pace only enabled by my cursed daeva abilities, but my voyage slowed as the path narrowed and grew increasingly littered with brush, along with the stray logs and an aggressive bearded-dragon lizard that lazed where my foot wanted to land.

Then, with the slower pace meant the diminished burn in my legs and that left room for the other pains to have their volumes recalibrated back into my mind's perception.

"She's gone!" Lara's strangled cry shrieked in my memory. "She's gone and never coming back!"

I didn't want to believe it so I pretended for a long time that my eyes had been deceiving me but as I turned and watched Rebecca's sorrowful expression truth finally hit home.

"No, no it can't be true! Please, Rebecca, tell me that it wasn't her!" I had desperately cried.

As always her voice was stiff and controlled. "Her time was up, the asura just sped through her last grains of sand."

Lara, still at the location where the stone of an angel shattered, continued to weep, thrusting hands against the dirt so hard and violently that eventually blood began to seep through them. Then I noticed the crystals on her body expanding, the ones on her neck reaching right up to her face and there were a couple on her legs and more on her arms. From what I could see her skin was more than half covered in beautiful raised flowers. Though Pearl had had the most out of anyone, Lara's now far exceeded hers and Pearl only needed that one last battle to complete her chrysalis.

"Go." Rebecca advised. "I'll look after these two." Then she turned full onto me so that emerald eyes flanked by ebony crystal bored harshly into me. "I think you've learnt enough for one day."

I was only too ready to flee there and that's what I did. I ran away, first towards home, but then diverted my course to travel nowhere in particular. I arrived home late Friday night and went to bed instantly. I slept until well past noon on Saturday but, in contrast to my usual reaction to negative experiences, I had just laid in bed the rest of the day feeling sorry for myself. It hurt, too much to climb out of bed, too much to even run from. That pain in my chest was almost as bad as I experienced two years earlier and that took me many months to partially recover from. This wasn't quite the same, it wasn't as bad because I believed that part of me died with my mother, but still it was far from pleasant. I cared about Pearl and though I knew of her fate I never really believed it would actually happen, but there was another reason eating inside me and that was because of the seed poisoning my insides. The crystals, just after eradicating them against the shade fight, they came back stronger than ever after facing the asura. This time though they located at just the one spot, but what a blossom they formed there. Over my chest, running over my collarbones and to just under my lower jaw they flowered and every time I touched them they stung. It's a strange way to describe it but it's the only way I knew how, contacting them hurt like a golden feather quill stabbing into me.

Eventually I wandered off back down the mountain but this time hit the town-square. There I headed to the arcade and regressing to a child poured all my energy into a Japanese two-dimensional fighting game. I selected a skinny brunette character that carried a long sword and slashed the computer generated opponents to dust. I fought hard, I fought well but just before reaching the high score I was delivered the final blow and as my character oozed pixelated blood onto the screen I realised once again how much of a failure I was.

I watched as the character laid there, doing nothing as the massive monster she fought wreaked havoc on all the surroundings. The screen soon turned black and written in a blotchy red scrawl it stated - You are dead.

Someone slipped onto the game console next to me and whistled at the score I received that stated I was placed at third. "Close, but you're still no match for me."

"Kieran," I turned left and saw the boy smirking beside me. "What are you doing here? You stalking me?"

The brunette scoffed. "I was about to accuse you of the same thing. It's pretty common knowledge that I hang out here on weekends, but you, you haven't been here in nearly a year."

"Yeah, I was trying to do the good student thing. Quit games and focus on academics and sport."

"And how's that been working out for you?"

"Well, I was doing semi-okay with the sport."

Kieran laughed. "So in the end you gained nothing but lost a hobby."

"Well," I muttered, "that may be true but I don't know how useful gaming is as a hobby."

"Are you kidding me!?" Kieran shouted passionately. "It's the greatest hobby! One that requires skill, intellect and provides a great source of entertainment. It's not mind-numbing like boring movies, you actually fight the battles yourself, that's what makes the end so much more rewarding!"

I smirked dryly. "But that's what makes failure all the harder to bear."

"True," Kieran considered, "but that's the price of power. Nothing can be gained without some risk of sacrifice."

I watched him for a moment, viewed his oversized shirt featuring moth-eaten holes and jeans pulled down so low that I knew if I raised that scruffy top I would see his underwear. Then I looked at the faint stubble on his chin and noticed, belying his dress sense, that at some point Kieran had turned into a young man.

"Sometimes the sacrifices we make for power are the mistakes we can't take back. Maybe, it's better not to chance death. Maybe it's time for us to realise that we're not actually invulnerable."

"Speak for yourself." Kieran scoffed. "I'll never say that and you know why? Because they're coward words."

"But what if our actions lead to hurting others, even against our best intentions?"

"Then I would say that that person never really fought hard enough. I don't care about people's excuses, you're either someone or you're not. Whining behind your upbringing, your education is a cop-out. Everyone has crap in their lives so whining about your own is useless because it'll never get you anywhere in the end."

"Kieran..." I murmured as the crystals on my chest began to sting.

"Don't! Just don't explain yourself. Like I told you, I get it. The way we were, wallowing because BS happened to us, you can't make anything of yourself that way. It took losing you to realise that and I have realised now. Yeah, my Mum will never be sober, she'll never give me the affection I remember from when my Dad was still around, but that doesn't mean that I can't live my own life. It doesn't mean that I should give up. Not because of her."

During that moment I almost reached out to his hands placed on the adjacent booth. My fingers quivered with the energy that was ready to do so but never managed the action.

"Hey, Beth," Kieran broke the silence, "it's not Daytona but you wanna verse me so, you know, I can kick your arse?"

The joystick was in my hand the whole time but just then my fingers trailed over it just so I could remember its feel.

"If I die in this battle," I asked, "then will that make me a loser?"

"You would lose but you wouldn't die a loser. A loser is a coward, someone who would have never fought in the first place. A loser is a dead man walking."

With a meek smirk I nodded before reaching into my pocket and pulling out another gold coin.

A few minutes later Kieran was laughing beside me. "Haha! Told you you were no match for me!"

"Damn it, those were cheap moves, using that stupid pull move and stunning me! I was totally blocking them!" I roared.

"Well I guess you weren't blocking well enough."

"I so was! This game is stupid!"

"You're just a sore loser."

"I thought you said that as long as I fought I couldn't be a loser?" I quipped.

Kieran shrugged. "I wanted to verse you, had to give you some false sense of comfort."

"Classy." I muttered.

"Fine, if you're going to be such a sook I'll buy you lunch. Want nachos?"

"You serious, you're actually going to buy me lunch?"

"Nachos have lots of cheese on them so I can't 'em all alone. You know what they say, as long as you're getting fat with someone else it doesn't count!" Kieran bore a cheeky grin.

"You're an idiot, as if you care about getting fat. Whose words are you repeating there?"

As he answered the smile faded. "My mum. Ever since dad left she became so paranoid about putting on weight. She still eats crap, pizza and stuff, but just not much of it, her special pills stop her from being hungry, apparently."

After a stiff pause I quickly rattled, "You know, nachos sound great! Corn chips dripping in cheese, sounds like heaven!"

Moving to the adjacent food court Kieran made short work of ordering our meal and met me at a table I had selected.  "Hope you like guacamole!" He declared as he placed down the dish drowning in pastel green goup.

Kieran dove in straight away as my own bite came from the centre of my chest.

"I wonder what's going to happen tomorrow." I mused monotonically. "Will the school do another memorial day like they have for the past three years?"

"Huh? Memorial day?" Kieran repeated before the mess in his mouth was displayed for the whole room to see. "No way! You don't mean the curse has happened again? Another student has died!?"

"But then they might not even realise it yet." I continued as if Kieran never interjected. "There's no body after all. She just, disappeared..."

"Who? Beth, did someone seriously die!?"

"She was in year twelve, final year of school, almost out of there. But she ran out of time and that thing took all that she had left. I wonder if that's why they did it. Maybe the only way to escape it is to turn dark-side. And if that's the case then who can really blame them? They all could have been just like me, Ariel could have been just like me. Scared... to die."

"Who and what the hell are you talking about!?" Kieran yelled still exposing his mouth's sloppy contents.

"Never mind, my rambles don't actually make any sense." Coming out of my reverie I leaned across and selecting my first chip placed it whole into my mouth. "Oh, yum! This tastes great!"

"Wait just a sec, Beth! What's going on here? Explain all that crazy you just said! Did some Ariel chick - die?"

"Huh?" I exclaimed. "No, not Ariel, she's in our grade."

"So she doesn't go Golden Heights then? Well that's not part of the curse." Kieran rolled his eyes drowsily.

"No... ah, what are you talking about? I was talking about a twelfth grader. Her name was... Pearl."

"Pearl now?" Kieran's head kept bobbing up and down as he struggled to keep his eyes open and when he spoke it came out in a slur. "Haven't heard of her either..."

"Kieran?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

"I..." His arms flung limply onto the table as his head lowered even closer to its surface. "I'm really tired..."

I heard a thud behind, then another and another. Spinning my head around there I saw patrons in the food court collapsing to the ground. With clatters trays of food fell with them and back at the fast food booth where Kieran ordered the nachos a teller girl slumped forwards and knocked the microphone there with a screech. Then I noticed how dark everything became, like during my time there the aura was being slowly sucked away.

Kieran's colour had faded too. It was still shimmery, still brighter than that of the walls and floors, but far from its true lustre. Slowly it was turning grey, just as his breathing slowed right before his head collapsed forwards onto his arms.

"Kieran!" I cried as I reached across and jostled his arms. "Wake up! Quick, you need to get out of here. Kieran!" But it was useless, the boy was completely unconscious just as everybody in the room had become.

The crystals on my chest and neck started to feel very cold.

Suddenly I leapt from the table and fell into a shoulder roll just as my chair was cut in two. The metal chimed as it collided on the ground and over the top rose a figure of darkness that flew straight towards me.

Finding my feet I ran out of the way of tables and chairs and finding myself up on the vacant centre stage I stopped. Right where the shade crossed on the raised platform I turned and with a passionate roar barraged my sword down upon it. The claymore sliced deep into the wooden floor as black crystals graced the air around it. Beyond the shimmering hail nine more shades stood in wait.

That leaves ten each, easy. My mind remembered some of Pearl's last words and though the battle against the shades was won simple enough, the circumstances were very different. There the shades were disorientated and slow and I had the backing of three much more powerful daevas, but even with success gained in the early stages in the end the final phantom got away.

And Pearl had lost her life.

In the greying scene another black body rose onto the stage and drove a speared arm straight to where I was standing. Moving left I dodged this and countered with a heavy swing to the right. The shade evaded it and flowed towards my rear. My sword fell down, cutting another deep groove into the wood as a long skinny limb stabbed towards me.

Pulling up the hilt I blocked the attack before driving my sword back up and sliced the air where it had just been standing.

I didn't have time to curse the silhouette's crafty evasion before another shade made a swipe from my right. With no time to draw my blade back I had only the option of dodging and so, dropping my sword, I dove towards the stage floor to my left. Landing on my shoulder atop the hard surface I felt a breeze in the windowless plaza push my hair forwards, obscuring my face. Through my blonde veil I did receive some sight however and that displayed the remainder seven shades as they rose above the stage's edge and struck out hungry spears towards me.

Chapter 24

 

Abigail

On Sunday I decided it was time to get a good start on my art major but the trouble was that all my sketches were too plain as they were restricted by the limited detail that my mind was capable of conjuring. That was why I decided to go to the park and take some photos that would inspire brilliance within my artwork. Well, that was the hope, anyhow.

With my backpack slung over my shoulders I sung out through the household. "I'm going now, I'll be back in a few hours or so!"

"Wait, Abigail! Do you have your umbrella!? It might rain again today!"

"Yes, Mum!" I called to the voice emitted from the lounge room. "I have my umbrella!"

"Well give us a call if you need us to pick you up, I don't want you getting drenched and catching a cold!"

"I won't catch a cold!" I argued optimistically as I tied my shoelaces by the front door. "I took vitamin C this morning!"

"What about the fish-oil!?" My mother's voice carried through the hall. "Have you been taking that!? It's full of good-fats you know - that's important for brain development!"

I groaned before shouting back. "They taste yucky! I'll be fine without them!"

"Christ!" My father emerged in the hallway by the study door. "Do you two realise how much of a ruckus you are making? Some of us have to work here."

Finishing with my shoelaces I rose to my feet and skirted back down the hall and kissed my father on the cheek. "Sorry, Dad! I didn't mean to disturb you while you were working!"

As I pulled away I saw my father's frustration melt into a smile. "That's okay, princess, but if you and your mother are having a conversation try being in the same room. We don't need the neighbours hearing our prattle."

"There's no way they could hear!" I argued. "The trees block all the noise! That's what you've always said you loved about living on the mountain, right? That it's so quiet here because between every neighbour there's so much nature to keep it private and peaceful!"

My father smirked. "The trees are good for that but... when you place a fog-horn up to someone's ear no amount of forest is gonna stop that deafening sound."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Dad!" I exclaimed but as I realised my continued heightened volume I turned it down. "You're always working very hard for the business, I didn't mean to annoy you like this."

Then as my father pulled me forward to place a comforting kiss on my forehead my mother's voice recommenced through the hall.

"Abigail, if you haven't left yet do you mind picking up some milk while you're out!? We'll pay you back!"

My father chuckled quietly. "I guess that no matter where I am I can't change destiny. A noisy wife means a noisy family which all the insulation in the world wouldn't be able to solve. Oh well, better too loud than too quiet."

I gave a toothy smile to my father. "It's because you have so many girls in your life, Dad! It doesn't matter who but so long as there's women in your life your ears will never get lonely!" Then after pulling away from my father I shouted back down the hall. "Okay, Mum, I'll drop by the supermarket on the way home!"

"Thanks, Abigail!" Her voice responded.

Smiling, my father rolled his eyes. "Go on then, just keep your phone handy, right?"

"Sure will, Dad!" I responded as I cantered back down the hall. With a final wave I closed the door behind me and embarked down the street towards my scenic destination.

It took the better part of the hour to get to the park, one that was furtherer than I was sure my parents thought I was heading to, but the perfect one to feature as the stage to my art piece.

This location was lower down the mountain adjacent to a river that fed into Skyfall Valley. There were no playgrounds here but that was because there didn't need to be for the entertainment laid with the water. Kids splashed about in the gentle flow as parents tended to barbeques with beers in hand. There was a fair amount of fixed seating but this place was so popular that they commonly filled up within the early hours of the morning so countless camping chairs and collapsible gazebos complemented the scene. It was always busy here, but still always felt spacious. I guessed that's what open skies and green trimmings did, they made you comfortable regardless of whatever crowd one may have been caught in.

I felt just as at peace as I pulled my camera from my backpack and began snapping multiple images of the scenery. Cascading waters, vibrant children, the cries of laughter and birds in the distance. Much of what I witnessed could not be captured solely within the devise as the images were muted compared to what my daeva eyes revealed, but they served well enough. The sixteen megapixel camera failed to capture the scene accurately but with its faint impression my memory filled the void and with it I became confident that work towards my art major could soon commence.

At around lunch time I took my final few snaps but as I viewed the display screen I halted. I know that girl.

Running across the park, camera hanging from my neck, I approached the red-head's flank but hung back from her field of vision. In mine she was hunched over on all fours, fists ploughing into the ground. Right, left, right she was striking. It was soft grass that her knuckles fell into but as she pulled each back I did not miss the red coating them.

"Stop, stop it!" I yelled as I ran the small remaining distance and pulled at the latest arm attempting to collide with the ground.

Fist still tense but not fighting my resistance the girl turned her head around to view me with disdain. "What's your problem? Why the hell are you here!?"

"Vanessa, please stop hurting yourself!"

The girl raised her eyebrows as she gazed upon the fist I had caught in my hands. "You know us daevas don't feel pain like humans. Even if we bleed, so long as our emotions aren't involved, then we don't feel it."

"Then..." I suggested meekly. "If it doesn't hurt why are you crying?"

The teen snapped her hand free of mine quickly. "I didn't say it didn't hurt. All I said was that it's different." In front of her she stared at her clenched bloodied hands. "You know, a daeva's pain receptors are a lot smarter than a human's. A human will feel pain any time their body is injured, even if it is for their own good, but a daeva, we only feel pain when we know we should. We only feel it when it hurts inside. We only feel pain when we deserve it."

Quickly I turned to my backpack and pulled out a couple of bandaids. With a peel and a tender touch I placed two on each fist, all paling to what was needed. When I was done I smiled meekly up at the eleventh grader.

She returned with raised-eyebrow hostility. "You know we have heightened healing capabilities. Maybe you don't, you only have the eyes because of the seed but otherwise you are still very human."

"Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a nuisance..."

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "I get what you're trying to do but you should just give up, it's useless. Any compassion you have, any sympathy, direct it away from daevas because it'll only end up giving you despair. If you don't protect yourself now then I promise you'll experience pain like you never could have as a human."

Her words were coarse and hostile but because I recognised them as a frail membrane to sorrow beneath them I lingered there and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Under it she quivered before finally pounding her fist once more to the ground.

"It's just..." with a broken voice she continued. "It's just so not far! We've lost so many already! When my sister died I thought I did with her, I thought that I could never feel despair like that again since I hardly even recognised myself as me. There were a couple of others between, I felt sad but I still managed, I still kept walking, but when it came to her..."

"Your sister?" I repeated, curiosity piqued by the hanging thread despite its impropriety. "She passed away?"

Vanessa scoffed dryly. "Passed away, what total crap that term is. Makes it sound as if she died like an old lady in her sleep. No, it was worse than that, she... disappeared."

Frowning I responded, "I've heard you daevas saying that a bit. That when one of you dies she disappears but... I don't really get it. I'm really sorry to hear about your sister and I hope I'm not horribly rude by asking this but, if it's okay, do you mind explaining that to me?"

The girl raised her head and surveyed the park's track before finishing with a shrug. "Whatever, my workouts done. It's not like it's gonna make me any stronger. Disappearing, "she relented void of expression, "is what happens to a daeva when she dies. A chrysalis forms, hardens the whole body into crystal before it shatters and the girl literally disappears forever. They're gone, dead. No matter what you think, despite what you want to believe, that girl ceases to exist and if anything is left behind it is just emptiness."

I breathed in and out steadily as I persevered through her frightening words. "You're very sad."

Vanessa reclenched her fist as she turned her anger towards me. "What do you know about sadness!? What gives you the right to judge me!? Yeah, I've been through hell, but why do you think you get to decide that!? Why are you even here? Why are you sitting next to me, putting bandaids on my hands? Why do you act like you ever care!?"

"Because..." I recoiled slightly. "Because I can see it, you're hurting so much. I can see it under those bandaids, I can see it in your expression and then... I see it on your legs where the black crystals are."

Vanessa glared at me venomously. "You know that you're doomed, right? Your fate is sealed just with the rest of us. Your seed mightn't have flowered yet but it's still inside you, still waiting for its sprouting. And it's only a matter of time before something shakes your core enough to have it spring to life. You don't realise it yet, but you're just as much racing against the clock as the rest of us."

I couldn't respond straight away. Heart hammering in my chest and the world becoming cloudy all I could do was stay seated in the position I was in. I couldn't even give credit to her words, not when the weight would have surely crushed me.

Vanessa smirked at my reaction. "Raziel fooled you just as he did the rest of us, just as he did to her. In the end, you're either evil or dead, there's no in between."

"There isn't?" I questioned as a chill ran down my spine. "So you're saying that, everyone who's good is... destined to die?"

Vanessa shook her head. "I was right, you are a little princess! Princess Polly! You think the world is all just rainbows and ponies, don't you? Well news flash, girl, people die and the best of them - they die first!"

"No..." I murmured. "No, I don't believe that!"

"You obviously don't know yet, do you? Your little sword-friend hasn't told you..."

"Sword friend?" I echoed. "You mean Bethanie? Why, she tells me everything! Unless... unless something has just happened. Has something just happened?"

"Ding ding ding!" Vanessa sounded. "Give her a prize, it seems Polly Pocket isn't a total princess after all!"

"Hey!" I protested. "Quit making fun of me and just say what you're thinking already!"

"Well maybe I don't wanna say what I'm thinking. Maybe doing so will..." Her voice broke. "It will..." Then her eyes suddenly widened before furtively flicking in a distant direction. With a contrasting even voice she murmured, "There's a lot of aura being drained nearby."

"Aura?" I gasped. "Does that mean that...?"

"That's right." Vanessa finished for me without hesitation. "Soul energy is being consumed from the Earth as well as from people. And by the quantity of it, I'd say there's at least a handful of shades located together and once there's a few of them then there's enough to take the lot."

"You mean?" I gulped. "Enough to kill people?"

"Yeah, kill them but more importantly, consume their diamond cores. That would leave nothing at all."

"No!" I shouted. "No, we have to help them!"

"We?" She repeated condescendingly. "And how can a... pre-green daeva possibly help?"

"I... I..." I started to answer without a retort in sight.

"Idiot! Why are you putting yourself through all this!? Just run home and hide under your bed covers! That's all you can do, it's the only way you can protect yourself."

"No!" I refuted. "I... I know I'm not strong, or very clever, or very good at much besides maybe my art, but still... even knowing all that, even being limited as I am, I promise, I'm not going to run away! I won't hide my head in the sand. Even if I can't fight I'll still try! Somehow, as long as I try I know that I can make a difference! And I won't give up on people, no matter who or what they are, I won't ever let them suffer!"

Vanessa's eyes narrowed. "I should kill you now, it'd be kinder I think, than to let you suffer what's to come." But then her hostility diminished slightly with her sigh. Rising to her feet she turned her eyes away. "Well alright then, Polly Pocket, if you wanna die so bad then I won't stop you. I'll go check out that vacuumed aura area and since you sound like you're gonna come then, just don't slow me down."

"Really!?" I exclaimed happily. "You'll let me come with you!?"

"I don't want you to but I'm hardly going to attack you to stop you..."

"Oh, thank you, Vanessa!" I cried as I threw myself about her. "I promise I won't get in the way!"

"You're in the way now..." She muttered.

With a gasp I tore myself away. "Right, I'm sorry..."

The corner of Vanessa's mouth lifted. "It's fine, just don't do it again."

"Yes, I promise I won't!"

As she rose to her feet and offered me a hand up I noticed that the same lopsided smile had yet to fade.

I accepted her help and with a small canter followed her away from the park and back onto the roads' adjacent footpaths. After a couple of minutes I called out breathily, "It's the plaza! People are being hurt there?"

"You tell me, you've got the same eyes as me." Vanessa directed.

We reached the hill where down the road the small shopping district became visible. There wasn't a lot there, a few restaurants on the outside, the cinema, a florist, then a passage to enter inside the plaza that housed less than a dozen shops, the arcade and a food court. The place was so small that it didn't even have its own designated car park, just those by the road-side. But it was a quaint shopping centre, its main appeal given by the lush green surroundings. Today however it appeared washed-out and grey. Part of it could have been because of the overcast overhead remaining after the prior rain. That would have surely muted things, but not so much to a daeva. To my eyes it should have still been sparkling because its soul energy would continue to shine no matter what the weather was doing, but it seemed that particular life-force was being eaten away.

"They're inside, aren't they?" I asked as our feet fell onto the cobbled surface the path transitioned into.

"Yeah and to do this kind of damage that means there's a lot of them. Watch out, these guys have brains so stay smart."

"They have brains?" I asked with surprise.

"I dunno, probably not but they got something like it. They think, that's all I know but that's all they need to be a danger. Just lay low okay. Better yet, stay out here." Vanessa advised as she stepped onto the plaza entrance.

"I'm coming with you!" I shouted at her heels. "If it's dangerous than you shouldn't be alone!"

"Idiot! Fine then, what do I care if you end up getting yourself killed?"

The automatic doors opened and just after we crossed through them I had stopped as I surveyed the surroundings. Food was thrown all about on the ground. Trays, chairs and tables were tumbled, just as forty or so patrons laid restless in various positions. Many people laid on the floor, but some had fallen forwards in their seats and a few teenagers, in their bright yellow and crimson uniforms, had slumped across the fast food counters.

And it was dark in there, so dark, so grey and lifeless and though my daeva eyes were meant to grant me heightened visual acuity I saw worse than I had ever done.

My gaze travelled up to the white glowing domes on the roof. "I don't get it, the lights are on so why is it so hard to see?"

In front of me I saw Vanessa call forth a scarlet whip into her hand where that too seemed dimmer than I had previously perceived. "Damn it, they've almost sucked this place dry. Now we have to revert back to normal sight and that I'm a little rusty with."

"Normal sight..." I echoed as I gazed about the dim surroundings but as I saw the shifting of black within it I inhaled sharply. "The shades, they're here!"

"Well what did you think you'd find here? Aura doesn't just disappear, it's being converted into dark energy."

Then deeper in the food court a heavy slam resounded and on the centre stage a girl with blonde hair groaned as she lifted a seven foot sword into the air. It was difficult to make out from this vantage but it appeared that eight silhouettes circled her and one had just made a successful stab into her shoulder.

"Bethanie!" I called and made to run towards her but a hand blocked me.

"Stay back, Polly Pocket, these are what my Crimson Tongue has just been craving to taste!" With light firing from the soles of her shoes Vanessa flew into the centre of the scene and after performing a quick wrist flick her coil sliced a shade in half.

I ran to catch up, taking many seconds to reach but once there gasped in horror for I saw my friend, leaning over her fallen sword, panting deeply as red oozed down the sides of her. It wasn't that colour that had me so concerned though, it was the black that stretched across almost every bodily part of her. The most being the chest and neck where crystal flowers climbed over the top of her lower jaw.

A shade made to stab at her back, but Bethanie was too weak, too tired so when she went to lift her blade she did so slowly. Too slow and did naught to block the black tip pointed at her spine.

"No, Bethanie, watch out!" I screamed.

Then, with a crimson snap the speared limb broke apart in crystals. Then another black limb fell, then another and another as the flexible coil struck at its enemies as if possessing a will of its own. Like a snake it snapped at the shades and like the most vicious of them it took no prisoners. Soon the whole stage was awash in an ebony hail and as thunder roared from overhead it seemed Mother Nature knew of the violent display taking place here.

With an anguished roar Bethanie flew her blade lengthways and managed to strike an arm off an adversary but failed to deliver the final blow. Vanessa was at her blind spot delivering death blows to the hungry shades before she turned down-stage centre and flung her whip into the audience. Narrowly it missed my hair as it soared over the top of it before curving sharply down and provided a loud crack from behind me. Whirling around I witnessed the black body with its speared arm an inch away from me a moment before it shattered into crystals.

There were five of them now, all up on stage, and though Vanessa fought swiftly, the crystals on her legs vanishing, Bethanie had a harder time with her opponents. Each time her large blade fell down and cut into the wooden floor, she took longer and longer to raise it back up. Then, as she lifted her arms once more it was with nothing inside. When she collided her weight forwards her eyes widened as she realised that her sword had completely disappeared. The shade she was fighting meanwhile never lost the pointy edge it had directed at her.

"Bethanie, get away!" I screamed just as a black point made its way towards her heart.

"Idiot!" Vanessa roared as her whip penetrated the shade through the back where it instantly turned to broken stone. "This is no time to be taking a break, Barbie!"

Bethanie was gasping, her legs trembling as I realised she could barely remain upright.

A shade made at strike to where Vanessa was standing, but that was past tense because she was gone long before the black spired leg reached through that space. Then suddenly a long red tongue reached through the shade's chest. Its red head pointed and almost seemed to snap at the air before finally ripping laterally through its confines and tearing free. With the fall of new black crystals that left just three dark monsters remaining.

These backed away from the two girls and turning towards one-another seemed to arrive at some wordless consensus before fleeing away.

"Damn cowards," Vanessa leered, "have no sense of dying with honour."

"Bethanie!" I called as I ran up onto the stage. Reaching her I grasped wet and red shoulders gently as she wheezed in response.

"Bethanie! Are you okay? What happened here?"

Towards the rear I heard the sound of glass shattering. Turning I saw Lara emerge through the emergency exit where black shined into white dust. As a crystal flower faded from her cheek the girl's smile was revealed.

"You almost let three get away, Vanessa, you're getting sloppy." Lara reprimanded.

The red-head on the stage smirked. "Here I do you a favour and you call me sloppy? Shouldn't you be thanking me right now? By the look of you I very well may have bought you a couple more days."

Lara raised her eyebrows. "Well those ones allowed my crystals to regress a bit but there's still a long way to go on that front. I'm thinking a hundred shades will allow me to get an even tan again."

Vanessa's face darkened. "You want to target the asura. I knew you would, desperate times call for desperate measures, after all. But I'm not that desperate yet so rule me out of that hunt."

"It needs to be killed, Vanessa." Rebecca's voice carried through the hall before she was seen emerging from the emergency exit. "We can't just get around to it when convenient like the shades. This one is much hungrier and everything that comes into its path gets consumed."

Bethanie collapsed on the stage with a thud. "The asura, it's still out there. Is it hurting people?"

Lara answered this. "Not people, but that's not yet. Unlike the shades it seems to be able to detect aura over a much larger distance so instead of coming up the mountain it's..."

"You're kidding me!?" Vanessa cried. "It can't be heading towards the Serene Coast! The population there is half a million!"

"Exactly why we need to go after it before it steals all that aura."

Vanessa's fists were tightly curled beside her. "But it's a death sentence going after it. You of all people should realise that, Lara and besides, look around you. It seems to me like we have our plates full with just protecting Skyward Mountain!"

"I get it." Rebecca sniped from the end of the large hall. "You're scared. Makes sense, considering how it wiped the floor with you."

"I'm not scared, I'm smart!" Vanessa refuted passionately. "I mean, just check out this place! It's so dark that we have to use regular human-sight and you know what that means, it means it's tapped out - these people are here, some have run out of aura"

"No!" Bethanie screeched as she rose to her legs and ran down the stairs. She almost fell a couple of times as she navigated between the food court's tables, gripping onto the backs of chairs to keep herself upright, but she recovered quickly both times as she forwarded herself through.

"Ah, Barbie didn't quite get it, did she?" Vanessa smirked darkly. "She didn't realise the reason for the darkness or why her sword became too heavy to lift. She didn't realise just how much aura was being consumed and it seems..." She added as Bethanie leaned over a boy that was slumped at a table. "That she didn't sense this place like we did. The reason that she's here is because she was on a date. Oh, now that's tragic." she stated with a voice far from sympathetic.

"No, no wake up!" Bethanie screamed from down the hall. "Please wake up, Kieran!"

Chapter 25

 

Bethanie

 

"Kieran, please. Please... wake up!" I shook him but still he made no response.

Abigail appeared quickly by my side and slipped in a hand beneath his jaw. I turned to her, shocked that she was even here. Then she turned back towards me, smile in tow.

"It's alright, Bethanie, I can feel his pulse. He's going to be ay-oh-kay!" Abigail cheered.

I collapsed on the ground by his chair panting. "What the hell!? What just happened here!?"

"The shades are getting stronger, that's what." Lara reported as she crossed through the space towards us. "They never used to be capable of draining aura of such a magnitude before. They could only dull things, weaken them. When teaming up they've always been capable of stealing it all but, that's only when they focus on a one or two people, never this many at once before."

"No one's dead!" I exclaimed quickly as I sat on the tiled floor. "The shades, they take aura but they can't get to the potent part, right? They can't get to the diamond cores!?"

"Well that... depends on a couple of things." Lara extrapolated as she reached us and pulling out the adjacent chair to Kieran sat herself down. "Firstly the numbers. You see, a shade on its own can only siphon a small portion of the aura it comes into contact with but that's not due to its lack of strength, more a lack of gravity. You see, shades are in our world, but not fully, they're not completely here. So they emit less force than they're actually capable of, just the same way that we perceive them as translucent. But the more of them that cross over, the more that feed, the greater weight they possess in this world and the denser they become. They don't carry more mass, but they do hold more weight just as their intellect perceives our world more clearly. So, in effect, they become smarter. As they sap energy from our world they use it to synchronise with their own and draw parallels between our laws of physics with those of the world called Noein."

"But the cores can be broken down too, right?" The small brunette girl by me questioned. "If all the aura of a person is taken away then the core begins to break down into a vapour form. That's right, isn't it?"

"That's correct." Lara responded stiffly.

"And they're getting more powerful..." Abigail murmured as she struggled with the thought. "So that means... that soon a plaza full of people will..."

A long few moments stretched out before Vanessa, still atop the stage, intercepted the silence. "She might be a Princess Polly but even I'm having trouble breaking the news to her."

"What? What news are you talking about, Vanessa?" Abigail asked with a very quiet and shaky voice.

During the discussion I had been surveying the surroundings which drove me to stand up and make my weary way towards another table.

"Well it looks like Barbie is back on her feet!" Vanessa commentated.

"Bethanie, don't." Lara directed. "Just go home now. We can take care of things from here."

I heard her warning and I knew what it meant but still I had to find out for myself. I had to know the fate of the little old lady who, slumped in the metallic chair, possessed no shine at all. When I reached her I placed my hands under the jaw in just the same position Abigail had done to Kieran and waited. Then I reached down to her wrist and raising the limp limb I placed my index and middle fingers to the thumb-side and waited again. Then I placed my palm onto her chest, just slightly to the left. There I waited again, longer this time. I waited a whole minute for a thump that never came.

Hands grasped themselves around my shoulders from back behind me as Lara's voice spoke softly into my ear. "Bethanie, just go home. You've been through enough for now."

"Bethanie?" Abigail called back from Kieran's chair. "What's wrong? Why do you look so upset?"

"Come on." Lara ushered as I felt a tug from my left. "You need to get out of here, already. This place has drained enough from you."

My feet followed hers as she guided me back to the table where Abigail was perched and with the brunette's high pitched squeal sounded as if Lara was drawing her with other hand. She began to move away but, fixing my feet firm to the ground I tugged back.

"Kieran..." I muttered. "I can't leave him in this place."

"You need to, we all need to fall into the shadows. Soon people are going to come and investigate what happened here and if we're the only ones walking around with energy that's going to be inconveniently strange, but don't worry, the boy is safe."

"Like that elderly woman back there?" I retorted dryly. "No, no I don't think so, he's leaving with us!"

"That woman..." Abigail's quiet voice erected. "The one you were just with. She's... okay, right?"

A long moment stretched out, one that I was surprised no one filled until finally Abigail gasped sharply. "No... no, that can't be! Her aura, her... soul... It couldn't have been all taken! Could... it?"

"You know..." Vanessa stated loftily. "I've seen plenty of Polly Pockets but I've seen any of them cry. It's weird, seeing one in the flesh, sad."

"She's..." Abigail struggled through the breaks in her voice. "That woman, she's dead?"

I closed my eyes firmly before reopening to the same dark, dismal world. Thunder pounded in the distance just before the cascade of falling rain reverberated on the plaza's rooftop. "It's not just her, Abigail. There's at least three more people that show the same empty aura that she does. The elderly man by the left, the overweight woman by the taco counter and..." I swallowed. "That ten year old by the pram. He's gone too."

"No!" Abigail shrieked. "No, that's not true, it can't be!" Reaching across Abigail's small hand shook me. "Bethanie, stop lying like this! It's just nasty! Take it back, take it back now!"

"Even if she did contradict her words and said it wasn't true would you be able to believe it?" Rebecca's shoes clicked against the shiny tiled floor. "You know the truth, too soon maybe judging by your personality, but also far too late. You have the nox seed inside you so no matter what you do you'll never be able to shield your eyes from this truth again. You can fight it and I urge you to, but you should know that by now you can't possibly escape the fate laid out before you."

"Rebecca!" Lara shouted. "Stop it, she doesn't have to hear this yet!"

"What's the big deal?" Vanessa quipped. "It's not like she doesn't know. Even if she hadn't worked it out I told her today! If she doesn't understand then that just means she's living in denial."

"Wait!" I called "Truth? To do with Abigail? But she's innocent, she hasn't erected her erosreaver yet - she's safe!"

Vanessa smirked cruelly. "You haven't realised it yet either. God, newbies are so pathetic! No, Polly Pocket doesn't have her erosreaver yet which means her seed hasn't sprouted but don't treat this like a regular herb garden. Just 'cause a seed doesn't sprout straight away doesn't mean it's a dud, these ones are just waiting for the right time." Hazel eyes flashed before the girl leapt down from the stage.

"Damn it, Vanessa! What's your problem!?" Lara yelled. "Why couldn't you have just waited until her summoning!? She doesn't have long like this, why ruin her peace?"

"No!" I screamed.  "Her seed won't sprout unless she believes she's about to be killed, that's the rules!"

Vanessa tsked. "Oh, poor, Barbie, she was fooled by Ariel's performance hook line and sinker! Let me guess," Vanessa turned full face to me, "she told you that the only way your erosreaver could be extracted was if you believed that you were about to die, am I right?"

"Vanessa, cool it." Lara warned. "They've been through enough already!"

"What, you mean they've been through enough because Barbie witnessed her first disappearing act? Well big whop! I've seen five now! And the sooner these newbies realise the cruel reality the better - save them from acting all teary every time they see a corpse!"

"Vanessa!" Lara growled. "Not now. We need to get outside and focus on recalibrating the earth's aura so that the people here may recover..."

"Oh, they're fine! Well the living ones anyway." Vanessa declared. "So long as the diamonds remains aura always respawns but knowledge, that can only be obtained by going through the difficult times!"

"Well, you sound just like a nox there." Rebecca appraised with her solemn voice.

"Yeah?" Vanessa quipped. "Wanna fight me like they do?"

"You two, shut it!" Lara yelled as dark crystals rose and fell against her chest. "We have bigger issues to be thinking about!"

"Wait!" Abigail's high pitched voice cried out. "Vanessa, what do you mean that Ariel was lying? Are you saying that... my erosreaver doesn't have to be sprouted from a life and death circumstance? Are you saying that the seed could sprout another way?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Even though I wasn't looking at her I heard the smirk in Vanessa's voice. "It doesn't take death for darkness to spawn, it just takes fuel, regardless of the form. And the fuel, in case you haven't guessed it yet, is the human soul when it is most empowered. Or in other words, when it is drawn on the most. Fear, anger, despair, they're all perfect incubators for darkness to blossom."

"I..." Abigail uttered. "I still don't understand..."

Vanessa opened her mouth to elaborate but Lara cut in first, her eyes glaring hostilely at the red-head. "She means that our souls are linked to our emotions so when they're going through any stimulus that overwhelms them then our minds reach deeper and find those seeds imbedded within us. That's when, through our desperation, we pull out a form that we think can save us from the pain we experience. That's when we first allow the darkness to sprout inside us."

"You didn't have to interrupt me, Lara. That was precisely what I was about to explain, not in the same words, true, not so tactful, but no less sensitive than your own approach. And at least if I had said it then Polly Pocket would have been crying because of me and not you."

Turning to Lara's other hand I saw the tears that faintly glisten down Abigail's face. Just when I opened my mouth to try to soothe her my friend's sweet hurt voice cut over me. "It's inevitable. Ever since I took that seed I destined myself to this fate."

"Abigail..." I attempted but she again talked over the top of me, not that I was fighting so hard.

"You know, Bethanie. I see, but that's okay. I get it, I get why you didn't say anything earlier. I dunno, maybe you didn't really understand until now. That's what I want to believe but regardless of how the facts are coming out it doesn't change what they mean. I'm a daeva now. Raziel warned me and so did Ariel. I'm not at the flowering stage like the rest of the daeva-luxes, but I have these eyes and that makes me one of you." Wanly she pricked up a smile. "I was scared but you know, I'm actually really happy now. Because that means that there's nothing holding me back anymore. I can help you now, Bethanie. Now, I can fight with you!"

"You're happy..." I murmured. "Even with this life ahead of you?"

Abigail opened her mouth but from it no sound was emitted. She turned left and right as she viewed the wreckage and again she turned back to me, opened her mouth but failed to make a point. With a frown she shut it and stared at the tiles by our feet. Thunder resounded soon after.

"Come on, girls." Lara who, still grasping our hands, ushered as she began to walk away again. "That's enough for one day."

"You say that every time." Abigail reported with an even voice. "Whenever we're upset, learning about what's really going on, that's when you all send us home instead of explaining! But I don't want to go home, I want to know what's happening! Like..." Abigail whimpered. "What this asura that you're talking about is and also... where Pearl is."

Don't ask that. I pleaded silently to her. Don't...

"The asura," Lara responded from the other side of our captive hands, "is another phantom from the world of Noein. It's more powerful than shades and a lot more dangerous. If it makes contact with civilisation then it'll kill countless people."

"Right..." Abigail murmured softly as she was being drawn by a similar gentle hand that I was. "So that was half of it, but what about the other half, what about the part where you explain where Pearl is?"

"Hey, Abigail!" I tried to distract her. "How about when we get out of here you show me that poem Eric wrote for you? I'm insanely curious to read it!"

"Bethanie..." Abigail murmured.

"You know, I had no idea that Eric was such a poet. I guess that's silly though, considering how good he is at English. It's sweet really - writing a poem for his girlfriend!"

"Yeah, I'll show you..." Abigail consented as silent tears fell down her face.

Once we reached outside the falling rain was much louder as lighting flared and thunder chorused its boom soon after. Then ahead we saw flashing red and blue lights as large vehicles made their way down the street.

Staring at the approaching fire trucks Lara pulled us along. "Come on, we need to bounce."

Fifty meters down the road we took shelter in a bus station. Sitting us down Lara addressed us, "Alright, I'm gonna head back to the others and try to pull some aura back towards the plaza. You two should just head on home now."

"Hey wait!" I called. "The fire trucks, why are they here?"

"Well a whole shopping centre is full of unconscious people so once security picked it up then it was only a matter of time until they sent in a rescue service to investigate."

"Security? Wait! You mean there were cameras in there!? You mean that people saw us fighting those shades? Using our erosreavers!"

"Hey, quit freaking out! Ordinary people can't see dark energy, remember? And cameras can't pick it up either since they're only calibrated to frequencies from this world."

My eyes were still wide. "But we're still from this world, what about us!? It may look like we're just waving around empty hands but we were still conscious in there and I was bleeding!"

"All a result of the dark energy you were fighting. Sure it happened, but that won't be for long. If it hasn't already done it yet then soon Gaia will wipe all traces of that away. All signs will literally disappear. Your images on the surveillance cameras just like all that blood you spilled. It'll all turn to dust before deleting from our world."

"Ah..." I frowned. "Huh?"

"It all disappears?" Abigail echoed.

Lara sighed as she came and sat on the bench next to us. "Well, I suppose the other two are capable of calling aura back into the plaza on their own..."

"Hold the phone!" I cried. "You can't be serious that my blood there will disappear!? But that's what happens to shades and... once we chrysalise. It can't happen to my blood. No way, not yet!"

"It wouldn't, if it was blood from normal wounds. But these were caused by shades, condensed dark energy. You know already that injuries caused by them are different, when they heal they leave behind crystal gifts. Well that's because it poisons your aura at the contact and it's not just your flesh that is affected by them, your blood too gets converted to dark energy."

"No way..." I breathed as I stared at the rain drops cascading onto the bitumen road. From in front of it I pulled up a hand and observed the pale white flesh touched by an ebony crystal on the wrist. "So I'm already disappearing."

"So they can't see her blood but they can still see her body!" Abigail yelled passionately. "They're hardly going to forget seeing her run around whilst everybody else there is sleeping!"

"That's right!" I declared. "I can't disappear so long as I'm still part human!"

Lara sighed. "You know daevas are a very confusing concept for this world to bear. It doesn't like having to deal with substances from other dimensions and that's why it created laws to shut them out. We have laws of motion, magnetism, electrical charges, of conservation of matter to keep us separate, but our laws aren't always perfect. Gravity, for instance, is a force that other dimensions manipulate so that they can tear into our world and distort the balance. So that's when Gaia has to step in to reorganise. It washes away the darkness' debris as well literally rewriting history so that it would seem that it was never here in the first place. And anything that's spawn from its aura she has full control over."

"Christ!" I exclaimed. "You're saying that the world is what makes the darkness twinkle and disappear when we destroy it? And that, even if people do perceive something that's off, something affected by Noein, or whatever that colliding world is called, that they just forget it?"

"Everyone." Lara confirmed. "All but those with darkness residing within them."

"But if the world can make darkness disappear then why doesn't it just make all those shades go away?"

Lara shook her head. "Don't you realise now why the shades crave aura so much? It's because they need it to stay in this world and deny Gaia's will. So long as some of the world's energy lies within them then Gaia can't destroy them, but also it cannot remould it to its choosing. That means that any substance that is a blend of the two suddenly becomes exempt from her laws. It means it can be powerful, capable of breaking every law that we know, even the ones concerning life and death, but she doesn't like it and she won't allow it without a fight."

"Gaia... What's that? It sounds like you're describing some chick with the control panel to the world."

"Yeah, you could call her that, but a more common name is Mother Earth." Rain was pounding heavier on the road as shouts sounded back from the plaza.

"The world has a soul?"

Lara smirked. "Not a soul, but the soul and it's so dense it runs rivers deep down within the earth's solid core. It springs life to everything that exists above it and is so powerful that it reaches across the cosmos even and extends far into the universe. It's so powerful that it can even repel the chaos of black holes that sail through space like mere asteroids. It likes its creation, it's stable and despises outside influences so when they come it tries to correct them but unlike Noein, Gaia does not have its minions that can navigate the surface so it is forced to wait until deletion does not affect its own creation."

"Well I'll be damned..." I murmured. "Mum sounds pretty scary."

"She's just doing what she must to protect her creation. If it wasn't for her we wouldn't have these peaceful lives we lead."

"Except, of course, that's it's not so peaceful. Not when you look beneath the rugs she's thrown over the top of this other world's interference." Gazing aside I watched what appeared to be stretchers carrying unconscious people into white trucks. "Lara... how do you know all this?"

"Well, have you heard of something called string theory?"

"No, is that a nickname you've given your erosreaver?"

Lara renewed her smile but with weak zeal. "I haven't named my technique like Vanessa but I suppose that would be an apt one. String theory is a concept that particle physicists have come up with. Through it they suggest that everything is created by one-dimensional strings. Everything that exists on Earth appears to be originated from these strings however limited to ones that just stretch through the four dimensions of height, width, breadth and time. So, in our world, it would seem there are just a few that govern our laws, but in reality there are more strings reaching into many more dimensions, the total number may ten or eleven, or their numbers could be more. No one is really too sure but one thing I've learnt is that through them other worlds are birthed. However, since they utilise strings that move in different directions we can never usually access these worlds, even though we may be in fact overlapped with them right now."

"You know how we're not meant to feel pain as daevas unless we're emotionally upset, well that theory isn't working right now - my head hurts!" I complained.

Lara chuckled. "Confusion isn't the worst of emotions to feel, but it's still one that can cripple people."

I rolled my eyes. "All I wanted to know was how you learnt all this, I didn't want a physics lecture."

"Well, I won't go into any more detail about the specifics then but as you noticed my erosreaver takes the form of strings and, since the fabric of universes are composed of strings then I'm able to detect any abnormalities over a large distance. That's how I know what's going on, it's because I can feel it. I can feel her - Gaia. I feel her will, her desire to protect her organised creation, but the other worlds keep trying to break in to steal her massive energy source. And it's not just Noein, there's many of them wanting in, Noein is just the latest scammer to play its hand."

"Well if Gaia is so powerful then why doesn't she destroy the shady bastards?"

"Like I said she doesn't destroy..."

"Right, right, right. She doesn't destroy aura because that's like cutting off her own hand, or something, right?"

"Yeah, one of a trillion, but still, since the other worlds keep stealing her energy she's hardly about to let any go unless she has to."

"Right, so as long as we carry aura we're safe." I murmured as my fingers trailed over the rock design on my wrist. "But if we lose it to the darkness growing inside us she'll turn us to dust. Even though we're fighting to save her world."

"Gaia is the source of the world's aura but she doesn't think like we do. She just... feels. So when she senses something dark she makes it disappear, regardless of intent."

"No common sense, hey? So Mum is just completely ruled by her emotions? Now I get why guys can get whiney about girls' emotions, even though I've always thought that very ironic..."

"She is doing what she can to protect her world, just as we fight to protect it too."

"All until..." Abigail's small voice broke through. "Until we disappear, just like Pearl has."

"Abigail!" I cried. "How... You know!?"

As the brunette girl was shaking beside me I hoped it was because of the cold stormy air. There she closed her eyes. "I didn't... not until just now. But her time was running out. The heavens accept death and then the rivers of life don't care for a heart of darkness. So then nothing was left to her, nothing saved her from all those dark crystals." Abigail turned to Lara with despair. "Yours are worse than hers. Yours too, Bethanie. Please, don't explain what happened and don't soothe me that this is all okay. Just tell me that you'll stop it. I don't care if it's not possible, I just want to hear that no one else is going to die, no one. I think, that I wouldn't be able to handle it if anyone else was to disappear."

I waited for Lara to come up with some reassurance but the moments stretched long and were only filled by the falling rain and thunders overhead. Eventually I made my statement, "That's right, Abigail. We're going to fix this. I promise that no one else is going to die."

Chapter 26

 

Abigail

 

"A gas leak in the plaza!?" Amy exclaimed as we sat around our usual tree during Monday lunch time. "No way, that's crazy!"

"So what?" Kieran muttered sullenly. "You think me and fifty other people just passed out because, what, we all got a little sleepy in the middle of the day?"

"Cool it, Kieran!" Louise implored to the boy's monotonic response. "It's just that it's strange. You hear about things like that in the city but not here up on the mountain!"

"I was almost so gonna be there!" Bart cried as if dodging a bullet. "I had planned to go see a movie and everything but that fell apart at the last minute. Talk about fate protecting you from disaster..."

"Fate saved you, did it?" Kieran countered. "So Courtney turning you down is fate saving your arse?"

"You were going to see a movie with Courtney!?" Amy shouted.

Eric winced. "Oh crap, this is gonna get ugly..."

"What the hell!?" Bart defended himself. "I could have been killed by a gas leak, doesn't anyone care that I could have almost died!?"

"Courtney?" Amy repeated. "She's not even pretty!"

"Dude, I was there!" Kieran pointed out. "Bethanie too even though she disappeared..."

"Hey!" Bethanie piped up. "I started to feel dizzy so I went to the bathroom. I even told you that, though you say you can't remember... And before I know it firemen are rushing me out of there saying there's been some gas leak. Any longer and I would have passed out unconscious too but fortunately I was lucky, we both were. There's a few people that weren't so much though..."

"Yeah, I heard four people died there yesterday." Eric commented. "Two were old, one with liver disease and a kid with a really bad heart. It sounds like that as long as you were healthy you escaped it but the unhealthy ones just couldn't handle the toxic fumes."

"Asking Courtney out..." Amy was still fuming. "It would have been justice if you ended up in that plaza..."

"Gosh, it's sad." Louise was shaking her head. "Four Skyward locals dead in a day. They may have been ill but it doesn't change the fact that death is cruel, no matter the age or circumstance."

"It's always cruel," Bethanie agreed, "but it is crueller some times more than others. Like when it takes a person before their time, like when it takes good people. Like when it leaves behind broken hearts."

Bart whistled. "That's deep!"

"Oh, Bethanie..." Louise sighed.

"No, it's okay!" She shrugged it off as she attempted a terrible smile. "I was just thinking of their families. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with me, I'm fine."

Amy was frowning deep into Bethanie's face however. "The spirits tell me... that you might have known someone there. Maybe not directly, but through a friend perhaps..."

"Wow, you're psychic, Amy!?" Bart exclaimed in awe.

"Yeah," Louise murmured less impressed. "You're psychic now?"

"Well," Amy shrugged. "I've always done my tarot cards but lately I feel the spirits talking to me directly!"

"Whoa!" Bart gushed. "That's incredible!"

"The spirits?" Bethanie echoed just as Kieran inputted, "Talking voices?" I noticed the two look at each and fell silent as they turned red.

"Well, it did sound like a tragedy." Eric weighed. "But I'm just glad that everyone else made it out of there without any side-effects."

Kieran was shaking his head. "It is a bit crazy actually, I was shocked when I felt completely fine after a few hours. Like, when I heard gas poisoning I was freaking out, like maybe my insides were going to boil or something, but I was let out of the hospital pretty soon. Too soon actually, I was kinda hoping to get a doctor's certificate to get the day off school today but they reckon I passed with flying colours. Jack-arses."

"Hmm..." Amy murmured. "You're aura looks a little off. It seems... less vibrant than usual."

"Yeah, thanks, mystic Amy. Now can you get me a get-out-of-school-free-card?"

"I am afraid," she reported solemnly, "that is beyond my power."

"Pfft, useless." Kieran muttered.

"Well I think you look much better, Kieran!" I reported happily. "You're looking so bright!"

Just as Bethanie gasped as she drank her juice popper Louise made her comment. "Well it's sunny again today, I'm pretty sure everyone's looking bright today!"

During Bethanie's coughs Eric stated a contemplative thought. "But that plaza incident sure was strange. A gas leak caused by a storm, never heard that before."

"I know what happened!" Bart declared triumphantly. "It was the aliens, of course. They're testing the airs before they like, go change the calibration and settings and make it habitable for them to live in before they conquer us..."

"Come what?" Louise asked confused.

Bethanie continued to cough, louder, as Amy inhaled sharply. "Yes, the aliens, that's what the spirits are telling me! Beings from another world want to invade ours!"

"Amy!" I called. "Are you for real!? You actually know!?"

The girl smirked at me. "Why of course, my grandmother is a fortune teller and she taught me all the tricks of the trade."

"Yeah," Kieran muttered. "I'm sure she taught you many tricks."

"Wow, Amy, you're the greatest!" Bart sung. "Hey, you wanna go out on a date with me sometime?"

Amy tsked. "With you? I'm sorry but you'll just drain all my aura. Besides, I wouldn't want to be the other girl whilst you chase Courtney."

Bart screwed up his face sullenly in response. Bethanie kept coughing and coughing.

"Whoa, Beth!" Kieran leaned across and patted her back. "You gonna find air again sometime this century?"

And like a miracle touch her breathlessness was cured. With a red face she murmured. "Yeah, this century, preferably before I die from old age."

Everyone laughed but me. I couldn't when I saw those black flowers reaching out of her white school blouse and over her throat.

Cutting through the laughter I interrupted. "Hey, Amy, you've got auditions for the musical this afternoon, don't you? How are you feeling?"

"Well..." The girl smiled mischievously. "I've been talking with the spirits a lot this past week for, you know, guidance on that front and you know what they've been saying - that I've got it in the barrel!"

"Wow, that's confident, Amy!" Bethanie observed still with a strained voice. "I agree you have the right to be, you're a great actress! But are you sure you're not setting yourself up for disappointment?"

Amy shrugged. "Yeah, I know, I'm talking prematurely, I haven't got the lead yet but you know, I just feel like it's so right! Like it's my turn! But you're right, Bethanie..." Amy placed a concerned hand back to her shoulder to rub. "Some other new actress could take it away from me. I admit, there's a bit of talent with these new seventh graders coming through but I'll stand by what I said because if I can't believe than no one else will! I will land the lead to the musical this year!"

"Wow, Amy!" I gushed. "I love your enthusiasm! It's just like I said, even if a good actress comes around and may look better than you for one performance it doesn't mean you can't still win your dreams!"

Amy frowned. "Right... but no one's going to look better than me here, I'm going to dazzle the audiences!"

"That's right!" Bart backed. "No one's better at drama than Amy!"

"That's..." I murmured. "Really good... Amy..."

From across the circle Bethanie's eyes bored into mine. Silently I responded, Yeah, I thought she was intimidated by Ariel too.

Following lunch was art and there I sat with Amy by my side and pulled out my printed photographs from the previous day. There I frowned as I sifted through them.

"Gosh, these are gorgeous photos, Abigail!" Louise gushed as she took a handful and began poring over them as well. "Wow, if you weren't such a good painter and sketcher then I would suggest you should become a photographer!"

"Really? You don't think the colour looks a little dull? Like it's a little under-saturated?"

"Hm..." Amy screwed her mouth to the side as inspected them. "Not really. It all looks pretty bright to me!"

"Oh, that's good. I was fiddling with the settings quite a bit yesterday because it all looked so dark on the display screen. It was cloudy then."

"Well it certainly doesn't look cloudy in these pics! It looks like the world's never been brighter!"

Right, so my eyes really have changed quite a bit, now things seen with normal sight look really sad. Depressing even.

Nodding I turned my gaze across the room where my eyes fell on an empty chair. "Amy, do you know who's auditioning for lead role this afternoon?"

"Hm, well let me think..." Amy leaned back on her stool as she contemplated. "I don't know about the other years but there's at least five girls from ours going for it. Myself of course, then Teila, Corrine, Simone then... someone else said they're going for it, who was it...? Oh, I remember! Charlie! Yeah, she's the only one who might beat me but I'm still pretty confident! She's talented and pretty but because she's so short they always seem to give her kid roles and of course, she's not as good as me!"

My eyes lingered on the empty stool. "So no one else from our grade is going for it? You don't think that Ariel will try to land the lead?"

Then Amy raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Who? Ariel? Is this some girl from another grade? Why, what have you heard, is she good?"

I gulped. "She's a new student, you really... don't remember her?"

"New student is she? What grade and what are you looking at over there!?" Amy's eyes followed my own direction and just shook her head. "Abigail, are you alright there? You've been acting really weird all day. Actually, you seem pretty sad." Then turning back ahead and locking onto Eric's back she lowered her voice. Fortunately Bart and Eric were in a deep conversion of their own so it seemed they hadn't picked up on anything we were talking about. "Did something bad happen with your date on Saturday?"

I shook my head as I looked at the dark-haired boy too. "No, it's not that, that was perfect. It's just a lot of other things are happening, bad things. Like the gas leak in the plaza and then... then a girl in year twelve she..."

Then a terrible realisation came to me. All this talk of disappearing, of Gaia changing people's memories so they had no recollection of darkness. Of Amy forgetting Ariel who was a daeva-nox, a daeva that apparently had turned completely dark, then about Bethanie's blood disappearing.

"Oh, no, please don't let that be true..." I murmured as tears began to escape down my face.

"Abigail, what's wrong?" Amy asked as she began to rub my back. "Why are you crying? Is it for those people that died in the plaza? Did you know one of them?"

"Disappearing, in all senses of the word..." My words were breaking, the sorrow of them reaching forwards as the boy in front of me turned around.

"Abigail, what's wrong?" Eric asked as he practically fell out of his chair to come in from of me.

Then all my sorrow suddenly emerged as salty water gushed from me. "I keep trying to be positive, I keep looking for the good in things but it just keeps getting sadder and sadder!"

All around me were whispers, quiet innocent questions that at first all sounded as if they were concerned about me but as they increased in number and volume they seemed to turn more hostile and cruel.

"Why is she crying"

 "Do you think she knew someone in the plaza?"

"There was a boy that died, I think that was her cousin."

"Maybe it's just that time of the month. She's always crying about the smallest things, it's probably nothing."

"God, she's just so sad."

"Pathetic, really."

"Maybe it's the curse, I heard it makes people go crazy before it kills them."

"Stop it!" I screamed as I placed my hands to my ears. "Stop being so cruel! Stop taking everything from good people!"

"Abigail, wait!" A hand reached out but I pulled away. In a hurry I escaped from my art bench, the stool being knocked over with a deafening clatter in my haste. Then I was running down the centre of the class and spilled straight through the front door. I ran and ran, not very fast because my legs just weren't very good at giving me much speed, but I ran as best I could. Outside I fled, grass breaking underfoot and the world of vibrant shimmery colours turned as grey as my photos. Then as I was breathing the air cut in sharply and it was cold, so cold and in a moment I found myself shivering despite the fact that I was still running.

When I passed a bench I stopped and collapsed next to the girl seated there who appeared to be revising over some notes.

"What year are you in? Please tell me!" I implored mere inches from her.

The girl's eyes widened with alarm. "I'm in grade twelve, why...?"

"You know her, please tell me that you know her!"

The girl, despite being much larger than me edged away fractionally. "Hey, I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about. Are you okay?"

"Pearl! Her name is Pearl. Please tell me that you remember her!"

When the girl moved her head gently from left to right I felt a fist clench itself around my heart.

"She's not in my grade, maybe one of the others?" The girl offered. "Are you okay? Do you want me to take you to the nurse's office?"

The the world began to darken even further as air thickened to the consistency of ice streaming down my throat. I followed that cool path, delved inside towards my heart where once again I saw light blossom. Surrounded by darkness there was a central beacon, a diamond that shone with all the most beautiful colours, greater than I had ever viewed as a daeva and there within it I almost saw something else, something calling me and my hand reached out to extract it.

Suddenly my hand was wrapped around something else, another hand, warm, tender but just slightly rough around the knuckles.

"Abigail, hey, what's wrong?" Eric was leaning over in front me, cradling my hand within his. "You want to talk about it?"

To my side the girl remained. She was silent but gave a look to say, yes please talk to him and leave me alone.

I turned back to Eric and meekly nodded. There he aided me onto my feet as he drew me away. "Hey, what's happening, Abigail?" Eric urged, "Talk to me."

"You're missing class." I murmured.

I sensed the boy shrug. "Ah, don't worry about that. You know, Mr. Merrith, so long as it helps nurturing creative juices he'll let his class roam free. Besides, I think he was just so shocked by your reaction back there that he's glad someone else is checking it out and from the looks of things, this doesn't seem like something that's very easy for you to talk about, is it?"

I turned to him in a hurry and breathed in to speak but then just settled for biting my lower lip.

Eric smiled as he brought a gentle hand to my moist cheek. "I thought I was right. I've thought that for a while actually. Like these last couple of weeks there's been something bothering you. I hope... it doesn't have anything to do with us."

"Oh no, Eric!" I called out passionately as my free hand grasped our interlocked two. "It's not that at all! I promise, you're the best thing ever! I love you, Eric, I really do!"

Eric's smile reached his twinkling brown eyes. "Good, I'm glad. I didn't think it was about us but we've been moving forward kind of fast so I had to check. But then if it's not us what is it? You can tell me, Abigail. You know that whatever it is I'm right here with you."

I took a moment to respond. "I didn't tell you before because it was all just so new and confusing. And I guess scary, like if I talked to anyone else about it all the terrible things I have been witnessing would actually be made true, but now, I'm fearing that even if I do tell you, even if you somehow manage to believe all of it then it'll just be erased. Maybe everything will, maybe we will, I don't know." My voice was breaking again. "I don't know what to think and feel anymore."

Eric rubbed my hand reassuringly. "Well, why don't you just start at the simple parts, then you can work your way from there."

I nodded. "Okay, what do you think about souls? Do you believe that they're real?"

Eric's bronze eyes grew in size. "So that's the simple part, huh? Well, I dunno, I'm more of a scientific kind of mind and with my parents into explaining how we all function as a product of our brains then I haven't really been brought up to believe in religion, but souls? That's trickier, I guess it really depends on how you define them. I don't believe souls are what make us sentient, I think any machine with enough intelligence could become self-aware, but to say that there isn't something more going on than just electrical impulses in our brains I simply can't do. I wouldn't call it the typical Christian soul that carries with it original sin that's either destined to enter Heaven or Hell, but I think there is still something else that moves us. We know that there is a place in the brain where emotions originate but I believe that there must be something that guides that process. It's hard to say what's not real because there is still so much we don't know about the universe, but yeah, I believe in a soul. It might not be real but a part of me wants it to be so I will, believe in it."

"Well, that's a start." I responded smally.

"... Has someone died, Abigail?"

I stared at the dull grass underfoot. "Yeah, but it's worse than that. She's not just dead, she's disappeared. I... I knew it was happening, to her and the others, but I kept thinking there was some way to stop it. Like we could fight destiny and protect people at the same time. Apparently it happened on Friday but because I didn't see it then I guess I thought that it wasn't entirely true yet. Silly, isn't it? They tried to cover it up from me but I worked it out and then I just pretended like it can all be fixed. And I try to smile, say that I'm okay with everything that's happening when really I'm not okay, not at all!"

We had walked around the edge of school, perhaps in an attempt to move out of the line of sight of any teachers who would recognise us as out of class. Then as we approached the vacant perimeter we trod down alongside a gentle stream. In the break of trees the sun was shining in the sky which should have reflected gloriously over the tops deeply saturated rocks, but instead, within that unrestrained flowing water was darkness.

Eric sat me down. "Denial is one of the phases of grief, it's natural that you don't want to believe what your brain is telling you. It's a mechanism to protect yourself from painful emotions."

"I didn't know her very long, only a couple of weeks and when I first met her I was scared. Well, not of her but her friends, I thought they were the bad guys, how wrong I was there, but then she was just so wonderfully nice. She protected me and was always smiling even at the worst of times and even though she was at death's door she never gave up. Maybe that's why I thought she wasn't really gone. Like she had disappeared but still existed, you know?"

"Well I don't know her but I do know that as long as she has people remembering her then she'll never truly die."

"But no one does, they've forgotten her!"

"You haven't." Eric reminded softly. "And so long as her memory stays within you she will never cease to exist."

My face softened as I stared up into his dark eyes. Then there were his lips, such a deep red that made the most beautiful of gestures. Smiling they added, "You just need to believe in that and you'll see how true it'll become."

"As long as I remember." Weakly I smiled. "She's still here, Pearl is still here and so long as she's in my heart then she will never disappear entirely."

Chapter 27

 

Bethanie

 

"We're going after the asura." Lara declared from the centre of the school's football oval.

"Are you kidding!?" Vanessa roared. "Well count me out! I only just wiped away the crystals it gave me, I'm not about to go looking for more! And that's if it doesn't manage to kill me first!"

"Shouldn't be too hard," Rebecca quipped, "considering how easily it did you in the last time. One hit wonder."

"Oh, aren't you just the comedian now!?" Vanessa leered. "Forget it, I'm not going to run into that thing's path and die! It's not like it hasn't already killed one of us!"

The golden feather wall beneath the sea of black floated back into my mind. "I'll help!" I declared. "I want to see that thing dead for what it did to Pearl!"

"Barbie here wants to go fight it!?" Vanessa shouted incredulous. "What are you, crazy? You'll be killed before me!"

"I held my own against it!" I retorted.

"Yeah, I head you got a couple of slashes before it had you pummelling, but don't think you're any better than me! You got to see it first but it still had you landing on your arse!"

"It got the better of all of us." Lara corrected. "It was much more powerful than we expected. We have never faced anything like it before."

"You know, I think it's better that Vanessa doesn't come." Rebecca stated. "It wasn't like she was any help last time."

"What is this? Reverse psychology?" Vanessa scoffed. "Well it ain't working. I'm not going after it!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I accused as I trembled on that field. "Pearl was murdered by that thing and you're allowing that to go unavenged? How can you even call yourself a daeva!?"

"Vengeance? Really, you're trying to teach me a lesson in achieving vengeance!?"

"All of you quit it!" Lara spoke but her words went unheard.

"Yeah that's right, 'cause it seems you don't give a damn about anyone other than yourself. Rebecca's right, you are a coward!" I roared.

Vanessa shook her head as she held an angry smile. "Me, scared? You have no idea, you know nothing about me! Nothing about any of us! Why do you want to get yourself killed over some girl you didn't even know anyway, huh? You say I'm too quick to protect myself but what about you? You, a rookie with so little power that I had to come and save your arse yesterday and all the time you never looked scared. What do you, have a death wish or something? Is that it? Did you know about the shades there, did you know that you would be outmatched, do you really want to die!?"

"Vanessa, enough!" Lara called before turning to me with a stern gaze. "You too, Bethanie, I don't want to hear any more of this useless squabbling. These are tough times for us, after Pearl's chrysalis and my own just around the corner. I won't lie to you that I want to kill the asura for personal reasons. I want to eradicate these crystals and I want to avenge her death but still I also want to protect the Serene Coast that it's just about reaching." Lara closed her eyes as she took a moment before breaking them reopen. "I know it's a tough ask, that thing is powerful, crazy powerful, so anyone who doesn't want to go up against it I respect that. Like Vanessa said it is a death wish but I can't let that thing wander out there, not knowing what it'll do. Not with all this anger inside me. So everyone think hard before you agree because this thing is powerful, it very well might kill you before you even get to have a chrysalis. Make sure that you realise it's your entire existence you're putting on the line here because once it's gone there's no coming back."

I looked straight into Vanessa's eyes as I responded. "I won't turn my back on Pearl. No matter the cost I will avenge her."

Vanessa shook her head. "Fine, fine you all go die! But I won't, I'll stay nice and alive up here on this mountain - it's the place we're meant to protect after all! I'm not going to look to a city and fight its horde of new monsters!" She waved her arms up in the air before letting them collapse back down her sides, turning she finished with one more line. "My plate's full here and I'll stick to only chewing on this type of fat. Too bad you girls haven't learnt that lesson."

"You know you'll never be able to defeat her." Rebecca's voice paralysed Vanessa's turned back. "If you can't defeat the asura you'll never be able to kill a nox. If you really want revenge then don't you think you should get a little target practice first?"

Vanessa remained there a moment as if about to come up with some retort but finally began to move away again, quickly. As she ran through the school grounds she was lost in matter of seconds and our battlefront was diminished to just three.

Lara sighed. "Damn, the girl's brash but she's a good fighter, when her head is screwed on right. I was hoping she would come around."

"It's okay, Lara!" I cried. "I know the asura is strong but with the three of us I'm sure we'll work out some way to beat it!"

Lara narrowed her eyes as they rested on me before shifting into a subtle nod. Then she laid out the creature's co-ordinates and our game-plan to us, all the while my mouth gaped in amazement.

"Can you really do that, Lara?" I exclaimed.

The brunette quipped up the sides of her mouth. "Yeah, I can, but it's useless if my team doesn't know what's going on, so make sure you keep a keen eye, alright." Sobering she added, "Pay attention to everything, your very lives depend on it."

"But yours especially." I pointed out. "Like, if this battle fails you'll receive even more crystals, right? And considering how powerful that thing is these new crystals will be bad, they might be enough like... they were for Pearl."

Lara wore a solemn expression. "You really do need to learn some more tack, Bethanie, but that doesn't stop you from being wrong either. If we fail this battle then we run the risk of all three of us dying, but the certainty is that I will chrysalise. So I'm relying on you two, now, don't get beaten."

"My revenge is meant for another," Rebecca spoke evenly, "but I want to pay respects for Pearl's sacrifice. This asura is strong, it'll probably kill me but I won't allow it. I'm not allowed to chrysalise, not before I end Ariel. So don't worry, everything will work out today, it has to."

Lara nodded and turned to gaze in the direction down the mountain. "Let's go." And in a moment she was gone, light flashing at her heels as she sped through the field and into the adjacent trees.

Rebecca followed a second later but one that I was in tune with so I flanked her side. We ran in school uniforms, white blouses and black leather shoes that were completely inappropriate for the undertaking, but at least we were not burdened by our school bags, having sealed them within our lockers.

Minutes passed in relative silence. Silence because there was no speech and no signs of civilised life close by at all for we ventured down without even a dirt path beneath us, but only relative because our feet seemed to boom with every fall just as the birds tweeted in low-high-low changing frequencies as we passed them. There were other animals too, lizards scuttling on the ground, snakes slithering through brush. I even saw a rabbit scuttle deep into a hole in the forest floor and almost wanted to join it. Maybe wonderland would have been a better place to escape to than here, the rabbit certainly seemed to think so.

"Hey, Rebecca?" I prodded as we ran. "You and Vanessa obviously have some kind of vendetta against Ariel, what's that all about?"

"And what makes you think that's any of your business?" Rebecca quipped back.

"I... I didn't mean anything by it! But, just seeing as we're working together now I think it might be important information to know. I mean, anything we can learn about a daeva-nox is useful, right? When they're out to get us?"

"You're on our side now? Well that's fast considering that you were just stalking me last Friday."

"Hey, like I told you, I was just trying to learn about you! I wanted to join with you but didn't know how or... what was really going on. But I do now, I get where the real bad guys are."

"The real bad guys, hey? Well I'm glad you've finally realised that we're not them but that isn't mutually exclusive - I have no idea who you really are yet, Bethanie and until then I don't think I'll be spilling my secrets any time fast."

I almost stumbled over the tree branch I jumped over. "Me? You're saying you don't trust me? But... but I'm just a normal girl caught up in all this, how could you be sus' about me?"

"Well alright, let's assume that you've given us your allegiance amazingly fast despite the obvious distrust you showed us earlier. Let's say you really are a daeva-lux and let's say you really give a crap about what happened to Pearl. Then I guess everything is all hunky-dory, all except for the fact that Vanessa so unwittingly pointed out - the fact that you want to kill yourself. I admit, it doesn't sit right with any of the other stuff, but it's still something that's very concerning when you're heading into a life-and-death battle."

I was breathing heavily, more so than I usually would be on a run through the bush. I was definitely travelling at a faster pace than I had been used to weeks prior but it was not one that I should have felt flustered over. No, it was easy in fact, so easy I could have carried my blade with me if I so chose and yet, I couldn't stop puffing.

Finally I responded to her accusation. "Vanessa has no idea what she's talking about. I'm not suicidal." 

"You know, I believe you. You seem to fight too hard to want to die, but still you do seem to throw yourself into battles that you can't possibly win on your own. It's as if you want to ensure, maybe not your death, but your suffering in the least. It's like you want to be punished, you want it so desperately that you place yourself in harm's way, accept it even as if it's your fate. So that just leaves the question, why do you deserve to be punished?"

I was starting to side with Vanessa in disliking this girl. "During your analysis of me did you ever stop to think that my acceptance of suffering was for another reason? That maybe I have been through so much of it in my life that I began to just expect it? God, I don't know what Sigmund Freud act you're trying to pull but all I know is that I'm used to crap going wrong in my life, okay? People I care about dying? That's normal, long before any of this daeva BS. Suffering isn't what I seek, it's a way of life so when it's thrown in my path I don't run away like other petty little school girls, I see it for what it is and fight! It's my life and I won't run away, I'll run straight towards it!"

"I see." Was all she murmured.

"Whatever." I muttered. "I guess I shouldn't have expected a robot like you to understand." I started to sprint ahead of her but Rebecca called out before I could lose ear-shot.

"Bethanie, just make sure you don't deviate from the plan. You know that Lara's very existence depends on it."

"I know." I groaned. "Don't worry, I've learnt a few things. I won't stuff up and..." I added as I touched my wrist with the black flower pattern. "Besides Lara and besides Pearl, I have my own agenda out of this battle. I need healing too."

I didn't wait for her acknowledgement, partly because I felt certain I wouldn't receive it but also I just wanted to get away from the daevas. Pretty tough though when you travel through a forest of them.

The remainder of the journey was with that same relative silence and hitting flat land I stopped behind Lara. Rebecca followed a moment later.

"It's made it all the way down, damn it!" Lara commented.

"I thought you could sense the strings it disturbed over any distance." I queried. "So why are you so surprised by its location now? Can you not even pin point its location in relation to the mountain?"

Rebecca glared at me from my flank as the girl ahead responded. "Strings vibrate like waves. That's how I can feel things over great distances but also like waves once originated the source can be hard to pin-point, especially where there are other mediums in the way. So, the greater the distance, the greater the objects blocking my path and the harder it is to narrow down and so even my sensing capabilities are limited."

"Everyone's erosreavers are limited." Rebecca interred. "The biggest advantage we have is not allowing our adversaries to learn of those and our greatest advantages involve discovering theirs."

"Yes, that's true." Lara agreed. "But better yet is to destroy your enemies before they can learn of such intelligence. Best thing is to destroy them as soon as they spawn."

"My sentiments exactly." Rebecca agreed.

"That's why we need to get this asura before it does any destruction. We learnt yesterday just what a handful of shades are capable of now, we can't let this beast do any more. It has to end, tonight."

"But will it?" I asked. "Will all the destruction end with just this one asura if we kill it? Will there not be more shades coming into our world? Is there no possibility that more asuras will step inside also?"

Quivering, the crystals on Lara's form shaking likewise the girl responded. "I know, it all looks pretty pointless, doesn't it? The world is destined to end but we, we're going to chrysalise before even that. I know that it looks like a fruitless effort." She smiled as if she remembered something else, something happier. "But despite the crap going on in our hearts we have reality to deal with and that says that the world is being attacked by Noein, one that's intent on collided with Earth. Sure, Gaia doesn't care about us, it'll just as soon see us evaporate as those dark bastards, but the world is still here and we're still a part of it! So, no matter what else is going on, I still believe that's enough of a reason to continue fighting because, if we can defeat Noein then we can save the daeva fate! But also, I just so wanna kill this asura scum!"

I was nodding. "Right, so the asura today, then whatever is allowing Noein onto Earth tomorrow."

"That's..." Lara answered with exasperation. "The loose plan."

"But we're on a bigger time limit than we realise." Rebecca explained even-voiced. "Sure we might chrysalise soon, but the fourth daeva-nox may emerge even sooner and when she does this world is doomed. Three, well we couldn't exactly handle but they couldn't do too much damage on their own. But four, well then they can access all our world's dimensions, then they can destroy it."

"Right," I almost whispered. "So we'll stop them. We'll protect Earth."

"Starting with eliminating this monster." Lara declared as she walked forwards. Nodding she indicated towards that same direction. "It's only a couple a hundred meters that way onto that golf course down there and from the feel of things I'd say it's already locked onto a small group."

"It's started draining aura from people?" Rebecca enquired as if receiving a police report. "So we can expect it might already be stronger than the last time we faced it."

Very slowly Lara nodded, then she turned with glistening eyes back towards us. "Hey, girls, I just wanted to say that, I know everything will turn out just fine. Even if it doesn't today in the end it will."

"Quit sounding like Pearl." Rebecca reprimanded evenly.

Lara smiled wanly. "Well, she was my friend so it's only natural that she rubbed off on me. Maybe, coming to this point, I can possess the same optimism that she had. Maybe, her disappearance won't be in vain, you know?" With eyes twinkling her voice broke.

I wanted to say something, it was going to follow the lines that everything was going to turn out okay however I couldn't bring myself to lie.

But then Rebecca did it instead. Walking up to the girl she grasped a hand and even smiled. "It's not over yet."

Lara weakly smiled in response. "That's true, we still have this victory to achieve."

These girls, I thought for not the first time during the past few days, they really are the good ones. I may not like them but they're honest, they're real and they're fighting for everything.

Then emerald eyes fixated on me with silence.

"C'mon," Lara ushered. "We can't waste any more time. People's auras are being drained as we speak."

"Then we gotta go and help them!" I cried passionately.

Rebecca's harsh green eyes never left me. "We're getting to them right now."

"Yes," Lara murmured, "there is no more time for prattling, all that's left to us now is... salvation."

She ran off instantly once she finished and with a reluctant break to her green-eyed gaze Rebecca followed suit. Then it was just me in the rear flashing what felt like unwanted steps behind the daevas.

It took less than a minute to reach the golf course, then half a second to witness our first phantom, but this wasn't the asura we had our directives honed in on, this appeared to be a strange accessory to the monster that laid deeper within.

"Bethanie," Lara ordered, "get that one and follow us inside. Once there you know the plan."

"Right." I agreed as I diverged from the girls and used my flash-step so I stood right in front of the dark humanoid. The daevas were gone in seconds.

"So," I began to the shade, "creature from, Noein, is it? And was it, Noe, that Dorothy called you? I gotta say, it's a cute nickname."

The dark figure gave no indication that it understood it was being addressed.

"But you're not unintelligent, are you?" I mused. "You know what you're doing, you know that you're thieves that have come into our world to steal our souls, but you don't have any remorse for that, do you? No, I shouldn't think so when you don't feel anything at all.

"You know," I added after a thoughtful moment, "I've been wondering it for a while. Well, since the moment I laid on eyes on such a pathetic creature as you and that's what really lies inside you. You're dark, sure, and you're see-through, my how creepy that is!" I almost laughed. "But you exist even though the laws of physics state that you shouldn't. Hey, I know that I'm no saint bookworm but after my quick revise with Lara I learnt that you are way more wrong than I ever realised. You don't have a soul so what on earth is it that makes you work?"

The shade took a couple of slow steps towards me, darkness unshifting but despite that I received the sense it wanted to say something to defend itself.

"I'm sorry." I responded with an seven foot blade materialising within my hands. "I didn't quite catch that."

Ten feet away the shade stopped and stood perfectly still.

"See, I knew you lot weren't dumb. Well..." I attenuated my words. "Not stupid, but that doesn't change the fact that you're evil and that it's up to me to put you down so, here goes."

With a roar I slung in front. The thing moved away and drifted back further towards the trees.

Pulling my claymore over my shoulder I murmured, "Oh, I don't think you're getting away so easily."

Smiling I sprinted off my feet towards the direction it left in. The place was mostly open ground but trees were planted around its perimeter, the one that I was nestled so closely against. The sun was shining overhead providing much better weather than the previous day but with a lowered angle ample darkness was permitted. Many shadows were created by the flanking tress and their figures stretched far across the grass. Into one of these I lowered my blade and cut the darkness. The shade shattered into broken crystal before clearing the way for emerald grass beneath it.

With one problem solved I turned and ran across the fairway. I was faster now, my passage unhindered by the forest's chaotic brush, as well as an improved aura pulling capability. Maybe I was getting good at it, I thought as light blazed against short cut grass. Maybe with every shade vanquish I didn't just alleviate my dark flowers but allowed my aura to shine brighter. So with power granted then maybe destruction wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Chapter 28

 

Abigail

 

"Come on, Eric! You have to keep up!" I called as I ran down the street excitedly.

"Hey! Quit running ahead!" The boy complained as he jostled behind me. "I am carrying two backpacks! And yours is massively heavy by the way. What do you have in there, bricks? Is that how you girls protect yourself when you walk home after school, just drop your bags on any attackers?"

Giggling I slowed so that he could catch up. "No bricks, just a few tubes of paint and things."

Eric performed what appeared to be an exhausting bicep curl. "A few? And what's a few in Abigail world?"

"Um..." I murmured as I counted. "Cool and warm primary colours, a couple of tubes of whites and blacks, then I have some super pretty secondary colours and of course shiny metallic ones - you can't create gold and silver by mixing colours! Then there's clear paints with sparkles, paint retarder, paint accelerator, then I need stripper to clean my brushes..."

"You take all that to school each day!?" Eric cried incredulous.

"Well not each day, I only started painting my major today, silly! Normally it's just my art book and pencils, as well as my other class things, so it's super light! That's why I told you I was getting picked up today, I'm not super strong so I can barely manage to lug it around just between classes!"

"I'm not surprised you have trouble with it." Eric groaned. "It's making even my arm ache."

"Oh no!" I exclaimed. "Was that too much of an ask having you carry it all this way? I'm sorry, I made you go on this big long winded walk that's not even close to our homes!"

Eric shrugged. "It's fine, really, I am pretty tough after all, just don't expect me to run carrying all this, especially when we're going so far uphill."

"You really are the best boyfriend ever! And we're almost there, promise!"

The boy smiled. "You've been saying that since we left school but amazingly I believe you, since it's pretty obvious where we're heading now."

"No!" I cried. "You're not allowed to know, it's a surprise!"

"Skyward Mountain lookout isn't much of a surprise when you start running out of mountain to climb, you know."

"Humph. That's why I can't wait to get my driver's licence, then I'll be able to take you hostage in my little hatchback, make you close your eyes and then do my unveiling, surprise intact!"

"A hatchback, hey?" The boy repeated with amusement. "That's so a car you'd have too."

"Huh? And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well they're so small and... don't have very much power..."

"Excuse me? You calling me little and weak!?"

There was a cheeky twinkle to his eyes. "Definitely, but they're also incredibly cute!"

I pushed the boy away where he little more than staggered, his smirk however never unsettled. I guessed I had to give it to him, though I was technically a daeva but because my erosreaver hadn't been drawn yet I was no more powerful than human-Abigail.

"You're so mean to me." I grumbled in response.

"Really?" Eric questioned as he rose my heavy backpack up with one strained hand. "And just a moment ago you were calling me the perfect boyfriend."

"Well like the weather," I muttered, "that obviously varies."

"The only thing that changes like the weather," Eric quipped, "is your mood. Mostly sunny with intermittent showers, but... Abigail, is it sunny now? You look okay but you were so upset in class today. You know, if you're still upset you don't have to cover it up with a smile, not in front of me. You can tell me, everything. I wanna hear everything you have to say, no matter how much rain is involved."

"Hm..." I murmured as my eyes followed the path underneath our feet. "I don't know. My weather is pretty crazy, scary too. I know that it's global warming type of weather that I'm experiencing but I just keep looking to clear skies and sunshine. I guess I just keep thinking that so long as I look away then maybe the sky won't really fall."

Then I felt Eric's free hand curl itself warmly around my own. "It's not falling now. It's perfect, but especially when you view it from there."

The boy pointed across to a lookout where beyond the sky stretched through darkening blues and evening tones. It spanned down far, exposing land of the distant city and the proud structures it erected. The mountain's uneven surface fell lower still before it all came back around to the simple mary-jane shoes on my feet and a comforting hand in mine.

"Come on." Eric ushered as he led me onto the raised lookout platform and grasping the railing led me to follow his gaze. "So, was this your masterful plan? Lead me to this dazzling place so that you could seduce me?"

"Eric..." My voice turned small. "You know that I'm not ready for that yet. I... I need a bit of time..."

"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put pressure on you like that and I feel the same way as you do. We're young and we're... in love, right?"

Looking up into his eyes I responded quickly, "We are in love! I love you!"

His eyes twinkled happily. "Good, so let's just enjoy being together now. We got all the time in the world before we do anything else."

I smiled at him for a very long moment before exclaiming, "Oh!" Then I rounded across to Eric's other side and fumbled into the bag he still held. I rustled through the chaos inside for a bit before locating my art diary and retrieving it with a, "A-huh!" I pulled it free, tossed between its pages and then passed it across.

Eric finally let go of both my bag and his. "Hm? You've done another drawing you want me to see and this one's in colour it's...." His breath faded away as he took hold of my most precious book. "Wow..." he ended up saying.

Over a water-coloured page his eyes fell as they observed a scene in the exact same position that he was just standing, a view point from the highest lookout atop of Skyward Mountain. Vibrant hues flowed down the landscape that matched reality accurately, however there was one major difference and that fell within the sky. The real view showed only the subtle varying shades of dusk to his eyes, but in the painting rivers of vibrant twinkling rainbows stretched across merrily. Pinks, purples, blues, yellows, oranges and greens were all a part of the twice daily masterpiece. Never fully blending in together but never at once separated. It was my portrayal of the world's perfect harmony of all the different representations of its souls.

He smirked. "It's amazingly beautiful, what do you call this style? Abstract, surrealism?"

"Neither, it's... landscape art."

"As much as I like this you know that the aurora borealis and aurora australis only exist at the poles, right?"

I smiled. "Trust you to know that."

"I like it. It's more amazing than reality, that's pretty special."

"But it is real." I insisted. "The wonderful world is all around us, all the time. Its soul runs through it all and paints way prettier than me, it's just that we can't see it normally."

"The world's soul..." Eric repeated thoughtfully as he gazed at my picture. "Well you can definitely see it, can't you, Abigail? And I think you painted it perfectly."

I shifted beside him. "Eric, you told me that I could tell you anything but I don't think you understand what I'm communicating here."

"That you've seen some horrible things lately and yet, despite all that, you see all the beauty the world holds? You think I don't understand that about you?"

"I... yes, but..." I struggled completely baffled as to how to proceed. It seemed simple enough when I had painted this picture yesterday evening. I knew that I wasn't so good at explaining things with words, especially things so strange that were occurring within my life, that was why I thought I could achieve this explanation through art. Pictures have always spoken more to me than words so if I really wanted to talk to a person then I knew that it had to be through visual stimulus, but I had just done that and still it didn't succeed in what I hoped. Eric still didn't understand what was really happening.

"Abigail..." Eric squeezed my hand. "This girl you knew who died, I understand that it's really upsetting you. It upsets me too, actually, because I can see how hurt you are and the worst thing is that I can never really know what you're thinking and feeling because we all exist in our own universes with their own beauties and their own pains. We can recognise things in other people's universes but we can never completely know what's going on there. I really want to know your pain, more than that I want to take it away so you don't have to carry it anymore, but I know that I cannot do that. All I can do is tell you that I love you and promise to protect you from as much hurt that I can, but I..." He turned away from my art book and the scene and grazed his fingers along my face soothingly. "I can never heal the pain that exists in your soul."

I smiled. "Oh, but you do, Eric! Every moment that I'm with you I feel like I'm being saved!"

The boy's tortured face melted into calm before it neared me and, eyes closing, I felt the gentle touch of his lips against mine. It tingled there and prodded my mouth into a wider smile but never did it venture away from its perfect proximity.

Eventually his did though as it shifted just enough to murmur, "Do you hear that? It sounds like someone's... singing."

The words of the singing could not be made out but the voice was unmistakable, it was Dorothy's.

"Oh, Eric..." I bit my lower lip as I pulled him behind me. "Please, let's just run away from here!"

He frowned as he placed one backpack strap to each shoulder. "Sure, we can go but I gotta ask, why are you so freaked?"

"I've just been telling you!" I exclaimed. "There's bad things here and I know that you say people only act on experiences but I'm not so sure. I think... that there might be bad people too that want to hurt others. Want to hurt us. I think that if we want any kind of life then we need to run now!"

Eric turned slowly in the direction of both the forest and singing then watched me carefully, still reticent to leave. Just as he elaborated I saw blue snow float across from the air behind him. "Abigail, what is it about this singing? Why does it have you so spooked?"

"Please, Eric!" I tugged at his arm. "That girl's not nice. She does bad things and she's always smiling when she does them. Please, let's just leave!"

Eric's eyes narrowed. "You know this girl, she's a bully?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "And the worst sort. Let's go, now, before she notices us!"

But still, despite all the tugs I was giving the boy he wouldn't move from that spot. "She's a part of the reason why you're so upset. She's hurting you..."

"No, Eric, that doesn't matter! What does is that we need to get away from here now!"

He watched me for a moment. "Are you sure you don't want to stay and try to resolve whatever's going on?"

I shook my head. "I wish it was that simple but whatever her reasons may be this is just one bully you avoid."

The tanned boy nodded. "Alright, I get it, avoid conflict if you suspect it coming."

Then finally he allowed me to lead him down the road but it wasn't long before I witnessed a black figure climbing up it. I stopped immediately.

"Abigail, what's wrong? Why did you stop?" Eric enquired as he looked ahead.

He can't see it, I reminded myself. He can't see the shade rising over the top of the hill.

"We can't go this way." I muttered, turning around. "This way, come."

"Wait! Abigail!" he cried as I tugged him so hurriedly behind that he was forced into a jog. "But that's the direction of the singing, right?"

"It is," I acknowledged. "But we're not going there way, not again. This time we're going off the path and straight into the bush."

"Wait, again?" Eric puffed behind me. "What's going on, Abigail? What are you running from?"

As we crossed through the nearby playground I voiced, "Would you believe me if I told you that I just saw a monster now?"

"Abigail!" Eric jerked behind me and halted my forward progression. "Whatever you got going on running away won't help!"

I turned back to him, eyes shifting over the dried bark floor, past the slide and monkey bars before I saw the good concerned boy, but behind him, back on the road stood a black silhouette. It was likely that it was the same shade but it was also possible that it was another.

"I think it will!" I argued. "I think we really need to run now!" I tugged him back towards the other end of the park before stopping suddenly with a gasp. Another shade was there too.

With another yank I diverted our path again so that we ran away from the two and before I could realise it we were atop the path that had led me to my first shade encounter. I stopped there, frozen.

"Abigail? What's this all about? Why do you keep changing directions like this? You'll get us lost!" Eric implored but I was lost to his words, all that I could perceive were the five, six, seven shades moving through the forest in a direction that made it seem like they were heading straight for us.

Of course, they were attracted to Dorothy's singing like the last time, giving us the perfect reason to keep away from the clearing. The only problem was that running away from the song meant running into those wanting ebony arms. So I couldn't move, not forward, nor back, since I knew that wherever we ended up we were sure to be caught in the violence of the storm.

"Dammit, this is ridiculous!" Eric cried as, tugging me behind, led me down the path that followed only deeper into the trees.

"No, Eric..." I murmured, "You can't go there, that's the eye of the storm..."

He didn't stop to turn back around as he responded. "Well then I think that's precisely where we should head. Maybe there you can actually calm down and explain what's going on."

Furtively I turned back around to where I witnessed no fewer than ten shades moving through the trees behind us.

It was the wrong way to go but I simply had no other path to take. I just hoped the increased sideways blue snow did not prove to be too grave an omen. The singing, too, terrified me, especially since we became close enough so that once again I discerned their disturbing lyrics.

 

Tears fall when I see your face

These black streaks trail with grace

Mascara smudged, never to be repaired

Because the loss of you will never be fair

 

"Hey, Abigail, don't worry, everything will be fine, everything is fine." he stated when I didn't respond. "Besides, with this music and the beautiful day I kind of have a really good feeling. It's weird actually, the more I hear these foreign words the more at ease I become."

"Foreign?" I repeated meekly as I stared at the slow-moving shades many meters away. "You think it's in another language?"

"Yeah, of course, but it's strange, I'm familiar with all the major ones enough to recognise them but this I can't. I wonder what country it originates from. I think... I'll ask the girl who's singing."

He's being lulled in by it, just as Bethanie had been when all this started. The blue snow had just started carpeting everything, just as the white sheen did then, and I remembered that it wasn't long before my protector ran off and allowed my hand to slip away...

 

Skin so white you could be a doll

With a perfect image and nought a soul

You are still my man even though you're gone

But I hold out for when the sun will be shone

 

"Eric, no! Don't leave me!" I cried as my two hands wrapped around his one.

Gasping Eric turned with alarm. "Of course not, Abigail. I would never leave you!"

"Then don't! Don't lose yourself to her song!"

 

It is death that claims you now

And though you have taken your last bow

I will never give you up

 

Eric turned his head fervently to the sides. "There's only two places where I can be lost, the first one is within your Bambi eyes."

"I don't know what to do, where to go..." I murmured as I shrank closer to him.

"What's back that way?" Eric nodded over the top of my head. "Why are you running from both directions?"

I didn't have to turn to know of their presence, the nearest just ten meters away but it hadn't seemed to be going for me or Eric, just ahead, no doubt drawn by Dorothy's singing. That meant I could have made a run for it in the opposite direction but I wasn't sure whether that would trigger their acknowledgement of me. Something told me that shades were as compelled to the music as humans were, but if it was in the same way then they could be snapped out their reverie if something caught their attention too.

 

In my heart you will stay

Just as these tears keep it a rainy day

But I will never give you up

 

"Come on," I slowed as I redirected our course back off the path and into thick brush, "this is the way we need to go."

"Back off the path again, but it seems like you're travelling very close to it..."

"Precisely," I responded, more calm this time as I trod slowly. "I realised something just now, that if you're caught up in a situation that you seemingly can't avoid then try a less direct path. Like when caught in a rip the best way to avoid the pull of its waters is to swim at an angle."

 

Someway, somehow, you'll return to me

That is my endless decree

For I will never give you up

 

"Makes sense." He frowned. "But, Abigail..."

I stopped dead and following my stiff hand he did too. Silencing he looked in the direction I was turned and squinted.

"Is it just me or is it really dark there? But then, when I come to notice it, it's strangely bright here, as in everything seems coated in some kind of mist..."

The blue snowflakes had become very heavy now and so to him he was finally able to witness the muted aura representation through human-sight. All the blue vibrant energy to him would have been like a white fog rolling through the trees and, due to the dimming sky, the scene would have began to faintly glow.

 

Even if the world must break

Even if destruction lies in its wake

I will never give up

 

"We'll be fine," I stated lacking confidence, "so long as they don't notice us. If they're focused on the music I think we'll be..."

"What's going on?" Eric exclaimed as he pointed with fear to an area where four shades were walking in tandem. Through the deep black they possessed no blue that could be seen emerging from the other side. "What's with that dark area and... why's it moving!?"

"No, Eric, don't freak out." I stated hurriedly but softly, too soft for the effect of my words were not felt and instead the boy scrambled back a few paces before tripping over a log. He fell back, carrying my hand and body along with him before we landed together on the soft foliage.

 

The world so peaceful and light

Seemingly full of potential so bright

You should be safe, you should be well

Never did I think I could find you within hell

 

Despite it all Eric smiled as he held me in his arms. "I would say that I want to hold you here like this forever, only..." His gaze turned back in that direction.

Mine did too as I nodded subtly but fervently. "Now's not the time, the darkness is looking at us." In a scramble I pulled myself up to my feet and tugged at Eric to follow.

"Whoa, it's getting closer - fast!" The boy didn't need to be told twice, instantly he reclaimed his feet and with a speed that far surpassed mine instantly took the lead. But it was no more than twenty meters until he stopped again.

"Eric, what are you...?"

"I can see it, or them... Not clearly but I know there's something ahead because all this time the mist keeps getting thicker, whiter and those things just stand out darker. There really is something unnatural going on."

 

Through violent fire I search

Beneath the world's icy perch

I don't see you now, I don't see you yet

But I will find you when the world pays its debt

 

Looking past him I ascertained that he was right, there were another two shades directly where we were heading. He was beginning to see them, just as I finally could perceive my attackers that night here when I lost Bethanie. Ariel had found me, had told me that that meant I could have had potential so, did the fact that Eric was seeing now meant he had the same sad fate roughly drawn? Or was it just another of the girl's fabrications, a mere tool to make anyone feel important when faced with a dark destiny?

Eric tugged me in another direction just as those black shapes altered their straight courses. "You know, Abigail, I'm starting to think that your idea about running away isn't the worst of them."

Finally, I thought, he's beginning to understand me. But why did it have to take this kind of visual stimulus to trigger his belief, one that foretold of so much peril?

 

My flowers ever blooming

Gives rise to a coldness consuming

In ice I am frozen, I am dead

My words now never being said

 

"Stop!" I called, pointing ahead.

"It's getting easier to see it..." he stammered as he changed directions, "but that's... because the brightness keeps increasing. What the hell is all this!?"

"It's the light, the world's light!" I explained hurriedly tugging him before my hand fell limp. "And when the dark feasts it strengthens it. The darkness is hungry, it's chasing us now. It wants our light, but I..." Gaining a calmness my hands slipped away from his. "I can stop it. I can fight, all I need to do is stop running away and face my..."

 

You are like me, in darkness you are lost

In another plain, laced with a different kind of frost

One made first from loneliness and despair

Then transformed to a nothingness so unfair

 

"No!" Eric shouted. "Don't even think about going up against that! We don't know what it is! And we can't even see it, well we couldn't..." He stopped again as he suddenly changed direction. "If everything wasn't so suddenly white..."

"But I can see it." I stated more confidently than I felt. "Eric, there's something that I've been keeping from you but please don't think that it was intentional! It was... because I didn't know how to tell you. Actually, I've been struggling with the how ever since this all happened but seeing is believing, isn't it? I guess I knew that all along you wouldn't be able to understand what was happening to Bethanie and I until you saw it for yourself. So," I turned towards the ensuing black shadows, "here goes, it's time for me to stay and do something about all this bad in the world. It's finally time for me to fight!"

 

But it's far from over, it's far from done

Because soon your return will herald a new sun

Then when you'll return to me

I will whisper sweetly

That I never gave you up

 

"Abigail!" I heard Eric cry as the scene of countless shades advanced and my inner draw into something white suddenly cracked and shattered away into complete darkness. It wasn't until the last high-pitched crystalline pane broke apart that new sounds and a completely disparate image emerged.

"Abigail!" It was Eric's voice again, but ill-defined and blurring into the edges of my new non-reality.

I gasped as I observed a scene that was, though suddenly through the meagre light of human eyes, glorious and shining.  A river glistened out ahead and a walkway leading to it boasted a proud tinny by its side. On the land in front was a small splash pool littered with leaves and then tiles that were cracked and old and yet, despite that, seemed to be so full of life with all its various stains. I gazed in one direction and saw a quaint, though aging, white picket fence and a small house next door. The other side boasted much of the same imagery.

"Abigail!" I heard a voice call out, one that was familiar I was sure but it was an old man's so that had me hesitating. "Did you say that it was only one sugar you wanted?"

Staring at the lake I responded. "Yes, honey, just the one. The doctor said it was best to not indulge in too much."

If I could have gasped I would have, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything out of my own free will, all I could do was exist in the skin I was in, witnessing a scene I was completely unfamiliar with and using a voice that sounded far too deep and shaky to be my own. All I was capable of doing was perceiving as if through someone else's eyes. A someone being addressed with my name.

"Good," the old man grumbled, "because that's how I made it and if you wanted more than you'd have to fix it yourself."

As a teacup was rounded in front of me I accepted it. "You're a cruel husband."

"And a moment ago you were calling me the perfect one, just as I was fixing you a cup of tea."

I turned my head then and smiled at an old man with tanned skin and white hair that showed just a few strands of black. No way!

But I didn't say that, I said something else, possessing much more diction and taking much longer to iterate. "You are, but that varies."

He came to sit by me and after taking a sip of his drink smiled in response. "I hope you don't feel the same way about the life we shared together."

"Of course I do," I replied with a cackled yet lofty voice, "how I feel about you always changes: Sometimes you're cute, sometimes you're boring, sometimes you confuse me, sometimes I even hate you, especially when I was giving birth to our three children!"

The old man's eyes glistened as he watched the water morosely. "I hope I haven't disappointed you in any way. I know that you said you never minded but I always remembered how you loved your views, you used to do so much landscape art. So I tried all my life to give you a home with such a spectacular view but by the time I finally got it our children had already moved out of home and it was in the middle of nowhere."

"Darling," I soothed as, after shifting my teacup to my other hand I took his. "You know this already, no view would have ever been perfect without you in it. So all this, it's beautiful and even though it's way out of the city and even though we couldn't bring our kids up in it I absolutely adore it. But it's not the river I adore, or that charming white picket fence, but you and me, together in it! Drinking a cup of tea that my sometimes perfect, but always loved, husband makes me."

The old man smiled. "You've always done that, seen the brighter side of things."

"Of course! It was the only way I could survive childbirth - knowing that my three gremlins were on the other side!"

His hands shook as he took another sip. After a deep exaggerated breath he seemed to delve into memory. "But that was a shock for you - when you had two births for the price of one! You managed so well, remarkably calm, but then when the doctor told you Susie had company you never looked so angry before!"

"Well the doctors lied to me!" I defended myself. "They said I was only meant to have one baby, not twins! Who wouldn't be angry? I was hardly prepared! We didn't have a second crib or pram or car-seat or anything!"

The old man struggled to keep his eyes open with the lowering sun. "Your brother and sister were thrilled though, so was Oliver, he was certainly excited for two little siblings for the price of one!"

We both drank our tea in nostalgic silence until the old man began coughing.

"Honey," I giggled. "did that go through the wrong pipe?"

The man frowned as he held his hand up to his chest and continued to struggle. "I guess so... sweet-heart." He tried to smile until his hands jerked so roughly that the teacup was violently thrown to the pool-side tiles.

"Honey!" I cried. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

The man thumped at his chest as he both coughed and wheezed.

"You're choking! Well, maybe I should whack you on the back?"

He pulled out a strained hand in front me and shook his head. "No, it's not that...." He managed through splutters. "It's in my chest, it's... so heavy!"

"No! No, it can't be!" I shouted in panic.

The man looked at me with tired yet terrified eyes. "I... think it might be."

"Don't worry! We'll get you to a hospital in time!" I ran off the porch as fast as I could but with my wobbly legs almost fell down twice on the way and instantly lost my breath. When I finally picked up a small mobile phone I dialled in the emergency number immediately.

"Hello, operator? Ambulance, now! My husband, I think... I think he's undergoing cardiac arrest!"

The woman on the line assured me that they had landmarked my GPS and were sending out an emergency crew right away. She spoke fast so I didn't pick up every word but I knew enough of what she was saying, it was that we were very far from the city so arrival will take a few minutes but that if I knew any CPR that I should begin it immediately.

"CPR?" I repeated as I stared at my arthritic hands.

"Whatever you can do, try to, but don't exert yourself too much. In the very least get him to lie down. Try to calm him and take deep breaths. Obviously, if you have a defibrillator installed in your home use that first thing."

"Defibrill-a-bor-whats? Are they those machines they have in shopping centres to save people's lives?"

"That's okay, ma'am, it appears you don't have one. We have your location now so I'll forward you to first aid support. Now, head back to your husband and simply place the phone on speaker and follow the prompts. And ma'am, be brave, you can get through this."

I nodded forgetting that she couldn't see me. Then I ran back out by the pool where the old man had slinked off his chair and laid on his back motionless. I rounded the chair quickly, ignoring the pain in my knees before slamming awkwardly on the hard tiles. There I wept, broken ceramic from the fallen teacup cutting my hand as tears fell atop his stiff skin. All the while his eyes kept staring, deep brown eyes staring outward as if seeing some far off scene.

Never once did they focus, never once did they blink.

"No!" I screamed as I placed my feeble distorted hands on top of his chest and began to thump, but my effort may as well have been useless for the force they erected only served to tear into my over-sized knuckles.

"My love!" I screamed again. "Don't leave me! Eric!"

As I heard my old self cry the scene shattered and suddenly I was in a plain of blackness beneath a sky absent of light.

"Wow!" A voice called out behind me. "You were really synchronising with your other self there. I guess that's not so surprising, it was a wonderful life, or is... Depending from which point you look at it."

I turned around behind me and perceived Dorothy standing twenty metres away on top of the same nothingness, but she wasn't entirely her there, she was different. It was her hair, it was brown, so too were her eyes, but that wasn't all, I was sure of it but I didn't know how to pin-point anything else. But for the time being those two stark contrasts were enough to satisfy my curiously amidst my hatred.

"What did you!? What was that? Eric, he... he...!" I stammered remembering the old man's deep brown eyes staring into an empty sky.

Dorothy raised her eyebrows as if bewildered. "You serious? You're upset with me? After what I showed you!?"

With a tremble I brought my hand up to block out the mental images but all I saw there was blood on a wrinkled arthritic hand.

"You killed him... You killed Eric!"

Dorothy turned her head to the side as if to give an invisible companion a can-you-get-a-load-this look. "No..." She explained as if it was obvious. "I showed you your perfect life with that kid. I think you should be thanking me right about now, I kind of did you an act of kindness there."

"What!?" My voice, my whole body shook. "Act of kindness!? But you showed me his death!"

Dorothy with brown hair scoffed. "I showed you the happy ending you two could have had, you ungrateful little twat! I showed you how long you could have lived together, the home you retired into, that darling white picket fence. A bloody waterfront view and you're complaining to me how it ended?" Anger flashed and her eyes returned to silver. "Don't you know how many people wish they could just witness a better outcome? Don't you understand the gift I gave you? You got to see your future with him before it became impossible! Before your witnessing his death closed all doors to a life in which he still exists in!"

"A future where he dies..." I was still quivering. "Is no future I ever want to see!"

"No future, not even one where you can hold his hand for the last time? Not even one where you get to tell him that you love him? So ungrateful. You're still capable of witnessing the man you love in future universes because your consciousness allows him to be alive anywhere. I gave you a precious gift, you know, a look into a life you two could have shared together, but you not only reject it you're actually angry at me for it!" As she roared brown and silver melded in her hair. "Do you know how many I would kill for a chance like that!?"

On black floor I took a step back. "A boy, you were in love... What are you complaining to me for? If you miss him so much can't you just create a weird illusion for yourself and see him!?"

"You don't think I've done that, a thousand times over already?" Her voice was so different to how I ever heard it. Usually it was erratic, crazily happy, scarily so, but here it worse for in nothingness it seemed to be in its purest form - absolute rage. "I've seen our past together countless times and I've seen his death more than I've lived days on this earth. But always he is fated to die because I learnt one unyielding fact - the observer can never witness anything it knows to be false. That's why I hate you, Abigail, and that's why I take pity on you, because I can see all the possible futures that span from this time line."

"Wait!" My voice trembled but this time it had lost its volume. With a swallow I continued. "I don't really understand what you're saying but... I think it's bad. I... Are..." Frowning and taking a deep breath I hurried it out. "Nothing bad's about to happen, is it!?"

A smile that seemed familiar to Dorothy re-etched itself on her features. "Of course it is, you're the perfect little girl that has friends and a boyfriend that loves her so much. Sure, you have a better family than I had, but my dad was pretty special all on his own. Then when the Hunter family took me in I felt like I had another whole family! You're life is more perfect than mine, I'll give you that, but mine was perfect for me. I had my music, I was the lead singer in a band! A boyfriend, good grades, yeah, I rocked Golden Heights in a number of ways, not that you'd remember. Then friends that told me they would fight to the ends of the Earth with me betrayed me when I needed them most. Sunshine turned to shit in a minute."

"You had a terrible past happen to you, I know! Pearl told me, before..." My voice trailed off before I assumed my stance. "She told me about your tragedy but also told me that she never really gave up on you, she always wanted to keep being your friend, no matter what you became!"

Dorothy leered at me before throwing her head back in laughter. When she finally pulled it back it was with platinum strands framing her face. "That's hilarious! She pretended to care about me? Despite what I became? What a golden backstabber!"

I stepped back some more when I recognised the crazed eye look. "It's not too late, Dorothy! We can all still be friends! If we work together then I just know that we can stop this darkness invading our world and stop the chrysalis!"

"NO!" Her voice boomed so loud and deep it seemed to originate from all points around me. Then blue ice spread over the unseen ground beneath her feet. Over it she smiled. "I saw her many fates before it was finally decided in this world. So, although I wanted to kill her myself I became satisfied with seeing her die many times by my hand. More times she was killed by those other daevas," she rolled her eyes, "then it turned out she died in one of the heroic ways, how boring. But, at least she died, I was glad to see the universe where she still lived didn't come to pass."

"Whoa... What? What are you saying?" I narrowed my eyes as I struggled with the weight of her words. "Not only can you create illusions to see the past but you can create many into the future?"

Dorothy cracked up with laughter. "Really? Is that all you've learnt by now? That's pathetic!"

"When you showed me my life with Eric, where he died as an old man, that was an illusion, right?" A quiver slipped into my voice.

"I'm sure my old gal-pals would have told you by now, Pearl, before she carked it, or Lara because she's a control freak. But you still seem very confused so I'll indulge your small mind." She narrowed her eyes. "I thought I saw myself in you, which was why I pitied you but that's so off the mark when I realise how stupid you are!"

"I'm not stupid." I stated resolutely. "But I don't give up on people. That's something we obviously don't share in common!"

Silver eyes flashed in amusement. "That's it, that's why I hate you. You remind me of my naivety - damn it!" Suddenly blue ice spires erected all through the black floor, a few so close I could feel the coolness from their proximity, but none obscured the common paths our eyes laid towards one-another.

"That's why I frickin' pity you. That's why... I don't want to kill you..."

I breathed for a few seconds as I understood her words. "Hang on! If you don't mean to kill me then what's this all about? Why have you locked me up in your weird world? Why did you show me such a painful illusion!?"

The girl's smile fell to disdain. "Because, I wanted you to have a chance of witnessing what could have been before it was too late. Before you lost the ability to see futures of him like me."

"Futures?" I repeated with dread. "Okay, so there's many possible outcomes and so many possible futures, right?" I swallowed again. "So, since there's many possibilities then why did you show me just one? I mean, they're all just as likely to happen!"

The silver haired girl smiled widely. "Because, don't you get it, Abigail? Worlds spring off from worlds. Timelines if you will, all stretching into endless possibilities. Some have life, some have emptiness, some have the endearing romance between Abigail Darling and Eric Rhodes, numerous possibilities branching off single moments of chance. There are many in which we exist but within each there are differences. Like, for example, Noein never came to our world and daevas were never created. That led to a very different outcome of circumstances! Not saying it's better, some were, some weren't. But there were also many worlds that branched off as existence was struggling to form recognition! Many and most failed to produce anything that even resembled life, but one that came close was the brother world, Noein. It struggled against its fate for billions of years. It wants nothing more than to recognise reality, to be established within an existence. It wants what we all do, it wants to become part of a perfect world."

"The world of darkness, the world of... Noein, is just a... possible future?" I repeated, my head spinning through the illuminated blue and dense black.

"I guess I was like that..." Dorothy muttered with aversion. "I fought reality..." She laughed. "Until I realised it was futile. Until I realised my power only allowed me to witness, never change and I could never know which future was going to be taken. Too many dimensions affecting one another..."

I closed my eyes hard and reopened them but all the while I felt the blue penetrate coldly inside. "Dorothy, why did you show me that image? Why show me... an end where Eric and I are both old?"

"Well because, Darling," She smiled knowingly. "It was the last time you would be capable of perceiving it."

"W...Why?" I stammered. "Why the last?"

She looked me up and down as if with pity. "The amount of worlds out there far exceed the stars in the sky but having said that, at certain points the outcome becomes finite. Time doesn't like to shift at a whim, it only selects certain moments to do it. Lots of moments, mind you, but not quite to the degree of infinity. So there are triggers that make it branch and involve everyone and everything into multiple seemingly endless realities. A quantity so vast it is similar to infinity, but just short, otherwise no world would be here. If it did branch to that extreme then creation would just fold back in on itself. So, with that fundamental lining the field we also know that our futures are finite. It's a large number but once you get closer to the divergence then that slims down and it narrows into a perceivable variance. Well now then, Abigail, do you understand why I showed you that timeline out of the kindness of my heart?"

"You say..." I uttered. "That futures end up being finite, so that means that the possibilities end at some point, at the point right before the split? So at that point, no matter what you do there can only be so many outcomes because... they all have to fall into the realm of possibility, right? So, when you live in a finite world then endless probability ends up being finite too? Like if you roll a dice you only have... six outcomes."

"That's right, after a certain action only so many reactions may occur. That means that as you get closer to the action you suddenly reveal all possible futures. So now can you understand why I took pity on someone so pathetically hopeless as you!?"

I gasped as realisation finally hit home and backed right up so that an icy spire became my cold wall.

Dorothy erupted with laughter, as if she simply could not help herself. But she did eventually sober, with a strain to be sure as that wide smile never completely fell. "Finally! You understand! You understand all the possible numbers that your dice can throw!"

"At any given point I have many futures..." I said thoughtfully. "But they're limited in their outcome. I throw a die there's six, if I toss a coin there's only two which means that all my futures can be mapped along those outcomes."

Dorothy, still with a mouth too wide, bobbed her head back and forth between her shining blue spires. "Get to the good part already!"

"The number of possibilities of any moment are finite, but there are so many that they would appear to be infinity, but they all have to end at some point, don't they? Considering that they all have to behave within the laws of possibility. That's why only six outcomes are possible with a die, why only two outcomes can come with a coin toss. There's lots of moments but there's not really that many possibilities. It only looks that way when you add the moments to the possibilities but in actuality..."

"Yes, yes!" Dorothy jutted in excitedly.

"You can see all the possibilities resulting from a moment. That means you can see every possible future..."

"It's more like a hundred for the future that I'm talking about for you but still they all have only two outcomes..."

"So one is where we get to have that long life together." I muttered as the chill of my surroundings finally entered my bones. "But the other is where it is cut off from this point."

"No," she corrected. "There are just two outcomes here but none lead to that life you just saw. That's why I showed you it, because it was the last time you would be capable of seeing a world where he exists in a future perspective."

"If... our life together isn't possible then... the two possibilities...?"

"Is down to just who will survive the night, you or him?" Dorothy erupted with laughter, as if she barely managed to quell it all that time.

It took me a moment to respond before hope shot through me. "It doesn't matter whatever outcome you've seen because I only know Eric as alive so that means any reality that has him in it can exist for me!"

"Fool!" She retorted immediately. "You can perceive him because you don't know him as dead, but as soon as you do there's no bringing him back because those timelines where he still exists will be shut to you forever. The observer can only see what they know to be truth."

"No!" I refuted. "I saw him as an old man, that makes it still possible - it's still a timeline that can exist!"

"Yeah you can see it, but nothing else." The blue spires seemed to subtly grow in size all around me. "What you saw has nothing to do with the timeline you exist in anymore. It's closed off from you - finito! It was something possible, a time back, along a line that didn't follow the daeva course. I saw it because I traced you through earlier lines and followed ones that existed if you had never been involved in any of this. I can only see images where the people involved exist in this world, which was why I couldn't show you your would-be family, because all lines in this world don't give rise to their being. But I showed you the end, where you lived a full life with your man and despite my generosity you raised a nasty tone with me." Enmity was thick in her voice.

"You followed a past time-line to reach the world where Eric and I lived together to an old age?" I asked even though I desperately wanted to flee, even if it was into nothingness. "None of the possibilities from this time-line reach that outcome?"

Dorothy, smiling, rolled her eyes. "Man, how many times do I have to tell you!? No, it's not possible because you, and or slash, Eric die at every possible timeline that spans from here! It's not two, it's not six like an easy dice cube, it's more like a hundred but I skimmed through them all. I mean, how can you not when you read skip to the end of story this juicy!?"

"Oh, God..." I murmured.

"God," Dorothy corrected, "doesn't exist. Here we only have Gaia, the bitch that destroys progress."

"Eric or me... One of us are destined to die today."

Chapter 29

 

Bethanie

 

I passed through a strip of trees where upon emerging the other side two girls battled a massive black beast. The white face on top had its mouth wide open as if to scream and just then the ground beneath my feet quaked.

I ran forwards, past two golf buggies and a group of seven golfers unconscious by the teeing ground. With a long jump I leapt over a narrow river and five meters later landed straight into a large bunker. Sand whooshed into the air around me before I kicked back and lit my feet up with white fire again. A second later I was roaring as my claymore sliced into the golden floor like butter and a black skinny arm was cut away.

"Nice of you to finally join the party." Rebecca welcomed as she likewise hacked away at any smaller exposed limbs where they soon turned to crystals.

"Well you're just in time to lay the plan into action." Lara advised. "Bethanie, stay down here, Rebecca, it's time for you to fly."

As instructed I hacked left and right at the asura's exposed arms before falling back and narrowly dodging its big ones. I had a long blade, seven feet in length but the asura's limbs, especially the wide ones, could stretch twice that distance in just a fraction of a second. So it was up to me to hack at it and claim its attention. My long sword meant I could get at it with a bit of distance and using that space I could evade just before receiving a pummelling which paved the way for the other two.

Rebecca jumped, landed in the air and bounced higher still. She appeared to be climbing the sky, finding her footholds on nought but gaseous molecules, but in reality she was balancing atop a network of faint strings. Ascending she dashed between lines quickly, missing black hungry limbs jutting out from the higher levels. At one point, however, Rebecca missed her intended string, but down on the ground Lara caught sight of the misstep and with a delicate flick of her wrists the brunette shifted the positioning of the maze atop. A bare moment later Rebecca's foot found the almost invisible wire and reclaimed her composure before lifting off and flying higher.

At one point I lost my footing too as in a spot the sand rose up surprisingly higher and gobbled my black leather mary-jane shoe. Using aura to shoot from my foot I tore it free where under a black hand was exposed. I made to dash away but the hinder proved to delay me too long as a black spear pierced through my right shoulder. It had me in the air as the spike kept growing and with it pushing me backwards. Soon I was off the bunker and was almost instantly slammed down onto the green. I pulled myself to my feet and immediately started running back to the asura but it was too late, its attention was no longer divided as its renewed face of anger turned on Rebecca.

Ebony arms were shooting out through the upper levels Rebecca had reached but in a faint moment the quantity of them increased from ten to twenty. The black-haired girl had less places to go with the ten lines being quickly blocked by the vicious claws. Lara on the ground kept trying to reroute their positions in the hopes of giving the girl atop a reprieve, but the asura was onto the game, for it became evident that it had just become aware of the position of every line. It reached its arms out and with sharp sides cleaved through the strings. Five were broken at once and as they fell to the ground the limp wires shone white.

Jumping back into the pit I swung straight for the creature's belly and opened up a new crystalline mouth. Arms shot for me but I sidestepped these and re-energised the air with sand. More arms reached out, all forming spears within a moment, but all were thin, frail and far from invested in me. They were enough to keep me busy though as I sliced and dodged but all the while the real battle had relocated up into the air.

Out from the corner of my vision I saw Rebecca leaping from string to string, just staying ahead of the next volatile attack, and all the while retreating to the new lines sprouting behind her. From behind me I heard Lara grunting and wincing as she struggled to create these new platforms in time, but I also heard wheezing, as if she was getting very tired.

Then it happened, a big meter wide fist sprouted from higher up on the monstrosity and, like a battering ram, bashed Rebecca from the side. As she sailed through the air there was a terrifying crunch. I wanted to close my eyes, hide myself from the horrible fate that was about to ensue but I couldn't help but watch with horror as she arced limply towards the far green. She soared first high and fast, then slow and almost still, before falling back down again fast. She travelled far, at least twenty meters in distance before that all came to an end.

I gasped in both shock but also relief as I witnessed the red coil wrap about the girl. Four feet suspended in the air a snake like body reached out and claimed hold of the teen and with its flexible form cushioned the finale to the daeva's flight.

"Damn it!" Vanessa snarled, fiery whip extending toward Rebecca's suspended body. "What the hell am I doing saving the girl that pisses me off? I must be retarded!"

"Vanessa!" Lara smiled. "You came!"

"Yeah," She rolled her eyes as she lowered Rebecca's stiff form to the ground. "I did just say that I'm retarded."

Then I saw black to the side of my vision and straight after dodging it I recognised the meter and a half diameter of leg that had just tried stomping on me. "Yeah okay, but I think we have more pressing matters than Vanessa's intelligence right now!"

Backing away the asura made another stomp, splashing golden freckles through the scene, then I backed away again and again from no fewer than ten pounding feet. The last of which followed me onto the green where it made a meter long indent that would have filled big-foot with fear at the sight of it.

"What the hell is this thing?" Vanessa's voice murmured behind me.

"It doesn't matter what it is." Lara reported. "Because soon it'll be no more than crystal dust!"

Another foot barely missed me but since I was so close I flew my blade lengthways at it, severing the appendage from its body. That made the empty ankle collapse amongst crystals on top of the lush green ground. However, almost at the instant it made contact with the terrain the black limb shivered and created a new foot right there. Identical to the last the asura it walked on unperturbed as if the shiny dust around me was no more than decoration.

"Let me sort this out!" Vanessa's voice proclaimed before the girl soared into my vision and whirled her whip across. Twenty centimetres from the ground the red coil soared laterally before colliding against ankle upon ankle. It was only then I realised how incredibly long her whip was, totalling no less than ten meters in length and covering the entire width of the dark being. Its foundation wrenched backwards the phantom's body slumped forwards and just before colliding front on with the ground its face bore a mask of sorrow. Once flat on the ground it was still for the barest of moments which the red-head used to sail her external tongue and wrap itself around that exposed neck.

I ran forwards for it, eyes intent on the space beneath that melancholic mask but before I could carry out the intended separation I felt a rushing through the very centre of me. Paralysed my eyes wandered down to my chest where through the very centre protruded a long demonoid spike fifteen centimetres in diameter.

It leaked a shade connected to itself. I realised too late. And because I was so busy with the battle I never realised the silent assassin approaching behind me.

"No..." I murmured before a red liquid spilled from my mouth.

Wanly I looked about the scene. I was about to call out for help but finding the metallic flavour in my mouth I managed to emit no more than a gurgle. So then all I did then was perceive my surroundings. Vanessa's red curls flying around her as she wrestled the masked beast head. Lara erect new strings that collapsed from all sides straight into the massive body. Then a wave of ebony hair that parted from in front of my vision just in time to reveal a girl cleave through the fallen being. Left, then right she swung and then all movement ceased. All but for a solid rounded object that flew into the air that first showed black before rotating to reveal white. It cracked, the darkness solidified and shattered all around and behind it. Within moments the house-sized beast shimmered into nothing but as the blackness from the head collapsed away the white remained. And without even a rustle an ivory mask of with red-streaked tears fell atop the short-cut grass.

Then, with the last image of my ill-defined sight, I perceived the narrow, sharp and long spire within me shatter before everything fell to blackness.

I was gone, fading into oblivion but strangely I still heard things. Sound and the desperate emotions of someone who cared.

"Bethanie! Damn it, wake up! You're not dead yet - you're not!"

My eyes opened where astonishingly life seemed to continue in front of me. The golf field stretched many meters in front but to the sides it was caved in by dense trees. Then there was a red-head girl smirking proudly and another one with black hair who bore a smaller one. Then there was a brunette girl right in front of me who was grasping my shoulders. I thought she was holding me upright until she exhaled in relief and allowed her hands to fall by her sides.

"Christ, Bethanie! That was a close call!" Lara cried as a giggle entered her voice. "That was close for all of us but we managed, we won!"

I had to blink a couple of times and as I did I noticed the senior's unblemished skin. "You're crystals, they're all gone! That's great, we won!" I cheered but then girl only fell to a frown with my enthusiasm.

"We're alive, but..." She trailed off as her eyes fell upon my chest with concern.

I followed the gaze down and discovered flower upon flower blooming right beneath my chin. To the left I saw the ebony foliage travel right across to my wrist and to the right I saw a perfect reflection. Then down, beneath my school skirt more black beauties bloomed, all gorgeous in design, all calamitous in their herald.

"What... what's the deal with all this...?" I murmured as small pin-pricks were issued from just about every inch of my skin.

"I'm afraid..." Lara turned her unbesmirched expression aside. "That you almost died."

"But... but these crystals!" I stammered as my eyes flickered over to the empty ground where our foe had just lurked. "They shouldn't exist if we destroyed the darkness that created them, right!?"

Lara winced and just opened her mouth before Vanessa excalimed almost happily. "My... bloody... God! Did you see yourself just now? You were frickin' speared by that shade minion - your heart was gouged through!" Vanessa walked towards me shaking her head in awe. "I can't believe that you're not dead!"

I looked back down and this time registered that the dark crystalline flowers did not just reach out from the V of my blouse, but also from the numerous red stained edges of my once white shirt.  I staggered back a few steps before gaining the courage to contact one of many firm rocks and there, upon its contact, I received a chill possessing a pervasive quality.

A hand quickly grasped mine away from the terrifying touch. "It's okay," Lara counselled. "You're not all crystal yet."

"But you were almost!" Vanessa shouted. "As soon as that asura-shade thing got you they were growing like... well, not weeds, they were faster than that! It was more like someone took to a paintbrush with you and went gun-hoe!"

Then Rebecca made her stiff appraisal in conjunction. "Another second with that shade arm in you and you most certainly would have chrysalised."

"You killed it..." I frowned. "And that meant I was saved just in time, right? But then... why didn't these crystals erase?" I couldn't help the quiver in my voice.

Vanessa provided the answer. "Because you weren't involved in delivering the final blow. It is a cruel game, isn't it? That even though you fought it any crystals you received don't disappear with the death of the phantom that made them. And that's, because you didn't put its existence to an end yourself."

Observing the poisonous foliage on me I murmured shakily. "But I still don't understand, I helped to destroy it. I did! I was a part of killing it!"

"You don't believe that." Rebecca stated evenly. "Deep down inside it had defeated you, it was killing you and as you were aware of your life passing away the darkness grew rampant through you. The flowers stopped spreading when the asura was killed and your body was allowed to heal itself, but in your heart you knew that you were beaten by it. That's why the darkness remains within you."

"Oh..." I breathed. "So because I was almost killed by that thing my body won't reject the scars it leaves."

Then Lara grasped my hand. "It almost killed all of us, Bethanie."

I nodded. "But I couldn't beat it, if it weren't for the three of you working together then it would have surely killed me. I get it now, these crystals I carry are because my soul lost in the battle against darkness."

"The battle maybe, but not the war. You're not all crystal yet." Lara assured. "But I am afraid that the amount of crystals you have puts you in great risk. If you're overwhelmed by darkness now..." She trailed off but Vanessa finished it off.

"Then you'll chrysalise and disappear!"

Rebecca finished the thread. "Then it will all come down to what memory you leave behind."

My eyebrows furrowed deeper and I was about to ask her what she meant until clapping resounded over the top of the bare grounds. We all turned at once and viewed a platinum-haired young man walking by the distant putting hole and there he shone a resplendent pop-youth smile.

"You killed it!" Raziel shouted happily. "I knew you'd get it eventually. I mean, considering this asura was the first taste of the many to come I knew you'd be competent enough to eradicate it between you lux girls. Though..." He added with mock regret. "I didn't think any would have actually been beaten by it. Poor Pearl... she had at least another couple of months before those wondrous flowers would have taken full bloom."

"Damn you!" Lara roared as she left me to speed along the golf straight. Flicking her fingers out ahead strings shot through the remainder space swiftly but just as they appeared to cut into the boy he was gone from there and in an instant was tsking only meters away.

"You of all people, Lara, should know that a move like that is useless. Your ersoreavers are useless against me considering I was the one that provided the seed to their births..." Raziel's speech ceased, open-mouthed he turned his gaze to his torso where, right through the centre of him was a violet sword.

At its other side was Rebecca as she focused on forcing the steel in a twisting motion. This was stopped however as Raziel, with humoured eyebrows raised, gripped the blade with one hand. There he clenched just as the erosreaver suddenly turned to white dust.

"I don't appreciate being interrupted." He stated as an invisible force knocked Rebecca hard and caused her to crash into the grass.

Raziel suddenly changed his location again as instantly he was transported meagre feet from Lara. "I suggest..."He stated calmly."That you use your weapons on something you can actually damage. Like for instance, the two hundred shades running rampant atop Skyward Mountain."

"No way!" Vanessa cried. "You gotta be bluffing. Two hundred? No tear can allow so many to come through so fast!"

"Not a normal tear," Rebecca groaned as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. "They're only large enough to allow one shade through every few minutes, but if it was stretched to the size of a house then it wouldn't even take an hour to allow so many through."

"Damn it!" Lara shouted angrily. "So that's what your plan was, Raziel, to distract us from the mountain so you could allow your horde of minions time to orientate before sucking the souls from people!"

"You got me!" The young man smiled as if caught in the midst of some small prank. "Yeah, I invited the asura first in order to give you girls something to play with whilst my other friends wriggled their way inside. And now the Noes have had more than enough time to orientate themselves to this new world and are sucking the life from it as we speak. And I tell you, they like the flavour Gaia has to offer."

"Bastard!" Lara exclaimed.

I gasped. "Does that mean... that aura is being stolen?"

Vanessa was shaking next to me. "And it won't just be any kind of aura, it'll be the richest stuff, won't it, Raziel!? And I bet your little lap-dogs will be feasting with the dark scum!"

"The richest stuff...?" I murmured. "But that's... that's people, right? That's their souls!"

Raziel merely chuckled to our emotional display.

"Damn it!" Lara growled. "Why do you do it? Why do you keep focusing on stealing aura from Skyward Mountain?"

But before he could answer Rebecca asked something herself. "I think the real question is, why are you telling us this when you know we'll only run back up there to destroy those shades?"

Raziel grinned as if impressed. "Well that true, but considering their numbers I believe even if you do manage to kill most of my Noes that they'll still be able to draw on plenty of aura. Actually, they may draw on a little too much too quickly. If you have a look at the sky up there," he indicated back up towards the mountain, "then you'll notice the storm clouds brewing. When aura is drained rapidly Gaia shifts the surrounding aura to replace the lost portion as you can see by the low pressure system developing."

"You're warning us about a storm?" Lara asked with disbelief. "Since when did you start caring about this world's environment?"

"Oh, I don't. Trust me, by the time I'm done the environment will have a very appearance. But the Noes, the storm, it's all gone a little too strong too fast and it has put one being that I care about in great risk."

"What?" Vanessa scoffed. "One of your china dolls are scared of a little thunder and lightning?"

"One of my dolls," he smirked, "is about to die."

"And why should we care?"

Silver locked onto me. "Because this doll is called Abigail Darling."

"No..." I murmured.

Rebecca asked, "Again, why tell us this? Why do you care about her fate so much?"

"I care about all my daeva girls, no matter their light and dark affiliations."

"Liar!" Lara yelled, impassioned. "You don't care! You don't, not when so many of have disappeared, not when so many of us have suffered! You let that asura into our world that killed Pearl. You don't care, you're nothing but a monster!"

Raziel's smile never once dropped from his pale face. "Abigail is special, she has a role to play, just like all of you and I can't have her disappearing just yet."

Vanessa snarled, "And what makes Polly Pocket so special, huh!?"

Again silver eyes locked into my own. "Because her existence will lead to the blossoming of the fourth daeva-nox. Because through her the world's recreation may begin, but in order for that to occur she must be saved from her fated death."

Chapter 30

 

Abigail

 

Black cracked right before the scene shattered and fell to colours that had recently become normal to me. Bright auras of the world were revealed, greens, browns, yellows, ambers and purples, all incredibly chromatic once more. I gasped as I recognised the scene ahead of my hands that were firmly clenched around a horizontal metallic bar. On the side of the barrier rose the Serene Coast, its towers now lit up in front of the night sky.

"Abigail, what is it? Who are you calling out to?"

I turned across and found Eric grasping my shoulders, his deep brown eyes full of concern.

I panned around to the road behind, the opposite park and the ominous forest I had just been in. Though the blue painted scene and threatening shades seemed to have disappeared I could not shake the terrible consternation in my heart.

"How...?" I asked, my voice trembling. "How did we get back here?"

His eyes widened. "You don't know?"

Meekly I shook my head.

Eric took a deep breath. "You did seem like you could have been sleep walking... After a few minutes you became really upset all of a sudden and ran off. I followed you but you were so fast that I lost sight of you. Finally I found you here, you seemed like you were talking to someone ahead of you but I couldn't hear what you were saying. It wasn't until I grabbed your shoulders that you came to. Abigail..."

"And the shades!" I interrupted quickly. "I mean... the dark patches. They just went away!?"

"Dark patches? Yeah I guess it was kind of dark back there..."

"That blackness that stood out in front of all that light, you were able to see them!"

Eric merely shook his head. "It was dark but... there was nothing strange about it. There was just a girl who was singing..."

"You don't remember the monsters chasing us!?"

"Abigail, I think this may have all been part of your sleep-walking."

"Oh," I responded slowly. "I understand now..."

It was just like Lara told us, if regular people saw anything that linked to Noein they would forget it almost instantly. People without potential weren't incapable of seeing the light and dark, they just wouldn't be able to retain memory of it, just as Eric had forgotten now.

"Good." He smiled. "Well then, don't you think it's time we get you home now? I don't want to get in trouble from your parents for having you out after dark."

I started to smile but failed as soon as Dorothy's message returned to my thoughts. Looking around I saw no immediate sign of danger, no way could I imagine any threat to either Eric or myself so then I wondered whether she really was telling the truth. I didn't know Dorothy for too long but I knew enough that she seemed to enjoy playing with people's minds so maybe this was just another game to her, a cruel one where her lies watch me writhe with apprehension. But truth or not the chance of peril was there and I was not about to take her omen lightly.

I nodded. "Yes, home is a good idea. I think as soon as we're under shelter then we'll be safe. Actually, we should get there right away! It is way too dark! Let's call my Mum to come pick us up!" Quickly I rounded the back of Eric and tore into my bag on his shoulder.

"Hey, what...?"

"Ah-huh!" I cried as I pulled out my mobile phone and put the speed dial onto my mother but received only a rude beep.

"No service, hey?" Eric analysed my frustration. "Well there usually isn't all the way up here. It's not like there's any homes nearby, but don't stress, I guarantee that after ten minutes down the mountain we'll pick up a signal. I get that you feel a bit awkward out so late with me..." He grasped my hand with a weak grin as he drew me down the road.

"Eric, it's not that. It's just I'm scared that something bad might happen..."

"You don't trust me to protect you, I get it."

"No, of course I do but what if something comes and you can't fight it all alone, then what!?"

Amusement flashed in his eyes. "Well, I guess I'll have to rely on my adorable sidekick to come kick some arse!"

Gasping I realised that he was right, in a very good way. Maybe I did have to sacrifice myself to save him but that didn't necessarily mean I would be gone, just that a part of me had to die - my human part. Then maybe we both could live, only I would be as a fully-fledged daeva. I considered then the value to Dorothy's words, that they may not have been the omen I perceived them as but a clue. A clue that she was never given that could have led towards the path of saving the one I loved.

Or else could she have been lying the whole time, just like her silver-haired companion, Ariel had been to us from the start.

"Abigail?" Eric prodded after my thoughtful pause.

Turning to him I was finally able to enact a real smile. "You're absolutely right, Eric! If anything comes to threaten you all I have to do is pull out my supernatural potential!"

The boy smirked back. "I feel safer already, but I'd feel even safer if we switched spots. I don't like you being so close to the edge of the road."

I looked to the side where past my feet the road ended and the steep slope began. It wasn't a sheer drop or anything, but steep enough to permit a rough tumble if someone became too distracted during their walk. The real danger with the edge however, was not so much for pedestrians as it was for vehicles. The bitumen continuously curved like any mountain road and since there was no barrier that gave rise to the possibility of taking the turn too sharp and a dangerous fall down. I hadn't heard of it happening here fortunately, but it was still a risk.

I allowed Eric to switch places with me so that whilst my feet trod along the edge of the road his fell atop dirt and leaves.

I smiled as I stared up at the veiled night sky that, to me, was far from black in appearance for the world's energy ran over the top as excited water molecules held up there in stasis, obscuring the stars beyond. I noticed then the deep purples and blues in the clouds' aura to be moving fairly quickly, just as the air was beginning to create a breeze against us.

"You're always looking out for me, aren't you, Eric?" I stated. "You might call me your sidekick but it's you who always protects me and it's you who has never failed."

His fingers interlocked with mine with a warm tingle. "It's not that I don't think you're tough, I think you're very tough, but even so the hero has to look out for his sidekick, it's just the rules."

"You really do? Think I'm tough, I mean?"

"Of course I do, it's not easy taking on other people's problems along with your own. Me, I'm tough, I take on mine and my brother's both but that's all. But you, you don't stop at one or two, or even just at your family, you take on all the emotional burden of everyone and you do it with a smile! Sure, you cry sometimes but I think that you have to if you have any chance of succeeding at what you do."

Despite my fear I giggled then. "You always do that, make me out to be some wonderful person, but really I'm just a teenager who tries to help her friends and family. And with that, I don't think I do such a good job. I care, but I can't do anything more than that. I'm not strong, or really smart. I know that... I have been given potential but even if I can somehow use it for anything I don't think that I'd even be very good at it."

"No, Abigail!" Eric grasped both my shoulders again forcing me to stop. With resolve he responded, "That's not true, you're more than that! You might not be an athlete or get the top marks in all your academic subjects, but you are special in so many ways! And not just your art, though you are pretty amazing at it."

His intensity broke wanly into a smile. "But it's not even that that makes you special, it's this part," And here he placed his hand just under my collarbone to the left. It was above the deep placement of my heart but I knew he purposely rose it higher to avoid any ungentlemanly contact. "This is the part that makes you so amazing, which gives you your amazing talent for art. It's hope, passion, love inside here that sees beauty in things where most people can't. You're sometimes naive but that's not a bad thing because, what that really means, is that you refuse to believe in the bad in people and the terrible hurtful things they can do to one another. That's why I love you, Abigail, that's why I cherish you, because you don't just make works or art, you are a work of art and the greatest one of all!"

It was only when he finished that I realised how heavily I was breathing and also how red my face must have been.

"Oh, Eric..." I gushed. "You are perfect, the perfect boyfriend!"

"But that can change, right? Like the weather?" He smirked but no sooner did he finish his statement that a crack of thunder vibrated through the sky overhead.

We both laughed as we resumed our walking.

"I guess we better hurry up before it starts raining!" I advised.

"Damn, and it was so sunny today. I guess it makes sense, the brightest hottest days are always the ones to be finished with a storm."

Storm, my mind mused over. Like just before I had said we were running into the eye of the storm and here was the calm...

My mobile phone was still clenched in my hand and here I pulled it up again and unlocked it back to life. But to my disquiet it showed no change in the signal strength.

"Probably 'cause of this storm coming." Eric explained as he witnessed my action. "The weather interferes with the towers. We'll probably have to move a little further down before we get into range, I'm sure that won't take long though."

"Eric?" I asked. "How are you so smart? And I don't mean like, intelligence, even though I know you super are! But I mean, how can you look inside someone and just know things about them? How do you know that I'm as good a person as you say I am?"

"Well that one's simple, I learnt it from my brother."

"From Jordan?" I repeated.

He smirked. "Yeah and it's really not all too surprising, especially how smart he was as a toddler. But then, when the disease came the logical... cognitive type of thinking slowed and even backtracked, but there was another part to him that was never affected. And more than that, it actually grew stronger!" He exclaimed excitedly. "You know how you lose one sense and another takes over, well I know it's true for the brain! As Jordan lost his ability to think in academic ways he suddenly became so smart at understanding people! Which is probably why the kids at his special school didn't like him, since most of them struggle in that area but Jordan was more aware than ever. That's not to say he was the life of the party, he stopped being able to talk so well and that frustration made him withdraw somewhat, but that didn't mean he didn't stop viewing the world. When we were out just getting things from the shops he told me everything he saw, things I never even considered, like how the clerk was depressed, the girl behind us in the line was heart-broken, the old person at the counter was sad because her stiff hands were slowing the whole line down. He didn't tell me with any flamboyant words so no one else paid attention, but I understood the whole time how smart he had become."

Eric smiled across at me, his features lighting up from his enigmatic aura amidst the black backdrop behind him. "I realised then that, even though a person doesn't sound smart, doesn't look smart or doesn't do things that appear smart that doesn't mean that they're stupid. Because there's so much intelligence inside someone but sometimes can only be found when you're looking. I learnt that from Jordan but you..." He gave my hand a warm squeeze. "You knew that all along. That's what makes you more special than anyone else. You don't have to be shown the beauty of this world, you already see it."

Tears etched the sides of my vision but I refused to allow them to fall - I surely couldn't cry when I was so happy. "I don't know how you do it, but you, someone so good at school can make me feel so important."

Again Eric stopped as he grazed his free hand up against the side of my face gently. "It's not hard and anyone who doesn't see it are the real fools."

I giggled as I felt a raindrop fall on my nose. "Lucky I got such a smart boyfriend then!"

"Have."

"Huh?" I repeated bewildered.

"You have such a... smart boyfriend." He corrected gently. "Got means you just received something which, I guess if you think about it we haven't been going out too long..."

"Shh..." I placed a finger up against the boy's lips silencing him. "You are such a nerd, but that's what I love about you." Then I leant forward to kiss him and during that wonderful tingling contact my phone slipped from my grasp where it fell to the bitumen with a clatter.

Hastily Eric bent down to pick it up and with relief he presented my phone back to me. "You're lucky, there's no spider-web crack."

"Oh, thank goodness! I only just got this phone. Yes, got! My parents bought it for me so technically that's proper English!"

Eric was smiling ear to ear. "I never said it was wrong but it's so adorable how defensive you became!"

I rolled my eyes, grinning before looking up to the sky overhead. "It's raining now..."

"It is." Eric smiled in response as he held out his hands to catch the drops. A moment later the sky flashed white and the wind picked up before us. Eric's playful expression dropped at once. "A storm is hitting and we're out in the middle of it."

I checked my phone again and again there was no signal. "Darn it! I don't like this!"

"Hey, don't worry, Abigail. Here..." Eric pulled his bag in front and after reaching inside pulled out a grey mound of interwoven cotton and polyester and handed it to me.

"You brought your jumper to school." I observed the linen after accepting it.

"I'm prepared." He smiled. "Go on, use it as an umbrella, can't have those pretty curls of yours going frizzy."

I frowned before I realised the full meaning to his action, he really was protecting me. In just this small measure he was protecting me from the weather.

A cold gale blew from in front of us as a crack of thunder sounded.

"Maybe..." Eric amended. "You should actually wear that."

 "Um, okay." I murmured as I placed the oversized fabric onto me and though it was mainly composed of cotton it seemed to warm me instantly. But my skull on the other hand, that was cooling as the rain began to cascade down atop my head, drenching my once tidy curls.

"You wouldn't happen to have an umbrella in that bag, would you, Merry Poppins?" I teased.

"No... I didn't think it was going to rain today. It wasn't forecasted to so I didn't bring it. But who are you calling Merry Poppins? You're the one with a thousand tubes of paint and what-not in this fifty kilo bag!"

"It's not fifty kilos!" I giggled as I felt my hair become more drenched. "It might be fifteen..."

"For a little girl like you, that's ridiculous." Eric scolded as a lightning bolt bleached the sky white ahead of us. A scant second later thunder boomed so loudly that the trees seemed to shake around us. The wind too had picked up its velocity so that now it had become a gale.

"Goodness, this is really picking up very quickly..." I murmured anxiously. Thick droplets pelted down before I even finished the sentence.

"C'mon, let's hurry." Grasping my hand Eric hurried me into a jog.

"Wait!" I cried. "My art diary is in my bag, I can't let it get wet!"

Eric turned and winked at me. "The bags are lined with a water-resistant material, you're artworks are safe."

"Oh..." That was news to me, but then I did recall that none of my books ever became wet when I was caught out in the rain before, albeit those times having much milder showers than this. "That's good to hear but I really wanna swim home now!"

An echoing crack boomed in the sky ahead almost in the instant that white flashed. Everything was drenched in a matter of moments, the rain hammering loudly on the foliage around us. And my hair certainly had no risk of becoming frizzy, not when it was being pelted down with the voracious water.

Eric turned to me meekly, a drizzle falling from the tip of his nose and amusement in his eyes. "Maybe that's what we should do."

"What, swim?"

"Yeah, it's obviously too dangerous to run!" And jostling out ahead he waded through the falling drops.

I slowed as I watched him move ahead. Only, Eric, I thought, would be capable of amusement in such a dreary scene.

Then thunder and lightning crashed at once, but not the drawn out sort where it was retained to the skies, but an instant violent and deafening snap. That was followed by terribly loud cascades as if an explosion had been set off. Low roars surrounded me, the ground shook in every direction, but high pitched cracks signalled up and across to the very near peak of the mountain.

Instantly I turned across to look at the source of the commotion and with horror realised that Dorothy's omen was proving true for from up there, trees upon trees were breaking apart as they fell atop one another. All sorts were falling down with them, logs, branches, stones as terrified birds shot through the air and flew into the sky. Eric and I however, had no wings that could take us to such a refuge.

"Abigail!" Eric whipped back and through the seven meter gap horror blanketed his face.

He was looking at me, the beautiful boy, concerned about my welfare, but yet had a glimpse at the tree falling steadily for the gap between us. And towards the collision Eric began to run.

"No! Eric, stay away!"

But he didn't hear me, his feet pushed off the ground, at first slowly and then increasing their pace with zeal.

Just then I almost heard Dorothy's voice beside me telling me again what I so desperately did not want to believe.

There are just two outcomes here... you will survive or he, but only one will wake up to see the new morning.

It was all slow motion then as I watched the tree fall. Its very thick trunk was collapsing hard and fast whilst Eric was still running right into its path, his eyes fixated only on me. I called out to him, Stop, no, it's going to hit you! But again that remained unheard, the boy's ears no doubt deafened by the explosion around us.

If I didn't do anything, if I allowed him to keep running towards me, then he was going to be struck by that tree and if Dorothy was right then it was going to play out as one of those outcomes where Eric dies.

"No..." I whispered just as I launched into the fastest sprint my body was capable of. I was running, he was running, we were both heading towards a middle-ground where that destructive tree was falling, neither one of us slowing.

It all happened in moments really so it was only a couple of seconds until we approached one another and there I forcibly pushed Eric away. As he fell back I saw a confused and agonised expression on his face before destruction fell.

Instantly I was transported into a world of darkness, but afar, at someplace reaching ahead was a glowing light.

My erosreaver... I thought as an imagined hand reached out for it. All I needed to do was grab it and then I would awaken as a daeva-lux and be given all the offensive power one possessed but also the healing capabilities. To be saved all I needed to do was connect with it.

But the further I reached the further away that light stretched.

"No..." I whimpered towards it, whether out loud or in my hollow mind I couldn't be certain. "No, come to me. You have to come to me!"

I strained that imagined arm, reached with all my cognitive might, but the light kept receding as its immaculate glow faded.

"You have to come back!" I ordered it. "You're meant to make me awaken, I'm meant to be a daeva!"

But it didn't, it just continued to retreat, as if it didn't want anything to do with me. Then I realised that of course it wouldn't, for I was dying.

Just like that, I either thought or said. Am I really going to die like this? I never even felt the blow. All I know of were his eyes, his terrified eyes as he stared at me.

That light drew further away, so far that it became no more than a pale speck I felt tempted to squint at.

Oh, I get it now. Dorothy really did pity me because she saw this outcome, she saw all of them. And despite seeing the ones where I lived she directed me towards the one where I die because she knew, she knew that this is what I wanted, this is what I preferred. If it had to be an absolute choice between me and Eric she knew what I would have chosen and that was what led me to this place. She knew that I would give my very life to protect the person I cherished most, to who I loved most.

Damn, and I so enjoyed living.

As I stared into my eternal darkness at the distant almost imperceptible light I slowly retracted my imagined hand and smiled.

Only one of us could be saved but knowing that it was him I knew that I could settle easily into whatever existence or non-existence that followed.

As the light ahead finally melted into total blackness I managed just a few last statements that I knew were only transmitted by thought.

So long as you remain in this world then it will be forever beautiful. Live, Eric, nurture your family, your brother. You're capable of so much brilliance. That I know and through your glow I believe that a part of me shall never die.

Good bye, Eric... I love you.  I always have.

Chapter 31

 

Bethanie

 

Dark descended quickly, inordinately quickly, as if some cruel hand of fate was leading us to doom all the faster. The storm that descended meagre minutes after sunset seemed a testament to that. Though rain pattered heavily on my school uniform, though my every footstep seemed to land in puddle or mud, though the scene ahead was so thick with falling water that I could scarcely see a meter ahead, I did not falter, I did not slow, I had to reach there in time. I had to save Abigail.

I was alone in my mission, the other girls having run back up the mountain as I had but in all different directions. Lara had told me that they couldn't hold Abigail as a priority, not when hundreds of shades were released across Skyward Mountain and draining the souls of its people. If they focused on just one girl then countless others would die in her place. Lara told me that she understood my need to protect my friend and urged me to go find her. To do it quickly and then join the hunt to clear through the shades. It would be of a great benefit for me if I could eliminate some as soon as possible.

The other two girls were not in same agreement, Vanessa simply cursed, her opinion one of confusion, Rebecca however, she was against me looking to save Abigail. If Abigail's death meant that the end of the world could be stopped then we should let it happen. Fortunately Lara was on my side, she held the belief that Abigail's death would end only one of Raziel's plans and he would think of another method. And in addition to that, she was also a person, someone who was good and still connected to the light so that meant she was worth saving regardless of its consequences.

Fists, composed of black glass, clenched by my sides as I ran. It was surprising that I could still move my body with relative ease given how much of the stiff foliage that covered it, but it appeared that the way they clung to me was not too different from chain mail where they both linked up and through my skin to one another. It was gorgeous artwork, one that would even have had Abigail gushing at its intricacy, even though it spelled near death. But she would gush at it, for I would find her soon and she would be alive, she would remain that way. Her death simply was not an option.

Along a road I ran, the bitumen black but shining amber underneath the streetlamps. A shade soon became visible at the edge of that street, facing a long drive that led up an estate. As I neared the being turned and tilted its head quizzically at me. It ceased its movement and seemed to sharpen up its arms but refrained from attack. After I had run past I received the sense that the shade had refaced its original directive towards a house I had not seen.

Go quickly, Riesel's words replayed themselves over the slapping of my feet on the wet surface. The calamity that is about to befall her is imminent and only you can save her from her fate, Bethanie.

He didn't tell me what threatened her, though I demanded the information desperately, but he did tell me the where and that was a small way from the top of Skyward Mountain. Close to the lookout but about fifteen minutes walk down from there, along the sole road that led up to it. Abigail would not be alone, another would be with her but only one would I be capable of saving. The fates of both of them would be determined by me, whether I arrived there in time and whether I could do what was necessary.

Another shade was on the road, this one however proved to be a little more interested as it swung a speared limb at me. I ducked my head under it, called my blade and swiped across at it, missing it but directing it away. A moment later I dropped my sword and allowed it to turn to dust, my feet moved much faster without that burden. The whole time I kept running forward, light flashing from my feet, so the next time the shade had a go at me it missed by a wide margin and failed to reach me again.

I kept on running, water soaking through my impractical mary-jane shoes, to my short cropped white socks and right through to my pruney skin.  It wasn't cold though, nor uncomfortable, sensations like that had no reason to be appreciated when my heart was only set for one goal, one need and my daeva-heighten body knew well enough not allow distractions to encroach on that.

Another shade, however this one was completely disinterested in me for it had someone else to attend to. A girl I did not know but who wore the same school uniform as me had collapsed down on the footpath. She was young, looked to be only first year of high school and was completely motionless. Her aura was dull, almost as grey as if her body held no soul at all, but whatever was left was fading fast through this one shade.

Understanding that a single shade should not be able to take the entire life-force of a person I continued to run, but the dim pallor had me slow. Then I remembered how no more than eight shades drained the auras of an entire food court. They managed to steal so much aura in fact that four people had died that day. The shades may have previously been only able to take a part each, but things were obviously changing now, they were growing stronger and that meant that this girl really could be drained to entirety. No wonder the others were so worried.

My feet kept following the road, passed the girl and shade duo, made ten more paces before my conscience got the better of me.

Skidding, water splashing from my shoes after the sudden stop, I summoned my claymore from the world and slashed backwards, right over the top of that unconscious girl.

The shade leapt away, its hands white as if that showed the metaphorical crumbs to the cookie jar it was just helping itself to. It shivered its arm, reformed it into a pointy stake and drove it straight at me. Crystals broke away from halfway down its length. Having cut through the arm I swung my massive blade back the other way and lopped off the thing's head.

After a quick dash back its upper body quivered before producing a new pea-sized nut skull. It formed with just enough time to see its legs fly away from its top half, the severing point made right through where a human heart should have lurked.

Crystals fell onto the street, signalling the end of the shade and in a similar complement I watched one ebony flower disintegrate into dust over a knuckle on my right hand. But ninety percent of my body was still etched with this floral pattern, the absence of just one flower doing little to give my situation a reprieve.

I turned back to the unconscious girl and made a silent promise to come back and see her home once Abigail was safe and then took up a swift pace again.

The rain grew harder as I ran, lightning and thunder chorused louder and became so synchronised that there was barely a second between the two. Eventually I made it though, onto the very road that spiralled up towards the lookout. It didn't take long from this point to walk, only about thirty minutes so to run at my speed made short time of the rest of the journey.

Just as I began the final ascent lightning and thunder struck at once with a bone-chilling roar. And this one was close, so close that I actually saw the distorted bolt break through the trees to summit of the mountain. With an ear-splitting snap I heard a tree sever and through more cracks and groans others followed and soon an avalanche of torn debris was falling fast down the side of the mountain. Suddenly the breeze turned icy as it collapsed sheets of rain against me.

A minute later I had eyeshot of the wreckage. Atop the road were many fallen branches, some stones that were sure to break bones and then also a massive fallen tree a little further on. By the sound it seemed to be of a boy, crying, as visualisation became apparent he seemed to be hugging a wide tree trunk.

The rain was still very heavy, the drops centimetres thick and so many that clear perception at this range was not possible, so, slowing to trepidatious walk, I approached the location. I gasped as I recognised the boy.

"Eric!" I ran up quickly, so fast that it took a second to clear the meters of distance between us, not caring that if anyone looked they would have realised the impossibility of my speed. "Eric, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" My voice was already quivering as if I already knew.

But of course I did, for I could see the hand the boy held onto. The one he pulled at and using his other the boy pushed at the meter wide trunk to no avail.

"Move, move!" Eric screamed. "No, why did you do it? You saw it so why did you run straight into it!?"

He did not have to say her name for me to know who that pale small hand belonged to.

I choked back a wail and instead summoned my claymore into my hands. With a violent slash I tore the wood apart in half where the topside rolled away and slid down the length of the mountain. Then I struck, again and again and again at the horrid timber. The large chunks were propelled away from the two of us but smaller shards flicked back and as they sliced against my cheeks I felt their searing burn. Red liquid flowed down them like acid but I kept up my swordplay and reduced to the tree to little more than rubble. Much of this fell to the road, some to the wayside and more far down its steep slope, but there was plenty atop a sweet small girl where the wood appeared to be merely blanketing her during her slumber.

Finally I collided my blade to the road, cutting through the asphalt thickly. When I panned across I noticed that Eric was watching me, his eyes wide with confusion, terror, but by far grief. Then he looked down at the sword whose hilt I still held within my hand.

"Abigail!" He screamed as he turned back to the fallen girl. "Wake up, Abigail! Wake up!"

Dropping my claymore I fell by her side too, collapsing hard onto the bumpy stones where they bit redly into my knees. My hands made flurried movements as they swept all the wood scraps away, some proving more resistant so I had to pry these out with force. Once a large portion of the blanket was removed I stopped.

"No! No! This can't be!" Eric shouted next to me, his voice filled with agony. "No, she can't...! She can't!"

All the beautiful crystals on my body, the ones that I was hoping Abigail would have the chance to admire, suddenly clawed and stabbed at my flesh. But it was more than that, I swore I suddenly began to sense their movement on top of me, through me and felt them creeping up subtly onto my face.

"I refuse..." I murmured. "I refuse to believe this. I'm meant to... I arrived in time. In time to save her!"

"It's all my fault..." The boy whimpered. "She pushed me... she pushed..."

"No, Abigail, wake up!" I implored her myself then as I landed both my hands to her shoulders and shook her first softly, but then roughly, but still she didn't enact. It was then, my gaze just centimetres from her that the terrible reality came crashing into my mind. The crushed sternum and right arm, the leg with so many red coated sticks poking out from the skin, and the head that was surrounded by an ethereal crimson halo.

And it was all muted, almost grey, as if what I was looking at was not someone who possessed a soul, an aura, but a corpse.

"Abigail!" I screamed before suddenly I was thrown onto my back roughly. A sharp piece of wood sliced into me below my lower ribs that caused me to scream out in pain.

"You!" Eric was on top of me, pinning me to the road, a wild accusing look to his dark eyes. "Save her, damn it!"

I coughed as air returned to my lungs. "Save? I... I..."

"You can!" He roared. "I saw that sword you were carrying, seven feet all made of light and then it suddenly disappeared. And you! You're all dark, like you're covered in shadow, all but your face. Something's going on with you. I don't know what but you have power so use it, damn it! Use it and save Abigail now!"

He saw my sword! And the darkness... he can see my crystals. Not properly but he can see the shadows they leave behind.

I didn't fight within his grasp. "I... I can't..."

"You can!" He pressed harder into my shoulders, unwittingly pushing the wooden shard deeper through my back. And there, through the sea of heavy rain a stream of his tears greeted my face. His voice softened. "You have to be able to. Please... save her, save her! She can't die, no, I love her so... so she can't die!"

He... loves her. Then that means... I turned my gaze to the sadly battered girl next to me. Then she loved him too.

"Please!" He continued to sob. "You have to be able to! You have to! I don't care what you do, I don't care that it doesn't make sense, just bring her back - bring her back!"

My eyes watered. "Eric, I... I don't know how..."

Suddenly he fell off me and crumpled back down by Abigail's side. There he held her very white hand as tears fell atop it. He didn't go for the other one, the one that was crushed and completely red.

I sat up, my hands cradling my head as I rocked back and forth. "This can't be happening. No, it can't be. I have to save her. It's my mission to save her. Raziel warned me, he told me I could do it, if I hurried. I just had to come straight here and I would make it in time. I just had to come straight...."

Then, when I recalled the girl whose aura had almost been completely drained by the shade I screamed.

"Bring her back." I thought Eric was still pleading to me but when I turned I saw him staring deep into her beautiful empty face, his hands gently rubbing against hers. "Bring her back. Bring her back. Anything, I'll give anything, just bring her back..."

"I can't..." I whispered in response even though Eric now seemed to hear nought of my words. "I can't..."

But then a teasing memory came back to me, the one where Raziel promised that the power of a daeva could bring a person back from death. I almost scolded it internally, thinking that in order to do that the world had to be sacrificed first until something Ariel once told came back too.

A daeva, nox or lux, has the power to save someone from grievous injury in the last moments of their life. This is possible even after the heart has ceased beating so long as there is still some brain function...

Tentatively I looked back at the brunette's head, one framed by crimson but not too severely marked. It had been only minutes since that bolt, me just having missed my chance to save Abigail. But, whilst she appeared dead, it was still likely that some function was left in her, some brain function which should take many minutes at least to fully die. If that was the case, if there was some small part that had yet to fade then... she could be still saved.

The harm may be reversed and full health may be restored, for a price of course and this is a large one. However, this is very different to total control of life death, where someone may be killed at will, or someone else brought back from the dead regardless of the years since they had died, and here the toll is nought.

So, without the world ending, it was possible to bring someone back from the cusp of death. But what was the price Ariel was talking about and, more importantly, what was the method? If I could save her, even at the sacrifice of myself, then wouldn't that sacrifice have been worthwhile? Especially for Abigail, a girl who could never harm anyone, one so good and kind she could pull people away from their darkness and despair. She was the true hero, the one worth protecting. Whereas I, I could amount to no more than a soldier. A failed one at that, weak among my peers and incapable of protecting my best friend. Whatever the toll may have been, I was willing to accept it, even if it meant my end, so long as Abigail returned back into the arms of her loving boyfriend.

Slipping up towards the top of her I placed my hands to the sides of her skull where my fingers touched red instantly. That flowed off quickly though, as did the sad halo, since the weather did not wish to relinquish its barbarity for such a tender moment. Lightning shone just then too. Thunder a couple of seconds later.

I breathed as I felt for the girl's aura. I wasn't really sure what I'd expect to find, but I thought I'd feel a little more, but on the contact I may as well have been grasping a log I had just chopped because it was nothing that came to me.

"Bethanie?" Eric murmured with blood shot eyes as if he just noticed I was there. "What are you doing?"

I gave the weakest of smirks. "I'm trying to..." I gulped as my throat stung, "save... her."

"But, how?" He enquired innocently, painfully. "What can you possibly do now?"

"With... my power." My voice was so soft that it could be barely heard over the cascade of falling rain.

"Power?" Eric looked almost angry. "What are you talking about?!"

He's forgotten already, I realised. That really didn't take long.

"Never mind, I'm... I'm just gonna make this right. You'll see. I have to..." The end finished in a chest-tightening whisper.

I searched her again and felt for a trace of energy, the brilliant, bright colourful stuff that was so obvious we could see it with our eyes closed. But it wasn't so obvious here, I felt her body, it felt destroyed, empty, kind of like... a piece of furniture. There was a trace of aura there, that couldn't be denied, but it felt lost and confused, like it didn't know where it was meant to travel back to. But then, from right between my hands I felt a colour. Pink, I sensed, but it was there, and so very Abigail. There was still a self-aware aura clinging to her brain. She wasn't completely dead yet.

Then came the hard part - how on Earth do I restore someone from the brink of death? But that answer came surprisingly easily. Of course, her aura was missing so all that was needed was new aura to be replaced.

I smiled greater when I worked out the puzzle but this proved to Eric's shock. I hadn't realised it but he was staring at me during the whole process, watching my every expression.

"What are you doing?" The boy repeated.

My smiled weakened. "I know this looks strange and makes completely no sense, it doesn't really make any sense to me either... but please, just try to trust me here. I have this feeling that I can fix it, fix her. It probably won't work," I gulped, "but I have to try. She's you're girlfriend just as she's my best friend so... so... I need to save her. Please..."

I didn't know what I was asking for, permission to handle his deceased beloved or to sit back and do nothing, I really hadn't a clue, but instead Eric reached across and patted my shoulder gently. "I'm sorry, Bethanie, for pushing you back like that before. I honestly have no idea why I did that, but you're right, she's your best friend so whatever you need to do, do it. Because, when it comes to me, I have no idea what I want... to do."

My eyes were still glassy as I nodded then retuned myself back into the girl's mind.

A flicker, a small pink flicker of aura was still within her, but there was also a line from that, a slender whisper that seemed to lead down into her crushed chest approximately at the location of her still heart. It didn't matter what that meant, I decided, what mattered was the pink glow in her brain that still clung to life. Focusing, I reached a portion of my own aura out to it where it seemed to connect but failed to flow it towards her.

My aura was no good, I realised, I needed something more tangible, so I reached out to the world and grasped at the trees, the grass, the bitumen and the horrible shrapnel that had caused this terrible damage. I drew it but instead of forming a weapon I pushed it forward into Abigail and there I was pleased to see it sink into her.

I was concentrating hard but I felt the smile etch itself onto my features but did not stop at there, still I drew and there I pushed deep into Abigail's mind, forcing it to meld with the missing portions of her aura. It worked, incredibly well, the world was only too ready to bend itself to my will, but on the other end the aura condensed rapidly and though both would have been seen as if vapours, in reality the world's aura was like gas where Abigail required solid. The energy flowed in, lots of it, only too happy to, but it barely touched the sides of what was missing.

The most potent of aura is that from humans...

I funnelled more energy, and into the endless pit it sunk. Though I felt the flora wane around me, soft purrs from even the fauna and still it wasn't enough, I wasn't calling enough light to save my friend's soul!

So I reached further, harder and mirthlessly pulled at all and everything that was within my call. I snatched the grass and felt it rot at my release, the battered trees that remained after the storm and even the insects, spiders and snakes that laid in the vicinity, I called it all. A human's life was more important, I knew, so I did not relent, I just kept drawing it all. Still, even with everything I had acquired it wasn't enough to finish that large void in this girls soul so then I focused harder and relentlessly clutched at everything without regard. I was taking a lot, I knew, but it was necessary, for a person, it had to be done.

I drew so much it made my mind numb that I could not even understand what I was calling for until suddenly, I received one last ball of dense energy and ploughed it into the girl's consciousness. Finally it was filled, her aura was restored and with exhaustion I fell back behind her skull.

I was so tired I almost fell asleep and this made me realise that I must have given some of my aura after all but the fact that I was still functioning meant that I couldn't give up, not yet. I had to see results of my effort first.

I rose back up with exaggerated slowness and, turning down to Abigail smiled as I appraised her form and there I watched the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

She was alive!

I started laughing. "Abigail! Abigail, look! You're okay now!"

She had yet to stir but instead of forcing her awake so soon I panned my surroundings where I found only brown amidst the black. And that was hard, since I was using only my human eyes. My daeva-ones still worked and with them the world's aura still overlapped over the top of the natural scene, but for as far as I could see, there was no aura. It was worse than in the plaza too, for there most of the people and objects still possessed a flicker, but here, it was next to darkness, especially with the cloudy, rainy night. And we were so high up that streetlamps ceased to glow at this level and so, without daeva vision, it really was pitch black.

I shivered but warmed when I viewed Abigail glowing just as bright as she had done earlier that day. Then the greatest thing happened - Abigail groaned.

"Abigail!" I threw myself onto the girl gently, giggling and almost crying at once. I couldn't believe that it had worked. I saved her - I saved my best friend when she was almost dead!

"Hmm..." Abigail murmured beneath me. "Bethanie? Is that you?"

"Yes, Abigail. It's me. I came, I came to save you and now you're all better! Everything's fine, everything, Abigail! I was so scared!"

"Bethanie...?" Abigail waved her hands up to palm me off. Once I moved away she pulled herself into a sitting position and turned to squint at me. "What... what happened? I thought I was... dead."

Tears etched at the edges of my vision but like always I held these back, even though they would have been worthwhile ones. "No... I mean, yes, but no! You see, you were dead, but not completely, there was still the tiniest flicker of life in you. A small part of your brain remained and so I used that to bring you back! I used the surrounding aura to come to you and it healed you! You're saved Abigail, I saved you!"

Abigail's mouth and eyes both widened and then closed almost at once. Then she gazed her eyes about the surroundings with alarm. "Bethanie... everything is... everything is dead!"

I nodded slowly. "I know, but I had to. I mean, they're just plants and trees, a few insects and that, but you... you're alive! And you're a person so that means so much more than all of this! You're the most important thing so it's okay! It's all okay so long as you're fine!"

Abigail however kept her eyes wide as she observed the forest beyond me. Suddenly she put her hands up to her mouth with a gasp and shut her eyes tightly as she turned away. "Animals..." She murmured. "There's so many animals here that are dead."

I turned back to that direction and recognised that she was right, there wasn't just insects and spiders that were dead, but possums, birds and lizards too. I could sense them, the empty bodies and that filled with me with dread but, even knowing the dozens of animals that fell prey to my call I still could not feel guilty knowing that Abigail was safe.

"Whoa..." I murmured. "I didn't know that would happen. Actually, I had no idea what would happen, but the fact that you're alive means it's all okay. I mean, you were... dead, Abigail. You would have been gone so, all this..." I gestured around me to the dead scenery. "That's okay so long as you are alive."

Abigail's bright eyes kept scanning. No doubt she saw as little as me, using only human sight since aura was long since diminished from the surroundings, but it seemed she was very much in tune with detecting its remnants even without the hosts still alive for she seemed to view the death toll even more acutely than me. And fear was filled in her eyes after witnessing it, even though they were not human, even though they combined to save a life so precious as hers.

Abigail gasped again, her eyes becoming so wide the brown irises seemed diminished by the sheer girth of the whites. Then she swung her gaze straight across to the boy next to her who was unconscious and very hard to see with the low lighting.

"No..." Her voice trembled. "No... His aura, why can't I see his aura, Bethanie!?"

Just then my eyes mirrored her own enormous look. "He's... he's okay. You're just not seeing him properly..."

"He has no aura..." Abigail murmured as she rushed to find his wrist and once placing her fingers to a point screamed out, "He doesn't have a pulse! Bethanie, what did you do!?"

"I, I..." I stammered as I glanced between the unilluminated boy and Abigail's fearful and desperate glare. "I saved you." I defended. "I gave you back the aura you needed. I..."

"No..." Abigail sobbed. "No, you, you couldn't have. You couldn't have! You didn't! Please tell me you didn't!" She sniffed, the constant saline trail mixing in with salt-less water falling from the sky. "You didn't kill him!"

I tried to rise myself to my feet to assess the situation but managed no further than halfway before I stumbled backwards. Further still I cowered as I watched the cold boy being continuously wet by raindrops, and the girl whose fearful expression was fast turning into one of enmity.

"No..." I murmured again. "I... I saved you. That's all I did... I saved you..."

"You..." Abigail whispered over the rainfall. "You didn't save me, you killed him." She turned to me with hatred in her eyes. "You did the last thing that I wanted. You slaughtered the person I love in my name! I... I can't believe this. How could you, Bethanie? How could you!?"

"I..." Again I had no idea how to respond, all I could do was continue to stammer. "I... I saved..."

"I hate you, Bethanie!" Abigail roared. "I hate you! I hate you with every ounce of my being! I wish you had never been born! I hate you!"

Shakily I made my way to my feet and started to walk towards the girl. "Abigail, I..."

"I hate you!" She cut across venomously. "I wish you didn't exist!"

It was then that everything changed. Eric, lifeless in the girl's arms, suddenly was shone on with a great light again. But it wasn't his, it was Abigail's.

"No..." I murmured. "You can't, Abigail, you can't draw it, it'll destroy you!"

"Destruction?" She repeated bitterly as her entire body seemed to glow white. "Well that's too late now, isn't it? I was dead when that tree hit me but, when you stole the soul from the boy I love then... then! Then that's when I was destroyed!"

She roared as an unseen force lifted her to her feet and with her two hands reached out ahead a long solid shaft materialised within them. A glistening fuchsia staff was placed into her possession but at its full height was a large glowing orb, a citrine one that brimmed with the brightness not too muted from the sun's. She raised this staff high without hesitation and upon colliding the end onto the ground with a forceful quake the entire world seemed to ripple.

And the land continued to quake as a low roar permeated from every direction.

Fearfully my eyes panned first to the right then back to the left where a gigantic beast stood. Harsh scales lined the creature's flesh, all were dark, all were rigid and tough. These stretched out far, no fewer than five meters in length causing my sword to pale in comparison to its massive girth. But beyond the body were legs, four fixed steadfastly on the ground, then wings, two great ones that beat the air a couple of times before its leather settled against its formidable torso. Then up high was a darkly scaled head where two citrine eyes shone done on me with malice.

"Abigail..." I whimpered nervously. "What are you doing? What is this?"

The girl was empty of sympathy, empty of the friendship we once had long shared as she responded. "Isn't it obvious? I have awakened as a daeva now."

Just then the massive beast roared and as it did fire shot from its mouth. I barely dodged the embers in time as I dashed backwards. Despite the near blow I tried to implore my friend. "Abigail, I did save..." but she never allowed me to finish.

"I didn't ask to be saved!" She retorted angrily. "I was ready to die, willing to die for him! So how dare you, how dare you take that away from me! How dare you kill him for me!" She sobbed but as I tried one last time to reach out she just roared all the harder. "Go! I never want to see you again! If you die that would be a kind justice!"

And the beast roared behind me and sprayed the scene with chaotic embers. Again I only just evaded them but the forest was not so lucky, the dead foliage caught light almost instantly.

"Abigail!" I cried. "Stop this, everything is catching fire!"

But the girl behind the pink staff only grinned. "Fire is nothing compared to the burn you've given me!"

My crystal flowers I was sure all grew thorns in that moment, for each and every one cut into my flesh. Not too deep, only about a centimetre each, just to where the greatest amount of nerve endings were. There was only one thing that sliced deeper and that was the invisible spear into my heart as it cut and clawed there. And fire I felt, fire I knew burned within me right at the core of my being but I knew that this was a fire that neither she could extinguish nor could I alleviate hers. Still, I tried one last time.

"Abigail! Please! You've found your erosreaver, that's fine, but please, don't discard me! You know that I did everything I could. You know that I only... tried... to protect you!"

The beast, with scaled skin and leathery wings roared fire at me. If my reflexes weren't so quick it would have surely scorched me then but I managed to move a couple of meters across before finishing my statement.

"I... I'm sorry, Abigail! I only wanted to save you! You, you're the most important person to me, my best friend! I... I never meant to... I never meant to hurt Eric!"

Whilst my apology held the weight of all my sorrow, though I bared my soul to her, Abigail didn't see it that way. Instead she only grew angrier, her brown eyes becoming so enigmatic they turned amber and with their flash I sensed the beast narrow in on me.

I barely missed the swipe from a clawed, deep brown limb before more fire erupted. And so I had no choice at that point but to fall back, to run away and leave Abigail to her rage because, if I had lingered there, then I would have surely been consumed by it.

So I did run, first down the road, but then soon discarded it for the uneven brush of the forest but instead of heading down I went up. I wanted to climb higher, feel the burn in my legs overcome the burn I felt everywhere else in my body. The crystals, they were erratic, crazed and energised, they kept shifting over the top of my skin, each time just one moved a thorn etched a new gash in my skin I was sure. Everything hurt, so much, so bad, worse than ever, more horrible than even when I lost my mother though I never thought that possible. So much pain meant only one thing, I had to run as hard and ruthlessly as I could.

I leapt up through the bush, branches flicking against my crystalline skin where it seemed every spike found the gap between the flowers and sliced inside the unprotected flesh. Normally that wouldn't have mattered, that was good, for it distracted me from the real pain. The problem was that it all added to the real pain. Fatigue, hits, scrapes, stabs, they all added to my emotional disarray. It was just then, and only then that I discovered there was no such thing as a sweet pain for a daeva, all there was was the agony of a battered heart.

When I reached some sort of clearing I stopped, only to find that I had arrived at the exact same place that I was given my daeva power. Collapsing on the ground I laughed. I didn't know why and I sure as hell didn't get any satisfaction out of it, I just laughed because of the terrible irony I had found myself in and for the terrible calamity occurring within me.

I brought my hands up in front of my face where, beneath the patter of heavy rain, I saw the flowers moving as if they were indeed flexible and had lives of their own. They spawned new parts of themselves and reached thicker along my skin, as well as higher up my head. In a moment my entire skull was covered. I still had my eyes, I could see the black, beautiful flowers growing on me and as they did obscured the tiny patches of my skin.

Finally I saw nothing but black and similarly could not even raise my arms up anymore. Nor could I move my legs, nor could I turn my head, change my expression, or even close my eyes. The tear that was etched on my face meanwhile seemed like it was frozen in place, that part of me even rejected the freedom of movement. My long curly hair ceased to bounced off my back and when I noticed an ebony strand from the corner of my vision I realised that my hair had become immobilised along with the rest of me.

Then I could no longer move my eyes.

Then I could no longer see.

I heard though, the sound of thousands of panes of glass shatter, so loud that it was a screech to my ears, before that was finally taken away from me too. Then I was left with no perceptive capabilities, nothing except for the idea that I was reduced to no more than a consciousness drifting through a world of nothingness.

It's all wrong, my thoughts managed to tack together, it wasn't meant to happen like this. I wanted to protect the world, save people, save her. And now that darkness has claimed me Gaia is destroying me, after everything I tried to do for it. All I wanted was peace, but the world doesn't work like that, the world only knows how to shatter dreams and render pain and destruction.

Curse this world, it doesn't deserve to be saved.

I floated through that empty space, nothing but a string of thoughts until suddenly, with a rush and a massive breeze proprioception came back to me. All at once I sensed the position of my fingers and toes, my tightly shut eyelids, the air sliding in and out of my lungs and the rain, once again, was cascading down on me. Somehow, it seemed, I was back in my body again.

"Well..." A girl's voice cooed. "Raziel was right. She was a Sleeping Beauty."

"Dorothy..." I murmured as the voice entered recognition but failed to see her clearly.

"It's okay!" The silver-haired girl cried happily. "You're one of us now! And prettier than ever before!"

"I... what?" I struggled as after blinks and squints received the blurry image of my enemy.

"That's right." Another, taller silver-haired girl supplemented who I managed to perceive as Jacqueline. Despite the weird vision I saw her smiling at me quite clearly. "You're one of us now, one of the chosen to reroute this world to a better path."

"What's... what's happening? What just happened to me?"

Ariel was also in front of me and there she smiled. "Look for yourself."

I followed her silver eyes down along my form to a tattered red stained school uniform that beneath bestowed clear immaculate porcelain skin. It was whiter than it ever was, so white that it even sparkled and at no place did an ebony crystal besmirch it.

"You don't have to worry about the crystals anymore," Ariel explained, "now that the chrysalis is complete and your diamond core has successfully transitioned. Congratulations, few of us escape disassociation, but it is evident that your heart was ready to accept the darkness."

"The darkness?" I repeated in confusion.

"That's right, Bethanie, your diamond core is no longer clear, no longer lux, but nox. The black diamond chrysalis has been successful and as the fourth daeva-nox we now hold the power to influence this world's four dimensions. A better world is coming and hand in hand we'll create it, my friend."

Rain pounded through the scene heavily, drenching all four of us girls. The scene was still very dark here, with the obscured skies and lifeless forest. From down the mountain came the smell of smoke but none of its amber glow, the fire having been put out quickly by the enraged waterfall.

Things were just as they were a few minutes ago, everything but me. My skin was clear, hair that floated in front of my vision, though wet displayed a brilliant platinum and as I stared into the pupils of Ariel's eyes and saw my own silver ones reflect there I noticed one more difference about me. I felt calm.

And I knew that Ariel was right, that Raziel, Jacqueline and Dorothy were right. This world produced too much pain, too much death and it could only be through darkness that serenity could be found.

"Yes," I agreed to the girls, "the world is wrong and it is up to us to fix it."

Noesis

 

Darkness. People fear it, its vastness giving rise to mysteries that they have no knowledge of. And if one does not know something one cannot protect his or herself from it. Within the darkness may lurk a calamitous stalker, but worse than that, in the dark there may be nothing at all, emptiness which becomes quickly associated with death.

But the darkness is necessary, it is the container to our universe, the birthplace of life and the frame that makes light appear so bright. If there was no darkness, there would be no sight for within a wash of white wouldn't we be left in a new kind of emptiness, a new kind of darkness?

Light could never exist without the dark but the darkness has always been and always will be the only force that can prevail for an eternity.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 10.09.2016

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