Death, Dragons and Destiny
Written by Kirsty McMahon
The full moon beamed down on the earth, casting shadows and lighting the way. Stars glittered bright and clear. A light breeze ruffled the leaves at her feet and stroked her hair affectionately. Evengeline walked slowly, her bare feet feeling the earth move and breathe, her ears listening to the whispering trees. Her eyes watched as the shadows danced with the light. Everything around her was alive and rejoicing, but she was crying silently. Her strong arms wrapped themselves around her as she comforted herself with the thought that she now had her role to play in protecting life. Now she had to take her place in history, and do as her ancestors had for generations - protect, guide, counsel and fight. Another’s time had come to an end; they had returned into the bosom of that which they served. Now, it was her time. With that thought Evangeline wiped the tears away and quickened her pace._____________________________________________________________________
Shay flopped down on his bed and ran his eyes over the list in his hand for the hundredth time. He was positive he’d got everything. Clothes, shoes, razors, deodorant, hair gel, condoms. Everything a first year uni student could possibly need. So what the hell was niggling at the back of his mind? Maybe it was just nerves. He sat up and looked around his room. Everything felt so bare and empty. This had been home since he was six, and it had always been full to the brim with, well junk, if he was honest. Now all that remained to tell his life story was a lone poster of Kiera Knightly on his wardrobe door.
“Shay, dinner”
His dads voice shocked him out of his memories. Telling himself to get a grip he went downstairs.
“So kiddo, how does it feel to finally be leaving home?”
Shay hated the way his dad called him ‘kiddo’, but as it was their last night together untill the Christmas break he let it slide this time.
“It’s not a big deal Dad: I‘ll be back in a couple of months.”
“Yeah, I suppose. You got everythin’?”
“Yep, all sorted. What’s for tea?”
“Well in honour of you almost officially being a student I thought the dinner should be themed, so, erm, it’s beans on toast!”
“You didn’t go shopping did you?”
Shay gave his Dad the well practiced ‘I’m a better parent than you’ look.
“It’s not like I forgot or anything, I was goin’ to go, but then the bank statement came through. And, well you know what moneys like at the moment, things are a bit tight.”
Shay knew where this was going, no wonder he was having to work his arse off to put himself through uni.
“You’ve been to that fuckin’ casino again haven’t you?”
He was beginning to loose patience with this pathetic excuse for a parent; thank God he was going away to uni.
“Well a loosing streak can’t last forever can it? But if I don’t keep my hand in I won’t know when it’s ended will I?”
“What a load of bollocks! How can you talk such shit….”
They were both spared from treading the same worn argument for the hundredth time by the ringing of the door bell.
“I’ll go.”
Shay volunteered, pushing the table away from him as he stood up.
As he walked down the hall he could just see the outline of a woman through the frosted glass, probably his Dads latest slag, he thought bitterly, still working on a short fuse after the argument. He forced the door open and made to turn back towards the kitchen when the face at the door registered. She was definitely not one of his Dads countless girlfriends. She was pale, elegant, dark haired and vaguely familiar, something caught in is brain, stalling his reactions - adrenaline or something else?
“Hello Shay. It’s been a long time. You haven’t really changed that much though.”
“I’m sorry, do I …”
Suddenly he felt he didn’t need to ask, realisation was pealing the confusion away, memories dived at him in one epic movement. His legs shook a little under him as he waited for her to speak the name swimming around before his flooded eyes.
“It’s Breanna”
_____________________________________________________________________
It was the 10th of February 1994 when Shay was dropped home from school by Daniel’s Mom to find his own mother waiting for him in tears at the foot of the stairs. He was five years old, and for any five year old it is practically impossible to conceive the notion of an adult crying, and absolutely terrifying to be confronted with this reality, especially when the adult in question is their own mother.
“Mommy, what’s the matter?”
“Come here sweetheart.”
Shay had obeyed, moving slowly, cautiously. He hadn’t liked the feeling in the pit of his stomach, or the burning in his throat.
“Mommy has to go away for little while.”
“How long for?”
The tears may have started then, or they could have already been there, Shay could never quite remember.
“For a very long time sweetie.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain that to you hunny, you’re too young to understand.”
“No, I’m not! I’m at school now, I, I understand lots!”
Shay had never liked being treated like a child, even when he was one. In his frustration he had looked away from his mother for the first time since he’d arrived home. His sister, Breanna, was standing in the living room doorway, pale and weeping silently. She had her red coat on, her favourite. There was only eighteen months between them and they were inseparable.
“Why has Breanna got her coat on?”
Shay had turned his attention back to his mother. Ever since he was born he’d had an acute sense of the world around him and all its subtleties, some would call it and over developed sense of perception, others would say mild telepathy. Whatever it was, it kicked into overdrive as he stared accusingly at his mother. He knew what she was going to say before the words had formed in her mouth.
“Breanna’s coming with me sweetheart.”
“Then I have to go too!” Shay had bellowed, “We do everything together! You can’t take her without me!”
The tears were uncontrollable by now, drowning Shay in salty pain. A stifled sob had escaped Breanna, she had moved closer to the two of them.
“Please. Please Mommy. He can come can’t he?”
“No, no there’s no way I can, I just can’t. Only one of you, they said, and the female…”
His mother had been unable to continue, overtaken by the clear difficulty of her situation. Shay had understood then just how hard this was for his mother, her decision had not been easy. His mother had been right, he was too young to completely understand what was going on, but he did understand his mother couldn’t stay and that he couldn’t go with her. He had wiped his tears on the back of his sleeve and taken his mothers hand in both of his sodden ones.
“It’s ok Mommy. I’ll tell Daddy you left me to look after him.”
Shay never forgot the look in his mothers eyes as she kissed his forehead, or how Breanna had clung to him till the last moment, or how hard he wept, right up until his father arrived home at six o’clock.
_____________________________________________________________________
“What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in?”
Not that she needed to ask, she was already half way down the hall leaving Shay standing by the door like a moron.
“Come on Shay, and shut the bloody door, we don’t have long.”
Shay did as he was told, vaguely aware that she was the practical stranger in his house, not the other way round. As he followed her to the front room reality began to kick in.
“Hang on a minute here, it’s not that I’m not glad to see you after so long but, well what the fuck are you doin’ here?” Shay had to struggle to stop himself yelling the last part.
Breanna stopped and turned, tears escaping at the corners of her green eyes.
“Mom’s dead.”
Someone had just smacked his brains out with a large brick, of that, Shay was certain, everything else faded.
When he came too he was lying on the floor in the hall, but everything was still. The memory of Breanna’s arrival was far off but he knew it was there. But what time was it and where was she? He lay still, not sure yet whether or not he could trust his body to do what he wanted it to do. The house was deathly silent, like the night before Christmas, except there was a different kind of tension in the atmosphere. His Dad might have gone out, but Breanna wouldn’t have left him there, there’s no way that she would have just popped into his life to give him life shattering news just to pop out again, had she? He turned his head to look at the clock and his skull exploded in pain. ‘The brick thing was just a metaphor, my head shouldn’t actually hurt.’ he mused. As he looked to the left two things registered, the pool of blood soaked into the threadbare carpet and the large brick under the phone table. ‘Holy shit’.
He eventually manoeuvred himself into a kneeling position so that he was facing the front door, where his attacker must have entered from. It was shut, and apparently still solid. So how did they get in? It didn’t make sense. 8.37pm, what time had his dad called him down to dinner? He shook his head to try and focus - not a good idea; all it did was conjure a woman into his line of vision. He closed his eyes, ‘what a fuckin’ night’. when they reopened the woman was still there.
“Shay?”
“Where the … who … how …. What the fuck is goin’ on?” He groaned, wondering when he was going to wake up from this nightmare.
“Be calm, I mean you no threat, I come to aid you, my name is Evangeline. That will be enough explanation for now; we have more pressing things to concern ourselves with.”
With this Evangeline pressed her fingers to his temples and muttered words in a language Shay did not understand. The throbbing in his brain eased and he could see clearly again.
“How did you do that?”
“I said explanations would have to wait.”
“Yes but…”
“Hush!”
She had stood suddenly, searching the surrounding air in a way that reminded Shay of the birds that flitted around their back garden.
“Come with me.”
Shay put his sweaty palm into the long fingers that were spread out under his nose and Evangeline pulled him to his feet as if he were hardly there. He stood wobbling on the spot as she swam past him toward the kitchen.
“Why are you goin’ that way?”
Shay was whispering, although he wasn’t really sure why, except he felt that the house wasn’t as empty as it was silent.
“This is the safest route. You must trust me.”
Shay didn’t even trust his own feet to move. The thought of going on faith with someone who had just materialised from nowhere was a little difficult. But on the other hand she had stopped his head from hurting, not bashed it with a large brick.
“Okay”
She started to move to the kitchen again, whilst Shay followed, delicately placing each foot, taking reassurance from the fact that the floor was firm and real, even if ever other aspect of his evening had gone to lala land.
When he eventually reached the kitchen he saw Evangeline hovering over a lump on the floor.
“What’s that?”
“Your Father”
Shay tumbled and slid toward the form curled up on the kitchen lino. There was blood everywhere. He barely heard Evangeline say;
“He is dead.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Breanna saw the daeva materialize behind Shay, but didn’t have time to react. Before he had hit the floor the daeva was in front of her, another was behind. Within seconds she was bound, gagged and being dragged savagely away from Shay’s limp body. She heard her father’s screams of fear and agony as they ripped him apart, but she kept her eyes firmly closed, unable to witness the barbaric murder of another parent. In her mind his screams were intermingled with the memory of her mother’s final moments. As she struggled to release herself from the coarse ties that held her arms and legs twisted behind her something solid connected with the back of her head, rendering her unconscious. The last thing she heard was the demonic laughter of the daevas as her father’s corpse was flung aside.
When Breanna opened her eyes she wasn’t entirely sure that she had; she couldn’t see anything at all. It was only after blinking repeatedly that she realised her eyes were working perfectly; it was just that there was nothing to be seen through the pitch black that surrounded her. Her senses seemed to return one at a time, each one awakening the next. Smell followed sight, and Breanna really wished it hadn’t. The rancid scent of rotten flesh mingled with filth, waste, disease and death to create a stomach churning aroma that very nearly knocked Breanna out again - though on reflection it may have acted as a foul smelling salt, bringing her round in the first place. Next her hearing returned; muffled voices and movements seemed to surround her, but she was certain they were not in the same room as her - if it was a room. Shrieks and moans were interwoven with the general noise, and as Breanna became increasingly aware of herself she began to realise that they were the cries of creatures being tortured. This created visions and the beginnings of harrowing conclusions of where she was being held.
The throb in her head and the aches of her joints announced the return of feeling to her battered body; she could taste her own coppery blood in her mouth. She began to wonder how large the space she was confined in was, but there was no possible way of knowing as her wrists and ankles were still tied, making movement unthinkable.
The roar of sound seemed to be increasing, and Breanna felt the temperature rise. If she was where she thought she was this meant that the sun was rising over most realms. Her memories began to untangle themselves from each other and the image of Shay’s limp body hovered in the darkness before her eyes; was he alive? Or had she been too late?
To Be Continued.......