Prisoner of Darkness

Chapter 1 part 1

Chapter 1

Ariana

Staring out my window, memories started flooding in of playing hide and seek in the garden below with my father giggling. As I went and hid in the bush, hoping my laugh would not give away my position. Seconds passed before I was swept up into my father's arms, laughing.

My father was a strong man, both in beliefs and desires. He never crippled to the beliefs of others and always did what he thought was right. Many people wanted him to conform to the new way of things. Even when they offered him copious amounts of land and profits, he refused, stating he had all he wanted. It helped that his family was very wealthy and were Lord protectors of the Coralline Islands, but his refusal to allow the islands to change angered many mainlanders but not our own people, never them.

Coralline was a peaceful paradise farmland and a small Diamond mine, which was my family's original claim to wealth. Since then, my family has founded dozens of mines across the mainland. Three are now in my brothers' names and now my father has passed on, it is time for change and with him gone there is nothing to stop them.

Stepping back from my window, I wandered my room searching for something I knew I had not forgotten. Everything I owned was packed into two enormous trunks, loaded into the carriage as we spoke. I watched as the sun crept along a familiar path of my room, my room was dark only allowing a small amount of sun to creep along the floorboards of my room. It was dark and cool, how I liked it I looked back, taking only memories when I caught my reflection in the mirror. A young woman stood there dressed in travelling clothes. My long black hair was tied in an elegant bun, hair pins secured my hair and hat in place. My large blue eyes were lined in coal standing out against my pale skin and a pale pink rouge coloured my lips and cheeks.

My mother always found my appearance beautiful even though I could not find any features that I liked myself.

The beauty came from the multiple colour’s other display, my brothers were a triage of beautiful features, they all had shades of my parents in them, but I did not. I was adopted, but it was never widely known outside of a few close families and friends. Now that my father was gone, it was just me and my mother here. My brothers all currently lived on the mainland, where we were headed to be closer to them.

I walked down the stairs as the furniture was being covered by sheets to keep them untarnished. My mother waited at the door, staring into the family dining room, no doubt reminiscing about family dinners and the chaos that used to ensure.

‘Day dreaming, are we?’ I asked, c*****g my head to the side.

‘This house holds so many memories.’ she whispered. ‘Still, it’s time she makes someone else happy now.’ She took my arm as we walked out of the house for the last time.

‘You never did say what will happen to the house?’ I asked.

‘Asher has decided to keep it in the family, for now, in a few months. He will decide what he wants to do with it.’

The manor had always belonged to the caretakers of the Coralline Island for the last three hundred years. It has been the Ronan Family. For the last one hundred of our family has been Lord Protectors of the islands stopping progress and strip mining of our resources my brothers unlike their ancestors saw value in letting progress be made on the island, which meant destroying our home starting with the coral reef surrounding it. Until the last 30 years, the only way on and off the island was a small passage of time in which small boats could navigate the reefs and deliver and supply the island. We were lucky in the fact to quality of the diamonds found here far out weight people greed. So, they would risk it to trade until the invention of airships capable of long-distance travel. My father found it safe, and he was willing to allow more people to visit our paradise. Until his death last month, he always tried to keep things balance enough to create profit but not enough to destroy our island.

The last two months of his life were difficult. He seems to age overnight. His hair fell out. He would cry at night from seizures within two weeks of the last symptom, appearing he was dead. Tarquin disease is what it was called after its first victims on a land called Nicosia to the west of the Coralline islands.

It was a death sentence, a horrible, horrific way to die. Nobody was sure how father contract it. He was travelling the world the last few months before he was diagnosed. He told us that he was looking for a rare gem he had heard about, and he wanted to see it. And now my mother has the symptoms of the same disease, although she is handling it much better than father did.

The carriage rolled to a stop, and we disembarked.

I looked up to witness an air machine settle between two long platforms. A large ship like hull made of shining metal was strapped to a giant floating balloon. I had never been on an airship before, although I've watched several fly over head of our home, I never thought I would leave Coralline. I always thought I would die on the island or become the village crazy lady, at least stay within reach of my family home, but now I'm leaving this home to someone else in hope I can make a family elsewhere.

I took a deep breath and looked into my mother's eyes to understand. She smiled, and we made our way onto the ship.

Entering the ship, I could feel it, a familiar sensation I have not felt in years. I knew this feeling, but it had been so long it couldn’t be, could it? I wanted to follow it to prove my theory right. My mother held my arm while she talked to the ticket clerk.

I pushed the sensation away. I can find them tonight after mother is resting. It is what it is. They will not go far. I watched from the cabin window as we sailed across the sea a beautiful aquamarine paradise stretched below me.

Fishermen who visited our shore would tell of creatures. They came at night drowning men at their whims and monsters sending ships to the bottom of the seas with their tentacles. It is considered an old wife's tale, but the stories have always fascinated me. At one point, I begged for my father to allow me to travel with the fishermen, to let me see the creatures he refuses. He banned me from the water for six months, hoping it would deter me it only made me more curious. In fact, if father still lived, I would be certain I would not be leaving the islands at all.

Charles is my middle brother after my father's death, suggested bringing me to the mainland and find a husband a chance of happiness. He said little did I know he already had someone lined up with Lord Cobalt, one of his best friends. After it became clear mother was unwell, a deal was struck. Cobalt's connection in medicines for my hand in marriage. I agreed in the hope I could save our mother.

I closed my eyes again as those gods’ awful pull was there again. I let the sensation pass. This is infuriating. I need answers, but I could not, soon I thought, soon.

‘Anna are you ready dear?’ my mother asked.

Opening my eyes, my mother was adjusting her earrings in the washroom.

‘Yes, mother, just air sickness, I think.’

A knock came from the door. Our escorts for the evening were brothers Stephen and Adriane Fowler. Stephen was my age but much taller, with lovely caramel eyes and honey hair. He stood as my mother's escort for the night and his younger brother was about fourteen and a head shorter than me would be mine.

Both boys looking very much like their mother, a petite blonde woman with the same-coloured eyes, full lips, and a small nose. Making her look like a doll, she was from Coralline. The same colourings marked her for a Coralline islander, very much like my father.

Lord Fowler was a tall skinny man, mostly bald, with a fine layer of hair stretching from ear to ear. We were to dine with them tonight.

Entering the dining room, I could feel the pull again, stronger this time. I searched the room hoping to find the reason for this feeling. My eyes landed on someone that came and went so fast it could not be.

‘Are you all right Anna?’ Adriane asked.

Oh, oh no, apologies' I hurried back to the hallway, ducking out of sight into the lady's room. I heard mother apologies ‘She's been quite unwell airsickness we believe.’

‘Why are you here?’ I asked. The voice that answered was deeper, but still the familiar cadence answered.

‘For my friend, always for her.’

I turned to face them, hoping I was wrong, though I knew I wasn’t. The man was tall with dark olive skin, rich brown hair, and several small scars over his left side of his face his eyebrow, cheek, and lip his eyes glowed neither green nor gold but both he had grown so much since I last saw him. Stubble marked his face he had grown into his features remarkably.

I wanted to cry and scream at him. Hit him, but I held on to it instead of sliding down the railing.

‘I thought you were dead. I thought you were captured or killed,’ I stated as he approached slowly.

‘It would take more than death to keep me from you now.’ He traced my face with such a familiar gesture, but he was so familiar, Zavier my best friend, he was more family to me once upon a time them any of my family now.

‘I'm here Ari, I'm not leaving you again, I swear.’

Tears welled in my eyes, and I heard someone call my name from somewhere else.

‘I'll meet you at midnight in the library. I will explain everything then.’ He kissed my cheek and disappeared into the darkness. I became semi aware of someone trying to stir me.