Chapter 2 - ADRIAN
1144 Words
I am running…Shadows chase me. Angry shadows. They are angry that I’m not stopping. Not crying. Not kneeling. Like hell, I will! Even if I die you bet I’ll take at least one of them down with me. I’m so damn tired of being quiet. Worrying than even a wrong whisper will kill me. To hell with it all!
She appears before me in the dark alleyway. If this whole mess had been a magical fantasy fairy tale, I would have been glad to see her. The enchanting fairy from the forest of dreams. How can a creature so malicious look so serene? She lifts her silver wand. Its tip glitters for a moment and then…A powerful beam of light shoots right at me.
I am dead
I am dead
I am dead
“Addie?” A weak tired voice sounds from the corner. I sigh and suddenly burst out laughing. Of course…One nightmare to another. From being murdered to a dying sister.
“Addie? Are you…”
“I’m fine Sweetie,” I say and sit up, looking around at the messed-up world I am in. A sheet propped on sticks. Three sheets full of holes to lie down under it. One starving child in a grey frock that is worn out. And one helpless teenager.
“Where is Mommy? Did she go to find food?”
My heart breaks. How can I tell Fiona that our mother decided that her sick child was a waste of food and water?
Let her go, Addie…Or I lose you both.
The horrible thing about her words is that I understand. Every single part of it. But… Damn! I’m selfish…I want her with me and nothing, I repeat, nothing can convince me to just…give her up!
“Will Rosa come today?”
I go to her and stroke her hot forehead. She smiles at me and gently places a roll of dirty pieces of cloth into my hand.
“Will you give Miss. Rainbow to Rosa? For being so kind?”
I swallow down a lump that suddenly rises to my throat. “Do you not like her anymore Sweetie?”
The filthy thing is my sister’s only toy. She made it herself of the clothes people threw away.
“Mommy will throw her away. She’ll be scared and sad alone…Without me…”
I place a hand over her little mouth, swiftly blinking away my tears.
“You are not going anywhere,” I say.
“You are a bad bad liar!” She laughs. And I have nothing to say. Nothing that can remotely comfort a seven-year-old who has seen too much.
“Don’t cry, Addie…” She says gently. “Tell me a story. I want to hear one. Talk to me about the Dreamscape. About the Demon of Goodness…”
“The Demon of Goodness!” I laugh. “Siren will be very very angry with you if she hears you calling her that! Fine…I’ll tell you the story again…For the millionth time…”
Fiona closes her eyes. She hugs Miss. Rainbow to her chest and waits.
“Once upon a time, humans began a war.” I begin in my usual overdramatic voice and she smiles. “No one remembers who started it or why. Just that it did. And when it ended almost the whole world was gone. The people who survived came out and saw her in the ashes. A mystical being sent to set things right. All that was left of mankind’s destruction was her. A being sent to bring peace.”
Fiona shakes her head slowly “I don’t like that part.” She bit her lip. “I don’t think that’s right. I want the story to be different.”
“I do too, Fi.”
I run my hand through her matted, dirty brown hair, wishing I can burst into tears and be comforted.
I wish we had food. I wish I could afford medicine for you. I wish…I wish people who had things wouldn’t squeeze out every last bit from people who had so so little…
“Stories…” Fi says suddenly “What was left…were stories.”
“What are you talking about, Fi?”
“Nothing.” She smiles, opening her eyes. “I just don’t like that part.”
I am about to ask her more but suddenly there is a strange chill all around me. Fi starts shivering violently. She opens her mouth to say something but her eyes flutter close. I start to scream her name but…
“I’d rather this be a private conversation, hot-headed human.”
I stand up and turn towards him. The fairy who is always with Rosa. His silver hair is neatly set and giving off a faint glow. His silvery wings that resemble a butterfly flap serenely behind him. His armour is silver as well. It glints as brightly as his sword. The sword with which he cut down our last Chief. I can almost see the blood on it. The blood of many innocents who were cut down because they dared defy Siren.
“You can speak now.” He says with a simple wave of his hand. His cold blue eyes barely hide his contempt.
“You must not be here to kill me,” I say nonchalantly.
“Rosa would never forgive me.” He says, a hand on his sword. “And I’d rather not have children’s screams taint my mind.”
“Don’t you think that’s the most selfish reason not to spill blood?” As I speak, I know I’m treading on dangerous ground. But still…Knight…Self-righteous prick.
“I tend to not debate my morals with a human.” Knight takes his hand off the sword. “Anyway… What I come for is far more important than a petty argument.”
A knot tightens in my stomach at his tone. His eyes are fixed on me. And behind the contempt in them, I see panic, worry, and desperation… I sit down next to Fi again and hold her protectively in my arms.
“What do you want?”
“I want you and your pitiful sister to disappear.”
My body goes numb. My head feels like someone has lodged a big block of ice in it. I want to ask him if he has gone insane but the shock has wrapped its gnarled, rotting hands around my throat.
“I will not have both of you endanger Rosa’s life. She nearly died today because of her pity for things like you. I would kill you but…”
“She would never forgive you!” I spit the words out as the shock deserts me. I glare at him with nothing but disgust in my eyes. My mind tells me that this is the moment to get the hell out but…
He’ll catch up and do what he wants anyway…What can he do that’s worse than…
“So brave of you to corner two defenseless girls in their hellish life. You deserve to be Guardian, Knight!” I scoff. I hold Fi a bit tighter to me and say. “I hope you can justify what you are about to do till the end of your miserable life!”
“I do not care much about what you think of me.” He says and waves both his hands. Bolts of brilliant white shoots from his fingertips towards me and Fi. I feel them wrap around my brain, overtaking every single thought except…
RUN! TAKE HER AND RUN AWAY!
- Writer
