Shadow Seekers

Chapter 2

        There was only silence except for the sound of their feet on the pavement. They walked like that for a few minutes, and Daniel started to think that maybe he had gauged it wrong. Maybe she had really meant no instead. He was debating on whether he should just turn around and go back, or if he should try to prompt her to start. Which he had no clue how he would do that.

            He was about to tell her to go ahead and start, (this being the best way he had come up with to get her to speak), when she informed him, "I'm not sure how long I will be staying. I have a job to do, and don't plan on leaving till it is taken care of."

            Daniel nodded his understanding, then realizing she was not looking at him said, "I understand."

            In response she gave a small mocking laugh. " Oh do you?" she said sarcastically.

            At that point Daniel grabbed her arm and turned her towards him. " I don't why you are acting the way you are." he said, "Especially after I have offered you to stay at my home. I have treated you with nothing but kindness, and yet you don't seem to offer the same in return."

            She stared at him. That same calculating stare she had given him earlier. Daniel was reminded of the phrase, "poking the bear", and realized it might have been best to just take her answer as her not being interested, turn around, and go home.

            At last she spoke, still looking at him she said, "You are correct, and I am sorry. My travel here has been less than comfortable, with little sleep and I am afraid it has caught up with me. Please forgive my rudeness before."

            Daniel had run a few scenarios through his head, and while this was the best one he could have seen, it was not the one he thought was most likely. In his shock it did take him a moment too long to reply, and he saw the uncertainty enter her eyes again. "No, no, no, no" he found himself back tracking, "you're just fine." She gave him a small smile, and at that point turned and started to continue her way back up the street. All Daniel could do was continue to follow her.

            “It is not a pleasant story, you know." She looked at him, and at the sight of the confused look on his face she clarified, "The reason why I'm here."

            His mouth made an "O" shape, and then he looked forward again, as he nodded his head. "Not many of ours are." he said, "No one chooses to be a seeker without being affected by those creatures. Many of us have experienced loss."

            Liza nodded her head, not sure how much she should tell him about her past. How much information would be safe for him to know? How much should she tell him about the reason she was there.

            “I was born September 16, Year 1067 since the Turn." She started, "I will be 26 in a few months. I grew up being the only child in my family. I grew up very lonely. Don't get me wrong, my parents were good parents and they truly loved each other and me. When I came into the picture though, some things changed. My mothers health declined during the pregnancy, and she never fully returned to her original health afterwards.” She sighed then continued. “Most of the time they kept their problems from me. For the first couple years of my life I never realized how sick she really was, and how it affected my father to see it. When I got older it became more apparent that my father blamed me for her declining health."

            Liza sighed as she lifted her head to face the sky and stopped walking. Daniel paused next to her as he waited. She closed her eyes before continuing, "Of course things got worse, not better. My mother spent most of her time in her bedroom. She wasn't able to get up, one of the maids or my father would have to feed her. My father wouldn't allow me to even see her. He would say that he was worried about me making things worse for her."

            Liza released her breath slowly as she opened her eyes, unshed tears made them glisten. “I'm not sure if my mother had enough, and had asked my father for his help, or if he had decided he had had enough. All I know is one day, Maisy, one of the maids came running down the stairs screaming. She had come from my mothers room, and didn't stop running until she had ran out the door, and I couldn't see her anymore. I was eight at the time and had been eating breakfast at the table when it all happened. I walked up the stairs to her room, the curtains were closed as usual, so the room was dark. I couldn't quite see what had happened at first, not until my eyes adjusted did I realize."

            She paused, and bit the bottom of her lip. She could see him staring at her. She could see that he understood the pain that a child would feel at that moment. "My father was sitting in the chair, the one that sat right by my mothers head facing the door. He had a knife in his hands, and it had blood on it. I remember seeing my mothers sheets did too. That's when I ran to her, and I was crying. Through my tears I could barely see my mother, but I heard her say that everything would be alright. That I would be ok."

            She turned towards Daniel as she explained, "It's interesting the things you miss, because you don't want to see them. Because you don't want to believe that they are there. We missed the signs. Partly because we didn't understand how it could have happened, and partly because we didn't want to believe it had happened."

            "What did you miss?" Daniel asked, although he already had a guess as to what it was.

            "The Acedia, the drain, that had attached itself to my mother. It was the reason she was sick. It was living off of her energy, her life, until there wasn't anymore. We weren't sure when or how she came to have it.”

            Liza turned away from him and started walking again. He just followed. Waiting, she was sure he knew the story was not over. "When my father killed my mother, the Acedia came after him. I don't know if it was out of anger, who knows if shadow creatures can even feel emotion, or if it came after him looking for a new host. Either way my father was able to kill it, most likely out of his own anger. He was injured though in the fight, and he relied on me to get him out of the house. I did what I was told. I packed for the both of us, and only when it was all put into carriage did my father finally come out of our home. We left to it burning behind us. It was hard to watch my father burn down the house. I grew up in that house.”

            She gazed off into the distance as she relayed the last eleven years, “My father moved us to a new house, of course. It would have been alright if my mother was there with us. I missed her. My father did not get any better since my mother’s death; I don’t know what I expected. Instead of being angry at me for my mother’s health, he became obsessed with hunting down the creatures that caused her death. He didn't seem to notice anything else but what he was working on. It consumed him."

            “I’m so sorry, Liza.” Daniel said, using his words to comfort her.

            She continued as if she hadn’t heard him, "About two years ago my father took off. Following some other acedia’s trail he thought he had found. I didn't say anything about it. He always would come back a few months later after finding whatever he was looking for. This time though, he didn't come back." She informed him.

            "So are you here to find him?”

            "I just want to find something that will help me figure things out. And on my way, take down any shadow creatures I find. They are the real reasons I lost both of my parents." She stared without seeing, memories flooding her mind.

            Daniel was the one that came to a stop this time. Her story was heartbreaking, like many he had heard before. He could see the anger that boiled in her. It made him wonder how safe it was to work with her when she still held so much rage. There were many that had lost loved ones to the creatures, and anger was normal. This type of anger though could be dangerous. It made her a wild cannon, ready to go off at anytime. Instead of being afraid of what could happen, Daniel could only feel the need to help her. Like he had done with Colin and Serena. He wanted to teach her how to control her anger, and how to make a purpose out of her experiences.

            "Everything alright?" She asked, he assumed because he had stopped walking.

            "Yes." He answered back, "Everything is just fine."