The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “And the second Quarter Moon?

  On this second Quarter Moon, the white moonstone encourages the wave of calm in these fraught seas. It carries with it the energy needed from this moon, as the height of this power you will gain through strength of mind and will. It will aid in stimulating psychic perception and vision in this world and that of the dream realm you hold the key too. Learn from past lessons and this moon will magnify one's emotions into a powerful weapon of imprisonment of the mind.

  Train yourself to do this and you will find Nightmares cannot hurt what they cannot control.

  Now I knew what I had to do and why the Oracle had given me this bracelet. She must have foreseen my journey and knew I would need its guidance. But if that was the case, then why hadn’t anyone come to rescue me or even before any of this, why had she not warned me about the kidnapping so that I might have prevented it?

  There were just too many questions like this and more than enough for me to go a little insane. I asked the book over and over but other than these two passages it would tell me no more. Not even on the other stones, so that I might have a small idea on what was left to come.

  I remember her saying that it was only on the Last Quarter Moon that I would find Draven and this thought had me in tears. Was I really to go through so much more before I would finally find him and even more importantly would I be strong enough by then to fight for him?!

  “Yes! I must.” I said aloud wiping away useless tears. I looked up from my helpless huddle and saw the Quarter Moon in the centre of my window. It was like a beacon of hope and from that moment on I knew what I needed to do with this time…

  Make myself stronger.

  Eleven days went by and if it hadn’t been for Percy, I knew I would have been dead. The only food that I had still only came to me at night but the effects of it could be seen in my protruding ribcage and collar bone. I had lost an alarming amount of weight in the almost three weeks I had been here. However, in all that time not once had an attempt been made to rescue me.

  It was as though not one person knew where I was and even through the book no-one had contacted me. I used to hold it to my heart at night and with all my mental strength, try and get a message out there. I would sometimes feel something, like words trying to get through, but then when I looked down the words would already be fading. It was both so exhausting and soul destroying that after six days of this I gave up.

  I might have given up the idea of anyone contacting me but I still held on to hope that someone would still rescue me. I had no choice, as the alternative of being sold was far too scary to face. So instead, I used my time wisely like the book had suggested I do and that night it turned out to be a definite blessing. See, when Gastian said that I would regret my attack on him, he hadn’t been wrong as I discovered what powers he still held.

  Percy had tried to caution me but I had been too wrapped up in what the book had said about the moonstones to concentrate on his warnings. That night, after Percy had left me my food, when I quickly started to devour it, it turned out that it left me just as quickly when I had to throw it all back up violently.

  As with the spiders, Gastian had piled my room full of delicious looking food after I finished my meal that had me salivating again. I forgot myself and started to pick up hot meat pies that once you bit into them would be filled with blood coming from the heart inside. I would drop the pie and grab a jug full of lush cool water only to find urine as it hit the back of my throat burning.

  I then looked around the floor and suddenly every single bit of food was infected. From the rotting fruit to the maggots inside crusty bread or black flies writhing around on top of roast meat. Then came the large brown rats living inside large cakes and the disgusting human body parts made to look like normal food.

  I retched into my bucket over and over until nothing was left but the bile I continued to bring up in spit. This was all made worse when I could still see it covering the floor of my cell, even hear the rats munching away on whatever their mouths feasted on. Then I would just end up heaving all over again.

  I wanted to start screaming, begging for someone to come and get me out of there! I even gripped onto the bars, ready to shout out but then I stopped myself as I cried into my hands. I opened my eyes to see the white Moonstone with its wire moon shape holding it to the cord and knew what I needed to do. So I did what I had done countless times before, only this time I would work and work until I passed out if need be, but I would do it so much that pushing these nightmares back became second nature to me.

  So for eleven days that’s precisely what I did. I trained my mind into a weapon against weapons. A shield to those who wished to use their powers of mind control against me, so that when the next night came and with it a new nightmare, I was ready for it. So for five days I fought off everything Gastian threw at me until one day they just stopped completely. I didn’t know if this was down to him giving up or that my mind had become so powerful he just couldn’t get through anymore. Whichever it was, this imprisonment had given me two things…

  One was power and the other was Percy.

  When it came to my little friend, I still didn’t know his story and I decided not to push for it as I knew he would tell me in time. I also found our limited time we had to talk was the highlight of my day as he would ask me questions about my life. He seemed fascinated by hearing me talk about Draven, as he had heard a lot about the King but never met him. I think it really hit home about Draven’s true position in Percy’s world when he seemed star struck just listening to me talk about him. Almost like me popping round to a neighbour’s house and telling them I was off out to have a pint with Johnny Depp dressed as Jack Sparrow!

  But our time, as I said, was limited mostly to the nights when it was safer for Percy to spend time unbeknown to Dimme aka, Skin’diana Bones. So when he walked in now alone in the light of day I was instantly worried.

  “Percy, what’s wrong?”

  “I don’th have mucth thime but wanthed you to know hhe’s coming for you.” His words were panicked and even more slurred than usual in his agitated state.

  “Who, Gastian?” He nodded looking round and then pulled out a ring of keys ready to get me out.

  “Whoa, what are you doing?”

  “I am setthing you ffree.” I knew this was my one chance here but something didn’t feel right and I knew in my gut what it was.

  “No Percy, don’t.” He stopped and looked up at me, no longer trying to hide his face.

  “Why noth?”

  “Because there is no way to do this without them knowing it was you and without knowing we can get out of here together safely, I won’t risk you getting caught and punished.” I didn’t care if this was my one shot at freedom, at the expense of a friend’s life I wasn’t willing to risk it!

  He started to fiddle with the key and try again to open the door until I put my hand on his to stop him.

  “Percy no! Please, don’t do this…there has to be another way.”

  “There isn’th time, thhey come for you now.” He said, his hand starting to shake.

  “Then let them take me and I will try and get away at this auction thing, but I refuse to do it now…do you trust me, Percy?”

  “Yesth” He nodded and I pulled the key from the lock and handed it back to him through the bars. I then fishes in my pockets until I found Draven’s fathers coin, as it was one of the things not yet taken from me.

  “Here take this, it is something precious to me and I want you to keep safe until I see you again and Percy…” I paused as I placed the coin in his hand to then keep hold of it when I said,

  “If you let me do this my way and I promise you… I promise you my friend… I will find a way for us both to come out of this safely.” He looked ready to cry but shook his head anyway for another yes and then ran from the room before I saw the first of his tears fall.

  “Oh, Percy.” I said aloud. I now knew the lengths that Percy would go to free me a
nd when someone risked their life for yours, that friendship was immeasurable!

  It wasn’t long before they came for me and with Dimme being my main tormentor in all this, it was no surprise that he was front row with a beaming smile slapped on his face! Of course, it was Gastian who was leading the demonic mob and he too was looking especially pleased with himself.

  “So, it’s the big payday today then?” I asked picking dirt from my nails trying to look uninterested, when deep down inside I was just hoping when the time came that I wouldn’t start screaming like a little girl who wants her mamma!

  “It is indeed parasite, so it’s time to get you presentable, as I am not sure I will even get ten pounds for you in that state, although if it were left up to me I would gladly keep you in this cesspit where you belong.” I schooled my anger at his words and said on a laugh instead,

  “Well, I am facing a room full of shit for brains!” At this Dimme reclaimed his trade mark angry blotches and Gastian sneered at me, making my work here complete.

  “Get in there and hold her down!” Gastian ordered as he pulled out a syringe and started to draw liquid from a small glass bottle. The cell finally opened and the demon horde filed in making me shoot from the bed and back into a corner.

  “NO!” I screamed as they all lunged for me at once. I tried to escape them but it was no use, as all I could do was squirm around in their flaky hands.

  “GET OFF ME!” I screamed as their already bruising hold tightened painfully.

  “Hold her down!” I tried to twist but it was no use as my face was slammed down to the floor, so my cheek rested against the dirty stone. My arms were held back at a painful angle and I could no longer move without fear of breaking something. So all I could do was wait for the stab of the needle and the drugs to override my system, rendering me unconscious.

  And for once…

  I welcomed it.

  Chapter 50

  The Auction.

  The next time I opened my eyes it was to the sight of red darkness. It took me a moment to bring my senses back under my control and realise what I was faced with. I started by blinking my eyes but even that felt weird at first. My lashes kept tickling on something that was around my face but it wasn’t a blindfold. I managed to push away enough of the grogginess to focus on the dark red blur in front of me and in doing so, I saw thin black bars in front of some sort of red material that was only letting in a small amount of light.

  “Where am I now?” I whispered to myself. I was just managing to come through the rest of the effects of the drugs that seemed a lot heavier than last time. It made wonder if they had to give me a few shots in the time it took them to get me here…wherever here was exactly?

  I tried to sit up and when it felt like my brain was going to dribble out of my nose, I raised my hands to my head to find them shackled together in a pair of ornate silver cuffs that fit snug to my wrists.

  “What the…?” I said following the thick chain attached to them all the way up to the top of the strange cell I seemed to be in. The chain wasn’t pulled taut at the moment, but hung loose around the floor which I was sat on. High above me was something I couldn’t really make much sense of. It seemed like a swinging metal bench like you would find hanging from a tree in a garden. That was all I could make out from down here, but it led me to follow the thin metal bars that went up into what looked like a cage in the shape of a Japanese pagoda. In fact, it kind of started to look like…

  “It can’t be…a birdcage?” As soon as I said it the more I really saw that it did, in fact, look like a giant birdcage with a swing hanging in the middle of it.

  “This does not look good.” I said as I saw the chain attached to the very top of the domed roof which had another smaller roof in the centre, exactly like those old antique birdcages you find people using for quirky ornaments. And for God’s sake, my own mother had one with a plant growing from it in her conservatory! Well, if I ever got out of here alive, then that thing would be finding itself in the skip!

  When I finished examining my unusual surroundings, someone must have turned up the lights as I could now make out more and discovered what part I was to play in the birdcage and yep, you guessed it... I was the damn bird!

  I can’t say I was displeased to wake and find I no longer smelled like I had washed in a compost heap with a rotted fish for a sponge and left to dry like a wet dog. Although, now being clean did feel beyond good but did beg the question as to who had cleaned me? This gave me chills and it wasn’t just down to my bare arms, which I kept hugged around my belly.

  I had been put into a massive dress all made entirely from feathers. It had a swan white corseted top that laced at the front, leaving too much cleavage on view for my liking. The feathers reached up to a high point over each breast and then fitted tight down the waist to join the skirt. There was a wide white satin sash that hung around the waist and tied in a floppy bow behind my back. But it was the skirt that was truly incredible and also ridiculously huge!

  The top layer to the skirt was made from long black feathers all hanging downwards in a graceful way and finished on a curve around the sides, then fell longer at the back. Then came the underskirt which was a mass of layer upon layer of large white ostrich feathers that fluffed out all around me and went way beyond my feet when I finally stood up. It was as stunning as it was crazy being dressed as a giant bird, but I had to admit that I was happy I didn’t have some over the top showgirl feather head dress, straight out of Vegas, to go with it!

  No, instead my hair had been styled and swept back in a side parting and then pinned under, creating volume to the back with what little hair I now had. Over this was a single white ostrich feather held in place like a headband with what felt like jewels attached to one side.

  I couldn’t see my hair, only feel it to know this was the style and it was the same with the mask that had been also pinned under my hairline to stay in place. I felt around my eyes and knew this was the reason for the weird sensation on my face when I had first woken up. My lashes would brush the top of the eye holes in the mask, telling me I also had makeup on my lashes to make them longer. I could feel the feathers along the mask that was a perfect moulded shape for my face and when I looked down at my nose, I saw the feathers were black. Simple, but elegant, ballet shoes in white were added to the costume and their ribbons were tied around my ankles keeping them firmly in place.

  After I had finished looking around at my new crazy situation, it didn’t take me long to discover what was happening as I heard the sounds of crowded footsteps all beneath me. It sounded as if someone had just opened the door and people of the masses were now all flooding in. I wanted to move but I was too afraid to, so that no-one was aware that I was now awake.

  I still couldn’t see anything other than the red glow from the light behind the material, but the noise of people was getting louder by the second. Did they know I was in here? For some reason, I didn’t think if I started screaming blue murder that people would come running to my aid.

  So here I was, dressed like I was playing a part in Swan Lake, now about to go up for a sick human auction! I waited for the sound of the crowd to calm down as I knew they must have now taken their seats, considering I could no longer hear chair legs being moved along the floor. It’s amazing what your other senses can pick up when you can no longer rely on your eyes and you concentrate enough. For example, I could smell dust and old metal. There was also a chill in the air and that, combined with the echoing sound of people chatting, told me that I was most likely in a large open space, high above the ground. But I was only left to speculate as the Auction was about to begin.

  “Good evening to you all on this fine night. I would like to welcome you to this year’s collective auction.” A round of applause sounded and also some thudding of feet where others were obvious getting more excited.

  “As you will see in your catalogues handed to you at the door, we have a wide range of rare pieces on offer with also a surpri
se last minute addition to our collection. Which I think you will all agree is a most treasured find indeed and one held in the upmost secretive of circles.” This part brought on a lot of ‘Mmm’s’ and ‘Ahhh’s’ as I could imagine they were all looking up at the covered cage I sat chained to.

  “Right, then let us begin.” I heard more shuffling and then,

  “Starting with lot 23, here as you can see held up on my left is the rarest of all the Pokemon cards. This particular one was never released in English and only four are said to exist in the world. I have a starting bid on the table of 15,000 dollars, do I hear 16,000?” I could barely believe my ears and actually coughed out my shock on hearing I was being sold in the same auction as a bloody Pokemon card! Ok, so getting my whole priorities mixed up I couldn’t help but think… ‘I’d better get a higher bid for me than a stupid piece of card!’

  I listened to the auctioneer reeling off figures and upped the price until it finally sold for $25,000.

  “Next is lot 19 the iPhone 4S Elite Gold. This darling phone is made by Stuart Hughes and is designed with 500 internally flawless diamonds that total over 100 carats. The Apple logo itself has over 50 diamonds. And if that is not enough for you, then the navigation button has a 7.4 carat single-cut internally flawless natural pink diamond, which as you all know is extremely rare. But alas, that is not all, as it also comes with the chest which is made from solid platinum with original pieces of bones from the T-Rex…shall I start the bid at say 9 million.”

  “What!” I couldn’t help myself from shouting…were these people crazy?! Luckily I don’t think people were too concerned with me as the noise of the bidding was underway. This ridiculously expensive phone reached 11.5 million and sounded as though it went to someone who could only grunt…well for that price, I hoped the guy got free calls for life included!