The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

  We continued walking towards the main building ahead and the smell of coffee and baked goods came from the numerous plates sat in front of customers enjoying a late day break. It was as if we had stepped into a French main street. People took pictures of the stunning architecture and a group of young girls were all daring each other to run in between the lines of water.

  I looked around all the buildings that formed a square which could have been seen from space it was that huge! (Ok, so maybe a slight exaggeration but you catch my drift… it was damn big!)

  “We are never gonna find it in this place.” I said feeling my shoulders slump with defeat. I even felt the tears of frustration start to seep up from the worry I had on lock down.

  “Hey.” Sigurd said softly before turning me to face him. He gripped my chin between his thumb and forefinger to lift my gaze to his. I saw the snake ring glow under the shadow of his big hood and his other hand rose to run the back of his knuckles down my cheek. His open palm came to rest on the side of my neck and he tugged me to his chest as the first tear fell. I felt his head lower and his lips first kissed the top of my head. Then he whispered tenderly,

  “We will find the heart my øjesten, this I will promise you now.” I nodded at his soft words of comfort and his fingers tensed at the column of my neck briefly. He let me go and I leant back to look up at him.

  “But how?” I questioned in a small voice.

  “Give me the book.” I did as he asked and dug into my bag which was strapped across my chest. I located the book, slapped it into his waiting hand and said,

  “Do your thing, big guy.” This delivered me a wink I could barely see and a cocky smile that showed the hint of fang. Briefly it made me wonder what it was with Demons and fangs but I didn’t think now was the time for inappropriate questions.

  Sigurd’s large hand held the back of the book easily in one hand, whilst the other was placed over the raised leather snake on the top.

  “Ojentaa Ouroboros.” (Means ‘Reach out’ in Finnish)

  I watched as the tiny shadows under his hand crept out cautiously under the light of day before flowing like silk under water into the heart of the book. Sigurd shuddered and my reaction became the domino effect doing the same. We both ended up taking a step back at the same time but for different reasons, as his was to prevent what had already started happening…mine was to get away from it.

  But I was too late.

  I closed my eyes, not because I wanted to but because I had no choice in the matter. After a few seconds the darkness behind my closed lids released its hold, but soon I wished for that darkness back. My vision cleared into my truest nightmare, so that I couldn’t stop the scream that tore from my soul. I looked around my basement prison and for a second thought I was back with Morgan. But no, this was so much worse, if that was even possible. See, it wasn’t that experience that I feared the most, although that may be surprising considering what he put me through. Ever since I was seven and transformed into a human with extra abilities of supernatural sight I had the very real fear of one day being committed. The terror of living the rest of my days in a mental asylum was a haunting prospect and it was more than enough to keep my mouth shut on anything I ever saw.

  But now…

  The room was just like one I had seen before, a small square that held nothing more than a slither of a metal bed and walls void of any feeling. Well, at least it wasn’t padded, I thought without humour. I looked to the heavy iron door, thinking that the frame length locks were massive overkill. What did they think I was going to do…hulk out?

  I got up from the cobbled floor and blinked a few times at the unexpected. Wasn’t it usual for places like this to be all stainless steel and cold tiles smelling of disinfectant? If anything this place had a damp stone and mossy smell. I brushed the dirt from my jeans and stood wrapping my arms around my belly for comfort.

  “Hello?” I whispered as a way to test the waters. I heard muffled footsteps from behind the door and the window behind me let through a slither of moonlight, enough for me to see the small square in the centre of the heavily bolted door anyway. It held three bars and was just above my head in height. I tensed my fingers into a fist and then released them as I decided I needed to see where I was. It looked like the same prison I had seen in Draven’s temple, holding a very different female prisoner.

  I slowly approached the door and my heart thundered in my chest as though I was walking through a haunted house waiting for a ghostly figure to walk past me. I reached out with stretched fingertips to feel the condensation dripping down the dark metal. When nothing happened and no sounds could be heard, I braved getting closer. I took another step until I could take no more and I lifted up to my tiptoes. It wasn’t enough to see so I gripped onto the bars and held still. Each movement I made had to end in pause, making sure that the result was still silence.

  My grip tightened and I started to lift myself up whilst at the same time putting my feet to the door in order to push myself higher. Thankfully, the rubber on my trainers was enough to stop my toes from sliding down, keeping my grip in place. I looked through the bars and scanned the room beyond. What I found chilled me beyond the bone. I found the back of my own face staring back at me.

  My long hair still remained but was matted and dirty. Mascara created black tears of panic as I stared down at arms covered in blood. I was wearing a wedding dress torn at the shoulder and a tear sliced in the bodice.

  “DON’T HURT HIM!” I screamed in the middle of the room as I spun without reason. My grip turned painful on the bars as some other part of me just knew that I was staring into the future.

  “Oh God.” I whispered but that was when the other me had finally found her focus. Her head snapped round and then she was gone. I took in a premature breath of relief that was short lived.

  “AH!” I screamed out as my own terror filled eyes appeared right in front of the door’s window. I let go and fell backwards on my backside with a painful thud that would definitely be painted an unappealing shade of blue in the foreseeable future. I shook my head and in an angry swipe at being so weak with the fresh pain, I ran the back of my hand across my face so as not to get dirt in my eyes.

  “What do you want?!” I shouted feeling betrayed by my own self. The other me looked both sad and evil at the same time. My blackened eyes still streamed with tears but this time they looked angry.

  “You killed the one I love!” She shouted back and I flinched at the verbal slap.

  “I…I…”

  “You…you…KILLED OUR LOVE!” The vision of me screamed out the end in a demonic voice that was a fleeting memory in the back of my mind. That voice…I knew that voice…who…?

  As I tried to get my mind back in time down a road of demonic discovery, the other me had clearly had enough. She uncurled her bloody fingers and dropped behind the door, no longer in sight. I got up gingerly and ran back to my place at the door.

  “Wait!” I shouted and lifted myself up once more but by the time I got there she was gone. The room beyond was empty and as I no longer had a mirror image to fixate on, I could take in the rest of the room. It was soon confirmed that this was indeed the room I’d walked into all that time ago in the Temple. But when I looked behind me I saw the window and wondered how. The Temple was situated deep under Afterlife but there the moon shone, just peeking out behind the clouds.

  This was the thought that brought on the change. The room started to spin and some aspects of my cell started to morph into another room. I felt a speck of something land on my cheek and I raised my hands to smudge the ash that rested there. I rubbed my fingertips together and examined the black mark that formed from my actions. This was when I looked up to see dirt raining down from the ceiling and the walls started to move back. They then wrapped around forming a circular space with the stones shrinking into smaller blocks.

  The floor was soon covered in not just soot but also leaves and dirty trodden straw. The window arched and elongated i
nto a wider slit in the tower room the space had transformed into. Even the door ahead of me folded in on itself and just as I took a step to escape, iron bars, the thickness of my wrist, shot up from the ground like the fountains at Somerset House. What was left was half the room on my side in a semicircle, barricaded by a wall of bars.

  “What the…?” That message was left unfinished as I spun around to see my own form once again, slumped over a bed of straw sobbing. I knew this was a different time, as my hair was as I saw it in the mirror this morning, short and black. I decided to slowly approach and just before my reaching hand found her bare shoulder, she turned abruptly, scaring me. It took a startled moment for me to realise that the Keira in the future wasn’t staring at me but past me. I felt a chill creep over me as I took in her frightened gaze and readied myself for what I would soon see.

  I took in a shuddered breath and looked round at the bars, not knowing what I would see in this nightmare realm. It seemed both mine and my future self both had the same urges as a double scream pierced the night. I stumbled back enough to hit the far wall before I fell due to my unsteady legs. The sight before me terrified me enough to take the strength from muscle and sanity from mind.

  Gorgon Leeches filled the space beyond the bars, alongside other creatures of Hell I hadn’t seen before. The tall flaky skin bodies flanked the Leeches and each one carried a weapon in the sickest of ways. Each blade or spear had the ends stuck firmly in their own flesh with darkened ash being the only sign of affliction. Each one had their eyes rolled back into their head and the one coming closer had his weapon of a steel bar rammed through his cheeks, keeping them locked painfully tight together. It caused his lips to form an elongated O making its entire face lengthen in a nauseating stretch.

  The closer they came to the bars the more my panicked mind told me to do something.

  “NO! SIGURD HELP US!” I was the only one shouting the plea of hope as only I seemed to know this vision for what it was…an after effect from Sigurd’s dark bond with my soul. I had to believe that! There could be no other logical reason for what we were seeing. At my desperate cry for help the walls started to vibrate, but I knew not a single stone moved under the helpless hold I had on the wall. It was just like when your vision blurs when you shake your head violently. It started to knock my equilibrium off course as the room continued its visual assault on my senses, but one important thing managed to penetrate through the fog.

  A figure started to step though as the minions parted and the other me growled out her obvious hatred. I couldn’t see the man clearly but what I could see was my reaction to him. My mirror image shot from the floor. I stood back and watched as she faced the man who came closer. At this point the room moved in such a rapid way, that my head pounded trying to keep up with their movements. I could feel that Sigurd was desperately trying to get me out of here and the only thing hanging onto this madness was me. It was a crazy need that kept me rooted to the spot, but somewhere in my subconscious I knew what it was doing and I was about to find out why.

  “Ah, my disgusting parasite, how nice to see you again.” I could just make out my fists clench at my sides at the sound of his voice and I looked down momentarily to see my own doing the same. It was clear my captured self was in one mind about what she would like to be doing to the man stood in front of her. I couldn’t recognise him thanks to the blurred edges Sigurd’s efforts were creating, but even the sound of his voice was sending revulsion to pebble my skin. The future’s Keira took a step forward and the room stepped it up a few notches on vibrations, making it next to impossible to see anything other than us two. But it was one name spoken that finally brought down the walls to this nightmare,

  “Gastian!”

  As soon as the name passed her lips the room cracked and light poured through the walls. It was blinding bright and I raised my arm across my eyes to protect myself. It was only when I felt a soft touch from a big hand trying to pry my arm away that I felt comforted for the first time.

  “It’s alright now Keira, you’re back with me.” Sigurd’s warm breath travelled my neck and I quickly felt a strong presence at my back. He pulled my arm down and I braved opening my eyes. He was holding me from behind with his arms crossed over my torso. It took me a moment to gather my bearings and when I did I realised that Sigurd must have carried me to somewhere more private for me to finish my blood bound freak out. We were in a less busy part of the courtyard, hidden either side by the many floors of Somerset house.

  “I’m back.” I whispered as though waking from a deep sleep.

  “I’ve got you, sweet øjesten.” Sigurd rumbled softly behind me and pulled me in tighter. I don’t think I was mistaken when hearing the relief in his voice and I relaxed further into him as a result. We both needed it, plain and simple.

  We stayed this way for the silent minutes it took for both our heart rates to slow. Then I ruined the peace when a thought took precedence over what I had just been through.

  “The book?” I both felt and heard the deep sigh he released before he let me go. He took a step back and then turned me to face him slowly. His actions had me bracing for the worst.

  “What is it…no answer…or maybe she was just engaged?” I said hoping injecting a bit of humour would dull the disappointment I was almost sure was coming. So much so, I was surprised when he grinned and then said,

  “She left you a message…Tricks?” I couldn’t help my reaction when I launched up into his arms giving him no choice than to catch me. He laughed at me and I turned my head to kiss his cheek.

  “Thank you my friend.” I whispered through the material of his hood where his ear would be. His hold tightened for a second then he lowered me until my feet found the cobbled floor again.

  “Are you alright?” He asked me and I nodded, knowing he was referring to the darkness his powers took me to. I turned to move, giving space to our intimate moment but his hand struck out and pulled me back to him. He lowered his hidden forehead to mine and declared severely,

  “He will not take you, Keira…I will not let him take you from me.” I shuddered under the strength of his vow and found I could only nod slightly. The grip he had on the whole side of my neck loosened after he had reined in his strong emotions and I was able to keep the space between us to a few steps.

  The more time we spent with each other meant the more dangerous the territory we trod on. I decided to clear my throat as a way of bringing us back to the task at hand.

  “Please tell me the message she left wasn’t level impossible on the Oracle’s version of puzzle cracking?” Sigurd grunted before saying,

  “Take a look for yourself.” This was said in a way that held no doubt, that yes, it was going to give me a headache. Sigurd pulled the book from behind his jacket as though he had kept it tucked in the waistline of his dark, belted jeans. I was about to take it and then hesitated a moment as I remembered what had happened not long ago, thanks to that book.

  “It’s alright Keira, that won’t happen this time.” I looked up at him with wide eyes and the guilt I found in his own gaze made me feel bad for him. I didn’t say anything but as I took the book from him I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. I opened it up, finding the right page straight away as it was the only one with any words written.

  To my dear Tricks,

  I hope you enjoyed your fun faired Trip,

  Cause now it’s time for hearts to be found,

  And for you to bite your Lip.

  The beats maybe long gone,

  For life in the Deadhouse,

  Now is the time to grab a King,

  And play the happy Spouse.

  Number 26 is facing you Ahead,

  And a door with no number is not a coal Shed,

  So take a deep breath and greet the Dead,

  To find the still heart of one Paul Whitehead.

  To your left is a name you know well,

  But the date 33 won’t get you into Hell,

  So move away and lo
ok for another,

  One that speaks fondly of the Queen Mother.

  Skull and cross bones isn’t down to a wooden leg,

  For he was a doctor, so no need to beg,

  For he doesn’t hold the organ that you seek,

  It’s not even on this side, so go take a peek.

  So leave the doctor alone

  And look around the space,

  For once you find the ½ topped cross,

  You need to look under the pace.

  Look to a number 7 set in pale stone,

  The one you seek will rightfully sit upon the 7th throne,

  Your lovely name you will no doubt find,

  And an old withered heart lays waiting behind.

  After reading the cryptic message aloud, it was as though I could feel the hope draining away with every word spoken. How on earth were we going to find anything that referred to these clues in a place this big?! I was just about to ask this out loud when I saw a group of people all following someone with a clipboard, across the courtyard coming closer towards us near the big bronze statue. That’s when it hit me and I looked up to Sigurd to say,

  “Honey, we are going on a tour!”

  Chapter 36

  Geek Man Walking

  After walking into the main building and bursting into a fit of childish giggles thanks to the name above the door, we received our tickets for the last tour of the day. We had some time to kill and after seeing the last guy I watched Sigurd take care of, I was glad that wasn’t meant in the literal sense! We decided to grab a coffee (tea for me of course) and sit down to wait. This I thought was the perfect opportunity to ask Sigurd about my dark dream.