by A. B. Bloom
Mumbled conversation drifted through the sealed doorway. I raised my hand to knock, fully expecting Connor to stop me. He didn’t and I glanced over my shoulder only to find he wasn't there.
I changed my mind about announcing my arrival. I had no idea who was behind the door, so I snuck around the side gate and found my way into the back garden. My breath gushed out of my lungs as I peered into the kitchen.
It was her. Eleanor. My stomach lurched. As I fumbled to make sense of everything around me, I longed for the feel of the secure chain that held me connected to Nick. But it was gone. I’d broken it, because he’d turned out to be someone I wasn’t expecting.
Eleanor was leant against the countertop, her skin pale, her hair lank and hanging in fine strands. I recognised the look. It was the one I’d owned before I’d accessed my hidden Star power.
She was me, before.
I felt pity and remorse even though I didn’t know why she was there.
“What are you doing here?” I gave a jump and spun to face Lauren who stood behind me, her hands firmly placed on her hips, her expression set.
“Oh, thank god.” I rushed at her, grabbing her tight and pulling her into my arms. I hugged her like I thought she may disappear. I didn’t know how she’d remembered me but I was so grateful that she did.
“Who are you and why are you in my friend’s garden?” She wriggled out of my embrace.
My heart sank. “Lauren, it’s me.” I said, but I knew there was little point. There was no recognition within the depths of her eyes.
“That’s nice, Me.”
“No.” I shook my head firmly. “You don’t understand. I’m your best friend.” I waved my hand at the house. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but you and I.” My voice started to choke. “You and I have been friends since we were four.
It was her turn to shake her head. “No, I’ve been best friends with Eleanor since I was four.” Her words were a sharp jab to my stomach. I should have used my energy to feel around me, to be more aware. If I had, then I would have seen her eyes narrow at a shadow behind my shoulder.
I didn’t.
I felt the heavy whack to the side of my head instead.
When I came to, stars darted across my vision. And for the first time in weeks I wasn’t talking about the walking, talking entities that had overtaken my life. No. I could actually see stars flashing across my line of sight. I clutched at my head, tentative fingers searching out a lump the size of a generous goose egg. “Are you okay?” A small voice whispered and I focused through my eyesight to see who was there. It was Lauren, scrunched in the corner of . . . corner of what? Where the hell were we? I blinked a few times and tried to make sense of the few things I could see. My legs were bent on a dusty floor. I groaned as I stretched them out, but panic set in when I found that I couldn’t extend them to their full length. I scuttled back and my spine hit hard metal. That’s when I realised we were in a cage.
A large one. But a cage nonetheless.
“Oh my God.” I lurched forward to Lauren, but the space was tight and I landed on top of her before I could gain my balance. “What happened?” I asked.
“Some guy hit you over the head with an iron bar.” Her fingers sunk into my arms and even though I knew she didn’t have a clue who I was, I took some comfort from the small gesture. “I don’t know how you are alive. He hit you hard”
“Yeah?” I gave my head a gentle shake. My brain rattled like marbles in a glass jar. I could tell it hadn’t been a love tap. “Just lucky I guess. Listen, Lauren.”
I could sense her fear in the air, I didn’t need any of my Star energy to read it. “How do you know my name?”
“It’s complicated,” I explained. “And I’m sorry you’ve been dragged into this again.”
“What? And again, what?”
I struggled to breathe. Although the bars of the cage were wide the space was small and claustrophobia threatened to take hold of my limited grasp on calmness.
A light flickered, illuminating the room and causing us to blink, as our eyesight adjusted. My hand gripped onto hers. “Nice to see we are all getting re-acquainted.” Aaron, or Ash rather, walked into the room and the breath in my lungs evaporated.
How did this happen?
“Who the shitting hell are you?” Lauren screamed through the bars of the cage. I grasped her hand in mine and tried to take control. I didn’t want her involved in this, well, any more than she was.
“Aaron, you bastard.” I hissed, sheltering her behind me. He just clapped his hands.
“Now, young lady, I did not bring you up to speak like that.”
“Go to hell.” My limbs burnt with hatred and the need to lash out.
The only thought I could hold onto was that Connor was somewhere, and that he would find us. I knew I ran away from him, but he wouldn’t leave me for long.
Aaron cocked his head to the side. “Nope, I think I’ve done the hell thing, living with you for sixteen years. Now it’s time to set the balance off kilter.”
I scurried back, bumping into Lauren and he took a step forward. “I’m not the one to tip the scales. It’s not working, the destiny is wrong.”
He clapped his hands. “Is that what they told you?” He laughed and it bounced off the walls surrounding the cage. I hadn’t even looked further than the four walls of metal. Beyond that was an empty warehouse, covered in a film of dust and grime. Splinters of wood scattered the floor and on a chair in the middle of the vast space was Eleanor. She looked like she was sleeping, her head tilted down.
Was this all dejavu? Hadn’t we been through all this?
Aaron placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t move. “You see, Bronte? You aren’t supposed to be the last Star child. Your destiny is something else, something so infinitely boring I can’t even be bothered to tell you. That’s why they haven’t known what to do. Because you aren’t the right girl. Ellie, here is. Lauren must have spotted her in the chair at that point because she started to scream. I wanted to scream too.
What did he mean? How could I not be the last Star child? Well, one of the last ones, we were twins weren’t we?
“It’s all a cock up actually.” He sniggered like we were sharing a joke over Christmas lunch.
Who was I then?
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow move and I breathed a sigh of relief. Connor would get us out of this, I just knew he would. I made sure not to look directly at the movement, not wanting to give away his arrival. I squeezed Lauren’s fingers with renewed hope.
“I’ve got it,” Connor called and I gasped as he stepped out into the light. In his hand he held a slender gold tipped arrow. Part of me almost breathed a sigh of relief. Sun shots could only kill full stars; they wouldn’t harm me. That’s not to say I wanted to find out how much they stung.
“What?” I was at a loss for words. I was at loss for anything. My hands shook and I turned to Lauren who even though she didn’t know who I was, soothed her own fingers over mine.
Connor waved the slender arrow at me and gave me a wink, which made me want to punch him. “It’s destiny, Sweetheart.” Part of me almost breathed a sigh of relief. Sun shots could only kill full Stars; they wouldn’t harm me. That’s not to say I wanted to find out how much they stung.
My heart sank as the enormity of the situation in which I found myself filtered into my addled brain. I’d trusted the wrong person. I’d broken my soul’s connection to Nick.
The call that had made Nick leave so suddenly. It had been a trick. And I’d believed Connor so easily when he’d told me Nick was going to kill Eleanor.
What had I done? Trembling took over my body and I shuddered violently. Connor stepped closer. “Easy, Sweetheart. Don’t ruin all our fun for us.”
Instinct took over. I scrambled to the bars, my knees dragging on the rough stone floor. “Connor, what are you doing? You know this isn’t right, this isn’t the answer.” I pleaded through the cold metal. “This isn
’t who you are.”
“Who I am . . .” He snorted. “You don’t know who I am, hell, Sweetheart, you don’t even know who you are.” He sniggered again and ran the gold arrow through his hands. “And you probably never will.” He gave a small shake of his head and I wanted to hurt him so bad. “I think this might be the end of poor Nick’s punishment. I don’t think you will come back from this.”
“So what do you plan to do, give my energy to Eleanor and then live happily ever after? The world is still ending, one way or the other.”
He flinched. “I just want what’s mine, Bron.” He lowered his voice. “It’s quite simple really.”
“But she’s not yours, no more than any of the others. Your destiny is a joke, Connor. You're supposed to be with the last Star Child but whichever way you look at this war ending, either you or her will die. Can’t you see that? They’ve kept you hanging on, waiting for something that can’t exist.”
Connor slammed the bars causing me to scuttle back. “I’ll let you know who won’t exist, Bron. You. Ever again.” He held the arrow behind his back. “Since the beginning of time we’ve had to listen to the sob story of your fating and now it’s finally over. Thank God for that.”
“I hate you.” Tears welled in my eyes. I hated him taunting me with facts about my past that I didn’t know. Things I would never know. Not now.
He shrugged. “I can live with that.”
Aaron stepped forward and placed his hand on Connor’s shoulder. “Come, lets leave Bron to consider her short future.”
“Connor, wait,” I called him back. He turned. “How long?”
“How long what?” He looked genuinely puzzled. “How long have you sided with him?” My words stung my throat like poison.
Connor and Aaron both burst out with loud laughter and Connor made a show of wiping tears of mirth away from his eyes. “Since the beginning, Sweetheart. Since the beginning.” With his parting words, they sauntered from the warehouse, banging the door shut between them. The room plunged into gloom, leaving Lauren and I sat in the dark, and Eleanor still unmoving, strapped to a chair.
Lauren jerked a little. A spasm of fear. “What’s going on? Why are we locked in a cage together?”
I needed to see her. “Don’t freak out, okay?”
“Too late.”
I smiled a little. I had to. Lauren could always make me smile. I clapped my hands together creating a violet glow that made my heart miss Nick so much it could have shattered into a thousand pieces.
“What is that?” The violet illuminated her face and she looked up at me, her eyes brimmed with tears.
“Do you want the long story or the short?” I grinned at her, it was crazy but I found myself doing it anyway.
“How long do you reckon we have to live?” she asked. I shrugged. “Better make it the short version in case we don’t get to the end.”
I took a deep breath and kept my brightly lit hands steady so she could see them. “I’m half a Star. Those nasty pieces of work are Stars. The sky is under threat of constant darkness unless somehow the war splitting it can be stopped. I don’t know how. Eleanor is half a Star, as well, sort of.” I added. “We are twins. I don’t think she knows.” Lauren’s mouth hung open which would have been quite comical if it wasn’t for our looming demise. I thought of one last thing. “Oh, and you are my best friend. They made you forget me.”
“Well that’s rude.”
I didn't bother to tell her that she’d agreed to it. What would be the point?
“Shall I try and get your memories back?” I didn’t even know how, but I could try, couldn’t I?
Connor had said I was like a nuclear bomb. I guess I could always try and explode my way out of there.
She edged towards me. “What do you have to do?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.” I focused on the violet pulse of light and reached for her hand. “Trust me.”
I didn’t really know what I was asking her to do. I just centred myself on the energy I felt running through my veins. I captured it, harnessed it. I remembered that my own father had set the bounds of her memory, and I told myself that I, his daughter, could be the one to undo it.
The connection between the two of us stretched like a rope bridge, swinging suspended from the edge of two cliffs. It swung and dipped with the passing wind but I held on to both ends, trying to connect us back together again.
In my mind, I ran through a rota of memories. Just like Nick had when we sat on the cliff the other day and he found me a memory of our past for me to watch. But these were all memories of Lauren and I. My sixth birthday and the My Little Pony cake we’d blown the candles out together. Play dates where we’d been in the paddling pool, building forts on the sand pit. I reeled in closer at one memory. Lauren and I were at the park, swinging high. I wouldn't have noticed at the time, but sitting on a bench to the right of the swings was a boy in black. Nick. He was smiling, his attention focused on a newspaper but I could see his unique eyes flick over and check the height of the swing. In my memory his hands caught me as I tumbled from the swing, placing me gently on the floor and then evaporating out of sight.
Another time he'd saved me.
This time he wouldn’t, he couldn't.
Finally, I brought Lauren up to date and showed her the events of the moor just a few weeks before. She gasped as all her missing memories slotted into place.
"You collapsed on me, how could you do that?" She asked.
Through her memory I'd been able to see me crumple to the floor as Nick and I kissed. He disappeared, a flutter of dust left in his wake and I was on the floor. There was screaming and it took me a moment to realise that it was Lauren's scream I could hear. Her scream, in her own memory.
"I'm sorry I've got you involved in this mess."
She looked up at me through damp lashes. "That's what friends are for right?"
“You remember me?"
"Of course. And can I just say I'm pretty sure your mum is going to Homeschool you for sure."
I gasped a half-sobbed chuckle and clutched her close. "I'm glad you're here." My crazed laughter quickly turned to trickles of tears that dripped down my face. I was tired, physically, emotionally, all of it. I was exhausted. Somehow I'd managed to give Lauren back her memories but it had drained me to the core.
"What are we going to do?" She asked.
My head felt heavy and the urge to slump against her shoulder was irresistible. "I don't know," I said. "I just need to shut my eyes for five minutes."
The whites of Lauren's eyes widened in the darkness. "You aren't going to collapse on me again are you?”
I gave her a lazy smile. "No, just sleep. I need some energy for whatever happens next."
I knew that next, I would die, but it didn't seem worth harping on about it.
I leant my head against Lauren and she picked my fingers up on hers.
"Get some rest. You've gotta get us out of here."
I nodded, the pull of sleep already dragging me down.
He clutched at the dirty sheets on the bed. There was no one here and they hadn’t been for a while. All this time trying to stay one foot in front of the chase and at the last hurdle he’d fallen. The trail had gone cold.
She was angry. He didn’t know why, but she was. The connection binding and tethering them together, through life after life, was severed. It was nothing more than tattered fragments. It was weakening him.
He was tired anyway. Holding her energy for longer than he should had been a drain, but now, knowing that she was somewhere he couldn’t feel, it was enough to end him one final time.
He’d been played. He knew that now. Kale. It had to have been. He’d wanted Bronte to find out the truth so that she would hate him for what he’d done to her. When that had failed he’d come up with a new plan and now he didn’t know where she was—so he couldn’t tell her the truth even if he knew what the right words were.
What could he say? That he was sorry? That loving
her had been the only choice he’d ever been able to make?
Bronte.
When he found her he would tell her everything. It was the new promise he would keep. He didn’t know how or what words he could possibly harness to explain the choice he’d made all those many many lifetimes ago, but he he’d find a way.
He slunk down on the bed, his head in his hands. He knew he had to keep searching but this time he wasn’t looking for Eleanor or Ash, he was looking for his soul.
The walls were cold and damp, water trickling down mould and moss. Something skittered over my feet and I kicked it away. A rat. One had been nibbling my right ankle in the night. Now the scabs were itching, a red swelling engorging the skin.
It had been night, I was sure, but then, it was beginning to become hard to tell.
I sighed and rested my head against the rough stone walls. My hair stuck to my skin, grime and dirt pasting my body with a revolting layer of grease.
I guess they thought I would be able to magically clean myself. Surely that’s what a witch could do?
I shook my head, the tears burning along the edge of my eyelashes.
I was no witch.
I’d made a mistake and told Ginny Baker that I sometimes could feel people around me, people I couldn’t see.
The next morning they’d come for me.
Today was my trial.
I knew witches didn’t survive trials. They weren’t meant to.
“You know you could get out of here if you wanted.” I jumped at the voice. There was no one in my cell. I’d been alone for days as they tried to round up evidence against me. I peered through the gloom to the bars. A girl was there, finely dressed, her ruby gown illuminating her pale skin. My own sackcloth shift rubbed against my skin as I leant forward. She shouldn’t be here. This jail was no place for a girl of high birth. The screams at night would give her nightmares for the rest of her life.