Grey October (East Hollow Chronicles)

by Charlotte Munro

  ‘Well, you were so boastful that leaving your pendant there would bring you out of your slump. Why don’t we see, shall we?’ Alphie chuckles, dark and mysterious. His dark quiff of hair falling over his eyes as he tilts his head back, catching the murder of crows fluttering by, followed by the fire-lit words that read Victor: Malphas.

  ‘I could do with a few human girls.’ Kai’s eyes light up and they look more like molten silver than the opaque grey stone as normal. He flexes his arms, turning around so that he is facing the thrones, his eyes do not look up though, they keep attuned on me, a smirk dancing upon the side of his mouth, kinked and mistrustful – a human must never trust the smirk of a Demon, least they forget their mind, their heart and their soul.

  ‘There’s that club, isn’t there?’ Alphie muses, the cogs and wheels turning faster and faster in his mind, I can practically hear them. His eyes are glazed in thought before finally after a deliberating few moments, he turns to me and I feel the burn of his skin on my shoulder where he places his hand.

  ‘We’ll go there. We’ll have a bit of fun and you can see whether or not that your pendant has found its way around someone’s pretty little neck.’

  ‘When was the last time you had that sort of fun, anyway?’ Kai’s laugh is as low and devilish than ever, the glint of his silver coin eyes suggesting he is just as bored as I am inside these infernal walls. And like me, he cannot wait to stretch his wings.

  ‘So long ago, I might have just forgotten.’ A burden slips from my shoulders with my laugh. The witch’s words, they crumble into dust in my mind, lost in the labyrinth of knowledge. She is wrong. I will not fall for some girl, I will not ruin myself over a human. I am to be a Great King, to sit upon my father’s throne and plot and scheme and show Satan that he has made the right choice. I know that those words at least hold some truth. I will take my father’s place, but until then, I can stretch my wings, step upon the human world and mingle. Bind a few contracts, capture a few souls, it’s all in a night’s work. Then I can lounge with my brethren and watch the hilarity of humans as they fumble and fall after their emotions.

  ‘Avalon.’ Alphie states, this time he turns and faces me with a brightness in his eyes and a smirk tainting his normally plain lips. ‘That’s what it’s called. We’ve been there before. Last time I think it was Kaiser that managed to wrap four girls around his arms at once.’

  ‘Six, actually. My record.’ Kai’s words cut through Alphie’s aura of recollection, biting through with a proud and egoistical laugh.

  ‘Maybe this time, Evan will find himself a nice little toy to play with.’ Alphie settles me with a long, hard glare and I’m sure there is a little twinge of jealousy in his eyes but I overlook it entirely, just crossing my arms over my chest and turning back around to face the thrones. I meet my father’s gaze, feel him bear into me, but I answer with a sideward smirk and a voice that could melt the very gold railings behind me.

  ‘Oh, I’ll find a toy alright.’ I keep my father’s gaze, not once deferring from his challenge. ‘That’s a promise.’

  ‘The Great Princes of Hell: debauchery, sin and heartache. East Hollow should keep their girls inside.’ My laughter merges with both of my brethren’s as we start to walk down the staircase and out of the basin, occasionally glimpsing Nebiros as he limps alongside the infirmary who are patching him up with stitches and salves. His stony eyes hood with defeat, his bruised face, bleeding side. He was better off having the fight to the death and not yielding, for the ridicule he will have will leave him wanting death.

  ‘Oh, we’ll break some hearts.’ Kai murmurs, his smirk never leaving his pursed lips.

  ‘We’ll take some souls.’ Alphie is surprisingly jovial with his chuckle as he rests each hand on both mine and Kaiser’s shoulders.

  ‘And we’ll show East Hollow a good time.’ I feel the burden completely leaving me as I agree, with my own set of words tainting the air with a brash and airy confidence.

  ‘And that’s a Demon Promise.’ We all say at once, as we disappear and merge into the crowd of nobles making their way back to the castle.

  Ellison –

  The clouds flicker from a dark grey to a deep navy as the night slinks in. The damp scent of dead leaves and sodden dirt meets my senses as I walk through the dying lit cemetery. What grey clouds part, let the dying rays of sunset light my way as I tread carefully, so slow that it feels as though I am not moving at all. Madison’s grave is just beneath the worn oak tree. The shade gives it more of an ominous, foreboding look as I look over, the crust of orange leaves rot and crunch into the gravel beneath me as I step, the crunch quite refreshing in the gloomy silence of the cemetery.

  In my arms I cradle the bouquet of pink roses, wrapped with a pink lace covering. I shield them from the wind that picks up, taking hold of some stray leaves and plucking them from the trees that dot the outer edge of the graveyard. The eyes of the stone Angels look menacing as I pass them, not wanting to catch their eye, I increase my pace, my eyes instead finding the onyx monolith beneath the oak.

  ‘Madi.’ My voice squeaks, threatening to break into a sob, I already fight the tears that well within my eyes as I stand in front of my sister’s gravesite. I kneel down, not caring that the damp grass melts through my trousers, I’m already too cold to care, too upset to worry about a few muddy grass stains. Cradling the roses, I lean them forward, careful as though they are a new-born child, I place them just in front of her gravestone. The dampness has worn away the pristine edge of the square stone, but the golden letters still remain as new as the day it had been set down.

  Rose, Madison

  1996 – 2012

  A beautiful Rose amongst the Thorns

  I run my fingers along the etched words, the slick stone slippery, and ice cold against my skin. I place my whole hand against the onyx monolith, closing my eyes and remembering her last few words.

  ‘I want rows and rows of rose bushes, Elli. In every colour. I want ivy trellis along the red bricks and the old shutters I want pristine white. It will be our house, Elli. No, Mum, no Dad, just us.’

  I picture the very garden she dreamt of. The vivid green grass chequerboard mown. The stone bird baths and ivory seats just overlooking a quaint little fish pond. The garden is surrounded with rose bushes. Peach coloured, pink, yellow, red and cerise. In my picture, I see Madison weaving red roses into her chocolate curls, dancing around and plucking more stem by stem. So free, so happy, so alive.

  The images flash and I see her face, her sweet heart shaped misshapen and broken. Blood marring her flawless complexion. She is unrecognisable.

  I open my eyes, the tributaries of tears run down my face, warm and glassy against my cheeks. I reach up and wipe them away with the back of my hand, whispering into my palm,

  ‘You’ll have that garden, Madi. I promise. I’ll make that garden, we’ll have that house. The white shutters, the antique couches, the portraits of vintage men that you loved to swoon over.’ I chuckle, even though it feels strained in my throat. I recall all the times we ventured to the other towns, the larger cities, finding antique stores and flicking through the old portraits of handsome Dukes and high class men. Their distinguished brow and mute lips. She loved them all, flicking through them as they lay up, forgotten, against the wall. Her dreamy eyes full of nothing but the past.

  ‘And in the bathroom we will have one of those old bathtubs. With gilt taps and claw feet. Just like you wanted.’ My voice shatters, I feel myself crumbling, my face falling into my hands. I tremble, and not from the cutting wind either. All my words, they seem pointless. All the money I’m saving up, what is it for? A house that I will sit inside, feeling empty and lonesome. A garden filled with roses, the sweet smelling flowers my sister so adored. I will constantly be reminded of her love, her fascination for vintage lives, for flowers and for the life that she never saw. The life she never got to live.

  Sixteen is too young to die. She had her whole life in front of her, which is why I am
adamant that she did not jump that day; that cold, dreary October Saturday. Her whimsical brown eyes, so full of ideas and dreams. Swooning over her future garden of roses. Why would someone so in love with the idea of her future, jump in front of a passing train?

  She wouldn’t. That’s why.

  I cradle myself for what seems like an eternity; an eternity held in blocks of ice, too numb and too cold to feel anything but the pain, the emptiness inside. I peel my head from my hands, my eyes burning, feeling swollen already from tears. Through blurred vision I see her name dance in front of me, I see the roses flutter in the breeze and I can hear her voice on the wind.

  ‘You’ll meet a boy that will make your knees tremble, Elli! A boy with the most amazing eyes. There will only be the best for my sister.’

  I cannot think of boys, or partying or of the future. Not now, not without my other half. Not without the lustre of life that was Madison Rose.

  My fingers retrieve the golden pendant from my pocket. Madi would have loved the flickering red stone, the claw like detailing on every gold link in the chain. I dangle it from my fingers, holding it just above her grave.

  ‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ I murmur, my voice is lost within the breeze, lost within the swooshing of leaves, their twirling and dancing upon the air currents. My fingers trace the outline of the jagged stone, it looks imperfect, unpolished, but it dazzles with the brightest of diamond sparkles. As I stare into the orange flecked gem, I swear I see flickers of flame, shadows jumping through the pendant as though it is a doorway and they are passing by. I blink, once and twice and it is gone, back to the normal, beautiful thing it is.

  ‘I know what you’d say. You’d say that this would be a lucky charm. It will bring me my future in an instant. You always had such a romantic ideal of things, didn’t you?’

  My pause lasts longer than intended; I feel like I am waiting for a response, somehow. My eyes draw down and I slip the necklace back in my coat pocket.

  ‘You’d also say that staying in all the time will never let me blossom.’ I smile lightly, the smile feels thin and misplaced upon my lips, but it is for her memory. ‘A Rose needs freedom to grow.’ I repeat her words, the phrase she lived by, it seemed.

  ‘And she also needs a nice hot guy on her arm, sometimes.’

  I look up, turning to my left to see Jade and Olivia. In the darkening skies I see their silhouettes, see them standing huddled together, their coats wrapped tightly around themselves. The bitter chill was starting to set in, in my tearful state, my trembling, I did not really notice. Jade smiles, behind her smile I see her eyes glance to the grave, she pulls a single rose from behind her back. A crimson red with the greenest leaves, she steps forward and places it beside my bouquet.

  ‘Do you remember when Jack gave your sister that single red rose?’ her voice is as far away as her eyes as she stares at Madison’s monolith.

  ‘She was like floating on a cloud, she really was.’ Liv answers, taking a step forward and bending down, another single rose dropping from her fingers as well. ‘Now she has roses on the other side. Beds of them. She has them all in her hair, I’m sure of It.’ there is a tremble in her voice as she backs away. Sometimes I forget that she wasn’t just my world, she was everyone else’s too.

  ‘She believed in love, she believed that Jack was her one and only.’ I say, the tears slipping out of the corners of my eyes as I get up, my knees feel rigid, my muscles worn and broken, every part of me locking into place like a rusty mechanism. ‘She picked the petals from a dozen roses, each time she said ‘he loves me’. I think he did. I really do. But…’

  ‘No one can replace your first love.’ Jade’s voice is like a dream, hazy and soft, unreal and yet holding the truth of reality.

  ‘Is he still in hospital?’ Olivia asks, her words spark a memory, one as painful as my sister’s death.

  Jack had been devastated, so much so that he had ran off the day of Madison’s funeral and had tried to jump in front of a train, reminiscent of my sister; he was unlucky, or lucky, I am not sure which to take it as. He was pulled from the platform and after many more attempts of his life, he was taken to East Hollow Psychiatric Hospital. For his own safety more than others. I don’t want to think of him sitting in a white room, in the corner thinking of ways to bring him back to Madison. He had loved her as much as she loved him, but her dream, it always had the house, it had me and it had Jack and in Madi’s eyes, I would have my own handsome eyed boy as she had Jack. The thought wells tears within my eyes.

  ‘I don’t think he’ll be out for a long time.’ I say, biting my lip, stopping myself from crying out.

  ‘I brought you something, something to wear tonight.’

  ‘I’m not going, Jade, I don’t think I can…’

  ‘You can’t dismiss it until you’ve seen it. Madi wouldn’t want you moping. She wants you to go out and find your own Jack.’ Jade says, her pink lips curving into a reassuring smile as she produces a paper bag, the canvas handles rocking on her forefinger as she hands it over to me.

  ‘Finding a guy like him, finding a match as perfect as what they had. It’s one in a million.’

  ‘And you’re turning it into a trillion by not trying. Avalon is a nice place. They have some gorgeous looking guys. Nice music…’ Olivia muses, placing a hand upon my shoulder, leaning over and watching as I dig into the paper bag.

  I pull out a glitzy dress. Of course. Glitz and glamour and diamonds. A smile peaks my mouth, I feel it warm up my icy complexion as I run my fingers through the plush velvet fabric, the detailing of black glitter around the top and the studded gold roses along the hem. It is perfect. It is beautiful.

  ‘Do you like it?’

  ‘I love it.’ I muse, folding it back and putting it inside of the bag, holding it tight, I wrap my arms around both of my friends. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you two.’

  ‘Well, you wouldn’t be going to Avalon.’

  ‘And you wouldn’t have a killer dress either.’

  ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘Oh, and you wouldn’t have—‘

  ‘Liv. I think she knows. We are the best friends she could ever have. Without us, she would be a wilting rose.’

  The three of us tread the gravel path, crunching the autumn leaves with swift steps. The sunset in its deep purples and oranges is just about done, clawing over the valley and the treetops until finally the sun is gone. Darkness starts to fill the graveyard with its eerie gloom and the three of us don’t want to be here after dark. I glance back over my shoulder, seeing the pink lace wrap dance alongside the petals of the roses.

  Madi. Be with me tonight, please. I need your guidance. All I have is a beautiful black dress, I have none of your charm, your beauty; even if we were twins, you exuded perfection and I was the mediocre one. I need you tonight, dearest Twin.

  As I think to her, I feel the burn in my pocket, the gold chain feel like fire as I dip my hand in my pocket and thumb the pendant Charlie had given me. A smile beams upon my face, even through the trickling tears.

  My lucky charm.

  It is my lucky charm.

  Evander –

  Darkness.

  Sweat.

  Flashing Lights.

  Stale Breathe.

  It is a myriad, a cocktail that assaults my senses as I step into Avalon. Through the doors, a gateway into a sweaty mess of entangled bodies and alcohol, a wall full of crouched bodies, with desires and wants on their mind but very little action of getting them. I follow Kaiser; he is a strapping beast of sinew and swagger. The way he pushes past queues of men and women, receiving not so subtle glances, with gaping jaws and following eyes, he always demands the attention, and he always gets it. Burly arms naked with his sleeveless white shirt, it brings out his golden sheen of skin, the stark black of his tattoos on either shoulder. The swirls of his father’s namesake; a circle with the forked tail and stars, with bridged lines and an inverted cross. Asmoday. Each letter small, almost missed
as they are engraved with the etched lines and circle of the tattoo. On the other shoulder, his left, he has an intricate detailing from his shoulder down to his elbow, it circles the inside of his bicep, like vines, an entanglement of thorns, but within the thorns, tattooed are the tails of a serpent, intertwined with horns and a fork, stabbing a heart. The trademark of his father, a brand, showing off exactly who he is.

  I forget just how much we draw attention, even with blending in with human clothes; it is our appearance, our stark eyes, our haunting bodies. We draw others to us without meaning to – of course, it never harms that we draw a queue, a train of girls, even some guys.

  Alpheus hurries slightly, matching my pace as he meets my side, his sunglasses he had propped on the crown of his head, he allows to fall back upon the bridge of his nose. Hiding his eyes behind the tinted glass. I would have thrown a joke about hiding, how useless it seems when all eyes fall upon us anyway, but Kaiser beckons us forward. I feel my rings grip into the skin of my palm, my fingers digging into my skin. I do not follow. I do not walk beside, I wish to lead. My brow furrows beneath the lax black hair that falls over my face. I run my fingers through, tousling it out of my view and I hear a few girls gasp, a few glasses clink with ice as they are thrown down in disbelief. Avalon is busier than expected, but I find that Kaiser has found a booth, an empty booth that as soon as he sits down, is far from empty when girls in tight dresses, in revealing tops and made up hair slide in next to him. He is like a magnet.

  I leave my shirt half open, I find the blackness of the shirt brings out my eyes, my alabaster skin. It makes me appear even more otherworldly, which in turn attracts attention and gets me a line of desirable females. Black jeans feel starchy and new as I slide in over the smooth leather booth seats.