Playing With Fire

by Jordan Mendez

  The bedroom door swung open quietly as the sun began to peek through the window, and a weary young mother poked her head inside the door with a loving smile. Seeing her child in his bed, she assumed he was asleep and tip toed over. The witch examined her closely from the shadows, knowing the mother could not see her. The mother sat quietly down on her child’s bedside and stared at him with a look of love and pride. She pulled back the covers on her beloved child and bent over to kiss his forehead, and screamed.

  The blood from her child’s wound had begun to spill across his angelic face and was starting to stain his sheets. The mother cradled her dead child in her arms and held him close as she wept hysterically. The door burst open and the alarmed father entered in confusion. The moment he saw his child he broke down, and the look of grief and agony was plain to see on his face. He held his wife and dead child tightly, his tears stinging his face as he wept.

  This was yet another reaction that baffled the witch. To her, the child was only another toy to play with, and she just happened to break it. She couldn’t understand why the parents would grieve so much for a person. It was just one child, and they were easy to make. The witch melded into the shadows entirely, and was gone, leaving the two parents alone with their dead child.

  ~

  Alone again in my room, I probably should have been scared that I was dwelling in the castle of my worst enemy. I should have been planning my escape and trying to supply myself with possible weapons that I might’ve found there. But in reality, I was being driven insane by boredom. I was left pacing by my bedside with my thoughts reeling around inside my head. Whenever I tried to concentrate on one thing, it would bring up another thought, and I would aimlessly pursue it only to find another that had no relevance what-so-ever. I was on the topic of rabid bunnies when my door opened again. I jumped around with my heart racing, only to find Alastair entering. Let down with the anti-climactic mood I went back to pacing and thinking about rabid bunnies, only for the thoughts to jump to hawks.

  “I’ve been instructed to take you to Velkire,” Alastair said with the slight hint of worry in his voice, as if he cared if Velkire harmed me. “He is in the library and he told me to bring you immediately.”

  “Tell him I said ‘too bad’,” I replied finally collapsing on my bed. “He can force me into this cage but he can’t force me to speak with him. Now tell me, do you think a hawk would taste like chicken because honestly I’m curious to find out.”

  “What?” Alastair shook his head. “You must come or else you will be in trouble.”

  “I’m in the castle of a madman,” I said back lazily. “Aren’t I already in trouble? And are rabid bunnies real, or just my imagination?”

  “Please Scarlet, just come with me,” Alastair pleaded while looking over his shoulder to the open door that led out into the hallway. “I don’t want to but if I have to I’ll take you by force.”

  “Just go away Alastair,” I sighed while throwing an arm over my eyes.

  “Sorry, but we need to go now,” Alastair made his way over to me and grabbed my waist.

  “Hey, ever heard of personal space?” I protest while trying to pull away. Alastair ignored my comment and tossed me over his shoulder effortlessly. I struggled and tried to hit him as he lifted me and started to walk out of the room.

  “This counts as sexual harassment!” I fumed while kicking out and hitting nothing. “Let go!”

  “I’m sorry, but since you won’t come quietly I have to resort to physical force,” Alastair said apologetically. “You might as well enjoy it, this might be the most romantic contact you’ll get from any boy if you keep acting the way you do.” That, in my mind, deserved a swift kick to the gut. Unfortunately, I couldn’t twist my leg around enough to do that, so instead I let out a flurry of swearing and called Alastair every foul name I could think of and started making up new ones when I ran out. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew he had a smug smile on his face all the way to the library. Soon we were there, with him facing large wide double doors.

  Using only one arm while the other was balancing my body on his shoulder, he pushed open one of the doors, which gave way with a deep groan. He waltzed inside and set me down, and I gave him a swift punch in the gut when he turned back to me after closing the doors. Laughter that was sweeter than silver bells came from behind us, and echoed off the walls of the immense library. I turned around irritably to see Velkire leaning casually on a chair near a polished oak balcony. A book with a satin red cover rested open in his hands but his attention was directed at us. He snapped the book shut and tossed it on a little wooden table that was next to him.

  “I could hear you screaming at him all the way from your room!” Velkire laughed as he strode over to us and his face lit up the room. It would be nice if that face didn’t belong to the man I hated with all my being, but life’s just not fair. “You really do have a vast vocabulary don’t you? What exactly is a bunny shoving snake?”

  “I’d tell you if I’d remembered saying that,” I admitted. “Now what do you want?” Velkire shook his finger at me as if I were an impatient child, which I probably was in his eyes—and most peoples’ eyes.

  “Life shouldn’t be all business, my dear little sister.” My stomach flipped as the word slid off his tongue. “Come and enjoy my library with me.”

  “I can’t read,” I hissed. Velkire looked at me as though he were taken aback.

  “What a horrible curse that must be!” he exclaimed. “I shall have Alastair give you lessons later, but for now at least come and look at my beautiful haven of stories and facts.” Velkire beckoned to me, and I came reluctantly. He put a loving arm around my shoulder as he guided me to the balcony, and I had to resist the urge of burning it off.

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” he asked, but I was too absorbed in the sight to hear him. Before me was a vast room with books everywhere. The balcony laced around the room, creating a second floor until it reached a small staircase on the other side that led to the bottom floor. As I looked down all I could see were rows and rows of shelves that were stocked to the brim with books. In one end of the room there was a large ivory desk that was loaded with maps of countries I didn’t even know had existed. There was a large globe behind it splashed with color on the yellowing surface. On the other end of the library were giant glass windows flooding the entire room with light from the murky sky outside. Beside the window were two chairs and a small table that looked as if it hadn’t been touched in a long time. The walls on every corner of the library became bookshelves, and ladders on wheels laced across each wall like vines on a castle wall. The sight even took my breath away, and even though I didn’t even know how to read I hungered to open a book and immerse myself in it. If they had such an effect on me, I could only imagine how Seth would act if he saw it. The memory of my book loving brother made my heart long for him and the rest of my family. Resting a hand on the balcony, I left a print in the thick dust.

  “You can come in here any time you like,” Velkire said, most likely momentarily forgetting that I could not read. “For now if you wish, you can roam about here for a while before we talk. I’ll be in the throne room if you need me.”

  And more easily than I thought, he left me be, with Alastair to babysit of course. Mesmerized by the enormity of the room I began to explore. I raced across the balcony to the staircase on the other side of the room, only stopping to gaze in awe of the book shelf wall that reached almost all the way to the ceiling. Alastair followed close behind me like an annoyed parent, and he looked as if he wanted to be anywhere other than where I was. I didn’t care. It wasn’t my problem. I darted around the bottom floor, looking and hoping for something would catch my eye.

  I stared at the globe and gazed in awe at all the known countries. On the circular device there was one massive continent in the shape of a dog’s head surrounded by a vast ocean that was dotted with a few smaller continents and loads of islands. The continent that resembled a dog’s head
had a lot of lakes all throughout it and sort of made it look like cheese with holes in it.

  “That big one that you’re looking at is called Castellia,” Alastair said out of nowhere. “It’s the country we live in. We used to be one nation, until Moraj fell and towns started to become micro nations. Now Castellia is a mess that no one wants to touch. Even though we have rich and fertile land throughout most of the country, other countries think our soil is cursed, and won’t come near it. They say our people are a mixing bowl of races, which is true in some ways, but they call Castellian blood dirty and tainted. They think we are a nation of the damned because we fight with demons a lot more here than they do there. You see, about a hundred years ago, there was the Great Demon Uprising, and many demons took physical form at the time. To fight back, the Healer allowed the Guardians to start taking physical form as well. It was a war we almost lost, and we would have if it weren’t for one particular girl and her Guardian. The Healer was so pleased when the girl struck the prince of the demons that entered the world that he let her become a Guardian as well, even though in reality the war was her fault. The war had scared other countries however, and no other nation has tried attacking us for fear of catching the curse from us. So in a way, the girl who started the war ensured that future generations would not be hampered by outside threats.”

  “How did she start the war?” I asked curiously, my attention being peeled away from the globe.

  “Well, you see, at a young age, about as old as you are, she fell in love with a demon,” Alastair began with my full attention. “She didn’t know that he was a demon, and ended up having a child with him not a year after she met him. She found out that he was a demon after she became pregnant, and she was horrified. When the demon found out she was carrying his child, he put a curse on her, preventing her from letting any harm befall the child as she was carrying it. When the villagers she had known her entire life found out, they cast her out of her own home and tried to kill her, but everyone who raised a hand against her died. Devastated, the girl ran away and hid in a forest. You know that forest to be the Forest of Death. When there she tried to kill herself, but was stopped by an unexpected guest.

  A handsome boy with blood red eyes and long jet black hair found her, and stopped her. He took care of her even though she tried to cast him away many times. He was supposedly a demon sent by the father of the child to protect the mother until she gave birth, and the woman knew it. When it was time, the child was born, and the mother tried to kill it herself, but she found she could not. For when she stared into her baby’s grey eyes that were identical to her own, she could not find the strength to kill it. She took care of it for one year, always hating but at the same time loving him.

  The baby boy grew incredibly fast, and at the time of one year he was already the size and capability of a five year old. Then one night, the child took a dagger from the boy who had watched over his mother, and tried to kill her. Knowing her baby was evil, she went against her instincts as a mother and tried to kill it after it failed to kill her. But before she could, the demon boy stole the child away, leaving the mother to never see her baby again. She was happy and thought she was free, and lived for seven more years thinking the child was dead. She joined the castle guard of Moraj and fought happily, thinking she was atoning for her sins. But she was wrong.

  At the end of the seven years the war began, and a man with grey eyes came to her during one of the battles. She was the only one left alive in her squad, yet she was still fighting for her life. She tried to kill him, but he revealed to her that he was her son, and she could not. Satisfied, her son left her to be tormented with the knowledge that the country was suffering because of her. She prayed to the Healer for nights on end for forgiveness, and a chance to make things right. Then one night, her prayers were answered. Her Guardian, a man with golden hair clad in silver armor and with angelic white wings came to her, and vowed to fight against her son. He was the first of many Guardians who took physical form in the war, and together, they struck down the body of her son and ended the war.”

  For a moment, I was struck silent. Then I finally found the perfect words. “That was a nice bed time story.”

  “You don’t realize it do you?” Alastair was dead serious. “That child was Velkire. That was how he was brought into the world. Do you remember how Velkire said you both had the same mother? He wasn’t lying. One hundred years ago, your mother gave birth to Velkire, and started this country’s bloodiest war.”

  “That’s not true!” I couldn’t accept that, no matter how much the facts added up. I would not accept being related to that monster. “It has to be a coincidence!” Alastair laid a hand on my shoulder in sympathy.

  “It’s the truth, Scarlet,” he said softly.

  “It can’t be!” I pushed his hand away. “My mother wasn’t human, she was a Guardian.”

  “I told you, the Healer made the girl into a Guardian when she died, and she lived another life as your father’s Guardian one hundred years after her human body died.” Alastair steadied me and looked me dead in the eyes. “This is the truth Scarlet, and you need to trust me.” I shook him off and turned away. Clutching my sides, I wished I had Al or Jake or Seth or even Darren around to comfort me. I needed the touch only a loving family member could give, but I knew I wouldn’t get it.

  “Just give me some space for now alright?” I said, and Alastair left me. Trying to clear my head, I wandered into the darker corner of the library. Not wanting to be alone in the inky black darkness of the castle, I set my fingers on fire and held out their little flames like a torch. Cobwebs cast creepy long shadows in the corners of the book shelves. I began to notice the farther I went into the corners, the more barren they were. Eventually I made it to the end of the library in a corner underneath the balcony that was completely choked out from light except for my flames. The bookshelf wall was completely bare all except for thick cobwebs and layers of dust. I was about to turn back when something caught my eye on the far corner at the top of the bookshelf.

  I flicked the fire off my fingers, and it obediently hung in the air beside me at eye level as I pushed a cobweb covered ladder over to the corner where a small black object had caught my eye. The wheels creaked and groaned as it rolled, but I ignored it. Hanging on tightly to the rungs of the ladder, I climbed up to the top shelf, and was greeted by a small dust covered book.

  Normally, I wouldn’t think much of it, but the fact that it was on this shelf all alone intrigued me. I picked it up hesitantly, and blew the dust off the cover. A cloud blew up all around me, and I sneezed loudly. Losing my balance for only a moment, I slipped off the ladder and hit the ground hard, cradling the book as if it were a helpless infant. My back ached where the impact was taken, but I was alive. Resting for a minute on the ground, I looked at the cover of the book I had taken sudden interest in. The letters were gold and cracked, as was the stitched binding and spine. The letters were nonsense to me, but I was intrigued to find out what they said.

  Catching my breath, I held the book close to my chest and closed my eyes. I didn’t know what it was, but this little book made me feel happy. It was misplaced, just like me and found by someone without meaning to be found, just like me. I had a feeling that no matter what the story, I’d like it.

  I opened my eyes again, and screamed in surprise. Alastair was standing above me, looking at me as if I were an idiot. I got up to my feet and brushed the dust off my gown.

  “Next time I let you wander off, please don’t hurt yourself,” Alastair lectured as if he were talking to a child, even though we were around the same age. “What is that you’ve got?” I handed Alastair the small book, and for a moment, surprise flashed across his face.

  “What is it?” I asked curiously.

  “Tales Not Meant to Be Told,” Alastair said. “It’s a collection of legends in Castellia that were, in the eyes of most, horrific. It was meant to scare the reader, and give nightmares to children. Why would you pick
this book out of all of the books in the library?”

  “It was just alone on that shelf,” I replied. “Will you read it to me?” Alastair looked taken aback when I asked this.

  “It’s horrific fairy tales,” he said in disbelief. “Are you sure?”

  “My life is a horrific fairy tale,” I responded, and then realized the sad truth in that statement. “I can’t read it myself, so can you read it to me?”

  “Sure,” Alastair replied. “But later, alright? Velkire wants to talk to you now. I’ll read it before bed tonight, okay?”

  “Alright,” I replied. I had never been read to before, mostly because I wouldn’t listen when Seth tried to read me stories while I was little. I didn’t mind that my first bedtime story would be out of a horror novel. Alastair handed the book back to me and I held it close to my body as I followed him out of the library. I was excited to hear its stories, and it made me wish I could read myself.

  I was so giddy with excitement, I didn’t even think about what Velkire might have wanted to talk to me about. It wasn’t until we were outside the huge looming throne room doors that I realized I might be in danger. I knew what Velkire was like, but I still didn’t know how unpredictable he might be. Taking a sudden cautious mood, I followed Alastair through the doors into the throne room.

  It looked the same as before, but a little lighter since the sun was out, even if it was behind the stormy clouds. Across the room, sitting casually with his feet propped up on one of the arms of the throne was Velkire. He smiled when our grey eyes met. As I stared at him, I could see a resemblance between us. We both had the same eyes, and the cocky disposition he was emanating at that moment was identical to mine. It made me wonder if our mother was cocky like us, or if it was just a trait passed down by a distant relative.