Starlight

by Lauren Jade Case

  “Birthday,” Natalia mumbled, staring at the beautiful pieces in the mirror.

  “You were attacked yesterday, on your birthday?” Shock laced Peri’s voice.

  Attacked, her mind echoed. “My birthday was the day before.”

  Peri sighed, relieved. “Whoever got them did well.”

  “My dad.”

  “Padre. He’s a good soul and we shouldn’t keep him waiting. He’s been pacing non-stop since we brought you here. Think you can manage a few more steps?”

  For her father, Natalia could manage a marathon. So she nodded and bit her lip to gather strength.

  They walked round the stairs and headed down a wooden hallway. The next time Natalia raised herself was when Peri was forcing her onto a bar stool that didn’t do much for her aching back.

  Before she could complain, arms encompassed her. Despite the pain, she wrapped her arms around her father and sobbed into him. He kissed her head many times over. He was warm and smelt of vanilla.

  They still had one another. The Whitebell’s were still together.

  Her father receded, but not far, holding Natalia’s face, wiping her tears. “You scared me.”

  “I scared myself,” she said. “I don’t know what happened.”

  His forehead wrinkled in the centre. “We’re going to fix that.” He moved away, leaving Natalia cold despite being one barstool apart.

  She sniffed and wiped her eyes. There were others in the room. She forced her attention to them. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of thinking she was weak; she may have been crying and confused, but she wouldn’t let them hold it over her. Her strength was in recognising her own weaknesses and once she spotted them, only she held the power then to make herself feel weak or strong.

  Do I want to know? She thought suddenly, fear clawing up her spine.

  A man, dressed in a suit, presented himself. He had familiar dark hair but nothing else of him registered. “What do you know of Creatures and Monsters, Natalia?”

  She blanched and looked to her father. “I don’t understand.”

  The man nodded. “Before we go further, I’m James.”

  A woman came to his side, her light brain hair glistening in the light. “I’m Sarah.” She laughed when James rested his chin on her head. “James’ wife.” She shuffled away to point. “You’ve met Peri, she’s my eldest son’s girlfriend,” she pointed to a wide-shouldered, light brown haired boy who stood beside Peri, holding her, “Archie.”

  “I’m Alex,” claimed another girl. She forced her way round James and Sarah, smiling in a way that reminded Natalia of Noah. Alex had curly brown hair and a sloped, choppy fringe. “I’m the adopted one.”

  “You’re a Darby,” Sarah argued. Alex flashed Natalia a bigger smile and sank back, rolling onto the beanbag in the room. Sarah seemed unfazed. “My other son,” she continued, “Jasper, is currently on a run or something hopefully as undangerous.”

  “Your last name, Natalia,” James said, taking over again, “is rather interesting.”

  “It was my mother’s,” Natalia admitted. “When my parents married, they kept her name.”

  “Do you know where it’s from? Or what it means?”

  Natalia spied her father out the corner of her eyes shifting in his seat. “No.”

  “I’ll ask my first question again. What do you know of Creatures and Monsters?”

  “Other than the storybooks ones?”

  “Yes, dear,” Sarah answered kindly.

  “They’re from stories,” Natalia stressed. Her shoulders sank. This was getting nowhere and reminded her of the conversation with Noah on her birthday. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But what has this got to do with last night?”

  “Unfortunately, dear, everything.”

  Natalia halted.

  She glanced about the room, trying to find the courage to ask what they meant. Whether she asked or not, somehow she knew the answers would come. So while there was a minute of peace, she selfishly stole it.

  The room was expansive. The floor was comprised of large grey stone tiles. Natalia shifted against a white marble counter that was sturdily placed in the middle of a white marble kitchen. Cupboards lined the deep, red-tiled walls, silver appliances dotted around the counters. At the back of the room, pressed against the wall, was a long stone table with seats facing the wall and a bench against it. At Natalia’s right, closer to her father, was an entire glass wall with rails at the top and bottom which she assumed helped it slide open. A fenced-in luscious green garden lay beyond followed by a clear drop-off near the edge of the Island, one that led to the sea.

  For a house that Natalia had always assumed was decrepit and decaying on the outside, it didn’t match up. This part, at least, was modern. Maybe the Darby’s, as they’d called themselves, had updated it? Had Natalia just never noticed builder’s vans?

  Natalia turned back to those who were waiting patiently. The air weighed heavily in her chest, thick in her nostrils and lungs, like tar. Even the smells were bland. A tiny whistling sung into her ears.

  Out the corner of her eyes, she saw her father wink. She took a shaky breath and her leg trembled; she bit her lip to stop from yelping.

  “I know nothing,” she admitted once the pain had subsided. “Unless they’re from stories.” James was studying her. She wanted to shy away from the stare but refused. “Why are Creatures and Monsters important? Why do I need to know about them?”

  “Because they don’t just exist in stories,” James stated plainly. “Creatures and Monsters are made of life and breath, as much as Humans.”

  “No…”

  “There are seven recognisable types of Creature.”

  “No!” She screeched louder. She couldn’t be hearing this.

  James continued as if she’d never spoken. “Werewolves. Vampires. Fairies. Mermaids or Mermen. Witches. Angels. And though Nymphs, to some, are considered cross-breeds,” it sounded like it pained him to say such things, “they are a type too. Though technically they and their God came after Fairies and Witches.”

  “No,” Natalia said, less powerful this time.

  “There are then those who say there are Demons to match the Angels, but there is no proof to their existence so they aren’t recognised.”

  Natalia tried to stand. “I’m not hearing this.”

  James locked his hands onto her shoulders, holding her. “You are.”

  From somewhere, Peri’s voice called, “You have too, amore.”

  “I don’t have to listen to nonsense!” Natalia cried out.

  “It’s not,” her father whispered. The tremble in his voice stopped her. “It’s not nonsense.”

  James backed off, allowing Natalia to face her father. A snake was slithering around her innards. When her father nodded, her chest became tighter. She wanted to run, to hide, to escape, but with her leg damaged she knew there was no chance.

  “You saw the lights go off in our house,” her father continued, almost woefully. “I thought it was a power cut too.”

  “It wasn’t?” she challenged.

  “You said nothing had tripped.”

  “So?”

  “A magical impulse.” Natalia blinked at her dad. “It means that a spell was cast and interfered with the lights for a moment.”

  She shifted her focus back to James, her eyes welling at this madness, and he continued as if her silence was a sign of surrender.

  “A Creature’s entire life’s Purpose is to rid the world of Monsters. There are thousands of Monsters, from many lands and Hells. Some types have been met time and time again over years like pests. There are then those that theoretically have never been discovered or haven’t been seen in millennia and therefore are unknown potentials. As a general species, they are hard to track and observe patterns for.

  “But wherever these Monsters come from, whatever shape they take, it means the Veils between their space and ours is breaking. It’s said that they began to tear at the beginning of time bu
t Creatures are trying to repair them.” James paused.

  “The Purpose of all life is for the soul to live. Creatures must see to it that Monsters don’t disrupt that. And all Monsters want is to destroy. Most have no higher needs or wants than to ruin, turning worlds into their new Hell and home. It’s an endless war, and while sometimes it’s unfair, it’s our Purpose. To protect life and souls.

  “As I said, Creatures are trying to repair the Veils, which might buy us forever, one hundred years, or mere months. Nothing so far has worked. Piece by piece they’re tearing, a slow fracturing as Monsters slip through the cracks from their worlds to ours – it seems no Monster naturally occur here – wreaking havoc.

  “We do not know why we are one side of a Veil, why we are here and are letting them come to us. It just seems to be the order of things. We have the power to save and protect.

  One day, there will be an end. As least, we hope. The Veils will be sealed, we will lose the eternal fight, or we finally will rid the worlds of Monsters forever. But, until then, we fight.”

  When Natalia spoke, breaking the silence that had fallen like a curtain, her voice was small. “That’s what happened,” she whispered. “Last night.” She wanted to faint, but some part of her seemed to register James’ words like she’d already known it all. “A Monster slipped into our world. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  James nodded slowly. “You’re fast.”

  Natalia didn’t feel fast. She felt slow. Slow that she didn’t realise this wasn’t a joke. Slow that she got injured with no escape. They were telling her stories she’d left in childhood, stories that couldn’t exist. And yet…

  “However,” James said, gaining Natalia’s attention again. “Things go deeper.”

  She sucked in a breath. How was there more?

  “More Monsters than ever are coming through. It might’ve taken thousands of lifetimes for the Veils to get this bad, but we think it’s a loop, a catching point. Monsters are coming through because the Veils are breaking but the Veils are tearing more because the Monsters are forcing their way through.

  “That’s why my family moved here. We were reassigned to help protect this Island. There had never been a disturbance here before, but they sensed something coming – we have ways of guessing, but nothing specific. We know where disturbances might happen, but it’s always an eventually, so we wait until the when. And that happened to be the Scorpio. They hadn’t anticipated the Calefaction.”

  “Scorpio? Calefaction?” Natalia wondered if she was stuck in a dream.

  “You saw the giant scorpion,” Alex piped up, head popping round the side of her father’s body. Natalia had almost forgotten the others were there.

  “That was real?”

  “So was the, I guess you’d say, giant polar bear. Remember?”

  “The one that went to kill me,” Natalia blurted. She peeked at Sarah and James, and Sarah flinched. Natalia forced out her next words, not believing what she was about to say. “I know there’s more.”

  Sarah touched her husband, as if to gather strength from him. “In this family, we’re Witches.” Natalia waited to sink into the pit she was facing again. “Peri’s a mermaid. Alex, a Werewolf.”

  Natalia bent to look round James. “You’re the wolf.” It wasn’t a question. “The one that was running up and down the street.”

  Alex’s eyes lit with pride. “The one and only. And not a pet dog.” She growled.

  She then looked to Peri and Archie. “You were the group I saw in the storm?”

  Peri nodded, but it was Archie who spoke gently. “My brother spotted you. He casted the spell that hid us, Monster included, from you.”

  That’s why it all just disappeared.

  When she met her father’s eyes once more, his gaze watched her in return. His expression meant she needed to prepare for even more and, worst of all, whatever else there was, it would be the hardest truth.

  How much harder could things be?

  She already didn’t want to believe what she’d been brought to face yet how could she deny it? Her head and heart believed too much, some secret hidden part of her already accepting.

  This can’t be happening, she thought. To break out of this torment, she tried moving her leg, expecting pain. There was nothing. She didn’t wake up because she wasn’t asleep. This wasn’t a nightmare. This was happening. But how much more could she take? What would be the limit? No one was forcing this into her, not when parts of her were willingly digesting pieces like they created the end to a puzzle she hadn’t known she was doing.

  James jumped ahead anyway. “Your cheeks must’ve shimmered,” he said. Natalia felt her cheeks heat at the accusation. “Have you ever wondered why? You can’t have not noticed them.”

  Natalia looked at Peri desperately. “Can I have that bath now?”

  Peri stepped from Archie’s arms. “One last thing first,” she promised.

  “What is it?” she asked. “What can there possibly be left?”

  “You acknowledged that your last name was your mothers,” James reminded her.

  “Dad?” She swung to him.

  “I’m Human,” he answered before she’d even asked.

  “Mum?” She spoke no louder than a hollow whisper.

  “Before you collapsed,” Peri took over, “I saw you. So did Jasper and your dad. There was this moment, this beautiful moment, where your dad was holding you and a bronze edged, transparent, shield appeared around you both. It was like your body went into protecting itself and your dad, even though you weren’t mentally present.” Her smile was small. “You didn’t pass out because of your leg. You collapsed because of the shield. You created it and it took all of your energy.”

  Natalia could see the darkness of the pit yawning before her.

  “Witches can’t create shields,” Archie said.

  “Only one Creature can,” added Alex.

  “Dear, there’s a reason your last name is Whitebell and how you made a shield,” Sarah said.

  “I didn’t see a shield,” Natalia told them. At the time, she’d only felt her leg and her dad’s arms before they’d both been taken away.

  “Amore, I can promise you, there was a shield,” Peri said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Natalia replied truthfully.

  Everyone was as silent as the dead.

  It would’ve been blissful if Natalia wasn’t waiting for the next assault. What would go first over the edge? Or would her heart simply give out to spare her?

  She wanted to plea, to beg as if her life depended on it. She’d heard and seen enough. Did she really need to know whatever else there was? And right now? Couldn’t it wait? This last thing was going to be the biggest after all.

  Gingerly, she turned to her father and his mouth was already open.

  “You’re a Fairy.”

  That was it. The final smack.

  Though she never physically moved, her soul felt like it was thrown from her body. Nausea swept over her and her head dropped between her knees. The ground ebbed and swayed. Her leg throbbed and her body whined with exhaustion.

  “Fairy?” she spluttered out.

  Her father nodded, eyes cast down as if ashamed. “Your mother didn’t want you to know.”

  “Why?”

  “She wanted you to live a Human life.”

  “For how long? When was I going to be told? If this is true, why was this hidden from me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Isn’t it important for me to know?” Her father didn’t reply. “You,” she pointed an accusatory finger at James, “said all Creatures have the same Purpose. That includes me too, right?”

  “Some don’t follow it,” he immediately stated. “There are those who disregard it—”

  “As if it doesn’t matter?” Natalia’s chest bubbled as her voice rose. “By the sounds of things, with there being no alternative to the Veil situation yet, you need every pair of hands! I’ve s
een two Monsters in two fucking days! That might not be an outbreak, but what if the Veils suddenly collapse? I don’t know a lot, but even I know that that’s not good. So again,” she looked at her father, eyes stinging, “when was I going to be told? This is my life, isn’t it?”

  This time, his green eyes wavered as they held her brown ones. “Your mum wanted you to have a normal, Human, childhood.”

  “Why?” The tears fell. Betrayal wormed into her chest. She knew her mother would’ve had her reasons, but still, it hurt. And pain couldn’t just be washed away, even if it was no one’s fault for it existing. “I was going to find out somehow! I was going to be in this life eventually! But like this? After being attacked?”

  From the other side of the room, Peri told her, “You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, amore.”

  “Doesn’t make me feel better!” she shouted before lowering her voice. “I was always going to be a Fairy because I’ve always been a Fairy. But I was kept from that. I was kept from a whole life. A whole Purpose! Here I was, worried about nursing, when life could hold so much more than that.”

  Her father jumped from his stool and went to her. “I’m sorry,” he said, sounding honest.

  “I know.” She deflated, all her energy sapped. “I’m sorry too.”

  He kissed her forehead. “You have every right to be angry.”

  He withdrew and Peri was suddenly there, her one hand out. “How about that bath now?” she offered. “It might calm your heart. It’ll certainly give you peace and time to think.”

  Natalia nodded, submitting. For how she’d imagined her week going, even just her birthday, this wasn’t it. Still she was conflicted. Everyone had spoken with conviction. Even her father. But could it be believed?

  She wrapped her arm over Peri’s shoulder. James gave her a sympathetic look as Natalia was hauled up. “What does this mean?” she asked meagrely. “For me, now?”

  “You’re untrained,” James told her flatly. “You threw up a shield by accident and then passed out.”

  “But I could be trained?”