Precious Anathema

by T. L. Manning

  *

  “Did you sleep ok?” I sat up, peeling my face from his bicep and wiping a little drool at the same time giving him an apologetic smile.

  “I did, thank you Lukin.” I thought about what the women, fairies actually had told me and looked at the lights, they were dimmer than before and then I saw an arm wave to me. This was all too much; I didn’t live in a dream world. This was the real world where mothers die and children are left behind to become orphans, a world where the hero doesn’t get to save the day and not many people ever see a happily ever after. This was the real world I had grown up in, yet as I looked before me this fairies smile was as real as my own.

  “Delilah, what’s wrong, why do you look so scared?” I squeezed his arm and leaned over to whisper so they wouldn’t hear what I was about to say.

  “They are fucking fairies Lukin.” His laugh was cut short when my nails dug into his arm. “They came to me in my sleep and told me which way we have to go, and the obstacles along the way, listen to me! The lights are the fairies.” He held a dead stare at the lights in the corner, never speaking he slowly stood up and started his cautious approach, I sat against the wall and watched as the lights began to dance around his body, blues, greens, purples and reds streaked across his skin, I knew he couldn’t see anything but lights, and found myself wishing he could have seen the joy on each of their faces as they showered him with the magic of light.

  *

  The rage inside my heart grew stronger as I marched into the house to find my father sitting at the table with a smirk on his face.

  “How could you do this to me?” He raised an eyebrow and tapped his fingers on the table.

  “To you, how could you do this to us? This needed to be done for your own good and someday you will thank me for it.” I was a stone, he had done it, my soul turned grey as he spoke and my heart became black just not in the way he had hoped. I felt nothing for this man, nothing for freedom. Images began to flash through my mind of what I wanted to do to him, I could kill him right now and no one would miss him. I could leave and leave him alone, but he expected me to lash out at him, and the glare from the blade he held under the table told me that he expected a fight. This was too much for me to bear; I unclenched my fists and took a breath. He wouldn’t win this one, and if I ever had a doubt before I knew now that I would not do what was expected of me. I spoke before I thought, and as the words came out I knew what would come next.

  “I am going to tell Freya everything; they have a right to know. Delilah has a right to know!” He came at me, fists up and screaming in my face.

  “You are not telling anyone do you understand me? Do not test my patience young man; I can destroy everything for you. If you aren’t careful you won’t have a chosen one to kill at all.” He looked me in the eye, threatening the life of the woman I loved, my own father, flesh and blood. He would do it too. I hung my head; he had won for the moment. I turned to walk out without speaking, I had to find a way to tell someone, and I needed help.

  EIGHTEEN

  “What did these lights tell you exactly?” He turned to face me, all the while waving his arms around swatting at the lights like common house flies.

  “Stop that Lukin! They are little people, if you hit one you will kill them and I will kick your ass!” I knew the words coming out sounded crazy to him, they sounded crazy to me. I had never been someone who believed in such things, I had a hard time as a child playing make believe with my friends, and never had an imaginary friend, but I had to accept what was right in front of me if I expected to make it out of this alive.

  “Delilah, you will have to excuse me if I buy into this delusion. You have been maxed out on stress and I think it’s clouding your judgment.” I stood up and walked to him, grabbed his arms and lowered them to his sides, all the while never breaking eye contact.

  “I have never been more serious Lukin, STOP!” I let go of his hands and he didn’t move them, took a deep breath and sighed.

  “What did they say we have to do next then?” I told him almost everything they told me, not revealing the truth I had learned of his prison sentence. His eyes looked to the lights and then he smiled.

  “I guess that even if I don’t believe in them, I have started to believe in you and that’s enough for me to move forward.” I sat down on the floor when I heard a noise behind the wall; it sounded like people were talking and headed in our direction. Lukin’s eyes grew large as he began to hear the voices himself.

  “Lukin, can they get in here?” He started feeling around the wall behind me as the voices became louder and louder. Grabbing me under my arms he started to pick me up in hast.

  “They can and they are coming for you Delilah, we have to get out of here.” I grabbed my knife and we started running to the lights when I saw the first of the tortured men make his way into the room through the wall. My legs stopped moving, and my insides turned as I looked in his eyes. My head started to pound, an ear piercing sound screamed through me, and I became suddenly nauseous. He never blinked as he stared me to the ground, the grin on his face proved to me that the fairies were right; my only chance was to make them forget.

  “Delilah!” A bright green light appeared before me and there stood the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, she had broken the connection the tortured had with me and I felt the screaming sounds quiet. I was mesmerized by her beauty and had to know the name of the woman who was saving my life.

  “Who are you?” She bent down to me and smiled.

  “I am Tempest, I am the very fairy that told you what path to take, and I am here to protect you, now Run Delilah, run now and don’t look them in the eye again, now go!” I got to my feet and Lukin took my hand and as we ran through the darkened hallway I could still see the lights around us, lighting the way, and then I saw the trees. We slowed down but clung tighter to one another as I realized we must be in the garden. My eyes went directly to the bushes by our feet and I quickly remembered what Tempest had told me about the plants in the un-garden.

  “Lukin, we have to stay away from all the plants if we are going to survive this part, they will try to kill us.” Both of us moved to the center of the path, and as if the plants themselves were hunting us, they seemed to perk up as they caught our scent. Flowers of the brightest colors began to bloom, trees were growing fruit before our very eyes, and vines started making their way into the very path we had to cross. The light that cast shadows caught my eye as we watched everything come to life. I knew that we were in a spell, and up till now assumed it to be something like being a genie trapped inside a bottle, but as my eyes glanced above I could see the full light of the moon casting it’s glow on us, stars everywhere and a cloud cover that seemed to move gracefully through the pastel light of the moons beam. With all the beauty around me I almost forgot that it was all an illusion, designed to suck us in and make us feel nostalgic just to kill us. Shaking off the moment I started to examine our surroundings better. The air smelled like an early evening campfire, the light was dimmed and the shade of the tree’s reminded me of the start to autumn, my favorite time of year. Everything here was designed from inside my own head to relax me, make me feel safe and then take my life.

  “Delilah, what kind of witch fuckery is this anyway?” I wished I had an answer for him; I took out my knife and started walking along the beautiful path ahead. We were not going to survive standing still, and the quicker we got out the better.

  “I can’t use my magic in here, so were on our own. The obvious dangers will be easier to avoid, we will have to watch for surprises.” Lukin rolled his eyes at my statement, pointing around us. I ignored it and we both began to move, the path was wide enough to give us a sense of safety but that all changed as we approached the first turn in the un-garden. I could see the path narrow in front of us and quickly flashed to a dream I had, if it were going to get me it would be here. I held my knife tight and told Lukin to walk ahead of me, the clumsy girl from Nebraska was about to kick some Mai
ne Cursed Ass! The tree’s above began to move and made a canopy above us, everything suddenly seemed to close in and my palms dripped with anxious sweat, then I heard the music playing, clear as any song it seemed to be coming from the bark on the trees.

  “Lukin, listen to that.” He turned and gave me a quizzical expression. “Do you hear, it’s that Script song, wait you don’t know who they are but do you hear the music?” I started to hum with the song, I love it. Closed my eyes and thought about simpler times when all I had to worry about was which hat to hide my hair up in, now I have to be the witch and say screw the hat. I felt myself relax more than I dared, and as I tried to snap myself out of the daze I couldn’t move my legs. Looking at Lukin I tried to reach out for him and saw his mouth moving but couldn’t hear anything but the music playing. I felt the vine slither up my legs like snakes constricting tighter and tighter. I couldn’t feel my feet, and as if they had injected my body to numb it my hand dropped the knife before I could even wield it. I took a breath as I looked into Lukin’s eyes, the plants weren’t trying to eat him, they were leaving him alone, and no matter how many times he swung the knife to cut the vines they grew tighter, around my waist, climbing to my chest, making their way to my neck. My head felt heavy and the last thing I was about to see was panic on Lukin’s face as his mouth opened to scream at me to hang on and then everything went black.

  *

  “Delilah, wake up for Goddess sake! This isn’t nap time you know!” I recognized the comforting, yet stern tone as my Aunt Kali, Opening my eyes I flew at her, holding a tight embrace as I began to sob.

  “Kali I can’t tell you how happy I am that you are here!” She pulled me off her and held my chin.

  “I am not here really Ella, I found a loophole and I am here to help. You are unconscious right now but you’re not dead.” I took a deep breath and smiled at that. “Don’t smile yet honey, you will be dead in a moment if we don’t work quickly. You need to listen carefully, there is a way to kill the plants, but you have to get into Lukin’s head from here and tell him what I am about to tell you now, do you understand Ella?” I nodded and began to concentrate, unexpectedly I could see myself through his eyes, I opened my own and before I could tell Kali I was scared she took my hand and rubbed it with hers. I closed my eyes again and as I held Kali’s hand I saw myself again, I was almost completely taken by the plants, my closed eyes could still be seen. I could feel Lukin’s fear, pain and love growing to a rage to save me. Kali began to speak as I watched my lifeless body fall to the ground.

  “The power is in the roots; they live and bleed by the roots. It’s not the limbs that need to be cut; the roots themselves must come out of the ground and be exposed!” I thought I would need to say the words again, but as I opened my mouth I could feel Lukin’s rage turn to look at the side of the path. He screamed as he began ripping up root after root, and they were actually bleeding as he pulled them out. He looked back at my lifeless body and my whole head could now be seen, their grip had loosened but he kept ripping, swearing and killing them one by one.

  “Kali please don’t leave me.” I was holding her, begging for her to stay with me, she kissed my forehead and whispered.

  “You are so much stronger than you think, I need to tell Freya what is going on so we can help you get out, Lukin is with you and will keep protecting you. I love you Ella.” I felt tears streak down my cheeks as her embrace vanished, I opened my eyes to see that I was back in the un-garden, Lukin was taking the tentacles off my body one by one. He had blood all over him, and as he saw my eyes open his chin began to quiver.

  “I thought I had lost you.” I smiled and wiggled my arms free.

  “You will never be that lucky boy.”

  NINETEEN

  *

  Kali opened her eyes and we all flew to her, voices talking over each other.

  “Did you find her?”

  “Is she ok?”

  “Is she alive?”

  “Who is with her?”

  “Tell us Kali.” We were pushing our way closer to her until she snapped with tears in her eyes.

  “Back off!” I stepped away, tripping over Eris and sat as far from Selene as I could as I felt her eyes burning through me.

  “Tell us Kali, we are wasting time waiting.” Freya looked concerned for her daughter but she was here with us, and Ella wasn’t back yet.

  “It’s not like we thought at all.” Carna helped her to the couch and gave her some water, but as her shaking hands took the cup it crashed to the floor and Kali jumped out of her skin with fear.

  “Tell us Kali, its ok we can figure this out.” Rubbing her back with one hand, Carna took her other and grasped her sisters.

  “It’s not just a dungeon at all. I found her nearly dead in a garden of carnivorous plants, called the un-garden and Lukin was doing everything he could to save her but without magic and perfect timing on my part she would be dead already.” Kali took a deep breath and tears fell down her face. Selfishly all I could think of was Lukin, holding her hand when she was scared, being her hero, comforting her and ultimately saving her. Nothing good could come of that place, and his kind of evil was the worst, disguised as innocence.

  “That’s not even the worst of it, I could see ahead of them. They are headed into a field called, Erring Green and then they have to survive the Bemused Wood. Basically the names speak for themselves, they are going to have to face all those who have wronged them and feel guilty in the field and then fight not to forget everything in the forest.” How could she know all of this, she was only gone for a few minutes. Freya stood up and walked to her daughter; she looked stern but took her face and held it in a loving fashion.

  “Kali, who told you all of this because Ella couldn’t have known and if we have a way to get in we need to know who told you. It might be our only chance to save them.” Kali shook her head and more tears fell.

  “She made it very clear that I couldn’t tell anyone or she would stop helping Ella, she is scared of Emma and said that she would know.” The whole room went silent, even Selene looked away from me for the first time in a half hour. No one knew what to say, if Emma was down in hell with Ella she could make sure she failed. I watched Freya stumble back at the mention of that name; no one ever saw this coming. She quickly regained her composure and looked at us all.

  “It would make sense that the spell would need magic to grow. I had no idea that there could be more to the curse than what is written, these fields and forests are something new, it is growing as if it lives and breathes.” I watched her face grow a wicked smile as she looked back at Kali. “You know what this means girls, it means that we can find magic in the curse, and if we can find it we can use it.” Both of the aunts smiled and Kali took a deep breath before speaking.

  “She is very weak, I am not sure how much more she can take before she cracks and lets the curse take her, whatever we do we have to do it quickly, they were making their way to the field when I left her.” I looked at Selene with a scowl, if she was entering a field of the guilty she would know what happened before she even made it out, I just had to hold hope that Selene felt a tiny bit of guilt for tricking me, and that Ella can see that or I was about to lose any chance I would have at redemption. Freya took Kali by the hand and Carna stood up taking each of their hands.

  “We have some work to do then, we don’t sleep till she is home. We need to find a way to get to where she is.” Freya looked at Eris and Selene with a smile. “Girl’s we need you to find every spell book hiding in this house and bring them to me.” Eris jumped up and as Selene slowly slid out of her chair Freya glared at her.

  “Young lady, if it were you Ella would not stop until she got you out, and all you and lover boy here can do is keep secrets and betrayal at your sides. Redeem yourself before it’s too late.” With a wave of her hand Selene was running through the room and my ass was on fire making me jump to my feet. Once Selene was out of the room Freya looked at me. “Xander, I know what happ
ened I just don’t know why she did it yet. When you feel like ending the secret why don’t you and I have a talk before it’s too late for you.” I walked out of the room ashamed for so many reasons, my role in the prophecy, the secrets, the lies, tricked into sex because of the things I had done to put myself in that situation, it all hurt my heart as I left the room I could hear Kali speak one last time.

  “Lukin is good Freya, he is helping her and he loves her. She is in the best hands right now.” I shut the front door and punched a pillar on the porch, busting open my knuckles and watching blood drip down to the floor before walking away from the house and up the driveway. I couldn’t go home, I couldn’t stay in the house, and I couldn’t save her. I was alone and lost, so I just kept walking farther and farther away.