by Luke Valen
Pulling at her hair, she rocked back and forth with tears falling quietly from her face. The thunderstorms of her mind flooded her eyes and emptied like Hurricane Katrina itself to the floors below.
“AH! What is happening to me!” she yelled at the top of her lungs only to be met with silence.
Alone. She was alone.
CREAK.
The door slid open just enough to push in a tray of food, then quickly shut and locked once again. A plate full of the best filet mignon, potatoes, vegetables, and more. The food was a gesture not received. She didn’t want food; she wanted to be released. She wanted her rightful place, her inheritance that was being ripped away.
“I’m sorry I have to do this to you, Abigail. But I cannot have that little…boy of yours ruining this for me. I have worked too hard.” Mr. Li’Ved’s voice came from the other side of the door. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“Find out what? That you lied!” Abigail yelled from inside the cell. “That you never planned to give me the seat! That I’m a half-breed? That my whole life has been one big lie!”
—§—
BOOM! The plate of food slammed up against the inside of the door. Mr. Li’Ved jumped back at the surprise.
“Abigail, I was trying to protect you. There is so much you don’t know. Everything I did was to keep you safe. Those people out there, like your friend Dean, they just want to hurt us.” His voice was soft.
“YOU’RE LYING! Dean would never hurt me,” Abigail screamed back.
The room’s temperature began to rise, the door turning red hot.
“Oh, my Abigail. You don’t know him like I do…” he said, tracing a scar down the side of his neck. “He and his family, nothing but a bunch of self-righteous brutes. Once he finds out who you really are, there is nothing that will stop him from…well, you know.”
“He wouldn’t do that…” Abigail sobbed, her body could be heard sliding her back down the wall and landing on her butt.
“Don’t be so naïve, child. You know what you are, and once he finds out…”
“WHAT AM I?!” Abigail screamed. Light from the bottom of the door emitted out onto Mr. Li’Ved’s feet.
“You, my precious child, are the key to it all. And I can’t have him taking you away from me. We are almost completed with the final phase. Your brother is almost home. And I am going to need your help to bring him here. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to be a family again?” Mr. Li’Ved said with his cheek pressed to the door. Sniffling could be heard from within the cell, followed by a heavy sobbing. “Don’t cry, baby. It will all be over soon. I promise.” Mr. Li’Ved walked away. His steps could be heard making their way up the staircase.
—§—
Abigail was once again…alone.
“AHHHH!” she let out, weeping her soul onto the floor. “No…No…I won’t let this happen. I will not be used like this—not like this,” Abigail said, standing.
She looked around for anything, some type of opening or weak spot. Everything has a weak spot. She searched and searched every inch of the cell. There was not a crack, a missing stone, nothing. Unbreakable.
“Come on!” she yelled, slamming her fists onto the door. “Let me out of here!”
Her anger rose and rose, the room once again becoming hot to the touch. She could feel something within her growing, something she had never felt before. Anger. Hate. Fury. She had been lied to and kept around as an object, something to be used to procure a means to an end.
Had she really been loved at all by her own father, the one who cared for her? Was it out of love, or need? The thoughts floated around in her mind and moved like ghosts from cell to cell. Nerves firing off left and right.
The dark room oozed an even blacker shadow, blacker than black. An eclipse of all available light. Not even a shadow shone. Her blood began to boil as her pupils expanded to the edges of her sclera. Black as the night, her beautiful blue eyes became. The dark void that filled the room seemed to come from within.
Pieces of darkness assembled into what looked like miniature dragons the size of a finger, their skin the burnt color of the room. One by one they searched the room like ravaging dogs on the trail of blood. Making their way out of the room, one of the dark creatures took hold of the large steel-plated barrier that was locking the door. The creature lifted with all its might, and the lock slid above the brackets and fell to the ground.
A loud thud rang through the steel door, echoing in the room.
CREAK.
The door cracked open ever so slightly, letting in not but a sliver of light. Slowly like a mist, the darkness crawled in the presence of the stairwell light, absorbing it. The dark gloom grew from its point of origin: Abigail. Her eyes black, not a trace of color.
Abigail took in a quick, deep breath of air as she restituted a focused demeanor. A gasp grasping to life, life of the death from within. As she moved, the heavy barrier door opened as if kneeling in her presence. With no delay she made her way up the stairwell. Slow and with guile, she was not herself. Something from within moved her. Her skin pale, the veins around her eyes pulsed and spread like roots of a tree, her blonde hair now black.
Softly, meticulously placing each barefoot step, she hurried out of her jail cell.
The front door was close by, within reach when his footsteps were heard click-clacking on the hard marble floors. She commanded each movement, making her way for the exit like a lion from the zoo returning to the wild and away from the hell it had been kept. The sound of footsteps grew louder and faster. The darkness grew like an all-encompassing appendage, moving her forward, floating above the marble floors. The solid gold door swung open as she neared, as if it had been commanded. A blast of cold air came screaming into the castle, blowing her hair in all directions as she made her escape.
—§—
Mr. Li’Ved ran down the stairs to the holding cell, shoes clanking their wooden bottoms against the stone steps.
Reaching the bottom, he grabbed quickly for the opened door and poked his head in to see the empty room.
“ABIGAIL!” He let out a bloodcurdling scream as wind whistled into the castle. Mr. Li’Ved ran as fast as he could up the stairs and to the front of the house. “Abigail! My daughter! Look at you. You have never been more beautiful!” he yelled.
“I am not your daughter. Not anymore.” Her voice had changed. Dark.
“This is what I have been waiting for! You are ready!” Mr. Li’Ved cried out.
“Goodbye, Daddy.” She raised her hand to her father. He went flying through the air as if being hit by an invisible wrecking ball through the halls of the entire mansion. He smashed into the rock wall. Crippled. A ghost in the wind.
A smile from his lips.
—§—
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang throughout the house. Footsteps could be heard running from the other side of the home,
“I’ll get it!” a girl’s voice yelled out. “Hello…oh…hey,” Cherry said, opening the door after seeing my fake half smirk accompanied by two more half smirks on the two strangers standing on both sides of me.
“Hey, Cherry, is Abigail here?” I asked as kindly as I could.
The other two stood up straight, struggling to slow their breathing and not give away that they had ran to her house.
“No, she isn’t…” Cherry’s face twisted with confusion. “How do you know where I live?”
“Do you know where she might be?” I avoided her question—no time for small talk.
“No, I don’t. Why?” Cherry asked, holding on to the door, ready to close it at any given second.
“I just really need to see her,” I said. “It’s about our school project we were working on together.”
“The history one? Why would you need to see her for that; wasn’t it due like last week?” Cherry was being smart—how odd. That wasn’t normally a character trait she possessed.
“It…yeah…Anyway, if you see her, c
an you tell her I am looking for her?” I asked, a bit frustrated.
“Sure…” Cherry said, slowly closing the door. “Why don’t you just go to her house?”
“Because I don’t think she—”
Cherry shut the door.
“Why don’t we just go to Abigail’s house?” Bryon asked, scratching his head.
“Because that’s not where she is. I saw her in some…cellar. It was dark and looked like a dungeon. I’ve been in her house, and I don’t think there was a room like that anywhere,” I said, looking around the forest neighborhood. The blizzard was growing again.
“You don’t think there was a room like that, or you know there isn’t a room like that?” Bryon answered back.
“Why would her own father put her in a dark jail cell? I have seen the way he treats her—she’s his little princess. She’s not there. Come on.” I stepped off the front porch onto the dirt yard.
“Where are we going then? How do we even know she is here in town?” Jade said, still standing next to Bryon.
“Because she just is.” I gritted my teeth.
“How do you know?” Jade repeated. “We could be blindly walking into a trap here. Again.”
“I can feel it, okay? I can feel her—she is here. I just don’t know where. You two are free to go anytime. I’m not making you do this with me. If you want to leave, then leave,” I snapped, turning and walking away down the dirt driveway.
Bryon and Jade looked at each other and, for less than a brief second, considered the proposition. “Come on,” Bryon nudged, making his way off the porch and following me. Jade followed too, and they caught up running along each side. The three of us exchanged looks, true friends running without direction into the tree-filled forests.
The smell of fresh pine needles was thin through the forming storm but still notable as it filled the air with a comforting aroma of home and safety. Clouds began to form in the sky, graying out the blue skies and white, snow-covered forest. The winds rose quickly, arresting our sense of smell and replacing it with the burning of frozen air.
—§—
“Find her!” Mr. Li’Ved yelled at Beth and Kip in his office, their heads bowed in fear.
Kip began to speak. “Master, we do not—”
“I don’t care what you have to do! Bring her back to me!” Spikes came cutting through the shoulders of the back of his shirt, his face becoming dark and red.
“Uncle, please, we have tried,” Beth said quickly and calmly in an attempt to speak reason into the ears of the devil. “Our seer cannot find her either. She is masking her energy from us.”
“Enough. I do not want to hear these petty excuses. I have given you all you need to find this one. Little. Girl. Her power cannot be strong enough to block yours. Find her. And bring her back to me, alive. I am too close to let this SLIP OUT OF MY HANDS!” Mr. Li’Ved screamed, tossing his solid oak half-ton desk through the adjacent wall as if it were a toy made of feathers.
The two scurried behind each other in fear.
“She will not ruin this for me. I will not wait any longer for my throne. I will have my kingdom. I will have my glory.” Dark black flames covered his body, his eyes red and black.
“Yes, master.” The young demons complied and bowed their heads, exiting the room.
“AHHHH!” Mr. Li’Ved screamed as the flames exploded throughout the room, and disappearing into the cloud of fire and smoke, he was gone. Empty.
The room was wrecked and on fire as if a grenade had gone off in the small office.
The smell of smoke filled the air.
—§—
“What’s that smell?” Jade said as she, Bryon, and I neared the Li’Ved castle.
“It smells like something is burning,” Bryon said, looking over to Jade.
We changed gears and sprinted the last fifty yards, turning the corner to witness the house being consumed by the hungry flames. As we stopped in our tracks, the heat from the flames could be felt from down the drive. The once-gaudy castle was being reduced to ash. The stone lions that guarded the entrance melted to unrecognizable shapes. Not even the cold winds of ice could dampen the heat.
We were too late. I didn’t listen again. I was too late.
“Abigail!” I yelled, continuing to run from where they had stopped.
“Dean, wait!” Jade yelled, chasing after me, stopping just at the steps of the castle.
I was moving as fast as I could, not thinking about the heat from the flames or the consequences of being burned. I made my way into the front door, flames spilling out the top of the door and wrapping themselves around the ceiling of the house. Smoke and soot filled the air, breathable oxygen was scarce. My vision was blurred by waves of heat and billows of smoke, soot, and ash cutting at the cornea of my eyes. Fireman level: Hell.
“Abigail!” I screamed, hoping for a response.
A deadly game of Marco Polo.
“Abigail!” I continued to scream in between coughs as my lungs attempted to clear themselves of the toxic waste that was lining their walls, threatening their lives. Clearing room by room, I made my way up the stairs, the heat unbearable, burning at my skin without even being touched by the flames.
The air itself was searing hot.
BOOM!
An explosion went off in the kitchen as the gas stove blew out one of the walls. The flames took to it like a sponge to water, expanding and growing as oxygen from the hole in the wall came sweeping in from the outside.
“Dean!” Bryon yelled. I turned, surprised to see him a few feet behind me. “Dean! She isn’t here! We have to go!”
I heard him, but it didn’t matter. I continued to call, “Abigail!”
“She isn’t here! We need to go!” Bryon grabbed me by the shoulder.
I whipped around as fast as an alligator snapping on his prey and grabbed Bryon by the throat. As I stared him in the eyes with anger and sadness, Bryon’s face began to turn red, lacking oxygen from my tight grip. Catching my reflection in Bryon’s eyes, I saw my angered, heartbroken face reflected with the reds and yellows of the flames behind.
Releasing my grip, I dropped to my knees.
Flames surrounded us, and with not an ounce of mercy, they grew and grew.
“We need to go,” Bryon said softly, once again placing his hand on me.
Timber fell all around us from the roof as it began to cave under its own weight. The construction was compromised, the frames were burning, and the support was rotting away as the flames moved like powerful waves against the shores of an island.
I stood with the help from my loyal friend. Slowly we rose together amongst the growing flames. In a daze of confusion and denial, I walked with my weight supported by Bryon, a zombie with no mind.
I could not accept the fact that she could be gone. That I was too late.
The two of us made our way back down the stairs into the ocean of flames.
BOOM!
Another explosion went off, tossing us like rag dolls about fifteen yards away. Burnt timber and glass flew in the air landing all around. My ears were ringing from the explosion, a war zone of twisted metal, rock and fire.
Groggy and weak, I attempted to push myself off the ground. My vision blurry and doubled, I looked to the house. Making it to my feet was no walk in the park. Standing of my own strength, I wavered with the night breeze and watched the flames as they devoured their prey.
Bryon and Jade slowly rose next to me, eyes wide in shock and awe, gazing at the dancing fires. Our faces and bodies were blackened from the war, clothes burnt and torn. Silently we stood. The sound of gentle crackling, as if a small fire, came from the house. An occasional pop echoed between the trees.
The pacifying sound of sirens could be heard off in the distance. As they grew closer and more distinct, Bryon snapped out of his daze. “Come on, we gotta go.” He grabbed me once again. Jade complied and turned to leave.
I stood, in complete disbelief. Was she gone? Had I really lost her
? My heart was in my throat. My stomach in shambles. I am numb.
“Dean,” Bryon called again.
I snapped out of it. “Yeah. Okay,” I said in monotone as I took one last look and turned to follow Bryon and Jade. The sirens were almost upon us, the red and blue lights decorated the trees. Two fire trucks pulled up in full force accompanied by three small police cars and a single red ambulance, the men got to work. The yelling from the response team was muffled and taken with the wind as they fought the all-consuming fire.
Emotionless I ran, no longer in a rush, simply running. My focus and motivation diminished with the growing flames. Running and running, passing one tree after the other, our feet pounded the ground. Breathing slow and steady like that of well-trained racehorses galloping along. The frozen air felt good against our still-burning skin, refreshing and healing. Snowflakes in the wind like miniature healers. Oranges and reds colored the sky, not from the sun—the sun had long since left.
After what seemed like a lifetime of running through the forest, over the rocks and snow, splashing through near frozen streams, we finally arrived home. There she stood, just as beautiful as ever with her strong wooden walls and colorful glass mosaics. Greeted by the familiar streetlamp, we stopped and stared, catching our breath. I was the first to move past the gate and toward the church. I was ready to feel some type of comfort, some type of safety. Creaking, the door opened as I pushed the heavy church doors into the main chamber. It was as if we had never left, everything exactly as it had been left.
“Dean, you okay?” Jade asked, breaking the silence. “We don’t even know if she was in there.”
I remained silent. Where was Uncle? Normally he would have greeted me with some smart remark.
“Yeah, man, she could have been somewhere else. Somewhere safe,” Bryon added.
I moved about the church like a zombie with no purpose.
“We can keep looking in the morning. We should rest now,” Bryon said.
“Rest?” I spoke. “Rest? You think those things are out there resting? You think if Abigail is even out there, she is resting!” I yelled.
“Dean, calm down,” Bryon said. “That fire took a lot out of us. I mean, we almost died. We need to regain our strength.”