Daeva: Black Diamond Chrysalis - Danielle Bolger (essential reading txt) 📗

Our lives can always be told as a story with ourselves as the protagonist. People come in and out, situations test our resolve, happiness shines like warmly-remembered beacons, pain strikes us when we least expect it, but the ending is the same for all true narratives, no matter who the main the character is. In the end we all die. That is why our stories are never just our own. Those secondary characters make up their own stories and within them we are no more than support cast. Though this can be hard to fathom for young and, even old minds alike, it is imperative that it is true because otherwise, when our ends are written, then our existences disappear.

Abigail

Green, amber and red hues spanned out in front of me, rolling down, up and down even further. They were the waves of tree canopies as they flowed down the uneven mountain-side, stuck in place as a painting may capture the chaotic eruptions of the ocean.

In the distance where the mountain met its base the land initially did flatten off, but not for long as cutting up above the line of the horizon tall blue-tinged structures sprouted. These bestowed contrasting colours like hot crimsons, energetic greens, electric blues and bright whites. These immaculate colours were names no doubt, of the major companies the sky-scrapers belonged to, but its depiction unclear from the place I was perched.

Then beyond all that was where the real sea lurked, however the blue of the water and the blue of the sky could not be delineated so, despite my knowing of its existence there and because of it I could not help feel so very far away to the white-gold sand that lined those shores.

Around me though I could see it all clearly, but this image made for a very strange one as leaves and skinny tree limbs floated up and down in front of the picturesque scene. And though I couldn't smell the salty familiarity of that far-off body of water, I could detect near scents of the earthiness in the dirt, the thick wash of bark and the sweetness of flowers persisting to blossom despite the early autumn season. And the sounds were just as captivating, with the birds tweeting, crickets humming excitedly for the upcoming dusk, the squeaking in my swing's chains and the chatter of my friend who soared back and forth in the swing next to mine. There I felt myself entranced in each of the small comforting sensory perceptions.

"Can you believe that boy!?" Bethanie vented, drawing me out of my reverie. "I mean it was totally provoked, he practically asked me to wrestle him to the ground, but then Miss Montgomery took his side and made me pick up papers for the whole rest of the period, so unfair!"

"Well that sounds pretty lenient," I observed as I swung in my seat likewise, "considering that you attacked another student."

"But he made me do it! He called me a weakling so of course I had to prove how tough I am!"

I giggled. "And tough you are! But Kieran is our friend, I'm sure he was just having a bit of fun with you."

"He wasn't, he was being seriously nasty. I swear the last six months the only time he's spoken to me has to been to torture me! Come on, Abigail, surely you've seen that?"

"Yeah, you two have been getting into more fights than usual these last few months, but you know why that is, right? The boy's just trying to get your attention!" I grinned.

"Pfft! Or maybe he wants an early grave..." She muttered.

We had talked and laughed for over an hour, chatting about our friends at school as we swung towards the resplendent view that darkened through its evening shades. At one point Bethanie commented, "Just so you know, at yours and Eric's wedding I better be your maid of honour."

To this I blushed hotly red despite the growing nip in the air. "Bethanie! How can you say something like that? Eric's our friend!"

"My friend, but between you two there's a hell of a lot more going on!"

"Bethanie!"

"Oh quit acting all shy and embarrassed, it's obvious you two are in love!"

I fell quiet before a cheeky smile crept across my face. "Okay, you can be my maid of honour, but only if you promise that I'll be yours for when you marry Kieran!"

"Oh, gross!" Bethanie lost some height to her swing as it appeared she was about to retch. "You really couldn't have said anything more disgusting! But, Abigail that's not fair! I want to be your maid of honour when you get married and I can't agree to something as horrible as that!"

"Okay, then. How about we both agree to be each other's maid of honour to whoever we marry, how's that?"

As Bethanie turned across to look at me her blonde pigtails were whipped aside and a great smile flashed across her face. "Alright, I can agree to that. And the plus is that I won't have to wait too long. Just under three years until we finish school and straight away you'll marry your high school sweet heart and start having Eric babies!"

"Are we back onto that again?" I groaned, turning my face away to conceal the persistent redness.

"I can see it now, three adorable children, two girls and a boy, the youngest two a set of non-identical twins and mother and father deeply in love..."

Despite myself I giggled. "You're not very creative, you just described my family!"

"Yeah, I know. But that's just how I see it, when you grow up you'll just recreate your perfect family again." She was smiling but I detected a hint of jealously there.

"Bethanie, you can have that too." I tried to soothe but my friend seemed to hear nothing of it, instead she frowned as she stared fixedly towards the impending twilight over the Serene Coast.

"Do you hear that?" She questioned.

"Hear?" I repeated, confused by the sudden change in topic.

"The music, do you hear it?"

I listened then, to the noisy birds squeaking in the late afternoon, to the rustling of trees as the wind brushed through them, taking with it a few loosely held leaves. Then, beneath all that, I heard another sound - long, slow and high-pitched. Sweet like the scent of roses, but chilling just as this breeze was. And empty, as the sky in front reached out into a vast void.

"I think... I think it's someone singing." I ascertained.

"Where do you think it's coming from?"

"I... I'm not sure."

As Bethanie reached the peak of her arc's height she jumped off the swing and began to make a couple of tentative steps away.

"Hey, Bethanie, where are you going?"

As she replied all I saw were two blonde pigtails swaying to the left, her curls stretching to fly off with the wind. "To get closer. I want to hear it better." And she took a few more slow steps away from me.

"Hey, wait!" I called, slowing my swing, scraping my feet along the ground as it dipped down. "Don't leave me!"

She was still walking away, increasing her pace, blonde curls straightening further as the wind rushed harder.

"Wait!" Where it reached a point where the height was very short I jumped from my swing and ran up to Bethanie and clasped her hand firmly. "Don't leave me!"

Bethanie turned suddenly, eyes wide from the alarm in my voice but then smiled gently. "Of course not. Besides, I can hardly leave without my schoolbag." Diverting a few meters off she retrieved both backpacks and handed me mine. "This voice, I want to find out who it belongs to. Will you come with me?"

I looked in the direction that she was, towards a dirt path leading into the forest. Then I looked back at the sky through the clearing that had turned navy blue. The singing was still going, its words indiscernible but still so sweet and yet also, kind of sad.

"I think we should go home now." I replied. "It's getting pretty dark and it'll be totally black soon."

To that Bethanie reached into her bag and pulled out a mobile phone from the front pocket. After clicking an application on it a bright light emerged from the top and illuminated the path ahead. "We won't be long, promise!"

I nodded and walked with her where it dipped slightly downhill and by the time we walked through just a few meters I lost all sight of the road behind.

"I can it can make it out now. I can hear the words but they're not in English. I wish they were so I knew what she was saying...." Bethanie sighed, lost in its rapture.

She was right. As we walked down the path we neared the source of the voice and as a result the volume and enunciation could finally be depicted. It was as I thought, sad, lonely, a foreign tongue but its meaning couldn't have been more clear - it was the longing for companionship. But there was something else there too, a desperation to reach some location. The words flowed into one-another fluidly, as if running towards that goal, but in slow-motion and slowing further. Just like a dream I've had before where I ran as fast as I could but found that I couldn't run any faster on land than I could in water and would only slow down as my energy waned. But unlike my dreams, this song kept trying to reanimate, to race faster and kept reaching for its goal and over and over its spirit died a little again.

"We need to find her. We have to find the singer." Bethanie stated hurrying faster forward.

Instantly I grasped her hand as I realised her speed was making it difficult to keep pace. Then, just like when I grasped her hand before, Bethanie stopped, only this time she did not look at me.

"It... It can't be..." She stuttered.

"Bethanie, what is it?"

"It... It can't be possible." Her voice was breaking.

"What can't?" I looked ahead to where the light was facing but all I saw was the dirt path flowing downhill until darkness swallowed it up.

"Hey, wait - don't go!" Bethanie called out as she ran ahead.

I gasped as I was jerked by the hand I refused to let go of and fumbled awkwardly behind.

"Bethanie!" I yelled. "Stop, there's no one there! I can't keep up. If you keep running like this we'll get separated!"

The song was growing louder, so loud that I failed to hear the swaying of the tree leaves anymore, as well as the tweeting of the birds. Even the pattering of our own footsteps was drowned out by the sorrowful solo.

I could still hear my voice, but Bethanie had become mute to it. Even with me grasping her hand firmly I thought she forgot I was even there. She just kept running down that path, faster and faster, navigating the uneven surface with ease. Me however, I barely managed to keep from falling. All that allowed me to stay upright was