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

Bethanie

"Just remember what I said. See you around!" As I sat on the grass words reverberated themselves in my mind again and again. I was perched in the full sun-light of the day, feeling the heat of the rays nestle into my skin, but my consciousness was far away. Perpetually it remained within the darkness of the prior night as it relived the memory of a discussion that had the power to change my life forever.

Back then, after the silver haired and silver eyed girl destroyed all those horrible creatures and saved me, her bow disintegrated. Then it was left up to my mobile phone to provide the sole source of its meagre light within the forest. As we chatted I was careful to keep it from pointing directly up at her face for consideration to how uncomfortable the brightness would be, but all the while I longed to move up more. Just so I could see her expression more clearly and by extension, her thoughts more clearly. But the only thing that I saw with absolute clarity were her eyes that blazed with the same silver as the moon.

"I gotta say." The girl stated. "For a civilian you fought incredibly well. Not only have you proved that you can sense the darkness remarkably accurately but you also managed to fight against it without any daeva abilities. That's... unheard of."

I was crouched on the ground, Abigail's face fixed in my gaze. It sounds strange when I recite it but back then I dared not look away for I feared that if I did then somehow her life-force would exit her body and she would disappear from me forever. As if I really had the power to keep her from dying. Still, at a time like that, you do whatever irrational things you can think of in order to help someone you love.

I heard the girl move about behind but when I felt a hand rest against my shoulder I  gasped.

"It's okay." She reassured. "It's all okay. You two were victims in a horrible game, but you're saved now. Those shades stole both of your auras, portions of your very souls, but they didn't take the most important pieces. You're still safe, still healthy and both will recover to live normal lives."

"What the hell were those things?" I asked, a frown etched deep into my face.

"Those things are called shades. They linger in the darkness mostly, where they hide, but every so often they come out into the open to feed. Most people can't see them, but young people your age can, when your body is undergoing its greatest change between childhood and adulthood. All people your age are capable of seeing them, but usually no more detailed than vague shadows, but it's enough to give the shades pause and so they hide until the time is right for them to feed."

"Feed?" I repeated. "You mean on energy or... this aura you're talking about?"

"That's right, the shades seek to integrate themselves into this world and to do that they must claim some of its soul energy for themselves, whether it be in the air, the trees, animals, but the greatest prize for them is to siphon off the potent aura found in humans."

I squinted at Abigail, at her pale face that lingered to be white despite the scenery returning to normal.

"Who..." I began to question but quickly corrected my first word. "What are you?"

"I am a being that is not purely of this world anymore, but of both this world of light and also of Noein, the world of darkness. I was just a regular high school girl, just like you but then stumbled onto the same discovery that you have and made a choice, one in which I can never take back. But witnessing the destruction of these shades first hand my decision became clear and I soon took up arms to fight in this war of the worlds."

"Wait!" I interrupted knowing that the girl was about to say more but halting her just to give myself time to process. Stop, a war between worlds!?"

I was still staring at my friend's limp form but I heard from the girl's exhalation that she smiled. "Right, too much too fast. I'm sorry, honestly I didn't mean to overwhelm you. I just remembered the questions I had when I first learned of all this and wanted to spare you from the same burning curiosity. When I joined up no one explained what was going on, I just dived right in, that's why I wanted to explain things to you because you're just like me, a potential and you too can have the same powers I have. And honestly that's what I am hoping you'll decide to do because our side has too few numbers and the darkness increases more each day. However you too have a decision like I had and in the same way once its made you can never go back to your old life. That is why I am bombarding you with this informatin, we need you, you have the potential to help save this world!"

"Potential..." I repeated. "To become a warrior and defend the world."

I was still looking at my friend, at the way she had fallen onto her belly, arms and legs limply about her as if when she fell it was at a time that all her strength was taken from her. And lying there in such a defenceless state it appeared that it really was all gone, her whole life-force. I couldn't even see her body shift to allow for her breathing. But then she suddenly did move, she turned as another set of delicate hands rolled Abigail onto her side, one leg straight and the other bent as an arm was nestled beneath her head to provide a pillow.

I looked above my friend to where the strange girl smiled. "This position will help her recover quicker."

And there it was, the subtle rise and fall of Abigial's chest and listening real closely I even heard her faint breath.

Gaining confidence that my friend was no longer in mortal peril I smiled in return to the girl. "Thank you." I said it only once but it held the weight of a thousand of them.

"Don't mention it, just doing my job!"

"Your job, hey." I mulled over the thought before gasping as realisation hit me - I was demanding so much from this girl, her help, her explanation and her comfort and yet I hadn't even learnt her name, nor offered mine. "My name is Bethanie Starr and I hope..." I was glad for the darkness then before I suddenly blushed. "That we can be friends."

The girl giggled. "Of course we can be, I'd like that very much! My name is Ariel Serador, warrior for this world!"

For a moment I was lost in awe of her, such a pretty girl no older than me, battling terrible things, saving lives and then so light-hearted and happy. There couldn't be a more perfect person.

I was crouched but fell back onto my bottom and my hands clenched the dirt underneath. "Does this happen all time? These attacks, those things. Do people get hurt?"

Ariel's smile faded. "Yes, but not just hurt. What you were attacked by were shades, warriors that spill in from Noein, a desolate world and here they suck the light from this one so that they can widen their entryway, allow more of their kind through but also to strengthen their own power. In their world, they don't have any light, no suns or stars, no source of energy so true existence can never form. That is why they want the light from this world so much, but not just some of it, all of it, so that they may exist here and reclaim it as their own."

"So this light you talk about, that's energy, right? That's why when they contacted me I felt so weak and that's why..." I watched my friend's small chest rises and falls. "My friend is so weak right now, all her energy was taken from her."

"Energy is the broad term, but what this light really is is aura, the outer projections of a being's soul given birth by the energy created by this world's encompassing soul, Gaia. In other words, light is what creates souls. It condenses, solidifies and is attached to every living being. That's what the shades want, not just disorganised energy, but the potent stuff, and the best of the potent stuff - human souls."

I gasped. "But that... that must mean if they take it all, this aura you talk about, then..." My throat closed as I tried to finish what my deductions had brought me to.

No, not that. That's just too horrible!

"Yes, you've guessed it now. What they feed on are human souls and when they're not interrupted they take the whole lot."

"When someone's soul is entirely taken," I swallowed, "they die?"

"Nothing that truly exists can live without a soul. Once it's gone that person's whole being is devoured entirely. A shell remains but in answer to your question, yes, a lifeless one. A corpse."

As I tightened my hands I felt the soil pressing beneath my nails. "But how? How can this be possible? How can no one know about this?!"

"Only potentials can see the darkness..." Ariel began to explain but my rants cut over the top of her.

"How can such evil exist?! This doesn't make sense! If this is real, then there would be people dying for no reason at all, right? Of course, this isn't real!"

"You're wrong." She corrected. "People do die of no reason at all. Science tries to explain these of course, state it was a weak heart, exhaustion, that's a popular one, but sometimes a reason can never really be concluded. It happens all the time but no one wants to hear I-don't-know when someone dies, so people think up all sorts of scenarios. It's happened since the creation of man."

"No, I would have noticed something! I would have heard of more of these cases. I would have!"

"Like the students from your school dying?"

I was so shocked that my tense arms completely gave way and my head landed flat on the dirt path. I didn't feel the landing though, the world spun too confluent to tell such a difference between up and down. Instead I just discovered I was lying when Ariel's head hovered over the top of my view.

"Bethanie, are you okay?! I'm so sorry, I went too far - I shouldn't have told you all that! Please, just forget it and go back to living a happy life, okay?"

The students at the school, I remembered then the deaths. One student every year for the past three years, the first being in year eleven, the next also in year eleven, then the next in year ten. It was becoming such a pattern that it was called The Golden Heights curse and some whispered that it might even have been our grade's turn this year. But most of us stayed optimistic enough to persevere with the school, because, after all, each event was isolated. Tragic, but not at all suspicious, just a row of unfortunate accidents or illnesses.

Never before I had thought there was a legitimate curse until that moment.

"Bethanie!" Ariel shouted again as she began to grab my shoulders and turn me into what I thought was the same recovering position that Abigail was in. But just as she started I waved her off.

"I'm okay, just realising my naivety, that's all. And you know what, I'm sick of it. I don't want to let the people I care about