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

the others?" The girl offered. "Are you okay? Do you want me to take you to the nurse's office?"

The the world began to darken even further as air thickened to the consistency of ice streaming down my throat. I followed that cool path, delved inside towards my heart where once again I saw light blossom. Surrounded by darkness there was a central beacon, a diamond that shone with all the most beautiful colours, greater than I had ever viewed as a daeva and there within it I almost saw something else, something calling me and my hand reached out to extract it.

Suddenly my hand was wrapped around something else, another hand, warm, tender but just slightly rough around the knuckles.

"Abigail, hey, what's wrong?" Eric was leaning over in front me, cradling my hand within his. "You want to talk about it?"

To my side the girl remained. She was silent but gave a look to say, yes please talk to him and leave me alone.

I turned back to Eric and meekly nodded. There he aided me onto my feet as he drew me away. "Hey, what's happening, Abigail?" Eric urged, "Talk to me."

"You're missing class." I murmured.

I sensed the boy shrug. "Ah, don't worry about that. You know, Mr. Merrith, so long as it helps nurturing creative juices he'll let his class roam free. Besides, I think he was just so shocked by your reaction back there that he's glad someone else is checking it out and from the looks of things, this doesn't seem like something that's very easy for you to talk about, is it?"

I turned to him in a hurry and breathed in to speak but then just settled for biting my lower lip.

Eric smiled as he brought a gentle hand to my moist cheek. "I thought I was right. I've thought that for a while actually. Like these last couple of weeks there's been something bothering you. I hope... it doesn't have anything to do with us."

"Oh no, Eric!" I called out passionately as my free hand grasped our interlocked two. "It's not that at all! I promise, you're the best thing ever! I love you, Eric, I really do!"

Eric's smile reached his twinkling brown eyes. "Good, I'm glad. I didn't think it was about us but we've been moving forward kind of fast so I had to check. But then if it's not us what is it? You can tell me, Abigail. You know that whatever it is I'm right here with you."

I took a moment to respond. "I didn't tell you before because it was all just so new and confusing. And I guess scary, like if I talked to anyone else about it all the terrible things I have been witnessing would actually be made true, but now, I'm fearing that even if I do tell you, even if you somehow manage to believe all of it then it'll just be erased. Maybe everything will, maybe we will, I don't know." My voice was breaking again. "I don't know what to think and feel anymore."

Eric rubbed my hand reassuringly. "Well, why don't you just start at the simple parts, then you can work your way from there."

I nodded. "Okay, what do you think about souls? Do you believe that they're real?"

Eric's bronze eyes grew in size. "So that's the simple part, huh? Well, I dunno, I'm more of a scientific kind of mind and with my parents into explaining how we all function as a product of our brains then I haven't really been brought up to believe in religion, but souls? That's trickier, I guess it really depends on how you define them. I don't believe souls are what make us sentient, I think any machine with enough intelligence could become self-aware, but to say that there isn't something more going on than just electrical impulses in our brains I simply can't do. I wouldn't call it the typical Christian soul that carries with it original sin that's either destined to enter Heaven or Hell, but I think there is still something else that moves us. We know that there is a place in the brain where emotions originate but I believe that there must be something that guides that process. It's hard to say what's not real because there is still so much we don't know about the universe, but yeah, I believe in a soul. It might not be real but a part of me wants it to be so I will, believe in it."

"Well, that's a start." I responded smally.

"... Has someone died, Abigail?"

I stared at the dull grass underfoot. "Yeah, but it's worse than that. She's not just dead, she's disappeared. I... I knew it was happening, to her and the others, but I kept thinking there was some way to stop it. Like we could fight destiny and protect people at the same time. Apparently it happened on Friday but because I didn't see it then I guess I thought that it wasn't entirely true yet. Silly, isn't it? They tried to cover it up from me but I worked it out and then I just pretended like it can all be fixed. And I try to smile, say that I'm okay with everything that's happening when really I'm not okay, not at all!"

We had walked around the edge of school, perhaps in an attempt to move out of the line of sight of any teachers who would recognise us as out of class. Then as we approached the vacant perimeter we trod down alongside a gentle stream. In the break of trees the sun was shining in the sky which should have reflected gloriously over the tops deeply saturated rocks, but instead, within that unrestrained flowing water was darkness.

Eric sat me down. "Denial is one of the phases of grief, it's natural that you don't want to believe what your brain is telling you. It's a mechanism to protect yourself from painful emotions."

"I didn't know her very long, only a couple of weeks and when I first met her I was scared. Well, not of her but her friends, I thought they were the bad guys, how wrong I was there, but then she was just so wonderfully nice. She protected me and was always smiling even at the worst of times and even though she was at death's door she never gave up. Maybe that's why I thought she wasn't really gone. Like she had disappeared but still existed, you know?"

"Well I don't know her but I do know that as long as she has people remembering her then she'll never truly die."

"But no one does, they've forgotten her!"

"You haven't." Eric reminded softly. "And so long as her memory stays within you she will never cease to exist."

My face softened as I stared up into his dark eyes. Then there were his lips, such a deep red that made the most beautiful of gestures. Smiling they added, "You just need to believe in that and you'll see how true it'll become."

"As long as I remember." Weakly I smiled. "She's still here, Pearl is still here and so long as she's in my heart then she will never disappear entirely."

Chapter 27

 

Bethanie

 

"We're going after the asura." Lara declared from the centre of the school's football oval.

"Are you kidding!?" Vanessa roared. "Well count me out! I only just wiped away the crystals it gave me, I'm not about to go looking for more! And that's if it doesn't manage to kill me first!"

"Shouldn't be too hard," Rebecca quipped, "considering how easily it did you in the last time. One hit wonder."

"Oh, aren't you just the comedian now!?" Vanessa leered. "Forget it, I'm not going to run into that thing's path and die! It's not like it hasn't already killed one of us!"

The golden feather wall beneath the sea of black floated back into my mind. "I'll help!" I declared. "I want to see that thing dead for what it did to Pearl!"

"Barbie here wants to go fight it!?" Vanessa shouted incredulous. "What are you, crazy? You'll be killed before me!"

"I held my own against it!" I retorted.

"Yeah, I head you got a couple of slashes before it had you pummelling, but don't think you're any better than me! You got to see it first but it still had you landing on your arse!"

"It got the better of all of us." Lara corrected. "It was much more powerful than we expected. We have never faced anything like it before."

"You know, I think it's better that Vanessa doesn't come." Rebecca stated. "It wasn't like she was any help last time."

"What is this? Reverse psychology?" Vanessa scoffed. "Well it ain't working. I'm not going after it!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I accused as I trembled on that field. "Pearl was murdered by that thing and you're allowing that to go unavenged? How can you even call yourself a daeva!?"

"Vengeance? Really, you're trying to teach me a lesson in achieving vengeance!?"

"All of you quit it!" Lara spoke but her words went unheard.

"Yeah that's right, 'cause it seems you don't give a damn about anyone other than yourself. Rebecca's right, you are a coward!" I roared.

Vanessa shook her head as she held an angry smile. "Me, scared? You have no idea, you know nothing about me! Nothing about any of us! Why do you want to get yourself killed over some girl you didn't even know anyway, huh? You say I'm too quick to protect myself but what about you? You, a rookie with so little power that I had to come and save your arse yesterday and all the time you never looked scared. What do you, have a death wish or something? Is that it? Did you know about the shades there, did you know that you would be outmatched, do you really want to die!?"

"Vanessa, enough!" Lara called before turning to me with a stern gaze. "You too, Bethanie, I don't want to hear any more of this useless squabbling. These are tough times for us, after Pearl's chrysalis and my own just around the corner. I won't lie to you that I want to kill the asura for personal reasons. I want to eradicate these crystals and I want to avenge her death but still I also want to protect the Serene Coast that it's just about reaching." Lara closed her eyes as she took a moment before breaking them reopen. "I know it's a tough ask, that thing is powerful, crazy powerful, so anyone who doesn't want to go up against it I respect that. Like Vanessa said it is a death wish but I can't let that thing wander out there, not knowing what it'll do. Not with all this anger inside me. So everyone think hard before you agree because this thing is powerful, it very well might kill you before you even get to have a chrysalis. Make sure that you realise it's your entire existence you're putting on the line here because once it's gone there's no coming back."

I looked straight into Vanessa's eyes as I responded. "I won't turn my back on Pearl. No matter the cost I will avenge her."

Vanessa shook her head. "Fine,