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

can't avoid then try a less direct path. Like when caught in a rip the best way to avoid the pull of its waters is to swim at an angle."

 

Someway, somehow, you'll return to me

That is my endless decree

For I will never give you up

 

"Makes sense." He frowned. "But, Abigail..."

I stopped dead and following my stiff hand he did too. Silencing he looked in the direction I was turned and squinted.

"Is it just me or is it really dark there? But then, when I come to notice it, it's strangely bright here, as in everything seems coated in some kind of mist..."

The blue snowflakes had become very heavy now and so to him he was finally able to witness the muted aura representation through human-sight. All the blue vibrant energy to him would have been like a white fog rolling through the trees and, due to the dimming sky, the scene would have began to faintly glow.

 

Even if the world must break

Even if destruction lies in its wake

I will never give up

 

"We'll be fine," I stated lacking confidence, "so long as they don't notice us. If they're focused on the music I think we'll be..."

"What's going on?" Eric exclaimed as he pointed with fear to an area where four shades were walking in tandem. Through the deep black they possessed no blue that could be seen emerging from the other side. "What's with that dark area and... why's it moving!?"

"No, Eric, don't freak out." I stated hurriedly but softly, too soft for the effect of my words were not felt and instead the boy scrambled back a few paces before tripping over a log. He fell back, carrying my hand and body along with him before we landed together on the soft foliage.

 

The world so peaceful and light

Seemingly full of potential so bright

You should be safe, you should be well

Never did I think I could find you within hell

 

Despite it all Eric smiled as he held me in his arms. "I would say that I want to hold you here like this forever, only..." His gaze turned back in that direction.

Mine did too as I nodded subtly but fervently. "Now's not the time, the darkness is looking at us." In a scramble I pulled myself up to my feet and tugged at Eric to follow.

"Whoa, it's getting closer - fast!" The boy didn't need to be told twice, instantly he reclaimed his feet and with a speed that far surpassed mine instantly took the lead. But it was no more than twenty meters until he stopped again.

"Eric, what are you...?"

"I can see it, or them... Not clearly but I know there's something ahead because all this time the mist keeps getting thicker, whiter and those things just stand out darker. There really is something unnatural going on."

 

Through violent fire I search

Beneath the world's icy perch

I don't see you now, I don't see you yet

But I will find you when the world pays its debt

 

Looking past him I ascertained that he was right, there were another two shades directly where we were heading. He was beginning to see them, just as I finally could perceive my attackers that night here when I lost Bethanie. Ariel had found me, had told me that that meant I could have had potential so, did the fact that Eric was seeing now meant he had the same sad fate roughly drawn? Or was it just another of the girl's fabrications, a mere tool to make anyone feel important when faced with a dark destiny?

Eric tugged me in another direction just as those black shapes altered their straight courses. "You know, Abigail, I'm starting to think that your idea about running away isn't the worst of them."

Finally, I thought, he's beginning to understand me. But why did it have to take this kind of visual stimulus to trigger his belief, one that foretold of so much peril?

 

My flowers ever blooming

Gives rise to a coldness consuming

In ice I am frozen, I am dead

My words now never being said

 

"Stop!" I called, pointing ahead.

"It's getting easier to see it..." he stammered as he changed directions, "but that's... because the brightness keeps increasing. What the hell is all this!?"

"It's the light, the world's light!" I explained hurriedly tugging him before my hand fell limp. "And when the dark feasts it strengthens it. The darkness is hungry, it's chasing us now. It wants our light, but I..." Gaining a calmness my hands slipped away from his. "I can stop it. I can fight, all I need to do is stop running away and face my..."

 

You are like me, in darkness you are lost

In another plain, laced with a different kind of frost

One made first from loneliness and despair

Then transformed to a nothingness so unfair

 

"No!" Eric shouted. "Don't even think about going up against that! We don't know what it is! And we can't even see it, well we couldn't..." He stopped again as he suddenly changed direction. "If everything wasn't so suddenly white..."

"But I can see it." I stated more confidently than I felt. "Eric, there's something that I've been keeping from you but please don't think that it was intentional! It was... because I didn't know how to tell you. Actually, I've been struggling with the how ever since this all happened but seeing is believing, isn't it? I guess I knew that all along you wouldn't be able to understand what was happening to Bethanie and I until you saw it for yourself. So," I turned towards the ensuing black shadows, "here goes, it's time for me to stay and do something about all this bad in the world. It's finally time for me to fight!"

 

But it's far from over, it's far from done

Because soon your return will herald a new sun

Then when you'll return to me

I will whisper sweetly

That I never gave you up

 

"Abigail!" I heard Eric cry as the scene of countless shades advanced and my inner draw into something white suddenly cracked and shattered away into complete darkness. It wasn't until the last high-pitched crystalline pane broke apart that new sounds and a completely disparate image emerged.

"Abigail!" It was Eric's voice again, but ill-defined and blurring into the edges of my new non-reality.

I gasped as I observed a scene that was, though suddenly through the meagre light of human eyes, glorious and shining.  A river glistened out ahead and a walkway leading to it boasted a proud tinny by its side. On the land in front was a small splash pool littered with leaves and then tiles that were cracked and old and yet, despite that, seemed to be so full of life with all its various stains. I gazed in one direction and saw a quaint, though aging, white picket fence and a small house next door. The other side boasted much of the same imagery.

"Abigail!" I heard a voice call out, one that was familiar I was sure but it was an old man's so that had me hesitating. "Did you say that it was only one sugar you wanted?"

Staring at the lake I responded. "Yes, honey, just the one. The doctor said it was best to not indulge in too much."

If I could have gasped I would have, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything out of my own free will, all I could do was exist in the skin I was in, witnessing a scene I was completely unfamiliar with and using a voice that sounded far too deep and shaky to be my own. All I was capable of doing was perceiving as if through someone else's eyes. A someone being addressed with my name.

"Good," the old man grumbled, "because that's how I made it and if you wanted more than you'd have to fix it yourself."

As a teacup was rounded in front of me I accepted it. "You're a cruel husband."

"And a moment ago you were calling me the perfect one, just as I was fixing you a cup of tea."

I turned my head then and smiled at an old man with tanned skin and white hair that showed just a few strands of black. No way!

But I didn't say that, I said something else, possessing much more diction and taking much longer to iterate. "You are, but that varies."

He came to sit by me and after taking a sip of his drink smiled in response. "I hope you don't feel the same way about the life we shared together."

"Of course I do," I replied with a cackled yet lofty voice, "how I feel about you always changes: Sometimes you're cute, sometimes you're boring, sometimes you confuse me, sometimes I even hate you, especially when I was giving birth to our three children!"

The old man's eyes glistened as he watched the water morosely. "I hope I haven't disappointed you in any way. I know that you said you never minded but I always remembered how you loved your views, you used to do so much landscape art. So I tried all my life to give you a home with such a spectacular view but by the time I finally got it our children had already moved out of home and it was in the middle of nowhere."

"Darling," I soothed as, after shifting my teacup to my other hand I took his. "You know this already, no view would have ever been perfect without you in it. So all this, it's beautiful and even though it's way out of the city and even though we couldn't bring our kids up in it I absolutely adore it. But it's not the river I adore, or that charming white picket fence, but you and me, together in it! Drinking a cup of tea that my sometimes perfect, but always loved, husband makes me."

The old man smiled. "You've always done that, seen the brighter side of things."

"Of course! It was the only way I could survive childbirth - knowing that my three gremlins were on the other side!"

His hands shook as he took another sip. After a deep exaggerated breath he seemed to delve into memory. "But that was a shock for you - when you had two births for the price of one! You managed so well, remarkably calm, but then when the doctor told you Susie had company you never looked so angry before!"

"Well the doctors lied to me!" I defended myself. "They said I was only meant to have one baby, not twins! Who wouldn't be angry? I was hardly prepared! We didn't have a second crib or pram or car-seat or anything!"

The old man struggled to keep his eyes open with the lowering sun. "Your brother and sister were thrilled though, so was Oliver, he was certainly excited for two little siblings for the price of one!"

We both drank our tea in nostalgic silence until the old man began coughing.

"Honey," I giggled. "did that go through the wrong pipe?"

The man frowned as he held his hand up to his chest and continued to struggle. "I guess so... sweet-heart." He tried to smile until his hands jerked so roughly that the teacup was violently thrown to the pool-side tiles.

"Honey!" I cried. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

The man thumped at his chest as he both coughed and wheezed.

"You're choking! Well, maybe I should whack you on the back?"

He pulled out a strained hand in front me and shook his head. "No, it's not that...." He managed through splutters. "It's in my chest, it's... so heavy!"

"No! No, it can't be!" I shouted in panic.

The man looked at me with tired yet terrified eyes. "I... think it might be."

"Don't worry! We'll get you to a hospital in time!" I ran off the porch as fast as I could but with my wobbly legs almost fell down twice on the way and instantly lost my breath. When I finally picked up a small mobile phone I dialled in the emergency number immediately.

"Hello, operator? Ambulance, now! My husband, I think... I think he's undergoing cardiac arrest!"

The