Nothing Is What It Seems To The Eye

Nothing IS What It Seems To The Eyes

By Leonie. S

Prologue

Two Year before

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.” Arthur whisper in his raspy voice sending shiver down my spine. “When the Dragons came, the Shadow followed… something covered the Valley in darkness, and you could feel it watching you.” His voice got deeper as his breathing slowed and he dimmed the light with a wave of his right hand. “It was always there waiting for you, waiting for you to wander just that little bit too far or even for you to look into the darkness for just that little bit too long.” The air sticks in my lung and I am too frightened to move or even try to breathe. “Stand still too long,” Arthur whispers,” and claws scrape along your arms, as an icy breath freezes your cheek and heart.” Everyone slowly moves away from Arthur not because this is a tale for children, oh, no, they moved away from fear, because before their eyes, Arthur’s skin was fading to pale grey and then something worse. “We called the Shadow; the Darking and it could always find you. We don’t how, maybe it was the scent of our blood, maybe it heard our hearts beating with fear… whatever it was, the Darkness feasted on it, gorged itself upon us until it was glutted, and we were almost no more.” Arthur’s voice is a ghostly wind in the darkness, his once bright yellow eyes are dead and Arthur himself, is no longer there … and it is now, at this moment I know the madness has taken him. His voice echoes in our minds, “All we know, is that the wind howls and growls like a fiend from Hell before teeth sink into our flesh.” Arthur throws up his arm and light green energy – Mana - swirls from his fingers, as every door and window opened with a BANG! People scream and their screams echo throughout the room. All I can do is stand petrified, my voice silent, my knees too weak to move.

Arthur’s raspy laugh drowns out the screams. Now, it is getting hard to breathe, it is as if the air in my lungs is slowly being sucked out of them.

“This is what The Shadow and The Darkness feel like. They climb inside of us, suffocating us.” Arthur’s hand shakes, as the air is siphoned from the room. My knees finally give out and I fall to the ground with a thud. I look up as Arthur creeps towards us with unseeing eyes and begins to whisper again. “Just before you are ripped apart, the Dragons come and in gorged themselves on us and turning everything to ash” Silence fills the room. “That is only the beginning … and this is why we never look into the darkness for too long, or starry too far away. If The Darkness finds one of us, all the rest of us can do is run for our lives.” Arthur’s voice sounds far away, the blackness welcomes me, and I feel Death’s presence.

CHAPTER ONE

Present Day

It doesn’t take long for Death to wake me from the Blackness of my slumber.

With a heavy heart, I open my eyes only to see Arthur’s cadaverous face flash across my memories. Now, I know that he is lost to us. His madness has trapped his mind, distorting, and twisting reality into the nightmare of a children’s fairy tale. I hope it is his time to meet Death before some one else dies.

“It is not his time” Death calls through the wind to me.

I gather myself together, waiting f or the man, Death is waiting for.

Filling my lung with air, I ready myself for whatever will walk through the open door. Pulling my dark hood low to cover my face, I try to hide the tell tail signs of what I am, the silver crest of the moon and the golden sun on my hands, for as long as possible. The sliver crest of the moon, tattooed in silver on my left hand speaks of the darkness and secrets each Spirit I ferry to Afterlife tries to hide, the golden sun on my right hand reveals all the light and goodness that Spirit gave to others. What Afterlife you enjoy depends upon the balance of darkness and light.

“Damn stowaways! Can’t they scamper away like the rats they are.” A cold, careless and arrogant voice grates harshly on my ears. I don’t want to hear it, let alone meet its owner.

For a moment it seemed that the voice’s owner was alone. It wasn’t until he walked through the door, and I saw that a mouse-like of boy followed him, that I realised everything was changing. What a poor little boy, anyone could tell that he didn’t want to be here, his dark beady eyes were filled fear.

It took all my strength to look at the man, and his look made my skin crawl. His large eyes were filled with dark malice. His long face and nose were ill-shaped and lumpy, really there was nothing about him that was nice to look at.

I know it is not for me to judge someone for their life choices. I am a Banshee and my job is to lead people to Doorway of the Afterlife for judging. This is the first time I have ever met someone with so much blood on his hands- his own mother’s blood and so many other people’s blood. It seems to drip from his hands in a never-ending stream.

“Bring Him to me” Death orders. “Bring this man, Orpheus Marcellus to the door of the Afterlife.”

As soon as I remove my hood, the mouse boy flees into the night.

I raise my left hand and Orpheus swats it away. Hissing with the pain his touched has caused, I stand still and wait.

Death is impatient and the air around us chills.

“Bring Him To Me” Death calls to me again.

CHAPTER TWO

LUCA WARHAERT