Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen (16 page)

We spent the rest of the day practicing until night fall. We did not speak, we just trained hard. The moonlight entered through the roof and embraced us in its magic. There was no one left in the hall, only us three. We had placed many posts at different heights from the floor; three meters; four meters; six meters. They were easy to place, but not so easy to walk on top of. I had to jump from on to another varying the heights. I had gone up progressively and had been practicing for half an hour on the six meters, when the trainer decided that he would turn the lights out completely; I should learn to move in darkne
ss. I came down to look for my sais and when I went back up Gabriel was on the post looking at me, his look fixed in my mind when all of a sudden the lights went out. The challenge was to fight against him. My eyes adapted to the darkness, thanks to the tenuous light of the moon I could see Gabriel coming. I jumped to another post, he followed me. Soon an idea came to me and I wanted to put it into practice. I grabbed the daggers strongly and closed my eyes, I concentrated and in a second noticed how my hands heated the same way they had in the morning. I didn´t want Gabriel to see me, so I concentrated only on the heat and not in its light as I avoided him. I turned ready to jump to another post when I noticed how my arm was grabbed. I turned and found a known face that I didn´t expect. I was seeing my sister. It was surreal, she couldn´t be there. The moon lit her smile, as she held my arm so tightly that I had to let go of one of the daggers. She was hurting me. Without expecting it, my sister spoke, somehow I had thought that it was a ghost, but her voice and her strength were real.

“Hello
, little sister. How are you? I suppose a little sore from your fall,” she laughed noisily. “You don´t know how long I have been waiting for this, to see you and tell you face to face how much I hate you, you and all this race of useless ones, Sons of the Night.” She mocked, “You are good for nothing, and you will not stop us. We will destroy your world as you destroyed our thousands of years ago. Soon we will enter with our strength and will flatten ever trace of life that we find in the whole city.”

“You will not be able to stop us.”

With a clearer mind, I could see her evil eyes full of thirst for revenge. I didn´t understand why she was saying this, she was part of us, she was like me. Furthermore I was there standing with her, I hadn’t fallen. I did know what was happening.

             
“Don´t forget little sister that we can communicate and I can hear everything that you are thinking. I am not like you,” she shouted, “Despicable, disgusting being. And believe me, you have fallen when you put me into your mind, you weren´t prepared for this I suppose. Afterwards you will feel the pain. What a shame that you haven´t banged your head hard enough so as not to see you anymore.”

             
“Why are you doing this? Don´t you want to meet our mother, be a normal person, this is the world you belong to, not that one that you are tied to. Why do you hate me so much? I haven´t done you any harm.”

             
She looked at me coldly with an evil smile.

             
“Our mother died a long time ago, my dear,” she said pretending to suffer, “I killed her and I suppose that you haven´t done anything, but I love to see how you suffer.”

             
That was the last thing I heard before she left. I shouted and cried. I wanted to know what was happening and why my sister was so frivolous. My sister wanted to kill me. I was sure of it. This was my last thought before my world faded and submerged completely in darkness.

             
I opened my eyes and a blinding light filled them, I shut them again in pain.

             
“Samantha, are you alright?” I heard Gabriel´s concerned voice.

             
The trainer and he spoke but I didn´t understand what they were saying.

             
At that moment I understood everything. That was the fall that Elizabeth had spoken of, I had seen her in my unconsciousness. I was starting to get fed up of not being aware of what was happening to me, I didn´t want to faint again in my life. I hated it and right at the decisive moment, I was again taken by the waters of the darkness of my mind.

             
I heard people around me; I was in bed, in my room I supposed, in Gabriel´s room. I couldn´t open my eyes, I noted how exhausted my mind was. I just wanted to feel the peace that Eric transmitted to me. I called him as I could and luckily he was by my side.

             
“Precious one, are you alright? Eh, she has woken,” he shouted to the others.  “Be calm, I am here. Can you speak?”

I forcibly nodded. Trying to make use of my telepathic power I started to speak to Eric.

<>

To my surprise he answered.

<>. Certain that both felt the same for each other, I let myself be taken by that tide that tried successfully to capture my mind.

I woke up when Gabriel sprinkled a jar of frozen water on my face. It was day time and I couldn´t see Eric anywhere, it was just him and Francis in the room.

“Where is he?” I asked.

His face was serious, it seemed like he had missed something. He had bags under his eyes and a somber gaze.

“He isn´t here,” he replied in a low tone.

“I was speaking with him just an instant ago – or so it seemed.” I stared at them “He hasn´t returned
,” I declared deceived.

“No, you were dreaming.”

Soaked and with a clearer mind, I remembered how I fell the previous night from the post in the training hall, I said nothing, I didn´t shout. But I remembered the pain that the collision with my sword produced when I fell against the floor. I tried to sit up, everything hurt, although after various tries I succeeded. I touched my arm where my sister had squeezed me in my imagination, it hurt. The pain was real. She could control my mind. She didn´t know how it was possible, I didn´t understand it either, but I decided to find out which secret weapons she had in her favor and what I could do to counteract them.

I looked at them stunned. Francis came closer and sat on the edge of the bed
. He put a glass on the bedside table.

“Drink it, you will feel better.”

This said, he got up and left. He was distinct; he seemed to have lost some of his grace in speaking and moving. I looked at the glass in distrust, a green liquid moved in its inside. I drank it in one gulp and almost vomited noting its disagreeable texture going down my throat. Gabriel left, leaving me alone to recompose myself and be able to get up. The light of day was not seen yet in the window, so I imagined that it was still quite early. In a few minutes I felt better, stronger and not in so much pain. I changed clothes and went out. They were chatting in low voices in the kitchen.

“Good morning princess” Francis said trying to appear to be in better spirits than a few minutes before.

I smiled as I could and sat up to have breakfast. I felt worn out and hungry, but little by little I improved.

“What are you doing here Francis? It is not that I am not happy to see you, but I don´t think you are here on a social visit. I imagine that the council has been busy these days
,” I looked at him fixedly.

“Very observant my dear, I have come to give you something
,” he left the kitchen and returned with something in his hands.

“Take it
,” he passed something wrapped in a smooth silk handkerchief. “It will help you to concentrate and with this nobody will be able to get into your mind.”

I looked at him in a meaningful way. How did he know what had happened to me? Surely the others thought I had passed out from pure tiredness, not for the real cause.

I opened it carefully and a pendant appeared before my eyes. I put the handkerchief to one side and picked it up; it was formed by two stones, linked by a fine thread of silver with an inverted “s” form. The stones were round and very pretty colors. They were smooth and even. The one on top was a dark blue with an unusual shine and the one below was a translucent white with grey and violet lines through it. After observing them in detail I lifted my head and Francis answered the question I hadn´t asked.

“The top Stone is called Stardust, its dark color will help you to concentrate and its shine will keep you from getting lost in the dark. The stone underneath is a smoked Quartz with veins of Amethyst. This combination will help you to develop your powers and have more control over your mind.”

              “Thank you,” I said with a timid smile.

             
“You don´t have to thank me. The nuddles sent them for you”

             
“I thought that jewels had to be ordered.”

             
“True, but in certain cases they send things to who needs them. In this case, it is a jewel for you.”

             
I put the pendant on and left the kitchen in fluid movements. I felt lighter and more prepared than ever for my third day of training. Later I wanted to speak to Francis about some things and also with Kenneth to apologize for not having gone the previous night. I was decided to rescue Eric from wherever he was and that evening I would go to see my mother. I didn´t want to wait anymore.

I entered the training room with determination after
seeing a red explosion come from the corner of the building. I didn´t think about it again until later.

The trainer
was waiting for us with his arms crossed. Francis had accompanied us in case I fainted again. He said that he knew how to get me out of that state while we walked through the deserted streets. The trainer went to get my daggers as Gabriel sat beside Francis´s ashen face observing the hall. He left bewildered without anything in his hands, looking at me perplexed. They had stolen from the precinct. This had never happened, he couldn´t believe it. I entered into the weapons hall and there were only a few swords in a corner. A room that only yesterday had contained thousands. There was nothing. His face burned with anger and his fists were clenched in sign of fury. Before we could say anything he was already gone. We left the place running and heard shouting in the distance. I lifted my neck and saw the same red flash disappearing and the trainer running behind it.

Without thinking I started to run up the street until I arrived to a slope; there was a short distance between me and the red haired girl and the furious man that chased her. They were almost at the edge of the forest and if I didn´t hurry I would lose the
m. I ran between the trees and decided to take a short cut to catch up on them. I stopped suddenly and thought about how I was connected with the Earth, that I could use my powers. I bent down and leant my knee on the cold ground; I buried my hands into the still humid earth and closed my eyes, it didn´t take long for me to connect. When I felt that I had the help I needed, I opened my eyes and asked the forest to show me the way; a green beam of light very close to the ground appeared before me, as though the path had always been there.

I started running again, I didn´t know why I was chasing them but felt that it was important. In a few minutes I saw her. She turned her head to see how far away her captor was, I went in her direction as fast as the wind and in a few seconds I was between her and the trainer who was running almost out of breath. She turned her head again and saw me; her eyes filled with alarm. Without thinking about it I pounced on her and brought her down. Both of us were exhausted; our chests went up and down quickly as the trainer got closer. I got up and looked at her inquisitively.

“Have you taken all the weapons from the hall? What were you thinking?”

After a few silent seconds she started to laugh
hesitantly whilst she stared at me.

“Hello Samantha
.”

Her great red long hair covered part of her face when she moved and laughed.

“Answer my question,” I said.

“I am just carrying out orders
,” she smiled like a girl with an ice-cream in her hands.

“Where are the weapons?”

“I don´t know.”

A second later the trainer grabbed her by the arm strongly.

“Let´s go, I am taking you to the Council and punishment will fall on you,” he said abruptly.

She said nothing. She felt no guilt or remorse. She didn´t care. They left as I observed them immersed in my thoughts. I didn´t
understand neither where she had come from nor why she had stolen the weapons from the hall. They were almost all the weapons of the kingdom, so they should be in a big enough place to store them. Suddenly a light shone in my ideas; the palace. The weapons must be in the palace.

I started to leave the forest with a different focus. I had thought to go the palace this evening anyway, but as well as speaking to my mother I would also search for the weapons.

She was already out of the trees when she saw Gabriel coming towards her. I was coming down the meadow when he made me stop, standing in front of me. His face was a reflection of her emotions.

“Have you gone crazy? Do
you want to get killed?”