It really was unbelievable when I finally experienced it. It still hard to comprehend that it's all as real as it is. How could my life change so much in so little time? I've found out things I could have never even imagined, learnt about myself in a way I didn't think possible. I've gained so much, a view on life like no one else would believe. I've felt loss, though, don't think I haven't. I don't think I will ever be able to let that one go. No matter what else happens, no matter what else I loose, that one is the one that hurt the most...
Tonight the house was silent, void of the echoed screams that usually filled the halls. Claudia's father had obviously drunken himself into enough of a stupor to pass out before he could beat her mother. The quiet was peaceful, relaxing almost. Not so much that Claudia dared to unlock her bedroom door, no, he had risen his hand to her too many times to feel that safe. Still, something else kept sleep a longing desire on that night. With the silence she could quiet her mind, let it drift though a void and believe that she was somewhere else. Then there was that itch, a strange sensation deep down in the back of her mind, almost like a voice whispering inside her head. For the life of her she couldn't decipher what it was saying, all she knew was that it was just a voice nestled in her mind, unfettered by the direction of her own thoughts. She opened her eyes and took a sharp breath in, returning to the bitter reality of her life. The voice lingered for a few seconds, trying to cling on as though it, too, would return to a much worse place if it let go. It wasn't the first time this had happened. Sometimes on the cusp of sleep she would drift into a place where nothing seemed real. It was a place where the voices welled up in her mind and took form, speaking as though part of her own psyche, while the world around her continued to fall further away. The experiences unnerved her but never left her scared, rather curious and intrigued to find out more, yet the next morning it was nothing but a dream.
The phone on Claudia's bedside table suddenly buzzed loudly, making her jump and fumble to answer it before it drew unwanted attention.
“Hello?” she whispered, pulling the phone away for a brief second to see who it actually was. The screen displayed nothing but a seemingly random number, local in area code but nothing else familiar beyond that, “who is this?” she added cautiously.
“Claudia?” came an urgent voice down the phone, “you gotta help me out!”
“Anna?” Claudia queried curiously.
“We were out in the town, then there were these guys and Daz and-”
“Slow down!” whispered Claudia harshly, “what happened?”
“Some of Dazs' dodgy friends turned up and dared him to climb on those old warehouses down the docks,” she seemed to choke on her words for a moment, “the roof gave in and he fell. The others did a runner, I didn't know what else to do.”
“Stay there,” Claudia started without thinking as she got out of bed and quietly began to get dressed, “I'll be there as soon as.”
“Thanks, hun,” Anna said more softly, “didn't know what else to do,” she repeated. “Hurry, though, I don't like this place.” The phone went dead and Claudia slipped it into her jeans pocket before heading to the window. From there it was an easy hop down to the shed roof, then into the garden, a simple route she had taken any number of times before when sneaking out.
The night was brisk, making Claudia shiver as she touched down on the overgrown lawn. A jacket would have been a good idea but she daren't risk clambering back into the house just for that, no, the risk of getting caught would have to come later.
Making her way through the dark streets she headed towards the far end of town and the docks, trying to ignore the yobbish gangs hidden out beneath the city's dingy underpasses. Save for a few queer looks she managed to sneak through all but unnoticed, continuing on towards the docklands. Soon enough the silhouettes of high piled cargo containers came into view. Over them loomed the spindly features of cranes against the navy sky with blurred outlines of the ships in the near distance. Claudia quickly slipped through a jagged gap in the docks chain link fence and stepped in tight against the corrugated side of a container. She carefully peered around the side, barely able to see in the shade of the metal towers around her. Slowly she moved away and ventured further towards the waterfront, fearful of who else might be lurking amongst the labyrinth of containers. The yobs in the city were bad but there were people in the docks; strange, depraved, awful people. Some stories even told of wholly unnatural things happening in there, things that logic couldn't explain. Still, some kids thought it was a good place to hang out, have fun, no matter how many of them never came back.
In the distance Claudia managed to see a hazy figure moving slowly back and forth in front a large warehouse. She hesitated for a moment, aware that it could be anyone, and pulled her phone from her pocket, quickly calling Anna. The figure ahead stopped pacing and a faint light appeared around them.
“I take it that's you,” whispered Claudia gently, her hushed voice carrying surprisingly far on the chilly air.
The phone went dead and the figure started running towards her.
“Thank god!” said Anna, throwing her arms around Claudia, “this place is freaking me out!” she let go and started looking around wildly.
“Where's Daz?” asked Claudia, eager to get away from the docks as soon as possible.
Anna raised a pointed finger towards the warehouse. “I tried to look in but I couldn't see anything,” she looked down and scuffed her pump along the ground. “I shouldn't have let him come. It's just his friends and- I couldn't stop them- I- I just didn't know what to do-,” her voice began to choke and a tear trickled down her face. “He'll be ok, won't he?”
“It's alright,” Claudia put an arm around Anna's shoulder, “we'll find him and he'll be fine, then we can get out of here so he can do something else stupid,” she guided Anna back towards the warehouse and started to walk hurriedly, continuously looking about the area to make sure they hadn't been seen.
The warehouse was apparently much larger than Claudia had expected, as they emerged from behind a large tower of shipping containers. The building stretched far out along the waterfront and had numerous large doors along its face, each defining an individual unit and each locked tightly with a heavy chain and bolt.
“It's this one,” whimpered Anna, vaguely pointing to the unit she had been hovering in front of. Claudia quickly let go of her and cautiously shuffled towards a grubby, barred window.
“Why's he always got to get in trouble like this?” Claudia mumbled to herself, peering through a small hole in the window. Inside was pitch black, nothing visible but an indistinct patch of night sky against the roof, obviously where Daz had fallen. For a second she withdrew and fumbled in her jeans pocket before pressing the lit screen of her phone through the hole the best she could while still looking through. The light did little to clear the oppressive darkness, instead merely illuminating the thick cloud of dust that hung, suspended in the warehouse air. Then, after moving the light around, as much as she could, she noticed the shadowy outline of something possibly resembling a person.
“What can you see?” Anna asked weakly, her hand pressed over her mouth, eyes wide open.
Claudia moved her light around a little more before withdrawing again. “It looks like he's out cold,” she quickly glanced up at the high roof, “that's a hell of a fall,” she added, the concern beginning to show in her voice.
“What're we going to do?” Anna's eyes were still wide open, their white and sky blue a stark contrast to the murky surroundings.
Claudia rose a hand abruptly in an attempt to stop her panicking and delved into another jean pocket to retrieve a bulky Swiss Army Knife. She proceeded to open out several of the smaller blades and pull a bobby pin from the matt of her, usually straight, raven hair. “These things look tough,” she said approaching the large, brass coloured bolt holding the chains together, “just some cheap, mass produced crap, at the end of the day, though,” she set to work at picking the lock, something she wasn't al
l too unfamiliar with, given certain questionable aspects of her youth.
“You don't, seriously, think you'll be able to do it?” Anna stated quickly in hushed tones.
“You tell me,” Claudia dropped the heavy lock with a low thud on the soft concrete. She turned back to Anna, holding the chains together to avoid them clattering. “Come help me with this,” she fed the chain carefully through the rusted iron handles as Anna laid it gently on the ground. Occasionally the chains chinked together causing a brief moments terror that some unsavoury characters would immediately descend on them. Soon enough the chain was completely off and the large corrugated doors could be heaved open, revealing a wall of dusty blackness.
“Where is he?” Anna slipped into the warehouse as soon as the doors were open wide enough and began searching the darkness, “I've found him!” she shouted from the haze.
“Quiet!” Claudia hissed, stepping quickly inside, “is he alright?” she looked back out of the ajar doors and gazed around again, carefully.
“He's out cold,” she reappeared from the shadows briefly, her face full of fear, “what are we going to do?”
Claudia glanced outside one last time before pulling the door together and venturing into the warehouse. “Calm down, everything's going to be fine,” she walked over to Anna who hurried back to Daz and stooped over him. In the darkness it was hard to see anything other than a fallen figure and a darkened area around its head.
“I think he's bleeding pretty bad,” Anna hovered a hand over his head, not sure how to react.
As her eyes started to adapt to the confined blackness, Claudia began to see Daz's outline more clearly. She bent down to take a closer look, then glanced up at the hole in the high roof. Hanging loosely by a single, frayed rope was a broken pallet which would have broken his fall. Looking back down again she managed to find the rest of the splintered pallet scattered around Daz. Then she realized, having his fall broken like that he couldn't have been that badly hurt. “It's not his blood,” Claudia stated abruptly, “his fall was broken, look,” she pointed to the shattered wooden pallet above them.
“He's going to be alright?” Anna asked hopefully as Claudia began to worry about something potentially worse, “Claudia?” she added after a few seconds, when she didn't receive a reply.
“Yeah, yeah, he'll be fine,” she looked carefully at the blood stain and noticed it trailed off into the dark warehouse, “probably just have a hell of a headache when he wakes up,” she started to follow the trail deeper into the building.
Anna went to edge after her but couldn't bring herself to venture away from Daz. “What are you doing?” she asked without reply, “Cyd?”
Claudia continued to follow the trail far into a corner of the warehouse. It looked almost as though someone had been dragged, bleeding, to a place where no one would notice. Soon, it became too dark for her to see and she started to stumble over her own feet, yet she refused to stop.
“What are you doing?”
“I'm just-” started Claudia but, in a second, realized the voice didn't belong to Anna. Slowly she looked up and peered into the shadows at the edge of the warehouse. There hung a the pale outline of a person, almost translucent against the dusty air. Claudia gradually pivoted her head, trying to keep an eye on the figure but eventually broke her gaze to catch a glance of Anna behind her. She, too, appeared as a mere outline in the darkness but, unlike the other, she was a solid, black shape standing out against the light spilling in from the doorway. Claudia snapped her head back towards the pale apparition which remained motionless against the empty backdrop.
"What are you doing?" it repeated after some time, in a more urgent tone.
The words forced a paralyzing fear to swell up inside Claudia. Thoughts raced through her mind about who it might be, who would hang around inside a pitch black warehouse in the middle of the night? Whoever it was, she thought, they couldn't mean anything good. She tried to back away slowly but stumbled over something and fell to the ground as silently as she could. The fear was now lodged firmly in her throat, forcing her to shake and breath sharply as the figure drifted towards her.
"Are you here to help me?" it asked simply, at last, "I waited but no one came to help."
Suddenly all of the fear was gone, evaporating in lieu of pure curiosity. "Er...Yes," Claudia managed as she pushed herself from the ground, refusing to waver her gaze, "I guess so," she added, not overly sure of how to continue.
"I know what you are. You're like them, but better," the figure continued to advance but never became any clearer. Its shape seemed to be shimmering, its being shifting in and out of the visible spectrum. "You're like me, but alive."
Claudia opened her mouth but no words were produced. The figure finally stopped in front of her, no more visible than it had ever been, and leaned towards her. From the darkness, out of the shimmering silhouette before her, a face seemed to press through the air, like an invisible barrier had been blocking her view. The face was that of a young man, barely older than Claudia, but it was deformed with horrific scars and bruising, like he had been tortured.
"Take it, take it back," he said firmly, "the stone. Undo their corruption and free us," he looked deep into Claudia eyes with intense meaning, "please." His image faded again and soon his entire body drifted into the ether, leaving nothing but confusing in Claudia's mind.
She knew she had to leave, right now, get away from there, never look back and forget the night had ever happened. Yet, against all reason she was compelled to stay. Her feet were more than ready to turn heel and run but she was drawn forward to a workbench pushed up against the metal side of the building. Acting as though she had been there before, she reached forward and switched on an overhead lamp. The bright light stung her eyes for a few seconds, blinding her to what was there. Without knowledge of her own actions she cocked her head to one side and bent down. As her sight started to clear it became apparent there was a storage space underneath the desk. Only instead of being filled with tools and equipment it had a body stuffed into it, broken and bent into contorted positions just to fit it in. Claudia gasped and fell back again into the trail of blood she had followed. Then it all came back, the fear, the shaking. She scrambled to get away from the sticky trail in the dust and huddled herself against another workbench, staring at her bloodied hands.
"Are you alright over there?" came Anna's hushed voice, at last, easing the tension slightly. "We should get going."
"Yeah," Claudia said with a stunted breath, "Yeah, in a minute," she added, more calmly, turning her attention to the body under the desk. She refused to believe it but the body was the young mans, the one who she had seen like a ghost. Like a bolt of lightning the truth struck her, a truth her mind immediately rejected and refused to accept on any account. Even so, the more she thought about it the more she knew it to be so. He was a ghost, or at least as close as you can get to one. Still, her mind refuted the idea even though her heart seemed to accept it so readily, like it was as natural a concept as the sun rising. Continuing to stare at the gruesome scene for a minute or two more, Claudia noticed something clasped in the corpses' hand, something grey, a stone maybe. Could this have been what he was talking about? Eventually coming to terms with the scene, she crept towards the storage shelf and the body. The shelf was dripping with half congealed blood and had the wretched air of putrefaction. Every breath made her gag a little more but she eventually brought herself to reach over to the mans tightly clenched fist and wrench it from the mass of twisted flesh. The fist fell from the shelf loosely and hit the ground with a thud but didn't open any. Claudia sighed, knowing what she had to do but unknowing of why she was doing it. She grasped his wrist firmly and jammed her fingers behind his, pulling at them until they came loose with a combination of popping and cracking sounds. The sounds made her shudder and wrench but out of his broken hand fell a polished, oval granite stone. On one side was carved an odd symbol with vertical parallel lines and a horizontal tilde between them, in
tersecting a darkly tinted fragment of Smokey Quartz in its centre.
She gazed at the object for a second. It seemed to make the air around it shimmer as though it were incredibly hot, yet there was no warmth to deter the chilly night. Quickly, she snatched up the stone and hurried back towards Anna and the murky light of the ajar entrance. By this time Anna had managed to rouse Daz, who was furiously complaining, confused at what had happened to him.
"Just keep your damn voice down!" snapped Anna, helping Daz from the ground.
"Oh, aye, here she is!" he moaned loudly, pointing at Claudia's figure emerging from the back of the warehouse, "thought you'd have something to do with this. Trouble you are!"
Anna grimaced and slapped Daz on the arm. "She came to help you!"
"Some help," Daz started aggressively, "she can't even help herself," he continued pointing at her accusingly, "I know about your Mum!"
Claudia gritted her teeth and punched away his outstretched arm, grabbing his coat tightly, "Listen! You're lucky to be alive! You got yourself into this, you ungrateful git! I'm just here because of her," without breaking eye contact she threw her arm towards Anna, "if you didn't go pissing around with those little shits than none of us would be here!" she pushed him away and breathed out heavily. "I remember when you used to be alright,” she ended simply, “where did he go?”
Daz looked at the ground, daring not to say anything further.
“That's what I thought,” added Claudia, shoving past him, “we'd better get going.”
“What did you find over there?” Anna asked as she caught up with Claudia, leaving Daz to tail behind.
“Nothing,” she stated quickly, slipping the stone into her back pocket, “just some work benches,” she hated to lie to Anna but thought that what she had really found was better off something kept to herself.
“I'm sorry about Daz,” Anna murmured solemnly, sidling in front of Claudia, “he thinks' he's clever saying stuff like that. Don't know why I hang around with the idiot...I just couldn't leave him, though, he could have been really hurt.”
“It's alright,” Claudia stopped and run the back of her hand over Anna's cheek, “you did the right thing. Someone has to do the right thing, even if others can't,” she rolled her eyes back towards Daz who grumbled quietly.
“Thanks, Cyd,” she turned and pulled the warehouse door open again but as soon as she did a hand reached through and grabbed her hair, dragging her out into the open.
“Anna!” Claudia quickly went to dive for the assailant but was caught by the arm by another hand who pulled her out and threw her to the ground.
“What do you think you're doing here?” growled a voice from above, “this isn't a tourist attraction, you know!”
Claudia blew a wisp of hair from her face and looked over to Anna. She was still being grasped by the hair, held on her knees by a lean, unstable looking man. “We're no one,” she answered at last, not sure anything she could say would have been ideal.
“No one?” the man above her snapped again, “break into our warehouse and you're 'no one?'”
Claudia finally turned to look at her attacker but all she could see was a short, bulky silhouette against the yellow tinted city sky. She glanced over to the doorway, finally, to see Daz creeping up on it. She raised her eyebrows at him expectantly but received nothing back but an off hand shrug.
“How much did you see?” the other man said, pulling on Anna's hair, making her whimper slightly.
“Nothing!” stated Claudia loudly, pushing out her open palm in the hopes of stopping him.
The shorter silhouette stooped down over Claudia, somewhat uncomfortably, and sighed. “Come on, you expect that we believe that after you quite obviously broke in and started snooping around?” his voice was calm, almost soothing in a way, which made it all the more concerning. “Now, who sent you and what did you see in there?”
There was silence for a few seconds before the unstable man pulled at Anna's hair again. “Who?!”
“We just come to get our friend!” cried out Anna, close to tears, “he fell through the roof and we couldn't get to him without breaking in...” she tailed off and slumped to the ground, sobbing, as her capture loosened his grip.
“He?” questioned the silhouette, looking to his colleague uneasily.
“Me!” shouted Daz loudly, darting from the building and running off into the maze of cargo containers, with the men quickly jumping into pursuit.
“Come on!” said Claudia, quickly grabbing Anna's arm to pull her up, forcing her to start running in the opposite direction to Daz.
“What about-?” Anna tried.
“He'll be fine,” she looked back briefly to reassure Anna, “trust me.”
After some time they found themselves back on the main road, rounding the edge of the docks. Although they were still far from safe, they were, at the very least, out of immediate danger.
“Who the hell were those guys?” panted Anna, jogging to a stop.
“I'm not sure I want to know,” Claudia replied as she leant up against a lamp post, breathing heavily. "I guess they owned the warehouse, though."
"When you say 'own' I assume you mean use as a front for organized crime," Anna chuckled to herself, trying to raise her spirits.
"Yeah," Claudia croaked uneasily, not so amused, knowing that this was something much more sinister than mere organized crime. "Look," she started again, seriously, "get home as quick as you can, make sure no one follows you. Just... forget this night ever happened."
Anna nodded gently and was about to run off but instead turned back again. "Thanks for coming, don't know what I'd do without you," she started walking backwards, out of the streetlamps warm pool of light. "I just hope Daz got away alright, too."
As Anna started off into the night Claudia considered what she had said. Things had changed tonight, her very perception of reality had been shaken by what could only be described as a ghost. Not to mention loosing what little innocence she had left by witnessing what had happened to that ghosts mangled body. Yet it could have all been avoided by staying home. Still, it was over now, she just wanted to forget about it all and carry on. Only she couldn't do that. As she reached into her back pocket and touched the stone she had found, that same feeling that had compelled her to take it in the first place, told her she couldn't just go back to the way things were. Something had started, something that would come to define her and no matter what she wanted, it could not be stopped.
Claudia pulled her hand away from the stone and shuddered, then, herself, disappeared into the darkness towards home and an uncertain welcome.
With the creeping dawn beginning to crest in the fast distance, an aging, rusted car rolled into a narrow, cobbled backstreet and creaked to a halt. Almost involuntarily the engine sputtered to silence and both front doors swung open simultaneously. The two men who had set after chasing Daz, again simultaneously, stepped from the car and strolled around to the boot, slamming their doors as they went. There were thuds and muffled moaning coming from inside, which made the men turn to each other and grin. After several seconds of their perverse enjoyment, the taller of the two popped open the lid to reveal Daz, crammed into the small boot, his limbs bound and a sack pulled over his head. He had obviously been kicking at the side in a vain attempt to draw some attention but stopped as soon as the lid cracked open. Instead, he waited for one of the men to reach into retrieve him and kicked out blindly in the hopes of catching one, or both, of his captures unaware. Despite his best attempts the lean man managed to dodge his attacks and grab his legs under his arm, continuing on to punch Daz firmly in the stomach.
"Nice try, son!" the short man stated, laughing as his colleague gritted his teeth, tempted to get another punch in while he could, "but you're not gonna get one over on us that easy," he reached down and grabbed Daz by the collar, wrenching him from the car and allowing him to flop limply to the hard cobbles.
"Why don't we just do him now?" asked the unstable one
, eagerly, "say something just 'happened,'" he reached for a hunting knife, stashed in his coat pocket but was stopped by a stubby fingered hand.
"Boss'll want him alive. Seeing as how those other two got away, he's the only one who can tell us anything," he gave Daz a gentle kick, making him squirm slightly, still reeling from the sucker punch. "Besides, I'm sure the boss'll have something much more...creative in mind than that little thing," he glanced at the half drawn knife and grinned again.
With the knife replaced the lean man grabbed Daz again and dragged him towards a rotten wooden door, what remaining paint left on it curling up and flaking away. He hammered on it for a second with his fist, making shards of soft wood fall away, and held his captive up to a seldom seen peephole, high in the door.
In prompt manner, locks were removed on the other side and the door was swung open by another individual of questionable mental status. He watched as the two men dragged Daz through the entrance, eyes wide, trembling gently. As soon as they were through he slammed the door and replaced the locks quickly before turning back. "He'll like this one," he stated simply, half a smile curling up at the side of his lips, "looks like he'd cut well."
"I'm sure he will," replied the shorter man, staring the doorman down, "but you won't!" he ended sternly, returning to drag Daz away.
The building was, as far as what remained could define, an old nightclub. It had been abandoned over a decade prior and become one of those forgotten relics of a past era. A place so accepted in the state it was in that it wasn't even acknowledged by kids looking for a hangout. Only junkies and drug addicts gave the place the time of day, the feeble minded caring only about their next fix. Undesirables to most, some would find the simple influence one could have over these people as an inviting opportunity.
After being dragged over what was left of the dance floor, with every single half lucid junkie staring at him, Daz was taken into one of the back rooms and dropped in front of a simple, stained sofa. Filthy, as it was, compared to everything else in that place, it was likely the plushest thing around.
As Daz struggled to get to his knees, the sack was pulled roughly from his head and his dingy surroundings were blinding compared to beneath the thick sack. His face was covered with bruises, the black eyes and fat lip evidence enough of how he had been subdued. He looked around wildly, the sudden sting in his nostrils of that rotten stench; of urine and decaying humanity only inciting his fear yet more. Behind him the residents of the building peered curiously through the tattered curtain over the doorway. Either side of him were tables filled with unique and unusual objects, much too fantastic to belong in this place. Among them, positioned in the forefront, was a stone tablet with four ornate stones, each emblazoned with strange glyphs and a gem in the middle of each. In the centre of the tablet, though, there was simply an empty hole, as if one of the stones was missing. Before he could get a better look at any of the objects, though, another tatty curtain to the side of the sofa twitched. Just then all of the eyes watching him from behind disappeared, afraid of whatever was entering the small room.
"What requires my attention, now?" stated a surprisingly calm voice through the curtain, “I do not enjoy these interruptions,” the voice had an unusual air about it. A Central American tone but dulled by decades away from its home, mixed with influences from innumerous other dialects.
“We found this kid in the warehouse,” said the shorter of the two men, deciding not to complicate the situation by mentioning Claudia and Anna.
The curtain was finally pulled aside and a tall, muscular man stepped out towards the sofa. His tanned skin was wrinkled and creased as though he was of some considerable age yet only his dark, sunken eyes told of how considerable it could really be. He gently sat on the sofa as though it were some throne of sorts and leant forward to inspect Daz. After a second he glanced up and between his henchmen before leaning back, at last, without speaking.
“You dealt with our other concern?” he asked eventually, seeming not to care about the boy in front of him, “and retrieved the item?”
“We tied up the loose end...” the short man said tentatively.
“Excellent. Yet I feel there is something else?”
The henchman hesitated, his mouth hung open. “It wasn't there,” he looked down to Daz and grimaced, “I think he took it.”
The old man only now took proper notice of Daz and looked over him at a distance. “Who are you?” he asked. “You're no one. Wrong place, wrong time,” he added before Daz could speak. He reached out and pulled Dazs' chin up so that he could look in his eyes. “This child did not take the artefact,” the statement made the henchmen quickly share a glance, each of them afraid of their failure to capture the two girls, “he is not one of them.”
“There were others-” spurted the lean man only to be cut off by his employer.
“I know,” he continued to look into Dazs' eyes, “two of them...Women. One is of no importance. The other though...” he looked up and grinned a disturbing grin, “our new friend, here, will tell us all about her...”
Claudia carefully unlocked her back gate and stepped into her garden, replacing the catch as quietly as she could. She looked up at her ajar bedroom window and considered the best way to get back in. Despite the fact that getting down was routine and easy, getting back up again had always been troublesome and was never quite achieved in the same way twice. The problem was rendered moot, though, as the kitchen light flickered on and Claudia immediately knew the night was about to go from bad to worse. The back door was pulled open quickly, as if by an unseen force, and she hurried towards the small gap. The second she was in the door was quietly swung closed and Claudia's mother was stood there. Disapproval was hinted at thinly across her haggard face but it was smothered by an overwhelming concern.
"What were you doing out there?" she whispered harshly, constantly glancing towards the bottom of the stairs, "I've been worried sick!"
Claudia looked down, unsure of how to respond after the night she had experienced. "Just been out with some friends," she answered generically.
Her mother seemed less than impressed at the statement and raised her eyebrows expectantly. "Out with friends? You know what could happen to you out there? The kind of trouble you could get into?"
"I'm nearly eighteen years old, mum, I can look after myself," Claudia interrupted abruptly to no avail.
"Moreover," her mother continued unfettered, "you know the kind of trouble you could cause us here? It's lucky you didn't wake your father!"
"What if she did?" came a deep voice from the darkened stairs, "is that some kind of a problem?" Claudia's father stepped silently from the bottom stair and moved into the light of the kitchen. On the face of it he looked like any average man, capable of going about a normal life like everyone else. Yet, something deep in his eyes told a different story. A man whose view of reality was as he decided to perceive it, a man with a talent to twist the truths of circumstance to fit his own deluded view.
"I-I- just-" Claudia's mother stuttered, "didn't want to wake you," she looked around nervously and tried an uneasy smile. "No point waking you for this.”
He smiled back widely, which only acted to raise the tension yet more rather than relieve it. “It's no problem. I'll handle it.”
“I swear it's no-”
“I said I'll handle it!” Claudia's father growled, grabbing her wrist tightly, squeezing tighter until she whimpered in pain.
“Leave her alone!” Claudia tried firmly without response, “please.”
Eventually he released her arm and looked down at the mark he had left which was already beginning to bruise, “you know you shouldn't wear that watch of yours so tight,” his attention turned sharply to Claudia and he struck out, catching her by the arm, “as for you! I give you food and a roof over your head!” he abruptly slapped her about the face, quickly holding her other arm as she tried to retaliate.
“No, please! Not her,” Claudia's mother tried to pull h
im away but was caught in the jaw by his fist as he, again, turned his attention.
“Mum,” whispered Claudia only to receive a shaking head from her mother as she was forced to the ground. This wasn't the first time this had happened and she knew just to run to her room and lock the door so that's exactly what she did. Backing up against the far wall of her bedroom she held her arms close against herself and tried not to listen to the muffled screams and shouted slurs. Closing her eyes she reached for the knife that was still in her pocket and considered ending it, like she had many times before. Then that thought crept into her mind. Everyone loved him, as far as the outside world was concerned he was wonderful, it would be her mother who got the blame. As always she withdrew her hand and sank to the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees. Suddenly there was a loud bang and silence, then heavy feet climbing the creaking stairs. She listened carefully for a minute or so longer and finally heard a gentle sobbing from downstairs. Despite her anguish she was relieved, for everything else that had happened her mother had at the very least survived. Something, she feared, that would not last forever. Once again she thought about that knife and its potential, knowing something might have to happen, and soon. For now, though, she slumped down further, reluctantly closing her eyes, and hoped that sleep might take her to a better place.
Occasionally, during the night, Claudia managed to drift away into a restless land of lucid dreams. The place was filled with death and the moans of those who yearned for life once more. Upon being roused from the state she felt as if she had not been asleep at all, like an entirely different world had snatched her attention away, unwilling to return it. Each time it slowly drew her back. Wide eyed, blinking, the tangible world drifted away and the un-summoned thoughts crept into her mind, the spoken word of another's consciousness.
Suddenly she was started from the trance by a clatter outside. Sun poured through her, still open, window, burning her eyes as they adjusted to the new day. She didn't care how early it was, the mere fact that it was morning gave her an excuse to get away from the house. Quickly, she gathered up some notepads strewn around the room and threw them loosely into a backpack before approaching the door carefully. She couldn't hear anything out there, likelihood was that her father was still asleep. With this in mind she opened the door, hurried down the stairs and slipped through the front door, out into the frosty street, without even looking back. As she started off along the road towards College, Claudia thought about the previous night. Everything had happened so quickly, none of it making any sense. She touched her pack pocket and the stone that still sat there, thinking about the body she had retrieved it from. Did she remember it wrong? Was he actually still alive when he spoke to her? It was something her mind couldn't quite come to understand, something it tried to twist at all costs to make sense. Only, she knew what she had seen and no amount of twisting could change that.
For the most part the rest of the day went by like any other; a few lessons before lunch then to hang out in the library before meeting Anna in the afternoon. Although, today, instead of just sitting around, messing on her phone, Claudia ventured into the rows upon rows of bookshelves, stone in hand, curious about what the markings on it could mean. Book after book, the table she was sat at began to pile up with various tomes on ancient history, notably that of Meso and South American cultures. As the hours started to slip by, so did Claudia's hope of finding something meaningful in the texts, anything to give the item any meaning.
"Hey Cyd," Anna's voice said cheerfully, startling Claudia slightly, "not like you to be studying this hard," she fell down on a chair behind the piles of books and started flicking through one.
"It's not work," Claudia replied simply, "just some research."
"Research?" Anna asked, suspiciously, knowing it wasn't a word either of them used lightly, if at all.
Claudia sighed and reached into her pocket, withdrawing the stone. Somehow it looked different in the daylight, not quite as meaningful as it had the previous night. She held it for a second, doubting its significance, only to finally toss it onto the page of Anna's open book. "I found it last night..." she leant across the table and whispered, "in the warehouse."
Anna picked up the stone and inspected it, running her thumb over the dark grooves in its surface. "In the warehouse?" she repeated.
"T- That's not all of it..." Claudia paused for a second, debating just how much to tell her, "I found it on...it was on a dead guy," she practically mouthed, quickly swiveling her eyes around the room as she spoke.
"Dead?!" Anna choked, fumbling with the book but drawing no attention, "you mean..."
"Dead...Throat slit..." she shuddered as she spoke the words. Actually saying them seemed to make the whole situation all that more real.
"You didn't tell me this?" Anna growled quietly, "just wander off, find a dead guy and don't tell anyone?"
"It was complicated. What with those men and all," she sighed again and leaned back in her chair. "Thought they might've been antiques smugglers or something so I wanted to know what it was. Can't find anything on the damn thing, though!"
"Really?" asked Anna subtly, "you obviously haven't been looking hard enough, then" she handed the book back over to Claudia with the stone perched on one of the pages.
"Typical," she stated softly looking down at the book. Anna had placed the stone on top of a rough drawing of its self with two more stones either side, each having a different marking on it, "trust you to find it straight off."
"It was right there, Cyd, you must have overlooked it."
"Hmm," Claudia replied absently, skimming over the text, "needed a fresh pair of eyes. I didn't get much sleep last night."
"Again?" Anna inquired only to receive a brief glance across the book which told her not to push the topic any further.
"'Purportedly originating from early pre-Columbian Meso-America,'" she read slowly, "'the Fragments of Essence, or more commonly Soul Stones as they came to be called, were held in the highest regard by certain castes of society. They were said to possess the power to drain life from the living or return it to the dead,'" Claudia looked up sideways at Anna who shrugged, unknowing of what she had seen. "'The worshipers of these stones were held as heretics, shunned by others for their use of, what was considered, black magic.' It goes on to say that each stone supposedly had a unique power," she skimmed the text a bit more as Anna leaned over, curious, "but they hadn't been seen in over a century before this book was written."
"Looks like a pretty old book, too," Anna mused to herself. "I guess they were treasure hunters or antiques thieves or whatever. That-" she waved her arm around, scrunching up her face in disgust, "dead person probably just got in their way."
"Yeah..." Claudia stretched out the word, knowing for definite there was something more to the whole thing now. What with the ghost and these stones having something to do with life and death she found herself coming to believe in something she never would have even considered before. "They're not going to give up, Anna. Those men. If they want this thing that bad they're going to track us down. I need to go back to the warehouse, replace the stone. Maybe if they found it again they wouldn't look for us." Despite the truth in this, it wasn't nearly the whole reason she wanted to go back. Claudia wanted to find out more, some compulsion drove her to want find out what the stones really were and even have another experience with the world of the dead. Yet, still, she didn't want Anna involved with any of it. As far as Claudia was concerned she already knew too much. Anna would never let her go alone, yet she had to try. "I'll go down now, just put it back like it fell on the ground and they didn't see it. You stay here, I'll be back soon," she quickly got up, hoping that if it all happened fast enough then Anna would stay where she was but just as she expected a hand grabbed her arm gently.
"Like hell you're going off without me. We were both there last night so we both do this."
"Seriously, Anna, I'll be fine. Won't be more than an hour," she tried again in earnest
.
"No," Anna replied firmly, looking deep into Claudia's eye, "we're both going. Besides, it should be perfectly safe during the day.
"S'pose," Claudia conceded, beginning to think that simply taking the stone back and not hanging around was probably the best idea, "just hope they haven't put a better lock on that place."
By the time they reached the docks the dark autumn evening had began to close in, leaving a cold bite in the air and a dull blue haze in the sky. As it was, a new bolt had not been put on the warehouse doors. In fact the doors hadn't even been locked again, merely pushed loosely together for anyone to open.
“So much for security,” said Anna softly, inspecting the door casually.
“I don't like it, they wouldn't just leave them open, not with what's in there,” Claudia caught Anna's arm as she was about to pull open the door.
“Could've moved it,” Anna stated simply, “it'd make sense, especially after someone found it.”
Claudia thought for a second before pressing in front of Anna. “I guess you're right, but just let me go first, will you?” she quietly pulled open the large door and ventured inside. In the dull afternoon light the warehouse appeared much smaller than it had the night before. The back walls now clearly in view, each lined with various benches and tool racks. On the ground there, still, laid broken fragments of wood and a scuffed up patch of dirt where Daz had fallen. Just behind it was the blood trail leading to the workbench where Claudia had seen the ghost and found the stone. As Anna had suggested, the body had been moved. All that was left were smears of blood across the painted metal.
“Just dropping it here should do,” Claudia mused, moving over to the workbench, “they'll think it was just dropped or something,” she bent down and was about to toss the stone onto the ground but was stopped by a scuffle from behind her. “Anna?” she started, concerned, catching a sharp blow to the back of the head before she could turn which knocked her on to the ground, unconscious.
The darkness span and twisted, forcing up a sickly feeling from Claudia's stomach which spread out around the back of her head and deepened into her skull. Soon enough she started to hear muffled voices around her and tried to open her eyes as the throbbing in her head grew.
“It's those bitches from last night,” came one voice, moving around rapidly.
“...Bring me the artefact,” sounded another, accented, voice softly. For a while the words hazed in and out as Claudia fought for consciousness. Eventually, though, she was snapped back into it by a hand grabbing her collar and yanking her across the ground. A second later she was dropped again and, as she looked around with a drifting, unsteady sight, she could see a heavily built man standing in front of her. After seeming to look at her for a moment he stepped to one side and began inspect something else. Trying to recover her faculties, Claudia forced her head up and looked to the side. She could see the man looking carefully at Anna, who seemed as dazed as she did. To one side stood one of their assailants from the previous night, apparently awaiting something.
“This one is no good,” came the voice in that warped Central American drole. His words prompted the man next to him to quickly react, raising his arm with something clasped in his hand.
“No!” screamed Claudia, catching a glint from the gun through her painful haze. Her cry, though, was immediately silenced by the gunshot and a low thud on the ground next to her. There was a sensation like water trickling down the side of her face making her shiver. Even in her current state, she knew it was anything but water.
“You are special, I think,” the mans voice sounded again, this time directed towards Claudia, unmoved by what had just happened, “but you have not yet explored your potential,” he paused, awaiting an answer.
Claudia breathed heavily, her eyes closed tight so that she did not have to see. “You-” she tried, choking on the meaning of the words, “killed...” she hung her head to one side, desperate to cry but could not.
The man shook his head and signalled to his other subordinate who brought over the stone tablet which now housed all five stones. “I feel you should know why. Know what all of this means,” he stated flatly, “you, at least, deserve that,” he picked up the central stone and moved it between his fingers. “There is more to reality than you would know. Life, death...not as fixed as you would think. There are worlds between, where the dead pass through before reaching their final destination. Some of us, like me... and you, are able to traverse these worlds. The problem is that, like life, our time in those worlds is finite,” he reached down and held the stone in front of Claudia's face but her eyes were still sealed tightly. “I made these stones very long ago to try and change that. All those people who had the power but not the knowledge to use it... Well, I simply refocused that power.”
“You stole their lives?” murmured Claudia.
“Stole is such a harsh term, I prefer utilized their potential. How else do you think I made it over seven hundred years?” the man said cheerfully. “See, that's the thing with our kind. We have that inherent knowledge of the greater scheme of things, a drive to find out what it is we can become. You see, though, the process cannot be completed unless all stones are together, take one, take all. Such a waste, he was like us, you know, but that little bastard had it coming to him for stealing what was mine.”
“The ghost...” Claudia mumbled, opening her eyes, looking up.
“Met him, did you?” he said grinning, moving the stone towards her head. As it got closer it started to glow, as did the others still in their tablet.
“He said to bring it back,” she ended, staring at the man who would steal her very life.
“What?” the mans grin fell away as the stone touched Claudia's skin and he realized it was too late, “what did he do?”
There was a burst of the whitest light and Claudia felt her body fall away. Her surroundings shifted and blurred, eventually settling back into their own form. In front of her still stood the man, arm outstretched but with nothing in hand. Around her the scenery was dull and washed out, various parts of the walls shimmered as if unsure if they should be there or not. The more she looked around, the more one word embedded its self in her mind; “Desert,” she mouthed. “He tricked you, didn't he?”
“I cannot be tricked!” the man stated defiantly, “after seven centuries it is not possible!”
“You know it is,” another voice suddenly started from behind, making Claudia shift around quickly, “and I did it,” the voice belonged to the ghost she had seen the night before. “I knew you would hunt her and eventually use the stone on her. I'm just glad my, ahem, modifications worked. Instead of draining her essence, the artefact is now, instead, draining yours into her,” he approached Claudia and smiled widely, “you'll be ok.”
“This cannot be happening,” the man said simply, not knowing what to do as he felt his own life slipping away, “I cannot die... I cannot...” he repeated as his figure faded and his being started to drift into the beyond.
“Wha-” Claudia tried to ask, overwhelmed by everything that was happening.
“I'm sorry to have used you like this, it was my intention that no one else got caught up in this, that merely the next time he tried to use it...” the young man sighed, “well, you know, best laid plans and all that. But I am sorry for everything, especially her,” he looked down at the place where Anna had fallen. “It can't be for long, I barely have any time left here myself but I can just about give you this,” he closed his eyes and faded away, only to be replaced by the spirit of Anna, looking as bewildered as Claudia felt.
“Cyd?” Anna asked softly, just to be shushed by Claudia who threw her arms around her and held her tight.
“Remember this,” Claudia whispered, “remember us,” she added, holding tight for a moment before her arms folded onto herself and Anna disappearing before her.
“I'm sorry, I couldn't hold her here any longer,” the young mans voice said quietly, “you need to be going as well.”
&nb
sp; Claudia eventually lowered her arms and opened her eyes, a tear finally running down her face as she did. “What am I?”
The young man thought about saying the words but decided that, when considering everything that had happened to their kind, it was better not to. “You're not alone,” he settled on after a few seconds, “you'll never be alone,” he placed a hand softly on Claudia's face and the light, again, took her away.
When I woke up the young mans ghost was nowhere to be seen and the two goons had gone. Apparently they weren't as hard as they thought, not without a leader. There I was in that dark warehouse again where it had all started, everyone dead but me. I couldn't bring myself to look at Anna, not in that way, I just closed my eyes and remembered her in my arms. What else could I do after that? I phoned the police. They had plenty of questions but eventually released me putting the case down to 'Organized Crime,' something I'd come to find out they did pretty often. The whole experience left me with something, the knowledge of something more, something for all of us. With that in mind I wrote Mum that letter and left it with a train ticket to anywhere he couldn't find her. I never found out whether she used it or not, I couldn't stay any longer. That feeling was taking me over, that urge to learn what I was, what I could be. So I left, left everything I knew to find them... To find myself.
About the Author
Nicholas House is a British born writer and academic from the South of England. He took up writing at a very young age, inspired by the stories of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Fascinated by the natural world he went on to study Geosciences at university. This afforded him the chance to travel and fuel his over active imagination, allowing him to take inspiration from a vast array of varied sources. Despite this Nicholas often includes many simple and often overlooked aspects of everyday life in his writings, entwined with the more grandiose spectacles he has experienced.
Primarily writing Supernatural Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nicholas has also written numerous pieces of published poetry alongside short stories and e-books. With a mind so full of ideas and an ongoing literary passion he plans to continue writing about whatever inspires him long into the future.
Titles by Nicholas House
Chronicles of the Median (Novel)
The Median (Novella)
The Dark (Novella)
Illumination (Novella)
Abridged: A Short Collection of Short Stories (Collection)
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