by R.J. Adams
I have always felt like there is a battle inside of me. Sometimes I feel terrified by the darkness that has always haunted me but then other times I feel drawn to it.
“The time is coming for you to take your place at his side bring darkness to the world and you are to be the bearer of the Destroyer. You will be drawn to a man who has been chosen for you, the dark magic connects you and you will feel like you cannot resist him, all of this is what your father hopes will bring you into accepting the darkness of what you were born for, creating the Destroyer will tip the balance in his favour and bring about so much evil.”
My eyes widen, “I’m sorry, come again? The Destroyer? What the hell is that?”
“The Destroyer, it is what he is known as. He is a boy foreseen to be born, as evil as they come and bring demons and dark magic to rule the world in forever darkness.”
Toby coughs, “wait a minute, are you telling us that her father wants her as a baby breeder to bring an evil child in the world so he can destroy us.”
“The Destroyer,” Alfie mumbles, “you get the picture don’t you?”
“How can that be? If I have goodness in me then surely such a vision cannot come true.” How the fuck can I be the one to bare an evil child.
“Your father hopes to bring you into Lefire Society and force you to use the dark magic within you. The more you use it the more addictive it becomes, consuming your humanity in the process and making you more evil than you can imagine. You have so much power, so much untapped power, your mother didn’t want this, and she hoped the good in you would take over but it appears you are getting further drawn into the darkness, Willow you must fight it.”
How is the darkness in me flourishing, I cannot remember a time when I have ever been nasty or hurtful to anyone. I think back over the years and then I remember the teacher, she didn’t return after an argument she and I had. She died, I hated her and wished for something bad to happen but in all this time I never thought that I caused it. Wait, if the orphanage was my imagination all this time then was she my imagination too?
“No,” Alfie disturbs me, “the teacher was not a figment of your imagination.” How the fuck did he know that’s what I was thinking. “She was real, she wasn’t a teacher, that was your imagination but she was real. Some kids reported they saw a child or someone playing in the orphanage, a social worker came and found you, tried to take you away. She could see the building was derelict and empty but you could see the children and Doreen, you thought this woman was trying to take you away from them and trying to cause trouble, after she had gone, to think of a place to put her in your mind creation you turned her into a teacher and imagined her teaching at the orphanage for a long time.”
My mind flashes back to that day when she came and told me I had to leave and I couldn’t stay there anymore. I felt like she was just being horrible to me, she didn’t have a family to put me with; she just wanted to take me away.
“She left to get help,” Alfie continues, “but your hatred for her caused her car to swerve off the highway and she died instantly in a car-crash, you did that, your dark magic did that.”
Bile rises in my throat, I killed another person for no reason other than I hated her? Maybe I am evil, maybe I am someone the darkness craves because of my dark soul. How can I do such a thing?
My mind tries to absorb the information. It’s a lot to take in. I always wondered why Doreen never replaced the teacher and it was me, it was me all along who didn’t put another one there because she didn’t form part of my imagination anymore, she had gone and that was that.
When I thought Doreen got money from charities, I remember seeing this on the TV, charities that help out vulnerable children and I imagined this was how she got money to look after us. I thought the wealth had run out but the truth is she died, she hung herself and that’s how the money disappeared.
Her coldness towards me, the no hugging and the backing away from motherhood was a result of me feeling like I lost her, she left me, she killed herself so instead of dealing with it I just imagined she became this cold heartless person. He is right though, her words the last day I was there, it was as if she was giving me advice. My mind races as images of my past begin to surface from memory, there when I was a child the words she said came back, she would take me for walks and tell me I was special, tell me that I should avoid the darkness, that something would come for me and I needed to be careful and to resist the man that one day would draw me in.
“Well that certainly was not what I was expecting from an old chump,” Toby sits up from his slump position and snaps me back into the room, “you know you,” he nudges me, “being this evil witch and all and you know, the baby breeder of a boy that wants to kill us all, I take it then you know what we are meant to do now?”
“We?” I shoot an ‘I don’t think so look at him,’ “There is no ‘we’ in this, this is something I have to do on my own. If all of what he said is true, then this could be seriously dangerous.”
“You have no choice, I’m going with you whether you like it not,” Toby states, clear defying my wishes and is adamant he isn’t leaving my side.
“There is a good source of magic out there in the people us good witches call, Voluric,” Alfie mumbles.
I look at him, “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to speak English, Volu-what?”
“A Voluric, like your friend right by there,” he points at Toby.
Toby points at himself and then shakes his head, “No, no way, I don’t have any magical powers or anything.”
“No,” Alfie laughs once again at his naivety, “but you do have a white soul that can project good light and blind the darkness and those types of souls are there for witches to guide them in the right direction. That is why you are drawn to Willow, your soul senses the goodness in her and your soul wants to make sure she doesn’t fall for the temptations of darkness.”
“I have a white soul?” Toby looks at me, “well, I don’t really know what to say to that.”
“The white soul of a true man is more powerful when a bond is formed, you and Willow will share a bond in time, do not let the darkness break you.”
I look down at my palm as my burnt tattooed image begins to itch and suddenly I get an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach, I always feel like I am being torn by the magic inside me, now I know that it is magic surging through me, “He’s going to find me again isn’t he.”
“He already has,” Alfie trembles as he looks behind him, “he’s here.”
I look behind Alfie but I see nothing. Toby grips my hand and I grip his, I look at him, “I’m here,” he mouths to me.
“You must leave, you must leave now,” Alfie warns, “go and remember everything that I have said to you.”
I get up but I stand still, a part of me wants to see what’s coming. I feel drawn once again to something dark, the something dark I can sense coming.
Toby pulls on my hand, “come on Willow, we have to go.” He pulls me again as the house begins to shake, something powerful has found us, I hear it roar loudly as it calls out my name.
I feel as if I am in some sort of trance and I no longer feel Toby’s hand holding mine. I drift towards the front door as this bellowing sound calls out my name once again.
“You must help her, stop her,” I hear behind me but the words do not seem to faze or stop me from drifting towards the sinister thing calling out to me.
“Willow,” I hear Toby’s voice but the roaring sounds of the dark voice over-powers his and I feel it draw me in.
Winds pick up and I feel a swirl of coldness around me but the house is sealed, where is the wind coming from? The house shakes violently as I reach the front door. My hand reaches for the door handle and I hear them scream, telling me no, but I’m too caught up, I feel a pull, something is willing me to them. I open the door and there standing before me is him, the mysterious man. “It’s you,” I whisper entranced by his beautiful eyes.
His hand slowly reaches out towards m
e, “take my hand Willow and come with me where you belong.”
I want to take his hand, I reach out take it but then just before my hand touches his I feel a thud. I snap out of my trance and Toby is on top of me after knocking me to the floor, “Run Willow,” he orders. We scramble to our feet and Toby pulls me away from the man that is still staring at me and looking very angry.
Alfie tries to fight of the mysterious man who has come for me but the mysterious man is very powerful. He hauls Alfie up into the air without touching him; Alfie looks down at me, barely able to breathe.
“Remember my words” he croaks struggling for air. I watch as his neck snaps to the side and he falls to the floor. The mysterious man has just killed him.
I scream at the top of my lungs. “Fucking run Willow,” Toby grabs my hand and we run through the house out of the back door and back down into the abandoned village.
