Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen

by Ariadna Marrero Saavedra

  “Come with me, I will take you to my house so that you can rest for a couple of days and assimilate all the information, then I will take you to the kingdom to train you. I will show you my favorite place of the city, it is really pretty. You will love it. I have brought you something to wear. I am sure that you will feel better than you do with those strange clothes you are wearing,” he smiled at me mischievously.

  I nodded, enthusiastic by the idea.

  “Where is your house?”

  “A little further than California, in North Carolina. There aren’t such beautiful beaches, but the woods have their charm. Furthermore, I am sure there are many things in my house to keep you entertained,” looking to one side satisfied with himself, but I couldn´t work out what he was thinking.

  “Wait”, my smile disappeared, “And Anne? I cannot leave without speaking to her, she is my mother. Can she not come with us?”

  “I am sorry but entry into the Kingdom is very restricted right now. My advice is that we go as soon as possible, there is so much that you still need to know, and believe me you are old enough to leave home without your mothers consent. You shouldn´t tell her where we are going, you never know,” he said almost to himself, with a profound gaze.

  He didn´t take long to convince me, anyway it would only be a couple of days, or at least that is what I thought, and I was keen to get out of the house.

  “Alright”

  He smiled when I looked attentively the clothes that he had brought for me, and with that smile, anyone would melt. Next I took it without exchanging a word and went to the bathroom to put it on. It was a kind of one piece netting that ended at my ankles, a blue metallic color, that appeared black in the dark. Its sleeves were elbow length, thus not too warm. It was quite tight-fitting but comfortable. It had a small neckline which I liked. I put on my most comfortable black tennis shoes. I looked in the mirror and barely recognized myself, but I liked what I saw, I felt truly pretty with these clothes and thought that he would think the same way. I couldn´t help smiling, I felt full of life. I was coming out of the bathroom when I found Eric in the hallway staring fixedly towards my bedroom. He made a gesture so that I wouldn´t speak. I stayed expectantly behind him, when I saw coming from my door the same thing that was hours before registering my room. It was looking for me, or so I believed. After some tense moments Eric pounced on him brandishing a great sword towards the invader. I left running, unable to see if the thing was still there or not. Eric came after me and we went to the street. It was deserted and Gabriel was waiting for us, leaning on a lamppost a little further down the road from my house.

  “And my mother?” I blurted out nervously, “She is in danger, we cannot leave her there alone.”

  “Don´t worry, it us they are after, they won´t touch her”

  “Why are they chasing us?”

  “We are in another dimension, which is why they can see us. They only want to capture you again. This dimension is very similar to the human one, but there are worse things out there. That is why they had perfect knowledge of your location, here there is less interference.”

  Eric stayed watching, his expression was one I couldn´t decipher. He winked an eye to me and we started walking speedily until we came to stop in what seemed to me like the house of the professor Rutherford but there were small changes if I looked close, everything was different, the colors and the forms were very similar yet different and little by little I noted how strange everything was. It was distinct to the other house, yet had the same aspect, but my observing didn´t last too long, suddenly a guttural roar was heard, smoke and flames started to come from the borders of the windows and doors, the glass broke and the door opened letting us see the hell like place that two wanderers had set fire to.

  “Let´s go,” Eric said with a hint of rage in his voice, “Samantha, you stay here.”

  They went running to the house to help the professor. I remember that I was leaning against a wall on the front of the house, disturbed by the explosion, when suddenly someone grabbed me by the arm. It wasn´t the guys, but something evil, without a face, it had neither eyes nor mouth, only holes where they should be. I tried to free myself from him but I couldn´t, he was very strong. Eric freed me from its claws cutting its wrist with his sword. A clean cut and the enormous monster disappeared before my eyes, ashes.

  I had the sensation that my entire life passed before my eyes, it reminded me when I was small playing with another girl, almost blonde with light colored eyes. Disturbed I fell to my knees on the ground, tired with the sensation that something was going wrong, I had to find that girl. I had to find… my sister.

  Chapter 2

  After killing the wanderer that clung strongly to Samantha´s arm, Eric returned to the house in flames to finish off the rest of the grey (almost white) beings that were trying to extinguish them and all the sons of the night they could find. <> Erick thought as he cut off the shoulder of the last wanderer that they found in the house.

  “The professor isn´t here,” Gabriel said coming down the stairs spinning his new dagger.

  He only thought about the perfect moment in which he could stab it into his partner who could be seen coming down slowly until reaching the main door.

  Gabriel hated him for having touched his beloved. He couldn´t bear to look at him, but he couldn´t kill him yet. First he must make his love remember him. Since his encounter with her the previous night, he had been spinning his brains trying to think how to rid her of the spell that had made her loose her memory. He thought that a kiss would have been enough, but he didn´t feel the same as he did when he had kissed Elizabeth years before.

  Both of them came out of the house to pick Samantha up from the ground. Eric leaned over and lifted her as if she were a feather under the attentive stare of his partner. He knew that he didn´t approve and thought that she was his love, but Gabriel didn´t believe him. He knew that this girl was different to the one that Gabriel has so often described in his nights of searching for her.

  When Gabriel saw that Eric didn´t motion to give him the girl, he threatened him.

  “Give her to me. She belongs to me.”

  “Don´t treat her as though she is any old object, she is the princess of the Kingdom of the Moon and I will not allow you to treat her in that manner.”

  Eric became angry and his stubbornness persisted until winning the battle to carry her in his arms until they got home. They faded away and instantly were at Eric´s house, protected from the wanderers, in the dimension of the sons of the night. They went to the bedroom at one end of the house. Eric took her there as he believed that she would appreciate the magnificent views from his window when she woke up.

  “I am leaving,” Gabriel said angrily.

  Eric didn´t care, he turned his face towards the girl of his dreams and he allowed his thoughts to be how they were before his brother died. After his death he was almost always angry or abrupt, unmotivated and without strength to continue the mission and even less with his new partner. He believed him to be crazy. She was Samantha, the daughter of the empress Venice, not his beloved girlfriend Elizabeth. He returned his gaze to her and forgot completely that Gabriel was grumbling in a nearby room. Since he had seen her the previous night something had changed in him, and he knew it.

  Being at Samantha´s side made him feel free, as if he had no responsibilities. Since his brother had died two weeks ago, the weight of the family had fallen on him. His father had abandoned the family many years ago and now his duty was to look after his mother and his sister. Although they didn´t often see each other, he always felt that they were near thanks to a pendant that he always carried in his right pocket of his pants. All the members of his family had the same pendant over the generations and that had united them more than any other family. Furthermore, after the battle in the Kingdom of Water, he was named Chief of all the warriors of the sons of the night, for his bravery in the field of battle w
hen he went back to save his brother, even knowing that there was nothing more he could do. This was how he ended up on the mission of finding the princess of the kingdom, he would have to instruct new warriors and guide them in the fight, for power to defeat the enemies of the Kingdom.

  But when he was with Samantha he felt different, he forgot every burden and he became a son of the night without responsibilities or limits. He could be himself without heeding the ideas and opinions of others. The union of any son of the night and the princess was forbidden. The empress had dictated it to be so since the day of her disappearance and he knew it. He knew that kissing her had been a mistake, he also knew that after taking her to the Queen and giving her over to her mother he would never see her again because her mother would not allow it. Even so he had two options, he could tell no one what he had done and that way free him from a severe punishment, or wait for the empress to understand his position and take pity on him. He didn´t consider leaving Samantha alone, he would follow her until the end of the world if it were necessary, even though that would suppose his death.

  As Eric looked lovingly at Samantha´s beautiful face as she slept, Gabriel had gone to the great hall. He served himself a drink of alcohol and sat in an armchair trying to decipher Samantha´s words, even though he called her Elizabeth. He could not bear to see his love and his hated companion together. He knew that they got on well, but was unaware that they had kissed. He longed to pass the night with here and embrace her. He knew that love changed her, but it had been many years since Elizabeth had entered into his house in the Kingdom. That night he remembered as the best of his life. She had told him that when he found her she would tell him that she was not Elizabeth that she would forever deny it because a spell would be cast upon her that she may remember nothing. She had commended to him the task of saving her from that suffering and to find the most powerful wizard of all times, the wizard Phoenix. Few people had seen him and it was said that he was immortal, for this reason he was always learning new spells to work with and surpass anyone who dared to curse him or harass him.

  Since then, Gabriel had been searching for her everywhere until he discovered that it was the mission of Eric and his brother. In order that his contact in the Counsel could help him to enter into the mission he found no better way than to kill Eric´s brother. He arranged that it be in battle, that it may seem like an accident, not even Eric suspected what had happened.

  However, he had stumbled upon the problem that Eric had fallen in love with Samantha. He could not bear it, yet he could neither fight nor kill him until they entered the Kingdom, as it would appear too suspicious. Furthermore, even in his own house he could not get close to his love if Eric did not allow it, he must respect the norms and in this house his powers did not work, he was unable to force him to do anything against his will. For all of this, here he was, sprawled on the sofa, frustrated, finding ways to distract his mind as long as they were there. Soon, he remembered that Eric´s family had always been very recognized in the kingdom, and the library must be plagued with writings and old documents. There, perhaps he could find some indication of the whereabouts of Phoenix.

  After almost four hours observing how Samantha slept and without signs that she would wake, Eric got up and went to his room which was close by. It was closed; he hadn´t been at the house for years and much less his room. He opened it slowly and found it the same as it had been one hundred years ago. Little before the birth of the princess, he had gone on vacations with his brother. It was a peaceful period, of few conflicts in the kingdom. He advanced slowly towards his desk. He opened a drawer and put away the letter he had written to his brother. Then he went towards the bathroom with the intention of having a relaxing bath. He took his shirt of and looked at himself in the mirror. He had bags under his eyes and a tired face; the scars on his chest were visible, as were the now healed wounds from the last battle. When he got into the bath he no longer felt like filling it up, so he opened the water and stayed standing with his eyes closed letting the water flow over his body. He could remember crystal clear how Samantha had so smoothly kissed him in the semi-darkness. He had wished to warn her that he couldn´t, they shouldn´t, that it was banned. But he couldn´t contain his desire to love her. He knew that he had committed a mistake, and also that those moments alone with Samantha had been the best he had ever lived. For as long as the life of the sons of the night tends to be, he can only love once and he knew that there was no turning back, he would never fall in love with anyone ever again. She was the love of his life, he so hoped that the empress would be compassionate. Being separated from his soul mate would cause unstoppable pain that would slowly consume him until his death.

  He opened his eyes decidedly. He was willing to receive the punishment in the instant that the empress ordained it, he would die in that same moment. He considered it to be better than living without her for the rest of his life. He knew there was no turning back, the decision had been made.

  He got out of the shower with renewed energy; he was satisfied with himself for his choice. It was then that he realized that he had spent half the night with Samantha without knowing where Gabriel was, or what he was doing. He got dressed as quickly as he could and started to search for him through the house. When he arrived to the library doors he could see that they were slightly ajar. A dim light came out from the room. He opened the doors slowly and when he looked up he saw Gabriel sitting on one of the table, speaking on the telephone.

  “I want you to find it and bring it to me. I have to undo the curse anyway I can,” from the tone of his voice he was very angry. “In the writings he appears for the last time in a battle that the fallen ones won over three thousand years ago.”

  He stayed silent for a moment, listening to the indications that the counsellor on the other end of the phone was giving him. He turned his head towards the door and Eric hid fleetingly. He didn´t know whether or not his strange partner had seen him, he looked inside again and for his good luck Gabriel had started to speak again looking towards the tall windows of the room.

  “Understand that I don´t care how much it costs you to find him. Just take him to my house and try to make sure that he is here when I arrive tomorrow. I have already lost enough time today, going to and from the kingdom to look for the stone, I don´t want to search for Phoenix when I get to my house again. And it is in your best interests not to return to the house until you find him, if not you know the punishment that will await you.”

  This said, he hung the phone up and went towards the doors. He was willing to stay all the time that was necessary beside his beloved until she woke up. It could be that then she would remember something about him.

  Seeing that he was coming to the door, Eric went to Samantha´s room. He didn´t want him to discover that he had been spying. He knew who Phoenix was but he didn´t understand what he wanted him for. Neither did he realize that at some point in the evening he had gone to the kingdom to look for a stone. He could not see the link between that and Phoenix. He was unsure exactly what Gabriel was scheming.

  He was leaning against the chest of drawers in front of the bed when Gabriel entered the room. They said nothing. They just stayed there waiting. A few minutes later, which felt like hours, Samantha awoke. The two had a trace of hope, although they were clearly different.

  Gabriel desired with all his might that Samantha would remember him and Eric hoped that she would no longer feel anything for him. Both were disillusioned when she did not name Gabriel and she directed her loving gaze to Eric, which made his heart pump with more force than normal.

  “How could it be this way?”

  “What are you referring to?” Rutherford asked as if he didn´t know what the lad was talking about.

  “You know all too well what I am talking about,” his helper answered, tired of the evasive remarks. “You always do the same, when you can help most is when you run. I simply don´t understand you,” he puffed.

  “What would you have m
e do, go with them to the Kingdom of the Moon?” he said in disbelief.

  “You do not need to be so drastic but you could have done something else,” he lowered his voice so that the other clients in the bar couldn´t overhear the conversation. “You had the princess of an enormous Kingdom in the living room of your house only a little while ago, and instead of being content to be able to help her you are feeling sorry for yourself for what they are going to pay you.”

  “Why yes, it is true, they are not going to pay me anything,” he complained trying to distract the young man.

  “You are the worst counsellor that I could have helped,” he said feeling sorry for himself as he passed his hands through his chestnut brown hair.

  “Look, it may be that I am not proud of not having done more, but I prefer to stay alive, you know that the Wanderers follow your trace wherever you go and more so with the princess. My house went up in flames!” he bawled. “And if I had stayed it would have been me up in flames, not just my furniture.”

  He returned to his beer, distracted as his helper looked at him pensively.

  “What are you thinking about?” Rutherford asked more lively.

  “What?” the Young Jamie awoke from his daydream.

  “What is on your mind?”